17th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2023 - The Pearl of Great Price and the Conversion of St. Augustine

 

Last week, we considered the wisdom of the parable of the weeds and the wheat and how many of the saints throughout history, if you would had met them in their teenage years, didn’t always resemble the wheat for Christ that they would later become. Many of them looked like weeds. Some of them were thieves, murders, persecutors of the Church, and even devil worshippers. 

But thanks be to God’s grace, they experienced the desire for conversion and sought out Christ, the pearl of great price. God’s grace helped them to see that they were pursuing nothingness, they were pursuing emptiness, lifeless idols, and beckoned them along a new path—the path of life. 

One of the great conversion stories of Christian history, one who spent many many years looking for that pearl of great price in all the wrong places, is that of St. Augustine. Augustine was born in a rural town in modern day Algeria in North Africa, the land of the Berbers. His mother, Monica, was a Berber Catholic and His father, Patricius, was a landowner, a Roman citizen, and a pagan, though he did not object to his wife raising their children as Catholics. 

However, at the time, baptism was delayed to later in life. Catholics would put off the sacrament often until their deathbeds, when they could receive the forgiveness of the sins of their whole life. So, Augustine was not baptized in his infancy or youth. 

But, even in his youth, Augustine’s restless hunger for truth was apparent. Like many young people, he foolishly disregarded the faith of his mother. And his search for truth led him to the worldly philosophers of his day, but their worldly wisdom did not satisfy him. 

At the age of 17, the same year his father died, Augustine went to Carthage to attend the great university there. He had barely arrived when, he began to look for the pearl of happiness in carnel sins; he took a mistress and they moved in together. A year later, a child was born out of wedlock. His search for Truth led Augustine to join a cult called the Manicheans who regarded themselves as the spiritually elite of the world. And he even tried to convince his mother to join the cult. His widowed mother wept for her wayward son, so much that a kindly bishop told her, “Do not worry. It is not possible that the son of so many tears should be lost forever.”

As a member of the Gnostic Manichean cult, Augustine adopted the belief that the universe was ruled by two warring cosmic powers—a demigod of Good who ruled over the realm of the spirit, and a demigod of evil, who ruled over the physical world and the flesh. So Augustine would have denied that Jesus was God in the Flesh who had conquered sin and death.

At the age of 29, Augustine decided to go to Rome to look for a position teaching philosophy. But unsuccessful there, he went on to Milan, and he took his mother. And it was there in Milan that Augustine encountered the great bishop, St. Ambrose. Augustine had heard how the bishop courageously refused to give in to the political pressures of the Emperor and give over his churches to the Arian heretics. Impressed by the bishop’s courage, Augustine began accompanying his mother to Mass to hear Bishop Ambrose preach. And what a beautiful stroke of providence, for God had led Augustine, this intellectually hungry soul to a bishop who would later be known as a Doctor of the Church. Augustine was beginning to realize that he had been searching for God in all the wrong places. 

Sitting in a courtyard one day, Augustine heard the voice of a child saying, “Tolle et lege. Pick up and Read”. Now open to the possibility that God might be trying to get his attention, his mind and heart went to the Holy Scriptures. He picked up and began to read the first passage he came to, from Romans chapter 13 verses 13 and 14: “Not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual excess and lust, not in quarreling and jealousy. Rather, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.”

Reading this scripture, Augustine felt as if his heart were flooded with light. He sought instruction in the faith from the bishop Ambrose, and was baptized during the Easter Vigil on April 24, 387, along with his son. Later in life, reflecting on this whole experience, Augustine wrote, “You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

For decades Augustine wandered in the darkness. He sought happiness in the pleasures of the flesh. He sought happiness in worldly philosophers. He sought happiness in strange sects. But they failed to satisfy and left him restless. But upon finding the Truth, the pearl of great price, the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Augustine gave his life entirely to Christ. 

There are countless stories like Augustine’s up and down the centuries. Men and women who sought happiness, sought truth in a hundred thousand ways, but came to discover truth and goodness here in the Catholic Church. One of the great joys of my priestly ministry is working in the RCIA, with such men and women, some of them who began life with no faith, or impartial faith, or even hostility toward the Catholic faith.

In many cases, it was the witness of Ordinary Catholics that led them home. “Look at how we love one another.” Our faithful witness helped them open their hearts to the possibility that herein lies goodness. 

For some, conversion comes after a similar tolle et lege experience. They picked up the Bible, they picked up the writings of the early church fathers like St. Ignatius, St. Justin, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, and found them not simply eloquent, but in possession of Truth. 

For some, their conversion came at the simple question: Have you ever thought of becoming Catholic? One women, here in Cleveland, said that she had been looking and looking and looking for God for years and years. “Why did you never become Catholic?” she was asked by a priest. To which she responded, “because no one ever asked me.”

Folks, you know people who aren’t Catholic. Please ask them. Promise them, they’ll be happier. And to anyone here who is not Catholic, I’m asking, “Why have you never become Catholic?” Come and talk to me about it. I’m no St. Ambrose, but maybe there are some things we can clear up. 

In our world today there are a lot of people who haven’t even considered the fact that they would be happier, their lives would be more fulfilled, they would have guidance in their confusion, and strength in their challenges. There’s more to life than the world has to offer. And we have to be the Monica’s and Ambrose’s the world needs right now. 

But also, we need to seek our continued conversion, our growth in holiness, with the same zeal as the one who sells all that he has to obtain that pearl. Christ is the pearl, the life God wants for us is the pearl, active membership in the church is the treasure worth everything to obtain because it offers the perfection of our souls, and if you aren’t pursuing that, it’s time to start…for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

16th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2023 - Who am I to judge?

 

Over the past few weeks, we’ve celebrated some wonderful saints. Saints who attained heroic sanctity and virtue in this life, but, to be honest, they sure didn’t start off that way. We celebrated the Chinese martyr, St. Mark Ji Tianxiang, the opium addict. We celebrated St. Camillus, the conman who visited prostitutes. Yesterday, was the feast of St. Mary Magdalene who was possessed by seven devils. Typically, you don't get those from a sinless life. I may have mentioned it before, but one of my favorite books on the saints is a book called, “Saints Behaving Badly: The Cutthroats, Crooks, Trollops, Con Men, and Devil-Worshippers Who Became Saints.” And far from being an account of the salacious details of the saints prior to their conversions, , the book illustrates a truth in our Gospel this weekend: The Parable of the Weeds and Wheat. 

Our Lord tells us that weeds and wheat often grow in the same field.  Even expert farmers have a difficult time telling the difference between the two while they are still growing.  It is only at harvest time when the two can be distinguished. 

If you simply looked to the early life of St. Camillus, St. Augustine, St. Francis of Assisi—if you met them as teenagers, you’d think, these guys are doomed. They are living without God. And they aren’t just not going to church on the weekends. Some of them are murderers, thieves, and literal devil worshippers. Our beloved Saint Paul killed Christians. He was leading the charge of hunting down Christians. If you judged him at the moment St. Stephen was being stoned, you’d think, Paul has made himself an enemy of God—definitely a weed if there ever was one.

But amazing grace, despite their sins, God broke into their lives. The lesson? We must never write anyone off as incapable of conversion—not even satanists a persecutors of the Church. We must be patient. We must continue to preach, teach, pray, and witness.

You may have heard about or seen on my Facebook account, that saturday morning I discovered some pretty nasty Satanic graffiti in front of our front church steps. There are wiccans and witches and satanists in this neighborhood. Are they weeds or wheat? If we are faithful in our mission, they might turn out to be wheat. We owe it to pray for them, and to do penance for them, and witness to them. And, like countless souls before them, they may respond to grace, and turn out to be beautiful wheat for the kingdom of God. Our efforts for them will not go to waste.

You may remember, a number of years ago, rather early on in his pontificate, there was a media storm around a comment Pope Francis made. The Holy Father was asked about the eternal consequences of a priest who had forsaken his vows and was living in a way contrary to the Gospel. And the Holy Father declared, “Who am I to judge?” In this pronouncement, the Holy Father was articulating a truth that is very clear in scripture and tradition. St. James writes in his epistle:  “There is only one lawgiver and judge.  He is the one able to save and destroy.  So, who are you to judge your neighbor?”  

St. James is saying that neither the Pope, nor any Christian, can point to anyone and say, that person is definitely going to Hell because of their sins.  That person is definitely a weed. Such a judgment is reserved to God alone.  The weeds and wheat will be sorted out on judgment day by God, the one and only judge.

But to be clear, Pope Francis is not saying that because only God can judge us that we can live however we want. He’s not saying we can ignore God’s commands, throw away the Catechism and disregard Scripture because all roads lead to heaven. He’s not saying we should disregard the Lord’s mandate to preach the Gospel to everyone. No, he is saying nothing of the sort. He’s just saying, he’s not the one who makes the rules and none of us are either.

The Church is filled with good catholics, bad catholics, hypocritical catholics, fallen away catholics, lukewarm Catholics, heretical catholics, ignorant catholics, catholics who make politics more important than their religion, catholics who use religion for personal gain. Which of them are weeds and which are wheat? Time will tell, and in the end God is judge. 

Now of course we should strive to be good Catholics—we should strive to be saints. For one of the reasons why some people do not take Christianity seriously is because of hypocrisy within the visible Church. Or they point to a Catholic family member who isn’t living up to the Gospel ideal and they say, “see, your religion just produces hypocrites”. 

The hindu Mahatma Gandhi, famously commented on this phenomenon. He had been educated in western universities, where he was exposed to the beautiful teachings of Christianity, but also witnessed the failure of Christians to live up to those teachings. And when he was asked why he never converted to Christ, he said, "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”  Now, too bad, he never spent more time contemplating the meaning of the Lord’s actual teachings, rather than our failures to live up to them.

The presence of sinners in the Church does not prove that the Church’s message or the Church’s sanctifying power is lacking. God permits sinners in the Church to allow us poor sinners the opportunity for repentance. Were he to execute eternal judgment the moment any Christian fell to sin, the Church would be empty and hell would be full. Rather God is so patient with us, and he gives those of us who resemble weeds, as much time as possible to prove we are wheat. And since God is patient, so we all must be patient with each other. 

The Church fathers counseled against too quickly and rashly condemning imperfect believers. St. Jerome said, “We should not hastily cut off a brother, since one who is today corrupted with erroneous dogma, may grow wiser tomorrow, and begin to defend the truth.” 

It is our task to hold to the Truth as taught by the Church’s Magisterium, to seek the perfection of our own souls, and to assist others in that pursuit, and do our best to not scandalize each other or non-believers too much, and to make reparation for those time when we have. 

Personally, I know I’ve given people reasons not to believe in Christ and His Church both before and after ordination. God have mercy on me. But most, if not all of us have as well. But our post-baptismal sinfulness doesn’t mean that we should are to give up on our mission. We’re all imperfect, and we all have old wounds, old habits of thinking and speaking and acting, that aren’t always under the yoke of Christ. But Christ calls us to repentance, conversion, and faithfulness. And likely to apologize to people we have set bad Christian example to.

This week, maybe pray for someone you may set bad example to. Someone you gave reason to disbelieve in the importance of membership within the Church. If you can’t think of anyone, pray for the people I’ve scandalized. But please pray. That despite our feeble evangelizing efforts, despite our bad example, God’s grace may work, that they may see the goodness, the eternal life available to them through the Church, that the mustard seed of faith, that bit of sanctifying yeast, may bloom and blossom, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

15th Week of Ordinary Time 2023 - Wednesday - Revelation of God's Love

 Fire. We find fire throughout the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit descends upon the apostles as tongues of fire on Pentecost. The Lord himself says that he has come to set the world on fire, and how he wishes it were already blazing.

Our first reading today presents us with Moses approaching the bush on fire, but a fire that does not destroy. And from that fire-that-does-not-destroy-or-consume, God reveals Himself to Moses. 

Consider this story in its ancient context. The Egyptians worshipped a god of fire, as did the caananites, the Babylonians, and the persians, as have many pagan peoples throughout history. But notice, though God reveals himself from this burning bush, He doesn’t claim to be the God of Fire. Rather, He reveals Himself as “the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.” God reveals himself as the God of people. He is not simply the harnesser of fire, demanding subordination from lowly humans lest they be consumed by his powerful flame. Rather, God’s power comes from his fiery love. Unlike the cold, dark, conniving, murderous heart of pharoah, who slaughtered the Israelites because they were growing too numerous in his estimation, God reveals a heart of love that has been moved by the suffering and slavery of his people. 

But the burning bush in which God reveals that He is the God of fiery love is but a foreshadowing. It’s not until God comes in the flesh, in the form of man, that he fully reveals His love. Jesus is God’s fullness of revelation, the revelation of God’s love, God’s desire to free all humanity from death and slavery to sin which keeps us from intimate communion with Him. 

And in the Gospel today, the Lord Jesus speaks of how God reveals Himself to the childlike, a revelation that the wise and the learned are blinded to. Why are the worldly-wise, the clever, blind to God? Because of their prideful self-sufficiency. Even though they came into the world as helpless babies, into a Creation brought into being by God, the wise and the clever take the posture of absolute self-sufficiency. “I don’t need God, I have my wisdom, I have my wits, I have my own power, my own fire, I am my own god!” Their consuming pride keeps them from the light and love of God.

But the childlike—the humble—recognize, “all that I have is a gift from God.” I live, I breath, I am saved, I am sanctified, I am given another opportunity for eternal life because the God of love has poured Himself out in love. And recognizing the need for God, the childlike run toward God like a moth to flame—but unlike the moth, the childlike are not consumed, rather, they are perfected. 

The ancient theologian Origen once said that those who draw near to Jesus in the Eucharist, draw near to fire. Childlike, let us run near to the fire of God, the fire of the Eucharist, the fire that purifies us, enlightens us, illuminates us, and perfects us, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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That the Holy Spirit may help us to be instruments of grace and conversion, to hardened sinners, fallen away Catholics and to the faithless.  

That our young people on summer vacation may be kept safe from the poisonous errors of our culture, and that their families may be places where the faith is practiced and cherished.

That the love of Christ, the divine physician, may bring healing to the sick and comfort to all the suffering. 

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased priests and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom. We pray.

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.

July 18 2023 - St. Camillus de Lellis, priest - The Con Man's Conversion

 The saint we honor today had, what we might call, a troubled childhood. St. Camillus’ mother died when he was very young, and his father was a mercenary soldier who often left the boy to fend for himself. So the young boy Camillus developed many bad habits. He got into fights with neighborhood boys, he skipped school. One biographer wrote that, in Camillus’ youth, “there were no signs of sanctity”. We might know children like Camillus…some of us might have been children like Camillus.

At the age of 19, followed in his father’s footsteps and became a soldier, and he quickly picked up a lot of the vices of the military camp—swearing, drinking, and visiting prostitutes.  He and his father, Giovanni, even teamed up as a father and son con artists, swindling their fellow soldiers.  Because of his violent habits, after four years, Camillus was discharged from military service and found himself destitute. 

Camillus picked up odd jobs here and there until a wealthy gentleman gave him a job doing menial construction work in the Italian village of Manfredonia.  The construction crew was employed to construct a new Franciscan monastery, and while working Camillus began to acquire two virtues he had never tried to cultivate before: self-discipline and responsibility.  His faith was kindled when one of the Friars at the monastery began to share the faith with him.  

When his construction job was done he set out for Rome to work at the famous Hospital of San Giacomo where he fell in love with caring for the sick.   

In Rome, Camillus sought the spiritual direction of St. Philip Neri who encouraged Camillus to study for the priesthood. So at the age of 32, Camillus entered seminary. After his ordination he founded a religious order called the “Servants of the Sick” who were devoted for caring for the destitute sick. 

What a beautiful conversion! At many points in his life, it seemed unlikely that Camillus would come to such great holiness.  So we must be patient with the people in our lives who are struggling to find the right path. God’s grace has the power to convert even the most hardened sinners. And look how God worked through the generosity of an employer, the simple faith sharing of a humble Friar, and the counsel of a holy spiritual director.  People who seem to be oblivious to the need of putting their life in order, might experience great conversion when a simple Catholic shares the faith with them.

St. Camillus is a saint because Catholics saw beyond the violent, philandering con man, and showed him dignity by providing opportunities for Camillus to practice virtue.  

God is at work in the life of every human soul. As corrupt or lost they may seem, God is at work to bring about what we might deem as the most unlikely of converts. And instead of having knee-jerk reactions, turning away from people who aren’t living righteous lives by our standards, we do well to consider what we might do to help them, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 

That the Holy Spirit may help us to be instruments of grace and conversion, to hardened sinners, fallen away Catholics and to the faithless.  

That our young people on summer vacation may be kept safe from the poisonous errors of our culture, and that their families may be places where the faith is practiced and cherished.

That the love of Christ, the divine physician, may bring healing to the sick and comfort to all the suffering. 

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased priests and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom. We pray.

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.

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2023 - To anyone who has, more will be given

 The Lord touches upon a very important spiritual principle in the Gospel this weekend. And it’s a principle which repeats several times throughout the four Gospels. So it’s an important principle for us to examine.

After delivering the parable of the sower to the crowds, the disciples approach the Lord and ask Him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" He said to them in reply, "To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

Here's a principle about making good use of the gifts and graces and truths given to us by God. Use them, or lose them. This principle is repeated Parable of the Talents, right? One person is given five talents, another two, and another one talent, and the one with five he invests them, he uses them, he doubles them, and he’s praised. The one with two talents invests his two, he uses them, he doubles them, and he’s praised. But the one with one, does nothing with his talent, and he’s rebuked, and his talent is taken away.

“To anyone who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he seems to have will be taken away.” Use it, or lose it.

God gives us light, he gives us Truth, he gives us talents, he gives us time, he gives us gifts, he gives us opportunities, and inspirations. And what we do with these graces makes all the difference.

This spiritual principle underlies the Parable of the Sower. The seed of God is sown in our midst—the Word of God is preached to us. What do you do with it? If you allow it to grow, it will flourish into spiritual gifts. If you squander it, you lose an opportunity for life. And when the human will turns away from grace, it becomes harder to respond to in the future.

This is a very important law of grace. Respond to God’s grace and you’ll receive more. God loves to dispense grace. Grace attracts grace. We see this in the lives of the saints. St. Paul, has an initial conversion. And as he begins to give his life over to Christ more and more, he begins attracting other souls to Christ, he offers his life to Christ as a living sacrifice, and he begins converting towns.

Or think of mystics like St. Theresa of Avila. They respond to the grace of a simple call to a dedicated life of prayer. And as they keep responding, they grow deeper in prayer, their prayer becomes more efficacious. The Lord bestows upon them great graces that show the world the power of prayer. St. Theresa of Avila would levitate. She would literally begin to float, and hover as she prayed. 

Padre Pio would bilocate. Saint John Vianney could read the hearts of his penitents. St. Benedict raised and healed a boy who had been mangled and killed—crushed to death by a stone wall.

There are numerous stories of extraordinary miracles from the lives of the saints, all which the Lord himself foretold. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these.

 Some of the saints were so full of grace that even after bodily death, their bodies remain incorrupt centuries after their death. There is a holy Benedictine nun in Gower, Missouri Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster who died four years ago, and he body has been found to be incorrupt—now four years after she died, not having been embalmed and buried in a cracked wooden coffin—which would normally hasted the decaying process—her body remains incorrupt as well as her religious habit. 

The saints show us: respond to grace and you will grow in grace and spiritual gifts. Through prayer, works, mortification, and the sacraments, grace builds upon grace to the point where the saints life becomes illuminated by God and a beacon of God for others. 

And, you know, don’t you? That this is what God wants you for you? He wants his grace to become so evident, his light so brilliant in you, that your life radiates his presence. But just like the saints, growth in grace takes work.

Which is why the Lord uses all of these agricultural images. Farming, growing crops, it’s hard work. If you are a farmer, and you neglect the hard work necessary to cultivate your field and your crop, your family will starve. Is the world starving for God because Christians aren’t doing the hard work? Perhaps.

The Lord speaks of two reasons in the parable—two specific reasons— why the life of the Word is choked out in us. First, he speaks of “worldly anxiety”. Worldly anxiety is one reason why we lack spiritual fruitfulness. In the Greek, worldly anxiety is “he merimne tou aionas, literally it means the anxiety of the present age. The worries associated with living in 2023 choke out the life of God in us. And there are a lot of worries associated with this present life: unemployment, nuclear proliferation, terrorist states, elections, censorship of free speech, wars, epidemics, government corruption, crime, failing education systems, and the list goes on. 

But what does the Lord say over and over in the Gospel “do not be afraid”, “do not worry”, “do not have anxiety”. Anxiety over the present age chokes out divine life in us.  In fact, “Do not worry” is a direct commandment of Jesus, not just a suggestion. And when we worry, when we fail to turn away our worries and give our worries to Jesus, aren’t we venturing into the territory of disobedience? 

Church, many of us are spending much too much time and energy on things that increase our anxiety. There are news outlets on TV and the internet that are designed to keep you addicted to the steady flow of anxiety inducing media. Some of us are anxiety addicts, and it’s choking out divine life in some of us. Worry that keeps you from engaging in generous work of charity, worry that keeps you from reconciling with an enemy, worry that keeps you from living more for God—is keeping you from life. 

The second thing that chokes out divine life, the Lord says is the “lure of riches”—he apate tou ploutou—the deceitfulness of riches. There are many of us, as well, who believe more stuff will make us happy. Seeking happiness in the riches of the world is also disobedience for the Lord says “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”

Divine life is choked from us when we become absorbed by the pursuit of wealth, and addicted to worldly pursuits like entertainment, video games, sports, and hobbies. These things are not bad in themselves. But…you’ve got to admit, you are likely less holy than you could have been, if these things had been moderated a bit more. 

Riches, ploutou in the Greek, is from the name Pluto—who was the God of Riches and also the God of Death. Even the Greeks and Romans knew: the unreasonable pursuit of riches leads to death. 

Rather, Our God, the One True God, incarnate in Jesus Christ, loves life. And, he tells us what we must do in order to obtain life. 

Read the Word of God every day, pray every day, don’t let the worries and things of the world keep you from the opportunities for grace that God wants for you, that you may become illumined by him for His glory and the salvation of souls.

14th Week of Ordinary Time 2023 - Monday - Places of Divine Encounter

 

The places where we encounter God are holy to us, aren’t they? Our childhood church, a holy shrine, the parish church where we attended with our family, the tomb of a patron saint, maybe a chapel in which important spiritual growth occurred during a particularly trying time.

For Jacob, in our first reading, the place of divine encounter was a mountain-top at a place which came to be known as Bethel: Beth-el, the house of God. At Bethel, Jacob had a particularly vivid dream in which heaven opened and he encountered the Divine, the God of Abraham and his father Isaac. 

And this encounter with God gave his life purpose; he knew that God would be with him always, that God was directing his life, and would direct his family for generations to come.

This sort of encounter with God is not unique to Jacob. Perhaps you have had a similar encounter with God. I have. An encounter, an experience with God that deepens faith—an encounter that helps you to know that God is with you—an encounter that gives you a sense that God is bigger than your trials and troubles and fears.

The daughter of the royal official and the woman with the hemorrhage in the Gospel today, had similar encounters with God, in the person of Jesus Christ. These encounters were healing and life-giving. Wounds, physical, emotional, and spiritual are healed when God is encountered. 

In commemoration of his encounter with the Divine, Jacob constructed a stone pillar to thank God for the blessing he received. Christians return to the stone table—the altar—week after week in order to thank God for the blessings we’ve received through Jesus Christ. For Christians, in fact, the altar is the very place where we encounter God. The altar is a place of continual encounter that brings healing and meaning to our life. And we lose touch with reality when we distance ourselves from the altar. The altar is an anchor as it is a window and a doorway. 

And, it is where we receive our mission. As we have encounter God, in the sacrament of the altar, we are sent out to gather others in—that lost souls, searching souls, saddened souls, wounded souls, may encounter Jesus here too, and experience his healing, his forgiveness, his blessing, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

 

That the wounded and lost may discover the love and life of Jesus Christ in Catholic Church. We pray.

For spiritual healing and mercy upon those who have fallen into mortal sin and fallen away from the Church. For the conversion of atheists and non-believers. We pray. 

For a healing of all the wounds of division afflicting the Church, for an end to heresy, schism and doctrinal error, for healing from scandal. We pray. 

For the healing of all those afflicted with physical, mental, emotional illness, for those in hospitals, nursing homes, hospice care, those struggling with addictions, for those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today.

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

Heavenly Father, hear our prayers. May the grace of Christ Your Son, the Divine Physician, bring healing of our sinfulness, and make us worthy of the kingdom of heaven, through the same Christ our Lord.

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2023 - Lessons from a Chinese Opium Addict (St. Mark Ji Tianxiang)

 At the turn of the 20th century there was a persecution against Christians in China called the Boxer Rebellion. Now persecutions of Christians in China have been occurring since the 1600s, but unlike former persecutions of Christians which were led by the Chinese government, the Boxer Rebellion was led by a Chinese Secret Society called The Righteous and Harmonious Fists, or the Yi-he-quan. And the Yihequan was basically an anti-foreign, anti-Christian hate group. They believed foreigners and Christians were threats to Chinese society, so Yihequan destroyed foreign owned businesses and property, such as foreign owned railroads and telegraphs. And they hunted down and murdered Christian missionaries and Chinese Christians.

There were about 1000 Christians who were martyred during this persecution, one of whom is honored on July 9, St. Mark Ji Tian-xiang. (Shi-ang)

St. Mark was born in China in 1834. He was a physician who served the poor. But when he himself became seriously sick in his 30s, he began to treat himself with one of the common medicines of that time, opium. But he began to abuse the powerful drug and developed an opium addiction that lasted for decades.  

As a Catholic, St. Mark prayed for deliverance from his addiction, but he kept falling. He would confess his moral failure in the Sacrament of Confession, but even that only provided periods of sobriety, and as the Yihequan began their persecutions access to the Sacrament became impossible. Nevertheless he remained a believing and practicing Catholic. 

During the Boxer Rebellion, St. Mark was captured by the Yi-he-quan and when he was given a chance to renounce his faith in order to save his life, he refused.  It is said that he sang the litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary as he was led to his execution. 

And remember St. Mark died still mired in a vice from which he was never able to completely break free: that crippling addiction to opium. 

No matter how many times he confessed, and no matter how many times he uttered his resolution to amend his life, he continued to fall back into addiction. Those around him, including his family, his friends and even the priest to whom he regularly confessed his sins suspected him of abandoning the desire for conversion. 

And yet…he died a heroic Christian martyr. He professed Christ with his last breath and won the martyrs crown. He is with Christ in heaven. This addict had also cultivated heroic courage and responded to the grace of God in final perseverance.

As St. Mark and his family were dragged to prison to await their execution, his grandson looked fearfully at him. “Grandpa, where are we going?” the grandson asked. To which St. Mark replied, “We’re going home.” St. Mark begged his captors to kill him last so that none of his family would have to die alone. He stood beside all nine of them as they were beheaded; his faith unshaken. 

Those who have struggled with or those who continue to struggle with addiction know that there is a real temptation just to give up trying to overcome the addiction, to give up and give in. But St. Mark reminds us all to persevere in seeking to overcome our vices. As many times as you fall, come back to the Lord. Don’t stop praying for deliverance. Don’t stop going to confession and receiving the Eucharist with the desire for inner healing and freedom. 

In the Second reading, St. Paul s very clear about how the flesh and the Spirit are at war. There is a war between what our body desires, what our flesh desires, and what is good for our soul. Because of Original Sin, we cannot trust that every bodily desire is for our greater good.  We desire too much of what we don’t need, like sin, and too little of what we do need, like prayer. Our body often craves what is sinful, not always, but enough that bodily desires must be discerned.

And St. Paul teaches that there are eternal consequences for living only for those sinful fleshly desires, making an idol of the flesh, where pleasure is first and God is second. “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

St. Mark Ji Tianxiang didn’t give up. He fell. He relapsed. He disappointed his family and himself. But he persevered in the struggle. That’s what living by the Spirit means. It’s not that we are automatically morally perfect in all of our behaviors just because we are baptized. Living by the Spirit means continuously struggling against those weaknesses of the flesh, repenting when we fall, turning to God for forgiveness, making a firm purpose of amendment to change as we can with God’s help. 

The Lord in the Gospel says, "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you.” You want refreshment in your struggles against the flesh? The Sacrament of Confession is like instant refreshment. You who are burned by the guilt of sin, you can receive instant refreshment. So many people deprive themselves of that beautiful sacrament, that refreshing sacrament, where Jesus is waiting to refresh you, if you would but humble yourself. Confession is such a powerful aid to our sanctification. Every sin might be a failure, but every confession is a victory for God. 

And there may come a time, like in 20th century China when priests were rounded up and forced underground, when that Sacrament—that gift from Jesus himself, isn’t as available as it is right now. With the way modern society is bent on giving up its freedoms these days, and obscuring the message of the Gospel, the Church may have some difficult times ahead in these parts, not to mention the secret and not-so-secret societies which hate the Church and work against her. But even then, it will be okay, because the real fight is always the fight of the Spirit—to seek faithfulness to God when the world’s powers are unleashed.

For those who learn from Jesus, those who become meek and humble of heart like him, even in persecution, will find rest in his presence, in his company, the company of the saints with Christ for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.