3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time 2023 - What does faith offer you?

 Last week, for the candidates in our RCIA program, we celebrated at the 11am Mass, the Rite of Acceptance, where the candidates publicly declared their intent to prepare for the Sacraments of Initiation. In the very first words of the ritual, the priest asks the candidates: “Why are you here? What are you asking for from the Church?” And the answer they give is “faith”. I want faith. I want the Church to give me faith. 

What is faith?  We speak of the Christian faith, the light of faith, the unity of faith, the mystery of faith, a particular Catholic might have strong faith, weak faith, lukewarm faith, devout faith, improperly formed faith. What is faith?

Well, the next question in the rite of acceptance gives some insight.

“What are you asking from the Church” They answer “faith.” And then the priest asks them, “Why? Why do you want faith? What does faith offer you?” And the answer is “eternal life”. 

Throughout the RCIA program, the candidates study the catechism, and participate in the Church’s liturgy, and begin to engage in service and the life of the parish because through the Christian faith they are led to eternal life. 

That’s why the Church exists. We’re not a social club, a place to go on Sundays because you have nothing better to do. The Church exists to proclaim, to grow in faith, to spread the faith, to celebrate the faith. Because faith enables us to obtain something that nothing else in the world can provide. Eternal life. 

Written in bold letters above our sanctuary, what does it say? He who believes in the Son of God, in other words, he who has faith that Jesus is the Son of God, has, eternal life. 

Faith is part of God’s remedy for our mortality.  “Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins,” says the Lord Himself in John’s Gospel.  Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life. 

The importance of faith is evident by the Lord’s own teaching. Because that act of the will to believe leads us to conform our lives with the author of Truth who is life itself. I am the way, the truth, and the life. So believe it, follow it, live it. 

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, shall live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

The answer to that question certainly has consequences doesn’t it? Through faith we turn toward the Lord and seek to walk in his ways. The righteous shall live by faith, and walk by faith.

Last week I shared how during Ordinary Time, we seek to grow in the ordinary dimensions of the Christian life. How might we grow in faith?

Well, the same way our catechumens in the RCIA will grow in faith as they prepare for Easter. Study, scripture, prayer, liturgical worship, service, and repentance from Sin.

How Study help you to grow in faith? Memorizing the 10 commandments, studying what the catechism says about them, can certainly help you to walk by them. How can you follow them if you don’t know them? But also, study can help you explain the faith to non-believers with greater clarity. Non-believers are often seeking understanding. Why do you Catholics believe what you believe? And study helps us explain with knowledge and understanding rooted in the Word of God.  

Scripture grows faith. We need something going in our eyes and ears and hearts besides the garbage on television and the internet. We need the light of God to illuminate our lives. Scripture is God’s Word given to us, for us. It’s meant to be read, understood, taught, and lived. How can you live it, if you don’t read it?

Prayer builds faith. Prayer is not an option if you want faith. Life without prayer is a sad, dry weary endless desert. Without prayer we grow exhausted and happy. The Lord says faith in him causes a fountain of refreshment to bubble up from within us. Prayer is to go to that well-spring and drink. 

Liturgical worship builds faith. In Lent this year, our new auxiliary Bishop Michael Woost will be offering a retreat here at St. Ignatius, on Saturday March 18.  Bishop Woost is a trained liturgist, and a liturgical and sacramental theologian. No doubt the Bishop will help us to enter more deeply into the mystery of God through the liturgy of the Church. 

Prayer is like breathing. Personal prayer is like inhaling, liturgical, corporate prayer is like exhaling. We need both if we hope to breath, and we need to breath if we want to live. But prayer also sustains us through our trials, helping us to keep our eyes focused on Christ and to know God’s presence with us. Whether you are going through an illness or a family drama or an economic crisis or a temptation that you thought you overcame many years ago, prayer is needed to keep your eyes fixed on Christ.

Service builds faith. Faith without works is dead, st. james’ letter says bluntly. To grow in faith is to grow in our willingness to engage in works, charitable works, self-less works, sacrificial works. Have you ever been disappointed when you engaged in a selfless act? No. 

And finally, repentance of sins is indispensable for faith. Over and over, the scriptures show the enemies of Jesus, the pharisees, scribes, and saducees, as faithless due to their unwillingness to acknowledge and repent of their sins.

Moment of honesty here folks. I sat in the confessional for an hour last saturday with zero confessions. I don’t know what’s going on here? I don’t know if you don’t believe in the power of the Sacrament? I don’t know if someone told you that confession is not important and a vital dimension of the Catholic faith? If we need to change the confessional schedule or hire another priest to come in for confessions, we can do that, if it will help.

But, Faith cannot grow if there are unacknowledged, unrepented sins. Unrepentance is a terrible terrible thing that can exclude us from eternal life. Have faith that Jesus is waiting for you, as Pope Francis has said, waiting for you in the confessional. Go to confession at least three or four times a year, or as soon as possible, if a mortal sin has been committed.

Faith. It is the source of our unity. It transforms us into fishers of men. It is a light that guides us in darkness. It leads us to the font of God’s everlasting mercy. It’s leads to eternal life. In the words of the Apostles in St. Luke’s Gospel, “Lord, increase our faith” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Baptism of the Lord 2021 - Most important moment in one's life

 A few years ago, on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Cardinal Dolan of New York was reflecting upon an experience he had the previous week. The Cardinal relayed how the week prior, he was up in Buffalo for the funeral of one of his brother bishops, Bishop Bernard McLaughlin who was born in 1912. Bishop McClaughlin had died at the venerable age of 102, he would have been that year a priest of 80 years and a bishop for 47 years. And as the Cardinal approached the casket of his brother bishop, he thought of all the wonderful things that the Bishop had done and accomplished and seen: the abundant gifts that filled his life, the honors he received, and the good work for the Lord of which the good bishop had been an instrument. But as the Cardinal approached the bishop’s casket, and prepared to sprinkle it with holy water, he thought how nothing, nothing that Bishop McLaughlin did compared to what happened to him, what God did for him, when he was two weeks old, when his mom and dad and grandparents carried him to church to be baptized.

Cardinal Dolan thought of this as he was blessing the casket while utter those beautiful prayer from the funeral ritual “In the waters of baptism Bernard died with Christ and rose with him to new life”. The power, the significance of the sacrament of baptism cannot be overvalued. What happens to us at baptism, what God does for us in baptism, is the most important thing that will ever happen to us.

As we consider the significance of Christian baptism on this feast of the Baptism of the Lord, remember…when the Lord allowed himself to be baptized by John in the Jordan, the Lord didn’t need baptism. Rather, he goes down into the waters of the Jordan to set-up and establish the importance of baptism for his followers—for the Church. Jesus didn’t need baptism in order to share in the life of God, because he is God. But we’re not, so we do. We are the ones born with souls shattered by sin—souls incapable of possessing the sanctifying grace of God. We need the Sacrament of Baptism to restore what was broken, to heal what was rent asunder by sin. So, Baptism is of the utmost importance, for through it, God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves; he restores the life of our souls and sets us upon the road to eternal life. 

Last week, we celebrated the great feast of the Epiphany, in which, the light of the Christmas star and the gifts of the shepherds reveal that the babe born at Bethlehem is no ordinary baby. He is king, priest, and Savior.

Well, the early Church saw today’s feast, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, as a sort of second Epiphany in the life of Our Lord.  

Where in the first Epiphany, Jesus was revealed as king, priest, and savior. Today’s feast reveals him to be God. Much like the Christmas star, and those gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh reveal something of Jesus’ identity, now the Holy Spirit descending upon him in the form of a dove, and the voice of the father from heaven reveal that Jesus Christ truly is the divine Son of God. He is God.

And when we come forward for baptism, we are testifying, we are proclaiming our belief that Jesus is God, that he gives me new life through these saving waters of baptism.

“Who indeed is the victor over the world” asks John in the second reading, “but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” 

This week, we saw a lot of ugliness in the world—and a lot of irrational rhetoric. But, I did see a wonderful quote that helped put things in perspective for me. Patricia Heaton, one of the rare Catholic Hollywood actresses, from Bay Village, Ohio by the way, said, “ if you’re a common sense person, you probably don’t feel you have a home in this world right now. If you’re a Christian, you know that you were never meant to”. It’s a fitting quote for us today. It’s not saying that we shouldn’t be involved in political life, or we shouldn’t stand up for justice, but it’s a reminder that we must never lose sight of the real reason we are here. We’re not here to transform the world into some sort of utopia through any means, but to prepare our souls for the world to come. To be in the world, but not OF the world, like Our Lord. Sometimes earthly affairs and anxieties cause us to lose sight of our eternal goal. Keeping our eyes on heaven often comes with great difficulty, but the saints show us that this is possible—it is possible to make our souls union with God, our highest priority.

Tomorrow/today at the 11am mass, three souls who have been participating in our parish RCIA program will enter through the Church doors for the Rite of Acceptance. And I will ask them two questions.  I’ll ask them What do you ask of God’s Church?  They answered: Faith. And then I’ll ask “what does Faith offer you” And they’ll answer “Eternal Life.”

What a wonderful amazing thing, that these three people from diverse backgrounds, jobs, and families, will come here, because they believe that through the Church, through the Sacraments of the Church, they will receive eternal life. 

Our very first session of RCIA I asked them, why are you here?  How did the path of your life lead here?  Some said, I want to know more about the Catholic faith.  I want to be Catholic.  I want to share the faith of my family.  I have come to recognize that the Catholic Faith is true.

For many of us: we were baptized as infants and received our religious instruction as children.  But, I think each of us realizes that being Catholic is not just a choice that was made for us, when we were baptized as infants.  It is a choice we make daily--to cooperate with the grace of our baptism daily.  A choice to believe and profess all the Church teaches. A commitment of our lives daily to God’s care.  A choice to avoid the things that are harmful to our souls.  A decision to cooperate with God so that the grace of baptism is not stifled in our lives, but is allowed to unfold and blossom daily.

Again, this ritual that Bruce, Angela, and Amanda will undergo tomorrow is called the Rite of Acceptance. It’s one of the rituals that proceeds their reception of the Sacrament of Baptism and full initiation into the Church. And it’s called the Rite of Acceptance for a number of reasons. One, because they are accepting the teachings, and practice of the Church, they are accepting that the faith of the Church leads to eternal life. Secondly, it’s called the rite of acceptance because the church is accepting them into the order of catechuments; we who are already baptized members of the Church are accepting the responsibility of praying for them, praying for their continual conversion and for their safety as they approach the waters of baptism and sacraments of initiation. Thirdly, it's a sign too, that God accepts them, God accepts them to become his children in the life of grace, He accepts them to receive His very life. So in addition to praying for them at Mass over the next few months, remember them in your personal prayers from time to time; that those preparing for baptism, which will be for them, the most important day of your life, may respond well to God working in their life.

Bruce, Angela and Amanda choose freely to be here tomorrow/today.  But also because God HAS been working in their lives to bring them here.  God has worked through the members of this parish saying yes to our baptismal call, God has been working through the testimony of our faithful parishioners to enkindle in our catechumens the fire of faith.  They are here in answer to our prayers.  So, continue to pray for them as they continue their journey towards full initiation in the Church at Easter.  When you see them at Mass, greet them, let them know that you are praying for them.    

In a few moments we will each personally recite the Profession of Faith.  This is the faith of the Church, this is the faith of the Baptized.  We are proud to profess it.  We look forward to the day that our catechumens will profess it with us as full members of the Church, and that we stand together in the halls of heaven for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 2nd Sunday in OT 2017 - "Renamed and Called"

The Christmas season has ended, and we’ve returned to the observance of Ordinary Time. Each of the seasons of the Church year certainly has their own spirituality and themes.

During Advent, we reflect on the coming of Christ: our lives are meant to take a quieter mood, a reflective mood, meditating, anticipating Christ’s coming, like Mary anticipating the birth of her son. During Christmas of course we celebrate his birth with hymns of praise, we consider how our lives are called to be filled with the light and beauty and splendor of his presence.

Lent, which we will begins on Ash Wednesday, March 1st, this year, is a season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, concrete acts of penance; we unite ourselves to Jesus in the desert, Jesus in his Passion and suffering on the cross, we meditate on his great love for us in what he suffered.
Then during Easter, we of course celebrate the Resurrection; we focus on being free from all that keeps us from proclaiming and living Christ’s victory over sin and death.

But during Ordinary Time, we focus on the ordinary life of the Christian, which is really an extraordinary thing, when you think about it. For the Christian is certainly called to live an extraordinary life. The life of sin is what’s ordinary; following the whims of the culture, giving in to every passing fancy, every disordered desire. The life of the Christian, however, is out-of-the-ordinary: the Christian lives conscious of the presence of God in our lives, conscious of God’s moral law, the commandments, the virtues, the examples of the saints, the power of the sacraments. The Christian life is an extraordinary calling to the life of grace and holiness and charity
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Though we are in Ordinary Time, Mass began today with an extra-ordinary ritual. In the rite of Acceptance and Welcoming. Geoff, Michael, Amanda, Megan, and Jennifer, stood before you today, publicly declaring their desire to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church. Though they were baptized into different protestant denominations, they seek the extraordinary. They publicly declared, “what you Catholics believe, I want to believe”, “what you Catholics do, I want to do”, “the Sacraments that you Catholics receive, I want to receive”, how extraordinary!  We also had three others, Tawny, Karie, and Jodie, Catholics who declared their desire to complete their Sacraments of initiation. If you are a Catholic who hasn’t received the Sacrament of Confirmation, please contact the office, so that you can undergo preparation to receive this powerful sacrament which completes baptismal grace.

I’d like to turn our attention to the second reading today, simply to the opening line, the beginning of Saint Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. There is something in Paul’s address that sums up, in a very simple way, what the ordinary life of the Christian is all about. Paul begins his letter in an ordinary way, a way that was typical to letters of the 1st century.

He introduces himself as Paul. We know that Paul he was born with a different name, with the name of Saul. And that the name of Paul is a new name, a new name he received when he began the new life of a Christian, a believer in Christ-crucified-and-risen. This change of name is consistent with the ancient biblical phenomenon of receiving a new name from God, when God calls you to something new.

For example, Abram, when called by God to become the Father of a New Nation, is given the new name, Abraham. Jacob’s name was changed, after wrestling with God, to identify him as a patriarch of the people of Israel, who would so often wrestle with remaining faithful to God and understanding the ways of God.

Jesus renamed Simon son of John as Peter, prince of the apostles, the rock upon whom Jesus would build his Church. And here in our second reading, Paul introduces himself by this new name, acknowledging that he has begun a new way of life, an extraordinary way of life, under the discipleship of Jesus Christ in union with his Holy Church.

At the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation, we Catholics choose new names, to identify ourselves as new creations through the grace of the Sacraments. In many religious orders, a new name is given, when the person enters the order, and of course the Popes continue this practice as well; Jorge Bergolio took the new name of Francis, when he became successor of St. Peter, Bishop of Rome, Pope of the Holy Catholic Church.

This renaming is to help us realize that once we have encountered the Lord, that changes us. Once we receive a calling from God, that changes the direction of our life. Becoming a Catholic requires change. Going to confession, requires the repentance of sin and also the desire and intention to change. The Ordinary Life of the Catholic involves openness to change. We dispose ourselves to the grace of the Sacraments so that we can grow in holiness, we can love our neighbor, we can love our enemy a little more. Hopefully, each of us has changed for the better since this time last year. If not, we need to do some serious soul-searching and make more frequent use of the Sacrament of Confession.

This new name, this new identify, is a discovery of our truest self. The great theologian Hans Urs Van Balthasar said, “you do not know who you are, until you find yourself in Christ.” Before that, you have some identify, but it’s not your truest identity. The attachment to worldly ways and worldly philosophies and worldly errors, that’s not who we are meant to be. We are meant to be people of light, people of goodness, people of truth, and to be Christian is to acknowledge that only as a disciple of Him can I discover what it means to be truly good and truly happy; only in Christ can I become my truest self.

So much of our unhappiness in life is caused by not knowing who we are meant to be, not knowing the point of our suffering. We do well from time to time to reorient ourselves with what it really means to be a Christian. Am I truly allowing my Christianity to permeate every dimension of my life?

Now listen to how Paul introduces himself, “Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God”. He identifies himself in the passive voice, “called to be an apostle” by someone else. How does modern man explain himself? “I’m my own man, It’s my life, my decision, my projects, get out of my way.” Paul has tapped into a different way; he’s discovered that happiness and fulfillment aren’t obtained simply by being a self-determined person.

The Christian receives his identity, he receives his faith, he receives his moral compass, from a higher authority than ourselves. As Christians we don’t determine right and wrong for ourselves. We don’t determine the ways our rituals are celebrated, we don’t determine what is true and what is false. This disposition of receptivity is fundamental, for without it how can we receive the gift of life which we lost through sin?

Paul writes to the Church who he says is “called to be holy”. May we strive to be worthy of that calling, faithful to that calling. May the Holy Spirit help us identify those parts in our lives we have yet to conform to the grace and truth of God, and may that grace continue to renew, reshape, and reform us, to become the people God made us to be, for the Glory of God and salvation of souls.