All Saints 2020 - Who we are, where we're going, how to get there

At the tail end of Vatican II, Pope Paul VI promulgated a document called Gaudium et Spes, the pastoral constitution on the Church in the Modern World. It’s purpose was to help the Church understand her position and role and mission in the changing modern world with all of its advancements and strengths and foolishness and errors. For it’s important for the Church to reflect upon the “signs of the times”—a phrase which came from this document—to understand better the concrete details in which we are to live out our Christian mission and identity.

While explaining the need for Christians to bring our faith and live our faith in the many different levels of society in which we find ourselves, Gaudium et Spes is also very realistic in speaking about monumental struggle against the powers of evil and darkness.  History is not just the story of human progress, right? We are opposed by satan, the father of lies, who seeks to corrupt souls and bring ruin to nations and families and the Church. 

Last week, when we celebrated Priesthood Sunday, I asked for and thanked you for your prayers for priests—because there is a real battle involved in working for the good of souls. And if the devil can bring ruin to priests, well, that’s going to have an impact on parishes and families, isn’t it? 

But it’s not just priests, Vatican II says, all Christians are involved in this struggle, this battle. Facing such hostility and wickedness and personal demons, we recognize we need God. We need the Sacraments. We need prayer. We need the guidance of good solid Catholic teaching from our Pope and Bishops. If we are going to survive the battle with our souls intact, we need to make sure that we are drawing as much strength and protection and light from our faith as possible. 

And, this weekend, on this solemn feast, we look to the holy souls, the saints, the men and women and children, from every age, and place, and profession, who “survived the time of great distress," as St John calls this life on earth in our First Reading. The survivors, the spiritual war heroes, those who are glorified by God in eternity because of their Christian faith, hope, and love.

Contemplating these brothers and sisters in Christ encourages us: for if they can do it, so can we. I propose three short lessons on how the saints can be our teachers and guides. 

The first lesson is that the saints live with the destination in mind—they know what is at stake—that there is more to life than this earthly life. In the first reading, we get a glimpse of those saintly victors standing, robed in white in the heavenly throne room. In the presence of God stand this great multitude—people of every nation, race, and tongue, who have put on the wedding garment of Christ, who have been baptized, and have kept their faith amidst all the temptations and persecutions in this life—again, knowing what was at stake: in the end they would stand victorious in the heavenly throne room, or be banished from it for all eternity.

Why do we resist those terrible onslaughts of temptation? Why do we pray to remain faithful in the midst of persecution? Because heaven is at stake. Not only does sin diminish us—weaking our will and clouding our mind—it puts our souls at risk of hell. 

This first lesson is so important—because if we aren’t living with the destination in mind, we are likely to veer off the path—perhaps even forget there is path. There are many souls living this way--as if this earthly life was all that is—eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we shall die, and that’s it. And their souls are in danger. Because if you don’t live as if heaven exists in this life—why would anything be different in eternity?

So the saints remind us to live with the destination always on our minds. 

Secondly, it’s not enough to know the destination—you have to know where you are starting from—where you are, right now, spiritually, and who you are. If you can’t pinpoint yourself on the map—how do you know the direction in which you are to walk? 

And this is the second lesson: the saints understand who they are: they understand that they are human beings, with fallen natures due to sin in need of salvation. They know they need Christ. They know they need the Sacraments. They know they need prayer. 

And, they know that through baptism they have become Children of God. We read in our second reading: "See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are." Children of God. Members of God's family. God’s love for us is so profound—we are gathered into his family through the blood of Christ. And the saints are animated by this profound self-knowledge. In whatever hostilities we face, whatever temptations: we do so as Children of God. 

The saints know that they were made for love, by the one who is love. Love animates us, love guides us, love fills us, love protects us. The saints recognize because they are loved they need to become love--loving God and neighbor in the concrete details of their life. 

And that’s the third Lesson. it is not enough just to know who we are and where we are supposed to be going, but we also need to know how to get there. In order to cross a lake, you need a boat. In order to cross a mountain, you need mountain gear. In order to get to heaven, the home of the saints, you need to practice saintliness, blessedness.

This is what today's Gospel passage reminds us of: the Beatitudes are the practices and attitudes that you and I must cultivate if we wish to join the saints. 

We must practice poverty of spirit—recognizing our fundamental need for God in all things. We must mourn for our sins—those lost opportunities to live for God. We must be meek—treating each other with gentleness. We must hunger and thirst for righteousness—seeking to justly give God what belongs to God and to treat our neighbor and the poor with the respect and fairness due to every living human person. We must not just be just but merciful—going beyond what is merely fair and just—but practicing true mercy to become a blessing for others. We must be clean of heart—turning away from anything impure, corrupt, perverted, vile, or selfish, in order to seek God through prayer and worship and divine contemplation. And we must keep the faith amidst persecution—in fact, if we are not living our faith in such away that the world hates us, we might not be really living the faith.

Live with the destination in mind, live with the humble knowledge that you are a sinner, reborn in baptism as a child of God, now called to strive to live the beatitudes in this life, that we may join the ranks of the blessed in eternity.

May the saints help us and preserve us for this our destiny, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

30th Week in OT 2020 - Monday - Healing our crippled natures

 

The miraculous healing of the crippled woman in the synagogue is a passage only found in Luke’s Gospel. While teaching in the synagogue, the Lord notices this woman, hunched over, unable to stand upright. St. Luke tells us that she was afflicted by an unclean spirit for 18 years. Her affliction was not just physical, but spiritual as well. Some spiritual evil was keeping her from the uprightness God desires for us all. Her physical affliction is certainly symbolic of the moral and spiritual state of sinful humanity. We are crippled by sin. Sin cripples our minds, our bodies, and our souls.

Well, the Lord, notices the crippled woman, goes to her, and sets her free from her infirmity. Through this miracle she is immediately able to stand erect and immediately glorifies God. 

This healing, again, is symbolic of the Lord’s entire mission. God has compassion for the waywardness that is ours, humanity’s fallen state. We are crippled by sin, unable to walk in the freedom for which we were created—our intellect is darkened, our wills are weakened. And Through Christ we are liberated, healed, set free, able to walk upright again, and worship God in spirit and in truth. 

St. Paul understands this and explains to the ephesians how what God has done for us in Christ has changed everything. We have been set free, we have been liberated, and so we must strive to be imitators of God, as beloved children, living in love. Jesus did not die for us just so we can return to being hunched over and crippled again by impurity and immorality. We are liberated from sin so that we can be imitators of God. Like the woman in the Gospel, our response to being healed by God is to make our lives a sacrificial offering to God; patterned after the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, we are to become a fragrant aroma to God, offering to God all of our time, talent, and treasure in self-giving love. 

We are to strive for holiness—uprightness—in our conduct, not simply out of fear that we will be punished for breaking divine commandments, but because we know and understand that we have been changed, recreated through Christ. Our natures—our bodies and souls have been remade, so much so  that we are now more like God than we were before the fall—we participate more fully in the communion of life and love and joy of the Blessed Trinity, even now, while still on earth. We don’t wait until we die to go to heaven—heaven, in a sense, begins now, for Christians.

May we, who were once in darkness, as St. Paul says, live in the light of the Lord, today and all days, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the effects of sin may continue to be healed in us, that we may walk in the moral uprightness God desires for his children. 

For the healing of all the wounds of division afflicting the Church, for an end to heresy and schism, for turning away from all doctrinal error and hardness of heart, we pray to the Lord.

For spiritual healing and mercy upon all those who have fallen away from the Church, those who have fallen to mortal sin, for those who blaspheme, for the conversion of atheists and non-believers, we pray to the Lord.

For the healing of all those afflicted with physical, mental, emotional illness, for those in hospitals, nursing homes, hospice care, those struggling with addictions, for those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for deceased clergy and religious, for those who have fought and died for our freedom, we pray to the Lord.

Heavenly Father, hear our prayers. May the grace of Christ Your Son, the Divine Physician, bring healing of our sinfulness, and make us worthy of the kingdom of heaven, through the same Christ our Lord.

Priesthood Sunday 2020 - Defend us in battle

 In my eleven and a half years of priesthood, I’ve had the honor of living and serving with almost a dozen priests. One was a former Certified Public Accountant, one was called to the priesthood later in life after having children and being left a widower; one had taken a year off of seminary to work to support his mother after the death of his father, another liked to begin every homily with a joke. One priest has since left the priesthood to get married, and another was a former Franciscan monk. One priest was among our diocese’s most talented organists, another likes hunting wild boar; one liked to dine on fine white tablecloths, another has visited more hospitalized, sick, and dying Catholics than the rest combined. 

I’ve been inspired by my brother priests, frustrated by my brother priests, have laughed with and cried with my brother priests, have nitpicked the latest star wars movie and attended opera, gone on pilgrimage and debated theology into the night with my brother priests.

Since 2003, in the United States, the last Sunday of October for us Catholics is known as Priesthood Sunday. 

On this priesthood Sunday, we pray for priests. Because we need priests. Priests to baptize, priests to absolve our sins, priests to celebrate the Eucharist, priests to help hardened sinners return to Christ, priests to help families live the Gospel faithfully.  We will need priests until the end of time, to carry out the ordained ministry according to Christ’s plan for his Church.  

Priests to visit the dying, priests to shepherd parishes, and to help ordinary Catholics know that they are part of something bigger than what they see, a universal church by bishops and popes, an ancient tradition where latin and Greek were spoken in catacombs, where Christians prepared for martyrdom at the hands of hostile governments. 

We need priests to help families help raise and catechize their children to be the next generation of Catholics who bring their faith out into the world, as Catholic professionals and workers—to practice their professions in a manner consistent with the Gospel of Christ. 

I have posted on the bulletin board this year’s vocation poster, which contains the 66 men who are studying at our diocesan seminary for the priesthood. Men, striving to love the Lord with their whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, as we heard our lord command in the Gospel today. For each of these seminarians, loving the Lord means having the courage to ask God if God is calling them to the priesthood. 

This is a habit that all of us do well to form, to ask on a regular basis, from the time we are very young, “God, what are you calling me to do with my life?” My father wants me to take over the family business, but, my God, what do you want me to be? Society tells me to hide my religion, Lord what do you want from me? To love God, is to seek the will of God, to put the will of God into practice in our lives. 

Each year, the vocation poster has a theme, and this year the poster has a picture of a statue St. Michael the Archangel, a statue which stands on our seminary grounds, and above it are the words, “St. Michael, Defend Us”. This is of course in reference to the St. Michael prayer which asks the Archangels protection and defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil.

All of us should turn to St. Michael each day to pray for protection. But especially so for priests. I’m not going to say the Christian life is harder for priests, or that our temptations are more numerous or more intense. But I will say that the devil hates priests and conspires to ruin priests. The devil makes special effort to tempt priests away from their ministry which is so vital to the Church. The devil certainly does not want these 66 men to be ordained to the priesthood.

Which again, is why, it is so good and important for us to pray for priests, to set aside special times throughout the week and throughout the year, to pray for priests. Personally, I  offer the fourth decade of my rosary for the priests of the diocese, and pray for priests especially on Thursdays, the day of the last supper on which the Lord Jesus instituted the priesthood, and I encourage all of you to do the same.

For the devil knows how much damage he can do to the church, to a parish, when he corrupts a priest, or when he wears away at a priest’s fortitude or patience. The devil knows the damage that can be done when a priest becomes discouraged in his vocation. 

And the devil knows just how much damage a good priest can do to the kingdom of evil. For priests are tasked with helping the Church battle back the powers of darkness, they help to liberate souls entangled by grave spiritual evils.

The devil once admitted to St. John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests, that if there were three more priests like him in the world, the kingdom of Satan would be finished. So the devil will do everything he can to discourage priests, to tempt priests into not praying as they should, or obey their bishop as they should, to drink more than they should, or cultivate unhealthy relationships.

When priests live in a manner worthy of their calling—they become powerful instruments of God—conduits of grace into the lives of the Christian faithful. And we all know this. We have all been impacted by good priests, and we know the devastation, division, and scandal when priests fall. 

So, for priests who have caused scandal, we pray for healing. For priests who have lost their faith, we pray for renewal. For priests who have preached heresy, we pray that they may be corrected. For priests who are in mortal sin, we pray for their repentance. 

And for good priests who have touched our lives, who have brought us the comfort and consolation of the Sacraments, inspiration in their preaching, who have been icons of the Lord Jesus for us—icons of the love of God for us, we pray in thanksgiving. We pray that good priests may have the courage to preach and lead God’s people as we face the wickedness and snares of the devil and the hostilities of the worldly. And we pray for the sanctification of all priests, that they may be a blessing to the Church, that they may deepen in the gifts they need for ministry and become ever-more effective instruments of the Lord. 

On behalf of the priests of the Church—both living and deceased—I thank all of you for your prayers and fasting. We are supported, encouraged, protected, and fortified by your prayers in ways you cannot imagine. 

May each of us do our part in fostering healthy, holy priestly vocations. We pray that the young men of our parish and diocese may have the courage to answer that call with generous hearts. We pray for our seminarians. And for all priests, that in their battle against the powers of evil and darkness for the good of souls, they might be defended by the holy angels; that when they grow weary, may our priests be renewed and strengthened for the carrying out and preaching of the Gospel—that the good work God has begun in them, might be brought to fulfillment—for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

October 2020 - Holy Hour for Priests - The devil hates holy priests

 

While St. Paul was certainly urging all Christians to live in a manner worthy of their calling, those words are certainly on our mind today and this evening as we pray and fast for priests. We pray and fast that they may live in a manner worthy of their calling.

St. Paul makes this urgent plea, because living in a manner worthy of one’s calling is not necessarily easy. It requires real effort for every Christian to practice humility, gentleness, and patience. It requires real effort to resist the temptations to indulge the ego, to lash out in harshness, to make excuses to speak and act impatiently. 

And since this is true for every Christian, it is true for priests. I’m not going to say the Christian life is harder for priests, or that our temptations are more numerous or more intense. But I will say that the devil hates priests and conspires to ruin priests. The devil makes special effort to tempt priests away from their ministry which is so vital to the Church.

Which again, is why, it is so good and important for us to pray for priests, to set aside special times throughout the week and throughout the year, to pray for priests. 

For the devil knows how much damage he can do to the church, to a parish, when he corrupts a priest, or when he wears away at a priest’s fortitude or patience. The devil knows the damage that can be done when a priest becomes discouraged in his vocation. 

And the devil knows just how much damage a good priest can do to the kingdom of evil. The devil once admitted to St. John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests, that if there were three more priests like him in the world, the kingdom of Satan would be finished. So the devil will do everything he can to discourage priests, to tempt priests into not praying as they should, or obey their bishop as they should.

When priests live in a manner worthy of their calling—they become powerful instruments of God—conduits of grace into the lives of the Christian faithful. When they fail to live up to their calling—they can bring devastation, division, and great scandal.

On behalf of the priests of the Church—both living and deceased—I thank all of you for your prayers and fasting. We are supported, encouraged, protected, and fortified by your prayers in ways you cannot imagine. 

For priests who have caused scandal, we pray for healing. For priests who have lost their faith, we pray for renewal. For priests who have preached heresy, we pray that they may be corrected. For priests who are in mortal sin, we pray for their repentance. And for good priests that have touched our lives, who have brought us the comfort and consolation of the Sacraments, inspiration in their preaching, who have been icons of the Lord Jesus for us, we give thanks. We pray for the sanctification of all priests, that they may be a blessing to the Church, that they may deepen in the gifts they need for ministry and become ever-more effective instruments, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

29th Week in OT 2020 - Friday - Humility, Gentleness, Patience

From prison, Paul pleaded with his Christian brothers and sisters to "live a life worthy" of their calling.  

Paul then describes the type of conduct he is urging: humility, gentleness, patience. Let’s look at these three virtues.

For Paul, humility means regarding others as more important than ourselves.  To imitate the Lord’s humility, early Christians would wash each other’s feet, as Jesus did at the last supper. We are to stoop low in order to serve others. 

Next, Paul urges gentleness.  Here is another virtue evidenced and extolled by our Lord: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.” What is gentleness? Gentleness involves calm, reasonable restraint. It avoids physical or emotional outbursts and harshness. It is careful not to bruise others. 

Thirdly, Paul says, be patient. The scriptural word for patience literally means, to be “long-tempered” as opposed to short-tempered. The Psalms describe God as “slow to anger”. Christians are to be “slow to anger”—putting-up with the faults and idiosyncrasies of others—even when we are bruised in the process.

Paul then explains the reason for these virtues: humility, gentleness, and patience help us to maintain unity which should be a hallmark of our relationships and of our Church.  Think of how many relationships are broken because humility, gentleness, and patience are not practiced—because self-restraint and patience are not practiced in speech and in deed. 

A marriage, a family, a parish, or a diocese, even, can become more and more divided when the call to practice these virtues is ignored. And it’s not easy. Our culture promotes not humility, gentleness, and patience, but arrogance, harshness, and pettiness. 

But when we practice these things, we exhibit a peace that the world does not know. We become a calm and peaceful harbor in which souls can discover Christ. 

But to do so, we must exert real effort to cultivate these virtues and to pray for these virtues. We must practice self-restraint and look for opportunities to stoop down in service. But when we do, we become ever-more effective instruments for the building up of the Church for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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On this day of prayer and fasting for priests, we pray for the sanctification of our priests, that they may have the endurance to remain faithful to their calling amidst so many challenges. Let us pray to the Lord.

For healing of all sinful division in our families, parishes, and diocese. Let us pray to the Lord.

For the transformation of all attitudes which lead to war, violence, racial hatred, and religious persecution.

That, during this month dedicated to the Holy Rosary, many Christians will discover new and deep devotion to Our Lady’s powerful intercession and maternal care for the Church

That the love of Christ, the divine physician, may bring healing to the sick and peace to all the suffering. 

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for the repose of the souls of all those who made our reception of the faith possible. 

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

29th Week of OT 2020 - Wednesday - The Master's Return

 

You’ve probably heard the old joke: One day a cardinal runs in to the pope's office all excited and says to the pope "Jesus has returned and is coming up the walk. What should we do? "  "The pope replies "Quick, everybody: look busy"

In the Creed, we profess our belief that the Lord will return to judge the living and the death. This belief was held by the apostles and early Church and inserted into our creeds, so that we would not forget that the Lord will return and at that time we will have to give an accounting of our lives: have we been busy about the Lord’s work or have we been busy about our own pursuits?

The Parable today is certainly one of the sources of our belief in the Lord’s return as judge. The Master, Jesus, has put us, his servants, to work distributing food, just like in the Parable. We’ve been tasked to distribute both physical food and spiritual food—physical food for the physically hungry and spiritual food for the spiritually hungry—the word of God and the Eucharist. 

And as the Parable explains, the Master will return on an unexpected day at an unknown hour. And for the servants who’ve been delinquent in their duties…well there will be consequences for that delinquency, no? For many Christian souls, that will entail the fires of purgatory, which will cleanse us of our selfish tendencies prior to entrance into heavenly glory. For some, for those servants who, well, showed themselves not to be servants at all, they will be exiled from the Master’s house forever. 

This parable is always a good wake up call, isn’t it? It challenges us to examine our lives, to repent of our selfishness and recommit to doing what we are on this earth to do: to be busy about the Lord’s work.

We know how easy it is to allow zeal for the Lord’s work to dissipate, for selfish pursuits to creep in to our lives, for prayer to be replaced with...well, just about anything else, no? 

And we aren’t just to “look busy” either. St. Paul has some pretty strong words for those Christians who he called “busy bodies”—those who made a big show about being Christian, but were pretty delinquent in doing any Christian works. 

Rather, may the holy spirit help us to truly recognize how we may have grown lax or inattentive to our Christian duties. May he help us to recommit to holy works and the prayer we need, that when the Lord returns he might find us vigilant and dutiful for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 

That the love of God more deeply fill the hearts of all who believe, for the lukewarm, for those who have lost their faith, for hardened sinners, and for those who have yet to believe. Let us pray to the Lord.

That world leaders may look upon the Son of God, believe in him, and seek the peace and justice that only he can bring.

For the transformation of all attitudes which lead to war, violence, racial hatred, and religious persecution.

That, during this month dedicated to the Holy Rosary, many Christians will discover new and deep devotion to Our Lady’s powerful intercession and maternal care for the Church

That the love of Christ, the divine physician, may bring healing to the sick and peace to all the suffering. 

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for the repose of the souls of all those who made our reception of the faith possible. 

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

29th Week in OT - Tuesday - Christ is our peace

 

“Christ is our peace”. What a simple yet powerful teaching in our first reading today. Peace is not just the absence of war, nor a sense of calm when all of your day’s work is done. Christ is our peace. In order to have true peace, we must have Christ. 

You can’t have peace in the world unless Christ dwells there, and you can’t have peace in your heart unless Christ dwells there.

This morning, I saw headlines that two beautiful Churches in the Archdiocese of Santiago Chile, were torched and burned as part of anti-government protests. Don’t these protestors know that the peace, the justice, and the love they long for is found inside those churches? They cut themselves off from the very peace they long for. There is always something demonic behind the burning of churches: a demonic lie that peace can be discovered or obtained through purely human means without God. 

And sadly, the burning of these Chilean Churches are not isolated. There appears to be a real demonic campaign to stir up anger and violence. And as a nation falls farther and farther away from God, as God is divorced from life, anger and violence will increase. 

Which is why what we do here matters. To pray for peace, to receive Christ in the Eucharist who is peace itself. But also, we are to be bearers in peace. 

At the end of Mass, when the priest says, Go in peace. He doesn’t just mean leave the church quietly. It is an instruction to bring the peace of Christ into the world: to introduce souls out there—in the world—to the peace of Christ—to Christ who is peace. We are tasked with going out into the world—to help souls be reconciled to God through Christ—souls who are lost, souls who are searching, souls who believe that the answer to the worlds problems lies simply in politics, power, or money. Souls who believe happiness can be found at the bottom of a liquor bottle or in promiscuous sex. 

Souls out there long for peace, and we must bear peace, bring peace, to them. It’s not someone else’s job, it’s our job. The Lord says blessed are those servants who are prepared for his return. Well, we are prepared only when his peace already fills our hearts and our lives and we are busy with the work with which we have been tasked—to bring Christ’s peace to souls and souls to Christ’s peace, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That those who are far off from God may come to know reconciliation and peace through the Church’s evangelization work.

That world leaders may look upon the Son of God, believe in him, and seek the peace and justice that only he can bring.

For the transformation of all attitudes which lead to war, violence, racial hatred, and religious persecution.

That, during this month dedicated to the Holy Rosary, many Christians will discover new and deep devotion to Our Lady’s powerful intercession and maternal care for the Church

That the love of Christ, the divine physician, may bring healing to the sick and peace to all the suffering. 

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for the repose of the souls of all those who made our reception of the faith possible. 

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

October 19 2020 (EF) - St. Peter of Alcantara - Where your treasure is

 “Where your treasure is, there your heart is also.”

By the mere fact that we honor him as a Saint, we know that Peter of Alcantara, who we commemorate today, treasured Christ above all things.

Peter of Alcantara was of noble birth, but gave up his earthly treasures, his earthly inheritance, to pursue Christ as a Franciscan of Strict Observance. Treasuring sanctity above earthly comfort, he lived out his vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience to such an extent that his holiness was quite evident during his life.

“Where your treasure is, there your heart is also.”

St. Peter certainly treasured prayer, as well. He is the patron saint of nocturnal eucharistic adoration, as he was known to keep prayer vigils throughout the night before the Blessed Sacrament, treasuring prayer even more than sleep. And yet, he discovered the secret to great joy, for, in prayer, he was frequently experienced prayerful ecstasy--he would be consumed with the warmth and light of the Holy Spirit. His heart was on heaven and this love would even cause him to levitate. 

He also drew others up to heaven too. He was renowned for his preaching, setting hearts on fire  with love for God. He brought reform to his own Franciscan order, and also to other religious orders as well. He corresponded with St. Theresa of Avila and encouraged her to work for reform among the Carmelites.  

When he was close to death, when he was offered water he refused it saying, "Even my Lord Jesus Christ thirsted on the Cross." He valued imitation of Christ even over the quenching of thirst. 

“Where your treasure is, there your heart is also.”

What do I treasure? It is probably overly simplistic to say that you can tell what someone treasures by how they spend their time. Two people working the same job and the same number of hours might treasure two entirely different things: one might treasure the money he will earn because it will enable him to pursue earthly pleasures, and another can grow in real sanctity through his occupation because he treats it as a way for providing well for his family, the needs of the poor, and work of the Church. 

Because the second treasured heaven over earth, he is able to store up treasure in heaven as he engages in earthly activity. Prayer, mortification and good works, help to keep our hearts set on heaven as we engage in earthly work--—earthly activity is even transformed into work for God.

May St. Peter of Alcantara help us to treasure Christ above all things, and help us to work for what truly lasts, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

October 19 2020 - St. isaac Jogues & Martyred Companions - The Missionary Spirit

 Since 1926, the third Sunday of October, yesterday, has been set aside for the Catholic Church around the world to renew its commitment to missionary work.  So yesterday, was World Mission Sunday. 

For many decades, men and women from this country would answer the call to bring the Gospel to Africa, Asia, South and Central America, the Middle East.  Now, many priests and religious from those countries, come here, yes, to minister to immigrants from their native land, but also to do some of the hard work of evangelization that American Catholics are sometimes unwilling to do.

It takes great courage, great conviction for the Gospel to leave one’s native land, and a great openness and trust in the Lord.  No doubt we need to do a much better job cultivating that missionary spirit, especially among our young people.  

We celebrate today saints who left the comfort of their native land to bring the Gospel to North America.  Saint Isaac Jogues, Saint John de Brebeuf, and their Jesuit companions came from France in the mid 1600s,  and preached the Gospel in the Northern U.S. and southern Canada, primarily Quebec.  Even before setting sail for these shores, they readied themselves for hardship, peril, and the likelihood of martyrdom. 

Imagine the courage it takes, the conviction for the Gospel, to leave your home, knowing that you would likely die for the message you carried.  Conviction for the Gospel—“to make disciples of all nations”, as we read in the Gospels, must have burned in their breasts. The love of Jesus Christ and for the desire for the salvation of souls must have animated them in ways we cannot fathom.

Listen to these words from the spiritual diary of St. John de Brebeuf, to get a sense of this man’s conviction: “Jesus, my Lord and savior, what can I give you in return for all the favors you have first conferred on me? I will take from your hand the cup of your sufferings and call on your name…I bind myself in this way so that for the rest of my life I will have neither permission nor freedom to refuse opportunities of dying and shedding my blood for you, unless at a particular juncture I should consider it more suitable for your glory to act otherwise at that time. Further, I bind myself to this so that, on receiving the blow of death, I shall accept it from your hands with the fullest delight and joy of spirit.”

Imagine the sort of prayer life that brings a man such tremendous freedom, to give his life away for Jesus.  May each of us be filled with similar conviction for the Gospel, in bringing Christ to souls and souls to Christ, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the success of the Chrch’s missionary activity: for the conversion of unbelievers, the indifferent, the lapsed, and the hardened sinner. Let us pray to the Lord.

That our young people may take seriously the call to holiness, and turn away from the evils of our culture to spread the good news of Christ’s eternal kingdom.

For the transformation of all attitudes which lead to war, violence, racial hatred, and religious persecution.

That the love of Christ, the divine physician, may bring healing to the sick and comfort to all the suffering. 

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for the repose of the souls of all those who made our reception of the faith possible. 

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

October 17 2020 - St. Ignatius of Antioch - Longing for union with Christ

Around the year 100, the Emperor Trajan led a series of successful military conquests against the Scythian and the Dacian tribes. To celebrate his victories, Trajan mandated sacrifices be made throughout the empire to the Roman gods. Christians of the empire would be forced to make a choice: engage in this sinful idolatrous worship of false gods or face the consequences.

Trajan already had little tolerance for Christians. In his letter to Pliny, he noted that Christians for their “creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy, surely deserved to be punished”. And for our refusal to participate in these pagan sacrifices, Trajan launched what was essentially the third major state sponsored persecution of the Church.

Wishing to oversee these sacrifices himself, the emperor came to the great city of Antioch, in what is now modern day Turkey. Antioch since the time of Julius Caesar had been a tremendously important city in the Empire—Antioch was even known as the “Rome of the East” boasting a population of a million people by the time of Trajan. Antioch even had a Roman hippodrome modeled after the Circus Maximus in Rome, and could seat 80,000 spectators. 

There was also a sizeable Christian population in Antioch, led by a bishop who was purportedly a disciple of the apostle John, who may have even met Jesus as a young boy. Antioch’s bishop had been given the name Ignatius by his parents, but at baptism had taken the name Theophorus, which meant God-Bearer. Ignatius, had already been bishop for about 40 years, and was beloved by the Christians of Antioch—where in fact, the disciples of Jesus Christ were first called Christian. Ignatius was well educated, was renowned for his preaching and teaching. 

When Trajan himself came to Antioch, he sent for the bishop, for if he could break the bishop, the people would soon follow. But, when ordered to renounce his Christian faith and offer sacrifice to the Roman gods, Ignatius confessed his steadfast faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ.  “Do you mean Him who was crucified?” asked the emperor, scornfully. Ignatius answered, “The very same, Who by His death overcame sin, and enabled those who bear Him in their hearts to trample under foot all the power of the devils.”

Trajan then had the saintly and courageous bishop arrested and chained and sentenced to death in the Flavian Amphitheater in Rome as part of this 123 day-long festival in honor of the Roman gods.

The historian Eusebius writes that during his journey to Rome, “Ignatius fortified the parishes in the various cities where he stopped by homilies and exhortations, and warned them above all to be especially on their guard against the heresies that were then beginning to prevail, and exhorted them to hold fast to the tradition of the Apostles".

We know too that as Ignatius neared Rome, he wrote a number of letters to these Christian Communities, and to this day, we cherish his letters to the Ephesians, Magnesians, Trallians, Romans and so on. For his letters give us a marvelous glimpse into the life of the early Church at the turn of the first Christian century. 

Catholic Philosopher and Apologist Dr. Peter Kreeft tells the story of his conversion to Catholicism which occurred when he was a young student at Calvin College. Wishing to prove to himself that the early Church more closely resembled the Calvinist tradition, he began to read the early Church fathers, like the letters of Ignatius. And he says, that in his reading, he came to discover, that no, the Early Church wasn’t Calivinist, in fact, it was Catholic! The worship, the doctrines, the structure, the sacraments, described by Ignatius and the Early Church Fathers: all of them Catholic. 

The letters of Ignatius in particular show us the hierarchical structure of the Church with bishops, priests, and deacons, and the primacy of the bishop of Rome. Writing to the Ephesians he tells the priests to be attuned to the bishop as strings to a harp, and for the people to be in harmony with the bishop like singers in a choir. In fact, if you take a look at the façade of our beautiful church, you will see a relief with members of the Christian faithful surrounding St. Ignatius as if he were a choral director.  

About a decade ago already now, Pope Benedict XVI dedicated his Wednesday audiences to teaching and reflecting upon the lives of the early Church Fathers. You can get an excellent education on the Church fathers reading the Pope’s reflections. Regarding our particular parish patron, Ignatius, Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “No Church Father has expressed the longing for union with Christ and for life in him with the intensity of Ignatius.”

Union with Christ, was the aim, the goal of the life of St. Ignatius, as it becomes for all the saints. This is why Ignatius is so adamant that clergy and lay faithful must be united to their bishop. This is why he writes that Christians must gather week after week for the Eucharist—for it is at the eucharist that union with Christ is most profoundly experienced. 

And this is why Ignatius includes in his letters his desire for martyrdom. “I am writing to all the churches to let it be known that I will gladly die for God if only you do not stand in my way. I plead with you: show me no untimely kindness. Let me be food for the wild beasts, for they are my way to God. I am God’s wheat and shall be ground by their teeth so that I may become Christ’s pure bread. Pray to Christ for me that the animals will be the means of making me a sacrificial victim for God.”

For Ignatius, union with God meant imitating Our Lord’s sacrificial self-offering to the Father on the cross. And so Ignatius urges the Christians not to hinder this opportunity for him to die a martyr’s death in imitation of Our Lord.

Now think about this: the Christians throughout the Empire, especially in Rome, knew how gruesome martyrdom could be. In the first major persecution under Nero, Christians were covered in tar and set on fire. They knew just how ruthless the Roman government could be. And for this saintly bishop, this successor of the Apostles, to write them about his desire for martyrdom, his plea not to be spared martyrdom, would have bolstered their belief that we do not live simply for this world. But the time we have been given on this earth is to prepare for a new birth into heavenly glory.

“No earthly pleasures, no kingdoms of this world can benefit me in any way,” writes Ignatius. “I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth.” Ignatius turned away from anything that could keep him from union with God. For the purpose of our religion is to bring about our union with God—union with the Most Holy Trinity, unity which can be seen in our visible communion with the Bishops the successors of the Apostles, unity around the Eucharistic altar, unity in belief and right practice, unity in our care for the poor and our love for our fellow Christians, unity in our willingness to live and die for Christ.

May we follow our holy patron’s example and know always the benefit of his heavenly intercession—that we may live in union with Christ in this life, that we may experience union with him in the life to come, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

28th Week in OT 2020 - Friday - All that is concealed will be revealed

 As the Lord’s public ministry brings him closer to Jerusalem, large crowds of people begin to follow him and listen to his teaching. This morning’s passage begins a long sermon contrasting genuine discipleship with the hypocrisy of the Pharisees.

Beware hypocrisy for “there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed”. The Pharisees were hypocrites because on the outside they acted as if they were upright, but inside they were full of evil. They were quick to point out what they perceived as the faults of others but did not see or repent of their own. Behind a mask of righteousness, the concealed an inner coldness, malice, pride, and lust for power. They were pretenders, play acting at holiness. 

And the Lord explains that in the end, no one will get away with hypocrisy. There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed. God sees to the heart. Jesus saw through the façade, the deception of the Pharisees. And offered them warnings and invited them to repent.

All Hypocrisy will certainly be exposed on judgment day, we will certainly have to answer for any evil deeds and division we sowed in private. There will be some Christians who will be exposed as shams and false prophets on judgment day.

So in this sermon, the Lord is certainly warning his disciples not to follow such false-teachers. After his return to the Father, the Church will be have to be on guard against false teachers, false apostles, he sew division and heresy.  

But, in this warning against hypocrisy, the Lord also wants to ensure that his followers, his disciples don’t fall into this sin. Genuine Christian discipleship isn’t about play acting at holiness, but cultivating genuine authentic love of God and neighbor. We are truly to repent of our sins so that they may be replaced with virtue and righteousness.

Today, we celebrate the feast of St. Margaret Mary, that great visionary who made known the powerful devotion to the Lord’s sacred heart. In 1677, Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a Visitation nun in France and revealed his Sacred Heart. She said, “I could plainly see His heart, pierced and bleeding, yet there were flames, too, coming from it and a crown of thorns around it. He told me to behold His heart which so loved humanity. Then He seemed to take my very heart from me and place it there in His heart. In return He gave me back part of His flaming heart.”

Here is the remedy for all hypocrisy. Again the Lord doesn’t want play actors, rather he wants to replace our cold, divisive hearts with his own. And that comes through prayer, devotion, right belief, repentance, and works of charity.

May the burning fire of his sacred heart, burn away all hypocrisy in our lives and in our parish, that we may witness to the transforming and saving power of Christ for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 

That all Christians may grow in devotion to the Lord’s sacred heart, that sinner may turn to the infinite ocean of God’s mercy, lukewarm souls may grow fervent, and fervent souls may grow in perfection.

That world leaders may look upon the Son of God, believe in him, and seek the peace and justice that only he can bring.

That our young people may take seriously the call to holiness, and turn away from the evils of our culture to spread the good news of Christ’s eternal kingdom.

That, during this month dedicated to the Holy Rosary, many Christians will discover new and deep devotion to Our Lady’s powerful intercession and maternal care for the Church.

For all whose lives are marked by suffering may come to know the healing and peace of Christ.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased clergy and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

 O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

28th Week in OT 2020 - Wednesday - Works of the flesh and fruits of the Spirit

In yesterday’s reading from the letter to the Galatians, St. Paul explained how Christ has set us free, so we must not submit to the yoke of slavery, in other words, not fall back into the sins or beliefs or attitudes of the old life. 

In today’s reading, Paul lists off a number of those behaviors which constitute behaviors which are contrary to the Christian life: impurity, jealousy, jealousy, outbursts of fury, drinking bouts, and the like. These he calls the works of the flesh, and obviously the list could be longer, a lot longer. If we happen to fall back into any of these behaviors, they need to be repented of immediately in the Sacrament of Confession, changes need to be made in one’s life, serious changes, if we are falling into any of these behaviors. A good thorough examination of conscience should help us root out the works of the flesh.

St. Paul then goes on to list the fruits of the spirit which are signs that the grace of God is flourishing in our life: joy, patience, self-control. And the like. The fruits of the spirit are given room to grow and flourish in our lives when we repent from the works of the flesh, and should be manifest in each of our lives. They aren’t just for a select few. Every Christian should manifest each of the the fruits of the Spirit. Because again, they are the result of being rooted in Christ, in right belief, and right practice. If we are lacking in any one of them, we have some real self-examination to do. What is stifling self-control? What is hindering joy? What habitual attitudes are keeping me from practicing kindness and gentleness?

Readings like this help us to recognize the need to rid sin from our life, and to make room for the flourishing of grace, so that we may become the people God made us to be. Many Catholics, even many priests, do not take this call to self-examination seriously. They think the call to continual conversion is for other people. Or, they think God will overlook their failure to give-up certain works of the flesh. 

But the call to turn away from sin and to cultivate the fruits of the Spirit isn’t just for super saints. This is part of the ordinary Christian life, ordinary discipleship, bare minimum stuff here. Which is why Paul keeps returning to these themes in his letters. For the flourishing of the fruits of the spirit are not only important for the individual, they are important for the community as a whole and for the mission of the Gospel.

If non-believers do not see the fruits of the spirit flourishing in our lives, why would they convert to Christianity? If they see the works of the flesh rampant in a community, why would they consider joining it?

Rather, the fruits of the spirit, especially joy, like Mother Theresa said, are net which catch souls for Christ. Set let us cultivate them with great effort and reliance on grace for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That all Christians may repent of the works of the flesh and cultivate the fruits of the Spirit.

That, during this month dedicated to the Holy Rosary, many Christians will discover new and deep devotion to Our Lady’s powerful intercession and maternal care for the Church.

That world leaders may look upon the Son of God, believe in him, and seek the peace and justice that only he can bring.

That our young people may take seriously the call to holiness, and turn away from the evils of our culture to spread the good news of Christ’s eternal kingdom.

For all whose lives are marked by suffering may come to know the healing and peace of Christ.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased clergy and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

 O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

28th Week in OT 2020 - Tuesday - Freedom from the slavery of sin and addiction

 

A few years ago, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences hosted a conference at the Vatican called “Narcotics: Problems and Solutions of this Global Issue”. For, if you remember, it was just a few years ago that we were experiencing what we were calling the Opioid Epidemic. Our part of the country was particularly impacted by a rise in deaths stemming from opioid use and addictions. Our Bishop Malesic wrote a pastoral letter to his former diocese, too on the subject.

Anyway, at this Vatican conference, the Holy Father described drug addiction as a “new form of slavery”, comparing addiction to slavery—noting how addiction, like slavery, can fiercely control a person’s life. The drug becomes a set of shackles, resulting in the loss of freedom to pursue what is good in life.

This sort of language is certainly reminiscent of St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians this morning. Paul speaks of the yoke of slavery to which the Galatians were falling back into. Christ had freed them, broken the chains, but the Galatians were putting the shackles back on their own wrists. 

For the Galatians this yoke of slavery was the belief that salvation came through the law—all they had to do to be was be circumcised and follow the old Jewish law and they could go to heaven. But Paul is saying, no, that’s not right: “neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything”, rather you need to have faith in Jesus Christ, and practice it. “Only faith working through love” matters.

These Galatians were guilty of exactly the same attitude the Lord condemns in the Gospel today in the house of the Pharisee. The Pharisee believed that the law was the path to righteousness. But the Lord explains that the law cannot bring internal purification, it cannot bring true freedom. Rather freedom comes through belief in him, discipleship of him, following him.

The yoke of slavery can come in many forms—when we choose something, some pursuit over Christ, we are falling back under the yoke of sin. It can be drugs, alcohol, pornography, shopping, video games, social media. For these things can consume so much time, energy, they keep us from pursuing the good things God wants for us. Or even this belief that we can find ultimate fulfillment and salvation outside of Christ, separate from God, through merely political, scientific, or secular means. 

But each of needs to identify personally what attitudes, pursuits, habits of body and mind, ideologies, keep us from the prayer and charitable works that constitute that “faith working through love” that Paul says is the only thing that matters. What keeps us from practicing our faith in saintly and heroic ways?

May the Holy Spirit help us to identify any shackles that keep us from that active faith and act love of Christ for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 

That the ordained and lay faithful may give courageous witness through lives of active faith and virtue.

For all those chained by the slavery of addiction, that they may know the deliverance and liberation that can only come through Christ. 

That world leaders may look upon the Son of God, believe in him, and seek the peace and justice that only he can bring.

That our young people may take seriously the call to holiness, and turn away from the evils of our culture to spread the good news of Christ’s eternal kingdom.

For all whose lives are marked by suffering may come to know the healing and peace of Christ.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased clergy and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

 O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

Columbus Day 2020 - Voyaging to spread the saving faith

 

Today our nation celebrates Columbus Day, remembering when Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas on October 12, 1492. Sadly, to celebrate and extol this man’s great feats has become controversial. Even in our own state of Ohio, his statues or defaced or replaced, and there are petitions to rename our capital, named after this great Italian Catholic and explorer. 

Likely, the reason modern history is so jaded and biased toward Columbus, is that  he was Catholic Christian who desired to spread Catholic Christianity—he was motivated not by greed or violence, but by faith.

Upon landing on American shores, his very first act was to plant a cross, claiming these lands for Christ and his Church, and then his missionary priests offered the holy sacrifice of the Mass. In fact, upon first sighting land, he and his crew prayed together the Hail Holy Queen. 

In less jaded times, Columbus was rightly celebrated as a national hero because he embodies something great—the courage and willingness to plunge into the unknown for the sake of human knowledge and flourishing. And yet, Columbus also rightly models for Catholics something of the missionary spirit. 

Like St. Paul and the Apostles who braved great dangers in fidelity to Christ’s great commission, to spread salvation to the ends of the earth, Columbus willingly endured the violent storms of the Atlantic to bring the Gospel to an unknown land.

Columbus utilized his Italian genius, his masculinity, his excitement and energy, to bravely venture into the unknown to fulfill the will of God. How dangerous, and yet, how authentic! How inspiring. In 2020, we need more Christopher Columbus’ don’t we? 

And he certainly challenges a number of current cultural beliefs. Christopher Columbus was not racist or imperialist or sexist or genocidal for wishing to spread Christianity to an unknown land and foreign people. And neither are we. Just like the vice-president said the other day, “we should not apologize for being pro-life”, well, we should also not apologize for believing that Christianity should be spread to all corners of the globe and to all people. Rather, we must allow great figures like Columbus, and St. Paul and the apostles to rouse us out of complacency and lend us courage to ensure we are doing everything we can to spread the gospel, to live the gospel, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That Catholics around the world will be ever more zealous in their preaching of the Gospel.

That young people be inspired to respond generously to God’s call to sanctity, and for vocations to the priesthood and religious life.

For those whose love for Christ has grown cold, for those who have fallen away from the Church, for those with unrepentant hearts, for their conversion and the deeper conversion of all people.

For the Knights of Columbus and all who look to the inspiration of Christopher Columbus, may they continue in good works and be examples of virtue and faith.

For the sick and the suffering, and all persecuted Christians, that they may come to experience Christ’s healing and peace amidst their illnesses and needs.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased clergy and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

28th Sunday in OT 2020 - Invitation to the Wedding Feast

 

To receive an invitation to anything is a bit of an honor.  It means someone enjoys our presence enough to invite us to be with them: a birthday or retirement party, a grand opening, a clambake fundraiser, to which all of you are invited next Saturday evening.  Another nice thing about an invitation is that we are free to accept or decline it.  A family birthday party might seem more of a duty than an option, but we are still free to accept the invitation or not.

Throughout Scripture, God is encountered as one who invites.  God invites us to friendship with Him.  God invites us to trust Him.  God invites us to eternal life in heaven.  God, the Father, sent His only Son, as a sort of living incarnate invitation, inviting us to follow Him in all things. Jesus often speaks of the invitation to follow Him.  

And, In the Gospel today, Jesus tells a parable comparing his Father to a king whose sends out invitations to a lavish wedding party.  A long time ago, all the way back before COVID-19, large groups of people, in fact, felt safe enough to gather to celebrate major events like weddings.   

Well, Jesus uses this image—the lavish wedding banquet filled with rich food, sweet wines, song, music, and dance—to describe heaven, in a way similar to Isaiah in our first reading, in which heaven is described as a mountain-top-feast filled with rich food and choice wine.

It's no coincidence that the Holy Mass, celebrated each Sunday contains some of these elements: food, wine, song, music, in some cultures, dance. I remember being at an ordination in Madagascar, where following the ordination mass, the entire gathering, including the bishop and priests broke out into a sort of conga line to celebrate the ordinations. The saints describe the Mass as a foretaste of heaven, in which God is encountered and joyfully worshipped. 

Outside of times, like our current one, where attending Mass must still be done cautiously, the invitation to attend mass and the invitation to heaven in eternity, virtually coincide. We come to Mass week after week to express our acceptance of the invitation to heaven. And to reject one is to reject the other…in normal times.

What an honor to be invited by God Himself to the wedding feast. To think, we, humanity, who rejected harmony with God in the garden of eden, and reject the invitation to faithfulness over and over in every stage of history, in every stage of life, continue to be invited by God himself into his presence—to communion with Him.

And yet, it’s pretty clear from Jesus’ parable that acceptance of the invitation is not forced on anybody. Christianity is not forced, mass attendance is not forced, heaven is not forced on us. And the choices we make in this life express whether we accept or decline the invitation. For, again, the parable is clear, if we reject the invitation, there will be eternal consequences.  For God will respect the decision to reject his invitation definitively.  

So what do we do about those who appear to be rejecting the invitation? What do we do about those family members who haven’t gone to church in a decade outside the occasional wedding or funeral. Or those in adulterous situations? We cannot change them.  We cannot force them to be here or to repent.  So what can we do?

For one, we can nudge, we can gently remind them of God’s invitation.  Though our society tells us never to discuss religion, Our Lord commands us to go out to all nations, to share the Gospel, to invite.  So we can gently remind family members of God’s invitation back to Church, in our conversations and interactions with them. In fact, it seems God expects us to. With mass attendance down a bit for various reasons, some gentle nudges are certainly needed. Many of our fellow parishioners, too, who haven’t returned to mass because of the virus or for various reasons, too, can be gentle invited back and reassured of the safety of what we are doing here. 

Secondly, every one of us should be praying on a daily basis for family members who appear to be rejecting God’s invitation.  For prayer is so powerful.  There are miracles God wishes to perform as answers to our prayers. So in our daily prayer, to lift up a fallen-away family member to God, to offer that rosary for them, is so powerful. 

Also, mortification and fasting.  Fasting, has been a powerful spiritual instrument in the history of the Church, practiced by the saints, as a means of bringing about conversion.  To fast, perhaps, on bread and water, once a week, for the conversion of a family member, has incomparable power.  

But, perhaps the greatest thing that we can do is to be filled with the Joy of the Gospel.  The witness of a Christian who is filled with joy because of their love of Christ and His Church draws others to God like a magnet. I never met Mother Theresa, but I met some of the sisters who worked along side her, who emulate her spirit, her attitude, her prayerfulness, and care for the poor.  They were brimming over with joy, super-magnets drawing others to Christ. They and so many good consecrated religious remind us that joy is discovered as we pour ourselves out in service. Authentic joy, Mother Theresa says, is a net of love for which to catch souls. One of the terrible thing about these masks is that they cover up joyful Christian faces.

A few years ago Pope Francis warned Christians about having “una cara de vinagre” he says in his native spanish—a face of vinegar.  Meaning, don’t be a sourpuss because it does not attract people to the Gospel.  The Pope offers a real challenge here, because the pilgrimage of the Christian is hard.  We are pilgrims on a hard journey.  And sometimes our own crosses feel terribly heavy.  In these times, then, we are called to turn to prayer and trust all the more, so that we can be refreshed by God, and witness to his saving help. 

For finally, God invites us each of us deeper into a loving and intimate relationship with Himself through prayer, to “spend time in spiritual conversation, in silent adoration, in heartfelt love before Christ present in the Most Holy Sacrament” of the Eucharist. At the Last Supper in fact, the Lord says, “I have told you all these things so that my joy might be in you, and your joy might be complete.” We believe what the Church teaches, we celebrate it in the sacraments, we follow it in our moral lives, and we engage in prayer, so that we can know the joyful life the Lord wants for each one of us—and again, that joy is a net of love to catch souls, to invite souls.

For, like the servants in the Gospel whom the king sends out into the towns and the streets, Christians are to be God’s inviters. Inviting back the fallen-away and inviting strangers, those out in the streets, in our neighborhood. And yet, we are also the ones whom the Lord invites to be people of greater peace, hospitality, gentleness, and Christian joy.  

As we come forward to receive the most Holy Sacrament today, may our hearts be open to all the gifts God invites us to receive for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

27th Week of OT 2020 - Friday - Seven demons worse than the first

The Gospels contain many instances of Jesus performing exorcisms—casting out evil spirits. These many instances of exorcism indicate that a primary aspect of Jesus’ ministry is to deliver us from bondage to evil. Why? Because evil dehumanizes us—it defaces our human dignity. The human mind and heart were not made to be dominated by forces like Lust, Pride, Envy, Greed, Wrath, Addiction. 

This is why we often see in the gospels the demon possessed displaying inhuman characteristics. Think of the Garasene demoniac bound in chains like an animal, screaming and gashing himself with stones. Or the possessed boy unable to speak—speech being one of the human faculties which differentiates us from the beasts.

The Lord Jesus, over and over in the Gospels, casts out evil spirits which dehumanize us; He has come to liberate us from the powers of sin and evil which keep us from living in the freedom of the children of God.

Yet, today’s Gospel provides a lesson of paramount importance regarding our liberation through Christ. What do we do once we have been freed from evil. What do we do once we’ve encountered Christ? Once we’ve been baptized? Once we’ve been liberated by Christ in the Sacrament of Confession?

The Lord teaches about a certain danger inherent in the spiritual life. If you do nothing, following your deliverance, it is likely you will be worse off than before your deliverance. It’s like a gardener who pulls up all the weeds from his garden, but then doesn't plant any crops. The weeds grow right back and in great numbers. 

This is why we see so many fallen away Catholics engaging in terrible behavior. Yes, they were freed from evil through baptism. They might have even gone to Catholic School for a while. But falling away from the faith, falling away from the Sacraments, their hearts turn hostile to God, and the begin to justify one sin after another. They stop hungering and thirsting for righteousness, and end up settling for so much less. Even priests, bishops, consecrated religious, can end up in terrible spiritual states because they begin to justify sin. It's usually through the cracks of pride--that these new demons enter our lives.

Rather, we need to always be pressing forward in the spiritual life—seeking growth, cultivating and making use of the spiritual gifts, as St. Peter writes, growing in grace and the knowledge of Our Lord. There are no plateau’s in the spiritual life, we are either pushing forward, climbing the mountain, growing in holiness, or we are falling back into old sinful habits or forming new ones. And those new ones might be worse than the old ones. 

The Lord wishes to produce abundant life in us, to perfect his love in us, to complete his joy in us. But we must cooperate daily, repent daily, humble ourselves daily, exert effort daily to grow in grace for the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

 

That the clergy and the lay faithful may be vigilant against the tactics of the enemy to corrupt and destroy the Church, for a purification from all corruption within the Body of Christ. Let us pray to the Lord.

That world leaders may look upon the Son of God, believe in him, and seek the peace and justice that only he can bring.

That our young people may take seriously the missionary call of Christ, that they will turn away from the evils of our culture to spread the good news of Christ’s eternal kingdom.

For all whose lives are marked by suffering may come to know the healing and peace of Christ.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased clergy and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

October 7 2020 - Our Lady of the Rosary - Flying to Our Lady with Increased Fervor

Today’s Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, was established to honor the power of Our Lady’s intercession through the rosary at a decisive moment in history: The Battle of Lepanto, when an outnumbered Christian fleet liberated the Western Mediterranean and Western Europe by defeating an armada of Muslim Turks. 

In 1883, Pope Leo XII designated the month of October as the month dedicated to the Holy Rosary, and a year later, he wrote an encyclical on the subject. Listen to his powerful words: “Last year, as each of you is aware, We decreed by an Encyclical Letter that, to win the help of Heaven for the Church in her trials, the great Mother of God should be honored by the means of the most holy Rosary during the whole of the month of October. In this We followed both Our own impulse and the example of Our predecessors, who in times of difficulty were wont to have recourse with increased fervor to the Blessed Virgin, and to seek her aid with special prayers.”

Of course, we love and honor our mother and our lady throughout our Christian life, but Pope Leo says that at time of difficulty it is important to turn to her with increased fervor. 

I think this is true in the life of every Catholic. When we are facing great battles, like that battle of Lepanto, where we seem outnumbered, where we face overwhelming odds, where the powers of hell seem to be conspiring against us, we need to turn with increased fervor to Our Lady.

But also, I would dare to say that these past few months, these past few years, for the Church as a whole, is a time where increased fervor in our Marian Devotion is needed. 

It is also interesting to note that Pope Leo saw the Holy Rosary as a weapon against a pandemic. Asiatic Cholera had reached from India across western Asia to Europe, Great Britain, and the Americas, as well as east to China and Japan. 

To Mary, therefore, we must fly, says Pope Leo, “to her whom rightly and justly the Church entitles the dispenser of saving, aiding, and protecting gifts – that she, graciously hearkening to our prayers, may grant us the help they besought, and drive far from us the unclean plague.”

So, let us fly to our Lady with renewed fervor, confident that as she has brought victory over the powers of evil over and over throughout the course of history, she can bring victory over the evils which we face. May we take up the rosary daily, with fervor, with confidence, with great love for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That, during this month dedicated to the Holy Rosary, many Christians will discover new and deep devotion to Our Lady’s powerful intercession and maternal care for the Church.

For the health and sanctification of the members of our parish Altar and Rosary Society and Legion of Mary and for increased membership for these groups.

That our young people may take seriously the call to holiness, that they will turn away from the evils of our culture to spread the good news of Christ’s eternal kingdom.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for the deceased priests and religious and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

For all whose lives are marked by suffering may come to know the healing and peace of Christ.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.

October 6 2020 - St. Bruno - Athletes of the soul

 

The Christian Philosopher Svoren Kierkegaard said if he were a doctor he would prescribe as a remedy for all the world’s disorders, “silence”. St. Bruno, who we honor today would certainly agree. As the founder of the Carthusians, Bruno desired to provide a place for those who felt a call to withdraw from the chaos of the world in order to seek a deep, lively, joyful relationship with Jesus Christ.

St. Bruno said, “In the solitude and silence...God gives his athletes the reward they desire: a peace that the world does not know and joy in the Holy Spirit."  Interesting, isn’t it, that he called his monks athletes? Though the Carthusians withdraw from the chaos of the world, they are anything but inactive, they are training—like football players and cross country runners, who practice and train and build their endurance and fight against the limitations of the body, the monks take up the call to train their souls and fight against the spiritual evils that beset us. 

And something happens when you become serious about this spiritual training. Bruno says, you gain the peace and joy of the Holy Spirit, a peace and joy that nothing in the world can give.

Not all of us are called to join the monastery, but those of us, still in the world, can certainly attest to the fact, that when we have prayed as we should, and engaged in the works of mercy as we should, there is a deepening of peace and joy, isn’t there?

St. Bruno prescribed silence for his monks, for he knew that silence is that most excellent means for growing in deep union with God. Again, we know this to be true. When we turn off the distractions, and seek God in silence, there is an encounter with the whom who was waiting for us there, in the silence. For in silence, In silent contemplation, God is waiting to speak important, life-giving words to us. But that means we need to incline our ear to Him, by turning away from noise.

St. Paul, says he considers all as loss that takes him away from that supreme good. The Lord too, in the Gospel, tries to show the foolishness of the excuses we make for not praying, for not following him.

Just as the athlete needs to practice discipline in doing what is good and avoiding what is bad for his physical training, the Christian needs to practice greater spiritual discipline in seeking what is good for our souls and avoiding what is bad, that we may grow in the peace and joy of the spirit. 

May St. Bruno help us through his example and heavenly intercession to race into the silence to meet God, to practice the discipline we need to grow more deeply in sanctity, that we may become instruments to bring souls to Christ and Christ to souls for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the contemplative religious orders of the Church may inspire all Christians to seek God in moments of prayer, silence, and solitude. 

That world leaders may look upon the Son of God, believe in him, and seek the peace and justice that only he can bring.

That our young people may take seriously the missionary call of Christ, that they will turn away from the evils of our culture to spread the good news of Christ’s eternal kingdom.

For all whose lives are marked by suffering may come to know the healing and peace of Christ.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased clergy and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

October 5 2020 (EF) - St. Placid and Companions - The leaven of the Pharisees

Chapter 12 of St. Luke’s Gospel, from which we take our Gospel reading for this feast of the Martyr St. Placid and his companions, begins a long teaching by the Lord on genuine discipleship in contrast to the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. 

St. John Henry Newman offers a very strongly worded commentary on this passage. He says, “How seasonable is our Lord’s warning to us…to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy: professing without practicing. He warns us against it as leaven, as a subtle insinuating evil which will silently spread itself throughout the whole character…Let us ever remember that all who follow God with but a half heart, strengthen the hands of his enemies…perplex inquirers after truth, and bring reproach upon their Savior’s name…Woe unto the deceiver and self-deceiver! God give us grace to flee from this woe while we have time! Let us examine ourselves, to se if there be any wicked way in us…And let us pray God to enlighten us, and to guide us, and to give us the will to please him, and the power.”

Pretty strong words for that great saint, but certainly because Our Lord’ own condemnation of hypocrisy is pretty strong. Hypocrisy was the great sin of the Pharisees, who claimed representatives of God. They had the duty to point others to God, but could not identify God when he arrived in their midst in the flesh. Their hypocrisy was that they professed righteousness, but did not practice it. They condemned small infractions, while devoid, themselves, of authentic love of God and neighbor.

Rather, the Lord teaches that his followers must be devoid of pharisaic hypocrisy. We are to be full of genuine love for God and neighbor which transforms the whole of one’s life. And we are to treat others with the same mercy and patience with which we hope to be treated by God.

When a Christian does not practice what he preaches, St. John Henry Newman says we “perplex inquirers after the truth.” In other words, when we fail to live as Christ in the world, we make it difficult for non-believers, those searching for Christ, to come to believe in Him. So we need to take seriously the need to examine our lives, to sweep our houses clean of leaven, that we may give good witness and lead others to Christ.

This Gospel passage is so fitting for the feasts of the martyrs, like St. Placid and his companions, because the martyrs truly have “preached Christ from the roof tops”—they have preached him by following Him all the way to the cross—giving the supreme witness of their very lives. 

Whenever we are tempted to forsake the teachings and commands of the Lord, to give in to temptation, calling to mind the witness of the martyrs, their willingness to suffer, is a powerful remedy to our fear. 

Celebrating and calling to mind the witness of the martyrs, aids us in that “seasonable” daily effort of avoiding hypocrisy, to practice what we preach, to not fear those who harm or kill the body because of our faith. May we follow their example and know their heavenly intercession for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Gospel: At that time, Jesus said to His disciples, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed: nor hidden, that shall not be known. For whatsoever things you have spoken in darkness, shall be published in the light; and that which you have spoken in the ear in chambers shall be preached on the house-tops. And I say to you, My friends, be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you Whom you shall fear: fear ye Him Who, after He hath killed, hath power to cast into Hell. Yea, I say to you, fear Him. Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings and not one of them is forgotten before God? Yea, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore: you are of more value than many sparrows. And I say to you, whosoever shall confess Me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God. 

 

27th Week in OT 2020 - Monday - Unconditional love of Jesus Christ

 The parable of the Good Samaritan is usually interpreted in one of two ways.  The first is to read it literally as Jesus’ answer to what mercy, compassion, and neighborliness looks like.  The scholar of the law asks Jesus, “who is my neighbor?” And Jesus answers: even the person that you would normally overlook, even the person that the rest of the world considers unclean, that’s your neighbor, and you need to pick him up when he has fallen, you need to see past your preconceived notions and stereotypes and prejudices, and you need to treat him with mercy and compassion and tenderness.

The second way of interpreting the Good Samaritan parable is to see in this allegory a description of what God has done for each one of us in Christ Jesus.  God has raised us up when we fell upon robbers and have been “half dead” because of sin.  We’ve been raised up, tended, cared for, restored to life because of Jesus’ sacrifice for us. 

Jesus is the Good Samaritan. And as each one of us has been treated with compassion by God, we must extend that compassion to others. The entire Christian life is essentially a response to what God has done for us through Christ. For us love of God and love of neighbor are inseparable for in Christ love of God and love of neighbor were inseparable.

So the answer to the scholar’s question, who is my neighbor? The answer is “everybody” because everyone is treated as “neighbor” by God—without condition. Jesus gives his life for all, he loves all, and so must we.

No one must be excluded from our charity. There’s not anything anyone has to do in order to become “deserving” of our charity, just as there was nothing that we had to do in order to deserve that Jesus laid down his life for us—he did not die for the righteous, but for the unrighteous. 

Just as the priest and the levite thought they had pretty good reasons for stepping over the man, we often develop reasons for holding back our charity. But this parable of Jesus really calls us to love without condition, to go the extra-mile, not just for those who can pay us back, but especially for those who can’t. 

But when we do, we love in a Christ-like, godly way, and make the goodness of God known, and present, and palpable. This is a love that transforms the world, may we be free from all that keeps us from the unconditional love of Jesus, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the grace to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love our neighbors and enemies and those who persecute us, and to share the truth of the Gospel with all.  We pray to the Lord.

That during this election season, civility may prevail, and that those with differing political views may work together for a good, just, and righteous society. Let us pray to the Lord.

That during the month of October dedicated to the Holy Rosary, we may be strengthened in devotion to Our Lady and trust ever-more in her maternal intercession. Let us pray to the Lord.

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, victims of natural disaster, war, and terrorism, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish and all the poor souls in purgatory, for those who have fought and died for our benefit, and for N. for whom this mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.