Pentecost 2020 - Gathered in our spiritual home

There is a common saying, “Home is where the heart is”. Home: it’s the place where you feel the warmth and safety of a familiar surrounding, the love of family, the peace of warm memories. Home is the place where you want to be at the end of the day, kick off your shoes, and put your feet up after a hard day’s work. Home is where you can let your guard down, rest, relax, and recharge. Hopefully, it’s the place where your heart is renewed in the presence of loved ones who love you, and understand you, and are patient with you.

Yet, some claim that this little truism, “home is where the heart is” originated from an earlier saying: “home is where the hearth is.” The hearth is the fireplace, especially important in earlier eras. The stone-hearth was where family would gather, especially before electricity, to cook and take their meals, to warm up after a day out in the cold. Children would sit on their parents lap before the hearth. The family bible would be read at the hearth. Stories would be told around the family hearth. The hearth, the fire, was central and indispensable to the family life.

The new proverb, “home is where the heart is” conveys something a little different. Home is not bound to a particular place, it is not tied to a particular assemblage of bricks and mortar. Home is wherever faith, family, and warmth are enjoyed, wherever we can bask in our happy memories, share our foundational stories, and be refreshed in the presence of those who love us—that’s home.

As Catholics, we speak of our parish as our spiritual home. And aren’t we so grateful that after several months of lockdown and quarantine, we are able to gather once again around the hearth of our spiritual home, the tabernacle, the altar. In the presence of a God who loves us, no matter what we’ve been going through, in the presence of fellow Catholics who support us in our call to holiness. We hope that we will never again be kept from gathering in our spiritual home.

St. Ignatius of Antioch has been spiritual home to thousands and thousands of Catholics in her 117 year history. Souls, many who have gone into eternity before us, many who have moved beyond our parish borders, some who have joined us via livestream over the past few weeks. In this place, God has been encountered through sacramental worship, in transcendent art, architecture, music, and ritual. Common bonds have been formed, so much that we refer to members of our parish family.

In this home, souls have progressed from spiritual infancy to various degrees of spiritual maturity—receiving the spiritual new birth of baptism, the spiritual food of the Eucharist, the spiritual medicine of reconciliation—gathering for weddings, funerals, picnics, festivals, graduations, athletic competitions, primary and secondary education, for the feeding and clothing of the poor.  We’ve been inspired, consoled, corrected, emboldened and empowered for the work of the Gospel.

At my installation mass as 10th Pastor of St. Ignatius of Antioch, I quoted the words of the fifth pastor, the great Monsignor Albert Murphy. And I’d like to quote him again, as his words, are so pertinent. Monsignor Murphy wrote “Few things in life are dearer to the heart of a devout Catholic than his parish. Along with home and family, she is the focus of our finest loyalties. From birth on through to death she is our Spiritual Mother—teaching, sustaining, admonishing, safeguarding and consoling—enriching our souls from the treasure house of her changeless love and shaping our days in the pattern of God’s bounteous graces.”

Your love for your spiritual home can be seen in the ways that you’ve continued to support, so generously, its upkeep and mission, through the years and during the lockdown. For, like any physical home, our spiritual home, our parish church requires constant upkeep, maintenance, repair, especially a spiritual home such as ours, which has stood for nearly a hundred years.

This feast of Pentecost is such a fitting feast to regather after months of lockdown in our spiritual home. For Pentecost is always a feast of new beginnings, new chapters. For the apostles, that first Pentecost began something new, a new experience of God, with the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Church. That first Pentecost brought the apostles a new flowering of spiritual gifts, which they would utilize as they burst forth from that upper room into to the streets of Jerusalem, to preach that Christ is risen there and to the corners of the earth.

So, too for us. Whenever we gather in our spiritual home, yes we are gathering in a familiar place, with familiar faces, and familiar rituals—to experience warmth and to be spiritually recharged. But we also gather to be emboldened and commissioned for something new. As our economy and society begins to upon up once again, as individuals and as a parish, we need to consider well, how are we being called to engage society in new ways?  To make use of our resources more diligently. How can we cultivate new spiritual gifts here? Forge new bonds with the members of this neighborhood and welcome new parishioners who do not share our history? How can we love God and neighbor, family and enemy just a little more deeply?

There is a sort of paradox in our Catholic faith, isn’t there? God who is unchanging, calls us to one faith, one church, one Gospel truth which is essentially unchanging. But, at the same time God calls us to always change, semper reformanda, in the latin, to always seek ever-deeper conversion to Christ, to always nurture new spiritual gifts and make use of them in our ever-changing circumstances. Our rituals, our creeds, our doctrines are essentially unchanging, and yet, they prepare us to allow the wind of the Holy Spirit to blow where He pleases, to direct us, not just where I want to go, but where God wants me to go.

We flock back to the spiritual warmth and fire of our rock solid faith and spiritual home. However, that the warmth and that faith needs to be spread out there, in the coldness and chaos of the world. Or else, what are we doing here? We don’t go to church to be lulled to sleep, but to be woken up, to become animated, activated, illuminated, conformed to an itinerant preacher who claimed no place to lay his head; who saw this earth, not so much as a home, but as a temporary dwelling in which to engage in his Father’s work.

May the fire of the Holy Spirit warm us, for it has been so cold and lonely in our lock down. But, may that same fire ignite new spiritual gifts within us, and set us aflame with courage and conviction for spreading the Gospel out in the unfamiliar places of the world, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

May 29 2020 - Pope St. Paul VI - The New Evangelization

Today and tomorrow, the last two weekdays of Easter, our Gospel passage comes from the epilogue and the very last chapter of John’s Gospel:  The Risen Lord Jesus sits on the shore of the sea of Galilee with his apostles, who instead of going out into the world to be fishers of men, had returned to their old profession of catching fish.

But he speaks with them, reminding them of their new mission, a mission which is characterized by love. Peter, do you love me? Then feed my lambs. Peter, do you love me? Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep. Love of the Lord Jesus was to motivate and animate Peter’s mission, and the mission of all those who call themselves Christians. Love must always motivate us outward, propel us outward, direct our concern and activity outward.

Pope Benedict XVI writes in his first great encyclical on love, “ The entire activity of the Church is an expression of a love that seeks the integral good of man: it seeks his evangelization through Word and Sacrament, an undertaking that is often heroic in the way it is acted out in history; and it seeks to promote man in the various arenas of life and human activity.” How is the Lord asking me to love in a heroic way the people in my life: family, strangers, fellow parishioners?

Today the Church honors another one of Peter’s saintly successors, Pope St. Paul VI, who was Pope during the lifetime of just about everybody here this morning, save for me and the seminarian. The spread of the Gospel throughout the world was certainly one of the great themes of Paul VI’s papacy, inviting Catholics to engage in “the new evangelization”, a term he coined in his 1975 exhortation, “Evangelii Nuntiandi”,  a document Pope Francis called “the greatest pastoral document that has ever been written.

“For the Church, evangelizing means bringing the Good News into all the strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new… to bear witness that in His Son God has loved the world - that in His Incarnate Word He has given being to all things and has called men to eternal life… Evangelization will also always contain - as the foundation, center, and at the same time, summit of its dynamism - a clear proclamation that, in Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, who died and rose from the dead, salvation is offered to all men, as a gift of God's grace and mercy

Love for our fellow man means concern for his eternal soul, which motivates our sharing of the Gospel with Him. Again, how is the Lord asking me to love today, love which involves sharing the Gospel, sharing the Good News, sharing the truth of God’s grace and mercy…for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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Let us pray to our Heavenly Father, confident that He is generous to those who call upon Him with faith.
For Pope Francis, and all the bishops: may they rightly lead the Body of Christ in the fullness of Christian truth. And that the Holy Spirit may guide the Holy Father in choosing a new bishop for the diocese of Cleveland, a bishop who is convicted of the Truth!
For our President and all elected government representatives, may the Holy Spirit grant them wisdom and guide them to promote domestic tranquility, national unity, respect for religious freedom, and a greater reverence for the sanctity of Human Life.
That the power of Christ’s resurrection may overcome all oppression, prejudice, hatred, addiction and injustice. For those most profoundly impacted by the coronavirus, for the healing of all the sick. For those who selflessly labor for the good of others, for the safety of first responders and medical care workers, police and firefighters. For the protection of all those who serve in our nation’s military, and for all wounded servicemen and women, for all those widowed and orphaned because of war.
For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our family, friends, and parish, for those who have fought and died for our freedom, and for Dennis Dentzer for whom this mass is offered.
Gracious Father, hear the prayers of your pilgrim Church, grant us your grace and lead us to the glory of your kingdom, through Christ Our Lord.

7th Week of Easter 2020 - Wednesday - Consecrated in the Truth

The final section of John’s Gospel right before the Passion is a prayer that Jesus offers to the Father.  Scholars call it “The High Priestly Prayer” of Jesus.

We heard the beginning of this prayer yesterday. Jesus prays for his disciples because just as he is going to suffer in his Passion, they are going to suffer in their mission to spread the Gospel.
In today’s Gospel passage, the Lord’s High Priestly Prayer continues; the Lord continues to pray for his disciples. And what does he pray for today? “Father, keep them in your name, that they may be one as we are one.” The Lord prays for their unity, their unity with God and their unity with each other. On the night before he died, Jesus was praying for us, for our unity. Our unity in the truth of the Gospel, the truth that comes from God: “Your word, father, is truth…consecrate them in the truth” he prays. To be consecrated, is to be set apart from the rest. To be consecrated in the truth, we are set apart from the rest of the world that is divided due to error and hard-heartedness and pride that thinks they know better than God.

When Jesus speaks of the coming of the Holy Spirit, he calls the Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth.” The Holy Spirit, whose descent upon the Church we celebrate in a few days, is the greater unifier of the Church, and He unifies us to believe the truth, live the truth, and profess the truth, of the Gospel.

The Holy Spirit will always help us to believe the truth, live the truth, and profess the truth. If we let Him.

You may have noticed that in the acts of the Apostles, St. Paul is giving a sort of farewell address as well. And in the passage from Acts today, St. Paul speaks about unity and truth, “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock. And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth to draw the disciples away after them.”

Nothing causes disunity like the perversion of truth. Nothing draws disciples away from the unity of the Church like the perversion of truth. St. Paul even recognizes that there are sometimes people within the Church who pervert the truth. “So be vigilant” he says. Hold fast to that which is good. Have the same mind as Jesus Christ.

Truth isn’t determined by a majority vote, it’s not determined by Twitter, Fox News or CNN. The truth of how we are to live, how we are to conduct ourselves, comes from God. “Your word, father, is truth.” So we read the Scriptures, and re-read them, and re-read them that we might conform to the truth found within them. We read and study our catechism, and re-read it, and re-read it, to more deeply understand the truth explained in it. Because the truth is the only hope we have, the Truth which sets us free from our self-destructive tendencies, the truth which illuminates our path in troubled times, confused times, and dark times. May we be consecrated in the truth, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Let us pray to our Heavenly Father, confident that He is generous to those who call upon Him with faith.

For Pope Francis, and all the bishops: may they rightly lead the Body of Christ in the fullness of Christian truth. And that the Holy Spirit may guide the Holy Father in choosing a new bishop for the diocese of Cleveland, a bishop who is convicted of the Truth!

For our President and all elected government representatives, may the Holy Spirit grant them wisdom and guide them to promote domestic tranquility, national unity, respect for religious freedom, and a greater reverence for the sanctity of Human Life.

That the power of Christ’s resurrection may overcome all oppression, prejudice, hatred, addiction and injustice. For those most profoundly impacted by the coronavirus, for the healing of all the sick. For those who selflessly labor for the good of others, for the safety of first responders and medical care workers, police and firefighters. For the protection of all those who serve in our nation’s military, and for all wounded servicemen and women, for all those widowed and orphaned because of war.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our family, friends, and parish, for those who have fought and died for our freedom, and for Jason & Lucille Morely for whom this mass is offered.

Gracious Father, hear the prayers of your pilgrim Church, grant us your grace and lead us to the glory of your kingdom, through Christ Our Lord.

7th Week of Easter 2020 - Tuesday - Tears and Trials for the kingdom

We know well that on the night before he died, Our Lord gathered with his disciples in the upper room to celebrate the last supper and to give his disciples an example of charity in the washing of the feat. After the departure of Judas the betrayer from their company, Our Lord engaged in what scholars call his “Farewell Discourse” which is recorded over several chapters in St. John’s Gospel.

These are some of the most mystical passages in the Gospel where Our Lord speaks about his unity with the Father, his going to the right hand of his Father in heavenly glory, and following his departure from the midst of his disciples, he and the Father will send the Holy Spirit upon the Church. The Lord foretells then his Ascension, his going to the Father, and then the sending of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost.

And so its fitting for us to read from this section of John’s Gospel during this short period of the liturgical calendar between the Feast of the Ascension last week and the Feast of Pentecost this upcoming Sunday. I highly recommend reading John chapters 13 to 17 in one sitting sometime this week, to get a sense of the whole Farewell Discourse.

But today we read perhaps the most lofty section of the discourse, the opening lines of what is called the Lord’s High Priestly Prayer where the Lord takes on the language of a priestly intercessor and mediator on behalf of his disciples. He prays for his disciples. “I pray for them” he says today, “because as I’m coming to you, departing from this world…they are staying in the world” and have some work to do. They are going to face mockery, and suffering, and torture, “tears and trials” as St. Paul describes in our first reading.

It is comforting to know that the Lord has foreseen our “tears and trials”; that on the night before he died, he was thinking of us, and praying for us, that what we suffer for being his disciples will bring us a share in the glory of God, that what we do on earth will glorify God. This prayer must have given St. Paul so much courage and conviction as he preached to Jews and Gentiles and endured imprisonment and beatings. And it is meant to fill us with courage and conviction as well, to willingly embrace “tears and trials” for the sake of the kingdom, knowing that God sees and will reward what we endure for him.

Whether you are an ordained priest,  a homeless beggar, a widow, a farmer or seamstress, king or slave, we are called to a life which makes God known to others, which does not shrink away from tears and trials for the sake of the kingdom, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Let us pray to our Heavenly Father, confident that He is generous to those who call upon Him with faith.

For Pope Francis, and all the bishops: may they rightly lead the Body of Christ in faithfulness to all the Lord teaches and commands. And that the Holy Spirit may guide the Holy Father in choosing a new bishop and shepherd for the diocese of Cleveland.

For our President and all elected government representatives, may the Holy Spirit grant them wisdom and guide them to promote authentic and lasting peace in the world, an end to terrorism, respect for religious freedom, and a greater reverence for the sanctity of Human Life.

That the power of Christ’s resurrection may overcome all oppression, prejudice, hatred, addiction and injustice. For those most profoundly impacted by the coronavirus, for the healing of all the sick. For those who selflessly labor for the good of others, for the safety of first responders and medical care workers, police and firefighters. For the protection of all those who serve in our nation’s military, and for all wounded servicemen and women, for all those widowed and orphaned because of war.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our family, friends, and parish, for those who have fought and died for our freedom, and for Margaret Gorczyca for whom this mass is offered.

Gracious Father, hear the prayers of your pilgrim Church, grant us your grace and lead us to the glory of your kingdom, through Christ Our Lord.

Memorial Day 2020 - Imbued with the spirit of self-sacrifice

It is so good to see all of you back in the pews after such a long period of quarantine. And what a fitting day to return to Mass: to gather to remember in gratitude the sacrifice and to pray for the souls of those who fought and died for our freedom, which includes our freedom to gather for worship and to practice our faith.

The Church does not have a particular set of readings or orations for this civil holiday, so, again this year, I’ve chosen the readings and prayers from the mass for the faithful departed. From the book of wisdom we hear of God’s promise to the just, and the Lord’s promise to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

We remember our heroes today—those who hungered and thirsted for justice, enough to die for it—and not just justice and peace for themselves, but for future generations. We see their death not as misery or tragedy, but as honorable and something worth emulating. Something of their spirit, too, is to permeate our lives, their bravery and courage and concern for the good of the nation and their fellow man is to imbue our civil discourse. The spirit of their self-sacrifice, calling to mind the self-sacrifice of Our Blessed Lord, is to imbue our daily life, our conversations, interactions with strangers, and treatment of the poor.

The honor we show them is perhaps a measure of the spiritual health of our nation. So as, confused and misdirected our nation is, at times, the fact that we still believe that these men and women are worth memorializing, is proof that not all hope is lost.

Today we also recall our duty to not let their sacrifices go in vain. And we commit to not wasting the freedom they died for, we commit to fighting against tyranny and injustice in our own day, and remembering the lessons of the past.

With a spirit of profound gratitude for all who made it possible for us to be here today, we pray for our beloved war dead, and pray that we may, like them, hunger and thirst and work for justice and peace for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Let us pray to our Heavenly Father, confident that He is generous to those who call upon Him with faith.

For Pope Francis, and all the bishops: may they rightly lead the Body of Christ in faithfulness to all the Lord teaches and commands. And that the Holy Spirit may guide the Holy Father in choosing a new bishop and shepherd for the diocese of Cleveland.

For our President and all elected government representatives, may the Holy Spirit grant them wisdom and guide them to promote authentic and lasting peace in the world, an end to terrorism, respect for religious freedom, and a greater reverence for the sanctity of Human Life.

That the power of Christ’s resurrection may overcome all oppression, prejudice, hatred, addiction and injustice. For those most profoundly impacted by the coronavirus, for the healing of all the sick. For those who selflessly labor for the good of others, for the safety of first responders and medical care workers, police and firefighters. For the protection of all those who serve in our nation’s military, and for all wounded servicemen and women, for all those widowed and orphaned because of war.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our family, friends, and parish, for those who have fought and died for our freedom, and For the deceased members of  the Masters, Tomasetti & McIlvain families for whom this mass is offered.

Gracious Father, hear the prayers of your pilgrim Church, grant us your grace and lead us to the glory of your kingdom, through Christ Our Lord.

Ascension 2020 - Don't just stand there

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 in the desert, Our Lord prepared emotionally, mentally, and spiritually his public ministry of preaching and teaching, healing, and confronting the error and evil which had crept into jewish religious life—into the hearts of his people. Those 40 days prepared him to embrace His Father’s will, which would culminate with his sacrifice on Calvary.

After his resurrection and prior to his ascension, Our Lord also prepared for 40 days, not so much himself, but he prepared his disciples for their ministry—to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth. St. Luke tells us in our reading from the Acts of the Apostles how Our Lord prepared his disciples: He appeared to them, he presented himself alive to them, he showed them proofs of his suffering and victory over death. And he instructed them, he spoke of the kingdom of God to them, he gave them specific marching orders and also formed them for the Gospel mission to the ends of the earth. And he spoke of their coming baptism in the Holy Spirit, Pentecost.

This time of preparation was vitally important. They would need courage. They would need competency. And they needed the divine life within them. For they would be facing torment, and opposition, and the very powers of hell bent at tearing down all that is holy.

At the end of those 40 days after the resurrection, before their very eyes, St. Luke tells us, Our Lord was lifted up, he ascended. An event which resonated deeply in the early church, for it is recorded in all four Gospels and the book of acts.

And in Acts, immediately following the Lord’s ascension, we read a very interesting detail, it’s almost comical, if not predictable, if you’ve been paying attention to how the apostles typically respond to Jesus’ instructions. Our Lord ascends into heaven, it’s time for the apostles to get to work, and what do they do? Acts tells us, they just stood there, looking intently at the sky.

They were so immobilized that God had to send angels to get them moving again.  “Men, of Galilee, why are you just standing there looking at the sky?” Don’t just stand there, do something. Get to work! 

A few years ago, Pope Francis spoke about how Christians can be alot like those disciples in that moment after the Ascension.  In fact, Pope Francis 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.”

Pretty strong words! For what is a mummy, but a former human who has become dried-up, devoid of life, stuffed into a casket. Motionless.

Christians are to be so much more than mummies. The Lord 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 conviction and spiritual gifts for the building-up of the kingdom, but so often, we just stand there, fearful to step forward, afraid of making a mistake, fearful of appearing too Christian. What would our neighbors think if we invited them to church? What would our family members think if we got involved in volunteer work in the parish. What would people think if we took initiative in starting up a prayer group, a bible study?

Fear is certainly one of the great enemies of the spiritual life, fear which mummifies, paralyzes, causes us to stand still in the spiritual life and the work of the Gospel. And yet, we know that great spiritual vibrancy is possible. Up and down the centuries the saints show us what happens when you allow Christian courage and spiritual fecundity to animate one’s life.

I remember when I came face to face with Pope Saint John Paul II when I was living in Rome 16 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. Though his physical life began to fail, his spiritual life thrived. It’s possible, for each one of us, spiritual vibrancy is possible whether in quarantine, in prison or poverty, peacetime or war.

Now, I know, we’ve had a very difficult, very strange Lent and Easter this year. Fear of sickness and disease may have caused us to become a little spiritually paralyzed, spiritually immobile. With eyes agape we’ve gazed for too many hours at television and computer screens. Instead of making our homes places where spiritual life thrives, we’ve made them into mummy’s caskets.

As our parish reopens for weekday mass this week and Pentecost Mass next Sunday, we do well to identify those mummified parts of our lives that need to be re-vivified, those fearful chambers of our hearts that need to be emboldened, the arid parts of our souls that need to be watered. Be generous with God this week as you prepare not only to return to Church, but for the work of the gospel out in the world. For yes, we come to Church, in order to worship and adore our God and Savior, but we come to Church in order to be strengthened and emboldened to go out into the world to preach and to teach, to make disciples, and to baptize, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

6th Sunday of Easter 2020 - To fall deeply in love with Jesus Christ

There’s a catholic philosopher and author I very much enjoy named Dr. Peter Kreeft. And Dr. Kreeft tells the story about a time he was invited to give a talk at a small monastery up in Connecticut.  And at the end of his visit, the monastery’s holy abbot approached Dr. Kreeft and said, “I’d like to ask you a question, Doctor. And it’s the same question we ask every visitor to our monastery when they are about to leave. And the question is, “If God asked you, what gift would you give to these monks if you could, what gift would you ask for these monks?” 

Dr. Kreeft, thought about it for a moment, and said, “I would ask God to make every single one of you fall totally in love with Jesus Christ for the rest of your life. That is the gift for which I would ask.” At his answer, the abbot smiled and some of the monks began to chuckle.  Not thinking it was a terrible answer, Dr. Kreeft asked the abbot why the monks were laughing at him. And the abbot said, we are not laughing at you or your response, it’s just that last month, Mother Theresa visited us, and she gave the exact same answer: that you may fall totally in love with Jesus Christ.

Why would Dr. Kreeft consider this the greatest gift you could wish for someone? Why do Mother Theresa and the Saints consider falling totally in love with Jesus Christ the greatest of all gifts? Why would they say if you could give one gift to a spouse or child or family member, one gift to you neighbor, one gift to a stranger, to the sick, imprisoned, or orphan, you’d want them more than anything to love Jesus Christ? What’s behind this answer? I promise it’s not false piety. They are serious, dead serious.

Well, because the love of God is the key to everything. Love is the key to the great joy of the saints. It is their motivation for lives of tremendous generosity and self-sacrifice. The love of God is what gives meaning to following the most difficult commandments in times of fiercest temptation. It’s what gives souls the motivation to turn away from sin, to leave lives of selfishness and self-destruction and wickedness. Sinners are converted when they learn to love Jesus Christ more than themselves. Children are inspired to seek lives of radical holiness when they learn to love Jesus Christ more than the prospect of wealth, fame, or power. Loving Jesus Christ is more important than becoming the all-star athlete, well-connected politician, or technological innovator. 

Love of Jesus Christ is the pearl of great price that is worth abandoning everything else in the world in order to obtain. To pursue It is to pursue eternal life. “If you wish to enter life,” Jesus tells the rich young man, “keep the commandments, love God with your whole heart, mind, soul and strength.” Love of God, love of Jesus Christ true God and true man, sets us upon the road to eternal life. It keeps us on the road, when the road becomes difficult. It draws us back to the road when we foolishly go astray.

When we deeply love Jesus Christ we begin to value all that supports, nurtures, and sustains that love. We come to value prayer as the most important of our daily activities, prayer which brings us in contact with Our Lord; prayer which opens our ears to his voice, his teachings, his guidance and or hearts to follow his example of selfless oblation.  We come to value fasting, confessing, forgiving, turning the other cheek, generous giving, self-forgetting. 

And, when we love Jesus Christ, we begin to disdain all that hinders that love, all that keeps us from loving him whole-heartedly. We begin to scorn those forays into selfishness so prevalent in our modern culture. We disdain begin to disdain self-indulging, dishonesty, bearing resentment, impurity, impulsiveness, and self-aggrandizing. 

As we increase in our love of God, our love of Jesus Christ, our capacity to love others increases. Christian author C.S. Lewis, speaking about how to rightly order his love of God and love of his wife said “only when I have learned to love God more than my wife, shall I begin to love my wife as I should.”

Love of Jesus impels us to serve him in the poor and needy. It’s what impelled St. Francis to embrace the leper, St. Vincent de Paul to embrace the plague victims, St. Francis Xavier Cabrini to leave her native land to serve the immigrants, St. Junipero Sera and St. Rose Philippine Duchesne to educate and serve the Native Americans, St. Mother Theresa to serve the poorest of the poor, St. Maximilian Kolbe to take the place of the concentration camp prisoner about to be executed.

Love of Jesus Christ transformed the lives of these ordinary people to do extraordinary things, and it can for us as well, if we let it, if we make it our greatest pursuit, as did they. 

Love of God is the key to following all of the commandments. If you love me, Jesus tells the apostles in the Gospel today, keep my commands. The apostles’ personal love for Jesus leads them to obey his commandments, his teachings, and his example. All of them, save Judas the betrayer, would go on to suffer greatly for the spread of the Gospel.

Love of God enables us to suffer wrongdoing patiently, to be kind to those who slander or mock us. Love enables us to overcome jealousy, pride, rudeness, and every earthly attachment. It enables us to bear all things,  believe all that the Church teaches, hope in the promises of Christ, and endure every trial. Love never fails.

May you fall totally in love with Jesus Christ today and all days, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

5th Sunday of Easter 2020 - "Do not let your hearts be troubled"

“Do not let your hearts be troubled”. We do well to return to those words, over and over, for if there is anything that we are not really good at, as humans, it’s keeping our hearts from being troubled, when we face danger or uncertainty or change or very strong emotion, like grief or anger. “Do not let your hearts be troubled”, easier said than done.

But, our Lord uttered these words knowing a little something about the human heart, with its frailties and fickleness. After all, he is its author. Knowing our tendency to over think, to be anxious, to lose our cool, to become frightened and discouraged, our Lord commands us still: “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”

It was on the night before his own death that he spoke these words to his apostles gathered for the Passover meal under some pretty strange circumstances. Jesus had already predicted that he would be killed because of his teachings and preaching of the Gospel. The apostles had already detected Jesus’ enemies conspiring against him. They knew that his mission would have consequences for him and for them, his closest followers. But now he spoke on the very night of his arrest, when he would be dragged before the high priest like the temple lamb being led to its slaughter.

They could no doubt sense something in the air. Perhaps they would be arrested like him, perhaps they would suffer like him, perhaps they would be put to death, as he predicted he would be. “Do not let your hearts be troubled” when you face the unknowable, the unthinkable. Do not let your hearts be trouble as you witness horror, when you see your world collapse, when those seemingly invincible earthly institutions begin to crumble, when security and health and mortality are threatened. “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Ever. Custody of the heart is to be kept always.

Not an easy task. When your world begins spiraling out of control, when death takes a loved one, when you lose your job. When it just doesn’t seem like there is anything you can do, there is always at least one thing. There is a choice we can make when we face the great chaos. A choice, an act of the will, a decision.  We can keep our hearts from being troubled. Our Lord wouldn’t have made this command if it were impossible. And all things are possible with God, including this.

What is this trouble, the Lord is talking about? In St. John’s Greek…this word for trouble is the Greek word tarasso, which means physically agitated, disturbing the inner works of a thing by shaking it. When we are experiencing chaos, doesn’t it feel just like that, like our inner world is quaking and shaking apart. Our plans for the future, our understanding of how the world should work begins to fall apart?

The latin translation of this word also is interesting. St. Jerome used the word turbetur, which connotes an angry mob rioting. And the Lord is saying keep your heart from becoming like an angry, irrational mob, smashing what it does not understand. Keep your heart from shaking apart. Keep your heart from disquiet and dread, distress and doubt.

That the Lord assumes that we even have this power within us, is kind of surprising. But he knows we do, because again, he made us.

So how can we keep our hearts from trouble? What does this mean? This choice, this decision it doesn’t mean we ignore our troubles, ignore the chaos or injustice or the divisions in our church or in our families. Ignoring our problems is not the key to peace. Nor, does this mean playing some sort of psychological game of just looking on the bright side of things like naïve Pollyanna, hiding behind some invincible optimism or a pair of rose-colored glasses.

Nor does true inner peace come from imposing control on things outside ourselves. When we feel our life going out of control, sometimes we seek to impose control on others—nagging our family members—or giving in to addictions, things that we feel we can control, at least for a time.
Rather, to keep our hearts from trouble, or Lord says, have faith. Choose to have faith. “You have faith in God, have faith in me.” The Lord said.

Commenting on this passage, Augustine writes “Our Lord consoles His disciples, who, as men, would be naturally alarmed and troubled at the idea of His death, by assuring them of His divinity.” Faith that Jesus Christ is God, Chrysostom writes, “is more powerful than anything that shall come upon you; and can prevail in spite of all difficulties.”

Have faith, engage your faith, live your faith that Jesus is God. No matter what you are going through, put Jesus Christ, True God at the center of it. “For I am convinced,” writes St. Paul, “that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Faith that Jesus is God can conquer demons. This faith can move mountains. It grants us boldness and zeal when called upon to preach, it grants us fortitude when faced with temptation, it grants eternal perspective when faced with earthly ordeals. When you have true faith, when you have made Christ your cornerstone, your life becomes charged and changed by his presence. It grants the conviction that God’s plan is greater, and runs deeper, than our narrow perspectives.

So when you begin to experience any sort of trouble of heart, any temptation, dread or despair, recall that Jesus Christ is God—that He is victor over all sin and evil and death. And then consider what that truth impels you to do. I guarantee it never includes sitting around and worrying or overeating or numbing yourself with drugs or lashing out at a neighbor or conspiring against him.
May we exercise true faith today and all days, faith which keeps our hearts from all trouble, faith which impels us to work for the spread of the Gospel for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

4th Sunday of Easter 2020 - I am the gate

Since Vatican II we refer to the 4^th Sunday of Easter as Good Shepherd Sunday. Two out of three years of our cycle of Scripture readings, we read of Our Lord saying to his audience in the Gospels “I am the Good Shepherd”. His pronouncement certainly evokes images of shepherds watching over, feeding, teaching, and loving his flock. I always think of an image from my childhood of Jesus carrying the baby lamb in his arms. The good shepherds of Scripture patiently care for their flock, leading them to safe pastures, pulling them out of thorn bushes when they foolishly stray into trouble.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd—he knows us…intimately! And as we spend time under his care,  guidance and protection, we begin to recognize his voice amidst all the conflicting noises and voices of the world. Wonderful.

Every, third year, however, on Good Shepherd Sunday, we hear a slightly different message, a slightly different image. Before the Lord identifies himself has the Good Shepherd, he first explains, as we heard in the Gospel today, that he is the gate for his sheep. “I am the gate.” He says.

Well, what is the purpose of a gate? For one, the gate is an entry point. “I am the gate, whoever enters through me will be saved.” Our Lord himself is the gate to salvation. He is the open door through which we enter into salvation and good pasture and the life of God. His identification to be the gate, is very similar to his self-identification later in John’s Gospel when he says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.”

How do we enter through the gate of Christ? Through faith. Right belief and right practice. Faith is the doorway to salvation Our Lord opened for us through his death and resurrection. Back in 2011, in the seventh and final full year of his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI ushered in a special “Year of Faith” with a document called “Porta Fidei” the door of faith, the gate of faith. The gate of faith, the holy Father writes, “is always open for us, ushering us into the life of communion with God and offering entry into his Church. It is possible to cross that threshold when the word of God is proclaimed and the heart allows itself to be shaped by transforming grace. To enter through that door is to set out on a journey that lasts a lifetime. It begins with baptism (cf. Rom 6:4), through which we can address God as Father, and it ends with the passage through death to eternal life, fruit of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, whose will it was, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, to draw those who believe in him into his own glory (cf. Jn 17:22).”

What a beautiful image, through faith, through baptism we enter through Christ the gate into the life of God, into the divine life which begins now in this earthly life and endures into eternity.

There is another purpose for gates alluded to by the Lord in the Gospel today. Gates keep-out robbers and thieves. Gates stop those people, those ideas and beliefs, those attitudes and actions, which deprive us of the life of God. When the Jesus Christ is king and Shepherd of your life, he acts as a sort of gate which protects us from evil in the world which seeks to enter our minds and hearts and rob us of the peace and joy and life of Christ.

The truth of Jesus Christ and that of his Church filters and protects us from the lies and heresies promulgated by the devil throughout the world, lies and heresies which cause division in the Church, ruin to souls and our separation from communion with God. The truth of Jesus Christ enables us to discern right from wrong—fallacy from veracity—when we come across it in the media, in propaganda, or from false shepherds.

This image of a gate, a Christian filter, is a important for the moral life as well. Often in the confessional, I’ll hear sins confessed like gossip, you know, speaking things about others which we have no business talking about, or saying hurtful, cutting, or cruel things to our loved ones or strangers when we become angry. Sins of the mouth, right? sins of speech. And I often give the following advice, I say, Christ must always preside over our speech. We need to have a Christian filter of our words. Before we say anything, ever, we must discern, is it true, is it kind, is it necessary, would Christ say these words? As Peter writes in today’s second reading, “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. When he was insulted, he returned no insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten” And so must we.

Part of the Christian life is developing that filter of saying only what builds others up, what is for the sake of the Gospel. Is it true, is it kind, is it necessary? It sounds like a lot of work, but as you develop this filter, this virtue, it becomes easier and easier.

One of my favorite parts of the Mass, is right before the proclamation of the Gospel, we sign ourselves, don’t we, on our foreheads, our mouths, and on our breast, a simple, yet profound gesture. I was always taught to offer a little prayer at that point, to say something like, May the Lord be always in my thoughts, on my lips, and in my heart. We pray, at the point in the mass, that the gates of our minds might be opened to received and contemplate and understand the Gospel message, that our lips might be open to later go out and proclaim the Gospel message, and that our hearts might be open to love and live the Gospel message. But also, we are asking the Lord to keep from our minds, and lips, and hearts, any lies or heresies which might be contrary to his Gospel truth; we are asking Him to serve as a Gate and as Gatekeeper.

So, may the Lord preside over our thoughts, words, and deeds this day. May nothing which is impure pass through our eyes or ears or through our lips. May he save us from the corruption of this generation, and lead us to eternal life, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.