Homily: Monday of Holy Week - Mary or Judas

Yesterday, we heard St. Mark's version of this story at the very beginning of his account of the Passion. Today, we hear St John's version, who includes some details we didn't hear yesterday: particularly the striking difference between Mary, Jesus' friend and Judas, Jesus' betrayer.

For Mary, Jesus was worth all she had. The precious jar of aromatic spikenard was worth 300 days wages—30,000 dollars today. For Judas, rather than giving, was preparing to sell Jesus for about 30 pieces of silver.

Mary showed her love by her willingness to give. Judas showed his malice by his critique of Mary, his willingness to steal from the money purse, and of course, betray one so close to him.

At the beginning of Holy Week, we get this powerful examination of conscience. We are challenged by Mary's example of generosity. She lavished the best she had upon our Lord. Do we do the same?

This anointing brings the Lord comfort and strength as he prepared for the great task of dying for our sins. As he would walk the road of Calvary, beaten and mocked, he would remember this moment of tenderness. Are we truly concerned about those who carry heavier crosses than we do? Seeking to bring comfort and encouragement to them?

Judas focused not so much on what he could give, but what he could get. When we come to the Lord in prayer, are we focused only on asking for things, rather than showing our love? Do I like Judas turn away from moments of tenderness and intimacy with the Lord in favor of worldly pursuits?

Our love and devotion for Jesus should be like the fragrance of the aromatic oil. Is my Christian faith detectable by those whom I encounter throughout the day—in my speech, in my attitude, in my patience?

We do well beginning Holy Week with the example of Mary of Bethany. She shows us that loving Jesus is costly—discipleship is costly—it requires sacrifice. Yet, it brings powerful, life-giving, encounter with Jesus who goes to die for our sins. May these final days of Lent help us to follow Christ more closely in all things for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Palm Sunday 2015- Giving God our best

On this Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion we begin Holy Week. It is called Holy Week because of Jesus Christ who through suffering and the shedding of blood brought salvation to sinful man. He made it Holy by what he offered to God...everything.

This Week, in the Year of Our Lord 2015, is called Holy because of what the Lord wishes to do in us. He wants to make us Holy, by teaching us to offer ourselves to God, like Him. This could be the holiest week of your life.

Through the events of this week, through our continued prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we are to offer God the best we have. You might consider attending daily Mass this week. You should seriously consider at least attending services on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, or the Easter Vigil. This week is meant to be different for us Christians than any other week of the year. Perhaps keep the television turned off this week, perhaps only eat bread and water for lunch this week. Perhaps find a charity that you've never supported before. Perhaps read the Passion story from each of the four Gospels this week. This week, this year, you are called by God to be more generous with Him than ever before.

St. Mark's Passion story began with an incident taking place in the house of Martha and Mary and Lazarus. Mary of Bethany took a jar worth 300 hundred days wages and anointed Jesus' head and feet to show her love of him. 300 hundred days wages; that jar of oil would be worth about 30,000 dollars today. She lavished Jesus with the best she had.

There were some who became indignant. “What a waste,” they said. What a waste? Giving the best we have to Jesus is never a waste. Do you believe that? Do you want have in your heart that same burning love for Jesus as Mary of Bethany had? Willing to be ridiculed by your peers out of love for Him?

People say today, “God's not worth your best.” Why spend on Him, what you can spend on yourself. Why waste your time going to Church?

Jesus responded to those indignant with Mary: “Leave her alone. What she has done is beautiful, it is good. What this woman has done will always be remembered.” 2000 years later we continue to tell her story, and in the heart of God, her act of love for Jesus will truly be remembered forever.

The good we do for the Lord, whether it's done in secret or in public, charity for the poor, prayers of adoration, attendance at Mass, words of encouragement to the brokenhearted, these things will be remembered by God forever. We forgive those who hurt us, even offer a gentle rebuke to those who have fallen into sin or error, because these actions are truly good and beautiful.

What we do this week will be remembered forever. You will never regret giving God more, this week. Praying more, fasting more, sacrificing more. This could be the most powerful life changing week of your life—the week when you fell deeply in love with Jesus, when you encountered the depth of his love in all that he suffered for you.

He gave all, he sacrificed all, he gave the best he had, for us. May we do the same for Him, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Friday of the 5th Week of Lent - "You can't handle the truth!"

Why did Jesus' own people oppose him so strongly? They had stones in their hands, in the Gospel today, ready to stone him to death! These were not an irreligious people. They weren't like so many of the secular atheists of our own day. Yet, we do well to remember that opposition and rejection of Jesus resides within every human heart, including our own.

Jesus tried to reason with them. He pointed to his works that attest to who he is. “I raised people from the dead, I walked on water, I fed thousands of people with five loaves and two fish, I made paralyzed people walk, blind people see, deaf people hear, people with leprosy clean”.

Yes, God loves the suffering, and wants to heal them. But Jesus' miracles weren't done for their own sake; they served a deeper purpose: they revealed Jesus identity. His miraculous deeds verify his message and attest to his identity. He is truly God incarnate. And therefore when he speaks, he speaks with authority—the authority of the author of creation.

St. John tells us that Jesus “did so many things that if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.” Yet, after all of these countless deeds, he was still not believed. Why? Why was Jesus rejected? Why is he rejected still?

What threatens us about Jesus the most? He looks us square in the eye, and tells us the truth. His message, his Gospel is threatening, for it demands change. It demands we relinquish our sins; it demands that we admit that we are not God.

I'm reminded of one of my favorite lines in American cinema, from the courtroom scene in the movie “A few Good Men”. Tom Cruise is a lawyer, cross-examining Jack Nicholson, a high ranking Official in the United States Marines Corp, in the cover-up of a terrible crime. After a long line of increasingly intense questioning, Tom Cruise exclaims, “I want the truth!” To which Jack Nicholson exclaims even more forcefully, “You can't handle the truth!”

Sometimes his truth is hard because it demands change. When confronted with the truth of our sinfulness and our need for repentance, when confronted with the real identity of Jesus and the fullness of his message, at times, every single one of us turns away. This is why on Good Friday, it is not simply the Jewish people of early first century Jerusalem who call for Jesus persecution, it is each one of us, who cries out “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”

We don't simply blame his crucifixion on the Jewish people, or the Jewish leaders who incited the crowd. At times, each one of us, has found his truth too hard, and looked for excuses to ignore him. Each one of us has sought to silence the Gospel. Maybe it manifested as anger or bitterness or envy or a critical tongue or a lustful eye. Any sin constitutes the same reality: opposition to Jesus and his Gospel.

Hence, the penitential season of Lent! Prayer, fasting, almsgiving are the least we can do, for our hard-heartedness and thick-headedness.

“Holy Spirit, probe our hearts today. Show us the ways that we seek to justify ourselves and fail to acknowledge our sins. Help us to confess that we are sinners and to accept Jesus Christ as our only salvation. Through our Lenten penances help us to experience his freeing love, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.”

Homily: Monday of the 5th Week of Lent - Interesting Characters

As I mentioned on Friday, Up until Wednesday of the 4^th Week of Lent, the weekday readings really focus on our Lenten practices: the types of things we should be doing to prepare ourselves for Easter, namely doing penance through acts of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Our readings for the rest of Lent, focus on Christ, to help us understand the depth of his suffering, the depth of his love, the types of opposition he faced.

Types of characters and elements from our readings today will be repeated in the Passion Story on Palm Sunday and Good Friday.

From this angle, both our readings today show the treachery of those with responsibility: Susanna, like Christ, totally innocent, yet brought up on trumped up charges by those in a position of power, and the woman caught in adultery, though guilty of sin, also facing the threat of death by those in a position of power.

Their stories help us to prepare for the unjust judges among the Sanhedrin, the chief priests, the Scribes and the Pharisees, who condemn the most innocent man of all to death.

Susanna, like Christ on the Cross, cries out to God, making an act of trust, she surrenders herself into the hands of God, much like Christ who says, “Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit.”

In the face of death, the woman from the Gospel is even more silent. She isn’t crying and begging and pleading for her life. It almost seemed like she was resigned herself to her punishment. Much like Christ, who is silent for most of the Passion story.

God is a character in both stories. Through Daniel, God exonerates Susanna and brings the corrupt elders to justice. In the Gospel, Jesus, releases the woman from punishment, and tells her to go and sin no more.

This reminds us that through the terrible events of the Passion, God is still present, as well. Through the Sacrifice of Christ the injustice of sin is destroyed, and all who believe in Jesus will be released punishment, and called to sin no more.

For each of these women, God's action in their life meant a new beginning for them. God wishes to enter into our hearts more deeply this Lent. We do well to pay close attention to the readings over the next few days; perhaps after Mass, go back over them, reflecting upon how they are preparing us for the events of Holy Week.

And as our Lenten prayer and reflection shed greater light on the events of Holy Week, may they shed light upon how God is acting in our lives, how he calls us to turn away from all sin, to trust in him in our trials, to surrender our lives as a sacrifice to Him for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 5th Sunday of Lent - Unless a grain of wheat...

“Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat.”

Nature reveals a beautiful truth that is at the center of our Christian Faith.

Picture the common grain of wheat. Within its hard outer shell is a germ of life. The only way for this seed to bear fruit is to die to be placed in the darkness of the earth.

St. John ties this theme of the seed to the “hour” when Jesus is glorified, when his power and purpose of his life is most made manifest. When was the hour of Jesus' glory? At the virgin birth when angel choirs sang glory to God in the highest? When he multiplied the loaves to feed the five thousand? When he raised a dead man, Lazarus? No.

In John's Gospel at least, the “hour” of Jesus' glory is when he offers himself to the father on the cross suffers and died on the cross. His greatest hour, his greatest accomplishment occurs on the cross. This is why his final words in the Gospel of John are “Consummatum est” in the Latin. Τετελεσται, in St. John's Greek. It is finished, it is accomplished, it is consummated.

Tetelestai, interestingly, is both a word that a bill or debt has been paid in full, and also when a marriage bond has been made permanent.

Like the seed that dies in order to bear fruit, Jesus died that we may enjoy the fruit of eternal life. We call this the “Paschal Mystery”. It is the paradox that one must die in order to really live.

The Church presents us with this Gospel passage to put us in the right mindset for the upcoming festivities. For next Sunday, we shall not hear just prophecies about his death, but we shall read on Palm Sunday, once again, the story of his Passion, Death, and Crucifixion. We hear this Gospel of the grain of wheat, to help us understand why he goes to his death next week and why each of us must follow Him to the cross. For if we are unwilling to die to sin, we will not experience the new life Jesus died to purchase for us.

This Sundays Gospel carries special significance for the catechumens of the Church who are preparing for baptism at the Easter Vigil who are preparing to die to their former way of life, in order to fully embrace the Christian faith.

As a deacon, I was assigned to Holy Cross parish in Euclid, now Our Lady of the Lakes. And they have one of the great baptismal founts in the diocese. It is a full immersion fount; for in the early centuries of Churches, baptism was celebrated by being fully immersed in a river or body of water. So at the Easter Vigil, the catechumen climbs into the fount, and the priest baptizes them by totally immersing them under the water, like the seed going down into the dark earth to die, though go into the water of baptism to die to their sins.

What makes the symbolism even more powerful is that the baptismal fount is made of marble, it looks like you are literally going down intoa tomb, like the tomb of Joseph of Aramathea in which the body of Jesus was laid after he was taken off the cross.

Here at St. Clare, the baptismal fount is shaped not so much like a tomb, though it's still made out of marble. Here, our fount is in the shape of a triangle, symbolizing the three persons of the Holy Trinity, whose life we receive when we die to ourselves in Baptism.

Christians are not just called to die to themselves once, but every day. There is always some selfishness to turn away from. If we don't detect selfishness in our hearts, we aren't looking hard enough. In these last few weeks of Lent, we are still in the business of thorough self-examination. Where do I need to die in order to live. What do I need to relinquish—to renounce—to stop doing—so that the divine life can germinate within us and bear new fruit?

In our first reading, we heard from Jeremiah, probably my favorite prophet, and not just because he's often called the doom & gloom prophet, I think that's an unfair name for him anyway. He's really more of a prophet of extremes. He issues really severe warnings about the consequences of sin, but then he reminds us in some of the most eloquent language in Scripture of the beautiful promises of knowing God's mercy and kindness.

Jeremiah calls us to be conscious of our sins and evil doing—to turn away from them, but then in the next breath tells us, “God will forgive our evildoing and remember our sin no more.” We're not made for sin, we were made to be in right relationship with God. Yet, all too often, we are afraid to give up our comfortable sins for the new way of acting, and thinking, and giving, that comes from a lively faith.

The saints are a lot like Jeremiah--deeply aware of their sins, yet also on fire from the encounter with God's mercy. Because the saints admit their sins humbly, honestly before God, they become open in radical ways of bearing fruit for the kingdom of God. And we are all meant to do the same. Whenever we sin, whether mortal or venial we fail to bear the fruit we were meant to. But when we repent, God will bring new life into the world, through us.

For those of us who are already baptized, there are still a few more opportunities this Lent to die to our sins. A Communal Penance service with individual confessions will be available on monday night at St. Paschal's and here at St. Clare thursday night. Again if its been more than a year, even if you haven't committed any mortal sins, come and make a good confession, renew your commitment to dying to sin in order to receive new life from God.

Our reading from the letter to the Hebrews reminds us that Jesus is the source of eternal salvation. We cannot get to heaven on our own. He is the source, he is the fountain of life, and no one goes to heaven except by being in right relationship to God through Christ. We do not get to heaven simply by being a good person, but through Jesus.

In order to know Him as Savior, we must know ourselves as sinners. We still have much dying to do and much penance to do before Easter. Perhaps over the next two weeks, increase your prayer, fasting, and almsgiving; attend the Holy Week services on Holy Thursday and Good Friday. There are opportunities to turn away from former ways in order to experience the abundant life, the interior peace, wisdom, strength, and meaning, that comes from dying to self, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Monday of the 4th Week of Lent - Do you want signs or a savior?

We now begin the second half of Lent. And, all of the Gospel readings this week are taken from the Gospel of John. John arranges his Gospel around seven signs—acts of power calling us to have faith that Jesus really is the Son of God come to save us from our sins.

We hard the second of St. John's signs in our Gospel today: the healing of the royal official's son.  At first, the royal official who comes to Jesus for healing doesn't really seem to get who Jesus is. He may have heard something about Jesus' miracles throughout Galilee. But when the royal official asks Jesus to come and heal his dying son, Jesus rebukes him: “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”

Much later in John's Gospel, after he rises from the dead, Jesus praises those “who do not see, and yet believe.”

Matthew, Mark, and Luke's Gospel each relate about 20 miracles each, while John's Gospel only relates seven. Remember, Matthew, Mark, and Luke's Gospels were written for primarily pagan audiences, John was written for those who had already converted. John is not primarily concerned with moving people from unbelief to belief, but from immature belief to deeper faith.

Perhaps this is why he records so often Jesus rebuking people for needing signs. He calls believers like us, to a deeper faith, a faith not based on signs and wonders, but faith which has to deal sometimes with the absense of such things. We are called to walk by faith not by sight.

I prayed and prayed and prayed for healing, and yet my loved one still died. I prayed and prayed and prayed but I still can't get a job. I prayed and prayed and prayed and I am still being assaulted by terrible temptations.  

We are reminded by this Gospel passage today, that Jesus didn't merely come to bring us earthly comfort, but to prepare us for the new heaven and new earth which Isaiah talked about in the first reading.

We undergo our Lenten penances of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving in order to purify our weak faith. Fasting to remind us that we aren't on this earth simply to enjoy earthly delights, prayer that we may abandon ourselves and surrender our minds and wills and hearts to God in all things, and almsgiving that we might learn to give and sacrifice even when there is no promise of earthly reward.

May the Holy Spirit purify our faith from all that keeps us from that total abandonment to God and belonging to Christ without hesitation, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 4th Sunday of Lent - The joy of being a forgiven sinner

Today the Church celebrates Laetare sunday. Laetare is the latin word for “rejoice”. This 4^th sunday of Lent, the priest wears rose colored vestments to symbolize the joy that is supposed to be coming to us through our lenten penances. Joy during Lent? Joy while we are fasting? Joy while we are sacrificing? Joy while we are admitting our sins with tears of repentence flowing down our cheeks? Yes, indeed.

True Joy only comes from God. And when we make room in our hearts for him through penance, and allow him to fill our hearts through prayer, we become filled with joy. So, Lenten joy comes from stripping ourselves of those behaviors and attitudes which are not Christ-like and allowing the Lord to take over a larger and larger portion of our lives. If we are not yet experiencing the joy of this season, it may be because you haven't yet been generous enough.

One of my favorite images of Lenten joy comes from a very good movie called “The Mission” staring Robert DeNiro and Jeremy Irons. If you haven't seen it, it's worth the time. It is the story of the Spanish Jesuits who go to South America to bring Christianity to the natives there. Robert DeNiro plays a slave trader. He had spent years denigrating and objectifying the natives, treating them as a commodity, murdering them like cattle. After he catches his wife and brother in the act of adultery, he murders his brother, and spirals into a terrible depression. Then something wonderful happens: DeNiro's character becomes attracted to the Christian faith preached by the Jesuits and embraced by the natives.

For a life of enslaving and murdering, he makes a confession of his sins, and undertakes a serious penance. With a backpack filled with weapons and armor, symbols of his old life of violence, he climbs up this gigantic waterfall. And the deeply moving scene of the movie is when after this tremendous strenuous penitential climb, he reaches the top of the waterfall, and surrounded by the Jesuits and Natives, he is embraced by both, and then falls to his knees. Overwhelmed by the mercy of Christ and his own sorrow for his sins, he begins to weep and laugh for joy at the same time. He experiences the sorrow of being a sinner and a joy of being a forgiven sinner at the same time. Where there was only guilt and depression, through his penance, he opened himself to be touched by God. I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced anything like that…it changes your life.

What a powerful image of Lenten joy. With great sorrow for our sins, we go to confession, we undergo penances of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, and thereby open ourselves to God in a new way.

Another illustration of Lenten joy is found in the many stories of the martyrs. We can read about saints like St. Stephen in the book of Acts, St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Polycarp, Saints Perpetua and Felicity, St. Paul Miki, going to their deaths, yet filled with joy, knowing that in their deaths they were united to Jesus Christ.

One of my favorite examples of Christian joy and courage is that of the teenage virgin and martyr, St Agnes, who died around the year 304 AD.

She was from a wealthy, aristocratic Roman family, and very beautiful. All the young noblemen were vying for her hand in marriage, but she informed them that she had already consecrated her heart and her virginity to a heavenly husband, Jesus. At first they laughed at her, but when she persisted they became angry.

Remember, before the edict of Milan in 313, it was a capital offense to practice Christianity, so her angry suitors turned Agnes in to the governor. They were hoping that arrest and interrogation would weaken her resolve, but they were wrong.

At first, she resisted the governor's flattery, reiterating that she could have no spouse but Jesus Christ. Then she resisted the governor's threats. Then she stood firm when they lit fires and wheeled out various instruments of torture for her inspection. The governor tried everything he could think of, but the teenage Christian's faith was too strong for him, she refused to be unfaithful to Christ, no matter the cost. Finally, egged on by an infuriated mob, the frustrated governor had her executed.

Because her executioner was trembling because he was taking the life of an innocent bride of Christ, St Agnes had to help guide the sword herself. Eyewitnesses said later that she went to her execution more joyfully than most young women go to their weddings.

The story of St. Agnes' martyrdom illustrates another form of Lenten joy, of suffering with Christ, but knowing that your suffering is not in vain, but that your suffering is preparing you for eternal life because it is undergone in union with Him.

Pope Benedict XVI said that St. Agnes' martyrdom illustrates “the beauty of belonging to Christ without hesitation.”

Do you know the joy of “belonging to Christ without hesitation”? Do you want to? In what areas of your life are you hesitating to surrender fully to God? Your finances? Your sexuality? Your pride?

We heard this Laetare Sunday from St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians, which is known for being the most Christocentric of the Pauline letters. The word “Christ” appears 45 times in just six chapters. Paul makes Christ the center of this letter so that Christians may make Christ the center of their lives.

St. Paul writes that even when we were dead in our transgressions, we were brought to life with Christ. Here is the cause for our joy, not that we were spiritually dead, but that God loved us so much, as we heard in our Gospel, that he sent his only beloved Son to die for us.

What does it mean that we were dead in our transgressions? Sometimes we forget that sin has real spiritual consequences. Venial sin begins to kill the fervor of faith within us, while Serious sin and mortal sin truly deadens the divine life within us.

Sometimes we think, “sin isn't that bad. I can sin and still be a good person. My sins don't hurt anybody.” But we forget, that we are created for God's purposes, and sin is abhorrent to our nature. Moreso, because of God's justice when we abuse our free will to resist or undermine God's purposes, we deserve eternal death.

Saint John Paul II lamented the loss of the sense of sin. He called it a crisis that so many of us fail to acknowledge the destructive power that sin has in our society and our own souls. Pope Francis said recently that “When you lose the sense of sin, you lose the sense of the Kingdom of God." If we deny the fact that we are sinners, we deny our need for Christ. To quote the great exultet of the Easter Vigil, “What good would our birth have been for us, had Christ not come as our redeemer?”

But again, the great lesson today, is that God reaches out to us, he calls us to repentance that we may know the joy of being redeemed sinners, and that his kingdom make take deeper root in our hearts.

May the Holy Spirit help each of us to identify those selfish and sinful attitudes and behaviors and attachments which keep us knowing the joy God wants for us. May we know the joy of drinking deeply of the fountain of grace of belonging to Christ without hesitation and making the love of God the foundation of our life for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Friday of the 3rd Week of Lent - "...and with all your strength"

While many of the religious leaders saw Jesus as a threat, the one scribe who approached Jesus today, saw in Jesus an opportunity to learn. And so he posed a simple question that expressed a concern embedded deep within every heart.

The scribe's desire to know the greatest commandment reflects a heart that was seeking to understand what God wants from us. He wasn't just trying to trip Jesus up like many of the Pharisees, nor did he want Jesus to tell him the bare minimum of what God expects of us, he sought from Jesus a single simple principle underlying the complexity of the law—a foundational commandment that gives meaning to all of the smaller rules and regulation of religious life.

The command to love God and neighbor is not just an order or duty. After all, no one can love simply because he is told to do so! The greatest commandment impels us to align our will to God's will in everything we do, to make loving and obeying God our highest principle.

Jesus responded to the scribes question by quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5, the great Israelite confession of faith known as the Shema: Shema Israel, Adonai Eluhenu, Adonai Ehad – Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! By the time of Jesus, this statement was understood to mean that YWHW is not only the one God of the Jews but the one and only God of the whole universe. In a world of polytheism, the jews were the only people to have been granted this earth-shattering insight: there is but one God, who has created all things and who holds all things in existence by his goodness and power. His claim on us is therefore total, calling for a total response at every level of our being.

St. Paul wrote, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.” Many of us glorify God before our meals, by praying, and saying grace. But what about praying before getting in the car, praying before exercising, praying before turning on the television? We do well to pray before meeting with the group of friends with whom I may have fallen into the sin of gossip in the past, praying before sitting down to the computer, praying before getting into bed. If we are tempted NOT to pray before any of our daily activities, perhaps we need to consider if we should be doing them in the first place, or why we are resistant to bringing them to God.

God knows this commandment is not easy. Left to our own powers it would be impossible. But through God's grace, the grace he makes available in the Sacraments, the grace he gives in the Eucharist, he transforms our hearts to rely on his strength in order to love him with all of ours. As we share communion today with love-incarnate, may he teach us, like him, to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Monday of the 3rd Week of Lent - Wash and be clean

The passage from the second book of Kings of Naaman the Syrian contains an incredibly pertinent lesson for us. Naaman had the worst disease imaginable, leprosy. And he and the King he served and loved were willing to sacrifice an enormous amount of wealth for him to be cured. He came all the way to Jerusalem, to Elisha the prophet. And Naaman felt that Elisha's remedy insulted his intelligence: wash seven times in the dirty Jordan river, when there were so many other rivers with cleaner water back home in Syria.   

Thanks be to God that Naaman had a servant who reasoned with him. “If the prophet would have instructed you to do something HARD, would you have done it?” “Of course,” said Naaman. Then why won't you do what the prophet asked? We know the rest of the story, Naaman went, and washed, and his leprosy turned to baby skin.

In the Gospel, Jesus had come to his home town, and began to teach. Yet, just as Naaman the Syrian rejected Elisha as a prophet, Jesus' fellow townsfolk rejected him as a prophet. They became so indignant that they wanted to drive him out of town and kill him. They rejected the message and the messenger.

Naaman had a notion that healing was supposed to come so other way. Jesus' townsfolk had a notion that God was supposed to come some other way.

During Lent, we might think the Church's call to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving is to simplistic, that our holiness is supposed to come some other way. Some folks, reject the invitation to the Sacrament of Confession, because they believe God brings the forgiveness of sins some other way.

At this point in Lent you may be starting to be disillusioned with your Lenten penances, you might be saying to yourself, they are becoming too hard, I'll find some other way to observe Lent. But I urge you to persevere, to allow God to work through those Lenten practices.

So many folks in our secular culture will consider any other way except Catholicism. They are unhappy, depressed, disconnected, escaping reality in every imaginable way. To some, the Christian faith is dismissed because it sounds so ordinary, even naive. Some, like the townsfolk of Jesus do everything in their power to run Jesus out of town.

But Souls are thirsting for God, and we are called, like Naaman's servants, to urge them to trust that God has made His Holy Will Known, that he Has made Himself available to all people through the Christian faith.

And yes, though going to Mass, praying the rosary, going to confession, serving the needy, sound ordinary and impressive, because God acts through them, they are anything but ordinary.

May we too learn to trust Him, and allow him to lead us in the enlightenment of our minds, and the purification of our hearts, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 3rd Sunday of Lent - Cleansing the Temple

Jesus’ dramatic visit to the temple of Jerusalem made a profound impact on the early Christians, and it is reported in all four Gospels.

For a Jew of Jesus’ time, the temple was everything: it was the economic, political, social, and religious center of the whole nation of Israel. And that he went into that sacred place and turned it upside down, and foretells its destruction must have shocked, chilled, and confused both the religious leaders and Jewish laity alike.

The Temple was the place where sacrifice was offered as an act of worship to almighty God. Pilgrims coming from outside of Jerusalem could not bring animals from their homes because the animals had to be without blemish, and they would likely get bruised or hurt on the arduous journey to Jerusalem. For a long time these sacrificial animals would be purchased in markets away from the temple, but over time, the selling of sacrificial animals crept inside the Temple walls. Money changers would charge a fee for changing foreign coin into the coin of the Temple. It was convenient, but convenient does not always mean holy. The temple, instead of being a house of prayer—a place of reverence filled with psalms of praise and teaching of God’s word, became a congested, noisy center of commercial activity and corruption.

Instead of the holiness of the temple radiating out into the world, the wickedness and corruption of the world had crept into the temple.

From the Church’s first centuries, early Christian writers have made the comparison between Jesus cleansing the Temple in Jerusalem and Jesus cleansing the temple of our hearts and bodies.

The Gospel today refers to the temple of our body, and Saint Paul refers to the body of a Christian in right relationship with God as a “Temple of the Holy Spirit”. Your body, your heart, your person, 

your self is meant to be a temple, a holy place where God dwells and where prayer to God is central.

What goes wrong with the temples of our bodies is the same thing that went wrong with the Temple in Jerusalem. What is meant to be a house of prayer becomes a den of thieves, extortion, and corruption. The evils of the world tend to creep in when we are not vigilant.

Worldly distraction, corruption, and sin are contrary to the reason God made us.

The old Catechism did a fine job in at least instructing a generation of Catholics in at least knowing the purpose of life: why did God make you? To know, love, and serve God in this life. That is the purpose of our Temple. And we have a duty to keep our temples pure of worldly corrupt and sin.

In the Orthodox tradition, the first weeks of Lent are a time of spring cleaning. And this is quite fitting. The word Lent comes from the old Anglo-Saxon Lencten, the word for spring. In spring, before your garden is ready for new planting and new growing, after the snow melts of course, you need to clear the debris, to prepare a place for the new life of spring.

Similarly, during Spring cleaning we clear out the debris, the stuff that has built up through our own neglect, or through the natural wear and tear of winter, to make our homes pleasant and fitting.

So to in Lent, we do some serious introspection, looking inward, to identify the debris, the selfish attitudes which have crept into our hearts.

The most effective act of Lenten spring cleaning involves going to confession. This week every parish in the diocese offered three hours of confession, and many priests I know heard confessions for several hours straight. There are still some opportunities left to go to confession. Our parish will offer a Lenten penance service with confessions on Thursday March 26. Our cluster partner, St. Pascal's will offer confessions on Monday March 23.

If Jesus Christ is not at the center of our hearts, then something else is. Just as he did in the temple, Jesus wants to make our hearts houses of prayer where his Father is honored above all else, he wants to drive sin out of our hearts and remove everything that stands as an obstacle to him. He wants to take up residence in our hearts to such an extent that we glorify God in everything we do, as we go about the many demands of day-to-day living.

When I'm over at the school, sometimes the kids get confused about this Gospel story. More than once the kids have thought that Jesus committed a sin in cleansing the temple, look how angry he appears. But no, Jesus did not commit a sin of wrath, or impatience, rather God's burning desire to cleanse our souls from sin is on display here. God does not want anyone or anything to usurp the love and devotion we are to have for him. What appears to be fiery anger, is burning love, that we might not be enslaved to sin, but be free from idolatry and selfishness and self-worship.

Lent is a time for cleansing the temple, even a time to allow Jesus to make a whip of cords and turn some tables over if need be. What would Jesus chase out of your heart if you gave him a chance? If you let him in, with all of that wonderful righteous zeal that is on display in John’s Gospel, if you let him into your temple, what would he cleanse?

We can become very anxious about letting Jesus in sometimes, we know that the encounter with him will change us, and sometimes we just don't want to change. We like to keep Jesus on the outside, on the periphery, without really letting him into our hearts. But do not be afraid, let him in, let him do what he came to do.

“Take your rightful place at the center of our hearts, O Lord. Cleanse us of all sin and make us pure dwelling places for you. Be with us every day as our comfort, fill us with joy, and empower us to do your will, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.”

Homily: Friday of the 2nd Week of Lent - Betrayal and Goodness

Our daily readings often have common themes. This is especially true during the season of Lent.

One theme in our readings today is betrayal. His brothers could not stand the fact that Joseph was loved so deeply by his father, Jacob. Joseph was virtuous, Joseph was gifted, Joseph was the son of Jacob's favorite wife, Rachel.

And in the Gospel, Jesus tells a parable of a betrayal. A vineyard owner had leased his vineyard to a number of tenant farmers, who claim the land for themselves. The tenant farmers, seized, beat, sent away, and even killed the landowner's servants, and they seize and killed the landowner's only beloved son as well.

These parables of betrayal foreshadow, of course, Jesus' betrayal, by Judas. Jesus, the only begotten son, sent to speak the truth, Jesus, healer of souls, Jesus the innocent one is put to death by those who reject his goodness. Yes, he is betrayed by Judas, and he is betrayed by all of us, when we reject his truth, when we fail to stand up for the faith when it is being twisted and mocked.

A second theme is how our mighty God is able to bring good even out of evil.

Because of his betrayal, Joseph was sold into slavery, thrown in jail, though eventually he becomes part of Pharaoh's court, rises up to become Pharaoh's regent, ruling over egypt in a time of famine. Joseph's brothers come before him, Joseph becomes their judge but also their savior. He becomes a savior for all of Israel in a time of famine, in a time when they carried the guilt of their betrayal.

And of course Our Lord's betrayal is transformed by God into the source of salvation available to all men of every age. The sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden will be called on Easter a “Happy Fault”, the friday of Jesus' crucifixion will be called “Good Friday” precisely because God is able to bring good even out of the greatest of evils.

We are called this Lent, not to remain in evil, nor to be complacent about the selfishness in our hearts or in our world. We are called to conversion. “the Kingdom of God will be taken away from the wicked,” Our Lord says today, “and given to a people that will produce its fruit.” Am I a good steward of the gifts God has given m? Do I give back what God has given, or do I keep it for myself? Am I producing good fruit with the time I have been given?

May great acts of love flow from our Christian faith this Lent, may we never fall into envy or hatred of the truth, but produce good fruit for God's kingdom, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Monday of the 2nd Week of Lent - Be Merciful

In the Gospel today Our Lord instructs us “be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful”.  We are called to imitate the one who has made us, the one in whose image we have been created.

Notice, Jesus didn't say, “be merciful....once in while.” “Be merciful, only to the people whom you like.”  “Be merciful, only to people who will be able to pay you back.”  No, he says, “be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful” and his mercy is available to all at all times.

What does mercy look like?  Because we have such a difficult job imitating God's mercy, God showed us exactly what mercy looks like.  Pope Benedict said, “Mercy has a name, mercy has a face, mercy has a heart...Jesus Christ is divine mercy in person: Encountering Christ means encountering the mercy of God.”

In Christ we realize that God does not stay at a distance judging us, he is not indifferent to our trials.  He enters into our life to show us what it means to be fully human and what it means to be like God.
In the early 15th century, a german priest named Thomas Kempis, wrote a book of regarded by many as the most important devotional book in Catholicism aside from the Bible—its latin title, “De Imitatione Christi”--the Imitation of Christ.

Listen to the opening words of Thomas Kempis' Great Masterpiece:
“HE WHO follows Me, walks not in darkness,” says the Lord. By these words of Christ we are advised to imitate His life and habits, if we wish to be truly enlightened and free from all blindness of heart. Let our chief effort, therefore, be to study the life of Jesus Christ.

So much of our Christian pilgrimage here on earth, is learning to imitate Christ.  He shows us how to love, he shows us and teaches us how to empty ourselves of our selfish willfulness.  We go out into the Lenten Desert with Jesus, we imitate Him in his prayer and fasting, that we may imitate Him in his mercy.  Pope Francis recently said that we need to fast, not just from chocolate, but from “indifference”.

Are we indifferent to the needs of others? If we want God to be lavish in his gifts and mercy toward us, may we be lavish in sharing our gifts, in our mercy toward our neighbor, toward our brother.

We discover who we really are, when we receive God's merciful love, and then, transformed by it, show that mercy to others, that it becomes natural for us to behave like our Father.

May the encounter with Christ in Word and Sacrament today change our hard hearts, that we may be merciful as our Father in heaven is merciful, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 2nd Sunday of Lent - Abraham's Ultimate Test

From the moment we are introduced to the character of Abraham in the book of Genesis, his faith is constantly being tested by God.

There very first time in Scripture God even speaks to Abraham, he gives him a test, and a serious one. Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and your father's house to a land that I will show you. Leave your home, leave your father and kinsfolk, leave everything you have ever known.

That would require a lot of faith and trust for anyone: imagine what it meant before there was gps, roads, credit cards, health insurance. Yet in his first test there is a choice a lot of us can relate to: Will I trust God with my future, will I allow him to lead me to unknown places. Will I allow him to lead me from my comfort, in order to be the person he wants me to be?

Another test came when Abraham was traveling through the countryside with his nephew, Lot. The two men were shepherds, and over time their flocks grew larger and larger. It became clear that the land could not support both flocks of Abraham and Lot. So, Abraham gave Lot a choice. The whole countryside is open to you. Take your choice of any section of the land you want. If you want the land to the left, then I’ll take the land on the right. If you prefer the land on the right, then I’ll go to the left.

Lot took a long look at the fertile plains of the Jordan Valley. The whole area was well watered, it was ideal for raising a flock. So, Lot chose for himself the fertile plans of the Jordan leaving to Abraham the land to the west, the rocky, hard, land of Canaan. Canaan was clearly less desirable, especially since, at the time, it was filled with wicked people who would likely terrorize Abraham and steal his sheep.

This was a test, too. Would Abraham trust God, even when it seemed like he was receiving an unfair settlement. It's hard to trust God when it seems we are getting cheated. There's the temptation to tip the scale in our favor. How many of us would risk our financial future in order to live up to a higher ideal?

There are about twelve such tests of Abraham in the book of Genesis, the most popular and most difficult test we heard today. God had promised Abraham numerous posterity—God said that his descendents would be as numerous as the stars, and now he commands Abraham to sacrifice his only son. He and his wife were already in their nineties!

This is a powerful story, you would do well to read it again some time today in it's entirety, for unfortunately, there is a whole piece of the story missing. For some reason, probably for brevity's sake, the Lectionary omits 7 important verses from the story. The missing verses share with us the exchange between Abraham and his son Isaac.

What we didn't hear today was how Abraham and Isaac were walking toward the place of sacrifice on Mount Moriah. As they walked Isaac carried wood for the sacrifice, Abraham carried a torch and a knife. “Here are the fire and the wood,” Isaac but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?” “My son,” Abraham answered, “God will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.”

There is another story, not from scripture, which details another part of the conversation. Isaac began to explain to his father that their computer was terribly outdated and their computer just wasn't powerful enough, it didn't have enough memory for the windows update. And Abraham turns to his son Isaac, and says, don't worry my son, God will provide the RAM.

It's a bad joke, for many reasons. For God did not promise a ram, he promised a lamb. Fast forward to the end of the story. They reached the placed of sacrifice, Abraham bound Isaac up, and drew his knife. With unshakeable faith, he trusted that God's promises would be fulfilled.

Why did God try Abraham? Did God not already know beforehand that Abraham's faith was firm? Yes; God knew all this, because he knows all things. Almighty God did not prove Abraham's faith for His own sake, but for Abraham's, in order to give him the opportunity of practicing the virtue of faith, and thus to strengthen and deepen his faith, and make him into a paramount example for all generations.

When our faith is tested, it is not because God really needs to make sure if we love him, but that we can grow stronger. A good priest friend of mine would often say, “everything prepares us for something else.” We are tested, that we can encourage others when they are tested.

Our Gospel passage today takes place on another mountain, on which Our Lord revealed the splendor of his glory to a chosen few, in order to strengthen them.

Soon after witnessing his glorious transfiguration, Peter, James, and John would see Our Lord arrested, beaten, mocked, scourged, and crucified. Their faith, like Abraham's would no doubt be tested in the future in the coming days.

They would need to remember the revelation his glory on the mountaintop in wondrous majesty, for to see him marred and disfigured mounted on the cross, would no doubt shake them.

There are times in our faith journey when the Lord takes us up to the mountain top. He gives us a powerful experience of his closeness, he inflames our hearts with love. He does so, in order to prepare us for the desert times, the trials, when our faith will no doubt be tested.

Each and everyone of us must struggle to live our faith amidst so many distractions and temptations, when our faith like Abraham's is tested. To believe in God when his full glory is being displayed before us, is not difficult.

C.S. Lewis wrote, “it is during [the desert periods], much more than the [mountain] peak periods, that we grow into the sort of creature God wants us to be”

St. Peter wrote in his first letter, “1^st Peter: “We suffer through various trials so that the genuineness of our faith, more precious that gold that is perishable even though tested by fire, may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

We suffer through many trials, we are tested, that our faith may be genuine. It is this genuine faith that truly shows praise, glory, and honor to God.

This Wednesday every parish in the diocese will offer sacramental confession from 5 to 8pm. In confession we come before God humbly admitting those times when we failed the test. Every sin is a lost opportunity to remain faithful. We humbly admit our failures, that we may know God's mercy and be strengthened for the trials which will inevitably come in the future. If you haven't been to confession in more than a year, you are long past due. Make a humble examination of your conscience. Jesus is waiting to forgive your sins.

Upon the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter called out with great enthusiasm, “Lord, it is good that we are here.” It is good that we are here together at Mass. The Lord comes to us today not in dazzling white, but under the appearance of humble bread and wine. May we listen to Him, and open our hearts with Him, that we may die with Him, and live with Him forever, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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