July 1 2019 - St. Junipero Serra - Leaving comfort behind

Today’s Gospel should sound familiar. Yesterday, we heard St. Luke’s version of these strange sayings of our Lord. St. Matthew’s version today, is a little more concise, but the point remains the same.

While traveling, a scribe approaches Jesus and voices his willingness to follow him wherever he may go. And The Lord warns the scribe, "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head." In other words, Jesus is saying, “I’m homeless. Will you follow me, even if that means giving up your home? Will you follow me even if it means never being able to go home again?”

Yesterday, I mentioned St. Clare and the many saints up and down the centuries who left their homes, left their comfortable lives, to follow the Lord. Today we celebrate St. Junipero Serra who did just that.

Junipero Serra had been a university professor in Spain, but he gave up his position to come to California to teach the Native Americans about the Lord. So while our founding Fathers were fighting for our nation’s independence on the east coast, Franciscan Priest Father Junipero Serra was traveling up through Mexico to present-day California.  There he devoted himself to building churches and schools for the poor and the native people, catechizing those in his care and raising up dedicated priests to continue the Lord’s work.

St. Junipero Serra, you may remember, is the first saint to be canonized on American soil. He was canonized just in 2015, when Pope Francis visited the U.S. Pope Francis praised St. Junipero Serra’s willingness to abandon the comforts and privileges of his native Spain to spread the Christian message in the new World.

What a wonderful example we have in Junipero Serra of a true missionary disciple; for no doubt, the Lord is calling us to leave the comfort of our homes, the comfort of our familiar routines, to preach the Gospel and to witness to the Gospel to the strangers in our midst. May we follow the Lord into the unknown territories, carrying his light and his truth and his love to all those we encounter today. May we find excuses to leave our homes to spread the Gospel today for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That all Christians may be deeply committed to the spread of Christ’s Gospel, and for the success of the Church’s missionary activity.

For our nation, as we celebrate our independence this week, that we may be always grateful for our freedom, but more importantly, may we use that freedom for God’s will, rather than our own.

For all those who suffer from violence, war, famine, extreme poverty, addiction, discouragement, loneliness, and those who are alienated from their families.  May they know God’s mercy and be gathered to the eternal kingdom of peace.

For all those who suffer illness, and those in hospitals, nursing homes and hospice care, that they may be comforted by the healing light of Christ.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, the deceased members of our families friends and parishes, for those who fought and died for our freedom, and for N. for whom this mass is offered.

Graciously grant our petitions, we beseech thee, O Lord; may your grace sustain us always in your service, through Christ Our Lord.

28th Sunday in OT 2018 - Joylessness and the Rich Young Man

This weekend, Pope Francis is celebrating in Rome the Canonization of six new saints. Three of them were founders of new religious orders, one of them was a humble diocesan priest, one is the great and courageous Archbishop Oscar Romero who denounced the violence of the civil war in El Salvador in 1980 and was assassinated offering mass in a hospital chapel. The sixth is Pope Paul VI, whose Papacy from 1963-1978 was marked by his deep sense of prayerfulness, as he led the Church to become a greater instrument for evangelization and conversion to the modern world.

The temperaments and lives of these new saints could not have been any different. Yet, their commonality, is certainly their love and obedience to Jesus Christ.

Like the young man in the Gospel today, they each approached the Lord, fell to their knees and asked the question: “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” For three of them it was founding a religious order for ordinary men and women like you and me to live a life of prayer and penance that points to God. For Archbishop Romero, it was standing up to a corrupt government. For Paul VI it was leading the Church in a time of social and cultural upheaval. But, “what must I do to find joy, to find eternal life?” That is probably the most important question anyone could ask.

One concern I know many priests and many of you have is that so many of our young people and so many of our family members do not consider this question important.  One of the symptoms of the secularism of our age is an indifference to eternity. Plenty of young men and women ask questions like, “what must I do to get into Harvard, what must I do to be a famous athlete, what must I do to make my first million by the age of 30, what must I do to have as much pleasure as I can?”  These are all valid questions if one is merely concerned with earthly happiness and temporal success.  But these are not concerns about ultimate reality.  So this young man in the Gospel is in a much better place than many of our contemporaries.

How did the Lord answer this young man’s questions? He first begins to list off the commandments of God’s law.

Rules are important. We have rules for good health—you can’t eat a bag of pork rinds every day if you want to be physically fit; we have rules for good finances—don’t spend more than you make. So, too, if you want to have good mental health, there are some rules—learn to let go of anger and grudges, read a book once and a while to keep your brain active, maintain supportive relationships, develop a sense of gratitude for life’s blessings.

Every relationship has rules; rules which prescribe what is good and prohibit what is bad. When a bride and groom stand up in front of the Church and their families and recite their wedding vows, they are agreeing to the rules of their covenant relationship: we are going to be faithful even when we are tempted to be unfaithful, we are going to care for each other in times of sickness, in times of economic hardship, when physical beauty fades, we are going to raise our children to be good Christians.

Families have rules which support the harmony and happiness of the family. Don’t talk back to mom and dad, don’t fight with your siblings. When I was growing up, we had a lot of rules about keeping the house tidy: make your bed, clean your room, dirty plates and dishes weren’t to be left lying around, they were to be placed not just in the kitchen sink, but the dishwasher, and they had to be rinsed off first.

The spiritual life has rules, too. If you want to spiritually fit, if you want your relationship with God to be healthy—if you want this earthly journey to lead to eternal life with God, we must follow spiritual rules. And the commandments of God are the basic rules for that end.

Now of course, we all fail to keep these commandments for a variety of reasons. And the Christian recognizes the necessity of repentance, of confessing the serious violations of our covenant relationship with God. We admit to God even our smaller, venial sins, as well as we can, so that they do not pave the way for graver violations.

The young man in the Gospel, seems like he was doing pretty well. "Teacher,” he says “all of these commandments I have observed from my youth." Okay, good. Jesus recognizes that in this young man, the fundamental are in place, the aspirations are right, but the Lord sensed a restlessness in the young man. “You are lacking in one thing”, the Lord said. What was he lacking?

Despite his fidelity to the law, the young man was unwilling to detach himself from his possessions and follow the Lord radically.

“Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." The Lord knew that the man’s possessions had become a stumbling block to his salvation, so he illuminated this fact, and showed him what he had to do. This does not mean every single one of us has to get rid of all of our earthly possessions to follow Christ, but it certainly means that we must be spiritually detatched from them and dedicate them to God's purpose rather than our own selfish ends.

At that statement we then hear one of the saddest lines in all of the Gospels. “his face fell, and he went away sad.” The encounter with the Lord is meant to bring us conversion, joy, and life, but the young man walked away from that which would have brought him joy and that is always a sad story.

Last week in our parish youth group, we talked about joy, how following the commands of God leads to joy, how prayer and service bring us a joy that nothing else in the world can possibly give. Joy, is very different from happiness. Happiness is satisfaction with temporary things. I’m happy when the browns win, I’m happy when my chicken wings are at the perfect level of crispiness, I’m happy when the traffic light turns green at just the right time.

Joy, however, comes from our relationship with the eternal things of God: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. Our hearts are filled not just with happiness, but joy, when we learn the Truth that comes from God, when we engage in truly good acts, caring for the poor, caring for a sick family member, feeding the hungry, forgiving those who hurt us. And we are filled with joy at the sight of beauty, true beauty, beautiful and timeless Christian art and architecture, the beauty of God’s creation.

The young man turns his heart away from joy because he chooses to value passing, temporary, earthly things, his possessions, over the truth, and goodness, and beauty of Jesus Christ.

I guarantee, that each of the saints being canonized this weekend, knew this secret to joy. Now, that doesn’t mean their lives were easy. Each faced tremendous suffering, but that did not diminish their joy. Because authentic joy does not diminish in the face of suffering, but can intensify it, when that suffering is embraced for the good of the Church and the spread of the Gospel.

As we celebrate the Eucharist today, may the Holy Spirit help us identify those attitudes or habits that we need to turn away from in order to experience the joy and eternal life God wants for us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

July 9 2018 - St. Augustine Zhao and 119 Companion Martyrs

During his twenty-six-year reign as Pope from 1978–2005, Pope St. John Paul II canonized 482 saints, that’s more saints in his 26 years as pope than all popes of the previous 1,000 years combined. John Paul canonized men and women, young and old, from all walks of life, and from all around the world, to raise our consciousness, our awareness, of God working in human hearts.

He canonized hundreds of non-European saints, a great reminder that God is at work in places like Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

120 of those 482 saints are celebrated today, St. Augustine Zhao and his 119 martyred companions. These 120 Catholics weren’t aren’t at the same time, but over a period of almost 300 years, from 1648 to 1930, in China. They were lay people, clergy, and religious ranging in age from 9 to 72.  87 of them were native born chinese, and the rest were foreign born missionaries.

St. Augustine Zhao Rong was not born to Catholic parents, he was a Chinese soldier who became familiar with the Catholic faith when he was ordered to escort a bishop to his martyrdom in Beijing.  Augustine was so impressed and moved by the bishop’s faith, Augustine asked to be baptized.  He entered the seminary and was ordained a diocesan priest.  In 1815, he was arrested, tortured, and martyred.

The other martyrs we remember today include parents, catechists, laborers, and priests, people like you and me, who remained faithful to Christ during times of persecution. They would often work to spread Christianity secretly, when the faith was outlawed by the Chinese government. They were hated by not just government officials, but by just about everybody, but they were faithful.

Christianity continues to have a difficult time in China. The Communist Chinese government seeks to control the Church, seeks to control the selection of bishops and the priests who are ordained and it puts limitations on missionary activity.

So these martyrs are such important witnesses to the Chinese Catholics and to all of us. In a letter to the Chinese Christians in 2006, Pope Benedict wrote of his admiration for their great sufferings undergone for Jesus Christ. 

May the Lord increase our willingness to suffer for the spread of our saving faith. Through the prayers of St. Augustine Zhao Rong and his companions, may we witness to the salvation that comes through Jesus Christ in our speech, in our conduct, in our generosity with our time, talent, and treasure  for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Our Savior’s faithfulness is mirrored in the fidelity of his witnesses who shed their blood for the Word of God. Let us praise him in remembrance of them:

The martyrs professed their faith by shedding their blood, may we have a faith that is constant and pure.

The martyrs followed in Christ’s footsteps by carrying the cross, may we endure courageously our earthly trials and all the misfortunes of life.

The martyrs washed their garments in the blood of the Lamb, may we be helped by their prayers to avoid the weaknesses of the flesh and worldly allurements.

That all missionaries may have courage and strength in their witness to the Gospel, for an increase in priestly and religious vocations, and for increased willingness among Christians to answer the missionary call.

For Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of July: That priests, who experience fatigue and loneliness in their pastoral work, may find help and comfort in their intimacy with the Lord and in their friendship with their brother priests. We pray to the Lord.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. 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

5th Sunday of Easter 2017 - Mother's Day and Fatima 100th Anniversary

Happy Mother’s Day.

We celebrate a very special Mother’s Day this weekend. 100 years ago, on May 13, 1917, Our Blessed Mother began appearing to 3 little shepherd children near Fatima, a city 110 miles north of Lisbon, Portugal. In honor of the centennial anniversary this weekend, Pope Francis has traveled to Fatima to celebrate the canonization of two of those children, Francisco and Jacinta, who after their encounter with the Blessed Mother lived lives of great sanctity. An encounter with the Blessed Mother always changes you, and when you entrust yourself to her, she will help you to be as holy as God made you to be.

At Fatima, Mary tasked the children and all of us to pray the rosary for world peace, for the end of World War I, for the conversion of Russia, and to pray especially for sinners in danger of hell. She urged the children also to offer their lives in reparation for the sins and to make mortifications throughout the day for the conversion sinners.

You may have also heard of the three secrets of Fatima; the Blessed Mother delivered three secret messages to the children, two of which they were allowed to reveal soon after the apparitions.  The first secret was actually a terrifying vision: Mary showed the children a vision of a multitude of souls languishing in hell. They saw blackened souls, surrounded by torturing demons, lakes of fire with souls screaming in torment.

Mothers seek to protect their children from harm. And Our Blessed Mother is concerned not only with the well-being of our bodies, but our souls. And this first vision is a warning, of what happens when souls separate themselves from God through serious sin, when they live godless lives, and persevere in error.

The second secret was a prophecy.  The Blessed Mother told the children that World War One was about to end, but unless Russia converted to Catholicism and was consecrated to her Immaculate Heart, the godless errors of atheistic communism would spread throughout the world and another great war would follow the first; great destruction would be wrought upon earth the human evil and the Church would be persecuted.  But in the end, her immaculate heart would triumph.

The first war did end, shortly after the apparition. And though Russia was consecrated to the Immaculate Heart by Pius XII, Russia did not embrace the Faith and a second war did follow, World War II. Atheism and communism have spread. The 20th century contained more death, destruction, and martyrdom than all of the previous centuries combined.  The Church suffered terribly in the 20th century: 8000 priests in Spain alone were killed in the 1930s; 3000 priests in Mexico, 6000 priests were sent to the concentration camps of the Nazis. Countless souls turned away from the saving faith in the 20th century to the errors of atheism and the grave sins of the sexual revolution.

Our Mother’s promise will come to fulfillment at the end of time: her Immaculate Heart will triumph, when the love of God brings about the ultimate end of evil.

The third secret was made known to the world during the reign of Pope St. John Paul II. The children were shown a a vision of an angel with a flaming sword, who cried out “Penance, Penance, Penance” Bishops, Priests, men and women Religious climbed up a steep mountain and at the top of the mountain, an immense Cross. There they beheld a Bishop, dressed in white, shot by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him. Two angels then gathered the blood of the martyrs in holy water buckets and sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God. A very strange vision.
Pope Benedict believed this vision of the Bishop dressed in white to refer to the Popes of the 20th century collectively, who shared in the suffering of the Church, and how the Church is strengthened by their Holy Witness. The Popes of the 20th Century were very holy men compared to some of the Popes of centuries past.

Pius X, John XXIII, John Paul II have been canonized. Paul VI has been beatified, and Pius XII is on his way to canonization. These holy men gave incredible witness and clarity of teaching, during one of the bloodiest and secular ages the Church has faced. And although the 21st century has seen the incredible leadership of Pope Benedict, who in my opinion is a living saint, and Pope Francis who has so impressively called us to embody the mercy of God, the errors of the 20th century continue to lead souls away from God and put them in danger of hell.

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

Mother’s day! How can we honor our mother’s this day? We honor our mother’s with cards and candy and flowers, taking them to their favorite places, or perhaps visiting the grave of the mother’s who have died. But I think the greatest honor we can show our mothers is by becoming the people God made us to be, people of faith and love, the people our mothers hoped we would be. That goes for our earthly mothers and also our Blessed Mother.

We show great honor to our Mother by taking up the rosary as she taught us, by turning to her example of love, and emulating the resounding Yes she made to God. Take seriously your Mother’s wishes, that her children pray the rosary, do penance for sinners, seek the purification of our own hearts from all resistance to God. Allow her immaculate heart to triumph over the evils that still linger in our world and hearts.

Make your mother smile today. Your earthly mother and the Blessed Mother. And may each of us entrust our fates, our souls to mother Mary, that we, with her “may further more effectively each day the reign of Christ” in the world and in our hearts, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 23rd Sunday in OT 2016 - Comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable

One of my favorite quotes from the great G.K. Chesterton is that “Christianity is a faith that comforts the afflicted… And afflicts the comfortable.”

Our faith comforts us, as it helps us know that God offers his mercy to every sinful soul. Every soul that has turned away from goodness, every soul that has given in to temptations of selfishness, lust, every person that has ever lost control and hurt the ones we love. God loves the poor wretched sinner. And that is comforting.

Yet that same faith, stirs us out of our ambivalence and moves the sinner to examine his life, to repent of his sins, and that is not always pleasant—it afflicts the comfortable. Over and over in the Gospels, the Pharisees show great hostility to Jesus because he exposed their hard-hearts—they weren’t as holy as they thought they were. So Christ’s message afflicts the comfortable—the complacent; it challenges us, it humbles us, but by doing so, it calls us to something greater—authentic holiness, the life of grace.

Christianity comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.


A woman who took seriously both aspects of the faith is being canonized this weekend in Rome by Pope Francis. 19 years after her death, Blessed Mother Teresa will become Saint Mother Teresa.

Mother Teresa followed Christ into the slums to serve the poorest of the poor. She established a new religious order, the Missionary Sisters of Charity to live among the poor and to care for the dying and the destitute, orphans and abandoned children, alcoholics, the aged, and the homeless. She brought comfort to the afflicted, reminding the poor and afflicted of their dignity in the eyes of God. She became a living icon of mercy and compassion.

The current Archbishop of Calcutta, India, commenting on her canonization this Sunday said, her canonization is “an occasion for people in all walks of life to do something beautiful for God, as Mother Teresa did.”

During this Holy Year of Mercy, Pope Francis has not only called each and every one of us to focus on the works of mercy, but now he has given us a wonderful example to follow in the life of St. Teresa of Calcutta.

I’ve had the great honor of visiting the Missionary Sisters of Charity on several occasions. When I was studying in Rome, I worked alongside the Sisters at a house for destitute men, where the homeless would come for food, clothing, shelter, medical care. The sisters would literally bathe the smelly grime of the streets off these men.  They’d be fed and bathed and treated with dignity and respect.  The sisters were so edifying as they treated these men as they would treat Jesus himself.
Again, I visited the Sisters when I went with Catholic Relief Services to the African Country of Madagascar, where they ran an orphanage—caring for the homeless and abandoned children.

In every chapel of the Missionary Sisters, whether in Rome, or Madagascar, or Calcutta, is a crucifix with the words of Jesus: “I thirst”, words Jesus spoke from the cross. It is a reminder to all of the sisters that when they bring drink to the thirsty they are giving that drink to Jesus himself.

Again, each of us do well to ask the Holy Spirit very devoutly and seriously how we might be engaged in the works of mercy this year. Who are the naked we are called to clothe, who are the hungry we are called to feed, who are the prisoners we are called to visit? Who are the souls we are to pray for regularly? Who are the ignorant we are to instruct? Who are the sinners we are called to invite back to God? In comforting these people, we extend the reign of God’s mercy, we become instruments of the compassion of God.

Mother Teresa, is best known for bringing comfort to the afflicted, she won a Nobel Peace Prize for her work, and more importantly, she became a saint.

But, Mother was also known for afflicting the comfortable, challenging selfish complacent souls to take the Gospel of Christ more seriously.

One priest tells the story about how he picked up Mother from the airport for a speaking engagement. He was familiar with Mother, so he felt comfortable talking about all of the different ministries he was engaged in: traveling around the country, giving lectures and parish missions, teaching, And all the while Mother is quietly praying her rosary beads. The priest continued to elaborate on all of his endeavors and said, with all of this going on, I’m even too busy to pray. And Mother, cuts off the priest, and says, “Father, you must never be too busy to pray”. If you are too busy to pray, you are too busy!

A sister once complained to Mother Teresa about all the time they were spending in the chapel; for each day, Mother Theresa required her sister to spend an hour in Eucharistic adoration before going out into the streets. “We have all this work to do, there are people who are starving and dying while we kneel here in the chapel. An hour of prayer is a waste of time,” the sister insisted. To which Mother replied, “because you believe this sister, you need two hours.”

Mother challenges us to never allow the busy-ness of life to keep us from the most important relationship with Christ, we must never allow all the noise of the world to keep us from prayer. “The fruit of Silence is prayer. The fruit of Prayer is faith. The fruit of Faith is love. The fruit of Love is service. The fruit of Service is peace” she said. If you want peace, you need prayer.

In 1994, Mother Teresa was invited to speak at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC. There, in front of republicans and democrats, nominal and practicing Christians, jews, and muslims, she spoke of the poverty of the west, in that we treat people without dignity.

“When I pick up a person from the street, hungry,” she said, “I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread. But a person who is shut out, who feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person who has been thrown out of society." Certainly a challenge to "look to the margins" as Pope Francis would say.

She then spoke of the great sin of abortion… “abortion,” she said, “which often follows from contraception, brings a people to be spiritually poor, and that is the worst poverty and the most difficult to overcome.”

 “It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish” she said. And this attitude justifies abortion goes hand in hand with married couples ignoring Church teaching on the sinfulness of artificial contraception.

Through the use of contraception, husband and wife “destroy the gift of love” she said. Essentially, she is saying that when cannot truly love when we devalue human life and when we devalue chastity. Challenging words for a national prayer breakfast, challenging words, perhaps for some of us, but that doesn’t lessen the truth of the message.

Mother spoke these words of challenge confidently because they are the teaching of the master. We are called to love. And Christian love is not always popular or easy. Love often looks like a cross. It requires self-discipline, going out of our comfort zone to raise up the poor from the gutter, speaking the truth in the face of error.  “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” Challenging words. But we know, deep down, that there is nothing more important than following Christ to the cross.

Through the intercession of Saint Teresa of Calcutta, may we grow in charity, bear our crosses confidently and gracefully, may we know God’s comfort in our affliction, and be stirred out of our complacency for the glory of God and salvation of souls.