Homily: May 31 2016 - Visitation of BVM - Self-forgetful charity

On this final day of May, the month dedicated to our Blessed Mother, we honor her in celebrating this joyful feast of her visitation to her kinswoman Elizabeth.

Luke recounts in the story of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth that when Mary’s greeting rang out, John “leaped for joy in his mother’s womb”. 

This phrase "leap for joy" also appears in the Greek Translation of the Old Testament to describe David’s dance before the Ark of the Covenant after it had returned home.  “As the ark of the Lord was entering the city of David, there was King David leaping for joy, jumping dancing before the Lord”. 

Pope Benedict commented on the parallel of these two biblical scenes. He said, the leaping of the child John parallels David’s ecstatic joy at the nearness of God.  Something is expressed here that, he says, has been almost entirely lost in our century, but nonetheless belongs to the heart of faith: the self-forgetful happiness in recognizing the nearness of God. 

True happiness is always self-forgetful: it loses itself in the object of its joy. To the extent that we lose ourselves in God, we will discover joy.

We have the great blessing of being able to encounter the Lord every time we enter a Catholic Church, in the tabernacle.  He is just as real in the Eucharist, as he was in the womb of Mary.  Now, we don’t leap for joy when we walk into the Church, but we do genuflect, don’t we?  To show our reverence, to show our love.  I don’t get tired of genuflecting.  And it is sometimes sad to see young children not knowing how to genuflect because their parents and grandparents do not genuflect when they enter the Church.

Mary herself, shows us another face of self-forgetfulness: of true charity towards our neighbor. Remember, upon hearing that her elderly cousin had conceived in her old age, Mary left “in haste” to help. Even though Mary was undergoing her own trials, unwed, pregnant, chosen by God, she left the comfort of her home in Nazareth, in haste. She detected a need, and she acted without fearful hesitation.

Elizabeth and Zechariah weren’t just a drive across town.  They lived in the hill country of Judea—about 60 miles from Nazareth—through bandit infested hill country.  A difficult journey for anyone, especially for a teenage mother traveling by herself.

But anxiety did not hinder the blessed Mother from making the charitable visitation. Mary was concerned that Elizabeth’s pregnancy would be difficult for she was advanced in years.  So, prompted by love and charity, she put Elizabeth’s needs ahead of her own.

Pope Francis, in inaugurating this year of mercy, calls us to this same self-forgetful service of our neighbor and the needs of the poor in the works of mercy.

We honor the blessed Mother today, knowing that she will help us discover true joy, when we, like her, give ourselves away to God and visit our neighbor in need with self-forgetful charity for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Petitions:

During this Year of Mercy, May the sweetness of countenance of the Mother of Mercy watch over us in this Holy Year, so that all of us may rediscover the joy of God’s tenderness, and bring God’s mercy to all those in need.

Mary was chosen as the uncorrupted ark of the Christ’s dwelling place, may we live always free from the corruption of sin.

Mary stood courageously at the foot of the Savior’s cross, may we through her intercession, rejoice to share in Christ’s passion.

In thanksgiving for all those who share in the work of the Marian Movement of Priests—for an increase in priestly vocations and for the spiritual health of all troubled priests. 

Mary is the help of all Christians and comforter of the afflicted, may she bring God’s gifts of healing, strength, and peace, to all of the sick and the suffering.

Homily: Memorial Day 2016 - Remembering their sacrifice

On May 5, 1868, In his capacity as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, General John A. Logan issued a proclamation calling for "Decoration Day" to be observed annually and nationwide, a practice which had already begun in the south. Where Veteran’s Day, in November, honors those veterans who survived their time of service. The purpose of memorial day is to honor our war dead.

Memorial Day asks us to ponder an important question: what do the living owe the dead? Especially if we believe that the dead served us, offered up, as Lincoln once described, “the final measure of devotion, of fidelity.” What do we owe them?

We are quickly becoming a society unable to remember history, disconnected from our roots, set loose from the lessons that our ancestors learned. Yet, the Church does today what all men should do.  The Church in the United States offers today Masses for peace and justice.  We believe it is a matter of justice to remember and honor those who have fallen in battle, to remember those who gave their lives in service to this country. Something is missing when we fail to honor them properly.

Yet, justice demands that not only we remember them, but what they died for, so we might continue to work to make this country worth dying for.  Serving our country is not just the job of our military men and women, not even our politicians…I think we are learning that we get into a lot of trouble when we hand too much of that responsibility over to corrupt politicians. 

Today, we not only remember, and pray for our dead, but ask ourselves, ““are we serving our country? Are we safeguarding its purpose? Are we accepting responsibility for its destiny?”

What we do with our lives is what we offer up to our beloved dead. Let us take the time today to remember, to honor, to share the story of those who served on our behalf. As we go to our picnics and barbeque, let our conversation be not the newest reality tv program, or speculation on whether a particular sports team will win some meaningless championship, but let us speak of real sacrifice, real honor, real virtue which has won our freedom. By remembering our heroes, those who hungered and thirsted for justice, enough to die for it, they become present to us, and teach us, and embolden us for the work in which we all share.

Only in this way will justice truly “flourish” (Ps 72) in our time, and fullness of peace forever, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Corpus Christi 2016 - As if it were your first and your last

Last Saturday,  I attended ordination of priests for the diocese of Cleveland.  It is always edifying to see our brothers lay down their lives, promising to serve Christ and His Church. There is a moment in the Ordination Rite that particularly struck me this year. Before they are officially ordained priests, promises are asked by the bishop.

“My son,” the bishop says, “before you proceed to the order of the presbyterate, declare before the people your intention to undertake the priestly office.

Then the Bishop asks a series of questions: Are you resolved to celebrate the mysteries of Christ faithfully and religiously as the Church has handed them down to us for the glory of God and the sanctification of Christ's people?

Are you resolved to hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience as the Apostle urges, and to proclaim this faith in word and action as it is taught by the Gospel and the Church's tradition?

Are you resolved to exercise the ministry of the word worthily and wisely, preaching the gospel and explaining the Catholic faith?

Are you resolved to consecrate your life to God for the salvation of his people, and to unite yourself more closely every day to Christ the High Priest, who offered himself for us to the Father as a perfect sacrifice?

Then the candidate goes to the bishop and, kneeling before him, places his hands in those of the bishop.” And the bishop asks, “Do you promise respect and obedience to me and my successors?”

Candidate: I do.

I remember what it was like for me to be kneeling there in front of the bishop, making those promises.  So exciting, so profound. So many of you, who have made marriage vows, remember the day of your wedding with a similar gratitude.

As I heard these promises being asked, I remembered a piece of wisdom, a wonderful, seasoned, holy pastor once shared with me. He said, “celebrate each Mass, as if it were your first, and your last.” Celebrate with reverence, recollection, a spirit of profound love, as if it were your first, and your last.

I then thought of our young second graders, who receive their first Holy Communion this year.  As they approach the altar to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus in Holy Communion for the first time, they come forward with such reverence, love, and excitement.  Wonder and awe are displayed on their faces: what will it be like, will I feel Jesus enter my heart? How will this change me? They are careful not to drop the precious host, they treat the host with more care than precious crystal, or a newborn child. And they return to their pews and offer the simple and sweet thanksgiving only a child can offer to God.  They celebrate Mass that day with such purity of intention.

Friends, on this Corpus Christi Sunday, we do well to imitate the reverence, excitement, gratitude, and love of our first communicants. To receive the Lord’s Body and Blood, as if it were our first time, and as if it were our last.

Today, I want each of you to travel back to your first Holy Communion. Imitate the piety, the excitement, the reverence you had on that day. Offer to Jesus sweet gratitude for the gift of receiving Him. Ask Him to change you, to transform you. And then consider what it would mean if today were your last Holy Communion. It very well could be-- none of us know the day nor the hour when the Lord may call us home.  Receive the Lord today, as if your eternal life depended on it.

I don’t remember many homilies from my seminary professors, but one I remember quite well, was given by our liturgy and sacraments professor, Fr. Mike Woost.  Fr. Woost challenged us to receive and celebrate all of the sacraments worthily and well.  The grace of the Sacraments is received according to the mode of the receiver.  In other words, God gives us, in each sacrament, a treasury of grace to transform our hearts into the heart of Christ. But that grace can only change us if we are open to that change. When we receive the Sacrament without wanting to be changed, we receive it them in vain, as if it didn’t really matter that much.

The way we act during Mass should show that what we do matters, very much. If a Muslim, or another non-Christian entered the Church on any random Sunday, would they see palpable visible expressions of our faith. What would they think if during our hymns of praise, they looked at us, standing there silently with bored expressions on our face.  What would they think if they watched us approach the Holy Communion, as casually as we walk up to the counter at McDonald’s.  What would they think if they saw us walk out the door immediately after receiving the Lord’s Body and Blood without making a proper act of thanksgiving and waiting for the final blessing? Friends, If you are in the habit of leaving mass before the final blessing, please stop this practice.  At the Last Supper, after receiving the Lord’s Body and Blood the Apostles remained until the end of the meal, they left together singing hymns of praise. Well, all but one of the Apostles, that is.  Judas, left the Last Supper early.  Don’t be like Judas. He left without allowing the Lord’s love to sink into his heart and change Him.  That was the beginning of the end for poor Judas.  Leaving Mass early shows both a disrespect for the Body and Blood of the Lord, and also a disrespect to your fellow Catholics. Can you not wait to get out of our company?

Muslims may not possess the one true faith. But their external signs of reverence of God can sometimes surpass our own. In muslim prayer, many times a day, in their praise of God, they touch their heads to the ground in humble reverence of God.  Many of them develop calluses on their foreheads from touching their heads to the ground day after day, year after year. Do our knees have calluses? Do we even genuflect when we enter the Church? Are there palpable visible signs in our life, that what we do here at Holy Mass changes us? That our faith matters more to us than our bank accounts, our sports team, our political party?

For every reception of Holy Communion is meant to change us, to deepen our love for God and neighbor, to strengthen us against sin and temptation—to make us more courageous in spreading the Gospel and performing the works of mercy.

On this Feast of the Lord’s Body and Blood, we pray that we may receive Holy Communion today and all days with every ounce of reverence we can muster, every ounce of gratitude for his great sacrifice for us, that our hearts may be transformed, and that through this saving sacrament we may be made worthy of the kingdom of heaven for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Friday - 8th Week of OT 2016 - Intense Love and Authentic Faith

These days a lot of people want to portray Jesus as the epitome of the sensitive New Age guy.  Alas, if you are looking for the huggable Jesus, you aren’t going to find him in today’s Gospel reading.

First, he curses the fig tree.  Next, he chases the money changers out of the temple.  Finally, he gives his disciples a beautiful, yet challenging teaching on authentic faith.  What’s going on here?

What we have today are strong examples of Jesus in his role as prophet.  It’s helpful to remember that the primary role of the prophet is not to tell the future.  Rather the prophet is first and foremost the mouthpiece of God, calling people back to fidelity to the covenant. 

Oftentimes, they would do this in dramatic ways which called attention to their message.  Sometimes it was a miracle, other times it was a symbolic action like breaking a clay jar or wearing strange clothing.  The curse of the fig tree and the cleansing of the temple are two such prophetic acts by which the people come to know Jesus as a prophet.  Once he has their attention, then he can tell them what God wants them to hear.

In this case, it is a beautiful teaching on Faith. “Have Faith!”  Jesus says.  Do not be barren as the fig tree, or disobedient as the money changers in the Temple. Real faith involves bearing fruit for the kingdom, having a vibrant prayer life of trust and confidence in God, and turning away from all sin. If we do not turn away from sin, if we do not pray, if we do not bear fruit, we are like this cursed, withered, dying fig tree.  We will be judged by the fruit we bear.

Likely, with this vivid image of the fig tree in mind, St. Peter wrote in our first reading, “The end of all things is at hand…be serious and sober-minded…let your love for one another be intense” In other words, keep the end in mind, that we will be judged according to our works, the fruit we bear, or lack thereof.  And make sure you are following the Law of Intense Charity that the Lord laid down for each of us, that he showed us himself on the cross. 

Today, perhaps consider fruits of the Holy Spirit: generosity, chastity, self-control, patience, kindness.  Which of these fruits do you need to tend, to nurture through prayer and action? What sinful or selfish parts of your life does the Lord desire to prune, to cut back, that you may be purified and enlivened.

As we receive Christ’s Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Eucharist today, may we fully cooperate with His transforming and sanctifying grace that we may bear fruit for the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

Homily: May 26 2016 - St. Philip Neri - Saint of Joy

Apostle of Rome, the Reformer of the eternal city, and the Saint of Joy.  These are titles given to Saint Philip Neri, priest in Rome in the 16th century.

The Saint of Joy.  Pope Francis would have loved this guy. Philip Neri would often work with those who were on the fringes of religion: the youth, artists, shopkeepers, people in trouble with the law, and he would try to impress upon them the truth, the beauty, and the importance of our Catholic faith…if there was ever a Roman priest who smelled like the sheep, it was Philip Neri.

Antonio Gallonio, his first biographer tells us: "It was habitual with Philip to pray each day to the Holy Spirit, and with great humility to ask Him for His gifts and graces." If you would like more joy in your life, today’s saint has the secret.  Pray to the Holy Spirit daily and bring the Gospel to those who are weak in the faith.  The first two fruits of the holy spirit are love and joy.  A joyful life is a sign of God's presence.  It’s perhaps the greatest gift we can share with one another, the joy of our faith.

Mother Theresa would say the surest sign of God’s presence is a Christian filled with joy.  The atheist Nietzsche once said, "If those Christians want us to believe in their Redeemer, why don't they act more redeemed?" Nietzsche, never met Mother Theresa or Philip Neri.  But what do we have to say for ourselves? Are we witnessing to non-believers the joy of the Gospel?

Saint Philip Neri would often go down into the catacombs of Rome to pray.  It was there in the catacombs, his biographer tells us, that while he was praying, "he suddenly felt himself divinely filled with the power of the Spirit with such force that his heart began to palpitate within his body and to be inflamed with such love” that he almost couldn’t stand it.

Each day we do well to go down into the catacombs, to a place, silent as a tomb, where we can pray to the Holy Spirit. A place free as possible from worldly distractions, to recall the saints and martyrs who have gone before us, giving the witness of their lives, and to pray for the holy spirit to fill us with his seven-fold gifts for the building up of the church and spreading of the Gospel, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Tuesday - 8th Week of Ordinary Time - Orderly Christian Life (School Mass)

After five weeks of Lent, Holy Week, the Paschal Triduum, Easter, seven weeks of Paschaltide, and Pentecost, we’ve returned to Ordinary Time.  We will observe Ordinary Time, from now until the end of the liturgical year in November.  The major seasons of the Church year, Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter, bring with them extraordinary anticipation, preparations, rituals, customs. And Ordinary Time seems, well, so ordinary.

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 also means ordered, counted, orderly, regimented. 

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 openness to being challenged to growing in holiness. 

During Ordinary Time we seek to say with Peter in the Gospel today, “Lord, We have given up everything and followed you.”  What’s keeping you from following Jesus as you should? Is sports practice keeping you from getting to Mass as you should? Are video games keeping you from praying as you should? Is selfishness keeping you from being generous as you should?

I know what you are thinking, “giving things up” that sounds like Lent. Well, there is an old Benedictine order whose motto is “Semper Quadragesima”—always Lent. They try to practice the prayer, fasting, and almsgiving of Lent all year round.  And so should we. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving should be practices of our Ordinary Christian Life—they are perfect practices for Ordinary Time.

Saint Peter writes “for a little while you may have to suffer through various trials” that we may show the genuineness of our faith to be more precious than fire-tried gold.  “Giving things up” that we enjoy for the sake of our faith shows that we believe our faith to be more precious, more important than any earthly pursuit. 

Jesus says to Peter, that we will receive 100 times more than we give up. So we should not be afraid in being disciplined and regimented in our spiritual lives, trusting Jesus, that we will be blessed in what we give up for his sake. 

As Summer Vacation quickly approaches remember that we can take no vacation from our faith. Make sure before vacation starts you have a regiment, a routine that you will follow, in praying daily, attending Mass weekly, reading from scripture regularly, performing acts of kindness often, fasting from desserts and video games here and there.  

God who is holy, seeks to make each of us holy. May we cooperate with the transforming grace of God in the ordinary circumstances of our lives, who seeks to heal us, strengthen us, and perfect us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

Homily: Monday - 8th Week of Ordinary Time 2016 - Daily Conversion

St. Bernard of Clairvaux was made abbot of his trappist monastery at a very young age—for even at a young age he had acquired tremendous wisdom and holiness. He was speaking to his community one day, and he made a remark that is kind of shocking.  He said, “There are more people converted from mortal sin to grace, than there are Christians converted from good to better.”  There are many Christians who fail to allow God to convert them beyond their initial conversion.

This challenging statement coincides nicely with this morning’s Gospel. A rich young man approached Jesus seeking eternal life. Jesus says not only must we avoid breaking God’s commandments, but he must also “sell what you have, and give to the poor.” In other words, the way of the Gospel is not just about avoiding evil.  Rather, the way of the Gospel entails complete detachment from material possessions, of always seeking to give more, more of one’s talent, more of one’s time, more of one’s treasure for the building up of the kingdom.

“Many people are converted from mortal sin, but few are converted from good to better.” During this season of Ordinary Time, we are meant to examine the ordinary circumstances of our lives, and seek to give more to Christ, that we might be converted more deeply to him.

Yes, we are to seek conversion from vice to virtue: from deceit and lying, to honesty and truth; from gluttony to temperance, from vanity and pride to humility, from lust to love, from avarice to generosity, from rage to patience, from laziness to zeal, and from moral ugliness to moral beauty.

But also, we are to seek conversion from good to better—not just surface conversion, but total conversion. The saints are our great examples of those who have cooperated with God, allowed God to transform them from good to better. Giving myself completely to God, detaching from material comforts sounds humanely impossible. But our Lord reassures us this morning, “all things are possible with God.” Heroic virtue is possible through perseverance in the Christian life—prayer, fasting, charity, works of mercy.

May God’s Spirit enlighten each of us, showing us what we must give up—attitudes, behaviors, and material goods—in order to give ourselves more deeply to Christ for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Holy Trinity Sunday 2016

“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

We do that so naturally, so spontaneously, don’t we?  I’m speaking of course about the sign of the cross.  It’s almost as reflexive to us Catholics as breathing or blinking our eyes.  And it should be, the sign of the cross is the first prayer most Catholics learn—invoking the three divine persons of the Holy Trinity while marking ourselves with the sign of our salvation—the Holy Cross of Christ.

Most of us were taught by our first catechists, our parents, how to sign ourselves.  We do well to start our day with the sign of the cross, signing ourselves even before getting out of bed—hopefully, even before checking your iphone.  Most of our formal prayer begins invoking the trinity with the sign of the cross. We are absolved, we are confirmed, we are anointed, and we will be buried with that sign of the cross.  We make it in moments of danger and difficulty and penitence. 

Sometimes we even find baseball players making the sign of the cross as they come up to home plate. Whenever I go to restaurants I look around to see if people are making the sign of the cross before they eat.  At funerals and wedding you can often tell who the non-Catholics are by who makes the sign of the cross or not.  And this makes sense because the sign of the cross signifies an IDENTITY!  You know if someone is Catholic if they begin their prayer “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”—with the sign of the cross.

The sign of the cross professes the two most important doctrines of our Faith.

The first is of course the Doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity, which we celebrate in a special way this Trinity Sunday. God is a Trinity of Divine Persons—the Divine Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are consubstantial, coeternal, coequal, distinct, yet united.

The catechism says, “The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of the Christian faith and life.  It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the ‘hierarchy of the truths of faith’. The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men “and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin.”

I had a class in seminary one semester simply called “Trinity” in which we studied the theological history of our faith’s understanding of this great mystery. Certainly, one of the most difficult classes—a meager attempt to seek to grasp the infinite mystery revealed to us. In the sign of the cross we express our belief the great “mystery of our faith”

The second doctrine expressed in the sign of the cross flows from the first: by the cross we are saved.  Every time we sign ourselves with the cross, we confess our faith that by the cross, the incarnate Son, the second person of the Trinity, won for us eternal life.

St. Francis Xavier, perhaps the greatest missionary in Church history after St. Paul, baptized thousands of people. As a missionary in the far east, he wrote about the difficulty he had in catechizing all these people—preparing them for baptism. Thousands of people would be in the villages, clamoring for baptism, yearning for entrance into the Church.  Francis Xavier wrote that he considered it enough if he could properly teach them the sign of the cross and if he could teach them that in making that sign of the cross they were simply professing their faith in the one true God—God the Father who creates us and loves us, God the Son who took flesh and died for our salvation, and God the Holy Spirit who strengthens us with his gifts—if he could teach them that, and that Jesus, God the Son offered them salvation through the cross that he would trace over them—he felt that that was enough for baptism.

When we stand before the judgment seat of Almighty God, our passports won’t help us, any academic degrees aren’t going to do much good, any stock portfolios, our check book, our driver’s license, our proof of American citizenship, aren’t going to do us a bit of good.  But by the sign of the cross, we are claimed for Christ, we are identified as those children of God redeemed by the Cross of Christ, members of God’s Holy Church, who profess, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to be our Loving and Almighty God.

Just as we make the sign of the Cross each time we pray, in order to direct our prayer, may this Trinity Sunday, help direct our lives. We pray that the words and gestures of the sign of the Cross will sink down and brand themselves on our heart—because it is there that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit wish to reign.

Everything we do is meant to be directed to the Holy Trinity, done to honor the Holy Trinity, out of love for the Holy Trinity. May the invocation of The Holy Trinity keep us from all sin, protect us from all evil, and may all of our actions, all of our choices, all our decisions, all of our sacrifices be done for the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

“In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”  

Homily: Pentecost 2016 - The Flame of Faith

In the dark of night, at the beginning of the Easter Vigil seven weeks ago, the new Easter Candle was blessed, and for the past seven weeks of the Easter season we have kept the Easter Candle here in the sanctuary, lighting it every time we have celebrated Mass.

The work of bees and of human hands, the living flame of the Easter Candle reminds us through the Easter season that Christ is alive, that he rose from the dead. 

The Easter Vigil begins with the Easter Candle coming into the Church, the Church singing “Lumen Christi- light of Christ”.   The light of Christ burns even in the darkest of nights. Then, if you’ve attended the easter vigil you know that smaller candles are lit from that one light, and held by every baptized member of the Church: a symbol of how the light and life of Christ has been spread to each of us. This is my favorite part of the entire Church year. From the light of those smaller candles, the Church is filled with this holy glow—there is nothing quite like it. 

The tall, white candle reminds us of God’s faithfulness and love throughout human history.  Like the pillar of fire that led the Israelites through the desert to the promised land, the easter candle symbolizes the Christian faith that is to guide us out of our slavery of sin and selfishness, through this world of trials and temptations, into the promised land of heaven.

But today, at the end of the Easter season, we’ll remove the Easter candle from the sanctuary.  Why? Does the removal of the Easter Candle mean that Christ is no longer among us?  Of course not.  In fact, another candle, the sanctuary lamp beside the tabernacle reminds us that Christ is truly and really present with us in the Eucharist.

But, on this feast of Pentecost, when we hear of the holy spirit coming upon the apostles like tongues of fire, we celebrate a new season of the Church, when we ourselves are to be the Easter Candles, burning flames of wisdom, pillars of the Christian faith, beacons of the light of love, light houses of Christian hope.

The Easter Candle is our birthday Candle.  And we blow it out today, only that we can become candles, not burning with physical flame, but burning with the fire of the Holy Spirit.

Every year, when I wished my grandfather a Happy Birthday, he would say, today is not my birthday, it is the anniversary of my birth.  Well, today, this Pentecost Sunday, is when we celebrate the anniversary of our birth into Christ by the power of the holy spirit, when we became living flames that glow for the honor of God. 

At our Baptism, a smaller candle was lit from the easter candle and given to us, as the priest said “receive the light of Christ.  You have been enlightened by Christ.  Walk always as a child of the light and keep the flame of faith alive in your heart.”  Many of you may still have that candle you received at baptism, but more importantly, you have the flame of faith.

What we do with that flame of faith will determine our eternal destiny.  Do we hide it under a bushel, pretending at times that we are not Christian?  Do we allow the winds of sin to extinguish the flame of?  Or do we feed the fire? Do we help the fire grow, do we nurture it, and protect it from being blown out?

Jesus said, I have come to set the world on fire; how I wish it were already blazing.  Do we feed the fire?

I’ve told this story before, but it’s a good one.  A grandfather and a grandson are walking down a forest path.  And the grandson turns to the grandfather and asks, “grandfather, why do we cause suffering to each other”  And the grandfather says to the grandson, “because in each of us there is a battle between two wolves.  The first wolf is all that is good in us, joy, patience, faithfulness, gentleness, selflessness; the second is all that is evil in us, envy, pride, impurity, gluttony, resentment, selfishness.”  “Which wolf wins,” asked the grandson.  “It depends on the one you feed,” said the grandfather.  “It depends on the one you feed.”

Why is our world so full of violence, hatred, and suffering? There are consequences when we fail to feed our faith.  Garbage in, garbage out—as the saying goes.

Similarly, our easter candle is fed by oxygen.  If you take away oxygen, the flame will sputter out and die.  What oxygen is for physical fire, prayer is for our Christian identity.   If we don’t pray, every day, we will become joyless, mediocre Christians.  Here at St. Clare we have a beautiful Eucharistic Adoration chapel.  Vocations flourish, marriages are strengthened, sinners are converted, where a parish is devoted to the Eucharist.   You want peace you’ve never known, you want joy you’ve never experienced?  Visit the chapel for an hour every week. Come to the Lord in the Eucharist. 

One of her novices came to Mother Theresa complaining that spending an hour in the Eucharist was a waste of time, that she could spend that hour out in the streets taking care of the poor.  To that, Mother Theresa replied, dear sister, you need two hours.  If you don’t think you need to spend time with the Lord in prayer, you need to spend more time with the Lord in prayer! So often, with all of the responsibilities, and stresses of life, prayer is the first thing to go. Yet, during these times of stress, we need more prayer, not less.

Another lesson from our easter candle is that when a candle is lit for a long time, wax can begin to accumulate and start to stifle the flame.  The wax needs to be cut away so the flame can thrive again.  If we are not constantly vigilant, little acts of selfishness, like wax can really start to build up.  How do we clean away the stifling wax of selfishness? In the Sacrament of Confession.

I like to go to confession once a month.  Pope John Paul II went every week.  Not because he nor I are committing mortal sins, but as you spend time in prayer, the Lord starts to illuminate your selfishness.  He wants to perfect us; he wants that flame to burn as bright as possible.  If you haven’t been to confession in over a year.  It’s time!  Make a good examination of conscience in light of the Lord’s 10 commandments; compare yourself, not to your neighbor, but to the Lord, to His Blessed Mother, to His Saints. 

When we ourselves make frequent use of confession, we become a more authentic witness of the Gospel

Prayer, Penance, and Service. Service, works of charity, works of mercy, really is like the gasoline thrown on the fire. During this Year of Mercy, Pope Francis has called each of us to engage seriously in the works of mercy. Can you name the works of mercy? The corporal works and the spiritual works? Engage in them in a deeper, more committed way, and watch the flame of faith become emblazoned in your heart!

Pope Benedict wrote, the love of God is the light—and in the end, the only light—that can always illuminate a world grown dim and give us the courage needed to keep living and working.  May this celebration of Pentecost cause the flame of love to grow ever more brightly for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: May 13 2016 - Our Lady of Fatima - Three Secrets

99 years ago, on May 13, 1917, Our Lady began appearing to 3 little shepherd children near Fatima, a city 110 miles north of Lisbon, Portugal.   Mary asked the children to pray the rosary for world peace, for the end of World War I, for the conversion of Russia, and to pray especially for sinners in danger of hell. She urged the children also to offer their lives in reparation for the sins which offend God—to make mortifications throughout the day for the conversion sinners.

Our Lady showed the children three secret images to encourage us to accept God’s will.  The first secret was an image of souls languishing in hell. They saw blackened souls wailing in hell, surrounded by torturing demons. She showed them what was at stake if souls continued in error.

The second secret was a prediction.  She told them that world war one was about to end, but unless the world turned all the more to the Gospel of her son, then a worse war would come.  And if Russia was not consecrated to her Immaculate Heart, it would spread it atheistic communist errors throughout the world.  Great destruction would come about, and the Church would be persecuted.  But in the end, her immaculate heart would triumph.

The third secret, made known to the world during the reign of Pope John Paul II was a vision of an angel with a flaming sword, who cried out “Penance, Penance, Penance” and Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious were going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross. There they beheld a Bishop, dressed in white, shot by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him. Two angels then gathered the blood of the martyrs in holy water buckets and sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God.

So, in essence, Our Lady showed to the three children of Fatima, much of the terror of the 20th century which contained more death, destruction, and martyrdom than all of the previous centuries combined.  The Church suffered terribly in the 20th century: 8000 priests in Spain alone, killed in the 1930s; 3000 in Mexico, 6000 priests sent to the concentration camps of the Nazis. How many more in China, Russia, the Ukraine. How many souls turned away from the saving faith in the 20th century to the errors of atheism and the grave sins of the sexual revolution.

Yet, Our Lady promised, in the end, “Her Immaculate Heart would triumph” Pope Benedict interpreted this utterance as follows: “The Heart open to God, purified by contemplation of God, is stronger than guns and weapons of every kind. The fiat of Mary, the word of her heart, has changed the history of the world, because it brought the Saviour into the world—because, thanks to her Yes, God could become man in our world and remains so for all time. The Evil One has power in this world, as we see and experience continually; he has power because our freedom continually lets itself be led away from God. But since God himself took a human heart and has thus steered human freedom towards what is good, the freedom to choose evil no longer has the last word.

May we take seriously Our Lady’s message to pray the rosary, to do penance for sinners, to seek the purification of our own hearts from all resistance to God, “that we may further more effectively each day the reign of Christ.” For the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: May 12 2016 - Sts. Nereus and Achilleus - Great courage of glorious martyrs

We know almost nothing about the lives of the two saints whom we honor today: Saints Nereus and Achilleus. They were praetorian soldiers of the Roman army, during the reign of the emperor Trajan at the end of the first century AD. After converting to Christianity, Nereus and Achilleus were exiled to the island of Terracina, and then beheaded.

Two hundred years after their martyrdom, Pope Damasus composed a power inscription to their honor.  It states that the two soldiers, before their conversion “exercised the cruel office of the tyrant (probably referring to Trajan), being ever ready through the constant of fear to obey his will.  O miracle of faith! Suddenly they cease from their fury, they become converted, they fly from the camp of their wicked leader; they throw away their shields, their armor and their blood-stained javelins.  Confessing the faith of Christ, they rejoice to bear testimony to its triumph.”

Pope Gregory the Great in a homily on the occasion of their feast said, “These saints, before whom we are assembled, despised the world and trampled it under their feet when peace, riches and health gave it charms.”

A lovely commentary on these saints explains: “As in the case of many early martyrs, the Church clings to its memories though the events are clouded in the mists of history. It is a heartening thing for all Christians to know that they have a noble heritage. Our brothers and sisters in Christ have stood in the same world in which we live—militarist, materialist, cruel and cynical—yet transfigured from within by the presence of the Living One. Our own courage is enlivened by the heroes and heroines who have gone before us marked by the sign of faith and the wounds of Christ.”

Jesus prayed, in the Gospel, for the unity of his disciples.  May his prayer be fulfilled in us, as we seek to be one with Nereus and Achilleus, our brothers, who have gone before us in martyrdom. Let us imitate the courage of these glorious martyrs by fearing not the powers and principalities of this world nor by allowing ourselves to be seduced by the comforts, luxuries, and glamors of the world.  Let us imitate their love for Christ in their willingness to suffer for Him and the sake of his Gospel for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Tuesday - 7th Week of Easter 2016 - Jesus the High Priest (School Mass)

There are many titles applied to Jesus throughout the Scriptures: he is the Messiah, the Savior, the Son of God, the Son of Man.  He is also called the High Priest.  Each title focuses on a particular aspect of who Jesus is.

I want to talk a little bit about why Jesus is called, the High Priest, and what that means for us. On the night of the Last Supper, as we heard in the Gospel today, Jesus turned towards his Father in prayer, just like a priest at Mass turns to God in prayer.  He prayed for himself, just like a priest does, and then he prayed for others, just like a priest does.

In his High Priestly prayer, Jesus prayed for several things.  He prayed that God might be glorified as he died on the cross the following day.  He prayed that his sacrifice might bring about eternal life for his followers, and that his followers would be faithful to God in all things. Jesus knew that we would need God’s help in being faithful to Him, in witnessing to Him, and so he prayed for us.

He prayed for us because each member of the Church is a sort of priest. Each one of us are called to do what our High Priest, Jesus, has done.  We are called to glorify God in the sacrifices and good deeds of our life, we are called to help others come to eternal life by teaching people about Jesus and leading them to the faith, and we are called to be obedient to everything Jesus teaches us, no matter how difficult or inconvenient.  We are to make Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer our own.

In the mid 20th century, Blessed Pope Paul VI explained how Jesus had made every member of the Church into a sort of priest.  Pope Paul said, “In Jesus Christ all the faithful are made a holy and royal priesthood; they offer spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ… there is no member who does not have a part in the mission…but each one ought to hallow Jesus in his heart, and in the spirit of prophecy bear witness to Jesus.”

So, boys and girls, as you walk through the hallways of your school, as you sit in your classroom, as you prepare for your summer vacations, you can say to yourself, “I’m a priest”. But that means each of you also has a job to do every day.  You can’t take a vacation from being a member of Jesus’ priestly people.  Every day you must glorify God, you must pray, you must love, you must sacrifice, you must obey.

Jesus the High Priest offers Himself to us at this Holy Mass, and we are able to receive the fruit of His Sacrifice in Holy Communion—His very Body and Blood.  Let us recognize Jesus Our High Priest in this Holy Sacrifice today, for he is the Priest, the Altar, and the Lamb of Sacrifice at every Mass.  May this celebration help us to be faithful to God in our own priestly vocation for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Monday - 7th Week of Easter 2016 - Law of the gift

During his 26-year pontificate, Pope Saint John Paul II offered to the Church a vast array of writings, encyclicals, and teachings and the like.  His Pontificate was so jam packed with all these towering theological teachings that it is going to take us decades to understand them and let them sink in.

Yet scholars are beginning to wonder if all of John Paul’s teaching can boil down to what they are calling, “the Law of the Gift”, a term John Paul himself coined: “the Law of the Gift.”

What John Paul meant by “The Law of the Gift” is not a new teaching, per se. Put simply, when we give ourselves away as gift, we receive more than we give.  Meaning in life is discovered, not in gaining possessions, but in giving of oneself. As John Paul put it, one’s own being is confirmed and enhanced in the very measure that one gives it away in love.

In Jesus, we see one who gives himself entirely in obedience to the Father, for the salvation of mankind.

In the Gospel today, the disciples do not seem to understand the “law of the gift” as they profess their faith in Jesus.  “Now we realize that you know everything and that you do not need to have anyone question you. Because of this we believe that you came from God.” They are correct in their profession that Jesus came from God, but corrects them.  In a few hours, they would flee in fear of the cross, they would deny him. So he says, no…you don’t really believe, because if you really believed, you wouldn’t abandon me.

The real reason to believe in Him he says is because of the Father’s abiding presence in him which is manifested in his total obedience to the Father’s will. He fulfills the law of the gift and because of this the Father is in Him and works in Him.

Jesus again shows that mature faith is not a matter of giving Jesus lip service.  Not all that call Him Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who “do the will of the Father”— giving yourself away in love.

To give ourselves away in love in service and care, leads to happiness, to beatitude, now and in eternity.  Pope Francis drew upon this teaching in his recent Apostolic Exhortation, when he said, “Christ proposed as the distinctive sign of his disciples the law of love and the gift of self
for others.”

As we journey towards Pentecost, God will renew us in the spiritual gifts if and only if we are willing to give ourselves away in love and service for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Ascension of the Lord 2016 - Mummies, Hardheads, and Vagabonds

Way back at the beginning of Lent, we heard the Gospel story of Jesus going out into the desert, where he fasted and prayed for 40 days. There, too, he was tempted by the devil, but showed himself obedient to the Father. During those 40 days Jesus prepared for his public ministry of preaching and teaching—a ministry which would culminate with Jesus being lifted up on the cross—a sacrifice for our salvation. Today we celebrate how 40 days after his resurrection Jesus was lifted up once again, only, not to the altar of the cross, but to the throne of heaven.

As Jesus prepared 40 days for his own ministry, during the 40 days after Easter, Jesus prepared his disciples for their ministry—to preach Christ’s Gospel to the ends of the earth—before ascending to His Father in Heaven.

St. Luke described to us this scene in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles today. There was Jesus, gathered with his disciples on mount Olivet, the same mountain on which he gathered with them on Palm Sunday before entering into the gates of Jerusalem. There on Mount Olivet, them before entering into the gates of the new and heavenly Jerusalem, Jesus commissioned his disciples, giving them the mission of witnessing, and there he promised that the Holy Spirit would give them power and strength and courage for this mission.

Luke tells us then that when Jesus was done speaking, “he was lifted up” into heaven. And then Luke describes a very interesting detail.  Jesus had just commissioned his disciples, he ascended into heaven, and so did they get right work? No. In fact, God had to send angels to get them moving. “Men, of Galilee, why are you just standing there looking at the sky? Go get to work.”

Okay. Let’s give the disciples the benefit of the doubt. No one had ever seen anything like this. So maybe they were a little dumb founded.  But really guys, the Lord just gave you a command to go and witness, and you are just standing there with a dumb look on your face!

Well, aren’t we all, a lot of the time, just like that? Hasn’t Jesus given all that very same mission, and we are just standing there looking at the sky awaiting further instructions?

Pope Francis, this week, spoke of how Christians are all too often standing still in our Christian journey instead of moving forward to spread the Gospel. He actually had some pretty strong words about it. He said, “Christians who stay still, who don’t go forward, are non-Christian Christians...They are slightly ‘paganized’ Christians: (they) who stay still and don’t go forward in their Christian lives, who don’t make the Beatitudes bloom in their lives, who don’t do Works of mercy… they are motionless. Excuse me for saying it,” the Pope said, “but they are like an (embalmed) mummy, a spiritual mummy. There are Christians who are ‘spiritual mummies,’ motionless.  They don’t do evil but they aren’t doing good.” I like this image of spiritual mummies, and not just because it is mother’s day weekend, as we are thanking God for our own “mummies”.”

A mummy is a former human who has become dried up, become devoid of life and stuffed into a casket, mostly forgotten. We are called to be so much more than mummies.  Jesus said, I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly.  Our Christian faith exists to make us fully alive, to fill us with life and joy and spiritual gifts for the building up of the kingdom, but so often, we just stand there, and become dried up.

Well, not all of us.  Up and down the centuries the saints show us the vibrancy of the Christian faith, the miracles that can occur when we allow the life of Christ to permeate every cell of our being.  I remember seeing Pope Saint John Paul II when I was in Rome 12 years ago.  The man had already begun to be crippled from Parkinson’s, and yet, he was bursting with life, the light of Christ radiated from his eyes, the joy of the Gospel and the love he had for the Church bristled in every word. If the life of Christ isn’t manifestly evident, do we really have it? Pope Francis thinks not.

The Pope, this week spoke of two other types of Christians, hard headed Christians, he called them…testadura, capatost, as my own mother called me.  The hard headed Christian, the pope said, is like someone who makes a wrong turn on a journey, but refuses to turn around. The Church is a church of sinners, all of us having made a wrong turn at some point, but the authentic Christian acknowledges the sin which has led them away from the Lord, repents of the sin, and turns around to walk the road holiness again. Lord, deliver us from the stubbornness of unrepentance!

A third type of Christian, the Pope called vagabond Christians, those who become enamored with the good and beautiful things in the world, but fail to draw close to Jesus.  There are many good and beautiful things in the world: nature, motherhood, which we celebrate this weekend, family, home and hearth, good food, good conversation. God created the world this way. However, if we do not seek first the kingdom of God, we can become seduced by these earthly goods things and forget that the most important thing in life is to draw close to Christ. Jesus is meant to be our compass in life, and without prayer, without weekly attendance at Mass, without regular reading of Scripture, and regular charity to the poor, we can become lost in what the Pope called a labyrinth, going through life turning from one thing to the next, neglecting the one thing that matters most, our eternal soul.

I think this is why there are so many people out there who describe themselves as good people, but who never come to Church. Even though they are trying very hard, trying to raise their children well, in a sense they are lost.

After looking at these different types of Christians, Pope Francis said we do well to examine our own lives and ask whether we too have lost our way or become stationary. “How am I doing on this Christian journey?” the Pope asks. “Am I standing still, making mistakes, turning here and there, stopping in front of the things that I like, or (am I following) Jesus who said: “I am the Way’?” Have we let worldliness or vanity or stubbornness keep us from following Jesus as closely as we should?  Are we journeying forward and “putting into practice the beatitudes and works of mercy” in our daily lives? Or are we turning into a mummy, slowly becoming devoid of the life Christ died to give us?

We do well to examine our lives in light of the Pope’s reflections, and as we journey towards Pentacost next week, to identify those mummified parts of us that need to be revified, those stubborn parts of us that need to repent, and those wayward parts of us that need to be disciplined, that we may be open to all of the Spirit's gifts, that we may be faithful in witnessing to the Lord, and arrive safely at our eternal home in heaven for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Friday - 6th Week of Easter 2016 - In the face of failure...

Immediately prior to today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul had been preaching in the Areopagus of Athens, and now he had made his way to Corinth, the Sin City of the day.  There he would preach the Gospel, in a town of depraved moral standards, drunkenness, debauchery, incest and prostitution, full of idol worship and false religion.  He had to face this terribly difficult task, after failing in Athens.  Remember how in Athens, Paul offered an incredibly eloquent discourse, designed using language perfectly fitted for the philosophical Greeks, “meeting them where they were”, so to speak; and he failed, Paul gained very few converts in Athens.

He knew the Holy Spirit was urging him to preaching in Corinth, a much more difficult forum than Athens, and his recent failure must have weighed heavily on his mind.  In this state, the Lord spork the words from this morning’s reading, “Do not be afraid. Go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you. No one will attack and harm you, for I have many people in this city.”

In the work of spreading the Gospel, sometimes it seems like we experience more failures than successes.  And yet, that must not stop the mission.  When our egos become bruised, we must continue to do the work of God.

St. Paul lived in Corinth, for a year and a half, teaching the Gospel.  He knew that converts are not won overnight, simply because of one eloquent homily, one persuasive argument. 

But remember, in that moment when Paul may have been discouraged due to his failure, his mind and heart were open enough to hear the Lord speaking words which must have sustained him greatly in his missionary activity: “Do not be afraid. Go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you.”

In the face of apparent failure, we do well to recall the Lord’s presence with us.  Our failures are not proof that we are to call off our mission of doing the Lord’s work.  Failure is simply a sign that we need to turn more deeply in prayer to listen to the voice of the Lord speaking his encouragement to us. 

Repeated from yesterday’s Gospel, we hear again the promise that our sorrows will be transformed by the Lord into joy, when we are faithful to the mission he has given us.  Even in failure, even in sorrow, even in suffering, we can know joy, when our efforts are ordered to the Lord.

There are many times when we are afraid to speak and live the Gospel, when we are mocked or persecuted for our faith. As we come forward to receive Holy Communion on this first Friday, let us do so confident that the Lord is with us, encouraging us in our mission, freeing us from our fears, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Thursday - 6th Week of Easter 2016 - Grief transformed into joy

40 days ago, we celebrated the Feast of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus on Easter Sunday.  And 40 days after his resurrection, Jesus ascended to the right hand of his Father in heaven.  Traditionally, the Feast of the Ascension, a holy day of obligation, was celebrated today.  It still is in several dioceses throughout the world. 

In the rest of the dioceses of the United States, the celebration of the Ascension has been transferred to the following Sunday.  It is still a holy day of obligation because every Sunday is a holy day of obligation.

In the Gospel today, Jesus speaks of a grief that will be transformed into joy.  They would grieve, they would experience sorrow due to his departure, his Ascension into heaven. But he tells them, not to worry, their grief would be transformed into joy when the Holy Spirit came into their hearts.

Grief is a common experience for us, while here on earth.  We grieve the loss of our loved ones when they die, we grieve over our own declining health. The old saying goes, “grieve because it is human, hope because it is Christian.” Jesus in the beatitudes even says, “blessed are those who grieve, for they will be comforted”.  Grieving can become holy, a blessed thing, when in our grief, we turn to God. Grieving can open us up to the new vista of joy, when in our grief, we open up our hearts more deeply to the promises of God. Grief over a loved one can be transformed into hope, to be reunited with them in eternity.

So the apostles’ grief over the Savior’s departure, would be transformed into joy, as the held to the promise of the Holy Spirit. The true joy that comes from the Holy Spirit goes deeper than the fleeting emotions we know so well. Because God is with the Church perpetually in the person of the Holy Spirit, we can know joy even when we are suffering. God’s love is greater than all of our earthly trials, so no one can take true Christian joy away from us.

The only way we can lose our joy is by neglecting prayer, ignoring repentance, growing lax in our study of scripture, and turning away from the cries of the poor. I think so many of our adult Catholics leave the faith because they really never experienced the true joy of our faith, they never really opened their hearts to God’s gifts. Similarly, I think many people become stuck in grief because they do not surrender to God’s transforming love as they should.

During this month of may, we do well to consider the example of our Blessed Mother.  Though she was a mother of sorrows, a sword of grief piercing her heart, we know that she too received the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. She shows us that the sorrowful heart brought to God can still be a house for his presence.

Tomorrow is nine days until Pentecost.  And we would do well to begin a Pentecost novena, to dispose ourselves—to open our hearts, like Mary and the Apostles,—to that great gift of the Holy Spirit, that all of our grief may be turned into joy for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: May 3 2016 - Saints Philip and James & the Face of Christ

St. Phillip said to our Lord, “Master, show us the Father; and that will be enough for us.”  Jesus answers with a very gentle rebuke, he says, that’s why I’ve come, that’s what I’ve been doing, that who I am, I show you the Father because the Father and I are one.

Everything the savior does for us is for this purpose: to show us the Father, to reconcile us with the Father, to lead us to the Father, that we may be with him and his Father in paradise forever.  If we wish to know the Face of God, we but merely have to gaze at the Face of Jesus.  Saint Pope John Paul and Pope Benedict would often urge the faithful to contemplate the face of Jesus. Pope Francis opened announced the Year of Mercy by saying, “Jesus Christ is the face of the father’s mercy.” Francis invited the Church, along with the Blessed Virgin Mary, “to contemplate the face of mercy, her Son Jesus.”

Pope Francis wrote, the primary task of the Church “is to introduce everyone to the great mystery of God’s mercy by contemplating the face of Christ. The Church is called above all,” he said, “to be a credible witness to mercy, professing it and living it as the core of the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Philip didn’t quite initially “get it”: Philip didn’t realize that the Father was already being shown to Him by Jesus—and the love and in the face of Jesus. So many in the world don’t “get it” either—that the face of God is being shown to them by the witness of the Church.  Perhaps, that’s because we perhaps always aren’t the most credible of witnesses—mercy is not always being shown in our faces, is it?

The Gospel writer does not tell us whether Philip grasped the full meaning of Jesus’ sentence.  But there is no doubt that he dedicated the rest of whole life entirely to Christ.  It is said that Phillip was first to bring the Gospel to Greece and then to Frisia, the area along the North Sea from the Netherlands to Denmark.  It is there that he was martyred for the faith.

Along with Phillip we honor the Apostle James the son of Alphaeus today, often called James the lesser, not because he was less holy or shorter in stature or less important than James the Son of Zebedee, but because much less is known and written about him. 

Most importantly, these men were faithful in handing on the Gospel; they worked for the spread of the Gospel with their whole lives.  They may have been “late bloomers” so to speak, but they came to give everything in the establishment and edification of the Church. 

We are invited to turn our gaze more closely to Christ, so that we can be transformed into the evangelists, the apostles of mercy, we are meant to be. 

Pope Francis calls us this year to “open our hearts to those living on the outermost fringes of society”, to reflect on and practice the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, and to be cheerful as we perform them. 

We turn our gaze to the face of Christ, that others may come to recognize Christ as the way, the truth, and the life, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: May 2 2016 - St. Athanasius - Outstanding champion

St. Athanasius, as a young boy, had the honor of going out into the Egyptian desert, where he met the great saint Anthony of the desert, from whom, the Franciscan Anthony of Padua received his name.  The desert Fathers like Anthony, retreated to the silence and harshness of the desert to seek intimate union with the Lord, and People would go out into the desert to meet the desert fathers to pray with them and receive spiritual advice.   Athanasius, who would go on to become a great bishop, wrote the definitive biography of Saint Anthony, detailing Anthony’s holiness, and also his struggles with temptation.  Like the Lord Jesus, Anthony too would confront the devil. The devil would afflict Anthony with terrible temptations, and when Anthony resisted those, the devil would wage war upon the desert father by sending visions of wild beasts, scorpions, snakes, wolves, and lions.  Anthony lived mostly in seclusion as a hermit, but in 338, Anthony left the desert to travel to Alexandria to help refute the teachings of Arius. Although not particularly learned, Anthony was able to confound the Arians.

Like the desert Father, Athanasius was a man of great holiness, who stood against the error of Arius.  Athanasius faced the hostile attacks not only of the devil but his brother bishops, priests, magistrates, emperors, and intellectuals who had fallen into error. Bishop Athanasius was exiled from his diocese by Arian heretics five times—spending 17 years of his life in exile.  Yet, from exile, he continued to write against the heresy and teach the true faith.  He is known in Church history as the hammer of heretics.

The Arian heresy claimed that Jesus was the greatest man ever to live, but the title ‘Son of God’ could only to be applied to Jesus the same way it can be applied to the great men of the Old Testament, or anyone who seeks to do the will of God.  So the Arians denied the divinity of Christ, that Jesus was truly God and consubstantial with the Father. Though this heresy was quickly condemned by the patriarch of Alexandria and by the Council of Nicaea in 325, Arianism spread like wildfire, especially among men of power, including the emperor. 

As Bishop of Alexandria, Athanasius stridently defended the doctrine of Jesus’ divinity. Many bishops and priests sided with the emperor (who played a much larger role in Church politics than any world leader plays today). Imagine, if all of the bishops of a country fell into heresy, and only one remained faithful. It happened to Athanasius; it happened in England, when Bishop John Fisher stood against Henry VIII, and it could happen again—bishops and priests aligning with worldly philosophies instead of the truth of Christ.

There are times when it seems we are standing alone in preaching the Catholic faith.  But we are never truly alone; when we stand up for truth, we are always in communion with the great fathers of the Church, with the Apostles, and the Lord Himself, who called himself Truth.

Commitment to Christ means commitment to Truth.  In an age of cultural relativism and moral error, our world needs the truth of Christ preached clearly, consistently, and courageously.  May we like the great Saint Athanasius, have the fortitude and perseverance to defend the true faith without counting the cost for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 6th Sunday of Easter 2016 - "Spiritual or religious"

Have you ever met someone who described themselves as “spiritual, but not religious”? Perhaps, a family member who has stopped going to Church, or a teenager who does want to, says they’re, “spiritual, but not religious”.  Most of the time, the “spiritual, but not religious” are good people—they believe in God, they try to treat their neighbor with respect, they might pray or meditate, but do not hold to a specific doctrinal creed or practice the religious obligations of any particular religious denomination. They worship the Lord in the way they think best.

The difference with a religious person, is that we don’t seek only to worship the Lord according to our own preferences, but according to His. The religious person seeks to worship God according to what God Himself has revealed. If God says, “Forgive your enemy and Love one another as I have Loved you” that’s what we seek to do. If God says, “Do this in remembrance of me” referring to celebrating Eucharist every week, that’s what we seek to do.  If God set up the means to forgive our sins, namely through the sacrament of baptism and the sacrament of confession, these are the means we employ to seek God’s forgiveness.

Jesus came down from heaven to earth to show us the way to love God, not according to our own preferences, but to His.  In a sense, he came from heaven and earth to “upgrade” those who are merely spiritual to religious. He founded a religion—a true religion: not simply man’s best attempt to reach God, but a religion founded by God, taught by God. The religious man is guided not simply by his feelings, but by the very Word of God, who has spoken truly, and definitively.

Jesus emphasizes this distinction between “spiritual and religious” in the Gospel today, when he says, “Whoever loves me will keep my word” and “Whoever does not love me does not keep my word”.  Jesus says, love is not a feeling, love is an action. His followers are to be not just readers or listeners of his word, but “doers of his word” as St. James says in his New Testament Letter.  Jesus expands on this in the same Last Supper discourse when he says, “only if you keep my commandments will you love me”. 

St. John, hearing the teaching of Jesus at the Last Supper, spent the rest of his life reflecting on his words, internalizing them. And in his first New Testament Letter St. John wrote to the Church, “The way we may be sure that we know Jesus is to keep his commandments. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in him. This is the way we may know that we are in union with him: whoever claims to abide in him ought to live just as he lived.”

Now there are two ways to respond to Jesus’ call to obey God’s commandments.  Again, in this same discourse during the Last supper Jesus says, “You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.” We are to obey Jesus, not as a slave, but as a friend. Well, what’s the difference?

A slave obeys basically out of fear of punishment. Unless he does what the master says, he will be punished, perhaps even killed. A friend obeys out of love.  The two might be asked to do the exact same thing: clean a room, prepare a meal, paint a fence, go to Mass, forgive your enemy. But the slave and the friend do these activities for different reasons.  Jesus wants us to keep his word not as a slave, but as a friend—not out of fear that if we disobey we will suffer eternal hellfire, but to be motivated out of love for God.

Compared to any earthly friendship, our friendship with Jesus is unique. Whenever a friend asks us to do something, if we love that friend, we are going to try to do it. But, sometimes our earthly friends don’t always ask us to do the wisest of things.  “Hey, we are all going to go jump off a bridge. Come with us.” I had a buddy growing up, he and I were really into fireworks and explosions, and we probably got in trouble once or twice because of our…lack of prudence (I’m sure our cub scouts, who are here today, NEVER do ANYTHING inappropriate with fire). Sometimes our earthly friendships are not always governed by wisdom or prudence…or purity.  The modern term, “friends with benefits” is used to describe a relationship that has become perverted. 

Our friendship with Jesus, however, is aimed at our greatest good.  Jesus wants us to be filled with life, and joy, and peace…he says today “my peace I give you.”  Jesus wants us to flourish, to become the best version of ourselves, and he gives us the help we need to do that.  So we can be sure that anything Jesus asks of us, anything Jesus teaches us, is for our highest good. 

When we ignore his teaching, or disobey his teaching, we always deprive ourselves of something good.  We are “less” when we do not follow Jesus with our whole hearts. For he is not merely an earthly friend with limited vision, limited wisdom, limited love, but God, who knows us better than even our mothers know us.  God knows our every thought, every desire, every hair on our head, he sees into our hearts even the things we try to hide from ourselves, he knows us perfectly, loves us perfectly, so we can trust him perfectly.

We put into practice all the teachings of Jesus, not with a joyless obedience, but with trust, confident that He truly knows and wants what is best for us.  I remember in seminary, very early on, my first week or two, sitting in class and really diving into theology for the first time, thinking to myself, if ever I have an idea or opinion which is contrary to the teaching of Jesus or the teaching of the Church, I know that I am wrong. The teaching of the Church is not wrong…I am. And that has brought so much freedom and joy, because I can trust the Church, and I can trust that our Catholic faith leads us to heaven and to the perfection of our souls. 

Our religion is true because Our Lord is true, and he loves us, and wants what is best for us, and never deceives us.  So trust in the Church, trust her sacraments, trust her teachings on morality and sexuality, even when they are counter-cultural, even when they are hard, or inconvenient, or demanding. 

For by trusting in them, and obeying them, we obtain the Lord’s promise: a peace, not as the world gives, a peace obtained through an enduring friendship with God, who guides us to everlasting life.

And this is something the world cannot promise, the world cannot give. The worldly philosophies which contradict teachings cannot promise peace. Worldly notions of tolerance and subjective truth, secular understandings of gender and politics and so-called reproductive rights, cannot promise eternal life or even happiness. Secular errors in fact corrupts our ability to obey God and love our neighbor, Christian truth teaches us the things we need to hear, even when they are uncomfortable. 

Spiritual or religious, slave or friend? The merely “spiritual” person shows themselves to be a slave to his own wit, while the Christian shows himself to be true friend of God himself.

Today, in this Eucharistic celebration, Christ comes to us once again in friendship, the highest friendship, in which he lays down his life on the altar of the cross, to free us from slavery, that we may have eternal life. Let us welcome him, and welcome his truth into our minds and hearts without hesitation with perfect trust, that we may be ever more obedient to his teachings and commands for the glory of God and salvation of souls.