Homily: 1st Sunday of Advent 2014 - The Potter and the Clay

Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” begins, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”  When the prophet Isaiah was writing to exiled Israel, it was simply, “the worst of times.”  The destruction of Jerusalem, and the Temple, at the hands of the Babylonians was the ultimate calamity for the people of Israel. 

The Kingdom of Israel had already experienced division.  The one Kingdom of David had been divided into a northern Kingdom and the southern kingdom.  The King of the North, not wanting his people to travel south to the Temple, set up his own false temples to false gods, with a false religion, false feast days, and false religious tenets.  Because they had no real religion to support them, they soon fell into immorality and became vulnerable to their enemies.  The northern kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians in 740 BC. 

Witnessing what happened in the North, Prophets in the South urged God’s people to remain faithful to God.  They had everything they needed to remain faithful: they had the holy city of Jerusalem , home to the true Davidic Kingship and the True Temple, the True Religion was being taught.  Yet, they began to slip.  Prophets like Obadiah, Joel, and Habakkuk warned that the disaster which befell the North would soon befall the South if they did not reform their lives and teach their children to walk in the ways of righteousness.

In the first reading today, Isaiah calls the southerners an “unclean people” their deeds “like polluted rags”, their nation “withered like leaves”.  Just as the prophets had foretold, their wickedness had caused them to grow weak and vulnerable to their enemies.  In 605 BC, the Babylonians captured the South, in 589 Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem culminating with the destruction of the city and the Temple in 587.  Because of their wickedness they were “carried away” by the wind. 

The Jews of the South were carried off, in chains, with no possessions, and marched into Babylon.  They were exiled from their homeland, from their temple; loved ones are separated.  Think of how devastated we were on September 11, 2001, at the loss of life and that our great nation could be attacked. The suffering of Israel was orders of magnitude greater.  Everything had fallen apart.  It was the darkest point in Israel’s history.

Imagine how shaken the Jews must have been.  No doubt, they thought, How could God allow this to happen to his chosen people, his city, his temple.  Had God abandoned them?

The exiled Jews were in anguish, desperate for some sign that God was still there.  Isaiah even verbalizes some of Israel’s frustration: “oh that you would rend the heavens and come down with the mountains quaking before you.”  Why don’t you show us your face, O God.  Why don’t you act?  

Why don’t you do something? 

Who can’t identify with that sentiment.  Who hasn’t felt captive? Who hasn’t felt like everything has gone wrong, God has abandoned me?  Perhaps, watching the nightly news, seeing the violence, the war, the political turmoil, the civil unrest, the grave immorality, wondering when, O Lord will you show yourself?  When will there be peace? 

Perhaps, you are in a very dry period in your prayer life, wondering, when will prayer become sweet again for me?  Even the great saints experienced times of great dryness in their prayer life—when it felt like God had withdrawn.  Sometimes it’s like God has hidden himself, Isaiah verbalizes this in our first reading: he says, “God, you have hidden your face from us.” 

God allowed Israel to be exiled, so that that could recognize the need to be obedient, the need to form their families in faith.  They had rejected the need for worship, the need of the commandments, the need for holy learning; they rejected the need for God, so God allowed them to come to realize how captive they were to sin without Him.

The experience of longing for God is a good thing.  It helps us recognize that without God we are indeed captive.  It helps us to cry out, as we did in the Psalm, “Let us see your face and we shall be saved.”

At the end of the Isaiah reading, we get this beautiful image—an image that we do well to remember for all of the season of Advent, in image we do well to remember whenever God feels distant, or we are going through any sort of trial or difficulty: “Yet, O Lord, you are our father; we are the clay and you are the potter, we are all the work of your hands.”

When we are in anguish, frustrated that God’s face seems hidden, captive by events we cannot control: illness, war, death, Isaiah encourages us to consider ourselves clay to be shaped by the hands of Our Father in heaven.  God will use the hard events of life, to form us into something great. 

God is not distant, he is not absent, even when he seems hidden.  God is intimately involved with humanity.  He wants to be intimately involved with every human soul.  He wants to form us, he wants to shape us. 

Yet, we have to offer ourselves as clay to be formed, by God.  The clay of our hearts must not be hard, unpliant, immalleable.   We must be open to change.  We must be open to becoming more prayerful, more generous, more patient.

This desire for God to shape us, form us, save us, is at the heart of Advent.  Advent is about recognizing our need for a Savior—recognizing that all too often our hearts and lives have been like hard stone, instead of soft clay. 

St. Ireneus said that as long as the clay of our hearts remains supple and moist, the work of the potter is relatively painless.  But if the clay becomes brittle, and hardened, it can break under the work of the potter. 

We look inward at the state of our souls during Advent, to do everything in our power to make our souls pliant to God.  During Advent we look to people like King David, John the Baptist, Mary of Nazareth as people who were open to allowing God to use them, the shape them for his purposes, people of great active watchfulness.  We prepare our hearts In Advent for the celebration of Christ’s coming at Christmas, by doing penance, by going to confession, by setting side time every day for quiet, yet active prayer, spiritual reading, and engaging in acts of service.

As Jesus comes to us in the mystery of the Eucharist at this holy Mass, may we allow him every deeper into our hearts, to prepare our hearts for the celebration of his coming in history at Christmas and majesty at the end of time, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Friday of the 34th Week in OT - The Kingdom Bursting Open

The fig tree was a an important and common source of food for the people of Israel.  It bore food twice a year: in the autumn and in the early spring.  The fig tree is used throughout scripture as a sign of Israel itself.  When Israel is faithful, she bears fruit, like the fig tree.  Jesus, in a parable, curses a fig tree and it whithers to show that when we are unfaithful to God, when we ignore his commands, when we do not recognize the authority of Christ to transform our lives, we become like a barren tree. 

According to Jewish tradition, the fig tree yields its first fruits right after Passover.  And the Jews believed that when the Messiah came, he would usher in the Kingdom of God at Passover time, when the fig tree was bearing fruit.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus uses the buds of the fig tree burst open as a sign of the Kingdom of God.  This parable foretells the joy of God’s kingdom.  The joy of new life and the promise of an eternal age of peace and blessing.

The fig tree bearing fruit is evident to all those who can see it.  So too, the coming of God’s kingdom is evident to all those who can see it.

This parable comes at the end of the 21^st chapter of Luke.  Jesus had just foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, he tells of the awful calamities which will precede the end of the world and his second coming, he tells how his followers will be persecuted; that Christians will be hated because of his name; and at the great tribulation there will be signs in the sky, people will die of fright.

At the same time, Jesus says the kingdom of God is bursting open in their midst.

So too in our own time amidst all of the news of political strife, social turmoil, shootings, natural disasters, amidst all of our own personal experience of physical and emotional illness, addiction, vice, brokenness in families, the kingdom of God is still bursting open.

Amidst all of the awfulness, there are men and women who are dedicated to God’s Word, who are bearing fruit in righteousness and peace and joy in the holy Spirit.  The Church really is like the eye of the hurricane.  Amidst all of the chaos and evil that surrounds us, peace, joy, and righteousness are available to all those who are receptive to God’s Word.

In less than 48 hours we will pass into the new liturgical year, the season of advent, the season of peaceful waiting, a season of expectation.  May we prepare our hearts for the special graces of the advent season, with a burning desire for all that God has in store for us, for the ways that he desires his kingdom to burst open in our lives, that we may bear fruit that will last, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Thanksgiving Day 2014 - Catholic Thanksgiving Facts

In the year 1615, an English explorer Thomas Hunt, a compatriot of the famous John Smith, captured a group of Native Americans to sell them on the slave trade. One of these Native Americans was Squanto.  The group was rescued by Catholic Franciscans Friars, who baptized Squanto and catechized him in the Catholic faith.  Squanto went to England where he worked in the shipyards and became fluent in English.  He returned to his Native America where he was living for about 5 years when the pilgrims left England in order to pursue a Calvinist Utopia in Massachusetts because they thought the Anglicans were “too Catholic”.  The pilgrims however had no food and were starving.  Squanto, hearing of their distress, came to their aid teaching them how to grow corn, fish.  They celebrated their first successful harvest in 1621.  The real hero of Thanksgiving was Catholic Squanto.

Does he not embody the words of our Collect today?  With gratitude for God’s kindness, he shows concern for his fellow man, and shared his gift of loving service.

Yet, the first American Thanksgiving was actually celebrated, in St. Augustine, Florida on September 8, 1565, the feast of the Birth of Mary.  56 years before the Puritan pilgrims of Massachusetts, Spanish Explorer Don Pedro Menendez, came ashore amid the sounding of trumpets, artillery salutes and the firing of cannons to claim the land for King Philip II and Spain. The ship chaplain, a Franciscan Priest, chanted the Te Deum and presented a crucifix that Menendez ceremoniously kissed.  Then nearly the 1000 Catholics aboard the Ship along with the Timucuan Indians who greeted them celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in gratitude to God.

The second American Thanksgiving happened on April 30, 1598, when Spanish explorer Don Juan de Oñate requested the friars to say a Mass of Thanksgiving, after claiming the land north of the Rio Grande for the King of Spain. The men feasted on duck, goose, and fish from the river.

Every Catholic Mass is a celebration of Thanksgiving for life and the blessings that fill it.  In fact, the Greek New Testament Word for Thanksgiving is Eucharistia.  At the Eucharist, we first and foremost give thanksgiving to God for the gift of our salvation.  Without Jesus Christ’s self-sacrifice on the Cross there would be no hope of heaven for any of us.  For this we give thanks to God, and it is important for us to come to Mass recollected, that is, with our thanksgiving first and foremost in our hearts, to recognize that we have been saved by a God who loves us.

Perhaps, the reason why 80% of Catholics do not come to Mass is that they never really came to believe that Christ had saved them, and that we are not entitled to heaven by any work that we have done.

Remember, it in the Gospel, 10 lepers received healing, but it was the one leper, who returned to the Lord to give thanks who was saved. 

In a few weeks, the busyness of the Christmas season will be upon us, and we will be reminded to keep the Christ in Christmas, to remember that his glorious birth is the reason for our celebration.  We do well, to keep the Thanks in Thanksgiving. 

And today, as you gather with your families, recall the blessings of life, food, shelter, family, and of course our faith, which promises everlasting life. Offer a prayer and perhaps  the wonderful limerick of Catholic historian Hilaire Belloc:

“Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, There’s always laughter and good red wine. At least I’ve always found it so. Benedicamus Domino!” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Nov 25 - Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin & Martyr

Today we celebrate one of the most revered saints of the early Church.  In fact, I was very impressed to see one of our first graders dressed up as Saint Catherine two weeks ago.  St. Catherine lived at the end of the thirst century in the city of Alexandria in Egypt.  She was so beautiful and wise that she attracted the attention of the Emperor Maximian.  She however, would not marry the emperor because she had consecrated herself to Jesus, vowing to remain unmarried so she could be devoted to Jesus in a special way. 

The Emperor sent his 50 wisest philosophers to convince Saint Catherine to change her mind, but they proved no match for Catherine’s amazing debating skills; they were so impressed with her, and her explanation of the Gospel, that all 50 became Christian.

The Emperor had Catherine imprisoned; yet while imprisoned she converted the empress, the leader of the armed forces, over 200 soldiers, and other members of the emperor’s family

This angered that Catherine would not give up her faith and marry Him, the Emperor ordered Catherine to be tied to a wheel and tortured.  The wheel however was struck by ‘fire from heaven’ and was shattered.  Catherine was uninjured, but angered even more, the emperor had Catherine beheaded.  Legend has it that her body was carried away by angels and buried on Mount Sinai—the place where Moses received the 10 commandments. 

Neither political pressure, imprisonment, torture, or death could cause this great saint to compromise her faith.  Through her reception of the Eucharist, through prayer and study, Catherine was filled with tremendous faith and love of God which transformed the lives of others even as she suffered.

Similarly God wishes to fill us with that same faith and love through the Eucharist and through our prayer and study.  The saints remind us that we must have courage in allow God’s life to grow within us, to let Him be the One who guides our thoughts and actions.  The Christian life demands that we seek to grow every day in our faith.

Only when we are faithful, constant, and trusting in God will God give us the ability and strength to live happily in this life throughout all of life’s challenges and to witness courageously to Him.

This week, families will gather for the great thanksgiving meal.  It is a good and holy thing for families to put aside all of their worldly responsibilities in order to share a good meal with each other.  Yet, God calls us to gather as a family of faith every week, for the Eucharist.  Many would never dream of skipping thanksgiving dinner, but have no problem skipping Sunday Mass. 

Saint Catherine and so many thousands of martyrs died to show us that the practicing our faith is more important than anything else.  Let nothing keep us from the sacred banquet, in which Christ is received, the memory of his passion is renewed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.

Through her intercession and holy example may Saint Catherine teach us to be truly grateful for the gift of our salvation and help us to be faithful to Christ in all things, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: November 24 - St. Andrew Dung-Lac & Vietnamese Martyrs

On June 19, 1988, Pope John Paul II canonized a group of 117 martyrs who died for the Roman Catholic Faith in Vietnam during the nineteenth century.   Members of this group included 8 bishops, 50 priests, 59 lay Catholics. 

Christian Persecution in Vietnam was not limited to the 19^th Century however, but existed since the time the Faith was first brought to Vietnam by the Jesuits in the 1600s.  One of the Vietnamese kings saw Christianity as a threat to his rule, so he banned all foreign missionaries and tried to make all Vietnamese deny their faith by trampling on a crucifix. 

Between 100,000 and 300,000 Catholics in Vietnam were subjected to great hardship in the persecutions of the 19^th century, many were killed, including foreign missionaries from France and Spain.  In 1862, the last of the martyrs were 17 laypersons, one of them a 9-year-old.

St. Andrew Dung-Lac was a native Vietnamese diocesan priest. He came from a poor, non-Christian family and was taught by a Christian lay catechist. He worked in the missions with French Missionary Priests. He was imprisoned and repeatedly tortured during the persecutions of Minh-Meng, the emperor of Vietnam between 1820 and 1840 who was famed for his persecutions of the Christians

As John Paul II reiterated during the canonization homily, “the blood of the martyrs, is the seed of the Church.”  Where Christians struggle to remain faithful, where sacrifice is made for the spread of the Gospel, it is there that Christianity flourishes, where souls are brought to Christ. 

The 19^th Century persecution of Christians in Vietnam was among the most terrible in the long history of Christian martyrdom.  Yet, the Church in Vietnam today is alive and vigorous and blessed with strong and faithful bishops, dedicated religious, and courageous and committed laypeople.  Though, I read recently that persecution of Catholics is again rearing its ugly head in Vietnam, especially of Catholics who oppose the Communist Party there.

As we come to the end of another Church year and prepare for the celebration of Advent, we are challenged by the witness of the martyrs.  It is the martyr who is truly prepared for the coming of Christ.  He has readied his soul with virtue, and the deepest trust and faith in God. 

Though we may not be called upon by God to give the witness of martyrdom, we still seek to make our souls like theirs: faithful amidst the trials of this life, making our lives a pleasing sacrifice to Christ for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Solemnity of Christ the King - "Christ in distressing disguise"

Today the Church celebrates with great joy the Solemnity of Christ the King. It is the last Sunday of the liturgical year and, in many ways, the culmination.  All of the seasons and feasts point to this reality: that Jesus Christ is the King of the Universe, the Lord of all.  All of time, all of history, is heading toward this climax when Christ will be revealed as the universal King of Kings.
Although this feast wasn’t officially on the Church calendar until 1929, it’s been a doctrine of the Church since the very beginning—Christ is the “King of Kings and Lord of Lords”, as Handel’s Messiah proclaims.

For a little cultivation of mind and soul, recently I read Shakespeare’s Henry V.  There is the poignant scene in Act IV when the night before the major battle, King Henry disguises himself as a commoner.  The king dressed in peasant garb visits his soldiers, walks among them, calls them brothers, in order to raise their spirits for the upcoming battle.

Sound familiar?  The King of the Universe became one of us.  And it wasn’t just an act, God really became man, and sent the Church on a campaign to bring the Gospel to all of the corners of the earth.  We refer to the Church on earth, as the Church militant—campaigning through time against the forces of evil, to spread the good news of Christ’s eternal kingdom of peace.

Another famous story about royalty disguising itself as the commoner is the story of the Prince and the Pauper.  The prince and a poor commoner trade places, the prince goes and lives in the streets, begging for food, and the pauper lives in the castle and is treated like royalty.  While he is on the streets, some treat the prince with kindness, some ignore him, even spit on him.  At the end of the story, the prince comes back to the castle, sits on his throne and rewards those who cared for him, loved him, helped him, when they did not know he was the prince.

That lesson should sound familiar as well.  It sounds like Matthew’s Gospel this weekend!  In Matthew’s 25th chapter, as he his passion and crucifixion grew closer and closer, Jesus says that the son of man will come back and sit on the throne and make a judgment.  He will separate all of humanity—every human that has ever lived into two camps, the camp of the sheep and the camp of the goats.

And then he listed the critiera upon which he would base this judgement?  The king has very specific criteria, which he makes known to us.

The sheep are those who, throughout their lives performed the works of mercy.  When we were young we learn about the corporal and spiritual works of mercy: feed the hungry, cloth the naked, giving drink to the thirsty, shelter the homeless, nurse the sick, visit the imprisoned.
Jesus says, that when we personally care for the poor, we care for him.

St. Martin of Tours lived in the 4th century.  He was a soldier, but also a Christian.  And one very cold day, much like today, he came across a poor, nearly naked man, lying at a city gate, begging for help.  Martin had no money.  So the story goes that he took his red soldier’s cape, and cut it in half, and gave it to the poor man, to keep warm.

That night, St. Martin had a dream.  He saw Jesus Christ in the heavens, seated on his throne, wearing half of his red soldier’s cape.  An angel asked Christ, why are you wearing that cape, wear did you get it from?  And Christ responds, “My brother Martin gave that to me.”  When we care for the poor, we care for Christ.

Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta said, “at the end of life, we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done, we will be judged by, ‘I was naked and you clothed me, I was hungry and you fed me.”  But then she broadens the concept, “hungry not only for bread, but hungry for love; naked, not only of clothing, but of human dignity and respect, homeless not only of a room of bricks, but also homeless because of rejection…this is Christ in distressing disguise.”

The catechism validates Mother Theresa’s words, when it says, “On Judgment Day at the end of the world, Christ will come in glory to achieve the definitive triumph of good over evil…when he comes at the end of time to judge the living and the dead, the glorious Christ will reveal the secret disposition of hearts and will render to each man according to his works and according to his acceptance or refusal of grace.”  

There is a great difference between being nice and being holy.  Being nice means not ruffling other people's feathers; being nice, is merely surface deep.  Being holy means going out of our way to do what is morally right, and to serve others in need; it goes deep and always involves self-sacrifice, going the extra mile.

Someone can be nice and still be completely self-centered - using niceness to gain popularity.  But again to quote the catechism, we will be judged according to the “secret disposition of our hearts”.  Jesus calls us not just to be nice on the surface, but to be holy from the inside out.  To do good for others not in order to be rewarded for it, or noticed for it, but because they are truly in need.

We will be judged on how we acted in our everyday lives.  We can show that we are on the side of Christ by looking for opportunities to serve him: by making friends with the new kid at school, defending the colleague who always gets bullied, supporting an unwed mother, adopting an orphan, staying late at work to help a coworker who is behind in his project, bringing fresh flowers to a relative confined to a hospital bed, inviting a lonely neighbor over for tea and cake.

Our everyday encounters carry, as St. Paul says, an “eternal weight of glory”.  Because we perform acts of kindness for Christ, they take on eternal proportions, they reverberate forever.  Through acts of kindness, we can grow in holiness.

The Feast of Christ the king challenges us once again to truly put Christ at the center of our lives: to allow him to reign in every aspect of our life: our political life, our social life, our leisure time, our family, our friends, our parish, our attitudes, our behaviors, our thoughts, to put all under the dominion of Christ, to subject ourselves to his rule, to ready our souls for judgment by serving Christ in the poor, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Nov 21 - Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Today’s feast is ancient.  It has been celebrated by Christians since the 6^th century and commemorates an event before the birth of Christ. When Mary was a young girl of the age of 3,  her parents, Joachim and Ann brought her to the Temple in Jerusalem to be presented to God, according to the Jewish custom.

There, Mary would receive her religious formation—brought up by the consecrated virgins of the Temple until she was 11 or 12.  Not long after, she would be betrothed to Joseph.

There in the Temple, Mary would have had a truly blessed childhood: busy with prayer, chores, studying the Sacred Scriptures, learning the prayers should would one day pass on to her son, and loving God with her whole heart.  What a wonderful example she must have been to the other young girls there, to the holy women, and to the priests of the Temple.  And what a wonderful example for us.

On this day, consecrated persons renew their vows to the Lord in memory of the offering of Mary to the Lord’s service. 

In just a few days, this year, on the first Sunday of Advent, we will begin a Year of Consecrated Life.  In the past, the Popes have declared the Year of the Rosary in 2002 the Year of the Eucharist in 2004, Year of St. Paul in 2008, Year of the Priesthood in 2009, Years of Faith in 1967 and 2012.  So this year, Catholics around the world look to the example of the Consecrated Religious, thank God for their wonderful calling, and pray that they can be ever more faithful in being a sign of devotion and a sign of God’s love for the Church.

We will do well to thank God personally for the consecrated religious who have touched our lives, who have taught us our prayers, who have shown us how to practice the works of charity, to pray with them and for them, if they are living, or to raise them up to God if they have passed from earthly life.

At baptism, each of us has been dedicated to the Lord.  We look today and all days the model of discipleship, the Blessed Virgin devoted to God in all things, offering to him her whole pure and immaculate heart, may she continue to teach us to love God as she does, that we may be presented to God as a worthy offering for His glory and the salvation of souls.

Homily: November 17 - St. Elizabeth of Hungary

Today we celebrate the feast of Elizabeth of Hungary patroness of the Franciscan third order.  Elizabeth was born in the year 1207, right about the time St. Francis of Assisi founded the Franciscans.

She was the daughter of Andrew II, King of Hungary.  As was the custom at the time, she was betrothed, soon after her birth, and was sent, at the age of 3 years, to be reared in the castle of her betrothed, who was about the same age—Louis, the Landgrave of Thuringia.  St. Elizabeth grew up very devout.  And, even at a young age she loved to give things to the sick and poor, especially lepers. 

Elizabeth and Louis grew up together, they loved each other, and they were both devout.  After their marriage, when she was 18, Louis encouraged her to continue her works of charity. 

In a wonderful description of their marriage, it is written that they had an “unusually happy marriage”.  So often,  vice and sin, selfishness and hard hearts lead to unhappiness in marriage; but God made marriage to help spouses to grow in holiness.  A marriage with God at the center becomes charged and changed by his presence.

St. Elizabeth, as part of her charitable works, built a hospital next to their castle.  She, herself, would personally tend to the sick and the poor, feeding over 900 people daily. 

As all of the saints of the Church, she shared in the cross of Christ.  Her husband died on his way to fight in the crusades.  His four brothers, who weren’t as holy as he, rose up against her, and drove her out of the castle.  She was forced to flee with her 4 children, one of those children being only 2 months old.  She was cast out, like the Holy Family, she could find no place to enter, for people were afraid to take her in out of fear of her husband’s brothers.  Like the Holy family she was granted asylum in a stable. 

The amazing thing, she didn’t complain, she didn’t curse God, she saw this as a sign of God’s favor, and she gave thanks to God for permitting her a share in the savior’s cross and be conformed to the Holy Family.  She continued to work odd jobs, spinning garments and selling them.  She was allowed to come back to the castle under the new emperor, and even built a second hospital.

She died at the age of 24.  Yet, because of the great number of miracles at her grave, Pope Gregory canonized her, only four years after her death.

Here was a holy woman, more concerned about the nobility of her soul, than her noble status in the world—more concerned with clothing her soul with virtue, than with the fine garments of a queen—a holy, virtuous woman, industrious in doing good works. 

Because her eyes were set on heaven, when she met the cross, she did not despair; rather, she saw the sufferings of her life as an opportunity to conform herself to Our Lord.  So let us follow in Elizabeth’s footsteps, in performing many good works and accepting all of the trials that God deigns to send us, and learn to accept the cross with gratitude that we may partake in the cross of His son, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 33rd Sunday in OT - "Blessed are those who fear the Lord"

This week in RCIA, with our adults preparing for initiation into the Catholic Church, we were discussing the gifts of the Holy Spirit, gifts given to every Christian at their Baptism, which help us to be faithful to all that Jesus calls us to.  Traditionally, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are numbered seven: wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord.

Our psalm today mentioned one of the Spirit’s seven-fold gifts. “Blessed are those who fear the Lord.”  Fear of the Lord enables us to live a blessed life.  The book of Proverbs says that “the fear of the Lord” is the beginning of all wisdom; it helps us to live with our priorities straight.

Fear of the Lord, is completely different from fear of spiders or fear of difficult tasks.    

365 times in the bible we find the phrase, “do not be afraid”.  Almost as if saying it once for every day of the year.  When life becomes difficult, when carrying the Christian cross seems daunting, Jesus urges us to a sort of fearlessness, or rather, combating our fear by turning to God, trusting in Him, that he is with us.  “Do not be afraid” is Jesus’ most repeated phrase.  So do not be afraid when life gets difficult, God is with you.  Do not be afraid of the difficult tasks to which God is calling you. 

Founding Father and third President, Thomas Jefferson, spoke about fear: "When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When governments fear the people, there is liberty.”  Our politicians could probably do with a little more fear of the people, to remember that it is never wrong to hold our politicians accountable for their negligence of duty.

The biblical greek word  theosebeia, fear of the Lord, though it sounds a bit troubling, is in fact a very good and holy thing. 

Sometimes, fear of the Lord, refers to the reverence God’s people are to have for Him.  We are to revere Him at all times. To revere his Holy Name is to treat his name with respect.  To revere the Lord’s Day is to come to Church for worship.  To revere his Temple is to respect the church building as a house of prayer.  To revere his presence is to genuflect when we enter or exit the Church.  We revere his commands by keeping them always in mind.  In this sense, we cannot revere the Lord too much.

Fear of the Lord also refers to the sense of awe and wonder we are to have for God and for his works.  We visit the grand canyon and niagra falls or study the solar system or witness a child’s birth with a sense of awe at God’s beauty and power and order.  When we read through Scripture we are struck with a sense of awe at what God has done for our salvation; when we reflect on Jesus’ suffering and death, we are struck with awe, even a sense of unworthiness, at the depths of his love.

From the book of Proverbs this morning we read a description of a God-fearing woman. The God-fearing wife “brings good and not evil to her husband, she extends her hands to the poor.”  She recognizes physical beauty is fleeting, so she focuses on the beauty of her soul.  Our culture has it backwards, doesn’t it?  There is an obsession about physical beauty.  But watch MTV for 5 minutes, and you realize there is a monumental difference between physical beauty and moral beauty.  The moral ugliness on television is a good indicator that our culture has been poisoned.

Yet, the woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.  She becomes a blessing to others because she considers the state of her soul throughout all of her earthly endeavors and relationships.  That goes for men too.

And that’s what “Fear of the Lord” boils down to: considering the state of one’s soul before God.  Most likely, we have so many Catholics we do not go to Mass or Confession because they do not consider the state of their soul before God. They do not have the fear of Lord as they should.  Jesus himself says, “I will show you the one whom you should fear…Fear him who…has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. (Lk 12:5)”

Recently, Pope Francis has stressed the Mercy of God.  Yet, some people, especially in the media, have perverted what the Pope has said, and therefore pervert the Christian message. They equate mercy with doing away with all of the Church’s teaching that we find difficult.  They claim that since God is all-merciful, it doesn’t really matter if we follow the commandments or not; they claim we’re free to redefine Church doctrine to fit more modern sensibilities, like those found on MTV.

To some the two ideas of “Fear of the Lord” on one hand, and “God’s mercy” on the other, are irreconcilable, so they do away with one, depending on their fancy.  In previous centuries, we had rigorist groups like the Jansenists, who lost sight of the power of God’s mercy and love for the sinner.   They required sacramental confession every time you were going to receive the Eucharist, because they claimed most people probably committed mortal sin throughout the week. 

In our own time, we have the other extreme, perverting God’s mercy to mean Divine Permissiveness—treating the commandments more as guidelines that can be bent, shaped, reinterpreted or simply ignored without any danger to immortal soul.

Neither extreme is healthy or accurate.  Rather, fear of the Lord is what enables the sinner to admit his need for God who is merciful.  But God does have expectations of us.

As we heard in the Gospel, when God gives us talents, gifts, we must make use of them in a wise and prudent manner.  Jesus calls the servant “wicked and lazy” who fails to make use of the opportunities God gives him. 

We would like to be counted among the faithful servants in the Lord’s parable today. Yet, we’re honest, aren’t we all a little like that lazy servant.  God has blessed us with so much, yet, we squander, we waste, we hoard for ourselves, cling selfishly to things because of our unhealthy fears. 

In baptism, God has blessed us with this beautiful Gift, fear of the Lord.  It helps us to use the things of this world temperately, lest we use them in ways displeasing to God.  It helps us to keep in mind the great dignity that we are called to as Christians, to keep our hearts pure and holy and pleasing to the lord in all things.  it helps us to be a blessing to others, and build up the Church, and find joy in a life with God at the center for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Friday of the 32nd Week in OT - Promises and Warnings

Today's scriptures are full of promise and warning. 

In the Psalm we heard promised that those who follow the law of the Lord will be blessed, they will come to beatitude.  We are left wondering though, what about those whose lives are not blameless, those who do not seek God with their whole heart.

In the first reading , John rejoices greatly that some of the Christians are “walking in the truth”.  The truth, for St. John, is the way that leads to the Father.  As he reported Jesus saying in his Gospel, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.”

John then warns that there is a group of deceivers, so-called “progressives” that are not teaching accurately about Jesus.  This is a perennial problem in the Church.  John warns that those who do not remain in right teaching, do not have God.

In the Gospel, Jesus is warning his disciples that the second coming will be like the days of Noah and Sodom: some will be ready and some will be left behind.   He promises that those who are prepared will be gathered into the Father’s presence forever.  But he also warns about being found unprepared. 

Those in the days of Noah and Sodom who were unprepared were those who were preoccupied with the things and pleasures of the world.  They had ignored God and wandered away from the obedience of faith.

Promise and warning.  The promise is of eternal life and happiness and joy.  But the great warning is to be prepared.  To prepare our hearts for the day of judgment, by following the law of the Lord, seeking God with our whole hearts, as we heard in the psalm, not seeking to be so “progressive” that we leave the truth of the faith, as we heard in second John, and by turning away from preoccupation with worldly things, to focus on the one thing, as we heard in the Gospel.

While we live in this world, worldliness must not claim our hearts. 

Prepare our hearts O Lord! Make us worthy of your promises and headful of your warnings, for the Glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: November 13 - St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Missionary

As a young girl, Francesca Cabrini dreamed of being a missionary.  She would dress up her dolls like nuns and put them in paper boats pretending to send them to China to spread the faith.  She wouldn’t eat sweets because she didn’t think they would have sweets in China. 

Born in the little village of Sant’Angelo in the Lombardy region of Italy, two months premature, she had frail health her entire life.  Though she was a certified teacher by the age of 18, she was rejected by several religious communities because of her poor health. 

But she persevered in following her lifelong calling as a missionary.  At the encouragement of her bishop, Francesca started her own religious community, the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart in 1877.  Within a few years she and her sisters had opened six orphanages.

Early in 1889 Pope Leo XIII asked her to go to the United States to care for the Italian Immigrants who came to the US.  Within a few years, she opened a Catholic school in New York City, founded an orphanage and hospital for the immigrants which had wards which were free to the poor.    She built other hospitals in Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Seattle, New Orleans, and Chicago.

Her thirty-seven years as a missionary sister saw her constantly on the move.  When she died in 1917, she left behind sixty-seven convents in Europe, the United States, and South America housing 1500 Sisters.   

Mother Cabrini’s relics are enshrined in the Church’s altar at her shrine in Manhattan, where she served so many Italian immigrants. 

Since she was naturalized as an American citizen in 1909, she is the first American citizen to be canonized. 

At her canonization in 1946, Pius XII said in his homily:

“Where did she acquire all that strength and the inexhaustible energy by which she was able to perform to many good works and to surmount so many difficulties?  She accomplished all this through the faith that was always so vibrant in her heart; through the divine love that burned within her; and, finally, through the constant prayer by which she was so closely united to God…She never let anything turn her aside from striving to please God and to work for his glory for which nothing, aided by grace, seemed too difficult or beyond human strength.

Mother Cabrini lived deeply the mission of the Church to bring Christ’s compassion and care to all people.  May we find through prayer and Sacraments and Mother Cabrini’s intercession, that same inexhaustible energy for serving God’s kingdom for his glory and the salvation of souls.

Homily: November 10 - Pope Saint Leo the Great - Standing firm in God's Truth

Today we celebrate the feast of Pope Saint Leo The Great, doctor of the Church.

Pope Leo was elected in 440 at a point in history not too unlike our own: Heresy was rife throughout Christendom, the cultural centers had fallen into immorality and decadence, culture was disintegrating.

Only few Popes are given the title “The Great”, and Leo truly earned his title through both his theological contributions and his skill as a leader.

On the theological side, he had significant merits, including his many excellent and profound sermons and letters. He called the Council of Chalcedon to clarify the Church’s understanding of the relationship between the humanity and divinity of Christ.  When the Bishops read his profound explanation, they exclaimed, “Peter has spoken through Leo!”  For his theological contributions, Pope Leo was eventually declared a Doctor of the Church.

Leo also showed great leadership in dealing with the administrative problems of the Church. Barbarians were literally beating at the gates of Rome.    Pope Leo averted the barbarians by personally confronting Atilla the Hun to persuade him to turn away from plundering the Eternal City.  During another barbarian invasion, Leo persuaded the Vandals to avoid sacking the holy churches of Rome.

Being firmly rooted in Christ, Leo protected the Church from heresies and plunder.

Today, the Pope continues this role.  Pope Benedict led the church in fighting against moral relativism which has caused a profound crisis in society.  Living without reference to God and object moral truth leads to a new barbarism.  When we lose reference to God,   Benedict said, "the fundamental essentials are at stake: human dignity, human life, the institution of the family and the equity of the social order--in other words the fundamental rights of man."

Pope Francis too has stressed the importance of Christian Faith for society.  In his first encyclical, Lumen Fidei, on the Light of Faith, he wrote, “Our culture has lost its sense of God’s tangible presence and activity in our world …the beginning of salvation is openness to something prior to ourselves”

There is an urgent need, Pope Francis says, “to not hide the light of faith under a bushel, but magnify the light through our Christian service, through evangelization, through living by faith openly in the public arena.”

It is a dark and confusing time in which we live.  Whenever things get difficult, or cloudy, or confusing, we are to focus on the Truth of Christ and recommit to the life he calls us.  We are to give witness to the great freedom we have in Christ, the great freedom that the world longs for, the freedom of the Children of Light.

Through the intercession of Pope St. Leo, may all Christians stand firm in God’s truth and know the protection of his lasting peace for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: November 9 - Dedication of the Lateran Basilica - "To be a living temple"

Throughout the Church year, special days are set apart to honor particular saints.  This week on November 3 was the feast of St. Martin de Porres, November 4, was the feast of St. Charles Borromeo.  Some feast days celebrate important moments in the life of Christ or his Mother, like the Feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, the Feast of the Transfiguration, the Feast of Mary’s Assumption. 

It might seem strange, but today we celebrate the anniversary of the dedication of a church building.  In every diocese, the dedication of the Cathedral is celebrated as a solemnity.  By the way, the anniversary of the dedication of the Cathedral of Cleveland is September 6. 

Today is the celebration of the dedication of the Pope’s Cathedral; not St. Peter’s, but St. John Lateran.  St. Peter’s is the world’s largest church, and a very important church symbolically, reminding us that the Pope is the successor of St. Peter. 

Yet, it is the Basilica of St. John Lateran, which is the Pope’s Cathedral.  Every diocese has a Cathedral in which is found the seat, the “cathedra” which is the symbol of the bishop’s authority and of his teaching and preaching office.  Because the Pope is not only the bishop of Rome, but exercises very important preaching, teaching, governing authority in the Universal Church as Vicar of Christ, the anniversary of the dedication of the Pope’s Cathedral is celebrated by the entire world today. 

St. John Lateran is not the name of the saint.  The lateran is named after the “Laterani” family who had a palace in Rome.  In the year 313, when the Emperor Constantine legalized the practice of Christianity in the Roman Empire, he had a basilica built for the pope next to the palace of the Laterani family.  The original basilica was in the year 324 AD by Pope Sylvester I. 

During the first  three hundred years, Christianity suffered wave after wave of violent persecution, 

because the Christians refused to worship the false pagan gods of the Roman Empire.  As a result, throughout the empire, Christians were arrested, imprisoned, interrogated, tortured, and killed.  Because of the persecutions, Christians couldn’t risk building permanent church buildings. They would celebrate Mass in private homes or in the catacombs.

Things changed only when Emperor Constantine, the son of St Helen, issued the Edict of Milan in 313, legalizing Christianity and bringing the age of state sponsored persecution to a close.

The first church built in this new era of Christianity was St. John Lateran.  It’s the oldest church building in the world.

The Lateran Basilica stands as a reminder, of how the tiny, poor, non-military religion of Christianity withstood the force of the great Roman Empire; it reminds us of the heroic virtues of the martyrs and the grace of God that sustained them in their sufferings; that the Church will withstand all of the attacks of hell until the end of time.

There is a lot of symbolism built into the architecture of John Lateran.

Her immense bronze doors were taken from the old Roman Senate—as a way of saying that the old pagan era of Rome had come to an end, the true way to peace comes by entering into Christ.  He brings a peace, a unity to mankind, that no earthly government can bring.

The main nave of the Church interior is surrounded by twelve monumental marble statues of the Twelve Apostles.  It is a symbol that the Church is founded and supported by the Twelve Apostles called by Christ.  We are an apostolic church.

The altar of St. John Lateran is actually an ancient wooden altar used by St. Peter himself for the celebration of mass before his martyrdom.   The original altar is of course covered in marble.  Over the altar are the relics of the skulls of both St. Peter and Paul, who gave their life for the spread of the Gospel.

The relics and architecture of John Lateran remind us that our Church, guided and protected by the Holy Spirit, has been given a mission to bring Christ to all peoples of all times in all places - a truly supernatural mission which can only be fulfilled because God himself is with us.

In the Second Reading, St. Paul asks this question: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit dwells in you?” The Catholic Church is so much more than a collection of buildings.  But the Church is built of living stones.  Our church buildings should be beautiful, but the souls of Christians should be more beautiful, reflecting our beautiful God in the ways we live, the choice we make.

It’s fitting that the church building should be adorned with the marble and gold, to inspire us, and to attract non-believers to our timeless faith. They should represent visibly the great splendor of the Church.  Yet, more importantly Christians must be adorned with charity, and virtue, and purity, and Gospel truth.

Do I make my heart a place where God truly dwells?  Do I adorn my life with purity, generosity, faith, courage in the face of persecution.

The church building is different from any other building, for here, the body and blood of Jesus Christ is present in the Eucharist.  Likewise, Christians, are called to be different from the rest of the world, living signs of God’s power and love.  There are people who are desperately looking for signs of God’s presence, we must be that sign.   There are looking for truth, so we must share it with them.

As we receive the living Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion today, may the Lord transform our lives to be living basilicas, living temples, for the Glory  of God and Salvation of souls.

Homily: Friday of the 31st Week in OT - Prudent preparation for eternity

During Jesus’ time, the type of steward described in today’s Gospel passage earned his wages from the interest he charged his master’s customers.  A just steward would charge a just amount of interest.  The steward we heard about today was abusing his position, charging exorbitant interest for his own profit. 

Knowing that he was about to be fired for his dishonesty, he called in his master’s debtors, and asked them to repay their debt.  However, he had them repay their actual debt, not including the steward’s fee. 

With the debtors grateful to him for reducing their bills, he would have new friends who could help him start a new life.  It’s a very creative approach to a difficult problem.  He made use of the time he had, to lessen the damage he had done, to not leave on such bad terms with the Master, and even make friends.

As the liturgical year comes to a close, we reflect more and more on the last things: death, heaven, hell, judgment.  As the steward was coming to the end of his employment, Jesus praised him for making prudent decision in order to prepare for that.

So to, we are called to be prudent about preparing for the end.  We are to use the time we have left on earth, to prudently prepare for the next life.

We can lessen the damage done by our sins.  We can make amends with those we’ve slighted.  We can use our time, talent, and treasure to make the world a little better for others.  Giving to charity, serving those in need.  By doing so we lessen the time we would have to spend in purgatory.  We can pay for the temporal effects of our sins, while here on earth, by being dedicated to charity.

The steward ingratiated himself to the debtors.  So too, we are to form spiritual friendships.  People who will pray for us, who will remember us at the altar once we’ve gone.  We do well to also deepen our devotion to the saints, to make friends with the saints, that they might also pray for us.

May each of us use the time we have left wisely, prudently, preparing well for eternity, for the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

Homily: Thursday of the 31st Week in OT - "Let hearts rejoice who search for the Lord"

Our readings this morning speak both of man’s desire for God and God’s desire for man.

The Catechism says, "The desire for God is written in the human heart" and only in God will man "find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for" (CCC 27).

Though we live in a world with more people than any other time in history, man often feels alone and isolated.  Though technology has brought unimaginable improvements or changes, many of our interactions with others have become much more impersonal.  Though we are busier than ever before, we derive less meaning and happiness from each of our activities. 

Sometimes, the quest for happiness leads us down very dark and destructive paths: gambling, alcohol, drugs, pornography, violence.  All an attempt to secure happiness, that can only be satisfied by God. 

Our addiction to technology is a symptom of our searching.  Our obsession with entertainment is a symptom of our searching.

When we stray from the practices of our faith and fall into the vices of the world we become like lost sheep, or worse, a lost coin.  A lost coin is an inanimate object, it’s totally incapable of finding its way back on its own.  When we live for the things of earth, rather than the things of heaven, we become lost.

St. Paul, after listing his very impressive Jewish credentials says even these he counts as loss compared to knowing Jesus Christ.  All things are loss which keep us from focusing on the one thing necessary, the most important thing, our relationship with God through Christ.

Our Lord in the Gospel explains the key to finding our way back to God: repentance.  We need to recognize all things as loss which take us away from God, and repent of allowing them to keep us from glorifying God with our lives.

Yet, when we do repent, Jesus tells us there is joy among the angels of heaven when the sinner who is lost in sin is found.  God doesn’t want us lost.  He seeks us out, he calls to us to repent. 

“Let hearts rejoice who search for the Lord” we said in our Psalm this morning.  May we find great joy in turning away from all things which keep us from Him and seeking to live always for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: November 4 - St. Charles Borromeo, Bishop - An attentive Pastor

Last April, I had the privilege of celebrating Mass in the magnificent Cathedral in Milan, where St. Charles was Cardinal Archbishop from the age of 25 until his death. The relics of his body lay in the Cathedral crypt in Milan incorrupt after 430 years, but the relic of his heart is in the minor basilica of Charles and Ambrose in Rome. Ambrose of course was the Archbishop of Milan who instructed and baptized St. Augustine.

Our diocesan college seminary is dedicated to St. Charles who is the patron Saint of Seminarians.  His work at the council of Trent helped to establish the modern seminary system.  He is also a patron saint of Catechists, he helped develop the Catechism of the Council of Trent, which is sometimes called the Catechism for Parish Priests.  Before the Baltimore Catechism and our Modern Catechism, St. Charles’ Catechism was used by parish priests for teaching the faith to their people, laying the foundations of faith in our young people, and preparing non-Catholics for initiation into the Catholic Faith.

The opening prayer this morning asked God to give us the spirit which filled Bishop Saint Charles Borromeo, “that the Church may be constantly renewed.”  He was a great reformer in his own Archdiocese.  He believed that the Archbishop and priests must give good example by their apostolic spirit.  So he worked for the reform of his own clergy, in fact he took the initiative in giving good example.

He allotted most of his income to charity, forbade himself all luxury.  During the plague and famine which came to Milan in 1576, he tried to feed 60 to 70 thousand people daily, taking upon himself a huge debt, which took years to repay.  Whereas the civil authorities fled the city, he stayed, where he ministered to the sick and the dying.

Work and the heavy burdens of his high office began to affect his health.  He died at the age of 46, 1584, and was canonized just 26 years later.

“Here is the way we can easily overcome the countless difficulties we have to face day after day, which are part of our work,” he said.  “It is in prayer that we find the strength to bring Christ to birth in ourselves and in others.

Through prayer, God made St. Charles attentive to the needs of the Church, his clergy, and as a pastor to his people.  He was outstanding in virtue, penance, and charity.  May God help us to follow his example in bearing good fruit through our own works of charity, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: November 3 - St. Martin de Porres - The Choice

Early in life, St. Martin was presented with a choice: become bitter and complain about his difficult lot or devote himself to good works.  He took the latter route. 

Martin was born in Lima, Peru in 1579 to Spanish conquistador and an African Slave, who were not married.  His father rejected Martin at his birth because of his dark skin, and throughout childhood, Martin was given cruel names like “half-breed”.  Despite the cruelty showed to him, Martin had a heart for the poor and despised. 

St. Martin is the patron saint of barbers, because at the age of 12, his mother, apprenticed him to a barber, who also taught Martin several medical techniques—caring for wounds.

At the age of 15, Martin went to be a “lay helper” to the Dominicans, he did not feel himself worthy to be a full member of the order.  Yet, soon, it was the Dominicans who asked Martin to make full profession as a brother, so moved by Martin’s prayer and penance, his charity and humility.

Martin spent his days caring for the sick and poor, whatever their color, race, or status.  He helped found an orphanage and helped care for slaves newly arrived from Africa. 

He himself lived an extremely simple and austere life and had a great devotion to the Eucharist.  He died at the age of 60, and was immediately venerated as a saintly man.   

At Saint Martin’s Canonization Pope John XXIII said, “he lovingly comforted the sick; he provided food, clothing, and medicine for the poor; he helped, as best he could, farm laborers…and slaves: thus he deserved to be called by the name the people gave him: ‘Martin of Charity.’

We cannot change the circumstances in which we are born.  Many of the challenges, difficulties, sorrows, and trials of life are beyond our control.  But we are each given a choice.  Will I complain and curse God for my life, or will I allow God to teach me, how to love, how to be faithful.

St. Paul said that God encourages us in our afflictions, that we may encourage others when they are afflicted.  Our hardships prepare us to help others facing similar hardships.

As we prayed in the collect, God led Saint Martin “by the path of humility to heavenly glory”, may we “so follow his radiant example in this life as to merit to be exalted with him in heaven” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: November 2 - All Souls' Day - Praying for the Dead

In the year 386, St. Augustine was baptized by St. Ambrose, the bishop of Milan in northern Italy.  His mother, Monica who had prayed for her son’s conversion for 32 years, had come to Italy from Africa, and the family waited to return home to Africa by ship in the port city of Ostia few miles from Rome.  As they waited for a ship to bring them home, Monica became quite ill and it became evident that she would soon die.  As she lay dying, St. Monica told Augustine: “Lay this body anywhere, let not the care for it trouble you at all.  This only I ask, that you will remember me at the Lord’s altar, wherever you be.”

“Remember me at the Lord’s altar” was Monica’s request. 

And today, on this commemoration of the faithful departed, we, too, remember our loved one’s at the Lord’s altar.  In fact, we don’t just remember our loved ones.  As Augustine prayed for his mother Monica, as Christians have done for 2000 years, we pray for them, we offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for the faithful departed.

Remembering our loved ones is sometimes painful—sorrowful.  For this reason, the priest wears the color black today, as was the custom at funerals for many centuries.  Yet, we do so, as an act of love.  Deeper than our sorrow, is our faith, that prayer is powerful, it helps them. 

Yesterday, on the Feast of All Saints, the Church celebrated those who died in exemplary union with Jesus.  The Saints imitated Jesus in some exemplary way—through self-sacrifice, generosity, courage in witnessing the faith.  The saints show us what loving Jesus with our whole minds, hearts, and souls looks like.

Today, on the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed, known familiarly as All Souls Day, we pray for those who died in friendship with Christ, but whose souls still need to be purified from the effects of their sins in purgatory.

In purgatory, God lovingly purifies and heals his children from the damage their sins inflicted on their souls while they were still on earth.  We rightfully refer to the souls in purgatory as the holy souls, for they are destined to join the ranks of the saints in heaven.  We also rightfully call them the poor souls because they are in need of our prayers.

The poet Dante Alighieri depicted purgatory as a holy mountain, much like the holy mountain in our first reading where God provides for his people.  In purgatory, God provides the purification the holy souls need in order to enter that place prepared for them in Heaven.

This isn’t a difficult concept.  As a kid, I’d occasionally find a nice pit of mud to fall into.  And before I was allowed to come back into the house, I’d have to be hosed down.  Similarly, the souls in purgatory, need to be cleansed of the mud of their sin before entering the immaculate house of God.  You might say, why can’t we enter into heaven, mud and all.  The souls in purgatory want to be there, for once you see heaven in the distance you want to get cleaned up before entering.  

One of the most devastating and tragic effects of the Protestant Reformation in the 16thcentury, is that the Protestant Reformers so watered down the importance of praying for the souls of the dead, that many Protestants do not believe in Purgatory.  Yet this contradicts Scripture and Sacred Tradition, the practice of the church from the very beginning.

Many of the Saints urge us to pray for the souls in purgatory.  St. Augustine when asked why he prayed so much for the dead, he replied: I pray for the dead in order that when they reach Heaven they may pray for me.  St. Padre Pio would pray many many rosaries every day for the souls in purgatory.  he said, “The holy souls are eager for the prayers of the faithful…Pray unceasingly. We must empty Purgatory.” 

So many souls have no one else to pray for them, either because their family members have ceased practicing the Faith, or all of their family members are also deceased.  Sometimes, when people see ghosts or think their house is haunted, it is really a soul in purgatory asking for our prayers.  Holy Mass should be offered for them. 

St. Thomas Aquinas said that prayer, particularly the offering of Holy Mass, is the greatest act of love we can perform on behalf of the dead.  This is why we have Mass offered even in the years after the passing of our loved ones.  We believe that prayer truly helps them. 

We also acknowledge the importance of preparing our own souls for the end of life, of which we know not the day nor the hour.

One of my favorite movie scenes is from the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  Indiana Jones’ father had been kidnapped, and he is pursuing who he thinks are the kidnappers on a boat chase through the water ways of Venice Italy.  Finally, Indiana and the kidnapper are in a boat being drawn towards the propeller of this huge steam ship, and the propeller starts to chop up the boat they are in.  The kidnapper says, if you don’t let me go, Doctor Jones, we’ll both die.  He reveals a cross around his neck and says, “My soul is prepared Doctor Jones, how is yours?”

Every time I see that, I think, is my soul prepared?  When was the last time I went to confession?  If we can think of a mortal sin that we have not confessed, it’s way past time.

Prayers, fasting, obtaining indulgences, almsgiving and works of charity can heal the effects of our own sins, and can be offered up for our loved ones in purgatory.

We remember today the great responsibility of caring for our own soul, and praying for the souls of the dead. 

We who are members of the Church Militant here on earth, can help the members of the Church Suffering in purgatory, arrive more quickly to their destination: the Church Triumphant in heaven.

May we be faithful to those great work of love, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.