Easter 4 - The Death Of A Shepherd

 

Homily for Easter 4 – Good Shepherd Sunday

April 21, 2024

Shepherd Dies So Sheep May Live

 

            There was once a four-star general in the American army who was retiring. A friend of mine was at his retirement party, and was amazed by how his subordinates didn’t just respect him, but loved him as a father. My friend asked the general, “How were you able to win over the hearts of your men?” He replied, “It was a simple three-word philosophy that I tried to live by…Officers Eat Last.”

            That’s the difference between being a boss and being a leader. Leaders eat last; bosses make sure to pay themselves the bonus. Leaders are the first to sacrifice and the last to get rewarded. Bosses reward themselves and ask others to sacrifice (this is becoming a huge societal problem – in 1989, CEOs made 59 times what the average employee made; in 2021, their pay was 399 times more). Leadership doesn’t come from a title or an office, but from the courage to set a good vision and sacrifice for it; bosses depend on external positions and titles. Leadership is based in humble service; bosses are often motivated by their ego.

            The greatest leader in human history, of course, was Jesus Christ. As a shepherd, He did nothing for His own glory. He had no pride, no ego – His only concern was for us and our salvation. He was unafraid to sacrifice, even to the point of laying down His life. He “set the vision” – pointing the way to everlasting life with the Father. Such a leader should not have to force, but rather inspire us to follow Him to that joyous Kingdom.

            The saint whom we honor this weekend, St. Padre Pio, is another beautiful example of a shepherd laying down his life for his sheep. As most of you know, he was gifted with the stigmata – one day in prayer, light shot out from the wounds of Christ on the Cross and penetrated his hands, feet, and side. From that moment on, he had wounds in his hands, feet, and side that bled for the remainder of his life. One time a woman asked him, “Do those wounds hurt?” To which the wry saint replied, “Do you think God gave them to me for good looks?” But he knew that if he wanted to help bring souls to Christ, he would have to suffer for these souls in union with Christ. So asked Christ to use those wounds to bring souls to be reconciled to the Lord.

            But his stigmata had to be lived out in a daily dying-to-self for souls. He would spend up to fifteen hours each day in the Confessional, which was exhausting and taxing, but he loved to offer God’s mercy for souls. One time, a woman asked him, “Why do you give such easy penances?” He replied, “I give you a small penance, and I do the rest of the penance for you.” Here was a shepherd who was willing to offer his life as a living holocaust!

            And people responded to such a good shepherd. Many people began to join the “prayer groups” that he would form, and tens of thousands of people per year would visit his monastery – they heard the voice of the Shepherd. Even Americans would flock to his Confessional – and he would welcome all, bringing thousands of souls to Christ.

            People hear, and respond, to a good leader who lays down his life for his sheep.

            Certainly in our lives we’ve met both leaders and bosses. At some point, most of us will have the opportunity to influence others, too, either as a leader or a boss. Perhaps we become a parent and have to lead our family; maybe we’re promoted to manager at work; maybe we’re called to coach a team or teach religious education or mentor someone.

            How do we know if we are a good shepherd, a good leader? There is one clear litmus test – what does life like for those we are leading? Are they flourishing? Do they find joy, and abundant life? Are they growing spiritually, socially, physically? A good leader should not be primarily concerned about keeping the higher-ups happy, or being financially successful, or climbing the success ladder – a good leader should primarily be concerned with serving God by serving those whom God has entrusted to them. Leaders are stewards, and we will have to give an account of how we have led these souls to authentic human flourishing.

            Let us follow the example of Christ – and St. Padre Pio – to become a leader, as we lay down our lives for our flock, whomever they may be.

Homily for Easter 3 - Not Seeing Is Believing

 

Homily for Easter 3

April 14, 2024

Not Seeing Is Believing

 

            Once when I was taking a final exam in college, I was shocked to see a huge spider climb up right next to my hand. I screamed, leapt up from my chair, and threw my pen across the room. Imagine my chagrin when I realized that what I thought was a spider was just the shadow that my pen and fingers were making on the paper! Our senses can sometimes be wrong!

            Generally, we get to know the world through our five senses, and they’re usually pretty reliable. But it would be an error to believe that the only way to know the world is through our five senses.

            For example, I have never seen germs, or Saturn’s rings, or Julius Caesar. But I believe people who have seen these things, and who told me about them. Every day, we believe many things that we have not independently verified.

            So we believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, not because we have seen it, but because the Apostles did see the Risen Flesh of Jesus. They saw Him eat fish, touched His wounds, and heard Him speak to them. And they were so confident that they actually saw Him and not an illusion that every single one of the Apostles was willing to die, professing that Jesus Christ is alive.

            Our faith is not based upon our five senses or us “feeling” Jesus’ presence, but upon the testimony of those who have experienced Him. This testimony has been written in the Scriptures – this is why, when Jesus rose, He explained “everything that referred to Him in Moses and the Prophets” – because the Scripture is the written testimony of people who have personally encountered the Lord or been inspired by His Holy Spirit. And Christ did not leave us only with the Scriptures, but left us a living interpreter of the Scriptures – the Church.

            Thus, it is far more important to base our faith on Scriptures and the unchanging teachings of the Church than to base it on our feelings or our senses. What does this mean for us?

            I speak with many people who tell me, “I just don’t feel God in prayer” or “I feel disconnected from God”. Perhaps you’ve had that experience. But our faith is not based upon what we “feel” in prayer. Many of the great saints felt very disconnected from God. For example, St. Therese of Lisieux said, “I remember that parents love their children as much when they are asleep as awake, so when my soul seems asleep, I trust that the Lord knows my weakness.” Another saint, St. Mary Rosello, was plagued with fears that she was damned to Hell, but she knew that these fears were not based in the truth. She persevered with the motto, “Cling to Jesus. There is God, the soul, and eternity – the rest is nothing.”

            So if you feel disconnected from God or you don’t feel God’s presence at all – a spiritual state known as desolation – do not give up! Faith and love are NOT feelings at all.

            Rather, faith is a firm conviction that what God has revealed in the Bible and the Church are true, and love is a choice to live for God. Our second reading teaches us that “to love God is to keep His commandments.” So whether or not we “feel” God’s presence, we know that we love Him because we make the choice to obey Him, develop a serious prayer life, read Scripture, and live for Him.

            Conversely, faith and love that is based on feelings is very transient. What good is it to “feel” connected to God if we choose to disobey His commandments? The person who skips Mass for a sports game, or live with someone outside of a Sacramental marriage, or refuses to forgive someone and thinks that they love God are fooling themselves. Love is proven in deeds and in obedience, not in ambiguous feelings of “connection” to God.

            The other important takeaway from faith not being based on feelings or senses is that there is so much more to our faith than meets the eyes. Like an iceberg where only ten percent of it is visible, most of what is really, truly going on in our Catholic Faith is beyond our ability to sense. For example, when a child is baptized, all we see and feel is water poured over our head. But in reality, that soul is being filled with the radiant divine life of God and adopted as His son or daughter. This past week, seventy of our eighth-graders received the Sacrament of Confirmation – to our five senses, we may have seen the chrism oil and smelled its pungent odor, but the unseen reality is that the souls of these seventy kids have changed, so that they are more conformed to Christ and entrusted with His mission to bring the world to salvation. We cannot see the soul, but our desires for God, our ability to appreciate beauty, our longing for Heaven is evidence that we truly have one. We cannot see Jesus Christ truly present in the Eucharist, but He told us that He is there, and as Jesus is Truth Himself, He cannot lie.

            At times, we must use our imagination to picture the unseen realities of our faith. Consider the Mass, for example. Listen to the words of St. John Chrysostom: “The angels surround the priest, the whole sanctuary and the space before the altar is filled with the heavenly Powers come to honor Him who is present upon the altar. Think now of what kind of choir you are going to enter. Although vested with a body, you have been judged worthy to join the Powers of heaven in singing the praises of Him who is Lord of all. Behold the royal table. The angels serve at it. The Lord Himself is present.” We do not see the tens of thousands of angels that surround this place; we do not see our Blessed Mother worshipping Her Son; we do not see the Sacrifice of the Cross being made present again in an unbloody manner, as Christ offers Himself once again to the Father for our salvation. We do not see it – but we believe it to be true, for this is what our Scriptures tell us and Christ’s Church teaches us. So do not allow yourself to be dependent upon your senses or your feelings – because Truth is firmer when it is based upon the testimony of those who have encountered the Risen Christ and wrote about it, rather than our senses and feelings.

            Because this is difficult, however, we have sacramentals to help us. It’s hard to believe in that which we cannot see. Hence, we have beautiful angels in our stained-glass windows to help remind us of what is truly present, yet invisible, in church every time we attend Mass. We have crucifixes in our home to remind us of the historical event of the Crucifixion, which has such an invisible but real effect of saving us from our sins. We light candles and use incense and dip our fingers in holy water to make clear to our senses that we are walking into the House of God, Whom we love and worship. These help direct our senses to that which is beyond our senses to the invisible realities that occur here.

            My friends, we get to know the physical world through our five senses. But we get to know the invisible world through what God has revealed to men and women through the Bible and the Holy-Spirit-inspired teachings of His Church. And that which we do not see is far more real than that which we see and touch.

Divine Mercy 2024 - The Door of Mercy

 

Homily for Divine Mercy Sunday

April 7, 2024

The Good News of Mercy

 

            The world was in disarray in 1930. We had just experienced World War I, the bloodiest conflict in human history with over 20 million casualties, and the saber-rattling for World War II had already begun. The world had just seen the Communist Revolution in Russia and China, and within two decades, over 25 countries would go through their own bloody revolution. Abortion was legalized in Russia in 1920, and this began to spread throughout the world. In 1930 at the Lambeth Conference, the Episcopal Church became the first Protestant denomination to allow contraception, sowing the seeds of the Sexual Revolution. The “Roaring Twenties” had led to decadence and flaunting of moral norms, while the Stock Market Crash of 1929 had led to starvation and despair.

            Into this situation, God sent…not a warrior, not a Pope, not a leader…but a young peasant girl from Poland named Helen Kowalska. Ordinary in every way, she became a nun and worked as the convent gardener and cook. She would have lived and died in obscurity if it were not for the events of February 22, 1931.

            During prayer that day, Jesus appeared to her in a vision and began to teach her that, in His words, “I am giving mankind the last hope of salvation, that is recourse to My mercy. Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy.” In a century that was so full of misery, the answer from Heaven is His Mercy.

            Over the next several years, Jesus continued to reveal the secrets of His Mercy to Sr. Faustina. What secrets? That God burns, aches to have mercy on mankind! Jesus said, “The flames of mercy are burning Me, clamoring to be spent. I want to keep pouring them out upon souls, but souls don’t want to believe in My goodness.” He has so, so many mercies to heal the broken hearts, to forgive the sinners, to give love to the unloveable, to free those trapped in the chains of addictions, to bring hope to the despairing – but He cannot pour these out on souls unless we ask for them and trust in Him. This is mercy – where God’s love meets our misery! No one is excluded – Jesus said, “The greater the sinner, the greater the right they have to My Mercy.”

            In particular, there are three parts to the Divine Mercy devotion. The first is the Feast of Divine Mercy, which we celebrate today. How fitting it is that Pope St. John Paul the Great instituted this feast in 2000 – and then died on this feast in 2005! Our Gospel speaks about Jesus bestowing mercy on the Church as His first gift after the Resurrection. It was as if Jesus had to leave this world to return to Heaven to bring back an endless treasury of mercy – a treasure that had been paid for by His Blood – and then He gives that treasure to the Apostles, our first Bishops, to distribute. The treasure of mercy is distributed through Confession, the Sacraments, the merciful teachings of the Church, the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.

            A second part of the Divine Mercy message is the image. Why this image? Notice Jesus’ hands are raised in blessing, and that He touches His Most Sacred Heart, from which flow out rays of red and white – a symbol of the Blood and Water which flowed from His side on the Cross – and a symbol of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist. When we see His hand blessing; the blood that was poured for us; the words beneath, encouraging us to trust in Him – we see a visual of His goodness. I’m amazed how many Catholics think that God is against them, that God doesn’t really want their happiness, or that God’s commands are to put us through a brutal test. Divine mercy blows that idea out of the water! He is for us, on our side, desiring to shower blessings…maybe not the physical things we pray for like a new job or healing from cancer, but the deeper blessings of eternal happiness, sanctification, and unbounded love.

            Finally, there is a beautiful prayer that was revealed to St. Faustina called the “Divine Mercy Chaplet.” It is a powerful prayer which begs God to have mercy on the whole world, by remembering what He did to obtain it – His Passion and Death. The Chaplet is prayed on regular Rosary beads, and the leader begins, “For the sake of His sorrowful Passion,” and the others respond, “Have mercy on us and on the whole world.” Let’s pray a decade…This prayer is particularly powerful for the dying – I always pray it at the bedside of a dying person.

            This time of mercy, however, will not last forever. Jesus said to St. Faustina, “Before I come as a just Judge, I first open wide the door of My mercy. He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice.” The door of mercy is closing fast, and Christ is coming again, very soon. This is not radical apocalyptic thinking – it’s been the longing of the Church since the very beginning, but now it reaches a certain urgency. After all, Jesus said to St. Faustina, “You will prepare the world for My final coming.” Let us take advantage of His mercy – in the Sacrament of Confession, in praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet, in repenting of our sins and truly seeking the Merciful Face of Christ – lest we be forced to face His justice.

            What a joy to know of God’s mercy! Mercy is not a license to sin; rather, mercy says that our sins have been paid for on the Cross. Turn to His mercy, trust in His mercy, extend His mercy to others.

Easter 2024 - Why Do You Seek the Living Among the Dead?

 

Easter Homily

March 31, 2024

Why Do You Seek the Living Among the Dead?

 

            In a little over a week, much of America will be fascinated by the solar eclipse that will cross our country. Some people are even going to travel to different states to get a better view. Despite the fact that the sun rises every day – a little blessing that we so often take for granted – we are more fascinated by the darkness than by the light.

            Isn’t that always the case? How many of us slow down so we can get a better view of a car wreck? As much as we say we don’t, let’s be honest, most of us enjoy reading the bad news. Why does a scandal or a crime make headlines, but the thousands of people who volunteer at soup kitchens and homeless shelters never get recognized? How many of us watched, perhaps over and over again, the video of the bridge that recently collapsed in my hometown of Baltimore – a bridge that I have driven over multiple times? Even when I’m preaching, when I speak about Jesus and what He did for us, people’s eyes glaze over and they yawn, but as soon as I mention the devil, people sit up and cry out, “Tell us more!”

            Because of original sin – that fundamental brokenness in our human nature – we are more drawn to darkness than to light; more drawn to sin than to goodness; more drawn to death than to life. And so it is that the three women return to the tomb. Despite the fact that Jesus predicted three times in the Gospel that He would rise from the dead, they could not believe it, because they believed the fundamental lie of human history – the lie that death wins in the end.

            But when they meet the angels, according to Luke’s Gospel, they ask the women a very pointed question: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” Why do you seek the living among the dead? Do you really believe that life will triumph, or do you think that the death will have the last word? Do you believe that the wicked who have disobeyed the commands of the Lord will win, or will God bring about the victory of justice? Will sin conquer, or will righteousness? As Christians, we must believe that God wins in the end.

            In a few minutes, we will make a six-fold declaration of our Baptismal promises. The first three promises are renunciations – we declare that we will no longer follow Satan, his works, or his empty show. Then the final three promises are declarations of our belief in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In the early Church, the people used to turn to the West to renounce Satan – turning to the darkness, where the sun sets, to declare that darkness will have no power over our lives. They would then turn to the East, to the place of the sun’s rising, to declare their allegiance to the Lord in Whom they have believed. They turned from the darkness to the light in a very physical manner to demonstrate what must go on in our soul.

            So have you really turned from darkness to light? Why do you seek the living among the dead? Why have we pursued our careers, or success on the sports field, or entertainment, or social media, or pleasure as if these would bring us life? Christ offers us a better way to live – a way that stands in opposition to the tomb of the world. A tomb is dark, it’s a dead-end (no pun intended) and it is a place where death seems victorious. The women are told to leave the tomb immediately, because Christ their Life has arisen and is no longer there. You, too, are to leave the tombs of this world – those dead-end pleasures and riches and popularity of this world, which promise us happiness but leave us empty – to follow the Risen One Who walks in the light.

            In the mid-1800s a young British man named Francis Thompson was studying medicine with every hope of becoming a rich and famous doctor. He became ill, however, and to treat his illness he was prescribed opium – and he quickly became hooked. His addiction became so severe that he dropped out of school, became homeless, and lived on the banks of the Thames River, selling matches for a living. But during this time of deep desolation, he became acutely aware of being pursued…by God. In the depths of his personal tomb, he sensed a call to live in the light – that God hadn’t given up on him, but that in some mysterious way, all of this was part of God’s plan for his life. He scribbled down his reflection of God’s great pursuit of his soul on a dirty scrap of paper, and sent it to the editors of a very popular magazine. The editors, devout Christians themselves, published the poem – which led to a remarkable writing career, and the rescue of this young man from the darkness of the tomb.

            This poem is entitled “The Hound of Heaven”, and it describes a man running away from someone. The man runs as fast as he can, trying not to think about his pursuer. He tries to distract himself with tears and with laughter; he tries to hide in out-of-the-way places, he tried to disguise himself as a rich man, as a socialite, as a pleasure-lover…yet he is continually pursued. We discover that the pursuer is God, Who will not give up on the man, and sees through the disguises and is faster than his flight. Toward the end of the poem, God speaks and says, “All things have left thee, for thou hast left Me” – everywhere he had sought happiness left him empty because he was running from the God Who is his joy. In the end, the man gives up, and God calls to him mercifully, “Ah My son, the blindest and weakest…I am He Who thou hast seekest!”

            Have you sought life amidst the tombs? It is time to arise from the empty vanities of this world and live for Christ alone. Wake, O sleeper, and arise, for Christ Who is Risen will give you light and life.

Homily for Good Friday - Participation In the Cross

 

Homily for Good Friday

March 29, 2024

A Reason To Suffer

 

            Where there’s love, sacrifice is easy.

            Well, perhaps not easy, but where there’s love, suffering takes on meaning and purpose. Christ’s suffering, of course, has the deepest meaning: it demonstrated the depths of God’s love for us; it paid back the debt we owed due to our sins and thereby opened for us the gift of salvation. But one other effect of the Cross is that it gives meaning to our own suffering and death. No longer do we have to cry out with Job, “Why have You done this to me?” No longer do we have to cry out with the millions of innocent victims of every age and time, “Is God silent, absent?” We have an answer – and the answer is the Cross.

            The modern world sees suffering as meaningless, and we ought to avoid it at all costs. Euthanasia has been legalized in ten states across the country, because people see no reason to suffer. The core of our modern drug epidemic is that people want a quick-and-easy fix to the suffering of everyday life. How much of our entertainment industry and social media is really aimed at distracting people from their daily burdens?

            But in light of the Cross, human suffering finds its ultimate meaning, in two ways.

            First, suffering becomes the concrete artform of love. St. Padre Pio says that “The proof of love is to suffer for the one you love.” When we look at the Cross, we realize that love is not a warm, fuzzy feeling – but rather three cold, hard nails and two beams of wood. But this is love, because it was borne for us – and so suffering becomes a gift when it is borne out of love.

            There was a young saint from Italy in the early 1900s named (Servant of God) Guiseppe Ottone. He was born into a tragic situation – his mother was unwed and wanted to abort him, but her friends urged her to give him up for adoption. The adoptive family was tough, too – alcoholic, abusive father. But the saving grace was Guiseppe’s adoptive mother, who was kind and taught the boy about the Lord. Guiseppe loved prayer, visiting the Blessed Sacrament, and making pilgrimages, but in every other respect was a normal boy. Sadly, the mother got struck with a serious illness. The doctors gave her very little chance to live. On the day of his mother’s surgery, twelve-year-old Giuseppe was walking with some friends, very concerned about his mother, when he happened to see a holy card of the Blessed Mother blowing in the wind. He picked it up, kissed it, and said aloud, “I will happily offer my life if my mother is well.” Immediately, he fell to the ground unconscious, and his friends rushed him to the hospital. Sadly he died a couple of days later – but his mother recovered and lived until she was 88. His love was made incarnate in sacrificing his life for hers – and he gained Heaven in the process!

            But suffering can also be used to help Jesus save souls. St. Paul tells us Christians that we are to “make up in our flesh what is lacking in the suffering of Christ.” But what could be lacking in Christ’s sufferings? Weren’t they perfect? Yes – but we as members of the Body of Christ, the Church, can continually unite ourselves to Christ’s redemptive act. Jesus Christ suffered two thousand years ago on a Cross – but Jesus also wants to suffer in Connecticut in 2024 through you, if you allow Him the privilege. Our suffering, united to His, makes manifest His saving death in our modern world, and allows us to be co-redeemers with Him.

            Throughout the Church’s history, God has allowed certain souls to embrace a great deal of suffering for love of Him. They are called victim souls – often mystics who experienced parts of His passion, or other sufferings. St. Padre Pio had the wounds of Christ on his hands, feet, and side – known as the “stigmata”. St. Gemma Galgani used to feel all of the agonies of Christ’s Passion on Fridays. Mother Teresa experienced the deep darkness of the soul, feeling abandoned by God as a way of participating, interiorly, in His sufferings. These are not signs that God has abandoned them, but rather that God esteems them so highly that they are granted a share in His most precious cross. They – and we – become His coworkers and intimate friends when we partake of the Cross. As St. Therese of Lisieux said, “The greatest honor that God can pay to anyone is not to give him much, but to ask much from him.”

            My friends, throughout human history, men and women have wrestled with the problem of evil and suffering. Why does God allow it? What does it mean? But as Pope St. John Paul II said, “Love is the fullest answer to the question of the meaning of suffering. This answer has been given by God to man in the Cross of Jesus Christ.”

Homily for Holy Thursday - The Food of the Humble

 

Homily for Holy Thursday

March 28, 2024

Humility

 

            Probably most of us watched the Super Bowl this year, which featured the commercial about people washing each other’s feet. I thought it was nicely done, but the following day on social media, most comments said, “Ew! That’s gross. Why are those people washing each other’s feet? Nasty!” On one hand, it shows just how far removed we are from a Christian culture, where most secular people may have never heard the story that we just read, of Christ washing His Disciples feet as an act of service. But on the other hand, perhaps people found it so offensive because it embodies one of the least popular virtues in today’s society: humility.

            To wash one’s feet is slave labor. Only the lowest servants were given this disgusting job. In a few moments, when I wash the feet of several of our parishioners, I have instructed them to carefully pre-wash their feet so that it’s not an unsanitary task…but in Jesus’ day, these Apostles’ feet were probably muddy, smelly, perhaps deformed. They may have stepped in something gross. So it brought Jesus to the lowest of the low – true self-emptying.

            There is a word in Greek for this pouring-out-of-oneself – kenosis. Jesus began His kenosis when He left Heaven to be born in a stable. But tonight He empties Himself even more, making Himself a slave of the slaves. This only prefigures the complete kenosis that He will endure the following day – being humiliated, beaten, stripped, jeered at, and left to die. Tonight He pours water on feet in humble service; tomorrow He will pour His Blood upon the earth in complete humility.

            And so I ask you – are you willing to imitate this example of lowliness? Sometimes we enjoy spending time with the wealthy and sleek, the good-looking and the talented – if that is the case, cultivate relationships with those who are “the least” of society – the disabled, the janitor, the immigrant, those with no influence, no money, nothing that the world says is exalted. Once, the Catholic social reformer Dorothy Day was speaking with a homeless man, when a reporter came up to ask her a question. Dorothy continued her conversation for some time, before noticing the reporter, and asking him, “Did you wish to speak to one of us?” Despite her fame, she never assumed that the reporter was there for her…the homeless man and herself were on the same footing.

            Sometimes we think that certain tasks are beneath us – if that is the case, be willing to clean the bathroom, take out the trash, clean up the mess. St. Rosanna Negusanti became a nun after his children died, and would always choose the most menial tasks in the convent. She was so effective that the abbess renamed her “Sister Umilita” – Sister Humility. She was given the large task of organizing the building of a new convent, but instead of telling the workers what to do and where to go, she would find the stones herself and build the walls along with the workers!

            Sometimes we think that our opinions always have to be right in every argument – humility urges us to look beyond our ego and submit our wills (on non-essential matters) to our spouse, our coworker, our parents.

            But in this scene of the washing of feet, there are other characters that must practice humility – the Apostles. It is a humbling thing to allow someone to do something for us! It means that we are vulnerable and needy. How many of us bristle at that thought! We want to be independent, able to handle life on our own!

            And how many of us carry this over into our own spiritual life? “I don’t need God every day,” we think, “Just when things get really bad. Otherwise, I’ve got this.” Only a humble person prays, because humility recognizes that we desperately need God – we don’t have this, and are dependent upon Him for every single breath.

            Humility is also the hallmark of the other mystery we celebrate tonight: the Eucharist. Is there anything more humble than that God of the universe taking on the appearance of bread and wine? God, Who can create the stars and the planets with just a word, places Himself at our disposal – to be loved, or to be mocked; to be received with reverence, or to be treated with disrespect. What humility! Can there be any more way for God to lower Himself than to become our food?

            And such a humble Food must be the food of the humble. Proud and arrogant men have no use for the Eucharist. For those puffed up with pride will say that it is silly to believe He is truly here; or they say they have no need of Him and they stay away from Mass. It takes humility to accept, with faith, that this is truly Jesus…but the only path to Heaven is the path of humility.

            As a spiritual writer once said, “In Paradise there are many Saints who never gave alms on earth: their poverty justified them. There are many Saints who never fasted: their bodily infirmities excused them. There are many Saints too who were not virgins: their vocation was otherwise. But in Paradise there is no Saint who was not humble.”

Lent 5 - Unless A Grain of Wheat

 

Homily for Lent 5

March 17, 2024

Unless A Grain of Wheat

 

            Back in the early 1900s, a young medical doctor named Dr. William Leslie had a profound conversion to Jesus Christ, and began to feel a burning desire to bring the good news of the Gospel to people who had never heard of His salvation. So he began a medical mission in the Congo, working among the Yansi tribe to provide medical care along with the Good News of Christ. But after working for years and years, very few Yansi tribesmen seemed interested in the Gospel – they preferred their tribal religions, where they worshipped their ancestors and animal-spirits. Discouraged, Dr. Leslie left after 17 years, having only baptized a few people, feeling like a complete failure.

            Fast-forward to 2010. Another missionary named Eric Ramsey traveled to the Congo with the same hope, to reach souls for Christ. He expected to find the paltry faith that Dr. Leslie preached to have completely died out. But he was completely unprepared for what he saw.

            When he first reached the first tribal village, the villagers heard he had come to preach Christ – and they took him to the brick church that they had built in the center of the village! Moving on to other villages, he was shocked to see that they had built a 1,000-seat stone cathedral in the middle of the jungle! The faith that Dr. Leslie came to preach had not died out but grown exponentially, with the majority of the Yansi people believing in the Name of Jesus!

            It seemed a failure, but because it was God’s work and not Dr. Leslie’s, it was a resounding success – even though he never lived to see it. Truly the words of the Gospel were lived out: “Unless a grain of wheat fall to the ground and die, it remains a grain of wheat…but if it dies, it will bear a great harvest.”

            Pope St. John Paul II said so perfectly, “Man can only find himself in a sincere gift of himself.” The vocation of every Christian is the vocation to self-gift. In matrimony, the call is to make oneself a gift to one’s spouse and children. In the priesthood or religious life, our self-gift is to Christ and the Church. In the single life, the self-gift is to sanctify the world through your work, your example, and your service.

            No life, no vocation is about self-gratification. Our world says, “Find yourself…follow your heart…be true to yourself…blaze your own path.” Recently I was watching a documentary about the first man to ever attempt a triathlon on Antarctica. It was quite the endeavor – he quit his job, spent months training and over a hundred thousand dollars on gear, hired a whole team, and then sailed to Antarctica. The triathlon was considerably harder than he anticipated – the snow was fluffy and thick, which made biking tremendously difficult. As a result, it took him much longer than the 36 hours they had marked out for the event – and a blizzard arose…for days. The men began to freeze, run out of food. The wind was so strong that it snapped one of the anchors for the ship, so some of the team had to brave severe danger to take a tiny boat back to the ship during the blizzard to keep the ship afloat. Finally the storm subsided and he was able to finish the race, after 100 hours…far longer than they anticipated. The whole documentary made it seem like this was a grand human achievement, and it was…but for what purpose? He undertook this challenge simply because he was bored with his life and wanted a challenge…and in doing so, he risked the lives of ten other men who almost died to help him achieve his dream, which was really all about boosting his ego. Yet our world holds this up as an example – follow your dreams, no matter the cost.

            Christ offers us a better way to live. Don’t follow your dreams…follow His plan for your life. And no matter your vocation, His plan has those two parts: “Unless a grain of wheat fall to the ground and die” (your vocation is self-gift, dying-to-self, living-for-others)… “It will then produce a rich harvest” (your vocation, well-lived, will produce fruit).

            What type of fruit? Two types. First, virtue within yourself. As St. Francis said, “Sanctify yourself and you will sanctify society.” Every vocation is meant to form virtue within you – virtues such as courage, humility, purity, patience, and most especially charity, which means that we love as God loves, sacrificially. Aristotle defined virtue as “excellence in being human” – every life is lived excellently if one develops virtues within themselves.

            The other type of fruit is the souls that are brought to Christ through you. If your vocation is marriage, then God expects you to lead your spouse and kids to Heaven, and anyone else within your sphere of influence. If your vocation is priesthood or religious life, then your parish or ministry is your “mission field”. If your vocation is the single life, then one must evangelize one’s friends, coworkers, and neighborhood.

            Both the fruit of virtue and the fruit of souls led to Christ are the natural consequence of living one’s vocation with generosity and heroic self-gift. Despite what the culture tells you, your life is not about self-fulfillment, but self-gift. Christ’s self-gift on the Cross brought billions of souls to salvation. Your self-giving life will likewise have eternal repercussions. Paradoxically, this self-giving life is where we will find joy.

            After all, man can only find himself in a sincere gift of himself.