November 9, 2017 - St. John Lateran - Cleansing the Temple and the Church

Throughout the centuries, St John Lateran has survived fires, earthquakes, barbarian invasions, and world wars; she is the oldest church in Europe, and perhaps symbolic of the universal Church, who has survived schisms, heresies, corruption, and government persecution—the storms and chaos of nearly two thousand years.

But, the endurance of Holy Church based on the promise of Our Lord, that the gates of hell shall not prevail against her, should never be taken for granted. We must never grow lax striving to remain pure of worldly corruption and doctrinal error.

In the Gospel for this important feast, Our Lord cleanses the corruption from His Father’s Temple.  The temple was God’s house, the place where His people offered worship and where they were to be instructed in the ways of righteousness, and yet, it’s loveliness had been replaced by corruption. Our Lord cleansing the Temple, reminds us of His desire that the New Temple, His Bride, the Church, should always strive to be free from any error or moral transgression; each of us have a responsibility to strive for inner purity.

Blessed John Henry Newman, living just over a century ago, quipped, “I thank God that I live in a day when the enemy is outside the Church, and I know where he is, and what he is up to. But, I foresee a day when the enemy will be both outside and inside the Church…and, I pray for the poor faithful who will be caught in the crossfire.”

Sadly, I think Cardinal Newman’s prophecy has come to fulfillment. Error pervades many corners of the Church, clergy and religious and lay sew error among Christ’s flock; many are saddened, confused, and led astray. These are difficult times to be a faithful Catholic, faithful to all the Lord teaches. Our culture, the media, pressures Church leaders to change immemorial teachings.

But St. Paul, writing to a group of Christians, offers a frightening warning: “If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person” And Paul is writing here, to the Corinthian Church, which had become riddled with immorality and error and division.

So, we recommit all the more to zeal for our own purification, from sin, error, and selfishness, to faithfulness to the eternal truths of Christ, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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For the purification of Holy Church, and for all Bishops and clergy, that they may always lead us in fidelity to the saving Gospel of Christ.

For those who have fallen into error, for Catholics who have grown lukewarm in their faith, for those who have left the Church, for their conversion and the conversion of all hearts.

During this National Vocations Week, for an increase in vocations to priesthood and consecrated life, and that our young people may take seriously the missionary call of Christ, that they will turn away from the godlessness of our culture to spread the good news of Christ’s eternal kingdom.

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 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.

O God, you 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.

Tuesday - 31st Week in OT 2017 - The Parable of the Great Feast

Two of the great themes of Luke’s Gospel come together in our reading today. As we reflected upon yesterday, over and over in Luke’s Gospel, we see Jesus eating and dining, and using those opportunities at table to teach. Today’s passage is the 10th such “table discourse” and Jesus offers a parable on one of his favorite topics, the kingdom of God.

One of his fellow dinner guests utters a surprisingly accurate statement: “Blessed is the one who will dine [literally, eat bread] in the kingdom of God.” Jesus then tells a parable about the eschatological banquet at the end of time

In the symbolic language of the parable, the host is God and His servants are the prophets, and three groups of people have been invited to this banquet.

The first group knew they had been invited, but they didn’t appreciate the great honor and gave some pretty lame excuses for not attending the banquet. Jesus was certainly addressing the Jews of his day, particularly the Scribes and Pharisees, those who believed themselves to be assured a place in the heavenly kingdom. But through their failure to believe, they would be excluded.

This could be applied to Christians of our own day who do not take the faith seriously, we see Catholicism as more of a cultural identity than a way of life. These are those who are more concerned with earthly concerns and possessions and social relationships, than the call to conversion.

The second group consists of the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. This group accepts the Lord’s invitation. And though they are dispossessed and alienated in this life, their hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied in eternity. Here is a call to turn to the Lord in our spiritual poverty, and trust in his promises.

The third group consists of those in the highways and hedgerows. This third invitation symbolizes the evangelization of the Gentile nations of the earth by the Church throughout the centuries. Many accept the Gospel of the Lord, but many do not.  But we are called to faithfully share the Gospel, to extend the invitation to believe in the Lord and follow Him.

To these, Jesus uses some pretty strong language: make them come in, almost…almost…force them to accept. Be persistent in the invitation. There are people too embarrassed, too laden with guilt, too broken to accept the Gospel themselves. They silently cry out for someone to lead and guide them into the Church. Although their words and actions push you away, their spirit is crying out for God to send a leader to break open the path. So persistent, drag them to Church and to parish events and service opportunities.

As St. Paul teaches, “Do not grow slack but be fervent in Spirit; He Whom you serve is the Lord." For the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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During this National Vocations Week, for an increase in vocations to priesthood and consecrated life, and that our young people may take seriously the missionary call of Christ, that they will turn away from the godlessness of our culture to spread the good news of Christ’s eternal kingdom.

That world leaders may look upon the Son of God, believe in him, and seek the peace and justice that only he can bring.

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 clergy 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.

Monday - 31st Week of OT 2017 - Room at the Table

Have you ever noticed how many times Jesus is either sitting at a meal or talking about meals in his parables? Meals feature so prominently in the gospels that scholars have commented: ‘Jesus ate his way through the Gospels.’ A Catholic Scripture scholar even commented, “‘… they killed him because of the way he ate; because he ate and drank with sinners.’ Jesus revealed the Kingdom as he shared meals with others, and so we have much to learn from where he ate and with whom he ate.

The first half of the Gospel of Luke, from which we find our Gospel passage today, Jesus is dining at the home of a leading Pharisee, and he gives a series of lessons.

First, he speaks about the licitness of healing on the Sabbath. Then, upon noticing how the the dinner guests picked the places of honor at the table, Jesus tells the parable of taking the lower place at the wedding feast and waiting to be invited higher. Today’s Gospel is a direct teaching related to that parable. Jesus instructs to not only invite those who will boost your social standing, but to invite those who cannot pay you back.

On one hand, Jesus is challenging us to reach out to the poor, to people who cannot repay our charity. On the other hand, Jesus is challenging us to identify as the poor, in the grand scheme of salvation.
Each of us come to the table of the Lord, poor and hungry, unable to provide for ourselves. The Lord is the host who has invited all of us the physically and more importantly spiritually poor and lame and crippled.

Because the Lord feeds us in our poverty, we, in turn, are to reach out with our meager possessions, to those who have less than us, expecting no repayment, save that of eternal life.

How can we repay the goodness the Lord has shown to us? Paying the debt of our sins through his suffering and death when we were incapable of paying it ourselves? The entire Christian life is a response to the Lord loving us when we were unlovable, feeding us in our spiritual starvation, teaching us to walk rightly again in our spiritual lameness, clothing us when we were in the abject poverty of sin and separation from God.

We must seek to love as we have been loved, looking for opportunities to give without expecting repayment. Mother Theresa said, Jesus often hides behind the unattractive disguise of the irritable, the exacting, and the unreasonable. She prayed to recognize Jesus in these people, and to find the sweetness of serving Him in them; and so must we, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That bishops, priests, and all ministers of the Gospel may seek to imitate Jesus in his charity, compassion, self-sacrifice, and witness to the Truth.

That our president and all civil servants will carry out their duties with justice, honesty, and respect for religious freedom and the dignity of human life. 

For victims of violence, especially the victims of the Church shooting in Texas yesterday, for their consolation, and that all forms of violence may be replaced by the Peace of Christ.

For the impoverished and sick and those experiencing any sort of trial: that Jesus the Bread of Life will be their sustenance, and that Christians will be instruments of God’s mercy for all those in need. 

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

O God, you 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.

31st Sunday in OT 2017 - The corruption of the best is the worst

Last week I told a story about a recent encounter I had with my tailor. She had asked me why I became a priest, and I replied that I believe that with all the evil in the world, the priesthood can be a powerful instrument of God’s grace—his love and mercy and truth—in the world.

She replied that she had a problem with organized religion in general. She said how in her home country, the Atheist Communist Leader Stalin had outlawed religion, but when Stalin was overthrown, many of the Communist party members traded the hammer and sickle, the symbols of atheistic communism, for the cross, the symbol of Christianity. They had taken up the once repressed faith, but instead of using the terror and violence of Communism to control people’s lives, they now used religion to control people and oppress people.

I think many people have this problem with organized religion. The Communist Philosopher Karl Marx called religion “the opiate of the masses.”—seeing religious simply as a way to control people. And to be honest, there has been corruption in the Church, here and there. But, all of us here, I hope, know of the tremendous potential of Christianity, the power of grace to transform sinners into saints.

Religion: it can be the best thing around, and it can be the worst thing around. When religion functions well, according to its own deepest purpose, it brings us into friendship with God, it can bring out the best in man. But, when it is dysfunctional, when religion goes bad, it goes really bad, it can bring out the worst in us. The ancient Romans would say: “Corruptio optimi pessimo”, the corruption of the best, is the worst. When the best thing goes bad, it really goes bad. And that’s certainly true for religion. Dysfunctional religion can be very dangerous. It can create murderous terrorists who commit acts of violence in the name of God, it can create tremendous greed, it can create terrible scrupulosity where the love of God is replaced by a false image of God as a tyrant, it can lead religious leaders to abuse their power, and lay people to become addicted to false piety and self-righteousness.

The authors of the Bible, both Old Testament and New, were fully aware of this problem. The great prophets like Jeremiah, Isaiah, Daniel, and Malachi, as well as Peter, James, John, and Paul, and of course Our Lord himself, who knew the potential of His Church, all seemed to be keenly aware how religion could be misused.

Jesus engages the Scribes and Pharisees, our Gospel today. Our Lord explains how these supposed religious leaders were preaching, but not practicing.

Notice, how even though Jesus points out the religious failure of the Scribes and Pharisees, he doesn’t discredit religious leadership altogether. Were the Scribes and Pharisees in many ways corrupt? Yes. But does that mean that the whole idea of teaching authority and religious leadership is altogether corrupt? Absolutely not.

Jesus is saying don’t let their corruption keep you from right relationship with the Father. He even says, do whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. In other words, when they teach authentically, listen to them, but don’t let their corruption keep you from the truth, either.

The Pharisees misused their position of authority, and placed themselves on a pedestal; they sought to be honored for their purity and supposed holiness. They made religious leadership a means of their own self-aggrandizement rather being instruments of the truth and goodness of God.

Now contrast the false religious leadership of the Pharisees with the great humility and authentic leadership of the saints., who we celebrated this week on the Holy Day of Obligation, All Saints Day. The saints are the truly holy ones in our midst, yet we don’t see them using their holiness to control others or to demean others, rather, they become conduits of God’s goodness and grace. They do not use religion to inflate their own egos, rather, they do everything they can to help others to be as holy as possible. Their humility is truly humbling, their goodness is truly inspiring. They guide us not through fear, but love. The saints never preach what they are unwilling to do themselves, but we see that they are willing to do quite a bit. They are the first ones in the confessional when they’ve sinned, and are the first ones with a cup of water, to give drink to the thirsty. The show that our faith IS demanding, but do everything they can to help us with those demands through their wisdom and good example.

Particularly, I think of St. Charles Borromeo, whose feast day is today, November 4. St. Charles was born into a wealthy Italian noble family. He received the highest education of his day, and his ecclesiastical career into the highest-ranking posts in the Church was almost guaranteed. He lived in  a time of some lavishness and some corruption within the Church. And, Charles Borromeo could have become one of these terribly decadent and corrupt Cardinal Princes always vying for more and more power. Rather, Charles took, “Humilitas”—humility, as his personal motto.

He allotted most of his income to charity, forbade himself luxuries.  When the plague struck his diocese, he fed thousands of people daily, taking upon himself a huge debt requiring years of repayment.  Whereas the civil authorities fled the city, he stayed and ministered to the sick and the dying. He also developed a Catechism which was used world-wide after the Council of Trent to educate Catholics in the wake of the Protestant Reformation, helping Catholics know their faith, so that they could live their faith more fully.

G.K. Chesterton once said that it is not that Christianity “has been tried and left wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried.” In other words, when we see corruption in the Church, in Catholics ordained and not-ordained, the problem isn’t with Catholicism. Our faith is the best thing around. It is the remedy for the ills of the world, it is the instrument God gave us for our salvation and sanctification, but if we want it’s transforming power to be unleashed, we must be faithful to it, not just the parts we like, but all of it.

We can become saints, we can become the people God made us to be through our beautiful faith. We certainly pray for our religious leaders, that they may practice what they preach. But we also take personal responsibility for our own practice of the faith, that we may allow ourselves to be taught, to be led in the authentic practice of our religion, that we may schooled in holiness, and live lives betting of the children of God, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

November 3 2017 - St. Martin de Porres - Charity rather than resentment

Martin was born in Lima, Peru in 1579 to Spanish conquistador and an African Slave, who were not married.  Martin’s father rejected him at his birth because of his dark skin, and throughout childhood, Martin was given cruel names like “half-breed”.  Perhaps because he himself was poor and despised, Martin developed a heart for charity.

While a young man, he became an associate of the Dominican Order. He spent long hours caring for the sick and dying, particularly among the slaves and indigent. Daily he fed nearly two hundred people, and weekly he disbursed hundreds of dollars worth of food, clothing, and other necessities of life among Natives, Africans, and Spaniards.

There is an interesting confluence in the life of Martin and the Gospel today. Once again, Jesus is found in the middle of a controversy over healing on the sabbath. Jesus points out that the Pharisaic interpretation of the law was quite ridiculous. For, the Pharisees condemned Jesus for healing on the Sabbath even though they wouldn’t hesitate to pull their son or ox out of a cistern on the Sabbath.

Due to a ridiculous interpretation of church law, Martin was forbidden to become a full member of the Dominican Order. A law from Deuteronomy was being interpreted to exclude him from the order due to his slave background. So what did Martin do? He dedicated himself to healing, to charity, He became known as the Apostle of Charity, and many stories arose about his closeness to God and healing miracles.

No matter what our circumstances: whether we are ridiculed for our race, our nationality, our economic level, excluded unjustly, like St. Martin, being conspired against by the powers-that-be, like Our Blessed Lord, we are called to intimacy with our Lord, we are called to be instruments of healing and charity.

Martin could have developed a bitterness and even hatred for his fellow man, even for the Church, but he allowed God’s grace to break through any resentment or self-pity.  We too are called to open ourselves to God through prayer, scripture, and the sacramental life of the Church, that God’s life may penetrate and transform us into Apostles of Charity, for the glory of god and salvation of souls.
 
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That religious indifference and religious persecution in our country and around the world may be transformed to radical commitment to the Gospel of Christ.

For the transformation of all attitudes which lead to war, violence, racial hatred, and religious persecution.

For the conversion of Atheists, hardened sinners, lapsed Catholics, and the conversion of all hearts.

For Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of September: “That Christians in Asia, bearing witness to the Gospel in word and deed, may promote dialogue, peace, and mutual understanding, especially with those of other religions.”

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 clergy and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

O God, you 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.

All Souls' Day 2017 - Praying for the Dead

Yesterday, All Saints' Day, we praised God for his masterpieces: the saints, those Christians who reached spiritual maturity in this life, and so entered heaven immediately after death.

Today Catholics join in praying for the eternal repose of our many brothers and sisters who died in friendship with Christ, but who hadn't yet reached spiritual maturity. Instead of entering heaven immediately, these souls were taken by God to the spiritual hospital called purgatory.

Even though there is firm scriptural basis for the practice of praying for the dead, many Catholics are uncomfortable with this doctrine. But from the very beginning the Church has engaged in this practice. The saints urge us to pray for the dead. St. John Vianney said, "We must say many prayers for the souls of the faithful departed, for one must be so pure to enter heaven."

St. John Chrysostom, over 1200 years before John Vianney even recommended to every Christian family that they have a box at some convenient place in their home where they put coins which would be used to have masses said for the Poor Souls.

Common sense, the testimony of the saints, and the Bible all agree: purgatory is real; many if not most of us will need to be purified from the vestiges of sin and selfishness after we die, so that we can fully experience the joys of heaven.

This is not a complicated doctrine. Though, the Church has made no definitive statements about what exactly this purification is like or exactly how long it takes, three things for certain: that a purification after death exists, that it is not entirely pleasant, it involves suffering, but the church on earth can assist those souls in purgatory with our prayers.

Knowing this motivates us to do two things.

First, it certainly motivates us to prepare our souls, while here on earth. Doing penance for our sins during our earthly life is preferable to the pains suffered in purgatory.

Second, we can alleviate the suffering of our brothers and sisters who have died and are now in purgatory by praying for them, offering Masses for them, obtaining indulgences for them...God has generously connected our lives to theirs.

And so, we who are members of the Church Militant here on earth, can help the members of the Church Suffering in purgatory, arrive more quickly to their eternal destination: the Church Triumphant in heaven.

May we be generous in our prayers and acts of charity toward our beloved dead, that with them, we may come to see God face to face in heaven, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
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May all those baptized into Christ’s saving passion, death, and resurrection, and nourished at the Eucharistic table of the Lord, be welcomed into the halls of the heavenly banquet.

For all those who suffer from violence, war, famine, extreme poverty, addiction, and those who are alienated from their families.  May they know God’s mercy and be gathered to the eternal kingdom of peace. 

That God may send his angel of consolation and comfort to all those for whom death draws near, and all those who grieve the death of a loved one might find peace in the promises of Christ.

For all those who despair of eternal life because they do not know God, may they receive faith in the saving resurrection of Jesus Christ.

For all of the holy souls in purgatory, especially those forgotten by time and have no one else to pray for them, that they may know the constant aid of the Church on earth, especially the deceased members of our family, friends, and parish, for deceased clergy and religious, and those who have fought and died for our freedom.

Heavenly Father, grant to our beloved dead your mercy and forgiveness, hear and answer all of our prayers according to your gracious will, through Christ our Lord.

All Saints Day 2017 - Nothing matters more than sanctity

It is pretty profound that today is so important to the Church that it is a Holy Day of Obligation for all Catholics to attend Mass, even when it falls on a weekday. Think about that. Why is that important?
It is not hard to understand why it is absolutely essential for us to celebrate Christmas and Easter. It is certainly in keeping with the third commandment, that all Catholics are obligated to go to Mass every Sunday. But why do we celebrate this feast day, with such solemnity, giving it such great importance, that every Catholic in the world needs to go to Church this day?

All Saints Day is a surprisingly old feast. It arose out of the Christian tradition of celebrating the anniversary of the death of a martyr. The Martyrs gave the ultimate witness to Christ, witnessing to Him with their very life, they were faithful to the very end, and so were celebrated by the Church of needing no further purification after death, and so they went directly to God in heaven as Saints.
Soon, the number of martyrs became so abundant because of the persecutions of those early centuries, that a common feast day—an All Saints Day—would ensure that all the martyrs, known and unknown, were properly honored.

But this feast day isn’t a holy day of obligation simply because it is over one thousand six hundred years old. Nor is it a holy day of because we are celebrating a select-few, a handful of spiritual heroes. I think it is a holy day of obligation because it reminds us that becoming a saint is the ordinary goal of the Christian life. The whole purpose of the Church: the purpose of baptisms, eucharist, priests and sacramental marriages, the purpose of learning our catechism, engaging in the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, fasting, doing penance, going to confession, the purpose of all of the things, every action of the Church is to make saints.

The only people who go to heaven are saints. Only those who prepare their souls rightly in this life, and those who are purified in purgatory, go to heaven. And that is the whole purpose of the Church, is to help you and me, and every person who seeks God, get to heaven.

This feast reminds us, that the only thing that really matters in life, is being holy, so that we can be with God forever in heaven. You can be the richest person in the world, but if you do not become a saint, you have wasted your life. You can be the best athlete, the most talented musician, the most skilled doctor, the most famous actor in Hollywood, but if you do not become a saint, becoming the person God wants you to be, you have wasted your life.

Becoming a saint should be what we think of every day, it’s what we should worry about and strive for most. And how many of us really worry about this? Think of all the time we spend fussing about non-essentials, reputation, entertainment, physical appearance, social standing, while neglecting the most essential, our sanctity.

Non-essentials can be so dangerous because they can lead us away from God; we all know how non-essentials can lead us not to pray as we should, not to love our family as we should, not to give to our neighbor as we should, not to go to Church as we should. Non-essentials can even lead us to losing our place in heaven, forever, if we allow them to consume us.

Today we give honor to all those saints, saints we know, saints who have been canonized by the Church, and those saints who passing from this life still needing some purification are now with God. We honor them and they teach us, plead with us, to put Jesus first, to put sanctity first. On this Holy Day, we celebrate, that in the end, the only thing that matters is: do I love Jesus Christ with my whole heart, my whole mind, and am I doing everything in my power to become like Him, am I doing everything I can to be with Him and His Saints forever, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.