21st Sunday in OT 2019 - Strive to enter through the narrow gate

In the course of his public ministry, Jesus is asked a lot of questions. After all, he is a teacher; he has disciples who call him “rabbi”. Sometimes people ask questions about his motives, he is asked, “why do you eat with tax collectors and sinners?”; sometimes he is asked about his identity, “who are you? Are you the one who the scriptures foretold? Are you the messiah?”, other times Our Lord is asked to give commentary on the moral law, or the law of moses, “is it lawful to divorce and remarry?”

And quite typically, one of the hallmarks of Jesus’ teaching is that he often does not answer questions directly. He often redirects the question to consider matters of greater importance.

When asked in today’s Gospel, "Lord, will only a few people be saved?", the Lord doesn’t answer with a yes or no, as the question would dictate. Rather, he seems to indicate that the question “how many people will be saved” isn’t nearly as important as the question “HOW will we be saved?” The number of the saved isn’t nearly as important as the manner by which we are saved. The Lord leads the questioner to consider what is of greater importance.

In a similar incident, when asked when the world was going to end, he didn’t answer the question directly, there either; rather he urged the questioners to “prepare themselves.” For knowing the day or the hour isn’t as important as the need to prepare your soul through repentance.

Again, the Lord reorients the questioner to consider what is of greater importance. That shifting, that reorienting is at the essence of the Christian life, isn’t it? Christianity reorients us, from focusing on what is of lesser importance to what is of greater importance. What is of greater importance, the earthly or the heavenly? What is of greater importance, the size of your house, the neighborhood in which you live, or if you make your home a Christian home where the love of God is practiced? What is of greater importance, seeking wealth, fame, and power, or holiness, humility, and service?

Now the worldly soul might say, well does it matter? What does it matter if my life is focused on the worldly? What does it matter if my life is focused on non-essentials? Why do we need to be reoriented?

Part of it has to do with joy. In the end the earthly does not give us true joy. And the Lord say, “I have come that you might have joy, and your joy might be complete.” You might think that the biggest house on the block will bring you joy, but what actually gives joy is that the house is filled with people who you love and who love God, that your home is filled with the peace that the world cannot give. You might think that wealth, fame, and power bring your joy, but we know that pursuing these things alone leads to exhaustion. You might think that the million-and-one non-essentials will bring you joy, but our hearts are restless until they rest in God.

And the deeper reason we need conversion, the heart of the matter, isn’t just that these million-and-one non-essentials leave us exhausted and joyless in this life, but rather, that there are eternal consequences at stake. What we do in this life echoes into eternity. And in the end there are only two possibilities for our eternal souls, which the Lord describes in today’s Gospel, one way that leads to the “wailing and grinding of teeth” and the other “to reclining at table” at the eternal banquet in the kingdom of God. As the ancient Christians put it: there is one way that leads to life, and another that leads to death, and there is a great chasm between the two.

So, how can we be saved? What is the way that leads to everlasting life, “how can we come to that place at God’s eternal table?

““Strive to enter through the narrow gate”. Heaven cannot be taken for granted. We must strive for it, we must make every effort to reach it. The Greek word, translated as strive, in the Gospel today, is the word “agonizomai” from which we derive the word Agony. Agonize, make the supreme effort. The greeks used this word to describe the effort of the Athlete who seeks to win the Olympic games and to survive hand-to-hand combat with your mortal enemy. Do you want to be saved? Are you doing everything you can to be saved?

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Jesus’ passion begins with the “agony” in the garden, where he agonizes over abandoning his will to the will of the father. He sweats blood over it?
Notice Jesus doesn’t say today, stand at the gate and complain about how narrow it looks.  Some Christians look at the commandments of God and teachings of the Church and reject them, claiming that they are too narrow, too rigid, outdated.  They seek to refashion the gate, and make it wider.  But that’s not what Jesus commands here.

Rather, Entering the narrow gate requires us to change.  It requires that we conform ourselves to its narrowness, to deflate our egos if our egos are too big, to let go of the attitudes which are not of christ, to drop the selfish clinging to worldly pleasures, grudges, and fears if they are keeping us from following Jesus in the way of love and self-sacrifice.

This all seems very hard, very difficult, and perhaps unpleasant. But, that’s where our Second Reading reassures us, that to those who allow themselves to be disciplined by God, for those who strengthen their drooping hands and weak knees, for those who allow themselves to be corrected and converted, they will know peace, they will know the peaceful fruits of righteousness, they will know themselves as children of a good God who seeks what is best for them, who desires that we become our best selves, who we seeks our salvation from all those self-destructive vices and attitudes.

It is a tough gospel, a tough lesson. But in the end it’s the message of the cross, it’s the essence of Christianity: let those who wish to follow me, deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me,” says the Lord. And we know that the cross, and the cross alone is the royal road to heaven, it’s the secret to true joy, and eternal life for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

August 23 2019 - St. Rose of Lima - A life of penance

St. Rose of Lima was a third order Dominican, the patroness of South America, the first canonized saint of that continent. She is also one of the patron saint of gardeners. Born in Lima, Peru in 1586 she worked even as a child to help support her family, growing flowers and doing embroidery and other needlework.

She was physically very beautiful, but consistently refused offers to marry, for she took a vow of virginity, and at the age of 20 became a third order Dominican and undertook serious penances and mortifications, modeling her spirituality after the extraordinary third order Dominican, St. Catherine of Siena. Rose lived a mostly secluded life, but also labored often amongst the poor and sick natives and slaves. She died at the young age of 31.

She has been given the title St. Rose of Penance, and wrote on the importance of penance for all Christians, saying “Without the burden of afflictions, it is impossible to reach the height of grace. The gift of grace increases as the struggle increases.”

To do penance and to labor for the Gospel even when those labors bring suffering upon ourselves, is to enter into the divine life, for Jesus himself embraced suffering on the cross for the salvation on our souls.

And When we hear in the Gospel today the command from the lips of Our Lord to love God and love neighbor, remember, love is not just a sentimental feeling. Love is the embrace of hard work for the good of others, it is the willingness to suffer for the one you love. So we should not shy away from the difficulties of living and spreading the Gospel, the difficulties of the works of charity, the self-sacrifice, the discipline, the fasting and penance, for they are opportunities to show our love and grow in love, as we are commanded to do.

St. Rose said, “No one would complain about his cross or about troubles that may happen to him if he could come to know the scales on which they are weighed” by God, the graces obtained when we embrace our cross with faith.

Listen again to the powerful collect for the st. rose today: “O God, you set St. Rose of Lima on fire with your love, so that, secluded from the world in the austerity of a life of penance, she might give herself to you alone; grant, we pray, that through her intercession, we may trad the paths of life on earth and drink at the stream of your delights in heaven.” For the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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For an increase in vocations to the consecrated religious life, and that our consecrated religious may continue to be a shining and burning light in the Church.
That the carrying of our crosses and penances may bring about deep conversion for ourselves and others.
That the young students of our school beginning classes this week may know the love of Christ in their families, that each school family may seek to practice right religion to the honor of God.
For mercy and peace for all those who suffer: for the sick and diseased, for those undergoing surgery this week, for the destitute and despairing, for all victims of war, violence, and abuse, and for those who will die today and the consolation of their families.
For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, and for N., for whom this mass is offered.
O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

August 21 2019 - St. Pius X - To restore all things in Christ

At his election as Pope in 1903, Saint Pius X took as his papal motto “Instaurare Omnia in Christo”—“To Restore all things in Christ”. He saw as his mission, building up the Church, strengthening the faith, especially in the face of the modernist philosophical errors of the 19th century.

His plan for restoring faith in the Church involved building up the piety of the laity and their love and devotion for Our Lord in the Eucharist and for His Blessed Mother.

My first parish assignment at St. Columbkille in Parma has a statue of St. Pius X, holding the chalice and host as the priest does at mass. For in 1910, Pius X issued his famous decree Quam singulari which lowered the age for first communion for Latin Catholics and advocated frequent communion.
Then in regard to Our Lady, on the 50th anniversary of the proclamation of her Immaculate Conception, he wrote an encyclical in her honor.

And we saw in the early and mid-20th century the fruits of his labors: wonderful Marian movements like the Legion of Mary.

Pius X also encouraged strong Catechesis for both children and adults, and promoted sacred music, particularly Gregorian Chant for the liturgy.

But what Pius X is probably best known for was his condemnation of the heresy of modernism in his two documents Lamentabili and Pascendi. Modernism is so insidious for it says, all that came before doesn’t matter, all that we’ve received from the Apostles doesn’t matter, objective moral truth really doesn’t exist, forms of sacred beauty, art, architecture, sacred liturgy doesn’t really matter. All that matters is my own personal experience, my own subjective sense of truth and goodness and beauty.

And though Pius X, sternly warned the Church against modernism, that most insidious heresy ran rampant throughout the 20th century, continues into our own day, in many segments of the Church.
Instaurare Omnia in Christo”—“To Restore all things in Christ” we prayed in the Collect for this memorial. May St. Pius X help us to be purified of modernism, to love and revere Christ in the Eucharist, to turn assiduously to the intercession of his Blessed Mother, and to seek faithful catechesis, and the truth, goodness, and beauty that comes from God for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That our Holy Father, all the bishops, priests, and deacons of the Church will courageously preach the Truth of the Gospel in its fullness.
For the purification of Holy Church from all error and heresy, especially among those who preach and teach.
That the young students of our school beginning classes today may know the love of Christ in their families, that each school family may seek to practice right religion to the honor of God.
For mercy and peace for all those who suffer: for the sick and diseased, for those undergoing surgery this week, for the destitute and despairing, for all victims of war, violence, and abuse, and for those who will die today and the consolation of their families.
For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, and for N., for whom this mass is offered.
O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

August 20 2019 - St. Bernard - A light shining and burning

Adviser of popes, preacher of the Second Crusade, defender of the faith, healer of a schism, mystical contemplative ,reformer of a monastic Order, Scripture scholar, theologian and eloquent preacher: today we celebrate the memorial of St. Bernard of Clairvaux.

In the year 1111, around the age of 20, Bernard left his home to join the Cistercian monastery at Citeaux in France.  St. Bernard with his intelligence and holiness of life attracted many vocations, in fact two of his uncles and five of his brothers joined the monastery with him, and his sister became a Benedictine nun. There is even a book written about St. Bernard’s family called, “The Family that Conquered Heaven.” Bernard founded not only the monastery at Clairvaux, but 163 other monasteries throughout Europe. 

The Collect Prayer for his memorial calls Bernard a “light shining and burning” in the Church. And his light was certainly not hidden under a bushel basket, rather it drew many to seek holiness, as it does for us.

From where did his holiness derive? Bernard’s love for Our Lady is renowned. Bernard had a unbounded confidence in the intercession of Our Lady, and composed that powerful prayer, the Memorare: “Remember, O Most Gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided.”

The Magnificat Antiphon for Vespers this evening calls Bernard the “most eminent preacher of the Virgin Mary’s glory”. St. Bernard’s love for the Blessed Virgin was so renowned, that when Dante composed his Divine Comedy, it is St. Bernard who leads the pilgrim to the highest heaven, to the mystical rose, to Our Lady whose faith, hope, and love for God surpasses all others. It was Bernard who proposed the title for Our Lady as Mediatrix of Grace.

It was Bernard, too, who uttered one of my favorite quotes. He said, “the three most important virtues are humility, humility, and humility.”

Through the intercession and example of St. Bernard, may we grow in confidence and love for Our Lady, may we grow in humility, humility, humility, and may we seek that personal holiness, which becomes a light for others to draw near to Christ, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

For an increase in vocations to the consecrated religious life, and that our consecrated religious may continue to be a shining and burning light in the Church.

For those who disbelieve in Our Lady’s role in the Church and plan of God, for increased devotion to Our Lady’s intercession, that we may imitate the love of her Immaculate Heart.

That the young students of our school beginning classes this week may know the love of Christ in their families, that each school family may seek to practice right religion to the honor of God.

For mercy and peace for all those who suffer: for the sick and diseased, for those undergoing surgery this week, for the destitute and despairing, for all victims of war, violence, and abuse, and for those who will die today and the consolation of their families.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, and for N., for whom this mass is offered.

O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

August 19 2019 - St. John Eudes - Mercy of the Sacred Heart

You will often see depictions of St. John Eudes, holding an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; for the saint was a great devotee and proponent of the devotion.

John Eudes preached the mercy of the Sacred Heart to combat 17th century French Jansenism which had spread to many corners of the Church, including the seminaries.  Jansenism included a number of heresies, a very negative view of the human person, and a moral rigorism that tended toward scrupulosity, an unhealthy and unreasonable fear that God would condemn a soul to hell for the smallest infraction.

In our modern day, moral rigorism is not the scourge it once was. However, the opposite vice, seems to be operant: moral laxity—the belief that nothing we do could result in damnation—an indifference to sin. Pope St. John Paul II lamented the loss of the sense of sin which leads to complicity in it.
John Eudes preached a middle road, the Catholic road: that a total love and trust in the merciful heart of Jesus leads us to repent, to seek freedom from sin trusting that our Good and Loving God wants to see us thrive in the spiritual life. “Let us therefore give ourselves to God,” says St. John Eudes, “with a great desire to begin to live thus, and beg Him to destroy in us the life of the world of sin, and to establish His life within us.”

“Our wish, our object, our chief preoccupation,” he says “must be to form Jesus in ourselves, to make his spirit, his devotion, his affections, his desire, and his disposition live and reign there.”

In his treatise on the Sacred Heart, St. John Eudes gives us a marvelous summary of the life of the Christian: “There will be no true life for you except in Jesus Christ for he is the source of true life.  He must be both the source and purpose of your life.  You are one with Jesus as the body is one with the head; you must then have one breath with him, one soul, one life, one will, one mind, one heart.  And he must be your breath, heart, love, life, your all.”

May St. John Eudes help us to repent of sin, to trust in the Lord’s mercy, to live and love in union with His most sacred Heart, the furnace of All Love, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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For the return of all who have wandered from the Sacraments, for those who do not believe in God and for those whose love for God has grown tepid, and for all those who sadly suffer from scrupulosity, for a trust in the Mercy of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

That the young students of our school beginning classes this week may know the love of Christ in their families, that each school family may seek to practice right religion to the honor of God.

That the mercy of the Sacred Heart may bring peace to all those who suffer: for the sick and diseased, for those undergoing surgery this week, for the destitute and despairing, for all victims of war, violence, and abuse, and for those who will die today and the consolation of their families.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, and for N., for whom this mass is offered.

 O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

20th Sunday in OT 2019 - Servants of the Divine Fire

I remember exactly where I was the first time today’s Gospel reading really hit me in the gut. I was attending the Saturday evening vigil mass at St. Noel Parish in Willoughby Hills. After Mass I was to meet with Father Tom Dragga, who was, at the time rector of Borromeo Seminary. I would be meeting with him to discuss my entrance into seminary that fall.

“I have not come to establish peace on the earth…but rather division”, in other words, following Jesus may not always be the popular thing, his truth might contradict popular opinion, you might lose friends because him, your family might not understand you, they might even come to hate you because of him.  Hopefully not! But to me, this Gospel always speaks of how counter-cultural being a disciple of Jesus Christ really is.

And the Gospel really hit home as I prepared to meet with the seminary rector, as most of my high school friends were either non-practicing catholic or very critical of the catholic church. Most of my family were lapsed Catholics. Even though I attended a Jesuit University, many of the students and professors seemed quite at odds with Catholic Truth. Would I lose friends over entering the seminary, would I be pressured by family not to enter?

I have a priest friend, in fact, whose parents did kick him out of the house when he said he was going into the seminary.  “No son of mine will be a priest” they said. Yet, he chose to enter seminary, even though it would cause division in his family because his call came from God.

So with the possibility that my own choice would cause division, when Father Dragga asked me why I wanted to enter the seminary, I simply recited the beginning of today’s Gospel: “I have come to cast fire upon the earth. How I wish it were already kindled.” The priesthood is at the service of this divine fire.

So many of the tragic situations in my hometown, my high school, in our nation, and around the world was due to its alienation from the fire of Jesus Christ. So many broken families, so many young people turning to drugs, even modern art and music seeks to sever itself from what was true, good, and beautiful from God.

I also shared with Father Dragga how I was deeply moved by my visit to the seminary that previous spring. Because there I met this group of young men who felt the same way. It was evident that their hearts had caught fire, as had mine. I felt a particular kinship amongst the kindled. And to this day, my brother priests certainly continue to be a source of inspiration. As do so many of you, who have such a passion for the Truth and Goodness and Beauty of the Christian Gospel.

Members of the Body of Christ are meant to inspire each other and call each other to be ever more faithful. You’ll notice in the bulletin this week a report from our June parish visioning dinner. You’ll notice four pillars of St. Ignatius parish: four aspects of our parish life and history that continues to inspire and draw people to the fire of Jesus. Over the next few months, the parish council and I will explore how we can continue to build on these four pillars.

At the visioning meeting parishioners shared the many different ways how the fire of love for St. Ignatius Parish was kindled in their hearts. For some, the fire was kindled in their early years, attending the elementary school. For some, the fire was kindled the first time they walked into the Church: a church that looks like a church, the cathedral of west blvd, with its inspiring architecture and beautiful liturgies and music. For some, the fire was kindled because they were warmly welcomed by our greeters and friendly parishioners. For some, they were impressed by the service opportunities, the ways we care for the poor and hungry in this neighborhood. We certainly have a mission, don’t we, certainly not just my mission, but our mission, to continue to stoke these fires so that new generations can come to meet Christ in this beautiful place.

Our second reading spoke of the “great cloud of witnesses” who surround us, who inspire to persevere in running the race when things get difficult, who challenge us to serve the divine fire more faithfully, to allow the divine fire to burn away all our sins and selfishness.

The month of August is filled with some of the most amazing, counter-cultural saints, on fire with love for the Gospel. During the month of August we celebrate St. Dominic who traveled throughout Europe preaching the Gospel in the face of a growing heresy called Albigensianism. St. Clare, raised as an Italian noble, gave up her wealth, her social prospects, and consecrated herself to a life of adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross, a young jewish philosophy student whose search for truth led her to the Catholic faith, who was arrested and sent to gas chambers at Aushwitz. Fr. Maximillian Kolbe, also murdered at Aushwitz, who gave up his life for a jewish prisioner condemned to death.

What led these saints to offer their lives in service of the Gospel? What made them willing to engage in such counter-cultural activity? Their hearts were set on fire by Christ. And that fire, they nurtured through prayer, study, and service, and gratitude for the witness of those who had gone before them,. They kept their eyes fixed on the witness and example of the Lord Jesus who is consumed with obedience to His Father’s will. Any fire that we have as Christians can be traced back to the furnace of His Sacred Heart.

So we must each ensure that we do our part in stoking the fire in our own hearts, again through prayer, fasting, study, and service, and to rekindle fires that may have been extinguished through sin by going to Sacramental Confession.

And we must do our part in spreading that fire to others: Inviting the lapsed back to Mass, back to the Sacraments. Inviting them to Holy Hour, to faith formation, to volunteer opportunities, to speak with passion about our faith to those who do not know Christ. Jesus is yearning to set hearts on fire through our words and deeds.

“I have come to cast fire upon the earth and how I wish it were already ablaze” for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

19th Week in OT 2019 - Friday - Love and Marriage

A few years ago, already, in 2016, Pope Francis issued a document on the topic of “Love in the Family” called Amoris Laetitia, latin for “The Joy of Love”. Love, authentic love, brings authentic joy.

Pope Francis offered this document on the issues of marriage and family because marriage and family matter.  Doing what it takes for a healthy marriage, having a God-centered family, raising children according to the law of Christ, these things matter for the future of civilization and the salvation of souls. The Pope said, “The welfare of the family is decisive for the future of the world and that of the Church.”

We are seeing in our own day how faithless, disordered relationships, rampant promiscuity and unrestricted sexual license bring so much brokenness, so much sadness. When men and women seek marriage for selfish reasons, disaster ensues. They bring hurt to themselves and particularly to their children.

Any priest who has worked on marriage annulments can attest to how selfishness, stunted maturity, attachment to worldliness, unwillingness to forgive, poor communication, secular notions of happiness, all effect marriage negatively.

This is why the Catholic Church takes what the Lord teaches in the Gospel this morning very seriously. Where many of the Christian denominations water down, change, or simply ignore this teaching, the Catholic Church sees this morning’s Gospel as pivotal for civilization’s survival and our faithfulness to the Gospel.

Not all are called to Christian marriage. Some are called to celibacy for the sake of the kingdom of God. Some need to work on the selfishness in their hearts before seeking to enter into marriage, for marriage, as you know, requires great selflessness.

For those who are living the Christian life in an “imperfect manner” as the Pope calls it: those living together outside of marriage, those only civilly married, those divorced and remarried outside of the Church, Pope Francis explains that “following the divine pedagogy”, that is the teaching of Christ, “the Church seeks the grace of conversion for them”, the Church seeks to help people remedy their lives.

Pope Francis concludes Amoris Laetitia with these words: “May we never lose heart because of our limitations, or ever stop seeking that fullness of love and communion which God holds out before us.” Each of us are certainly called to a life full of love. May each of us strive for that Christ-like love and self-sacrifice which brings joy and life to the world, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That all Christians may seek to be faithful to the Lord’s teachings and commandments concerning marriage and the family, that Christian families may be filled with love and joy.

For all married couples, that they may be faithful to the Gospel in every dimension of their married life and give all an example of God’s ever-faithful love.

That the children of our parish and school may be blessed to know the grace of faith-filled families, that they may be shielded from the sins and errors of our culture.

For Pope Francis and for all the bishops and clergy of the Church: that they will be faithful to the preaching the truth of the Gospel especially in the face of secular pressure and persecution.

That the sick, lonely, elderly, homeless, widowed, and all those experiencing trials or suffering of any kind may be strengthened by God’s love and know His comfort and peace.

For those who have died, for all deceased spouses; that they may know the eternal peace and joy of the kingdom of heaven.