Homily: November 30 - Saint Andrew, Apostle & Martyr - The Brave Fisherman

The Byzantine Church honors the Apostle Saint Andrew with the title: Protokletos, which means, “the first called” because he was the first of the Apostles to be called and to follow Jesus.

At least six of the Twelve Apostles were fishermen, Andrew was one of them, along with his brother Saint Peter.

Though he was Jewish, his name Andrew, comes not from a Hebrew word, but a Greek word: andreios, meaning “brave” or the virtue of the warrior.  The Apostle Andrew like a Warrior bravely followed Christ, bravely worked for the spread Christ’s Gospel, and bravely witnessed to Christ in martyrdom. 

Tradition says that Andrew preached the gospel in Greece and in the year 60 was crucified on an X shaped cross.  He hung on the cross for two days before he died, and it is said that he continued to preach the Gospel while hanging from the cross. 

Through his preaching, Andrew truly became a fisher of men, and by his preaching Andrew converted hearts, and instilled in souls knowledge, understanding, and conviction of the faith, and inspired others to follow Christ.

The Lord calls each of us to bravely follow him, and to courageously live His Word: by living virtuously, striving to be free from sin and selfishness, and spreading His truth.  It might just take a pamphlet on confession and a word of encouragement to help someone return to the faith, it might take bravely undergoing their verbal attacks while patiently explaining the truth over a period of weeks or months.  It might take bravely saying yes to one of the many service opportunities we will offer this advent, through which God will work miracles.

Saint John Chyrsostom once said that if every Christian acted as a Christian, prayed, and did his part in the Church militant in the world, that the whole world would become Christian.

Through the help and prayers of the Apostle Saint Andrew may the Gospel of Christ be spread to every corner of the world and into every heart for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 34th Week in Ordinary Time - Friday - Quiet blooming of fig trees

Chapter 21 of Luke’s Gospel begins with some pretty frightening images.

Jesus foretells the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, he tells of the awful calamities which will precede the end of the world and his second coming, he tells how his followers will be persecuted; that Christians will be hated because of his name; and at the great tribulation there will be signs in the sky, people will die of fright.

Then comes today’s Gospel passage: consider the fig tree and the other trees, when you see their buds burst open, you know that summer is now near.  In the same way, when you see these things, know that the kingdom of God is near.

What a contrast: from scenes of destruction to the image of blooming fig tree buds.

I love how this Gospel appears as we prepare to pass into a new liturgical season.  The last weeks of Ordinary Time are filled with these readings of persecution and violence, reminding us to remain faithful to God during these turbulent end times.  In less than 48 hours we will pass, almost seamlessly into the new liturgical year, the season of advent, the season of peaceful waiting, a season of expectation, which reminds us so much of the last few weeks of a woman’s pregnancy, full of expectation and hope and the birth of her child.

The alarming images at the end of Ordinary Time here remind us to take head, to be aware that we will be tested and tried during these violent end times.

But as we prepare for Advent, we are reminded by this Gospel in particular, that just as flowers and trees bloom serenely and quietly, the full flowering of the life of grace comes about through quiet prayer, daily perseverance, daily waiting, patience, and hope.

Catholics are to be attentive to the rhythms of the spiritual life, like the rhythms of the liturgical year.  It is a good day to reflect upon the spiritual practices that the Holy Spirit might be urging us to take up for Advent: particular books set aside for spiritual reading, extra time scheduled amidst all the busy-ness of December for quiet prayer. 

As we prepare for the end of the liturgical year, and the beginning of Advent, may God’s Holy Spirit continue to shape and form our minds and hearts, that we may know his love, and be found faithful in his service for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Thanksgiving Day - President Lincoln's Promulgation of Thanksgiving Day

Yesterday, down at the school we had a prayer service with the school children.  It began with the first graders processing up the aisle carrying pictures of things that they were thankful for, which they had made themselves.  One child carried a picture of his house, another of his family, there were pictures of nature, like beautiful trees and mountains, and there was a picture of our church building. 

They sang songs like “for the gifts of His Creation, thanks be to God”, and “father, we thank thee who has planted, thy holy name within our hearts.”  They concluded with the song “America the Beautiful” giving thanks to God for our nation, asking God to bless it and protect it. 

In the middle of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November. 

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday next, as a day of Thanksgiving  and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.  And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and Union.”

Thanksgiving Day is a civil holiday, yes.  Whose origins, before the scourge of atheism and indifference to God swept over our land, our nations looked to the God of Creation in thanksgiving and praise for his blessings.

In a few weeks, the busyness of the Christmas season will be upon us, and we will be reminded to keep the Christ in Christmas, to remember that his glorious birth is the reason for our celebration.  Today, I think, we do well, to keep the Thanks in Thanksgiving.  To recall the blessings of our life, food, shelter, family, the beauty of nature, and of course our faith, which promises everlasting life.  Those first graders who recalled their blessings were so full of joy.  There is always a connection with gratefulness and joy.  The truly grateful heart is also a joyful heart.

In the Gospel, 10 lepers received healing, but it was the one leper, who returned to the Lord to give thanks who was saved.  True thanksgiving opens our hearts to the eternal.  True thanks is not just focused on the things of this earth, but sees in them goods that come from God, which we have a responsibility to use wisely.

President Lincoln also encouraged humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience. What is perverseness other than misusing the goods of the earth for selfish ends.  Selfishness and thanksgiving are like oil and water.

So we pray today, that God free us from all forms of selfishness, and give us grateful hearts, that we may know his salvation, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

34th Week in Ordinary Time - Tuesday - A Kingdom that shall never be destroyed

Yesterday, we heard how Daniel, because of his faithfulness and obedience to God was given “the understanding of all visions and dreams.”  Today we hear how Daniel, uses this gift, and interprets a dream of King Nebuchadnezzar.

Through the prophet Daniel, God wanted King Nebuchadnezzar to know that his kingdom, so dear to him, could and would undergo destruction.  Other kingdoms would take its place, but they, too, would last only a time.  The prophecy of Daniel foreshadowed the words of Jesus, when he spoke of the Temple of Jerusalem:  it, like everything built by human beings, will be destroyed.  These are not the sorts of things to place our hope in.

Daniel also prophesied that God would set up a kingdom that would not be destroyed.  Daniel did not know that he was speaking about the Church: not church buildings, of course, but the Church herself, made up of “living stones”.  Those who place their faith in Christ the King will have eternal life.

Everything that’s built by human beings can be destroyed.  That’s why something like the Great Pyramids of Egypt are so awesome:  not simply because they are so colossal, but because they have—to an amazing extent—survived the ravages of time.  You can think of one of the large cities on the West Coast of our own country (Los Angeles, for example):  from the air, as you fly into the area, you can be filled with awe.  And yet an earthquake could destroy everything in the area in a matter of minutes.

The U.S. government can collapse, as have countless governments and dynasties throughout history have collapsed.

Yet the Christian, is not terribly shaken by this “bad news”.  It causes us to reflect upon our trivial pursuits, and to repent of them, and to renew our commitment as citizens of the kingdom that does not pass away.  We react to the certainty of the total destruction of everything we can see, not with despair or depression, but with thanksgiving and commitment to Christ, for this earthly life is but to prepare us for life in a kingdom that does not pass away.

To be involved in purely worldly matters is in the end foolish and useless.  Psalm 127 reminds us if the Lord does not build the house, in vain does its builders labor.

The Letter to the Hebrews states, “"Wherefore, we who are receiving the unshakable kingdom should hold fast to God's grace, through which we may offer worship acceptable to Him in reverence and awe"

We worship God in reverence and awe, praying that as the earth passes away we may be found faithful to Christ who died that we may have eternal life, that we may be found laboring always for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: 34th Week of Ordinary Time - Monday - Daniel's Obedience

During this final week of the Church’s year, our First Readings are taken from the book of the Prophet Daniel. 

Some of the most famous and arresting stories in the Bible are found in this book, including the three young men in Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace, the “hand writing on the wall” written by a disembodied hand, prophesying the sudden doom at King Belshazzar’s feast, which we’ll hear proclaimed on Wednesday, and of course, Daniel in the lion’s den.

The name Daniel means “God is my judge”.  And Daniel seemed to prophesy during a time when God was bringing his judgment down upon an Israel who had turned away from the Lord’s commandments, for their idolatry.

And so today we heard how the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar came and carried away some of the children of royal blood, to be brought to the king’s palace to be raised, as Babylonians.  And among these men of Judah were: Daniel, Hannaniah, Azariah, and Mishael.  Yet, these young men, though they had been brought to the table of the heathen king, insisted on remaining true to the Lord. 

This reading should remind us of the story of old Eleazar last week in 1^st Maccabees, who when ordered by King Artaxerxes to eat pork, refused to break Jewish dietary law. 

"In any question of wisdom or prudence which the king put to them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his kingdom."  The secret to the exceptional greatness for the four Jewish young men, was in fact their commitment to obey the law, to remain faithful, even while in exile, when all of the supports to their faith were stripped away, when all that they had was what they carried with them, inside of them.  They remained faithful, and there is a great power in obedience. 

At this time, the Church is in exile similar to that of Daniel.  She is tempted by the heathen food of secularism, many of our children have been captured by the glamour of the world.  Our marriages and families are in disarray.  Two out of three registered American Catholics disobey the Lord weekly by not going to Sunday Mass.  The culture’s attitudes of forgiveness, prejudice, impurity, profanity, carnality, perversity bombard the Church.  Instead of being a great light to the nations, disobedience makes the Church so mediocre, like so many secular institutions. 

It is no coincidence that these readings at the end of the liturgical year have to do with being tempted to disobey.  They are a reminder that during these end times, we will be bombarded with temptations from the world. 

Knowing this, we must turn now ten times the more to seek Him, to reject the food of disobedience and draw our strength a from the food given to us from heaven, to nourish us, to protect us, to transform our lives for the Glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Christ the King 2013

Today the Church celebrates with great joy the Solemnity of Christ the King. It is the last Sunday of the liturgical year and, in many ways, the culmination. All of the feasts and all of the seasons of the Church Year in a way, celebrate and point to this reality, that Jesus Christ is the King of the Universe, the Lord of all. 

Every Mass is a celebration of this truth: Christ sits victorious upon the throne of heaven, for he has saved our souls by the power of God’s unconquerable love.

Every time we receive Holy Communion we should desire that this authority and power and glory of Christ should infuse every dimension of our life.  It is here that we show our loyalty and our allegiance to Christ our sovereign Lord.

I was in the classroom with 5^th graders talking to the children about the importance of Sunday Mass.  I asked, “is there anything more important than Sunday Mass? Is Sunday Mass more important than staying at home and playing video games?  Yes Father.  Is Sunday Mass more important than going to a Cleveland Browns game? Yes Father.  I then asked, “What else is attending Mass more important than” A bunch of hands went up, which is always good to see.  “Sunday Mass is more important than shopping,” one said.   Mass is more important than doing chores, one boy said grinning ear to ear.”  Sunday mass is more important than sleeping in even if you had a sleep over the night before and stayed up late talking, one girl said. 

Then I asked, is spending time with your family more important than Sunday Mass?  Some of the kids were a little slower to answer that one.  But we finally agreed that even though spending time with family is good, you need to go to Mass.  If a grandparent is in the hospital or nursing home, you should go to Mass then go visit them.

Then I asked, what if your mom or dad said, we aren’t going to Mass anymore, because I don’t like those priests at Saint Angela’s.  One young boy said, well, I would try to tell them that you aren’t so bad, Father, and that we should go anyway, because Mass is more important than the priest who celebrates it.  Then one little girl said, well, I’d tell my mom if we don’t like the priests at St. Angela’s that we could always go to Saint Christopher’s!

Then I asked, what if the president made a law, that said it was against the law to go to Sunday Mass?  One girl said, he can’t do that, the Constitution said so.  I was impressed.  Then I said, what if the Constitution was changed, and the law of the land said it was illegal for Christians to gather for worship.  One boy said, “I’d go to Mass, even if it was against the law.”

And we then talked about how, in the first centuries of the Church it was illegal for Catholics to gather for Mass.  And so the Catholics would gather in people’s homes, and in they would gather in the Catacombs during the night so they wouldn’t get caught. 

Some Roman emperors decreed that Catholics caught going to Mass would be arrested and thrown to the lions in the Coliseum.  Some said that priests and Bishops would be arrested and put to death.

But we agreed as a class that going to Mass is so important that we would risk getting arrested or worse because practicing our faith is our first allegiance.

John Henry Newman had a prestigious and lucrative professorship at Oxford University.  During his professorship Professor Newman began to feel the call to convert to the Catholic Faith.  But because of Oxford’s religious affiliations, Professor Newman knew that he would lose his job if he converted.

When his friends tried to dissuade him from converting, they reminded him of the nearly $100,000 income he was giving up.

They were silenced when he answered: "What is $100,000 when compared to one Holy Communion?"

When we approach the Sacrament of Holy Communion, we are expressing our faith in Jesus and our desire for his continued friendship, that he be the King of every dimension of our life.

This is why the Church requires us to repent of and confess mortal sins such as missing Sunday Mass before receiving Holy Communion.  Because mortal sin is a rejection of Jesus’ Kingship of our life. 

One of the reasons many Protestants become Catholic is because of the Catholic mass.  At the Catholic 

Mass the most important thing is not the sermon, like it is in the Protestant service.  Catholicism doesn’t just offer words about Jesus, Catholicism offers Jesus.  He comes to us truly and really in the Eucharist. 

Our King doesn’t remain apart from us. He shows up even when the homily is boring and the music is mediocre.  Of course that doesn’t happen here at St. Angela’s. The Mass is that the Mass doesn’t just offer words about Jesus, Jesus truly becomes present, and feeds us with his body and blood.

We owe our loyalty to our king, and we show our loyalty, primarily by coming to Mass and celebrating the Eucharist as he commanded.

We come this weekend to the end of the liturgical year and the end of the Year of Faith.  Hopefully, this year, we have taken the opportunity to grow in our understanding of the faith, that we can better explain it to others. 

The Feast of Christ the King challenges us to examine where our loyalties lie.  Is my first loyalty to Christ and his Body the Church? 

If not, why not?  Our King’s love is so great for us. Pope Francis wrote that the Eucharist is the nourishment for the life of faith.  When we don’t come to Mass, we deny ourselves the nourishment Our Lord wishes to give us, to strengthen us in holiness.

We see so often, lukewarm mass attendance is linked to lukewarm faith.  But we aren’t meant to be lukewarm, our King desires hearts set on fire with love for him.

We renew our love and loyalty for our King today, our faith in his real presence in the Eucharist, and pray for the grace to make him the center of our life, that we may never be intimidated by any earthly power or seduced by worldliness, that we may not be discouraged by the weight of our earthly crosses, but become heralds of the victory of our King over sin and death for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: November 22 - St. Cecilia, virgin and martyr - Making one's life into a hymn of adoration to God

St. Cecilia is one of the most famous Roman martyrs.  She was committed to lifelong virginity. 

St. Cecilia is the patron saint of musicians; stained glass windows often depict her holding a harp or playing the organ or violin.

The legend goes that she was arrested and sentenced to death because of her faith.  Her executioner botched his worked as he tried to behead her.  He gave-up after failing to behead her multiple times.  Cecilia lingered, and as she lay dying for three days, she sang Gods praises.  In pain, dying, she praised God.

What a powerful image: the St. Cecilia, the martyr, singing praise to God as she goes to her death to witness to Him.  She witnesses to God in her consecrated virginity and purity throughout life, and makes her death into a song of adoration to him.

We are all called to make our lives into a song of adoration to God.

The preface prayer for the feasts of the martyrs refers to the “new song of adoration” which all of creation will sing in praise of God in the new heaven, which the martyrs foreshadow in this life.  In the book of Revelations, John’s vision shows 144,000 saints in heaven, singing a hymn before the throne of God and playing their harps. 

St. Augustine describing the Christian life once said, “We are an Easter people and Alleluia is our song.”  

The Christian life witnessing to the victory of Christ over sin and death is to be a song which resounds to all corners of the world.  Whether in good times or in bad, in times of suffering, or in times of joy our life is to be a hymn to God.  It is Christ’s victory over death, which enables us to sing alleluia even in the face of martyrdom.

St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, telling them, “ be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Through the intercession of St. Cecilia, may all we do today be transformed into a hymn of praise to our God, that all of our thoughts, words, and deeds, might be harmonized with Christ for the glory of God and salvation of souls.