1st Week of Advent 2024 - Monday - Climbing the Mountain

“Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the world and my soul will be healed.” 

How appropriate, that right at the beginning of Advent, we have this profound statement of humble faith of the Roman Centurion. “Lord, I am not worthy”

On one hand, these words confess our unworthiness to receive the holy one. Our lives our full of so many imperfections, so much weakness, that the words of St. Peter would be more appropriate, no? “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.” I have so often turned away from grace, turned away from goodness. I am not worthy.

And yet, Advent celebrates that the Lord comes to us, draws near to us, not only despite our unworthiness, but because of it. We celebrate that God desires not that the sinner should perish, but that he might have eternal life. And so rather than turning away from us in disgust, God draws near to us, and becomes one of us.

In the reading from Isaiah, not only Isaiah, but all nations joyfully stream toward the Lord who has made his dwelling upon the holy mountain. During Advent, we celebrate how the Lord draws near to us, but also recognize that we must do our part to climb the Lord’s mountain, in order to draw near to him, and that is a source of great joy.

What are some ways we can draw near to the Lord this Advent?

Like the Centurion, we do well to make a confession of our unworthiness. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a beautiful way to prepare for the coming of Christ. By acknowledging our sins and receiving God’s forgiveness, we make room for His grace.

The words of the Centurion are also echoed in every Mass: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof”. Participating in every daily mass we can is one of the most profound ways we can enter climb the mountain of the Lord during Advent. For at Mass, we hear the voice of the Lord in our Advent scripture readings, and we are able to draw as close as we possibly can to the Lord while we are still on earth, in the worthy reception of Holy Communion.

Isaiah speaks of all nations streaming toward the Lord. We certainly grow in the Advent spirit when we help others draw near to the Lord as well: inviting them to mass, to prayer, to scripture study, and reaching out in love and generosity and small acts of kindness.

Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord, that we may meet the Lord in love and joy, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.


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As we await with longing the Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, we raise up our prayers of petitions.

That Christ may visit his holy Church and always find her repentant of sin and watchful in prayer.

That Christ may fill the Pope, our Bishop, and all the clergy with spiritual gifts and graces.

That Christ may guide the minds of those who govern us to promote the common good according to His Holy Will.

That Christ may banish disease, drive out hunger, and ward off every affliction.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Almighty ever-living God, who bring salvation to all and desire that no one should perish, hear the prayers of your people and grant that the course of our world may be directed by your peaceful rule and your Church rejoice in tranquility and devotion. Through Christ our Lord.

 

1st Week of Advent 2023 - Monday - Advent Journey of Faith

 On this first weekday of Advent, our scripture readings teaching us that Advent is a journey of faith to God.

In the reading from Isaiah we hear how nations will stream toward the Lord’s house established on a high mountain. During Advent, all people, of all places, of all time are invited to make their way to the one True God, shedding their false beliefs and immoral ways in order to walk in the light of God’s truth, goodness, and beauty. 

This journey of faith is a joyful journey, as our psalm proclaimed: “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord”. The journey toward the house of God is a joyful one because we are journeying to meet the One who is our hearts deepest longing. Shedding error to live in God’s truth brings joy, shedding immorality in order to live in God’s goodness brings joy. Shedding violence—allowing our swords to be turned into plowshares—in order to live in God’s peace brings joy. 

Advent can be filled with joy when we turn away from the things that deprive of us joy and fail to satisfy our longing for the infinite. For real joy is experienced when we turn away from darkness and turn more resolutely to seek the face of God. 

In the Gospel, the centurion recognizes that Jesus Christ is God—the God who can bring healing to his household—to his servant who is paralyzed and suffering dreadfully. Faith in Jesus Christ brings healing, wholeness, deliverance, freedom from all the different types of paralysis that afflict us.

Faith in Christ is both the way by which we reach the destination of the journey of faith and the destination of the journey itself. Advent helps us to deepen that conviction and also opens us to the healing and wholeness that can only come by deepening our faith in Him. 

May all people of all nations come to a deepening of faith in Christ Jesus this Advent, and come to rejoice in the peace of Our Father’s house for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. 

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As we await with longing the Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, we raise up our prayers of petitions.

That Christ may visit his holy Church and always find her repentant of sin and watchful in prayer.

That Christ may fill the Pope, our Bishop, and all the clergy with spiritual gifts and graces.

That Christ may guide the minds of those who govern us to promote the common good according to His Holy Will.

That Christ may banish disease, drive out hunger, and ward off every affliction.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Almighty ever-living God, who bring salvation to all and desire that no one should perish, hear the prayers of your people and grant that the course of our world may be directed by your peaceful rule and your Church rejoice in tranquility and devotion. Through Christ our Lord.

1st Week of Advent 2022 - Monday - The New is hidden in the Old

Saint Augustine once observed that the "New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.” Yesterday, I preached on how God made promises in the Old Testament that are fulfilled by the Lord Jesus and His Church. The New lay hidden in the Old—the promise in the Old is fulfilled in the New. And so, throughout the Old testament there are glimpses of what is yet to be fulfilled, Who is yet to come. 

Again yesterday, I shared how immediately after the fall of Adam and Eve in the book of Genesis, there is this foreshadowing of Savior—the seed of the woman at enmity with the serpent. The Savior is foreshadowed in every book of the Old Testament—he is the seed of the woman in Genesis. He is the Passover Lamb in Exodus. In Leviticus He is… “The Priest, the Altar & the Sacrifice”.  In Joshua, He is…“The Captain of Our Salvation”.  In Judges He is…“Our Judge and Lawgiver”. In Ruth He is…“Our Kinsman-Redeemer“.  In I & II Samuel He is…“Our Trusted Prophet” In Kings & Chronicles He is…“Our Reigning King” In Ezra He is… “The Rebuilder of the Broken-Down Walls of Human Life”.  And so on.

Did you catch the reference to the Savior in today’s reading from Isaiah? “On that day, the branch of the LORD will be luster and glory.” The Savior is “the branch”—the branch. This passage of Isaiah describes how from this new branch coming forth from the house of Judah will bring new life to Israel. And this is certainly a foreshadowing of how the Lord who traces his lineage back to David and Judah, the Son of Jacob, will bring new life through his death and resurrection—new life, new fruit to a tree, an organism that had begun to wither. The New lies hidden in the old, and the Old is unveiled in the New.

For what do we hear in our New Testament reading today? The Lord curing—bringing new life—to a paralyzed man, but not just any man, the servant of a Roman Centurion. This servant was a real man who suffered dreadfully, to whom the Lord brought healing, and comfort, and new life. He is also a symbol of all of the Jewish people under the servitude of Rome at the time of Our Lord. The Lord offered them new life, if they would but believe. 

During Advent, we deepen seek a deepening of our own faith, a renewal of faith, so that Jesus the Branch may bear new life giving fruit in our lives—that his goodness, the goodness of the one who makes all things new, may be revealed in us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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As we await with longing the Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, we raise up our prayers of petitions.

That Christ may visit his holy Church and always find her repentant of sin and watchful in prayer.

That Christ may fill the Pope, our Bishop, and all the clergy with spiritual gifts and graces.

That Christ may guide the minds of those who govern us to promote the common good according to His Holy Will.

That Christ may banish disease, drive out hunger, and ward off every affliction.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Almighty ever-living God, who bring salvation to all and desire that no one should perish, hear the prayers of your people and grant that the course of our world may be directed by your peaceful rule and your Church rejoice in tranquility and devotion. Through Christ our Lord.

1st Week of Advent 2021 - Monday - "Lord I am not worthy..."

 

“Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the world and my soul will be healed.”  

How appropriate, that right at the beginning of Advent, we have this profound statement of humble faith of the Roman Centurion. “Lord, I am not worthy”

This statement of faith has long been part of the Roman liturgy. We recite these words prior to our reception of holy communion. In fact, in the Old Rite, it would be recited three times, while striking the breast, “Domine, non sum dignus, ut intres sub tectum meum, sed tantum dic verbum, et sanabitur animam meam”

For some of us, every day is Advent; for every day, while attending Mass, the Lamb of God is made present to us, and every day, we recite those words of the Centurion before the Lord’s Advent into our souls through the reception of Holy Communion.

One the one hand, these words confess our unworthiness to receive the holy one. Our lives our full of so many imperfections, so much weakness, that the words of St. Peter would be more appropriate, no? “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.” I have so often turned away from grace, turned away from goodness. I am not worthy. 

And yet, in the Mass, the Lord, present, seems to also echo that invitation made to the repentant: “Come to me, all of you, and I will refresh you.” Though I am so carnal and worldly, so unmortified in my passions, so full of concupiscence, so unguarded in my outward senses, so entangled in my vain imaginations, so negligent in cultivating my interior life, so sluggish in austerity and fervor, so selfish in generosity, so often deaf to the word of God, the Lord beckons me anyway.

While acknowledging our unworthiness, we also confidently acknowledge that by a mere word of his omnipotence, the Lord can heal and restore our diseased soul, to make it a fitting tabernacle for his divine presence.

As the Catechism explains: “Before so great a sacrament, the faithful can only echo humbly and with ardent faith the words of the centurion, Lord I am not worthy to receive” Like the centurion, we acknowledge our unworthiness to have Jesus enter under the roof of our souls. Yet just as the centurion believed Jesus was able to heal his servant, so we trust that Jesus can heal us as he becomes the intimate guest of our soul in Holy Communion.

The Centurion certainly sets the tone for Advent. What does it mean to stir up our faith this Advent? To deeply and profoundly consider our unworthiness to receive the Lord, and yet, at the same time, to confidently approach him, to invite him into our souls, knowing that he longs to make his dwelling in us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 

As we await with longing the Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, we raise up our prayers of petitions.

That Christ may visit his holy Church and always find her repentant of sin and watchful in prayer.

That Christ may fill the Pope, our Bishop, and all the clergy with spiritual gifts and graces.

That Christ may guide the minds of those who govern us to promote the common good according to His Holy Will.

That Christ may banish disease, drive out hunger, and ward off every affliction.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Almighty ever-living God, who bring salvation to all and desire that no one should perish, hear the prayers of your people and grant that the course of our world may be directed by your peaceful rule and your Church rejoice in tranquility and devotion. Through Christ our Lord.

2nd Week of OT 2020 - Tuesday - Faith in Jesus' Divinity

In yesterday’s Gospel, Jesus’ critics attacked him and his disciples for not living up to their standards of piety. Compared to the pharisees who fasted twice a week, Jesus and his disciples appeared not to fast. Jesus answered their criticism by hinting at his divine identity which his critics failed to grasp.

Today’s Gospel escalates things. The Lord’s critics accuse him, not simply of minimal piety, but downright sin—violating the sabbath, violating the third commandment by picking heads of grain from the field. Well, the Lord escalates things too. He doesn’t just hint at his divine identity, he equates himself with God. He is Lord of the Sabbath.

David was justified in eating the bread of offering on the Sabbath because David was the Lord’s anointed king and he was on a mission from God. How much more justified is Jesus who is the anointed king of kings on the ultimate divine mission to save us from our sins.

Again, his critics fail to understand his actions because they fail to understand his identity. St. Mark highlights many of these encounters throughout his Gospel. Jesus’ actions are criticized, and then the Lord explains that their criticism is rooted in their failure to believe that He is the Son of God.

This is why the two great moments in Mark’s Gospel occur at the halfway point and then at the end. Peter’s Confession, his proclamation of belief that Jesus is the Christ, the first person in the Gospel to vocalize faith. And then at the crucifixion, the Roman centurion vocalizing, proclaiming, “truly this man was the Son of God.”

Many people throughout the centuries have looked to Jesus’ teaching. Even non-believers can quote and even abide somewhat by the Lord’s teachings or parables. Sadly, though many of the baptized, while recognizing Jesus as a moral authority, fail to recognize him as God. This failure to believe is certainly the great cause of lukewarmness today and throughout the centuries.

We honor today, a saint of just 12 or 13 years old, who was anything but lukewarm. St. Agnes faced with the choice to forsake her faith or die, she exclaimed, “Such is Christ’s beauty that his brightness excels all the brightness of the sun and the stars; the heavens are ravished with his glory.  He is so powerful that all the forces of heaven and earth cannot conquer him.  I love him more than my soul and life and am willing to die for him.”

Again, if he were just some moral teacher, he may be worth admiring. But he is God, and his beauty and goodness exceeds all of the created universe. And that others may know that salvation comes through him, is worth dying for.

The 12 year old martyr reminds us, that children understand, often better than adults, that following jesus means to give him our whole hearts, minds, and souls, to testify with every ounce of our being that he is the Son of God, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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To God the Father Almighty we direct the prayers of our heart for the needs and salvation of humanity and the good of His faithful ones.
For the holy Church of God, that the Lord may graciously watch over her and care for her.
For all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may grant them relief and move Christians to come to the aid of the suffering.
For the safety of all those traveling to the March for Life this week in Washington D.C., and that the witness to the dignity of human life may bring about greater protection for the unborn and conversion to the Gospel of Life.
For our beloved dead, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for X, for whom this Mass is offered.
O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you yourself are the source of all devotion, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.

Monday - 24th Week of OT 2017 - Lord, I am not worthy

At every Mass, before receiving Jesus in Holy Communion, we echo the words of the Centurion, “Lord I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof.” Even the priest who has been consecrated by the bishop to preside over these sacred mysteries says that he is unworthy to receive.

Jesus remarks that not in all of Israel had he found such faith. And you can be sure that there were many people who considered themselves to be very faithful, particularly the Pharisees.

In claiming our unworthiness to receive Holy Communion, is not a superficial act of self-degradation. We are able to come forward to receive the Lord not because we are so great and so good, but because God is so good.

When we express our unworthiness, when we kneel throughout Mass, when we genuflect when we come into the church, when we bow before receiving holy communion, we are expressing something very important for Christians, we are expressing our Reverence for God.

Reverence is having the respect we ought to have for God.  St. Theresa said, that if we really understood the greatness of the miracle that took place at Mass, we would fall flat on our face.  Because the God of the entire universe is here.  The same sacrifice that opened for us the way to heaven, takes place here in this church, on this altar, for us.

When we realize God's majestic glory, we conclude that He doesn't owe us anything. Thus, we see life as a gift and a privilege. Realizing our unworthiness we acknowledge the reality of our humanity. We see ourselves as unconditionally loved and superabundantly showered with God’s mercy. Our every breath is a grace.

There is a joy in unworthiness. There is a joy in kneeling, in submitting to not an arbitrary authority, but a true one.

Last week, I spoke of the moral therapeutic deism which has infected many Christians, who come to Church only to get something, to have their self-esteem boosted, to have their sins explained away. But reverence purifies us of such self-centeredness. Reverence brings us to our knees in the presence of God, and brings us joy in knowing that He is God and we are not.

May this Holy Eucharist today deepen our reverence and deepen our joy, that we may be faithful proclaiming Christ’s saving Truth to the ends of the earth, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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May the Church deepen in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, particularly in the reverence which helps us adore and proclaim the ineffable love of God.

For Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of September: “That our parishes, animated by a missionary spirit, may be places where faith is communicated and charity is seen.”

For the sick and afflicted, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, for victims of natural disaster and inclement weather, those who suffer from war, violence, and terrorism, for the mentally ill, those with addictions, the imprisoned, the unchaste, for the comfort of the dying and the consolation of their families.

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

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.