3rd Sunday of Advent 2018 - Rejoice in the Lord Always. Always!

A few weeks ago, at my previous parish assignments, I was meeting with our parish youth group, a great group of kids in 8th through 12th grade. The discussion that week centered on the commandments: how the commandments of God are not always easy to follow, sometimes we are tempted to break or ignore them; how the commandments of God are often differ from the attitudes of the culture—how civil laws can even allow what the law of God forbids. The conversation then turned to examine how following the commandments and the teachings of Jesus bring us a joy that nothing else in the world can give. This led us to differentiate between happiness and joy. Our culture treats those two words virtually synonymously. The word "joy" is used modernly to mean a great quantity of happiness. I’m happy, for example when the Cleveland Browns bring home a victory, but joy is reserved for births and weddings and ordinations and pastor installations.

Christians, though use these words a bit differently. Happiness is satisfaction with temporary things. Again, I’m happy when my chicken wings are the perfect level of crispiness, I’m happy when the traffic light turns green at just the right time and I can cruise right through the intersection.

But no amount of crispy chicken wings or green lights or browns victories can bring joy…ever. Because joy comes from our relationship not from temporary earthly things, but with being in right relationship with the eternal things of God: Truth, Goodness, 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, the beauty of God’s creation, beautiful and timeless Christian art and architecture, like that we are able to behold when we come to St. Ignatius of Antioch church, “The Cathedral of West Blvd.”

If you remember, a few weeks ago, the story of the rich young man. Jesus invites him to give up his possessions and to follow him, and the rich young man rejects the invitation, he goes away sad, why? Because he was unwilling to detach himself from the love of his temporary, earthly possessions. He chose happiness from passing earthly things, over the joy that comes from the truth and goodness and beauty of Jesus Christ.

I reflect this morning on joy as we celebrate Joy Sunday—Gaudete Sunday. On this 3rd Sunday of Advent we allow ourselves to revel in the joy that Christ is near. Rejoice, for the Lord is near, as St. Paul writes in our second reading. The eternal one, the eternal word made flesh, whose incarnation brings about a reconciliation between man and God, man to finally be saved from slavery to the flesh that he might live for what is eternal.

Last week, I announced an increase in the availability of the Sacrament of Confession here at St. Ignatius: a full hour on Saturday, and confession between the two Sunday morning masses. In Confession, we acknowledge the times we have lived for the earthly rather than for God: for the pleasure of the instant of lust, the pleasure of sharing that juicy piece of gossip, the dark satisfaction of stunning someone into silence through hurtful words in an argument, relying on ourselves too much and trusting in God too little, for the acts of selfishness which, yes, bring some earthly gratification, but in the end, diminish authentic joy in us.

St. Paul’s exhortation to rejoice always, is quite challenging, isn’t it? . Rejoice in the Lord always?  Really Saint Paul?  Would Paul dare to say those words if he knew the horrors of the 20th century, the godlessness taking root in so many places in our world today? Does he dare to utter those words to a parent grieving the loss of a child? To a widow? To slave? To a cripple? To the terminally ill?

Well, yes, I think he would. Because his message is timeless. Now of course he’s not saying rejoice on account of all the evil in the world. Evil is not a good thing. Tragedy is not a good thing. Nor is Paul exhorting us to pretend like the evils in the world “Aren’t that bad.”

What he’s saying is, rejoice because Jesus is real and Jesus is near to us, even in tragedy, especially in tragedy. In the aftermath of senseless tragedies many ask “where is God?”  And the Church, in all honestly and conviction, says, “here.”  God is here, with us, now, with his consolation for those who mourn, with the promise of eternal life for those who die in his friendship. 

And because God is near and because God can transform every occasion into a moment of grace, the Christian can truly rejoice always.  God can transform the most painful cross into the most redemptive sanctifying moments of our life.

Echoing the words of St. Paul, Saint Therese of Liseaux from her death bed said, “Everything is grace”.  Again, in those three words, Thérèse does not mean it makes no difference what I do, that every choice is good. I cannot choose evil and think grace is in that choice. Saint Thérèse is explaining that God is never distant. Wherever we are, in that exact place in that moment, even on your death bed, even when nailed to the cross, there is the choice, to turn to God and know his closeness.  God is with us, always, and He is wholly concerned about our eternal well-being, always.

Our Advent days are literally brimming over with opportunities to encounter the Lord, to remember the Lord’s Christmas nearness. In our daily prayer, in the sacraments, in serving our neighbor, in the little crosses God gives us to bear, doing small deeds with great love. Our successes and our failures and even tragedies can be turned into moments of grace, and increase in joy, when we realize God is near. But the choice is ours to turn from darkness and self-reliance, from the bottle and pills, from the iphone screen, from the need to control the lives of others, or to turn to light, to the eternal one, the fount of true and lasting joy.

“Rejoice in the Lord always, I say it again, Rejoice” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

All Saints Day 2018 - Children of God

As a student here at Holy Family School, or in your youth, you may have been asked, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” As a kid, I remember enjoying reading the comic strips in the newspaper, like Bill Waterson's "Calvin and Hobbes" and Gary Larson's "The Far Side". And so for a time, I wanted to be a newspaper cartoonist, that’s before I realized I can’t draw. If I were to ask the young people in our congregation here today, I’d bet I’d come up with a whole host of answers: a professional athlete, an astronaut, a doctor, a truck driver, a professional dancer, an artist, musician, a soldier; perhaps one or two might be thinking of being a priest or a nun.

No matter the profession, I bet every single one of us could answer that question, “when I grow up, I want to be happy.” No one wants to grow up to be sad or bored.

There are a lot of things that may cause us unhappiness, sadness in life: not becoming as successful as we thought we should, not having the house or car or job that we thought we should, perhaps losing a loved one before we were ready. It was the French philosopher Leon Bloy who said, “There is really only one sadness in life, not to be a saint.” For if each of us have been made by God to become holy, to be a saint, the only real sadness, is to not become the person God made us to be, happy with him in heaven for eternity.

If you had to choose between all of the material wealth, power, and fame the world could give you and being a saint, if you choose anything but becoming a saint, you’ve chosen wrong.

The saints show us what it means to be truly alive—to have truly lived a good life. Life is not meant to be all about the pursuit of material things, earthly things, but spiritual things, heavenly things.
In the Gospel today, did Jesus say blessed are you when you win trophies for your athletic accomplishments? No. Did he say, blessed are you when you are well known in your professional field? No. Did he say, blessed are you if you have more friends, more money than other people? No.
What did he say? Blessed are you when you are merciful, blessed are you when you are pure of heart. The beatitudes are the key to true human flourishing and true human happiness.

And today we celebrate those individuals who made the beatitudes the most important pursuit in their lives—saints like those our second graders are dressed-up as today. Francis, Mother Theresa, Saint Clare, Saint Patrick. If you want a truly good life, become like them. Don’t just learn their names, learn the love they had for Jesus, learn the love they had for fasting, prayer, spreading the Gospel, charity toward the poor.

Why is there so much unhappiness, boredom, perversion in the world? Because instead of seeking to become saints, we turn to trivial, selfish pursuits.

Today is a celebration of those who turned away from selfishness, and immersed themselves in lives of mercy, into the life of Christ. They choose to fully embrace their identity as children of God.

Any of the saints would tell you: don’t get swept up with all of the distractions in the world. Being a saint means saying “no” to a lot of things—things which seek to ruin our friendship with Jesus, things that seek to corrupt our minds, sour our hearts, and corrupt our souls. But we say “no” to the things of the world, because of our great desire to say “yes” to God with all of our being.

We all of us today recognize our own call to become saints, and come to thank God for this great cloud of witnesses who teach us what it really means to be Christian, what it really means to be human, what it really means to be children of God, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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.

4th Sunday of Lent 2018 - Mourning Sin, Mercy, and Lenten Joy

Happiness. The Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle both taught that the motive behind all of our actions, is happiness.  We do the things we do because we want to be happy.  Even though there are so many things that divide the human family, the desire for happiness unites us. Why do we build cities, practice music, devote years of our life to athletic training? Why do we watch the Cleveland Browns week after week, hoping that maybe, just maybe, they will overcome past losses and bring home victory? Happiness.  Following Cleveland football is a perfect of example of how we even undergo great sufferings in order to achieve greater happiness.

Why do we desire happiness? Why do we desire joy? We are built for it. The Creator designed us with this deep longing. God made us to discover our soul’s deepest longing, in Him.

However, because of the Fall, because of the sin of Adam and Eve, our moral compass is defective. We look for happiness, we look for joy in all the wrong places. We do too much of what we don’t need and too little of what we do need. We eat too much, and fast too little; we gossip too much, and listen to actual wisdom too little; we train our bodies, while neglecting our souls; we are selfish too often, and selfless too seldom; these days, we spend too much time on social media, while neglecting healthy communication with the people we should love most. We settle for the superficial, and then complain when our lives seem meaningless.

Theologians call this broken happiness compass “concupiscence”—this tendency to look for joy, look for happiness in all the wrong places, even violating natural law and the commandments of God. St. Paul even writes about concupiscence to the Romans, when he says, “Sin…produced in me, every kind of covetous desire (Rom 7:8)”...every kind of concupiscence.

So what do we do about this broken happiness compass? Well, we have a choice don’t we? Either seek to fix it or let the broken compass continue to lead us away from joy, into sin, sadness, and separation from God.

During Lent, we seek the Lord’s wisdom to identify our concupiscent habits and the fortitude to overcome them. As we pray in the Eucharistic Preface: God has given us this sacred time for the renewing and purifying of our hearts, that freedom from disordered affections *concupiscence*, we may so deal with the things of this passing world, as to hold rather to the things that eternally endure.
The 4th Sunday of lent is known as Laetare Sunday, whose name is taken from the ancient latin entrance antiphon: Laetare, Ierusalem, et conventum facite, omnes qui diligitis eam…Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful, all who were in mourning; exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast.

It seems kind of strange that the penitential season is interrupted by this command to rejoice. How do you rejoice in the desert? Well, there is something deeply joyful about doing penance, knowing that are doing something to please the Lord, to humble to one’s pride.

Laetare Sunday is also a reminder that it is through repentance, that our mourning is transformed into rejoicing. The very structure of our scripture readings takes us on this journey from mourning and sin, to joy and truth and life.

In the old testament reading from Second Chronicles we read of the deplorable state of the people of Israel. “In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people added infidelity to infidelity, practicing all the abominations of the nations and polluting the LORD’s temple.” A people who should know better practicing infidelity after infidelity to God’s laws, abominations like child sacrifice, unnatural relations between men and women, worship of false gods, involvement in occult practices like visiting spirit mediums and fortune tellers. And when God sends his prophets to warn the people, they scoff and mocked and killed them.

It took exile, the destruction of their city, families being ripped apart by a foreign enemy, to get these people to begin to wake up to the consequences of their sins.

Sinful Israel here represents all of sinful humanity, the sad state of our exile from God, our rejection of God’s commandments, and the biblical warning that families and civilizations crumble when they become distanced from God.

Beautiful Psalm 137 is the song of the soul, lamenting his sins, weeping over paradise lost, remembering how good he had it when he lived under the grace and protection of God.

And then our second reading, Paul writes to the Ephesians of how the soul dead in his transgressions is STILL loved by God; that God is rich in mercy, and that grace CAN be restored through Jesus Christ when the soul sincerely repents of his sins.

The Gospel repeats this truth: that Jesus Christ lifted up on the cross is the source of our spiritual healing. That because of Him we can turn away from our wickedness, and we can begin to live in the truth. What a tremendous message.

That same pattern of “sin, repentance, mercy, and life” is evident in the life of every Christian. Every Christian begins life “dead in his transgressions” as St. Paul says, and through baptism comes to new life, the life of grace.

And, we are to follow this same pattern every Lent. Every Lent we are to identify those parts of our life that have yet to be converted, those parts of us in which we allow death, and wickedness, and selfishness, and lust to reign.

We are to bring our fallen affections, our disordered desires and unenlightened intellects to be restored by God primarily in the Sacraments of Confession and Holy Eucharist. Again, if you haven’t gone to Confession yet this Lent, you still have a few more opportunities. The angels rejoice when a sinner repents, and something in us changes when we go to confession as well. We experience the elation, the joy of forgiveness. Our Lenten penances too, even though they bring some suffering, bring a Lenten joy that far outweighs the suffering.

If you haven’t experienced some joy this Lent, it’s likely not because you fasted, prayed, and gave too much, but likely because you’ve done these things too little, with half-hearted devotion, and lukewarmness.

Now that we are passed the half-way mark of Lent, we recommit to the penances some of us have already given up on, and perhaps discern how we might even unite ourselves all the more to Jesus who goes to the cross for us.

May we respond generously to the call to do penance, for it is through penance and repentance, that we reject the things that deprive us of life and joy, and open ourselves all the more to the life and joy of Easter grace, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Thanksgiving 2017 - Gratitude leads to happiness

Thanksgiving is not an explicitly Christian holiday, it’s not a feast day of the Church, even in the United States. Yet, it certainly has a religious dimension, the character of what the medievals called “the virtue of religion.”

The word “religion” comes from the latin word religare which means to bind. And so religion deals with the most important bonds in the human experience, our most important bond, our bond to God, and also the bonds of family, friendship, nation, the goods of the earth, and our neighbor.

The civic holiday of Thanksgiving acknowledges this religious impulse and religious duty to give thanks for these things. Which is why we fill Thanksgiving with the things we value and are most grateful: friends, family, food and football, and hopefully some prayer.

It is not that we ignore the divisions, strife, pain, friction, brokenness, or sorrow out there. But it is a very important human need to stop and give thanks. It’s not a day for political arguments, but for refreshing society.

Many Catholics, like ourselves, rightly begin the day by going to Holy Mass, even though it’s not a holy day of obligation. We turn to God, with gratitude, for the gift of our salvation, for the good things that fill our lives, and asking God to bless the people we’re going to spend the day with, whether they go to Mass or not.

Counting blessings, adding up the good things of your life, including the gift of life itself, makes for a more virtuous people precisely because it increases the virtue of gratitude in those who are thankful. For as Thomas Aquinas said, gratitude is the “mark of a happy disposition to see good rather than evil.” Thankfulness is the soil in which the soul thrives.

So, If you spend any moment of the day thinking about what people owe you, you’ve missed the point. Rather, focus on nurturing the virtue of gratitude today, for the time you’ve been given, for the people who have touched your life and continue to bless you, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the pilgrim Church on earth may shine as a light to the nations.  We pray to the Lord.

That all people of good will may work together against attacks on religious liberty and the Christian Faith.  We pray to the Lord.

For the protection of our armed forces, police, and firemen and all those who risk their lives to preserve the security of our country.  We pray to the Lord.

For the safety of travelers, the peaceful resolution of all family divisions, and national hostilities, for protection from disease, and harmony amongst all those who gather together today. We pray to the Lord.

For the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the sick, the aged, the lonely, the grieving, those who are out of work, those who are facing financial difficulties, those with addictions, and the imprisoned: that God will draw close to them, and bless them with grace and peace. We pray to the Lord.

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. We pray to the Lord.

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.

Monday - 10th Week of OT 2017 - The roadmap to eternity

The Greek philosopher Aristotle taught that man’s highest goal, the motive behind all of his actions, is happiness.  The desire for happiness is the one goal that unites all of humanity.  He used the Greek word “eudaimonia” to describe “earthly happiness” that comes through living a virtuous life, a life where the passions are brought under control of the right reason, a life where one pursues the highest things.

There was another greek word, “makarios”—used to describe the blessedness and immortality of the gods. And at the very end of his Nicomachean Ethics, in which he spends so much time explaining what it takes to achieve eudaimonia, earthly happiness, he hints at the possibility of man seeking “makarios”, the blessedness of the gods.

Today’s gospel reading begins Jesus’ great sermon on the mount, from which we’ll be reading from for the next three weeks. And Jesus doesn’t just hint at the possibility of blessedness for his followers, the very first word of his sermon, is markarios, blessed are you, blessed will you be. Jesus speaks of our deepest longing, we are not made simply for a short earthly life. We are made for eternity, and Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is the roadmap to eternity, to blessedness.

Jesus will show that eudaimonia and makarios are linked: eternal blessedness will certainly involve earthly virtue. However, our deepest longing isn’t simply earthly happiness, our deepest longing is union with God. And Jesus promises that, too!

So often, we look for happiness and joy in all the wrong places, so Jesus in this Sermon is going to help lead us out of this spiritual slavery, this constant pursuit of looking for happiness where we shouldn’t. Jesus teaches us to seek first the kingdom of God, to build our houses on the solid rock foundation of his teaching, so that we may filled with true life.

Just as Moses gave the 10 Commandments of the Law upon a mountain, Jesus, on a mountain, gives a new Law, not simply an ethic, but a roadmap to union with God, to communion, to intimacy.

As I did last time these readings came up, I encourage you to read through chapters 5 through 7 of Matthew’s Gospel in one sitting. Jesus speaks these words to every age of the Church, to every person. May we receive his teaching with open minds and hearts, and strive to be faithful to all he taught, that we may achieve the end for which we are made, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the holy Church of God, that the Lord may graciously watch over her, preserving her from error, helping her to rejoice in the Truth of the Gospel.

That the faith may be practiced in all Christian families, for strengthening in charity among spouses, that parents may be examples of faith to inspire their children that the young may learn and practice virtue and prayer.

For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life.

For the healing of divisions caused by heresy, and moral and doctrinal error among Christians.

For those who do not believe in God and for those who have fallen away from the Church.

For all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may graciously grant them relief, especially for the sick and victims of war and terror and natural disaster.

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

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.

May 12 2017 - St. Pancras the Martyr - Conversion, Happiness, Intercession

Saint Pancras was born in Phrygia, a kingdom in what is today west central Turkey, around the turn of the 4th century. He is also known by the names Pancritas and Pancratius. Pancras was orphaned at an early age and was taken to Rome by his uncle, Dionysius. The two of them converted to Christianity after meeting some Christians there.

Pancras lived during the rule of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who we know mounted some of the fiercest persecutions of the early Church. And so converting to Christianity during this period was highly dangerous. And it wasn’t long before he was arrested and beheaded, perhaps on the same day as Saints Nereus and Achilleus, whose feast days are also today. Pancras was only 14 when he was beheaded, and so was one of the early patron saints of teenagers.

That’s about all we know of the life of St. Pancras. In 514 Pope Symmacus erected a Basilica in his honor. And in 672, Pope Vitalian sent his relics to the Northumberland in England. And through the centuries devotion to Pancras grew, many healing miracles came through his intercession. His powerful intercession and “glorious prayers” are mentioned in the Collect prayer.

Three lessons for us:

One, His conversion came through the influence of faithful Catholics. We never know how the Lord will use our simple faith to raise up saints. We do well to share our faith because people are craving an authentic relationship with God, even though at times they don’t act like it. And God will use us to draw them to Himself.

Two, Pancras converted and was martyred as a teenager. We need to share our faith with clarity and patience especially to those at such a tender age—when the ways of the world compete for their loyalty. Don’t be afraid to challenge them. Pope Francis recently said to teenagers: “there is no app for happiness”, meaning, he challenged their absorption with technology, in a clear, compelling, but loving way. And we shouldn’t be afraid to do the same.

Three, the intercession of the Saints, is powerful. Just because you currently don’t have a devotion to St. Pancras, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have one. Devotion to the early martyrs will not only strengtrhen your own faith, but bring great graces.

May our devotion to St. Pancras, Achilleus, Nereus help us to stand firm and to persevere in sharing the faith and living the faith 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 off our prayers.

That our parish may grow it bearing witness with great confidence to the Resurrection of Christ.
May all teenagers and young people, through the intercession of St. Pancras, avoid all worldly allurements and have a faith that is constant and pure.

For those who hold public office and those who assist them in promoting the common good.
For those who travel by sea, land or air, for captive and all held in prison.

The martyrs followed in the footsteps of Christ by carrying the cross, may all those enduring the misfortunes of life know endurance and peace, especially the sick and the dying.

For the dead...

O God, who 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.

Homily: All Saints 2016 - "The only real sadness in life..."

As a student at Corpus Christi Academy, or in your youth, you may have been asked, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” If I were to ask the young people in our congregation here today, I’d bet I’d come up with a whole host of answers: a professional athlete, an astronaut, a doctor, a truck driver, a professional dancer, artists, musician, a soldier; perhaps one or two might be thinking of being a priest or a nun.

 No matter the profession, I bet every single one of us could answer that question, “when I grow up, I want to be happy.” No one wants to grow up to be sad or bored.

There are a lot of things that may cause us unhappiness, sadness in life: not becoming as successful as we thought we should, not having the house or car or job that we thought we should, perhaps losing a loved one before we were ready. It was the French philosopher Leon Bloy who said, “There is really only one sadness in life, not to be a saint.” For if each of us have been made by God to become holy, to be a saint, the only real sadness, is to not become the person God made us to be, happy with him in heaven for eternity.

If you had to choose between all of the material wealth, power, and fame the world could give you and being a saint, if you choose anything but becoming a saint, you’ve chosen wrong.

The saints show us what it means to be truly alive. Life is not meant to be all about the pursuit of material things, earthly things, but spiritual things, heavenly things.

In the Gospel today, did Jesus say blessed are you when you win trophies for your athletic accomplishments? No. Did he say, blessed are you when you are well known in your professional field? No. Did he say, blessed are you if you have more friends, more money than other people? No.

What did he say? Blessed are you when you are merciful, blessed are you when you are pure of heart. The beatitudes are the key to true human flourishing and true human happiness.

And today we celebrate those individuals who got that. The saints looked around and saw that when people center their lives on things other than God, the ungodly were the truly unhappy ones.

Look at the joy of saint francis, saint mother Theresa, saint clare, saint therese, do you want that joy? If so, become like them. Most of the time, we spend our efforts pursuing trivial things, which do not bring us the happiness, the joy that God offers us in the life of holiness. It might even be something the world considers very important, like becoming the president of the United States. But if you become president, but do not become a saint, you chose wrong.

What does it mean to become a saint? To become a true friend of Christ—allowing Jesus Christ to live his life in you. St. Paul said, “it is no longer I, but Christ who lives in me.” To be a saint is to invite Jesus into every dimension of your life, and allow him to reign. To put on the mind of Christ, to put on the attitude of Christ, to put on the heart of Christ in all things. And the saints are celebrated for doing just that.

Each of the saints has an interesting story. It is interesting to hear how Saint Francis would preach to the animals, or how Saint Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland, or how the Devil would appear to St. John Vianney trying to scare him, or how St. Sebastian was shot with arrows and still survived, or how St. Theresa of Avila would levitate when she prayed. But behind every saint is that great desire to know Jesus and to love him with their whole heart. And that’s what we need to emulate.

Don’t get swept up with all of the distractions are world gives us. Being a saint means saying “no” to a lot of things—things which seek to ruin our friendship with Jesus, things that seek to corrupt our minds, sour our hearts. But we say “no” to the things of the world, because of our great desire to say “yes” to God with all of our being.

We all of us today recognize our own call to become saints, and come to thank God for this great cloud of witnesses who teach us what it really means to be Christian, what it really means to be human, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.