30th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2024 - Blind Bartimaeus and Priesthood Sunday

 

Since 2003, the last Sunday of October is designated as Priesthood Sunday— an opportunity for us to reflect upon the role of the ordained priesthood in the life of the Church.  

Today we welcome Tate Johnson, a second year seminarian at Borromeo Seminary here in Cleveland, who will speak to us after communion about his own discernment and formation for the priesthood.

For the homily today, I’d like to consider the role of the priest in light of our Gospel reading---the story of Bartimaeus.  The story offers several meaningful insights relevant to Priesthood Sunday and the priestly vocation and our own call to holiness.

The story begins with blind Bartimaeus crying out to Jesus. In the course of his ministry, the priest encounters countless people who are crying out to Jesus. Many of them, like Bartimaeus, have a hard time seeing Jesus due to the challenging circumstances of their life—a crisis, an illness, a unique encounter with the evils of the world or in their own heart. 

The priest helps people see Jesus. Particularly at Mass, right? The priest has a unique role in the Church to help others see Jesus. Through the celebration of the sacraments—the priest makes Jesus present through the sacramental rituals, particularly in the changing of bread and wine into the Lord’s Body and Blood so we can see Him present in our midst. Also in the homily, hopefully, each week, I help you see Jesus in the concrete details of your life. 

One of my favorite functions in the priestly ministry is to teach OCIA. I’m always pleased to meet those souls hungering, longing to see Jesus. And in those sessions their eyes become more and more attuned to Jesus present in the Catholic Church and come to understand the invitation Jesus makes to them—to come and be changed and transformed. 

Consider another detail in the Bartimeus story. Bartimaeus longs for Jesus, but many in the crowd make it difficult for him—they tell him that he is wasting his time. Similarly, there are many forces in the world today which tell us that we are wasting our time turning to the Lord and seeking to follow Him. The priest has a role in helping members of the Church to take courage in standing up against the worldly forces that seek to silence the Church and to ensure that we never ally ourselves with those terrible powers.

As many of you know, I was appointed by Bishop Malesic as Chaplain for an apostolate called Courage International which helps men and women with same-sex attraction live faithfully the Lord’s call to follow him. Now the world tells them, ah, just give in to your impulses. But, Christians recognize that not every impulse leads to Jesus. Rather, we need to restrain and discipline those impulses that are misaligned. And priests help others break through those wordly voices. Thanks be to God for those priests who tell us the truth and encourage us. 

Next in the story, Bartimaeus runs to Jesus, and Jesus surprisingly asks, “what do you want?” It’s surprising because Jesus already knows what Bartimaeus wants and needs. Jesus can read his heart, he made him. But Jesus asks, and listens. This reflects a very important aspect of priestly ministry. Listening. Before a priest can offer words of advice, or spiritual guidance, or make decisions regarding the life of a parish, he needs to listen. I hope that when you have brought your concerns to me, you have felt listened to. 

You might not have received the answer you liked, I can’t promise that all the time, but I hope that you’ve felt that your concern was taken seriously and it was given the attention it deserved. 

But moreso, we’re not just talking about decisions about clambakes here. The priest takes concerns of the soul with profound seriousness. If you are seeking to follow Jesus more faithfully, more deeply, the priest will listen and pray for you and with you and bring your concerns to the Lord.

Finally, in the story, Jesus heals Bartimaeus.

The ministry of the priest certainly has a healing dimension. Every priest is called to dispense the healing of Jesus Christ primarily in the Sacrament of Confession and the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.

The Confessional is a place of the most profound healing, a healing of those wounds we inflict on our relationship with God and our fellow man through sin. Now yes, some of our spiritual wounds can be healed in other ways—our venial sins can be healed through repentance and reception of the Eucharist. But our most serious sins, our grave sins, our mortal sins, can those mortal wounds can be healed only in the Sacrament of Confession. 

When we confess our sins to a priest and receive absolution we know that a profound healing occurs at that moment—we feel lighter, we feel the weight of guilt relieved, we feel peace. And I hope that no one here is depriving themselves of the healing that Jesus is waiting to dispense to you through his priests. I hope that neither pride, nor shame, nor embarrassment is keeping you from crying out like Bartimaeus for healing. If you can ‘t get to confession on Saturday afternoons or Sunday mornings, give me a call, we can schedule something. I’m not too busy to hear your confessions, that’s why I’m here. 

Similarly, with the Sacrament of Anointing. If you are going in for serious surgery, or you’ve gotten a serious diagnosis, or you feel the effects of old age or declining health really taking its toll, all you have to do is call, and say, Father, I’d like to receive the Anointing of the Sick. For through that Sacrament Jesus gives powerful spiritual healing and spiritual strength to bear our afflictions with grace.

Recall, that every priest is also Bartimaeus, with his own blindnesses. So always please be patient with your priests, with the same patience you would want for yourself.

And recall too that every member of the Church has a priestly role, of bringing souls to Jesus, of listening to the afflicted and offering wise counsel and comfort, and seeking as best we can to be instruments of the Lord’s healing. Every soul we encounter is another Bartimaeus, who deep down longs to see the Lord.

May all priests and all the priestly people of God be strengthened in their vocations of service and holiness for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

Priesthood Sunday 2022 - Calling imperfect men

 About 6 or 7 times in my priesthood, I’ve taken my annual retreat at Trinity Retreat Center in Larchmont, New York, about 25 minutes outside of the city. Franciscan Priest Fr. Benedict Groeschel, after his retirement, came to reside there, and I heard him speak on a few occasions, and was edified by his practice wisdom and holiness. But another priest, Fr. Gene Fulton, of the Archdiocese of New York, ran the retreat center. And Fr. Gene had an interesting story: earlier in his priesthood, he had spent time with the Russian mystic, the Baronness Catherine Doherty, at her home for troubled priests up at Madonna House in Ontario. 

Baronness Catherine had a deep love for priests going back to her childhood. She told the story of how, as a young girl growing up in Russia, she and her mother were walking down the street one day and they found their parish priest lying in the gutter drunk. The mother got the priest back to his rectory and returning home the mother spoke to her daughter, “Catherine take the flowers out of the ornate vase on the dining room table and put them in the toilet.” Catherine thought her mother’s command to be strange, but she did it. She took the flowers and put them in the toilet.

And then her mother asked her, “Catherine, are the flowers any less beautiful in the toilet than they were in the vase?” “No mother” Catherine said, “the flowers are no less beautiful” To which her mother responded, “remember that about priests, Catherine. No matter who the man is or what he has done, his priesthood is always beautiful.” And like I said, Catherine went on to devote her life to helping troubled priests whose priesthoods were in the toilet. 

On this priesthood Sunday, we can admit that some priests are ornate vases of beautiful flowers…and some priests are not. But their priesthood is always beautiful because their priesthood is the priesthood of Jesus Christ.

When Jesus called the twelve apostles to himself, he didn’t call perfect guys. He called the most unlikely characters you could imagine: gruff fishermen and conniving corrupt tax collectors. Guys who had some serious issues like the political zealot, Simon, whose feast day was yesterday, and guy who stole from his friends, a thief, Judas Iscariot. He called not the perfect, but he called them nonetheless, and at the last supper ordained them the first priests. And those first priests would become the avenues by which the Gospel would be spread, the Church would be led, and the sacraments would be celebrated. 

Every priest, no matter how sinful, has the ability to raise his hands and call down heaven, spiritual fire, upon the Church, and not because of the priest’s intellect, his wisdom, or his sparkling personality, but because he has been ordained, configured to Christ through the Sacrament of Holy Orders. 

One of the things about the priesthood that attracted me to begin discerning my calling is that priests enter people’s lives and are present to them at very critical moments: times of great happiness, like a baptism or wedding, times of sickness, times of sadness. I’ve been called into a hospital room where parents grieve a dead child. And the priest helps souls to know that God is with them, and that God invites them to holiness no matter what they are going through.

The priest announces the Gospel in these critical moments, and the priest celebrates sacraments in these critical moments, sacraments which are signs of God’s presence and grace entering into the concrete and often gory details of our lives.

When I entered seminary in 2001, the church was months away from being scandalized. News would soon be hitting every major newspaper that there were some priests who had failed to live up to their calling in grievous grievous ways, and some bishops had also failed to protect their flocks. 

And when the news hit of the terrible scandals: every seminarian at that time had some questions to ask himself: do I stick with this? Is this the sort of priest this seminary produces? Should I be here? 

And when I went to grapple with these questions, the call remained. Just because there were men who ended up as bad priests, doesn’t mean I wasn’t being called to be a good priest, or at least to try to be a good priest with God’s help. 

I think that realization was a great grace—it’s helped me to remain focused on the work and on God in the midst of some very sad moments, even some very bizarre and occasionally anti-Christian behavior from my brother priests. Strangely, remembering that priests are imperfect men, has helped me to remain focused on being a better priest. 

And I share this, on this priesthood Sunday, in the year 2022 of Our Lord, because things are still pretty chaotic out there, aren’t they, for Catholics. Liturgy wars are still being fought. We are having internal disputes over how to minister to the divorced and those with same-sex attraction and the trans-gendered, and over what it means to be pro-life. 

The Church needs young men now to answer the call to the priesthood, even in these chaotic times, because the Church will always need young men to answer the call to the priesthood. For this is how Jesus Christ designed his Church.  Some Christians don’t like the hierarchical constitution of Mother Church. Some even form splinter communities without priests, at their own peril, by the way.

But the Church will always need priests to help the faithful know and follow Christ’s teachings, to provide for the poor, to bury the dead, to pray with and pray for the Church, to lead in silence without a lot of support, to care for those who others have forgotten. 

This isn’t a call for everyone, but it’s a call for some. And Priesthood Sunday, it’s not for Catholics to congratulate priests. Priesthood Sunday is not for me. Priesthood Sunday is for the Church, to recognize that we all have work to do to help young men respond to God's call to discern the priestly calling--to make a visit to the seminary.

Our seminary in Cleveland isn’t perfect. It is very good, but not perfect. The presbyterate of Cleveland isn’t perfect. There have been some flowers in toilets in these parts. But that doesn’t mean that God isn’t calling young men to the priesthood (maybe someone here). Priests aren’t perfect, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t needed, or joyful, and fulfilled like no other profession on the planet. We are. Surveys continue to show this.

Dear people of God, pray for priests; pray that young men may hear and answer God’s call despite all the chaos and scandal in the world and in the Church, pray that priests with lukewarm hearts may catch fire, pray for priests whose priesthood is in the toilet, pray that priests who suffer unjustly may be sustained in their ministry, pray for these imperfect men, that our Good God will continue to grant his divine assistance through these imperfect hands and lips, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time 2021 - A priest's rosary

 You may remember, all the way back at the beginning of the month, I shared how the month of October is traditionally devoted to the Holy Rosary, and how the Holy Father and the Bishops encourage us to pray the rosary daily during this month. 

Pope Francis offered a message about the rosary recently. He said, “I invite you to pray the rosary, and to carry it in your hands or in your pockets. The recitation of the rosary is the most beautiful prayer we can offer to the Virgin Mary; it is a contemplation on the stages of the life of Jesus the Savior with his Mother Mary and is a weapon that protects us from evils and temptations.”

Catholics often get frustrated because of the many difficulties that arise in prayer, how difficult it is sometimes to pray. But, the Rosary is easy enough that a child can pray it, profound enough for a mystic to pray it, and they do, and concise enough that a busy person with a lot on their minds can pray it.

I’d like to share with you a method of praying the rosary that I’ve been using for a number of years now. I offer each decade of the rosary, each set of 10 hail mary’s for a particular intention. No matter which set of mysteries I am offering: the joyful mysteries, the sorrowful mysteries, the luminous mysteries, or the glorious mysteries, I offer each decade for a specific intention. 

The first decade I offer for my greatest challenges. If I have a difficult decision to make, or if I am having a difficult time being patient or charitable with a particular person, I offer that decade for them. The Lord says, pray, pray, pray for those who persecute you. So I offer that first decade for an expansion of my heart to love those it is difficult for me to love.

The second decade I offer for those who are sick and suffering. As pastor, many parishioners ask for my prayers, and during this second decade I bring to the Lord those of you who are sick and suffering. Those who are lonely, those who are addicted, those who are anxious, those who are preparing for surgery or dealing wit heavy burdens, those who are dying or grieving.

The third decade I offer for a flourishing of spiritual gifts in the parish. In the third glorious mystery, the holy spirit descends upon the church and in the third joyful mystery the christ is born into the world. So I pray for the Holy Spirit’s gifts, and the life of Christ to fill this parish, to make us more effective in our Gospel mission.

In the fourth decade, I pray for priests. Priests need to support each other in prayer, priests need prayer, constantly. For, the devil hates priests and is bent on the corruption of priests and undermining the holy faith of priests. So I take up the mighty spiritual weapon of the Rosary to pray for the protection of priests from evil and temptation and the flourishing of their ministry.

In the fifth decade, I pray for myself. We need to pray for ourselves—to humbly admit what we need from the Lord, and to pray to by docile to the divine will—to be humble and holy.  I pray for the grace to be crucified with Christ, like in the fifth sorrowful mystery, to honor our lady as queen of heaven and earth like in the fifth glorious mystery, to be broken and shared like the Eucharist as in the fifth luminous mystery, and to find Jesus in the hidden events of my life as he was found in the Temple in the fifth joyful mystery.

I invite you to use and adapt this method, to see if it work and helps to focus your prayers. Our Lady will assist every soul who prays the rosary to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, and our neighbor as we heard in the Gospel today. 

On Thursday, I was making my holy hour and about to offer my rosary when I was moved to adapt my method slightly. Since, on holy Thursday, the Lord gathered with his apostles and made them the first priests of the church, and, since this weekend being priesthood Sunday, I thought I would offer my rosary particularly for priests.

So, as I said, I adapted my method a little bit. In the first decade of my rosary, I prayed for the priests that I am challenged to love, the priests who have left active ministry, the priests who have been found guilty of crimes, the priests who spread heresy, the priests whose personalities just rub me the wrong way. I prayed for them by name, and prayed for the grace to love them.

In my second decade I prayed for the priests who are sick and suffering: the priests, I know, who are very sick or dying or diminished by old age, the priests who struggle with substance abuse, addiction, or who are unjustly treated by their bishops, by their parishes, the media, or government. The priests who may be struggling with the promise of celibacy, priests who may be finding it difficult to pray daily as they ought, the priests that may be on the verge of leaving ministry without proper discernment, and priests with clinical depression, and the like.

In the third decade I prayed for a flourishing of the spiritual gifts in the priests of our Diocese. We need priests on fire with the Holy Spirit. We need priests filled with wisdom, who are not timid in speaking the truth, who are tireless in ministry, who are prophetic, who are able to discern and call forth the Spirit’s gifts from their parishioners. We need priests who will preach, like Jesus, in the third luminous mystery,  throughout galilee, going to the margins as Pope Francis would say, to bring the Gospel to the farthest ends of the earth.

In the fourth decade of my rosary, I prayed for the priests who died. Like the fourth luminous mystery, where the Lord shines in Transfigured Light, I prayed for the priests I have known who have died, that the perpetual light of christ may shine upon them, and that their time in purgatory, if any, will be lessened. I have known many good and holy priests who have gone onto their eternal reward, and I’m sure you have as well. Please do not forget them in your prayers.

Lastly, as I do in all my rosaries, I offered the last decade, again, for myself, especially that I may good be a holy priest and receive a share of the spirit that has animated the priesthood of so many of our good and holy priests in the diocese of Cleveland. I prayed for the prudence of Bishop Pilla, the keenness of mind of Fr. Jack Murphy, the warm compassion of Fr. Jim O’Donnell, the indefatigable energy of Fr. Pete Colletti, the liturgical reverence of Fr. Mike Woost, and piety of Fr. Sean Donnelly, and the fortitude in suffering of Bishop Richard Lennon, those close to him know how he suffered for the church of Cleveland like very few have suffered.

On this priesthood Sunday, I ask once again for your prayers for priests. If there have been priests who have insulted or hurt you or your families, please pray for them, and pray for the grace to forgive them, that any lack of forgiveness might not keep you from deep engagement in the life of the Church. Please pray too for an increase in vocations to the priesthood. I do not know the last priestly vocation to come from this parish, but we do well to pray that God may raise up good holy priests from the young men in our midst. The Church will need good and holy priests until the Lord’s return, and it is the duty of every Catholic to promote healthy priestly vocations through prayer and encouragement.

Priest seek to help the church love God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. So please pray for priests, Pray the rosary, pray for vocations for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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.

30th Sunday in OT 2019 - Priesthood Sunday - Servants of Divine Love

Earlier this week we celebrated the feast of Pope St. John Paul II. And at morning mass,  I shared a story about Pope John Paul, that I’d like to share with all of you.

As many of you know, I was able to study as a seminarian in Rome in the year 2004. I was still five years away from ordination, but during those months I was certainly confirmed in my vocation and my desire to serve the Church in many ways. This was especially true on the morning of Holy Thursday. As we gathered for the Chrism Mass at St. Peter’s basilica, I had a great seat, right on the aisle, and I would be able to see Pope John Paul II as he processed to the altar. I had seen the holy Pope from a great distance a few years before at World Youth Day in Toronto, and several times during that semester as we gathered in Piazza San Pietro for the Holy Father’s Wednesday Audiences and the Sunday Angelus, but this was as close as I’d ever be. And I swear as this frail Pope processed toward the altar, he looked right into my eyes and it was as if Jesus Himself were looking at me in love. And I got an overwhelming sense that my path toward the priesthood was the right one.

Many people still speak of powerful encounters with Pope John Paul and the miracles that surrounded him. But I’ll never forget his loving gaze. The high points of the spiritual life, are certainly those moments where you encounter the Lord’s love for you, aren’t they—when you experience God looking at you, all of you, with love.

Christian discipleship is at its core is essentially a response to God’s great act of love, sending His Son to die for us. I’d venture to say that the more you understand and take to heart the depth of God’s love shown for us in the crucifixion, the more you will desire to imitate Him and to give your own life in service to Him.

And I’d venture to say that the vocations of so many priests are born out of that gaze of love. The priest is at the service of Divine Love—leading members of the church in fulfilling that great command to love the Lord with all your mind, all your soul, all your heart.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen once said, “If I were asked if I had my life to live over again, would I live the priesthood as I have? The answer is: ‘No, I would try to love Christ more.”  I think every priest goes to sleep at night with the thought that he could have loved Christ and his people more that day. 

Vatican II explained that the priesthood is at the service of love. The Vatican II document on the ordained priesthood explained, “priests have been placed in the midst of the laity to lead them to the unity of charity, " loving one another with mutual affection; anticipating one another in showing honor.” It is their task, therefore, to reconcile differences of mentality in such a way that no one need feel himself a stranger in the community of the faithful. [Priests] are defenders of the common good, with which they are charged in the name of the bishop. At the same time, [priests] are strenuous assertors of the truth, lest the faithful be carried about by every wind of doctrine. [Priests] are united by a special solicitude with those who have fallen away from the use of the sacraments, or perhaps even from the faith. Indeed, as good shepherds, they should not cease from going out to them.

An interesting job description, no? the duty to assert truth in the face of the winds of error from the world, to reach out to those not making use of the sacraments of Confession and Eucharist, to seek out the fallen away, to reconcile differences in a community, to defend the common good. And yet all of these tasks are summed up in the priest's duty to love.

Please know, that if I have failed to love any of you, I’m sorry. If I have made any Catholic feel himself a stranger, I’m sorry. If I’ve failed to assert truth and promote the sacraments, I’m sorry. But at least it’s the failure we all share, the failure to love, the failure to be like the tax collector in today’s Gospel, who lives on his knees, in humility before God. Thank you for your prayers for the sanctification of priests, and for me in this first year as pastor.

So, a short homily today, as we welcome seminarian Joe McCarron, who will speak to us after Communion. Joe, thank you for your willingness to serve the lord in holiness and love. Know of our prayers for you and the seminarians.

It takes a lot for a young man to trust the Lord enough to give years of his life to discern a call to the priesthood. Thank you Joe for your witness and your example. May the good work the Lord has begun in you, be brought to completion.

On Priesthood Sunday, we pray for the sanctification of priests, that they may be faithful servants of divine love, and we pray for the grace to unite our lives in union with Christ the High Priest who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life in ransom for many for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Priesthood Sunday 2018 - Master, I want to See

In my nine 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 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, played video games, 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.

A parish like this has many young men with so much potential. Men who could be doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, men who could have a pretty successful college sports career.  Young men who could be successful in the world of business or politics, and we hope many will be.  Because we need men of strong faith in the world. And we need men who will be strong leaders of faith in their families, strong faithful catholic husbands and fathers.

But the Church also needs men who will visit the dying, who will go where the bishop sends them to celebrate the sacraments, who will listen to sins of God’s people and tell them that they are forgiven. We need priests who will shepherd parishes with the heart of Christ the Good Shepherd and remind parishes that they are part of something bigger, a church that is led by bishops and popes, some of them saints, all of them sinners. We need priests to teach us that we are part of something ancient, a 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 those doctors and lawyers and professionals to practice their professions in a manner consistent with the Gospel of Christ, and to assist, in fresh, new ways, our younger generations to encounter Christ--priests to help us see the goodness of God and the goodness in ourselves.


There are over 90 men in this diocese currently studying at our seminary here in Cleveland.  Men, who, like blind Bartimaeus in the Gospel today, have cried out to the Lord Jesus, “Master, I want to see.” I want to see how you are calling me to serve you. I want to see the places where you will lead me. I want to see how the priesthood can transform the world.

No doubt, each of us does well to make that same request to the Lord: “Master, I want to see” I want to see how you are at work in my life. I want to see how, even in the tragedies of life and the chaos of the world, you are there, bringing peace and order and justice. I want to see your light pierce through my darkness. Master, I want to see what I can do to follow you more faithfully, as a parent, as a single person, as a priest or religious.

[Holy Angels: In light of Fr. Ruggeri’s leave of absence and Fr. Bang’s reassignment, there’s need, isn’t there to the Lord to bring light to this particular period of darkness. “Master, I want to see” how you are preparing this parish for the next stage of its mission. I encourage you to pray for each other every day, to lift up each other’s needs to the Lord and to pray for Fr. Ruggeri, Fr. Bang, and for the bishop, that the Lord’s healing power may visit this place. For if the Lord can heal an old blind man, he can certainly bring healing to this place which is so full of life.]

We are reminded by our second reading from the letter to the Hebrews that priests aren’t perfect, they aren’t chosen from some special group of spiritual supermen. The Letter to the Hebrews says, the “priest is taken from among men” and made a representative before God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring, for he himself is beset by weakness.” The Lord calls ordinary men to do extraordinary things. Ordinary men who are beset with weakness and temptation like any of us..

Now, certainly the holier the priest is the better. A priest dedicated to prayer, serving the Lord in humility and gentleness and patience and courage is to be preferred to a priest who doesn’t pray, who is arrogant and harsh and morally compromised. Yet, we commit to praying for all priests, that the Lord may use them, despite their weaknesses, to build up the Church, with patience, gentleness, humility, and courage.

May each of us do our part in fostering healthy, holy priestly vocations. We pray that our young men may have the courage to answer that call with generous hearts, that all of us will be generous in our support for such young men—and that all priests might be renewed and strengthened in holiness 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.

30th Sunday in OT 2017 - Priesthood Sunday - Priests are servants of the heart of God

Since 2003, in the United States, the last Sunday of October for us Catholics is known as Priesthood Sunday.  In his divine plan for the salvation of souls, Our Lord Jesus Christ instituted the ordained priesthood for the teaching, leading, and guiding of His people. Priests to baptize, priests to absolve, priests to celebrate the Eucharist, priests to help hardened sinners return to Christ, priests to help families live the Gospel, priests to help us “to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” as Jesus teaches us we must, if we wish to inherit eternal life.

St. John writes, “We are called to love God because he has loved us first.” The realization that God loves you, even with all of your imperfections, and all of your past mistakes, is a foundation stone, for the Christian life. It is also the beginning of many priestly vocations, It was certainly the beginning of mine: the young man realizing that he is a beloved Son of God, not simply in an intellectual knowledge, but an experiential knowledge.

The encounter with God’s love and mercy changes everything. When you know God's love to the depth of your being it changes everything. The saints abandon earthly riches, power, and pleasures, to embark on the journey into the heart of God. I think most priests begin their journey to the priesthood desiring to help people discover how much they are loved by God. Priests are servants of the heart of God.

An example from a day in the life of your parish priest: the other day, I brought my cassock and a few pairs of pants to the tailors; surprise, surprise, these three and a half years at St. Clare’s have required a pair of pants or two to be let out a little bit.  Well, I had been to this tailor before and I was wearing my Roman Collar, so the tailor new I was a priest. After taking care of business, the tailor says to me if she could ask me a personal question. I love personal questions, so I said, “Of course.” She says that she was raised without any faith, and that she comes from a land very hostile toward religion. And she would like to know why a young man such as myself would want to be a priest. Now, I’ve told my vocation story many times before, but not often to an atheist. So, I knew my answer had to be a little nuanced.

After a moment’s reflection, I said, “I think both you and I know how much evil is in the world, yes? Well, I believe much of that evil comes from people not knowing about God’s love—from turning away from God; and I want to help people turn toward God.” She got a little teary-eyed, and she then began to explain how the Stalinists, the Atheistic Communists, caused so much destruction and suffering in her country, and of course, outlawed religion. But, now that Stalin has been replaced, and religion has been allowed again, many of the people who worked for Stalin were now Churchgoers, and they still seem to be oppressing the people. They exchanged the hammer and sickle for the cross, but they did not change their hearts, and now used the cross to control people. So the tailor sees Christians as largely hypocritical.

What do you say to that? Well, having preached on the hypocrisy of the Pharisees the last few weeks, I told her that God is not fooled by actors. God sees to the heart. And we will be judged by our true intentions and actions in this life.

She said she did not believe in an eternal judgment, but that people need to be held accountable now, in this life. And I told her that there will always be evil in the world, and though, yes, we need to work for justice, there is also eternal justice, God’s justice. And those who hunger and thirst for justice in this life shall have it in eternity.

She then asked why God allows all of the evil in the world, if he is good and just. God wants us to work for goodness and justice, that he doesn’t simply wave a magic wand and all the evil in the world disappears. He works in human hearts, and calls each of us to personal responsibility.

Finally, she asks, what proof do you have that God exists. I said, we do not have absolute proof of God, we are called to have faith, but I believe I have seen miracles, and, I have seen God’s hand working in people’s lives, like the people of St. Clare parish. “I’ve witnessed restored relationships, authentic holiness, and the freedom that comes through faith, and that is proof enough for me. And I hope you discover that, too. I hope you discover you are loved by God.”

So that’s certainly one thing I love about the priesthood. Wearing the collar, you get to have conversations like that. And I believe God works through those conversations. The priest is an outward sign that Christ is with His Church and often he’s an instrument of Christ. There is something wonderful in that if you see a priest, you can approach him for a blessing or a confession or a prayer for healing, whether you are at the airport, gas station, hospital, funeral home, or supermarket parking lot.

The priesthood is also the greatest fraternity on earth. Last night, even though I was tempted to stay at home and binge-watch a new Netflix show, I got together on a Friday night, for prayer, fellowship, and scripture study, with some brother priests.

Sometimes people think that celibacy is a lonely life, but I’ve met married people who were much lonelier than most priests I know.  Marriage shouldn’t simply be a cure for loneliness, but the desire to lay down your life for your beloved. And the same is for the priesthood. Priests are not ordained to be bachelor kings, but they find their fulfillment in laying down their life for the Church.

Discerning priesthood should be a normal part of every single young man’s life. The call may come in the form of rumble in the soul, an impulse, the suggestion of a family member, or simply the desire to help people know about God. At the Church entrances, on the bulletin boards, you’ll see a poster with over 70 men studying for the priesthood. These are all men studying here in the Diocese of Cleveland. All these men, I know, love the Church, and believe that the Catholic faith is the remedy for the sickness in the world. These men deserve our prayers, and any young man who shows the smallest sign of a possible vocation deserves our complete support and encouragement.

For their call comes not from selfishness, the desire for earthly riches or fame, but from Christ, who calls them to take up a very unique cross, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 31st Sunday in OT 2016 - "To seek out and to save"

A priest I know tells the story of a young man who was dying of cancer—who was just 24 years old.  In the final stages of his illness, the priest went to see the young man, and the young man said: “Father, you once told us something that has made it easier for me to accept my death.  You said: ‘There are only two potential tragedies in life, and dying young isn’t one of them.  You said the first tragedy is If you go through life and don’t know that you are loved, and the second is if you go through life and you don’t tell those whom you love that you love them. When the doctors told me that my cancer was terminal, my family has stood by my side, I realized how much I’ve been loved, and I’ve been given this time to tell my family and others how much they mean to me.  People ask me: ‘What’s it like being 24 years old and dying?’  I tell them, ‘It’s not so bad.  It beats being 50 years old and living without values and faith and knowledge that I’m loved by God and my family.”

Faith prepares us for death.  Faith helps us to love and to know we are loved.

I thought of this story for several reasons. For one, it is priesthood Sunday. We thank God for our priests and pray for our priests. Priests who baptize, priests who absolve, priests who celebrate the Eucharist, priests who help hardened sinners return to Christ, priests who help families live the Gospel, priests who help us prepare for the end of our earthly life.  The Catholic Church will need priests until the end of time, to carry out the ordained ministry according to God’s plan.  And each of us has a role to help young men hear God’s call to the priesthood—help them to truly believe that to be a priest is a wonderful vocation and in invaluable one.

This may sound a bit morbid or strange, but as I began to discern my own priestly vocation, one of the aspects of priestly ministry that really spoke to me was the priest’s serenity in the face of death. Priests are called to visit the beds of the dying. The priest is summoned to the beds dying strangers and longtime parishioners, both lukewarm and devout souls; and he is called upon to administer the Church’s final rites, to help the soul prepare to meet God.

Death—which most men fear and spend their lives fleeing from and distracting themselves from, priests, put aside this fear, perhaps even conquer it, to bring peace to others. What a blessed vocation!
Another reason I thought of the story is because today is our annual Bereavement Mass. Joining us today are family members of those who have died in the last year. We grieve for those who have died. Grieve because life is different without them, their absence is felt so deeply. And so it’s important for us to gather together in our grief to pray for each other—to turn to God who is the source of our consolation, and to thank God for the opportunities he gave us to love them.

That love, no doubt continues, even years after their passing as we pray for the departed, remembering them at the altar, lifting their souls to God.

This Wednesday, November 2 is the feast of All Souls—a day set aside in the Church year simply to pray for the repose of our loved ones. Though Tuesday is the feast of All Saints, a Holy Day of Obligation, where all Catholics are obligated to attend Mass, I also urge you to consider attending Mass on Wednesday, to pray for our beloved dead.

One of the most devastating and tragic effects of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, was that Protestants stopped praying for the poor souls.  And they really lost something essential to the Christian life. Praying for the dead is part of being Christian. It’s a practice found in Scripture, taught by Sacred Tradition, encouraged in the words and writings of the Saints.

Why do we pray for the dead? It’s an act of mercy! It’s an act of mercy to help those in need. And the souls in purgatory are in need of our prayers. Those who die with even the smallest amount of earthly selfishness, with attachment to the things and ways of the world, are in need of purification before they can enter heaven.

Understandably, many Catholics do not like to pray for our departed loved ones.  We like to imagine our loved ones who did display so much love and affection throughout their lives to have entered immediately into heaven. It can be painful to think of them still awaiting entrance into the heavenly kingdom.  But to be honest, most souls need such purification. The only members of the faithful departed we know with absolute certainty to be in heaven are those definitively declared by the Church to be canonized Saints.  Until a soul is declared a Saint by the church we do not err in praying for their eternal repose.

Many of the saints, St. Padre Pio, St. Catherine of Genoa, had strong devotion to praying for the poor souls.  It is an act of love to pray for our loved ones. So continue to show your love for them by praying for them constantly, offering rosaries and novenas for them, having Masses celebrated for them. Just as we can offer comfort to our loved ones by hold their hands as they lay dying, so too we can bring them comfort and aid through our prayers.

If you haven’t had a Mass celebrated for loved ones recently, go to the parish office this week and schedule a Mass. For, the Mass is the greatest and most powerful prayer we can offer on behalf of those who have died.

Christ's whole life on earth was dedicated to bringing people back into friendship with God, helping them to be free from sin, as he says in the Gospel today: "The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost."

All of us have been given a share in this mission: to seek and to save what was lost.

By praying for the dead we help souls complete the journey, by sharing our faith with unbelievers we may help souls begin the journey. We thank God this weekend for our priests, and pray that we may always have good faithful priests to assist us on the journey, and pray for and thank God for the gift of our loved ones who have walked with us, laughed with us, cried with us, and embraced us throughout the journey.

May the Lord Jesus, through the Word and Sacrament we celebrate today, make us ever more faithful in the mission for the glory of God and salvation of souls.