Homily: June 29 2015 - Martyrdoms of Sts. Peter and Paul

Today we celebrate the martyrdoms of two of the greatest human beings who have ever lived: St. Peter and St. Paul.  Their martyrdoms were heroic and holy.  Peter was killed very near to where St. Peter’s Basilica is in the Vatican which was then a Roman Circus named after the Roman Emperors Caligula and Nero.  As his executioners were preparing to crucify him, Peter gave them one last dying wish, which delighted the sadistic executioners.  He asked to be crucified upside down, even though that would multiply his sufferings greatly.  He didn’t consider himself worthy to be crucified in the same manner as our Lord 34 years before outside the gates of Jerusalem. 

At the end of St. John’s Gospel, is the story where the Lord asks Peter three times, “Peter, do you love me”, then tend my sheep, feed my sheep.  The Lord then says, “Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands.”  And Peter did stretch out his hands on a cross because he loved the Lord more than anything else.  And now Peter is with the Lord forever in heaven.

St. Paul was slain for Christ, also in Rome, legend says, on the same day as St. Peter.  Because Paul was a Roman citizen, the law said he could not be crucified.  So he was dragged out the south gate of Rome and was decapitated at a place called Aquae Salviae.

Imprisoned in Rome, before his death, he wrote the letter we heard today in our second reading, a letter to his spiritual son, Timothy, in which he said, “I am about to be poured out like a libation; the time of my departure is near”, but I have fought the good fight. When the threat of martyrdom drew near, he was able to say, in all honesty, “I have kept the faith.” 

Both Peter and Paul teach us that Christ is not just worth living for, he is worth dying for.  The Lord Jesus who gave his life for them, was worthy of giving their life for him. 

Where they started out was dramatically different from where they ended. Peter, the fisherman from Galilee who became the prince of the apostles, and Paul who carried the Gospel to the ends of the known world, who first persecuted Christians. God shines through the human weakness of Peter and Paul.

We remember them today, and seek their intercession, that we too may love the Lord to the end, that we might be poured out for him, that we may keep the faith, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2015 - Baptized to be bothered

Exactly three years ago, Pope Benedict authorized the canonizations and beatifications of several holy souls.

One, you may never have heard of.  His name is Father Giuseppe Puglisi.  He was a Sicilian Priest who was killed by the Sicilian Mafia in 1993.  He was gunned down on the steps of his church for condemning organized crime and trying to rally his flock to take a stand against evil in his community. At his Beatification in Sicily, Pope Francis said that Blessed Father Giuseppe was ‘an exemplary priest and a martyr’ and joined the newly beatified martyr in condemning organized crime.

Three years ago, Pope Benedict also called for the beatification of 158 men and women who were martyred during the Spanish Civil War between the years 1936 and 1939 for opposing fascist and anti-Catholic dictatorship in their country.  Pope Francis Beatified 522 more Spanish Martyrs in Spain a few months later.  These holy souls are among the thousands of lay people, priests, and nuns were martyred for opposing the anti-Catholic fascism in their country.

Three years ago, Pope Benedict also decreed that an American be recognized as venerable.  Venerable is a title given to men and women of heroic virtue in their path towards becoming canonized saints.  Many of you have definitely heard of this holy archbishop, author, and radio and television evangelist, who is now known as Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. 

Millions of people heard him on radio, watched him on television, and attended his many lectures on the Catholic faith.  He had a gift for distilling complicated Catholic teaching and presenting them to a broad audience with humor while still boldly challenging us to take our faith more seriously. 

He brought the Catholic message into the public sphere.  Not just Catholics watched his show, but Protestants and Jews.   Atheists were converted by hearing the Venerable Archbishops’s words of hope.

You can still see reruns of his television show “Life is Worth Living” on EWTN, read his autobiography, or any of his many wonderful books on topics theological and spiritual. 

I thought of Archbishop Sheen as I read today’s second reading: As you excel in every respect, in faith, discourse, knowledge, and all earnestness…may you excel also in the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.”

Archbishop Sheen surely excelled in faith, discourse, knowledge, and earnestness.  He graduated from Theological School in Louvaine Belgium with the highest honors, and taught at Catholic University in Washington, and through his intellectual gifts made the faith intelligible to millions.

But that isn’t why he people are declaring him a saint.  He also had heroic dedication to the poor and suffering.  There is a story about his visit to a leper colony.  As he passed among the lepers, he saw a man whose hand had withered, and Sheen recoiled in disgust.  Sheen quickly realized what he had done and said, “I was a leper for turning away from you. “  So he took the man’s withered hand, placed a crucifix in it and said in all honesty, “I am honored and grateful to be in your presence.”  And Sheen then went to every leper in the colony, and gave each one a crucifix personally.

Sheen’s secretaries would tell stories about how he would take in the homeless of Rochester and feed them at his table and would often take off his jacket and give it them as he passed them on the streets. 

I also thought about Father Puglisi, the Spanish martyrs, and Venerable Fulton Sheen, after the sad news of the Supreme Court yesterday.  For the saints and martyrs and holy Bishops, remind us that the teachings of the Church are not antiquated or in error but rather provide a vibrant thriving message that is indispensable for civilization. 

We need like Archbishop Sheen to continue to explain with clarity and patience the Church’s teaching, not only on marriage of course, but in all of its aspects.  We need, like Father Puglisi, stand up for that faith, even when we might be persecuted for it.  God willing we never experience anything like the Anti-Catholic regime in Spain, but we must look to those thousands of martyrs, to find our own courage, in remaining faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Not all of us are called to be official catechists of the Church or to visit leper colonies like Fulton Sheen, but all of us are baptized in service of the kingdom of God—spreading the Gospel even when it is inconvenient, when it is not politically advantageous to do so, when we might be persecuted for it.

There was a priest was complaining to his spiritual director that every time that he sat down to pray, or do some theological reading, he would be bothered, by a call to visit the sick in the hospital, or attend to a squabble among his parishioners, or to an administrative task.  And his spiritual director said, Father, you were ordained to be bothered. 

Similarly, each of us are baptized to be bothered.  Is there a person starving who needs food? We were baptized to feed them.  Is there a person who is starving for the truth?  We were baptized to instruct them.

If we are to be saints, we each need to be open to be bothered: bothered out of our comfort, out of our routine, out of the coziness of carefree living.  We should be bothered by attempts of government leaders and special interest groups to violate our religious freedom.  We should be bothered by the starving around the world.  We should be bothered by the lonely widow, or the drunk, or the cohabitating unmarried couple, or the prevalence of pornography one click away on the internet.

Could that Sicilian Priest, Father Puglisi avoided martyrdom if we would not have been bothered to speak out against the theft, murder, prostitution, and drug trafficking of the local mafia. Sure, he might still be alive today.  He could have retired and moved to Tuscany.

Could those thousands of priests, nuns, lay men and women avoided martyrdom if they would have kept silent about the abuses in their government?  No doubt.

Could Archbishop Sheen have been a successful teacher had he never stepped into a leper colony?  Oh, definitely. 

But we are called by Jesus to be saints to t dedicated to charity towards our neighbor, in Africa, Asia, inner city Cleveland.

In the Gospel today, people rebuked Jairus for bothering Jesus about his dying daughter.  Jesus ignored their comments and went to Jairus’ daughter personally.  The saints, like Jesus, want to be troubled.  Jesus wants us to bring our needs to him.  He may not answer them in the way we want.  But God is not bothered by our prayers.  There are prayers he wishes to answer through our persistence in asking for them. When it seems like our prayers are not being answered, we must have faith that God is answering them in a way that is much better than we can imagine.

May this Eucharist today help us to be attentive to the work of God, that we too might become saints for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Friday of the 12th Week in OT - "He stretched out his hand..."

In Matthew’s Gospel, there is a repeating pattern in the Gospel’s structure.  Discourse is followed by narrative—teaching is followed by action.  Immediately after giving his meatiest discourse, his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus acts. 

This attracts us to Jesus.  He doesn’t just stay up on the mountain to teach.  He comes down the mountain, gets his hands dirty, shows us just what his teaching put into action looks like.

Over the next two chapters of Matthew’s Gospel, chapters 8 and 9, Jesus performs a series of 10 miracles. 

He cleanses a leper, as we heard today. He heals the centurion’s servant, Simon-Peter’s mother-in-law, and many people possessed by demons.  He calms the storm at sea, then goes back to healing more demoniacs, a paralytic, the royal official’ daughter and the woman with a hemorrhage, two blind men, and a mute.

Where in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explained the values of the kingdom, now in the miracles stories, Jesus is going display the power of the kingdom, and the power of the love of God for the poor and afflicted. 

“Lord, if you will, you can make me clean,” the leper in today’s Gospel says. “I do will it. Be made clean.”  But Jesus didn’t just heal the man by word.  At a distance, Jesus could have snapped his fingers and cured the man.  But Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.

.  In the Old Covenant if a holy person came in contact with a defiled, unclean, or sinful person, the holy person would become defiled, and the unclean person would not be sanctified. 

In Christ, rather, God’s love is shown to the afflicted through personal touch. The power of the kingdom of God is such that God comes into our lives and touches us and sends us into the lives of others to touch them. I think of Pope Benedict and Pope Francis both going into prisons, meeting with abuse victims, laying their hands on the afflicted, drawing near to them.

Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel is often so critical of the Pharisees because the Pharisees believed they needed to remain separate from anything unholy—the word Pharisee in fact comes from the Hebrew word, Parush, which means “holy by separation”.  Jesus shows however that true holiness doesn’t keep itself at a distance, aloof from the afflicted, rather, it enters in, it lays its hands on the afflicted, helping the afflicted know that God has not abandoned them.

There are people in our lives, our families, our neighborhoods, who are hurting, physically and emotionally, who feel alienated, and we are called to show God’s love for them, by drawing close, by stretching out our hands, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Saints John Fisher and Thomas More - "Faith's true expression"

Yesterday began a fortnight of prayer for our country over the next two weeks, and today’s saints exemplify the virtues we pray for and hope to practice.

You likely know the story of what brought Saints John Fisher and Thomas More to their martyrdom:  King Henry VIII desired to divorce his wife because she was not bearing him a son.  At the time Henry was a Catholic, and so he asked the Pope for an annulment, and the Pope said, that he had no grounds for an annulment. 

Henry then claimed that he was head of the Church in England, and granted himself the annulment.  He then forced all bishops and all government officials to sign their names to these lies by taking two oaths: first, that the King was head of the Church, and two, that whoever He had the right to name his own heir to the throne despite what the law said.  Bishop John Fisher was the only bishop in England who would not take the oaths and Sir Thomas More was the highest-ranking layman not to do so.  Both were imprisoned in the Tower of London when they would not recognize Henry VIII’s supposed authority to dissolve his marriage to Queen Katherine of Aragorn and marry Ann Boleyn.  John Fisher and Thomas More had the courage to stand up for the Catholic faith. 

You know the rest of the story: Henry VIII ended marrying not just one wife, but six; he beheaded two of them, and simply dismissed two others.  He wanted to rule his kingdom by lust instead of trust in God and his commandments.

John Fisher, even though all of his brother bishops folded to worldly pressure boldly proclaimed the Catholic Faith.  Thomas More had been chancellor of the kingdom; he resigned his job, and stood up to the king, who was his friend.  Even if England had not been torn apart by Henry VIII, these two men would still very likely have become saints.  Their dedication to their respective vocations was exemplary long before they were martyred.

Listen again to the collect prayer for today’s feast: “O God, who in martyrdom have brought true faith to its highest expression.” Faith is brought to true expression when we stand up for the faith amidst worldly pressures.

As each of us is called witness to the truth of the Christian faith in our own lives, it is a matter both of professing that faith with our lips—with our words—and with our actions.  We each face difficult moral choices, and the faith must be our guiding light, even when we know that the difficult decision will involve hardship or suffering. 

During this fortnight of prayer for freedom, we do well to invoke the intercession of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More for freedom from government interference in the practice of the faith, and for our ability to stand courageously for the truth of the faith, even to suffer for it if necessary, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 12th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Jesus quiets the stormy sea

Ancient people hated traveling on the sea and were frightened by the ocean depths.  Even experienced sailors hugged the shore whenever they could, they wouldn’t venture out into the deep water.

It’s not very surprising, that when biblical people would speak of the roaring untamed sea as a symbol for their deepest anxieties.

The very beginning of the book of Genesis speaks of the “Tohu wa bohu” in the Hebrew, the watery depths of the void.  Those primal chaotic waters are part of our earliest imaginings.  Yet, the Lord of Creation brings light and life out of the darkness, as he breaths his Spirit, taming and forming.

In the book of Exodus we hear of another frightening body of water: as Pharoah’s army of chariots and charioteers closes in on the Israelites, they are trapped by the uncrossable Red Sea. It is not until God parts the waters, showing himself again, as Lord of Creation, Master of even the seemingly untamable seas, that the Israelites are able to escape Egypt and take that next step toward freedom.

And in all four of the Gospels, there is a version of the story we heard today.  The storm at sea. 

Again, the stormy waters stand for the chaos of life beyond our control.  All those powers which are opposed to God’s created intentions.  All those difficulties both interior and exterior, physical and psychological that beset us.  All the darkness that befalls us in life.

That’s where the disciples of Jesus are in the Gospel today; they are beset with chaos, anxiety, darkness, bafflement: just like us. 

The Church fathers say that the boat traversing through the storm sea in the Gospel today stands for the Church through the ages—the Barque of Peter making her way through the centuries amidst persecution and misunderstanding and the violence and wars of the nations.  The waves crashing against the boat, the winds whipping around them are symbolic of everything that besets the Church, and besets the individual Christian.

This storm in the Gospel must have been fierce.  For most of the apostles were experienced fisherman, experienced sailors, on the Sea of Galilee—their home turf—well, their home “surf”—so to speak, they knew it well, they’d fished there before, with their fathers and their fathers before them.  They knew its changes and dangers.  If these experienced fisherman were terrified, this must have been a storm of unique severity—no minor problem.

And in the midst of the storm they cry out, “Lord, save us.”  Scripture is filled with such cries out to the Lord, the Psalms especially:  Out of the depths I call to you, LORD; Lord, hear my cry! Says Psalm 130.  Psalm 50, says, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you.”

When we find ourselves lost and in the shadow of death—when we are facing the great struggles and storms of life—we are urged by God Himself to call out to Him; when in our desperation we feel utterly incapable of helping or saving ourselves, we are meant to turn to Almighty God, and cry, “Save me Lord.”   

Some of you may be familiar with the story of Bill Wilson.  Bill Wilson was the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.  Bill was, at the beginning of the 20^th century, a bright and gifted man, but who found himself to be completely the prisoner of alcohol.  Because of his drinking, he would suffer great depression, his marriage fell apart, he lost job after job.  Through the treatments of the day, he would get back on his feet for a while, only to fall again.  This terrible pattern of addiction, that perhaps some of you are familiar with, repeated itself so often, that Bill Wilson found himself at the point of utter despair, contemplating suicide.  But it was then, when he was at rock bottom, that he encountered a friend who spoke of a religious way out of addiction; one mediated by prayer.  At the end of his rope, having tried everything, Bill Wilson prayed Psalm 130—Out of the depths I cry to you O Lord.  And in the wake of that prayer, Bill Wilson experienced a spiritual awakening, a spiritual revival, that began a period of sobriety that would last the rest of his life.  And this experience of humbling admitting one’s powerlessness before God—praying to God out of the depths became the foundation of the 12-step program.

Until we hit rock bottom, we still believe they can save themselves. 

Not all of us will struggle with an addiction to alcohol, or narcotics, or gambling, or pornography, but there needs to be, in the life of every Christian, an acknowledgment, that I cannot save myself…I cannot be the person God made me to be on my own; I cannot love others as I’m meant to on our own, I cannot get to heaven on my own.  We need God.  We need to come before him, in the depths of our soul, and acknowledge, we can’t do it on our own.  This humility is a fundamental disposition for authentic faith.

For when the ego, rather than God is at the center—in the end we will reap nothing but a harvest of unhappiness and exhaustion. 

Perhaps some of you here today are in the grips of an addiction, or perhaps you have just lost your job, or don’t know where your next mortgage or rent payment is going to come from, perhaps you just lost a loved one, and you don’t know how you are going to survive without them.  I encourage you to identify with the disciples in the Gospel today, and cry out with them out of your depths.

The disciples, knowing their helplessness, cry out, Lord, don’t you know we are about to drown?  Lord, do something! 

And What happened to the disciples then?  Jesus awakens.  He calms the storm.

Like the Spirit of God which hovered over the chaotic waters in the book of Genesis, Jesus is the incarnate power of God, who can bring peace, and calm, and new life—new creation, from the stormy darkness.

He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!”  Though they had before witnessed the Lord's miracles, and heard his wisdom, here on the terrible sea the most unruly powers of creation submitted to Him, without question - this was a lordship they had not yet even conceived of; this is the lordship of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

By coming to us in the Holy Eucharist today, Jesus renews his commitment to be our strength amidst the storms of life, let us commit to him, by accepting our limitations and acknowledging our dependence upon him, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Friday of the 11th Week of OT - Heavenly Treasure & St. Romuald

Today’s Gospel asks us “What do I treasure?” Do I treasure the things of this world more than I treasure the things of God?

In the first reading, it is very evident where St. Paul’s treasure lies. 

St. Paul enumerates his sufferings for the spread of the Gospel: dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from fellow Jews, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city,dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, frequent fastings, cold and exposure, daily pressures, all for the sake of the Gospel.

St. Paul suffered not to build an impressive resume.  When he’s listing off all that he suffered, he’s not complaining.  Rather, he suffered because he sensed the urgency of bringing Christ to many.  He treasured the Gospel above all else, and desire to share that treasure with others, that they may share eternity with God in heaven.

 ‘What do I treasure?’ What am I willing to suffer for? What do I go out of my way in seeking to obtain?  These daily readings from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount are pretty challenging; they cause us to self-examine in light of Jesus’ teaching. 

Most of us, if we are honest, probably have to admit that we go out of our way, to be comfortable, to not be bothered, that we enjoy the earthly comforts and earthly pleasures a little too much.  The saints, however, put the Gospel, above earthly comfort.  They teach us to renounce selfishness, laziness, and fear, take up the cross, to treasure the heavenly reward above passing earthly delights. 

We honor a Saint today, St. Romuald, who embodies this teaching.  Romuald, like our own St. Clare, was born into an aristocratic family, in a world of luxury and wordliness, where he learned little in the way of self-restraint and religious devotion.  When Romuald was 20 years old, he saw his father kill one of his relatives in a dispute over money and property.  Disgusted by his father’s crime, Romuald went to a monastery to pray for his father and to do penance.  And there, he heard the call to the monastic life of poverty and prayer.

Inspired by his son’s example, Romuald’s father, repented and joined the monastery.  Romuald traveled throughout Italy preaching the Gospel, establish or reform almost 100 hermitages and monasteries, and founding the Camaldolese Order, which continues to draw men and women to a life of simplicity, today, 1000 years later. 

We are all called like Romuald, like Paul, to seek first the kingdom of God,  to seek first not earthly comfort, but heavenly treasure for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Monday of the 11th Week in Ordinary Time - Turning the other cheek

At the end of the eloquent passage today, from St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, Paul listed a series of seven paradoxes. Paul writes:

“We are treated as deceivers and yet are truthful;
as unrecognized and yet acknowledged;
as dying and behold we live;
as chastised and yet not put to death;
as sorrowful yet always rejoicing;
as poor yet enriching many;
as having nothing and yet possessing all things.”

Though Christians will be subjected to ridicule, harassment, persecution, and even martyrdom, Paul reminds Christians that in the end, our hardships and sufferings will be transformed by God into true riches in eternity. Paul’s teaching harkens back to the beginning of the Sermon of the Mount, which we read last Monday, “Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”

The way Christians act, the way we think, the way we use our possessions, the way we respond to our so-called enemies, is different from the rest of the world—our values are different.

In the Gospel today, Jesus continues to teach his disciples to act according to a very different set of standards than the way of the world.

“When someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.”  The world would say, when someone slaps you on the right cheek, slap them back, get them back, teach them a lesson so they never think to slap you again.  Rather than responding with vengeance, Christians respond to violence as Christ did. Remember, during his Passion, as he was beaten and mocked by Roman Soldiers, he offered his sufferings to the Father for our salvation.

Again, here’s the paradox. To turn the other cheek, sounds like weakness, it sounds like foolishness.  Our abuser might continue to slap us, they might continue to take advantage of us.  But the way of forgiveness, the way of peace, transforms weakness into a strength that glorifies God and witnesses to the Prince of Peace.

Instead of returning “evil for evil”, we can return “good for evil”, and not only stop the cycle of violence, but allow God to reverse it and transform it.  Again, injury suffered with forgiveness, will be rewarded in eternity.

At the end of time, the multi-billionaire CEOs and greedy politicians who profit from the subjection of people, will be seen as paupers, while the poorest of the poor, who offer their sufferings and prayers for others, will be seen as kings and benefactors.

Through our Eucharist today, may our hearts be opened to ever-deeper faithfulness to Christ’s Way of Peace and transforming love for the glory of God and  salvation of souls.

Homily: 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Spiritual Growth in Ordinary Time

Though we’ve been observing the liturgical season of Ordinary Time for about three full weeks, this is the first Sunday since Pentecost that the priest has worn the liturgical color green.

Ordinary time is one liturgical season, divided into two periods: the first period between the Christmas Season and Lent, and then the second period, after the Feast of Pentecost.  This second period of Ordinary Time is much longer than the first, and will last all the way to the beginning of Advent in late November.

Traditionally, the color green is the color of hope.  Whenever the theological virtue hope was depicted in paintings, she could easily be identified because she would be the lady in the green garments.  We wear green, during Ordinary Time, because we hope—that what we do in the ordinary course of our lives will lead to heaven. 

So during ordinary time we hope that our praying, and charity, and patience with others, and fasting help us to become worthy of heaven. And yes, I did say fast.  Fasting is not just for Lent, we are instructed to fast from eating meat on all Fridays of the year or observe some other penitential practice—like praying the chaplet of divine mercy or the rosary.  But Friday is a penitential day all year round—Vatican II did not change that, but merely gave an option to do some other suitable penance.

What else is green the color of? Growth, springtime, summer.  The green of ordinary time is also to remind us of that growth that is supposed to be happening in our souls. Ordinary Time is the fruit growing period, where are souls, our through our prayer lives and our practice of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy are meant to fruits of the spirit to grow in our life.  And the green of Ordinary Time is to represent that new, vibrant life and spiritual growth that we need to take an active part in nurturing.

Just because we call it Ordinary Time, doesn’t mean it’s a time to become passive.  We often use the word ‘ordinary’ to describe things that are unremarkable, commonplace, or dull.   The word ‘ordinary’ though, comes from the latin word ordinalis, which means ordered, orderly, regimented, steady, and consistent, like the ordinal numbers.  Hence, Ordinary Time is the standard, ordered time outside of the other liturgical seasons.

Just as Ordinary time is ordered, orderly, regimented, steady and consistent, so our own spiritual lives should take on the characteristics of this liturgical season.  Consistency in our daily prayer, regimented in our generosity and kindness, steady in our daily imitation of Jesus, and continuous in our openness to being challenged to growing in holiness. 

I think one of the dangers of any lengthy amount of time is that we can grow complacent--getting stuck in our ways, not wanting to be challenged, not wanting to grow, just being satisfied with the familiar.  When that happens, the vibrant green of ordinary time can easily fade into a drab and dying brown, like the color of our lawns after a number of days without rain; dying brown could even turn into festering black, if totally neglect the work of spiritual growth or fall into mortal sin.

On this eleventh Sunday of Ordinary time that theme of growing permeates our readings.  In the first reading, we heard God promise that he can make the withered tree bloom.  He can restore the life of the withered soul of the sinner and through grace lead him to become a saint-- a tree that shall sprout lush branches and be fruitful and majestic.  This is God’s plan for all of us.  Yet, if we neglect prayer and charity, and patience, and generosity, and fasting, we will never bear the fruit God wants for us.

Ezekiel spoke this warning to the nation of Israel, but it is a warning to all nations, including our own. A grand and majestic nation, if it ignores or blatantly disregards the commandments of God, can wither and fade from glory.  When Modesty is exchanged for perversion, faithfulness with willfulness, and prayer with pornography and video games—the once great nation becomes vulnerable the parasites of worldliness, and will wither and be conquered.

Following the same theme of spiritual growth, in the Gospel, Jesus offered two short parables: the parable of the growing seed, and the parable of the mustard seed. 

In the first parable, a see is planted, and it sprouts and grows, seemingly on its own.  But the seed, in fact, is cooperating with the will of God according to its nature. Jesus tells this parable to explain that when the human soul, or the Church as a whole cooperates with God, it will grow.  Yet, growth is not a mere human achievement, but a divine achievement.  God brings about the growth. We will never become the people we are meant to be without cooperating with God. 

God is certainly working in our parish today, to bring about a new springtime, a time of new spiritual growth, where the parishioners of this day begin to utilize their spiritual gifts for the building up of the Church in this corner of the world.

In the parable of the mustard seed, Jesus describes just what happens when a soul cooperates with God.  This tiny mustard seed springs up and becomes the largest of plants.  And we’ve seen this throughout the centuries in the lives of the saints.  Often, unknown, uneducated, unremarkable people become bright, shining, majestic souls which glorify God.  The great heroes of the human race are not the athletes, they are not the movie stars, they are not the politicians; the great heroes are the saints, who put their lives in total service to the kingdom of God, just like Jesus himself.  Every human soul is a mustard seed, which, when surrendered to God, can flourish and become uniquely majestic and radiant with the light of Christ.

But that only happens when we cooperate with God, and put his will above our own wants. 

Since entering the seminary 15 years ago, I’ve been able to visit the Holy City of Rome a few times.  If you’ve ever been to Rome, Italy, the streets are filled with music.  And about every 15 minutes some street musician begins to play Frank Sinatra’s well known song “I did it My Way”.  I’ve mentioned how the meaning of this song really bugs me.  “I've lived a life that's full, I traveled each and ev'ry highway, And more, much more than this, I did it my way.”  And hearing this song in Rome, the Holy City, seems so wrong.  For the saints and martyrs of Rome have sung not “My Way” by “Thy Way”, God’s will, not my own. 

As catchy as the tune is, Old blue eyes offers a recipe here for disaster, yet a philosophy adopted, sadly, by so many. A full life, a fulfilled life, is not found in indulging every impulse and feeding every desire or rebelling against God’s laws and doing things are own way.  Spiritual growth into the Fullness of life, comes rather, from imitating the Lord in all things. 

How can you experience spiritual growth this Ordinary Time.  Make a plan, with God’s help, and commit to it.  Daily prayer, daily acts of charity.  List the people towards whom you require extra patience, and pray for them.  List the temptations against which you need to practice extra vigilance, and pray for strength, daily. Perhaps, make a visit to the Eucharistic Adoration chapel with the kids or grandkids who are home on summer vacation.  For just as flowers and fruit trees bloom in silence, every day, we need to sit silently in the Lord’s presence, and open our hearts to Him, to be exposed to the light of grace.

As we make our way through this liturgical season of Ordinary Time, a season full of opportunities for spiritual and moral growth, may we be kept close to the Lord in our daily prayer, attendance at Mass, and open, to all of the ways the Lord wishes to challenge us, and guide us, and cause new growth in our souls, for His glory and the salvation of souls.

Homily: Sacred Heart 2015 - Set aflame with love

Today’s Solemnity celebrates a core truth of the Christian faith, literally; the word core, comes from the latin word, cordium, which means, heart.  Christianity, the way leading to heaven, is only possible because of the love God has for us.

Love is the core of Christianity.  St. Paul said so in our second reading today: that faith enables us to be grounded in love, and enables us to know the love which fills us with the fullness of God. 

The Sacred Heart reminds us that God has a heart which loves.

 In 1677, Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a Visitation nun in France and revealed his Sacred Heart. She said, “I could plainly see His heart, pierced and bleeding, yet there were flames, too, coming from it and a crown of thorns around it. He told me to behold His heart which so loved humanity. Then He seemed to take my very heart from me and place it there in His heart. In return He gave me back part of His flaming heart.”

The Sacred Heart, pierced, bleeding, and set aflame reminds us that real love is much more than sentiment or emotion.  Which is why Holy Church presents us with the Gospel reading from the crucifixion.  From the cross his heart was opened to show us that through Christ the human heart is made capable of loving God as it was made to.  Christ also shows us what true love looks like. Christ-like love, embraces suffering for the beloved.  His heart burns with an infinite love for his Father, and embraces all suffering to do his Father’s Will, to save our souls.

Today we ask the Lord to increase our love, yet today is also a day of reparation. 

The Lord told Margaret Mary that the ingratitude of man for his love was worse than his physical sufferings.  So often, Christians settle for such mediocre practice of their faith, when all the while, Christ is longing for our hearts to burn like his. 

So, we make reparation for those times when we have been ungrateful for all that God has done for us, all that Jesus suffered for us, all those gifts of the Holy Spirit that have gone unused.  We make reparation for all those who reject God’s love and for those who commit blasphemy and sacrilege. 

Recall the opening prayer asking God to help us to experience the saving wonders of the Heart of his Son: “O God, who in the Heart of your Son, wounded by our sins, bestow on us in mercy the boundless treasures of your love, grant, we pray, that, in paying him the homage of our devotion, we may also offer worthy reparation.”

May our hearts be set on fire with the love of the Sacred Heart for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Monday of the 10th Week in Ordinary Time - Beatitudes

Over the next three weeks we will read through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, for our daily Gospel readings, beginning today with Chapter 5 of St. Matthew’s Gospel.  Throughout the initial stages of his ministry—calling sinners to repent in order to live in right relationship with God, performing miracles in order to show the divine authority behind his mission—Jesus had begun to draw crowds from Galilee and the surrounding regions.  One day, Jesus went up a mountain and began to deliver a sermon expounding upon the fundamental attitudes His disciples are to have in relationship to God as their Father, to Jesus as their Lord, to one another as brothers and sisters, and to others, even their enemies.

It is clear from the very beginning of the Sermon, that Jesus’ disciples are to live differently from others in the world—by a different set of standards than the good pagans who love those who love them and are good to those who are good to them—with a righteousness surpassing that of the Jewish scribe and Pharisees. He calls us in short to be like him, to be like his Father, to be holy.

The beatitudes are read at baptisms, weddings, funerals, and throughout the Church year because they are the attitudes and dispositions we are meant to cultivate throughout all of life whether we are mourning or rejoicing.  By practicing the beatitudes the Christian orients himself to eternity by putting on the mind and heart of Christ.  We are to be meek, as he was meek; we are to be pure, as he was pure; we are to be devoted to doing the will of God as he was devoted.  True Success in this life isn’t measured by the size of our house or bank account, but by allowing the Christian faith to permeate every dimension of our life, and by our cooperation with God—using our time, talent, and treasure for His Will, not our own.

I encourage you to read chapters 5 through 7 of Matthew’s Gospel in one sitting, to get a sense of the Sermon in its entirety. 

In the face of the many problems in the world—violence, materialism, poverty, moral relativism, Jesus calls us to radiate the holiness of God by putting on His mind and heart—seeking to be holy as He is holy.  Christians are called to beatitude—and the world will be impacted for better or for worse by the Christians live our lives.  May we be faithful to this call of holiness today and all days—for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Corpus Christi 2015 - "My flesh is true food, my blood is true drink"

We come to the great feast of Corpus Christ, the Feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus. 

The origins of this feast date back to an extraordinary event happening in 1263.  There was a priest named Peter of Prague who was making a pilgrimage from Prague to Rome.  On his way, he stopped in the Italian town of Bolsena to celebrate his daily Mass.  Peter of Prague was a pious man, but he harbored some doubts—he was struggling with the doctrine of our faith teaching that Jesus is really present in the Eucharist. Well, it seems God had an answer to Father Peter’s doubts.  At the point in the Mass when he consecrated the host, the host began to bleed and the blood ran down his hands and his arms and dripped down onto the corporal on the altar. 

Peter of Prague was astonished.  He quickly made his way to the nearby town of Orvieto, where Pope Urban IV was visiting.  He knelt down before Pope Urban and confessed his sin of doubting the Eucharist and told him this extraordinary story.  The Pope sent a delegation of Cardinals to investigate.  When the facts were ascertained, he ordered the bishop of the diocese to bring the Host and the corporal bearing the stains of Blood to him.  He then placed these items in the Cathedral at Orvieto, where anyone visiting the Cathedral can venerate them to this day. 

Pope Urban, so moved by this whole experience, established a feast celebrating Our belief in the Real Presence of the Lord Jesus in the Eucharist, so the Feast of Corpus Christi was established. 

Traveling with Pope Urban during this period was the greatest theological writer of the time, perhaps of all time—St. Thomas Aquinas.  The Pope asked the Dominican Friar Thomas to compose the prayers for the new Feast and we’ve used them ever since.

One of the hymns St. Thomas composed is the Pange Lingua which we also sing at Benediction and also on Holy Thursday.

Pange, lingua, gloriósi Córporis mystérium, Sanguinísque pretiósi, Quem in mundi prétium Fructus ventris generósi Rex effúdit géntium.  “Sing, my tongue, of the glory of the mysterious body and precious Blood”.  Today, that’s exactly what we do: we sing of the glory of his Body and Blood poured forth for our salvation, given to us by Our Lord Himself at the Last Supper. 

The third verse of the Pange Lingua continues St. Thomas’ description of the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper:  “Cibum turbae duodenae, se dat suis manibus”: he gave himself as food with his own hands to the Twelve.

The Eucharist is not simply a symbol, it’s not simply a metaphor.  Jesus himself, in John chapter 6, says, “my flesh is true food, my blood is true drink.”

How was it possible that Jesus performed this miracle? The next line of St. Thomas’ hymn gives the answer: “verbum caro, panem verum, verbo carnem efficit.”  The Word made flesh, by his word, makes true bread, flesh.  I can’t imagine a clearer or more succinct statement of the Church’s faith in the Eucharist.  Jesus, Verbum caro, the word made flesh, by his word, the word through which all creation came into being, makes bread into flesh.

Thomas wrote another hymn called the “Sacra Solemnis”.  .Mozart put part of Thomas’ hymn to his own music a few centuries later. You’ve no doubt heard of it: Panis angelicus, fit panis hominum; o res mirabilis, manducat dominum pauper servus humiles.  Translated: The bread of angels becomes the bread of men, o wonderful thing, the poor and humble servant can feed upon his Lord. 

We, poor and humble servants, can feed, can commune, can have communion with the Lord, and Creator of the Universe.  What we do here at Mass is a foretaste of the communion of the saints with God in heaven.  Our whole lives are but preparation for eternity, and what we do hear at Mass is a foretaste of that. 

That’s why, in his theological writings, Thomas Aquinas refers to the Eucharist as viaticum—food for the journey.

I recently came across a survey with some pretty interesting results.  Between the years 2000 and 2009, a little over 10% of adults left the Catholic Church. That number is probably higher now six years later.  Some of the most common reasons for falling away: Life got too busy and they drifted away; they didn’t understanding the Church’s teachings; they were bothered by the scandals; they married someone of a different denomination, they were looking for a more vibrant parish experience or more charismatic preachers; some said it is simply easier to be Protestant.

Yet, interestingly, once they leave for another denomination, they continue to change denominations.  In fact, the average fallen away Catholic will change Protestant denominations 6 times in their’ life.  They move from place to place, looking for something; shopping, but not finding.

Over 75% of fallen away Catholics attending a Protestant communities say that there is something important missing from their’ religious experience.

Many, thanks be to God, after years of searching, do return.  And 75% of those who return to Catholicism, say the thing that was missing, the thing they longed for, was the Eucharist.  For no Protestant denomination claims that bread and wine truly transform, not just symbolically, but in reality, into the body and blood of Jesus Christ.  No Protestant denomination can offer the possibility of being faithful to the Lord’s command to eat his body and drink his blood.

Many of us know Catholics who have fallen away.  We do well to engage them in conversation on this topic.  Even casually ask them, “Don’t you miss the Eucharist?”  “How can you belong to a community that doesn’t celebrate the Eucharist?” Perhaps, some fall away because they do not sense that we value this great gift as we should. 

For in the end, we do not come to Church week after week for the music, for the decorations, for the preaching, as amazing as it is; not even for the sense of community; we come for the Eucharist—to offer God worship in the way the God-made-flesh has commanded—do this in memory of me.

That does not mean that music, and decorations, and preaching, and hospitality are not important.  Hopefully, our desire to give the Lord our very best inspires us to constantly be improving our music program, and beautifying our church decorations and vestments and vessels, and warmly greeting and welcoming our visitors.  But in the end, if the music is poor, the church is ugly, and the preaching is atrocious, we poor and humble servants, we wayfarers will still be able to receive Our Lord in Holy Communion, and know that he is here, he is with us, feeding us with the food which brings eternal life…for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: June 5 - St. Boniface, bishop and martyr - Chopping down pagan oaks

Today we celebrate the feast of Saint Boniface, who is known as the apostle to the Germans.  This English Benedictine monk devoted his life to the evangelization of the Germanic tribes.  He made his first missionary journey to Germany in 719 at the request of Pope Gregory II.

One writer wrote, “St. Boniface had it all: natural brilliance, formidable powers of persuasion, and unstoppable energy and resolve.  He could have had a great career and high status in society, but this saintly man wanted something very different: nothing for himself and everything for Christ and His Church.”

His is one of my favorite stories from the lives of the saints. He found the land full of Pagans and many of the Christians there had also lapsed into error, even many of the clergy.  The Germanic tribes worshipped gods of Norse Mythology: Odin and Thor and the like.  And many were resisting belief in Christ.  Boniface learned of a giant oak tree where the Pagans gathered to offer false worship to the God Thor.  So Boniface, took an axe and began chopping down the tree.  The pagans cursed Boniface and waited for him to be struck dead by their gods for his sacrilege.  The story says that just when Boniface had chopped a small notch into the tree, the tree was blast apart from above.  And the pagans who had before cursed Boniface now began to believe.  And moreover, Boniface took from the wood of the tree and built an oratory in honor of Saint Peter. 

This is why you’ll often see stained glass windows and statues with St. Boniface in his bishops attire, holding an axe, standing on a tree trunk.

Of course, Boniface would be arrested for violating the first amendment in our own country, so we might not want to follow his example literally.  But we are still called to preach the truth of the Gospel and engage the culture by exposing its moral and philosophical errors to the light of Christ, and witnessing to the Gospel with our lives.

Pagan oaks of error, superstition, and false teaching seem to be sprouting up like weeds these days.  Opposing them seems like daunting work, but remember that Boniface only needed to take those first courageous swings with the axe before God did the rest of the work.

In his 80^th year, Boniface was preparing candidates for confirmation when they were attacked by barbarians and massacred, martyred for the faith.

In a letter written to a Benedictine abbess, Saint Boniface wrote: “Let us stand fast in what is right and prepare our souls for trial…let us be neither dogs that do not bark, nor silent onlookers, nor paid servants who run away before the wolf.”

As we prayed in the opening prayer: “may the Martyr Saint Boniface, be our advocate that we may firmly hold the faith he taught with his lips and sealed in his blood and confidently profess it by our deeds” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Last Day of School 2015 - No vacation from vocation

No doubt, you all remember, as if it were yesterday, our very first school Mass.  Each class, carried in procession, a light house.  We reflected about how lighthouses have important jobs.  They help ships find their way to safe harbor by shining their light on the dangerous rocks.  After a long sea journey, no doubt, they bring comfort to the sailors, guiding them safe to shore.

We talked about how God does something similar for all of us.  God is our light house.  Helping us to avoid all the dangers and evils of the world, in order to bring us safely home to heaven.  Without the light of God, our lives can turn into one gigantic ship wreck.

Our first school Mass was on September 9, the feast of St. Peter Claver.  And we reflected about how the Saints are lighthouses for us as well.  The Saints have learned how to shine with the brilliant light of Jesus Christ, and they teach us by their example to do the same.

Finally, we reflected about how each of us are called to be a light house.  Guiding others to the light of Jesus Christ.

So, I ask you, students, teachers, parents, when it came to being a lighthouse for Jesus Christ this school year, “How did you do?”  You may have been concerned with grades for math, reading, and English, but what grade would you give yourself, for the most important for all grades?  For in the end, only one thing matters.

As Jesus Christ himself taught in the Gospel today, the greatest commandment of them all, isn’t to be involved in sports, isn’t to be the most popular kid in school, isn’t to be the best actor, or the class clown, or the prettiest, or strongest, or fastest, or most creative.  The greatest commandment, the only way to truly shine with the light of God, is by “Loving the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”

St. Paul wrote in our second reading today, that God chose us to be gentle, kind, humble, meek, and patient.  “How did you do?”  Parents, what grade would you give to your children.  Students, what grade would you give your parents?

Can you say that you followed St. Paul’s teaching, “in everything you do, do in the name of the Lord Jesus?”

As the school year ends, no doubt each of you have learned that shining with the light of God’s love is not always easy.  Sometimes, we flat out fail, sometimes, we even get into shipwrecks.
But the Lord shows mercy to his people, as we heard in the prophet Isaiah.  Even when we fail to love as we should, God calls us to repent and try again.

Your vocation, your calling to shine with the light of God, of course does not end with the school year, but continues through summer vacation and for the rest of your lives.  There is no vacation from vocation.  So plan on coming to Mass every week, for we can never love God with your whole heart, without gathering with our fellow Christians on the Lord’s Day; Continue to pray with your families at home, for their will never be the peace God wants for your families, without family prayer; come into the confessional from time to time this Sunday, admit your faults, receive God’s forgiveness, and be gentle, kind, humble, meek, and patient with each other, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: June 1 - St. Justin Martyr - Apologist

St. Justin was a philosopher and martyr, and was probably the most important of the second-century apologist Fathers.  The word apologist designates those ancient Christian writers who set out to defend the new religion from the weighty accusations of both the pagans and Jews, and to spread the Christian doctrine in terms suited to the culture of the time.  So, the apologists had a twofold concern: defending the newborn Christian faith and explaining the content of the faith in a manner comprehensible to their contemporaries.

Justin was born around the year 100, near the ancient city of Schechem in the Holy Land, and was the son of pagan nobles, so he was not raised in the faith.  But he was very well educated, studying poetry, history and science, and he was deeply schooled in the ancient Greek philosophers.  Though he was not raised to know the truth about God, he was certainly on a quest for truth. 

The story of Justin’s conversion is well known.  Justin was walking by the sea near Ceasarea and there he met an old man.  And they began to walk and talk together. Since Justin looked troubled, the man asked him what was on his mind.  Justin answered that he was unhappy because he had not found anything certain about God in all of the books he had read.  The old man spoke to him about the insufficiency of philosophy and urged his to study the Scriptures and the teachings of Christ—of how Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises made by the Jewish prophets.  In taking his leave, the old man urged Justin to pray that the gates of light would be opened to him. 

At the end of a long philosophical journey, a quest for the truth, he arrive at the Christian faith.  He founded a school in Rome where, free of charge, he initiated students into the truth of the Christian faith.

At his school, he certainly engaged in apologetics—defending the faith and clearly explaining the faith.  At his Roman school he debated a philosopher named Crescens.  After Crescens lost the debate, he denounced Justin to the authorities.  Justin was then arrested for practicing the unauthorized religion of Christianity.  Before the judge, Justin was asked, "Do you think that by dying you will enter heaven and be rewarded?" "I don't just think so," the saint answered. "I am sure of it!"  He was given the opportunity to renounce the faith and save his life; instead he defended the faith and clearly explained it, with his dying breaths.  He was put to death as a martyr by beheading along with six of his students, five men and one woman, in 166.

There are times when each of us will be called upon by God to defend our faith and clearly explain the faith.  In the early days of the Church, God chose Justin to spread the truth of the faith. He fearlessly defended the gospel of Christ before the powers and principalities and rulers of the day.  Through his prayers may we be bearers and defenders of the Christian faith to all we meet, witnessing to the saving power of Christ for the glory of God and salvation of souls.