Homily: May 2 - Saint Athanasius, bishop & doctor - "God-with-us"

As Arianism spread throughout Christendom in the 4^th Century, one faithful bishop stood up courageously above all the rest. 

Athanasius was present at the Council of Nicaea in 325, when then the Nicene Creed was established to express the Church’s teaching that Jesus is consubstantial with the Father, that he is “of the same substance” as the Father; that he is God of God. 

Yet, the error of the adversaries of the Nicene Creed spread throughout the Empire.  The Church historians quip, “The whole world groaned and was amazed to find itself Arian.”  It was literally Bishop Athanasius contra mundum, Bishop Athanasius against the world.

Bishop Athanasius tenaciously opposed the Arian heresy and was exiled from his diocese by Arian heretics five times—spending 17 years of his life in exile.  From exile, however, he continued to write against the heresy and teach the true faith.  He is known today as the hammer of heretics.  He preached the true faith fearlessly, courageously.

Jesus is divine.  If he were not really God, we are not really saved by his death and resurrection.  He is really Emmanuel, “God-with-us”.

God didn’t come just symbolically in Jesus, he really came.  God really came in search of the straying sheep.  Man can really find his way to God by coming to Jesus, And through Jesus the Christian is really brought into Communion with God.  God really has made Himself accessible to us.

God really came to heal and to teach and to feed and to put Himself at the disposal of those who needed Him.  To quote Saint Athanasius, “For the Lord touched all parts of creation, and freed and undeceived them all from every deceit.”

May we like Saint Athanasius proclaim and defend the faith with courage, perseverance, humility and grace.  Jesus is true God from true God, consubstantial with the Father.  This is our faith, we are proud to profess it, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.  

Homily: May 1 - Saint Joseph the Worker - Dwelling in the presence of Divine Mystery

St. Joseph has two feast days on the liturgical calendar. The first is March 19—Joseph, the Husband of Mary. The second is May 1—Joseph, the Worker

There is very little about the life of Joseph in Scripture but still, we know that he was the chaste husband of Mary, the foster father of Jesus, a carpenter and  a man who was not wealthy. We also know that he came from the royal lineage of King David.

The Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker was instituted in 1955 by Pope Pius XII to be celebrated on May 1 as a sort of alternative to the Communist May Day marches.  The Church wanted to proclaim that Human Labor is transformed into a very good and holy thing, when it is offered to God.

Saint Paul says, “whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him”.  

In Saint Joseph, we a man who did do everything in the name of the Lord, who put Christ at the center of his life, who served him, who served the holy family through his protection and work.

Pius XII raised up for us the wonderful example of Saint Joseph, to remind the world that human labor can serve God, point to God, reflect God’s own creating hand.  Work is not about just making a name for ourselves.  I think of Psalm 127, which states unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.  In other words, when our work or any of our endeavors are merely self-serving, we are wasting our time.

How do we keep God at the center of our work and endeavors?  Archbishop Fulton Sheen recommended turning to God at the beginning and completion of each task and offering it up for love of him, and pausing frequently throughout the course of our work, asking ourselves why we are doing it, and whether its purpose is holy.  “Joseph reveals to us the secret of a humanity which dwells in the presence of mystery and is open to that mystery at every moment of everyday life (Pope Benedict XVI).”

Saint Joseph cooperated with the great events God was accomplishing in the world, but he did so through simple work.

Through the Intercession of Saint Joseph, the Worker, may all our work and endeavors this day and always work be a means of sanctification and a way of animating earthly realities with the Spirit of Christ, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 5th Week of Easter - Tuesday - Peace, not as the world gives

There is a special blessing that the priest gives only during the rites of Christian burial—the funeral rites.  He says, “may the peace of God, which is beyond all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

Saint Paul in his letter to the Philippians speaks of this “peace of God, which is beyond all understanding”, and the Lord himself speaks of this same peace in the Gospel today: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give it to you.” 

The peace that comes from Jesus Christ is quite different from the peace which comes from the world.  For the world, peace is a feeling of contentment—that everything is alright, everything’s fine.  For the world, peace comes from pretending that things aren’t so bad, or by dulling the senses through alcohol or drugs.

Yet, Jesus speaks His words of peace on the night before his own passion and death in the company of his disciples.  He had already promised them that where he was going, they would have to go to.  He promised them that following Him involved taking up their own cross.  So Jesus isn’t  saying, Peace is a future without crosses.  Jesus, on his way to the cross, was not superficially wishing his friends an easy, comfortable existence.  Christian peace is not cross-free. 

Pope Benedict wrote that “Real peace can only be brought by release from the captivity of comfortable lies and the acceptance of suffering.  Repression is the most common cause of mental illness and healing can be found only in a descent into the suffering of truth.”

So the peace that Jesus gives isn’t a nice feeling that comes from pretending or running away from crosses—what God asks of us. 

Nor does Christian peace come from selfish indulgence.  Christian peace is just the opposite of selfish indulgence.

The world falls into violence and depravity precisely when it makes itself autonomous from God.  True peace cannot be found apart from radical surrender to God and willingness to give fully of oneself in service.  True peace comes not from selfish self-indulgence, but in generous self-giving.

Just as Jesus gives himself on the cross, he gives himself on the altar.  He gives himself in the Eucharist, that we can learn how to give of ourselves. 

Making God present in society is the only source of true peace.  So we must ask Jesus to teach us how to really be transformed by the Eucharist we celebrate today, that we may become, through him, people of peace, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 4th Week of Easter - Saturday - ""the disciples could not but be filled with joy and the Holy Spirit"

Earlier in the Easter Season we heard how Peter and the Apostles had been arrested and imprisoned and were taken before the Sanhedrin, the jewish Supreme court, and were threatened that they best stop preaching in Jesus’ name.  Refusing the order to stop preaching, the Apostles were flogged.  Bleeding and wounded after having been whipped and humiliated, the acts of the Apostles, says that they left the presence of the Sanhedrin rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer for the sake of the name of Jesus.

Now, several chapters later, Paul and Barnabas are preaching to the Gentiles, but once again the powers of darkness conspire to silence the preaching of the Gospel, and the two are driven out of town, yet we hear how "the disciples could not but be filled with joy and the Holy Spirit." 

Are these guys crazy?  The things that would normally make us think ourselves as failures, they saw as opportunities for rejoicing.  Bloody and beaten, they rejoice, driven out of town, they rejoice.

Would you or I be rejoicing after that?  We find it hard enough to put up with traffic on broadview Rd!

When our love for Christ is mature, we are glad to suffer for his sake.  Immature love, is not willing to persevere, it’s not willing to be generous, it doesn’t look to the sufferings or needs of others out of fear that it might be asked to go beyond its comfort zone.  Pope Benedict once wrote how the wind and fire of the Holy Spirit must continually break down the barriers that we men and women continue to build between us; that, though we continually close our doors because we want to feel secure and do not want to be disturbed by others and by God, the grace of the cross alone is able to transform the world and build peace.

These apostles were willing to suffer for Jesus because of their deep, vibrant love of him and their conviction that the Gospel message must be lived and preached, even when, especially when it requires something of us.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do”  Jesus says in the Gospel.  He particularly speaks here of his ability to reconcile souls to his Father through the embrace of the cross.

When we, with Christ, embrace the Cross, new souls will find life, miracles will be performed, disciples will be filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: April 25 - Feast of Saint Mark - Evangelist & Martyr

In the midst of our Easter festivities this year we celebrate the feast of Saint Mark the Evangelist.  Mark was not one of the twelve apostles, but from the Acts of the Apostles.  We know that he was a disciple of Saint Peter. 

Saint Peter refers to Mark as “my son” in his first letter, which we heard today, which could mean that Mark had been baptized by Peter.  Mark was not an eyewitness to the actions and teachings of Jesus; he learned the details of Jesus’ Ministry which he put into his Gospel from Peter.  For this reason Saint Mark’s Gospel has sometimes been called the “Gospel of Peter”.  Saint Mark’s Gospel can be read easily in a single sitting, as the shortest of the Gospels.  It wouldn’t be a bad thing to read it today.

Mark also accompanied Saint Paul on a mission to Cyprus, after going from Jerusalem to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas.  Saint Paul even speaks of Mark as his coworker and his consoler during his imprisonment in Rome. 

According to the historian Eusebius, Mark ended his days as bishop of Alexandria.

Early this month, a group of pilgrims from Saint Columbkille parish were able to visit the famous basilica of Saint Mark in Venice, Italy.  Saint Mark is the patron saint of Venice and his relics were brought there from Alexandria in the ninth century.  Atop the basilica is the figure of a lion because the lion is the symbol for Saint Mark’s Gospel. 

Mark is represented as a lion because his Gospel begins with the voice of John the Baptist crying out in the wilderness.  The voice of one crying in the desert: Make ready the way of the Lord. 

The Lion is also a symbol of courage, and Saint Mark courageously faced a martyr’s death.  While he was celebrating Mass in Alexandria, his persecutors seized him, tied a rope around him and dragged him through the streets, then imprisoned and killed him.

The Entrance Antiphon, like the Gospel of the Mass, recalls the missionary apostolate mandated by Christ: “Go out to the whole world, and preach the Gospel to all creation.”

May Saint Mark’s example and prayers help us to carry out the Gospel of Christ throughout the world, proclaiming it to all creation, for the Glory of God and Salvation of souls.

Homily: 4th Week of Easter - Wednesday - Faith grows when it is communicated with joy

Yesterday, we heard in the book of Acts about that Breakthrough moment, where the Gospel begins to be preached and received by the Gentiles.  Today we hear of the inauguration of Saint Paul’s first missionary journey—the first of three—a sojourn of about a 1000 miles.  This first journey is going to take Paul and Barnabas through some pretty dangerous territory. 

We may not personally be called travel through rapid rivers, steep mountains, malaria-plagued lowlands, and bandit-ridden passages, like Paul and Barnabas.  But, look at their readiness to go and serve.  Look at their readiness to pick-up and go to where the Spirit directs them.  Look at their courage, leaving the comfort of what they know to serve God.

In the Gospel today, Jesus speaks about the important of faith—faith that brings light in darkness, faith that leads to eternal life.  Paul and Barnabas are men of great faith, you can tell, for not only have they been enlightened, but now they are ready to bring the light of faith into the darkest parts of the world.  They engage in a mission that is in no way, self-serving, rather, they endure great hardship for the purpose of spreading that light.

Saint Margaret Mary said, “faith is the torch which illuminates, animates, and sustains you, so that all your actions and sufferings may be for God.”

The person of faith is deeply committed to the evangelizing effort because he understands that faith means the difference between eternal life and eternal death.

When Pope Benedict announced the Year of Faith last year he described it as “a summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the One Savior of the world.”  Yet, conversion to the Lord entails turning towards others, to bring the Lord more deeply into their lives. 

Every Catholic is called by virtue of his or her baptism to follow Christ and proclaim the Gospel. Faith, like love, only comes alive when it’s given away. But you cannot love what you do not know, and you can’t give away something you don’t have. “Faith grows,” Pope Benedict said, “when it is lived as an experience of love received and when it is communicated as an experience of grace and joy.”

In grace and joy today, may we work to spread the light of the Gospel in world grown so dark, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 4th Week of Easter - Tuesday - Gospel Breakthrough

The readings from the Book of Acts throughout the Easter season continue to give us a glimpse into the formation of the early Church.  We hear of what happened, after Jesus gave his apostles the Great Commission to “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations.” 

Well, for four weeks, we’ve heard how the Gospel was spread in Jerusalem and Judea—amongst the Jews.  But today, we hear of one of the great breakthroughs of human history. 

The scene today takes place after the death of the first martyr, Stephen.  The blood of the martyrs are the seeds for the early Church.  People, like seeds, are scattered by the persecution of the Church that follows Stephen having been killed for his faith and for preaching about Jesus.  “They went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch,” preaching the word to no one but the Jews.

Because of some of the new disciples of Christ were Greek-speakers, they began to share the good news of the Lord Jesus with some of the Gentiles in Antioch.  This may seem very natural and inevitable to us now, but this really was a breakthrough—Gentile converts. 

Each of us are called to work for converts by sharing the Good News.  Where do the breakthroughs need to occur in your own life?  When’s the last time you shared your faith with a stranger?  Could you see yourself talking to a stranger at a coffee shop or the rec center about Jesus and about the Catholic Church?  There are people out there who want to know more about Jesus, they want to know about Catholicism, but they have no one to talk to.  Just as the hand of the Lord was with those in the first reading, he is with us, guiding us to, pushing us into new missionary territory.

Could you see yourself praying the rosary peacefully outside an abortion clinic with other fellow Catholics?  Could you see yourself leading your family in prayer the next time they came to visit?

Jesus says in the Gospel today, “my sheep hears my voice”.  He wants to use us as his mouthpiece.  Will you spread the Good News today? For the glory of God and salvation of souls.