Homily: December 23 - Remedy for the world's ills

Malachi 3:1-4, 23-24 View Readings

Psalm 25:4-5, 8-10, 14

Luke 1:57-66

Two days before Christmas, the Church reads to us from the prophet Malachi.  Malachi was the last of the Old Testament Prophets, appearing on the scene 300 years after the prophet Isaiah, but still about 400 years before the birth of Christ.  His name means “my messenger” or “messenger of God” and his book prophesies the coming of another messenger, “my messenger to prepare the way for me”.  We know that this “messenger” was John the Baptist, who was born to prepare the way for Christ. 

The whole Old Testament has been like an arrow, pointing to the center of the target, the center of all things, Christ, and Malachi is the tip of the arrow.  Yet the arrow is followed by Malachi’s prophecy is followed by four hundred years of silence from God, a true Advent, a period of quiet and waiting.  The silence was broken by John the Baptist’s voice, the voice of one crying out in the wilderness.  Jesus called John the greatest of the prophets, whose birth and dedication we hear proclaimed in today’s Gospel.

The four hundred year silence reminds us that the Lord comes in silence; his first coming was humble and generally unrecognized by most of the world. 

Our culture doesn’t understand silence, and consequently misunderstands the meaning of Christmas.  That we are to quiet down our lives in order to make room for Him. 

Have you quieted yourself down to hear his voice this Advent?  Have you prepared a place in your heart for Him?

Christians do not dread silence, we welcome it; for God comes in silence.  Somehow, despite all of our culture’s attempts, the most popular Christmas carol is still “Silent Night”, written by a young Catholic priest.

For Zechariah, a period of silence preceded the birth of his son John, literally, he was struck mute.  Zechariah failed to trust in God when God revealed His plan to him.  So, nine months of silence helped him prepare for fatherhood, and helped him to be spiritually purified of his mistrust of God.

The Catholic Philosopher Svoren Kierkegaard said If he were a doctor he would prescribe as a remedy for all the world’s disorders, “silence”.  Oh, if but the world would learn to become silent in order to be purified of its mistrust of God!

Psalm 46 commands, “be still, and know that I am God.”  “Be still”.  It is not too late to enter into the silence, that we may be attentive and watchful for Christ’s coming for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 4th Sunday of Advent - 3 Lessons from St. Joseph

It is so fitting that on this  4^th Sunday of Advent, with the DRAMA of Christmas so close, that we concentrate on a person without whom the Christmas story we so cherish would not be possible.  But a person often ignored in our Christmas celebration: St. Joseph. 

We are very familiar with the story of the archangel Gabriel coming to Mary; every time we pray the Hail Mary, we are borrowing the words of the archangel Gabriel, when he came to announce God’s will that Mary of Nazareth become mother of God incarnate.

Today we heard in Matthew’s Gospel, how the archangel also announced to St. Joseph how it was God’s will that he take this pregnant virgin into his home and care for her. 

I propose we can learn three important and practical lessons from St. Joseph in these final days of Advent as we prepare for the coming of Christ.

First, St. Joseph is a man of silence, he teaches us the importance of silence.  How many words recorded from the lips of St. Joseph can we find in Scripture?  None!  Not a word.  He doesn’t say anything.  He is a man of silence.  Mary does all the talking.  Maybe that’s why St. Joseph is the patron saint of husbands…

Reminds me of the story of the Irishman who died.  He had two sons.  One lived in America, the other in Ireland.  When the son in America heard his father was dying, he made haste to his family home in Ireland only to find that his father had already died.  He asked his brother, did dad have any last words?  And the brother said, what do you think, mom was with him to the very end!

St. Joseph teaches us the importance of silence because God loves silence.  You know who hates silence and loves noise?  The devil!  He loves shouting, clamoring, arguing, blaming, complaining. Our culture too abhors silence.  it always needs to be distracted and noisy.  These new iphones and portable electronic devices are so dangerous because we fail in learning how to sit in silence.  But God loves silence, and the saints, especially Joseph teach us to love silence. 

Someone once asked St. Padre Pio, “What language does God speak?” And Padre Pio said, “God speaks silence”.  The person said, but what language should I pray in, what language does God understand best, and Padre Pio said, “silence”.

Pope Francis this week celebrated Mass with a group of American Priests.  And in his homily he said, ““May the Lord give us all the grace to love silence”

You’ve probably heard the story about St. John Vianney, in his little parish Church in Ars, France.  He would often see this humble man who would come in to the church every day and just sit there in the back pew and stare at the tabernacle.  Fr. Vianney was very moved by this and approached him one day, and said, “tell me my son, what do you say to the Lord when you pray?”  And the man said, I don’t say anything, I just look at Him and he looks at me.

There is a danger in our prayer lives where we do more talking than listening.  Praying the rosary can be so powerful, offering novena prayers can be so powerful, praying the Church’s liturgy of the hours is powerful, but we also need prayer time, every day, where we just sit in silence, turning our heart and mind to God.

One of my favorite times of the year is on Christmas Eve, after the craziness of early Mass in those quiet hours before midnight Mass, to enter into the calm and the peace of the holy night, entering into the silence where God speaks his Word.  The song ‘Silent Night’ still remains one of the popular Christmas hymns, which reminds us the need to become silent as we contemplate the Christmas mysteries.

In these final Advent days, we do well to imitate St. Joseph, the quiet man, standing and gazing upon Mary holding the newborn savior in her arms, in ineffable silence.

So lesson number one.  Do not be afraid of entering with St. Joseph into the silence in order to encounter God.

Lesson number two.  St. Joseph teaches us that actions speak louder than words.  

Jesus himself gave a teaching on this when he said, not everyone that calls out “lord, lord” will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my heavenly Father.  I wonder if Jesus was thinking of his earthly father, St. Joseph, a quiet man, but a man of great action, when he gave that teaching. 

In the Gospel today we hear how Joseph awoke from his dream of the archangel, and immediately did as the Lord had commanded him: he took Mary into his home. 

St. Joseph reminds us that the Christian life isn’t about giving God lip service.  That when the Lord calls upon us to reach out to someone in need, we are to respond generously—that all of our  time, talent, and treasure is to be put into God’s service, holding nothing back.

Finally, God asked some very difficult things of St. Joseph.  He was to take this pregnant women into his home, not knowing who the father was, he was to protect her as they journeyed to Bethlehem; he found shelter in a stable when no inn would admit them, protected the holy family as they fled Israel as refugees to Egypt when King Herod sent his soldiers to slaughter the Christ child. 

Tough things that God asked Joseph to do, just as he often asks tough things of us.  But we are reminded that God never calls us to do tough things without giving us the grace to do them.  God’s grace, his closeness, his comfort is there in those tough times, when we need to resist temptation, when we need to speak the hard truth to a loved one who is making poor choices, when we need to fight against an injustice, when we need to adjust to the death of a loved one.

I think of married couples going through a particularly rough patch in their marriage.  Through the Sacrament of Marriage, God grace assists husband and wife to remain faithful to their wedding vows, in loving each other in good times and in bad in sickness and in health.

St. Joseph reminds us that through those rough times, we learn to trust in God all the more, and he refines us like gold in a furnace. 

St. Joseph truly helps us to prepare for Christmas, by teaching us to enter into the silence, challenging some of our complacencies, and learning to trust in God’ 

Homily: December 21 - Hark! my lover--Here he comes

Song of Songs 2:8-14 View Readings

Psalm 33:2-3, 11-12, 20-21 Luke 1:39-45

Throughout the church year, we do not read very often from the Song of Songs, yet this book has been the favorite of many great Saints.  The Song of Songs has been called “the Great Love Story between God and the Soul”, yet, it is the only book of the Bible that never once mentions the name of God.  But when you read it, with the eyes of faith, you find God everywhere, in the symbolism of this book’s poetry, and song-like dialogues. 

Song of Songs is a series of love poems about a Bride and her Groom.  The traditional Jewish interpretation identifies the Groom as the God and the Bride as the people of Israel.  Early Christian interpreters understood the Groom as Jesus and the Bride as the Church.  Especially in light of Saint Paul who refers to the Church as the Bride of Christ several times.  In just a few short verses, we realize that the Bride and Groom in the Song of Songs are passionately in love. 

The Song of Songs is very appropriate for Advent.  For as two lovers joyfully anticipate being in each other’s presence, and call out to each other, and desire each other, so the Church joyfully awaits Christ. 

God is so passionately in love with us that he is willing to subject himself to humiliation and suffering for us, he is willing to die for us. This recalls the famous passage of John’s Gospel: For God so loved the world that he gave* his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.

I hope your advent preparations have helped you encounter this God who loves you.  For we know how easy it is to let all the busyness and preoccupation with the materialistic aspects of Christmas obscure the celebration of God’s love for sinful mankind.

Amidst the distractions of these busy days, we need more time in quiet prayer, not less, that we may encounter the God who loves us, who empties himself to come to us.

Hark! my lover–here he comes

springing across the mountains,

leaping across the hills.

Rejoice, the Lord is coming to meet us. Let us open our arms and hearts to Him for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: December 20 - A virgin shall conceive and bear a son

Isaiah 7:10-14 View Readings

Psalm 24:1-6

Luke 1:26-38

Throughout the Old Testament, we encounter the promises of God to his chosen people: he promises to lead them out of slavery, he promises to bring them to the Promised Land, he promises them a royal dynasty, he promises to make them Holy, holy like He, the Lord God is Holy.

The Old Testament tells the history of salvation up to the coming of Christ the savior—God acting in history, calling Abraham, liberating Israel from slavery, establishing his kingdom through David.  He even continues to call to his people who are exiled from the Promised Land as a consequence of their grave idolatry.

Isaiah is sent in that period where the Kingdom had broken down because of the people’s unfaithfulness; they stopped following God’s commandments, and so their nation was divided, and they became vulnerable to invasion.  They had failed to keep their promises to God; they had abandoned God, and now they were suffering the consequences.

But Isaiah the prophet spoke the Word of God that even though the Chosen People didn’t keep their promises, God still kept his. 

One of the greatest prophecies in the history of the human race is Isaiah's prophecy of "Emmanuel."  Emmanuel means God is with us, God is among us.  In the incarnation of the Son of God, God truly comes to dwell among us. 

We hear God’s promise that Emmanuel be born of a virgin in the Old Testament Reading, and in the Gospel, we hear that promised fulfilled—when the Holy Spirit overshadowed the Virgin Mary, the Divine Word truly became flesh in her womb, and God truly came to dwell among us to save us from our exile, our slavery, and to make us holy.

We live in a fallen world, much like the time when Isaiah was sent as a prophet.  People’s unfaithfulness to the commandments is literally tearing the world apart.  Yet the Incarnation remains our hope, he is the cause of our joy, and we must be every ready to serve Him, as Mary replied, I am the servant of the Lord.  Let it be done to me according to your word.

Will I say yes today, will I allow his life to change my life today, will I allow Christ to become incarnate through me today, will I unite my life with his life today, will I allow him to renew me in my fallenness and in my weakness, will I follow Mary’s example and allow him to use me for the building up of his kingdom, for the glory of God, and salvation of souls.

Homily: December 19 - God transforms from the inside out

There are several similarities between the holy seasons of Advent and Lent.  In both, the priest vests in the color purple, except for one Sunday, he wears the color rose, to focus on joy, as we did this last Sunday.  Both, advent and Lent anticipate the most important feasts of our Church year, Christmas and Easter, and help us to prepare for them in unique ways.

Both call us to repentance, to conversion, to refocus on what is truly important.  Though it almost seems like they do that in opposite ways: Lent makes sure that we are fasting, and praying, and giving alms.  It works from the outside-in, we do acts external, visible acts of penance during Lent, and make sure that our external behavior corresponds to who we are as followers of Christ.

Advent, also is a call to conversion, but more-so from the inside-out.  We are to ponder the coming of Christ, like Mary, keeping the things of God in her heart, pondering them.

We ponder and reflect silently upon the prophecies, we reflect quietly on the great mystery of the incarnation, like a mother during pregnancy much of the work is done from the inside-out.  This is probably why most of our culture fails to focus on the “true meaning of Christmas”; tell 400 million Americans to sit quietly and reflect for 4 weeks and they will laugh at you.

The call to conversion during Advent is very subtle, very gentle, and a lot of people miss that, unfortunately—caught up in pre-Christmas busyness. 

In both readings today, an angel appears to announce the birth of a son to two barren women.  In both of these readings we hear that their sons are to avoid strong drink, and that the Spirit of the Lord would be present to both boys.  Samson would go on to defeat the Phillistines, reminding the people that God’s strength had not abandoned them, that he draws near to them to save them.  And of course John the Baptist calls people to repentance, helping them prepare for the coming Messiah, once again, that God is drawing near to them to save them.

During these final days of Advent, may we take seriously the Church’s call to quietly reflect upon the coming of Christ, upon God who draws near to us to save us, how he often quietly works within us to fill us with true peace and joy for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: December 17 - O Sapientia

Today begins what is often called “Deep Advent” or “Late Advent”.  Where the first two weeks of Advent focus on the Second Coming of Christ at the End of Time, the second half of Advent focuses on his first coming at his birth and his abiding with us. 

One of my favorite parts of this second half of Advent is that beginning December 17^th, today, the Great O Antiphons sung at Vespers.  You may have never heard of the O Antiphons, especially if you aren’t in the habit of praying the Church’s official Evening Prayer.

The O Antiphons are seven prayers that are recited or chanted as the antiphon before the Magnificat at Vespers from the 17th to the 23rd of December.  The Church has used these Antiphons for 1500 years!  Each one begins with the acclamation "O," and addresses Christ by one of His messianic titles from the Old Testament, (O Wisdom, O Mighty Lord, O Root of Jesse, O Key of David, O Radiant Dawn, O King of the Nations, O  Emmanuel) and ends with a heartfelt plea for His coming.

The hymn, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” is based on these antiphons and express our longing and expectation for the Messiah and the grace about to be brought by the Christ-Child into the world. 

O come, thou Wisdom from on high, who orderest all things mightily; to us the path of knowledge show, and teach us in her ways to go

God’s Wisdom helps us put our lives in the proper order.  We would call someone foolish who doesn’t go to church, who ignores the commandments, who lives for pleasure, riches, fame, or power.  His priorities are not in order.  The wise man has his priorities straight, and judges rightly the things of earth in relation to his eternal end.

Wisdom helps us to judge whether our behaviors and attitudes are in keeping with a Christ like attitude or not. 

In our Gospel this morning, we heard the beautiful genealogy of Christ from Matthew’s Gospel going all the way back to Abraham.  Luke’s version of the genealogy goes all the way back to Adam.  God, in his Wisdom has been preparing creation and preparing humanity for the birth of the savior since the beginning.

The fool says in his heart, “there is no God.  God has nothing to teach me.”  But the Wise Man seeks out the Christ Child, and seeks to conform his heart ever more deeply to the will of God.   For the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

LET US PRAY that our lives may be ordered according to this Divine Wisdom, that our priorities may be straight at the coming of the Lord, that he may find us serving God rather than ourselves.

Come O Wisdom, that we may not judge things and actions from a purely human point of view, but a divine perspective, with an appreciation of the supernatural value of even the smallest of the works of charity.

Come, O Wisdom, help us to combat the wisdom of the world which is foolishness in the eyes of God. 

Come, O Wisdom, help us to be detached from the things of the world, so as not to be tempted to exaggerate their worth or guard them selfishly. 

Come O Wisdom, teach us to strive diligently in our devotion to our blessed Lord, and enable us to follow Christ in light and darkness, consolation and desolation.

Come O Wisdom, teach us prudence, the most important of the moral virtues, in governing our lives rightly, and especially in avoiding sin and the near occasion of sin.

Come O Wisdom, help us to love as we should.  And so we pray for the sick, the poor, the homeless, the unemployed, those in nursing homes, hospitals, and the homebound, and for those who will die today, for their comfort and the comfort of their families. 

Heavenly Father, hear our prayers, grant them, that our lives may be ordered by the true Wisdom which comes forth from the mouth of God, that our lives may conform with your Holy will in union with our expected Messiah, Jesus the Christ, who is Our Lord forever and ever.

Homily: 3rd Sunday of Advent - Gaudete Sunday - Waiting in joyful hope

On the first Sunday of Advent we asked God for the grace to prepare well during this holy season.  On the Second Sunday, last week, we heard John the Baptist urge us to make straight the pathways for the Lord, and we asked God for help in removing from our life all of the attitudes and behaviors which hinder and obscure or even deaden the divine life within us.

For Advent, like Lent, calls us to turn away from our sinful and selfish behaviors and strip away the things that get in the way of living our faith.  And so for most of Advent, the priest wears the liturgical color purple, just like he does during Lent.  Three out of the four advent candles are purple to remind us to repent.  This third Sunday of Advent however, focuses not so much on repentance but rejoicing.

I began mass reciting the words which have begun this third Sunday of Advent since the time of Pope St. Gregory the Great in the sixth century: Gaudete in domino semper, rejoice in the Lord always.  For today is known as Gaudete Sunday.

On this Gaudete Sunday Advent purple, the color of waiting, the color of the spiritual night of the world before the coming of Christ, the color of repentance, is replaced by the rose-colored vestments, and the rose-colored candle is lit on the advent wreath.  The color Rose reminds us of the color of the horizon at the very start of a sunrise.  The Sun is almost arisen, Christ is almost here at that is the reason to rejoice.  The cause for our rejoicing isn’t of course that there will be presents under the tree or that most of us get the day off of work.  We rejoice because the one who saves us from our sins is coming.

This is one of my favorite Sundays of the entire year.  Because it really sums up the whole of the Christian life.  There is a permanent Gaudete Sunday quality to the whole Christian life.

As Christians, we aren’t in the same position in history as the people of the Old Covenant who awaited the Messiah’s first coming.  The promises and prophecies have been fulfilled.  Emmanuel—God-with-us— was born in Bethlehem, he conquered mankind’s most ancient enemies namely sin and death on the cross, he established His Church, his kingdom on earth; God fulfilled his promises that the sick would be healed, and the dead would be raised.  So the period of waiting for a Messiah is over; the first Advent, which lasted from Adam and Eve to the Birth of Christ is over.

There is a permanent Advent quality of waiting; from the time of Jesus’ ascension to his second coming we are in a second advent, waiting for the final and definitive return of our Messiah at the end of time.

Waiting.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t usually enjoy waiting.  Waiting in traffic, waiting in the doctor’s office, waiting in line at the grocery store. 

However, Gaudete Sunday really challenges us to consider the type of waiting which should be characteristic of the Christian life.  Waiting in joyful hope, waiting in joyful hope.

In the second reading, Saint James in his letter gives us a key to waiting in joyful hope.  “Be patient, brothers and sisters” he writes, “until the coming of the Lord.  See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.  You too must be patient.” 

Americans are not known worldwide for their patience—it is not our culture’s strongest virtue.  Patience with elderly relatives, patience with the kids, patience with spouses, patience in traffic, patience during particularly verbose homilies at Mass.  Impatience is probably the most common sin I hear in the confessional.

The saints teach us of the importance of patience in the spiritual life.  St. Margaret Mary said that there is no other remedy for your ills but patience and submission to the will of God. 

St. Francis de Sales said that Jesus endured scourging and ill treatment; he endured so many blasphemies and cruelties without saying a word, precisely to teach us patience.

One spiritual writer said that each of us has enough trials and sufferings in our life to make us saints, if we but knew how to suffer them patiently.

Patience is one of the most necessary of the Christian virtues because the sufferings and trials of life are inevitable.  We will inevitably be stuck in a room with someone we find irritating, we will inevitably be stuck in traffic, father will inevitably go a little long in his homily from time to time, we will inevitably suffer the sorrow of the illness and death of a loved one, we will inevitably have a disagreement with a family member, we will inevitably be stuck in line at a grocery store where it seems like the person in front of us has never in their life written a check before, we will inevitably be faced with forces which are beyond our control and throughout all of that we need to practice patience.

Some of our impatience definitely stems from a sense of self-importance.  How dare they make ME wait.  Don’t they know the important things that I have to do?  Instead of offering up our frustration we stand there and ruminate on our sense of self-importance.

We live in a culture increasingly based on the idea that whatever we want, we deserve — and we should have it, right now! It’s a recipe for disaster! Technology is great and all, but with the Advent of portable electronic devices, we attempt to fill those waiting periods with little worldly distractions, and that keeps us from learning true Christian patience.

So many of us really fail to grow in our prayer life because of impatience.  Sitting down in a quiet room and turning one’s heart to God seems like a waste of time, when we could be stimulating our senses with a tv show or internet site or video game or gossip session.  Yet, for those who have discovered how to sit and be quiet with God, those moments of patient prayer with the Lord are more important than the rest of the day.

I remember back in 2001 when I entered seminary.  8 years of seminary seemed like such a long time.  But those years of waiting and preparing, letting the tradition of the Church sink in, developing the habit of prayer, those were good years, joyful and mostly patient years.  Seminary formation is meant to change a man in preparation for a lifetime of priestly service, and sometimes that change was hard, and you want to resist the change.  And sometimes, it was like my prayer life wasn’t going anywhere.  But joy came when I surrendered and realized the Lord’s way is a lot better than my way. 

And so during this life, this Advent period of waiting, the Lord changes us, if we let him, he remakes us, and forms us, and tempers us like gold in the furnace and makes us how we are meant to be.  He teaches us how to wait in joyful hope.

St. Cyprian said, “Patient waiting is necessary that we may fulfill what we have begun to be, and through God’s help, that we may obtain what we hope for and believe.”

May the Holy Spirit teach us patience, as we joyfully await the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: December 13 - St. Lucy, Consecrated Virgin & Martyr

The Church has honored Saint Lucy as a virgin martyr for almost fifteen hundred years.  There is the story where Lucy’s mother was suffering from a terminal disease and all medical help had failed, so Lucy and her mother made a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Agatha, a consecrated virgin who had been martyred for the faith about 50 years earlier, seeking a healing miracle.

Mother and daughter spent the night praying by the saint’s tomb, but overcome with weariness from their travels they both fell asleep.  Saint Agatha appeared to Lucy and promised her mother’s recovery, but also foretold how Lucy would suffer martyrdom like her.

Lucy’s mother was cured, and distributed the majority of their wealth to the poor and Lucy consecrated herself to Christ.

Like St. Cecilia, St. Agnes, and St. Agatha,we honor  St. Lucy as a consecrated virgin.  Consecrated virginity was a counter-cultural sign back then, and it continues to be this way today.  Our culture worships promiscuity—the virgins teach us of the great joy of purity and chastity, and remind us that happiness is found in embracing Christ.

Where our culture worships physical beauty, the virgins teach us that physical beauty is inferior to spiritual beauty.  And that the human soul is made beautiful by imitating Christ, who himself was a virgin consecrated to His Father’s Will.

The virgins remind us that we are not to live for this world alone, and that all of us, whether priests, married, single are to dedicate our entire selves to God.  All of our gifts, physical, mental, spiritual, time , talent, and treasure, are to be given back to God for the building up of his kingdom.

Lucy attained a high degree of sanctity in life through her consecration to Christ.  She also gave that ultimate witness, the witness of her martyrdom.  Her consecration as a virgin enraged a potential suitor who accused her as a Christian before the Roman judge during the persecution of Diocletian.  The judge ordered her to offer a pagan sacrifice to the emperor, Lucy courageously refused, and was put to death.

Our Catholic History is full of extraordinarily courageous women, like St. Lucy, who teach us by their grace, their strength, and their love of Christ.  Her name, Lucy, in Latin, means "Light" and is regarded as the patron saint of the blind.    May she cure us of our spiritual blindnesses and illuminate us in seeking to imitate Christ and spread his Gospel, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Our Lady of Guadalupe - Converting the Culture of Death

Our Lady of Guadalupe is the Patroness of the Americas and of the Right to Life Movement.  When appeared to Juan Diego, Mexico, was one of the most depraved cultures in human history.  Nowhere had human sacrifice been so institutionalized than it had been by the Aztec natives of what is now present day Mexico.  The number of human sacrifices by the Aztec culture is virtually incalculable. 

Yet, Mary came bearing the message of her Son and a message of life.  Mary to Juan Diego said: “My dearest son, I am the eternal Virgin Mary, Mother of the true God, Author of Life, Creator of all and Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth...and it is my desire that a church be built here in this place for me, where, as your most merciful Mother and that of all your people, I may show my loving clemency and the compassion that I bear to the Indians, and to those who love and seek me...”

A Church was built.  The Basilica of Gaudalupe in Mexico City is the most popular pilgrimage site in North America occupying the site where, On December 9, 1531 Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego.   It is second in the world only to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. 

What was then an almost entirely pagan culture has almost entirely converted to Christ.  According to a contemporary chronicler, nine million Indians became Catholic in a very short time.  It is only in recent decades that the faith in Mexico has begun to revert, as the culture of death, which is so prevalent in our culture, attempts to regain its lost territory. 

Our Lady of Guadalupe shows herself to be a lover of humanity and a lover of life.  She is depicted with a ribbon around her waist, indicating that she is with child.  She is also depicted standing on a moon.  The Aztecs, along with worshipping the sun, worshipped the moon.  History shows that cultures which worshipped the moon are very depraved.  And So Mary, standing on the moon, as if crushing it, points to the victory of Jesus Christ over the powers of death.  And that we do well to invoke her in our prayers for the conversion of our culture which is well on its way to a total collapse into sin and depravity.

We turn to our Blessed Mother under the title of Our Lady of Gaudalupe is a powerful intercessor for the conversion of the culture of death.  May the prayers of the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe convert us, purify us, and lead us to the truth of her Son’s Gospel for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Tuesday of 2nd Week of Advent - Prepare ye the way of the Lord

Every Advent I enjoy listening to the first part of Handel’s Messiah.  The most famous part of Handel’s Messiah, is of course, his “Alleluia Chorus”.

Handel drew the text for his musical composition primarily from the Scriptures, in fact the structure of the Messiah as a whole follows the liturgical year: Part I corresponding with Advent and Christmas and the life of Jesus; Part II with Lent, Easter, and Pentecost; and Part III with the end of the Church year dealing with the end of time and Christ’s return in glory.

So during the first part of Handel’s Messiah, we hear, set to wonderful orchestral music, the Old Testament Prophecies about the coming Messiah from the prophets Isaiah, Haggai, and Malachi.

In fact, the very first movements draw from today’s reading from Isaiah chapter 40.  The beautiful tenor sings those beautiful words of comfort to God’s people who were in the Babylonian captivity: that her captivity is at an end—that her sins are forgiven with the coming of the Messiah, so prepare for his coming.

This reading from Isaiah today should remind us of Sunday’s Gospel.  Because St. Matthew was also quoting this section of Isaiah’s prophecy, when he told us that John the Baptist was out in the desert telling people to repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.  Then St. Matthew says, “It was of him that the prophet Isaiah had spoken when he said: A voice of one crying out in the desert, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.”

This weekend I preached on the importance of taking John the Baptist’s call seriously by repenting, examining our life, our choices, attitudes, and behaviors, and going to confession to turn away from our sins as the most important of our Advent preparations.

Jesus in the Gospel today shows us his care for the lost sheep, the sheep who have wondered away from the flock.  We can be the voice, and hands of Jesus today by reaching out to those who may have wandered away from the flock, inviting them back to Church, inviting them to our communal penance service next Wednesday. 

I’ve printed out some examinations of conscience and placed them on the communion rail.  Please at the end of mass take one, and pass them on. 

The lost sheep are received by Jesus with Joy.  May we be instruments of true joy today by proclaiming the mercy of our Messiah for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception - "Full of Grace"

St. Maximillian Kolbe had a burning love for the Immaculate Virgin Mary, and he composed a novena in her honor, which I prayed this year.  On the final day, Fr. Kolbe composed a beautiful passage titled the Immaculata’s fullness of love,

“The Immaculata never knew the slightest stain; in other words, her love was always full, without flaw. She loved God with all her being, and from the first instant of her existence her love united her with God so perfectly that on the day of the Annunciation the angel could say to her, "Full of grace! the Lord is with you!"

He wrote these words just six months before his death at the Auschwitz concentration camp, when took the place of a Jewish man with a family who had been sentenced to execution.

“Hail, full of grace.” How many people over the centuries have greeted the Immaculate One with those words, spoken by the angel Gabriel.  The Greek word St. Matthew uses for the phrase “full of grace” is kacharitomene, which is the perfect passive participle, and can be translated, the one who has been made full of grace and continues to be made full of grace.

From the very moment of her conception, God made Mary full of his grace, and preserving her from the least stain of sin.  She was made Immaculate.  And as St. Maximillian Kolbe reminds us, her love for God, was also without flaw.

In the epistle, St. Paul reminds us that we too have been chosen from the foundations of the world to be holy and without blemish.  God chose each of us to be holy. 

We must let our Immaculate Mother teach us how to radically surrender to God, how to be free from selfishness and self-centeredness in God’s service.

May she help us respond to God with wholehearted surrender, obedience, and trust, and prepare well for all God has in store for us, for His Glory and the salvation of souls.

Homily: 2nd Sunday of Advent - The joy of repentance

On Tuesday I was invited down to the 2^nd grade classroom to meet with the 2^nd graders who were preparing for their first confessions, which they celebrated Wednesday evening.  Some of the 2^nd graders were a little nervous, so we went over the steps of confession again: how you greet the priest as you enter the confessional, then, already having examined your conscience, you tell your sins to the priest; remembering how at that moment, the priest is really standing in for Jesus, and it is like you are speaking your sins into the ear of Jesus himself. So the priest doesn’t get mad at you if you tell him really bad sins, and he won’t embarrass you, and he’ll never tell a living soul what you confessed because Jesus doesn’t do those things when we come to him, sorry for not being his disciples as we should.  The priest might ask you some questions, and you might discuss how you will try to avoid these sins in the future.  He will then give you a penance, and then speak the powerful words of absolution over you.  And when he offers the prayer of absolution, Jesus is using the priest to truly wipe away your sins and give you grace to be faithful in the future.

We then had a chance to do a few practice runs.  So the 2^nd graders sat down next to father and we practiced Confession a few times.  Hopefully, that helped to calm their nervousness and prepare them for encountering God’s forgiveness in the Sacrament of Confession.

We talked about how Advent is a perfect time for Confession because Advent is a time of preparation.  During Advent, we prepare for Christmas, and we prepare for the coming of Christ at the end of time.  And, part of preparing for God’s coming always always always involves turning away from sin.

St. Matthew tells in the Gospel today, John the Baptist was out in the desert, preaching, helping people prepare for the coming of the Messiah.  And what were the words he used to help them prepare?  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  The Greek word John the Baptist uses, you’ve probably heard before is Metanoia. “Meta noia” means to change your life, change your thinking, change your heart, turn away from one way of thinking and acting towards a new way. 

Metanoia isn’t always easy, just like going to confession doesn’t always feel easy.  Metanoia, repentence involves honesty, and sometimes honesty, especially honesty about ourselves is hard.  It’s sometimes hard to admit that we’ve failed to love God as we should, or we’ve failed to love others as we should, or it’s hard to admit that I’ve been selfish or greedy or acted in a way unbecoming of a Christian disciple. 

John the Baptist and Jesus himself were often critical of the Pharisees precicely because of their failure to acknowledge their sinfulness.  Often times, the person going from one mortal sin to another fails in the same way.  He fails to be honest that skipping Mass is wrong.  Fornication is wrong.  Hurting others with our words and actions to get back at them is wrong. 

But, we as Christians take John the Baptist very seriously, that we are to repent that Jesus might come more deeply into our life.  This is why the Penitential Rite is at the very beginning of Mass.  We begin Mass by calling to mind our sins, so that we can be open to God who comes to us in Word and Sacrament.

If we’ve committed a mortal sin, we are to prepare ourselves for Jesus by going to confession.  For in the Sacrament of Confession, God does for us, what we cannot do ourselves.  Sure, any time and any where we can acknowledge our sins, and express our sorrow for our sins and failures.  But in the Sacrament of Confession, we really, truly receive God’s forgiveness.  Just like in the Eucharist we really, truly receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ, it’s not just a symbol, but in the sacraments something really real is received.

Jesus gave us the Sacrament of Confession because that is the way he chooses to forgive repentant Christians.

If we are not in a state of grace, if we have committed mortal sin and have not gone to confession, we are not ready for Christmas, we are not ready for Christ’s coming, and we are not ready to receive Jesus in Holy Communion. 

When I met with the 2^nd graders this week, I gave them one extra piece of homework, which I hope they completed.  I said, 2^nd graders, you are preparing for your first confession, but not your last.  We are to go to Confession often as Catholics.  Pope Francis said that he goes to confession every two weeks.  I heard that Pope John Paul II went every week.  Personally, I go about once a month.  Not because I am going out and committing all these mortal sins.  But the habit of going to confession, the act of examining your life and turning away from sin and selfishness should be a regular one.

So, I have a piece of homework for you 2^nd graders.  I want you to go home today, and tell your parents how you are ready and excited to make your first confession, and then I want you to ask your parents, “when was the last time that you went to confession?”  And the entire class went, “oooooooooh”.  That spoke volumes.

I then told them a story from my first confession.  That after I made my first confession back in 2^nd grade, I remember my mom also went to confession that day.  And I remember her being in there a while.  But I remember when she came out, she was beaming.  That was the first time I saw her go to confession, and it had probably been a while since her last one.  But she emerged from the confessional radiant. 

That’s what God wants to do for us when we go to confession.  He loves us so much and he wants us to be radiant.  But we so often not radiant with God’s life because we carry around all this guilt and all of these justifications for our sins, that the life of God is hindered in us. God is ready and willing and waiting to set us free and to make us radiant.

Repentance prepares us to encounter God in a deeper way.  And that encounter changes us, and makes us more like God, radiant with love, truth, and glory.

During this Advent season may we prepare well by turning away from our sins, and encountering the Lord’s mercy, that by preparing our hearts, we may receive him with joy, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: December 6 - St. Nicholas, bishop - Defender of Christ's Divinity

Children of all ages can readily identify the saint we honor today.  The man with the twinkling eyes, the smiling face, the ample body and the pillowed red suit.  Historically, we know that Nicholas was a bishop of Myra a city in what is now Turkey in the fourth century.

Perhaps one of the best-known stories about Nicholas concerns his generosity towards a poor man whose daughters were about to be forced into lives of prostitution.  Bishop Nicholas threw bags of gold through the poor man’s windows so he could pay for his daughter’s dowries enabling them to be married.

There’s another story about  the food shortage in Myra, and the local butcher abducted and killed three young men, and put them in brine to cure them before making them into a ham.  Bishop Nicholas became aware of this through the Holy Spirit, found the boys, restored them to life, and converted the butcher.

My favorite story is when Bishop Nicholas was gathered with the other bishops at the Council of Nicaea.  One of the issues the bishops gathered to discuss at Nicaea was the true nature of the incarnation. 

The heretic priest Arius was claiming that Jesus was not really God because he claimed there was a time when the second person of the Trinity did not exist, and that the Father created the Son.  Since, he claimed, the Son was created by the Father, the Son was not fully God, and therefore Jesus, the Incarnate Son, was not fully God.

In the heat of the debate, when Arius was claiming that Jesus was not of the same substance as the father, Bishop Nicholas heard Arius’ heresy, and slapped Arius in front of all the other bishops.  Definitely a violation of protocol, but Nicholas reminds us exactly what we are preparing for during this Advent season.

We prepare, during Advent, to celebrate the birth, not just of a very holy man named Jesus, but God coming in the flesh to save us of our sins.  If Jesus is not really God, then Christmas is a waste of time.  Our culture has lost the sense of Christmas because it has lost the sense that Jesus is really God.  It has become vastly Arian again. 

St. Nicholas, the defender of Christ’s divinity, has been replaced by, the cult of Santa, who unfortunately can distract us from the treat meaning of Christmas.

Parents do well to tell their children about the real Saint Nicholas, for he can be a powerful reminder that God truly became man to free us from our sins, and calls us to a life of charity towards others.  For here was a man who dedicated his life to teaching and preaching the true faith,

In the Opening Prayer we prayed, “Lord, protect us in all dangers through the prayers of the Bishop Saint Nicholas, that the way of salvation may lie open before us.”  May we be inspired by his example and helped by his prayers, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Thursday of the 1st Week of Advent - Is your life built on rock or sand

Isaiah 26:1-6 View Readings

Psalm 118:1, 8-9, 19-21, 25-27

Matthew 7:21, 24-27

After the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina, back in 2005, some of the engineers who examined the breached levees in New Orleans found that some of those structures were built on sand and were breached not because of the force of the surge, but because of the poor foundation.

On this fifth day of Advent, our head about to us about "a strong city" (Is 26:1), "a nation of firm purpose" (Is 26:3), and a house "solidly set on rock" (Mt 7:25). God's Word is calling us to be strong, firm, and solid by building our lives on obedience to the Lord, the "eternal Rock"

Advent can really bring out the best and the worst of human nature.  We continue to hear stories of people trampling each other on black Friday, as if all concern for the happiness and welfare of our neighbor takes back seat to being first to get that good deal.  Advent, instead of being a time of peace, for many, becomes a time of exhausting frenzy.

On the other hand, during Advent, we do see, so many people strive to focus less on themselves; they look for ways to be generous with their time and abilities, focusing more on prayer and service; they make their annual confession, and try with God’s help to turn over a new leaf.

They understand that Advent is not meant to be an exhausting, frantic, search for the right present, but a passionate, refreshing search for the Savior.

Advent has a unique way of manifesting whether our lives our built on the strong, firm, solid foundation of God’s word, or the shallow, fragmented, unsound foundation of worldliness.

What does Jesus say makes the difference between a life headed for disaster and a life that is solid?  Jesus teaches in his Sermon on the Mount, focus your life on doing the will of God, curb your anger, reconcile with enemies, curb your lust, be faithful in marriage, speak with straightforward honesty, respond to hostility with nonviolence, with a spirit of trust and childlike dependence turn to God in prayer.

God’s word is the strong, firm, solid foundation for a happy marriage, a right society, a rightly ordered Church, a joy-filled life.

As Christmas nears, may we continue to turn away from worldliness and build our lives on the eternal Rock of God, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Tuesday of the 1st Week of Advent - God is Salvation

Throughout Advent, as we await and prepare for the coming of the Savior, so many of our scripture readings are taken from the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah lived about 700 years before the birth of Jesus,  in a very troubling time, a very dark time for God’s people.  God’s people abandoned many of God’s commandments God, they were even worshipping false Gods.  Because of their wickedness, they became vulnerable to their enemies.  An enemy army marched into their homeland, destroyed the city, destroyed their temple, and took the men, women, and children from their homeland and carried them to a foreign city.

So God sent Isaiah the prophet to tell the people to have hope, that God will deliver you from your enemies, that he bring you back to your homeland, restore your temple.  Isaiah then told the people, that God will send them a Messiah, who will deliver them from all of their enemies, and make Jerusalem the most important city in the world, he will heal the wounds of sin, and division, and will usher in a kingdom of peace that will last forever.
Isaiah’s name in Hebrew literally means “God is salvation”.  That’s the bottom line of Isaiah’s prophecies—God is salvation.

Near the beginning of the Advent season, we celebrate every year the memorial of the great Jesuit missionary, St. Francis Xavier devoted his life to bringing God’s salvation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to the far corners of the earth.  In the course of his 10 years of missionary work, he traveled to India, the Philippines, Japan, baptized over eighty thousand people.

What a wonderful saint for Advent, reminding us that preparing ourselves for the coming of Christ also involves bringing Christ’s salvation to others.

During Advent we turn to God who promises to save us, bringing those parts of our personalities and attitudes and habits to him which are in need of salvation—that he might bring about an end to the reign of sin in our hearts and in our world—and end to destruction and ruin and hatred and oppression and violence.
Then having received the salve of salvation may we bring that salvation to all those we meet for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Monday of the 1st Week of Advent - Isaiah, the Prophet of Advent

Isaiah 4:2-6 View Readings

Psalm 122:1-9

Matthew 8:5-11

Throughout the season of Advent we will read extensively from the book of the prophet Isaiah.  Isaiah speaks about many of the same themes as Jesus: the need for repentance, salvation, mercy, judgment, justice, and the need for faith.

Yet, about 700 years before Jesus’ birth, Isaiah proclaimed the coming of the promised Messiah in great detail and in some of the most beautiful prose in the entire Old Testament of the Bible. 

Isaiah guides our journey through Advent in our preparation for Christmas, inviting us to look forward to the coming of the Messiah.

And Isaiah tells us today that when the Messiah comes, “The Lord will wash away filth, he will create a new assembly of faithful holy people.”  Over the next few days, Isaiah will continue these prophecies of God restoring, and making new, and cleansing and healing and protecting, bringing an end to strife and division, and ushering in an era of peace.

Through Isaiah, God promises to bring peace to the world and justice for all peoples. God’s is the peace we all long for, the healing we all long for, the fullness of life that we know deep down we are meant for—the life of holiness in communion with God and with one another.

The Gospel passage for this first week day of Advent shows Jesus to be the fulfillment of God’s promise of healing.  A paralyzed, dreadfully suffering man is healed at Jesus’ word. Jesus is the one who heals and brings justice for the oppressed and freedom to captives.  He is long waited for Messiah.

We pray during this Advent season that we will come to recognize Jesus as Messiah in a deeper way, that we will allow him to cure our paralyses, and bring conversion to those parts of us which are set in opposition to God, free us from our captivities, wash away our filth, and strengthen our communion with God and the Church. 

We pray too that we may be God’s instruments in the world this Advent, that we can bring others to recognize Jesus as savior, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 1st Sunday of Advent - History, mystery, and majesty

I can’t remember what grade I was teaching, but I was telling the children about Advent, that the word advent, comes from the latin word for ‘coming’; and that during advent we prepare for the coming of Jesus at Christmas.  And one of the kids asked, “Father, how are we supposed to prepare for Jesus’ coming when he has already come into the world?”

A great question!  Jesus, our messiah, our savior, did come already in history, almost 2000 years ago.  He came in history, born as the holy infant of Bethlehem, the newborn savior of the world into the arms of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

That first coming of the savior in history already happened.  And we can’t do much for to prepare for that any more than we could prepare for any other event that happened in the past, in history.

We can however prepare to celebrate Christmas with reverence, gratitude, and joy the anniversary of that first coming of Christ in history. And the season of advent helps us to do just that.

As Catholics, we await a second Advent, though, a second coming; Jesus came in history 2000 years ago, and we believe that Christ will come again in majesty at the end of time to judge the living and the dead and usher in the eternal kingdom, as he explained himself, in the Gospel we heard today.

His first coming, his birth in Bethlehem, that he would be born of a virgin, was foretold by the prophets, and Jesus himself tells us that he will come again.  But he says, we do not know the day nor the hour of his second coming. The Pope doesn’t know the exact day, the mayans can’t predict it, Nostradamus and other fortune tellers can’t predict it; only the Father in heaven knows when Christ will come again in majesty and glory; it could be this afternoon, it could be in 4000 years.  But when he does return, he will come garbed in the glorious and majesty robes of judge and eternal king.

We can and must prepare for his second coming: by living faithful lives, by repenting of our sins through baptism and remaining in right relationship with God through the other Sacraments of the Church.

Jesus came in history, he will come in majesty.  Yet, there is a third coming of Christ that we can experience now, an experience of the savior here and now: a coming of the savior that we can bask in, and relish in, and adore him in, even now.  In a mysterious way, a way, hidden to our senses, he comes in mystery every time we celebrate Mass.  Under the appearance of bread and wine, Jesus comes in the mystery of the Eucharist.  This is why at every Mass the priest announces, “The Mystery of Faith”.  He announces Jesus is here, in a mysterious way, which we know through our Faith.

It is a rock solid conviction of our faith that Jesus Christ comes to us really and truly at every Mass.  As surely as he came that first Christmas in Bethlehem, and as wondrously as he will come in glory, Jesus Christ really comes to us in the Mass.  This is why we genuflect to the tabernacle when we come into a Catholic Church; this is why we kneel during the Eucharistic Prayer, because our King is here. 

Yet, this coming in mystery is hidden, it is gentle, and tender, and unassuming, and every day—so simple, to our senses, that we can often miss him.  This mysterious coming of Jesus at Mass can become so routine for us, that we can get bored at Mass, not really paying much attention to the real presence of God here, with us. 

Most of the world failed to recognize him when he came in Bethlehem.  Much of the world fails to recognize him when he comes at Mass.  And many will not be prepared when he comes again in glory.

We prepare for his coming at Mass by arriving to Church a few minutes early to pray, to become recollected, to remind ourselves of the amazing miracles which occur during the Mass, pray that we can be awake and conscious and aware of what God is doing in our midst.  

I encourage you during this season of Advent, to take a spiritual inventory of your life.  What am I doing to prepare to celebrate Christmas in a more reverent way this year?  Is my soul prepared for Christ’s coming at the end of time through Sacramental Confession?  Do I prepare well for Mass?  If not, what changes do I need to make?

When we prepare well for Mass, the Holy Spirit awakens our hearts to whole new levels of Christian joy—joy at the awareness of God’s presence in our midst.

Speaking of joy,this last week, Pope Francis issued a letter to the Church called, “Evangelii Gaudium”, the joy of the Gospel.  It is truly a work of genius.  Instead of watching the Browns lose this afternoon, you might consider reading the latest words of Our Holy Father.  His words are inspiring and cover a wide range of topics: the importance of joy in the Christian life for the work of spreading the gospel, he talks to bishops about how to be good shepherds, he speaks about unjust economic systems, and the role of women in the Church, and the importance of strong Christian marriages. 

He talks about how so easy it is for Christians to become “sourpusses”, where instead of spreading the Gospel with boldness and zeal, we can become so pessimistic about the lack of faith in the world, we decide that the effort to spread the gospel isn’t even worth it.

The reason I bring up Pope Francis’ new document is because how much he stresses the importance for each of us to not just encounter words about Jesus, but to encounter Jesus in our prayer life.  Pope Francis wrote, “I never tire of repeating those words of Benedict XVI which take us to the very heart of the Gospel: “Being a Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction”

The Popes urges us, just as the saints urge us, to open ourselves to encounter Christ in a deeper way.  Being a Christian isn’t just buying into a set of ideas, but encountering Christ who comes into our life. 

But if we are too busy with worldly things, if we have not recollected ourselves when we come to Mass, if we are too busy thinking about the television we will watch, or the video games we will play, or the host of duties we have as important as they are, if we do not come to Mass wanting to encounter him, open to encountering him, we will probably miss him.

Advent is a time of preparation.  We will never regret time set aside for God during this Advent season.  But we will regret time we do not give to God—time which we allow to become filled with busyness, and worldliness.

Don’t let the world tell you how to prepare for Christmas, allow your faith to guide these Advent weeks that you might be filled with true joy, joy which the world cannot give, that we may celebrate Christ’s coming in history, mystery, and majesty, with reverence and with holy lives for the glory of God and salvation of souls.