Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent - December 24, 2017

Homily for Fourth Sunday of Advent

December 24, 2017

Tabernacled Among Us

            There was once a man who was obstinately against the Christian faith – he just couldn’t understand how God could ever become man. His wife continued to invite him to church every Christmas and Easter, but he refused, figuring he didn’t believe any of this Christianity stuff, so why should he go to church?

            It was a dark and snowy Christmas Eve when his wife and kids went to church, leaving this man alone in his house after dark. All of a sudden, he heard several loud thumps on his window. He looked out into the snow, and was surprised to see that a dozen birds had accidentally flown into his window, looking for shelter from the snow. They looked cold, dazed, and injured, so his heart was moved with pity for them and he tried to give them a refuge from the cold night.

            He quickly went to his garage and opened the garage door, but the birds refused to come in. He spread straw and sawdust on the floor, but still the birds didn’t come in. Going to his cabinet, he found some birdseed, which he sprinkled on the floor with a trail leading to the birds. But the birds, startled by the man, started to scatter in the snow.

            The man came outside, trying to usher the birds into the garage, but they were terrified and ran further away. Frustrated and saddened, he said to himself, “If only I was a bird like them, I could lead them to safety! I wish I could speak their language and tell them not to fear, to tell them that they could get out of this darkness! If only I was one of them!”

            All of a sudden, he realized he was describing what God did at Christmas. He fell to his knees in the snow and accepted Christ into his life.

            The Incarnation – God taking flesh – is what sets Christianity apart from every other world religion. All other religions are man’s search for God, but Christianity is God’s search for man. He is the one who took the initiative; He is the one who called out to us when we were lost, alone, afraid, dead. He took on flesh to show us what God was like. On our own, we would never have been able to know who God is. Yes, creation gives us a glimpse into His goodness, and we can know a few things about Him. But it’s like the difference between seeing a single painting of Leonardo da Vinci versus actually meeting him. The painting reveals a lot, but it is so much richer to meet the Artist face-to-face.

            When Gabriel explains to Mary how this great miracle of the Incarnation will come about, he uses an interesting phrase. He says that the “power of the Most High will overshadow you.” That has so many connections to the Old Testament, particularly to the Ark of the Covenant. While the Israelites were wandering the desert, they had a tent where the Ark of the Covenant was kept – this tent was called the “Meeting Tent” because it was where God met with Moses and spoke with him face-to-face. Whenever God would appear in the Meeting Tent, a cloud of glory (called the Shekinah) would descend upon the tent and overshadow it, so that Moses could converse with God.

            Here we see Mary, the Ark of the New Covenant – the sacred covenant that would be sworn upon the Cross – who is overshadowed by the glory of the Lord. Her womb would be the place where God and humanity met once and for all. Now, in Jesus, God and man could no longer be separated, because God became a man. There was no way for God to disown the human race, because He is now one of us!

            In John’s Gospel, John says that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” But a better translation would be that He “pitched His tent” or “His tabernacle” among us. We do not need to go through Moses to speak to God in His tabernacle, His meeting tent – in Jesus Christ, particularly in His Word and in His Body and Blood in the Eucharist, we are able to meet with Him!

            This is why we call Him “Emmanuel” – God with us. How comforting to know that God is with us! He never promised to make our life easy and pleasant – He promised to be with us. How powerful that can be!

            One of the most difficult times in my life happened on December 14, 2012. I was assigned in St. Mary’s in Bethel, which is the next-door town to Newtown. On that fateful day when 26 innocent lives were taken in the Sandy Hook shooting, pretty much my entire parish was affected. Almost every parishioner knew someone in Sandy Hook. That whole day, all of the clergy at St. Mary’s were busy comforting our parishioners. We had a powerful prayer vigil attended by several hundred people. We couldn’t take the pain away, but we could show that God was with us in the midst of the tragedy.

            That whole day, I had been texting back and forth with Fr. Luke Suarez, a good friend of mine who was the parochial vicar at St. Rose of Lima in Newtown. He had been down at the firehouse in Sandy Hook, meeting with police officers and families of the victims. I let him know that if we could do anything, we were at his service.

            About ten o’clock at night, he called me and asked if I would get the other priests and come down to the firehouse in Sandy Hook. We went, unsure of what we would encounter there. I remember being so nervous that I couldn’t stop shaking as we drove the seven miles to the scene of the tragedy. When we got to the firehouse, the police chief split all of the clergy up into teams with social workers and cops so that each team would visit the house of one of the victims to give them the official declaration of death and to comfort the family.

            I was chosen to go with a heroic cop and psychologist to the home of Jack Pinto, one of the six-year-olds who was killed in the shooting. I have never experienced anything quite like that grief. We went into the home, hearing only loud cries and lamentations. We sat with the family for an hour – what could we say? What words could bring comfort in a situation like that? It is there, sitting on the Pintos’ floor, that I felt more closely than ever before what it means to say that God is with us. I couldn’t take the pain away. I couldn’t find words to heal a void that still aches to this day. But we could love them. We could sit with them in their sorrow. We could be there so that they weren’t alone.

            And so it is with God. We like to think that God’s job is to take away all of our suffering and pain. But He never promised that – rather, He promised that He would enter into our pain with us and be there at every moment. He is Emmanuel – God with us. He has so tightly united Himself to humanity that we can claim Him as one of ours – a union so tight that it will never be broken.

            If you’re looking for God, you don’t have to look far. He was in a crib, because He was truly human like us. He was on the Cross, because He wanted to redeem us and set us free from our sins. He remains in His Word to enlighten our minds; He remains in the Eucharist to fill our bodies and souls with grace. He is not far. He is Emmanuel. 

Third Sunday of Advent - December 17, 2017

Homily for December 17, 2017

Third Sunday of Advent

What’s His Name?

            When I was growing up in Maryland, there would be a man who we would sometimes see walking by the side of the road or in church. He wore robes and sandals and carried a bible. He would often come to church and worship with us but the strange thing is that he had no name. He was not a homeless vagrant, but rather a man who wanted to live radically for the Lord, so whenever we would ask him his name, he would say, “Just call me ‘What’s His Name’.” He never told us his real name, because he figured it wasn’t important – he didn’t want to be the center of attention. He just wanted to point the way to Jesus.

            John the Baptist is similarly evasive when people ask about him. Who are you, they wonder? Elijah? The Christ? The prophet? “The Prophet” refers to what Moses tells the Israelites in Deuteronomy – that God will raise up a prophet like Moses who will speak with Moses’ authority. They then ask, “Well, who are you?” And his answer only points the way to Jesus – John exists only to “prepare the way for the Lord.” His entire identity is for making known Jesus’ identity.

            Who are you? Who do you introduce yourself to be? Often we find identity in our professions – I’m a firefighter, I’m a lawyer, I’m a cop. Sometimes we find identity in who our friends think we are – I’m the funny one, the athletic one, the well-read smart one. Sometimes we find identity in other things – our bank accounts, the new shoes we have.

            Is that how God thinks of you? Does He think you’re the funny accountant with the great car? Or is He interested in something more intrinsic?

            Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Divine Trinity, took on flesh so that we could become adopted sons and daughters of God. God became human so that human beings could be filled with God’s divine life in grace.

            Our deepest identity, then, is not what we do or what we have, but who we are and who we are becoming. Who are we? Sons and daughters of God, princes and princesses of the King of Heaven and Earth, souls created for an eternal destiny with Him in Heaven.

            The truth is, if we live for any other identity we will end up empty. Our identity must be who we are as new creations in Christ. Any other identity will come to an end! If we find our identity in our job, we will someday retire. If we find our identity in who we are with our friends, then who are we when we are alone? If we find our identity in our possessions or money, those things cannot last forever!

            I remember reading an interview with Cal Ripken, the great Hall of Fame shortstop for the Orioles. He was planning to retire after the 2001 season and he was saying to the reporter, “Every year since I was five years old, I always looked forward to next season, next season…and now there is no next season…” He was clearly saddened about retirement as anyone would be who loves their job, but is it also possible that he had embraced his identity as a baseball player too closely? When that comes to an end – when all of our false identities come to an end – what is left?

            Jesus.

            Our identity in Christ remains. This is the one thing we can cling to that will never change. You are His. You belong to Him. You are His disciple.

            When they asked John the Baptist who he was, he simply pointed to Christ. May we do the same.

Second Sunday of Advent - December 10, 2017

Homily for December 10 & 17, 2017

Second & Third Sunday of Advent

Prepare The Way

            When we talk about Advent being a time of preparation, we are not preparing for Christ’s coming at Christmas. That already happened two thousand years ago. We are rather talking about the two other ways that Christ comes and will come – He comes to us in the Eucharist and the other Sacraments, and He will come again at the end of time.

            St. Theresa of Avila was speaking with one of her other nuns who was saying to her, “Wouldn’t it be great to actually see Jesus? I would love to hear His words and touch His cloak!” The saint responded, “But you do hear His words – every time you read Scripture. You do touch His Body – every time you receive the Eucharist.” It’s true – although we do not physically see Him, we still see Him sacramentally. The very same Body who was born in Bethlehem, worked in His father’s carpentry shop in Nazareth, walked the dusty streets of Galilee, was nailed to the Cross and rose again, is the exact same Body that we receive in the Eucharist.

            So to say Advent is a time of preparation is more than just purchasing gifts and baking cookies for Christmas – it’s about preparing our souls to receive Him in the Sacraments.

            A holy mystic named Catalina once had a vision at Mass where she saw Jesus in each Eucharistic Host. She noticed that when the priest held up the host to give to people, Jesus would have different reactions. For some people, Jesus was excited and overjoyed to enter them. But other times, when the priest held up the host, Jesus was reluctant and even repulsed to enter them. She heard in her soul, “This is the difference between holy souls and lukewarm souls. Jesus is eager to enter a soul that is prepared for Him, but reluctant to enter a soul that loves Him little.”

            And the preparation that is necessary is to remove sin from our soul. John the Baptist, who in today’s Gospel comes to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus, and the first thing he does is call people to repentance. His baptism is an outward sign of their inward repentance. John knows that for people to have saving faith in Jesus Christ, they must first turn from their sins.

            So, I challenge you this Advent to come to Confession. We have two weeks left of Confessions every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday at this parish – surely we can make time! Maybe it’s been years, or even decades since you’ve been. Maybe you’ve stayed away because you have a big sin you can’t bear to confess, or perhaps you had a bad experience in confession that has kept you away. Maybe you don’t think you need it. But regardless of the reason for staying away from Confession, this Advent we must come to Him with hearts free from sin. I guarantee that no one who approaches the Sacrament of Confession will regret it! Rather, there is such profound freedom in laying down our messiness – the big stuff, the little daily stuff, and everything in between. One of the greatest joys I have as a priest is watching the relief, joy, healing, and freedom wash over people when they have made a good and holy Confession.

            I mentioned, though, that there is one more way in which Christ will come – in glory at the end of time. This, too, requires forgiveness for sins. It is better to confess your sins in Confession when we encounter Christ as a merciful savior than to have your sins laid bare when Christ comes as a just judge. Do not wait – Confess this week or next week – so that we truly will be prepared when Christ comes to us in the Eucharist and in glory at the end of our lives!

Homily for Christ the King - Nov. 26, 2017

Homily for Christ the King

November 26, 2017

Obedience to the King

            Mother Teresa decided to become a nun when she was eighteen years old. She wrote a letter to her older brother, who was studying at a military college in Albania, explaining her decision to give her life to the Lord. Her brother was not impressed with her vocation – he wrote back, telling her, “You’re wasting your life! Why not get a regular job and do something with your life? Look at me – I will soon have an excellent job in the government when I am finished with my college!”

            Mother Teresa wrote back and said, “Yes, it is excellent that you will have a job serving a King who has two million subjects. But it is infinitely more valuable for me to serve the King of the entire universe!” She knew that Jesus Christ was King – and serving Him was worth everything.

            But recognizing someone as king means that we are his subject. And subjects must do something that we as Americans don’t like to do – we have to obey.

            We don’t like that word, “obedience”. We’d rather be masters of our own destiny. There is a humorous story of a wealthy woman who said to her parish priest, rather haughtily, “Oh, Father, I really do want to serve the Lord.” The priest responded, “Yes, but you only want to serve Him in an advisory capacity!” We’d like to say, “Jesus, I love You, but don’t tell me what to do!” Or one I hear a lot, “I’m Catholic, but I don’t believe in the Church’s views on…” Fill in the blanks – birth control, gay marriage, the death penalty, immigration.

But if Jesus Christ is King, then we owe Him our obedience. How do we know what He commands? He has revealed it to us in the Scriptures, and in His Church which He established to teach in His Name. And some of the things He commands us to do are difficult! Take up your cross and follow Him… If you look at a woman with lust, you commit adultery with her… It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into Heaven… Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you… Divorce and remarriage without an annulment is equal to adultery in the eyes of God. Some of His commands are difficult, and we’d rather pick-and-choose which ones we obey. But true obedience, true submission to the King means that we obey not only the convenient ones but also the ones we don’t like, that we don’t agree with, that we find difficult and sacrificial.

Today’s Gospel offers us similarly difficult commands. He tells us that whatever we do for the least ones, we do for Him. Yes, it’s easy enough to write a check to a charity, but to see Christ in that difficult in-law or co-worker? To treat that weird kid who sits alone as Christ? A little bit more difficult, and we might be tempted to make excuses. “Jesus, I can’t treat my mother-in-law like I would treat You; after all, don’t you know how difficult she is? She’s the one who is always starting fights and she gets insulted over nothing!” And Jesus will say, “Will you obey me, or will you not? Whatever you do to your mother-in-law, you do to Me.”

Obedience is the key to recognizing Christ as King. Not only must we obey what He says in the Scriptures, but also what He says through His Church, which makes present His teachings in the world today. But the good news is that His laws are for our benefit – to help us live peaceful, ordered lives of holiness.

Consider this. One of my greatest pet peeves is people who don’t know how to understand four-way stops. You’ve probably had the experience – you arrive at a four-way stop and someone else is there, and it’s his turn to go but he keeps motioning for you to go. So you start going, but then he realizes he has right of way, so he starts, and then you slam on your brakes, and he slams on his, and the whole thing becomes a big mess and a big confusion. Driving laws are written so that traffic flows smoothly.

Likewise, God’s laws are given to us so that we find peace and order. His laws are not arbitrary! They help us to become excellent Christians and excellent human beings. No matter how difficult one of Christ’s laws are, they are for our benefit. For example, it is difficult to turn the other cheek when someone insults us, as Christ commands us to do. But in forgiving our enemies and overlooking their insults, we foster peace within the community. We ourselves become more peaceful people, rather than angrily retaliating. We grow in self-control and humility. Yes, it can be difficult, but His laws are for our benefit and ultimately our salvation.

My friends, we cannot say that Jesus Christ is King if we are not willing to obey everything that He has revealed through the Scriptures and through His Church. But our obedience to Jesus as King is not a servile obedience out of fear, but an obedience of love. Our obedience is what shows that Jesus Christ is King over our entire lives.

Ordinary Time 29 - October 22, 2017

Homily for October 22, 2017

Twenty-Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Give to Caesar the Refashioned Image of God

            Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, was founded as a Catholic college, but as happens all too often it quickly lost its mission in the crazy drug-and-sex culture of the ‘60s and ‘70s. In fact, in the 1970s, Playboy Magazine ranked Franciscan University in their top-25 Party Schools…a rather dubious honor! The school was quickly dying – one of the residence halls had a “For Sale” sign in front of it, enrollment was dropping, and they were deeply in debt.

            In 1974, the board of directors needed a new president for this sinking ship, and four candidates interviewed for the job. Only one candidate wanted to keep the school open, so they gave the job to him. This young Franciscan priest, Fr. Michael Scanlan, was faced with a monumental task – how do you save a university?

            He started in one place only: on his knees. His secretary used to complain that Fr. Scanlan wouldn’t come into work until 11am. Was he lazy? Taking the morning off? No, he was in the chapel, asking God for His will. And His will seemed a bit daring at times! Fr. Scanlan felt that the Holy Spirit was telling him to do some radical things – he eliminated all NCAA D-I Sports and dissolved the fraternities and sororities, knowing that sports teams along with Greek life were bringing the culture of lust and drugs onto the campus. The first Sunday on campus, Fr. Michael found that only six students attended Mass. So did he make the Mass shorter? No, he began to make it longer – preaching dynamic homilies, with vibrant music. He ripped down the “For-Sale” sign and began to hire faculty who were men and women with a deep relationship with the Lord, faithful to the Catholic Church.

            All of these changes worked only because Fr. Scanlan was a man of prayer. The school is now filled to capacity – I had the blessing to graduate from there, and today there are between 600-800 students attending daily Mass! Over 700 graduates have gone on to become priests or nuns, and it has the largest undergraduate theology program in the country. It wasn’t Fr. Scanlan’s solutions that solved the problems at Franciscan University – it was God’s solutions, which were brought about through the holiness of Fr. Scanlan.

            Jesus tells us to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s. But how often have we put our trust, not in God’s solutions, but in our own? We see the world in a messy state: poverty, racism, abuse, abortion, depression, broken families…what is the solution? Is it more politics? Should we just throw more money at these problems?

            Politics will not save us. Money will not save us. Caesar cannot save us. The only thing that can save us is to return to God. Only His grace can save us. This is not a platitude – it is a fact, because all of our efforts to change the world apart from God are futile. As the Archbishop of Philadelphia, Charles Chaput, once said, “The only people who truly change the world are saints.”

            This idea of “image” in today’s Gospel puts two things in radical contrast. Jesus asks for a coin, and asks whose image is on it. It is the image of Caesar, but in Jesus’ day, the Roman Emperor considered himself divine. So here, on this coin, is the image of a pagan god. But by contrast, there is something that bears the image of the true God – human beings. Genesis reveals that we are made in God’s image and likeness. So we are the currency that God wishes to use to change the world.

            But wait a moment – have you ever wondered why we talk about “image AND likeness”? Are they different? Yes, they are. Imagine that you are holding a very dirty penny. It’s so darkened and worn-down that you can barely make out what it says. You know that it is the image of Lincoln, but it really isn’t a very good likeness. Or picture some modern art. Sometimes you go to a modern art gallery and you see three lines on a canvas, and they tell you that it’s supposed to look like a beautiful sunset, and you say, “Well, supposedly it may be an image of a sunset, but it really doesn’t look much like it!”

            In the same way, we are all created in God’s image. But sometimes we don’t think or act very much like God. We can obscure His likeness by sin, error, lies, evil. His grace, however, can refashion that image within us. In fact, that is the entire point of life – to refashion the image of Christ within us, through our union with Him in grace.

            These two coins: the secular coin with the image of Caesar – that coin of worldly power and money; or the coin of a soul in the state of grace, in the image and likeness of God – which one will save the world? Which one will solve the world’s problems? Not politics or money – only men and women transformed by grace. When we become serious about holiness and seeking God, then will our country be changed.

            I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes, from a sixteenth-century Spanish saint, St. Peter of Alacantra, who said: “Truly, matters in the world are in a bad state; but if you and I begin in earnest to reform ourselves, a really good beginning will have been made.”

Homily for Ordinary Time 28 - October 15, 2017

Homily for Ordinary Time 28

October 15, 2017

Heaven Is Where God is Being Enjoyed

            Just recently, a very unique new reality TV show aired in England. The premise was simple – take four party girls and offer them a chance for a two week “spiritual journey”. The four girls agreed to be part of it, but it turns out that the spiritual journey was a two-week stay in a convent of nuns!

            At first, the girls were not happy about that! Two weeks of living like a nun? Praying every day? Having a schedule, no music but chant, no parties and no alcohol? Worst of all – no men? They were reluctant - but it was amazing to see the transformations! After the two weeks of praying, eating, and working alongside other nuns, they left changed. One of the girls – a former nightclub dancer – is now volunteering with the homeless. Another one said, “Those two weeks were the happiest I’ve ever been in my life.” The show is called “Bad Habits, Holy Orders” – you can watch it online.

            Why were they so happy? Because for the first time, they felt like they were loved. The girls said that they felt like they constantly had to pretend to be someone they weren’t (one girl spent over $60,000 on makeup, clothes and accessories last year). They felt like they had to get drunk and sleep with men in order to feel loved. But in the convent, they experienced what it was like to truly be loved for the first time for who they were – and it was life-changing!

            Heaven is going to be a lot like that. We’ll finally know that we are loved, and loved completely. I feel like our vision of Heaven is often not very good – it’s pictured as a place where we sit on clouds strumming harps. Pretty boring, but surely better than Hell. But wait – Heaven isn’t boring at all. Look at the image we get in Scripture – Heaven will be a wedding feast. I hope you haven’t been bored at a wedding feast – it’s usually quite a celebration with good conversation, dancing, great food…a place for family and friends to gather in joy and conviviality. Why should Heaven be any less? It will be a place where we are finally at home – loved by God and by others for who we are, not for what we look like or what we’ve accomplished or our bank account or our many masks we hide behind.

            Consider this analogy. Imagine that you begin to be pen pals with someone in another country. You start writing letters back and forth, and through the letters, you start to truly love this person. You send small gifts to them and they always send beautiful, expensive, valuable gifts to you. You have seen pictures of them, heard stories of their life, heard about their friends and family and their life in the foreign land. For years, decades, you correspond daily. They have told you in so many ways that they love you and care for you deeply. You feel like you know this person and love this person more than your own family. Finally, after years of this, you get to meet this person. Can you imagine the joy at this meeting? Imagine how much you will want to be in their presence!

            And this is Heaven. For your entire life, God has been trying to send you messages of love. Yes, you have never seen Him, but you have heard His stories, read His letters in the Scriptures, received His gifts such as the gift of His Body and Blood, and you have desired to see Him. In Heaven, we will finally meet Him face-to-face, and get to spend eternity with the only One who loves and delights in us perfectly. We call this the Beatific Vision – seeing God, which is the greatest joy of Heaven!

            But Heaven is only for those who choose it. God invites – but we must respond. Notice that some people who are invited to this wedding feast are too busy – that is a symbol of those who don’t care about the Lord, are apathetic toward faith. Some people kill the servants – a symbol of those who hate God, and try to destroy the Catholic faith. Some people arrive at the feast but are not allowed in because they are not dressed in wedding garments – a symbol of those who say they love God, but their evil actions show differently. Only those who are wearing a wedding garment (lived a life of holiness) and have accepted the invitation (through faith in God) are allowed to enter the banquet.

            But the good news is that we do not have to die to begin Heaven. As a wise priest once told me, “Heaven is where God is being enjoyed.” And that begins here, as we can live our everyday, ordinary lives in union with God. It’s not hard – just love Him, serve Him, seek Him. Living in union with God brought healing and joy to four party girls – why not you?

Ordinary Time 26 - October 1, 2017

Homily for Ordinary Time 26

October 1, 2017

Welcome, But Call to Repentance

            I was alarmed when the headline read, “Progressive Criticizes Jesus for Not Being Christlike.” The article spoke about a millennial who wrote a blog post about how Jesus didn’t act nearly as Christian as she had hoped, since He spoke a lot about a pesky thing called sin, which, as she pointed out, just isn’t very welcoming or inclusive.

            Luckily that headline came from a satire news website called the Babylon Bee (a very funny site which I frequently read!). But behind every bit of satire and irony is a great deal of truth. And the truth is, some people would like to remake Jesus in their own image.

            In a particular way, as Americans we’d like to think that Jesus welcomed people just the way they are. We love to talk about the value of inclusiveness and acceptance, and how God loves us unconditionally. And all this is true, to a point. God does love us no matter what we do – we never need to earn His love, and we can never lose it. Jesus is indeed a Good Shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep to welcome the one lost sheep who was an outcast. He came to touch the leper, welcome the foreigner, and reach out to those on the margins.

            But His welcome is only half of the story. As Adrian Rogers said, “God loves us just the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us that way.” He doesn’t just touch the leper, He heals him. He doesn’t just find the lost sheep – He brings the lost sheep back into the flock. He doesn’t just welcome sinners – He calls sinners to repentance, and gives them the grace to be holy.

Doesn’t He talk about the goodness of tax collectors and prostitutes in today’s Gospel? No, actually He doesn’t. He praises them because they listened to John the Baptist, and put into practice his teachings. And what did John the Baptist come to preach? Repent. Turn from sin. Yes, these people started off as sinners, but once they received the grace of repentance, they became saints. The tax collectors gave up their greed; the prostitutes gave up their lust – unlike the Pharisees, who are ostensibly religious people but who are still living a life of sin.

So we need to be careful when we speak about Jesus being welcoming. Yes, He welcomes all, and He loves us always. But His love wants us to become better than we are, to live a more abundant life in Him. He is constantly calling you and me to repentance. The first words that are recorded of Jesus in the Gospel are, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” Repent!

St. Francis of Assisi called this “constant conversion” – every day seeking to turn our lives more over to Jesus, to become more like Him through intimate communion with Him. Sin blocks that intimate communion. It’s like our heart and blood vessels. The heart is constantly trying to pump blood into our body, but if our arteries are clogged, it won’t work well. Jesus is constantly trying to pump His divine life into us, but sometimes our spiritual connection with Him is clogged by sin which prevents us from living with His life in us. We must clean out the sin through repentance before we can fully receive the gift of a life transformed by Christ.

That’s why I love the stories of saints who started off as serious sinners. They show us that with repentance from sin, God’s grace can make us great saints. (Story of St. Mary of Egypt).

So, I leave you with a challenge. What is one sin that God is asking you to repent of? Maybe it will take a while to fully root it out of your life, but identifying it and asking for His strength is a major first step. This week, think about what God wants you to repent of, and make a resolution to repent so that His divine life may flow into you more fully and make you holy.

Ordinary Time 25 - September 24, 2017

Homily for Ordinary Time 25

September 24, 2017

Life is Christ…the Rest is Just Details

 

            Have you ever seen those tee-shirts or bumper stickers that say “Baseball is life, the rest is just details” or “Basketball is life” or “Underwater basket weaving is life…the rest is just details.” I guess that was more of a ‘90s thing, but you can still see them around. When I see people wearing that shirt, I wonder what their family thinks because that shirt means that baseball is the center of their life and the family is just an afterthought!

            Would St. Paul wear a shirt like that? Golf is life? Fishing is life? Nascar is life and the rest is just details? I think St. Paul would put on a shirt the same thing he says in his letter today: “Jesus Christ is life – the rest is just details.”

            Life is Christ and death is gain – these words of St. Paul challenge us. Can we say them ourselves? That our life is equal to Jesus? That death is something to desire because it means union with God? Can we say that – or do we relegate Jesus to just one of the many details of our life, along with such obligations as bills and doctor’s appointments and homework?

            This is why I find the example of the martyrs to be so compelling. Since Christianity was founded, over 50 million men, women, and children have shed their blood for Jesus Christ. People from every walk of life have been martyred for Christ: every country, every century – children as young as 6 or 7 and elderly people up to 90; married men and women, schoolchildren, priests, nuns, and single people; rich and poor, strong and weak, and everyone in between – have been willing to shed their blood for Jesus Christ. For them, life truly is Christ and death is gain!

            I’d like to tell you the story of one of my favorite martyrs, a young man named St. Jose Sanchez del Rio. (story here: https://www.tfpstudentaction.org/blog/jose-sanchez-del-rio-hero-for-christ-the-king )

            My own conversion happened, in large part, because of the martyrs. I remember walking into the Coliseum when I was fourteen years old, realizing that right there on that spot over 10,000 men, women, and children died for Christ. Why did I not take my own faith more seriously, if they were willing to die for it? I realized that I needed to start to imitate them, and make Jesus Christ the center of my life.

            So how do we imitate the martyrs and truly make Jesus Christ the center of our life? Here are three practical suggestions:

            First, pray daily. And I don’t just mean recite words. I mean speak to the Lord from your heart, seek Him in His Word, spend time with Him. We can’t say that “life is Christ” if our time and energy is not dedicated to Him. Ten minutes per day will change your life. If you do not pray daily, you do not have Jesus at the center of your life!

            Second, seek holiness. We cannot love Jesus if we are not seeking to imitate Jesus, and Jesus is perfect. This doesn’t mean that we are always going to be perfect people – even Christians sin and miss the mark – but it does mean that every day, we seek to make a little progress in living more like Jesus: being more loving, more pure, more patient, more holy, more transformed by His grace. So, seek holiness.

            Third, live differently. When Jesus is the center of our life, that changes everything – the music we listen to, the movies we watch, the jokes we find funny, the parties we attend, the friends we spend time with. If our lives are exactly the same as people without faith, then Jesus is not the center of our lives – He’s more like an unimportant detail! Our faith must change us: our lifestyle, our choices must reflect our faith in Him.

            Pray daily, seek holiness, live differently. Is Jesus just an unimportant detail, or can you say with St. Paul that “life is Christ”?

Ordinary Time 24 - September 17, 2017

Homily for Ordinary Time 24

September 17, 2017

The Freedom of Being a Slave of God

 

            I have always been inspired by people in recovery programs. I’ve been to a couple Alcoholics Anonymous meetings as part of my seminary training and am always amazed at the courage these people have. I think part of what I admire about those in recovery is that many of them are so nonjudgmental about others – they know their profound weakness, and thus they are more apt to forgive the weaknesses of others.

            And isn’t that what makes forgiveness easy - When we realize how much we ourselves have been forgiven for? Let’s dive deeply into this Gospel to see that played out.

            The King, God, calls each of His servants to settle accounts. At the moment of our death, all of us will be judged – we call this the “particular judgment” and it is the moment when our lives will be revealed to us. We will see ourselves as God sees us, and we will see what kind of person we have become – loving or selfish, pure or lustful, greedy or generous. In a sense, we settle accounts with God each time we examine our consciences – we look at who we are, warts and all, and lay them before the mercy of God in confession.

            Then the King, God, finds a servant who owes a huge amount. Let’s be real – all of us owe God a huge amount. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Modern Americans like to think, “Oh, I’m not that bad, I’m a pretty good person.” Perhaps you haven’t committed murder – but have you murdered someone else’s reputation through gossip? Perhaps you haven’t committed adultery, but have you committed adultery by looking at a woman with lust? Perhaps you haven’t committed felonies, but we tell lies, take God’s name in vain, allow ourselves to be distracted in prayer, put money and pleasure and popularity before God…all have sinned, no exceptions! (Except Jesus and Mary, of course!).

            We’d like to think those sins aren’t all that bad, but consider this: God has given each one of us enough grace to become a great saint. Why are we not great saints? What graces have we rejected? Many of us have been blessed to have good parents, good examples of faith in our life, maybe attended Catholic school and come to the Eucharist frequently – but we have wasted many of these graces because we are not committed to truly, ardently, with our whole heart and soul, following the Lord. So we are all in debt to God, in a debt that we cannot pay.

            So the King threatens to sell the man and his family and possessions. But sell them to whom? And why? He threatens to sell him into slavery! This is one of the results of sin – sin causes us to be slaves. Consider: the first time you tell a lie, it’s difficult and you feel guilty. But the second time, it’s a bit easier, and the third time, it’s easier still, until soon we find that it’s actually difficult to tell the truth! All sin is like that – it causes vices (morally bad habits) that are hard to break – slavery! We become a slave to our senses, a slave to our pride, a slave to the devil, a slave to the world.

            So what does the servant do? He begs for mercy, and it is granted. Mercy is freely given, but it always comes at a cost. The mercy we receive, the forgiveness we receive, came at the price of the blood of the Son of God. Jesus died so we could receive mercy. He paid the price we could not pay; He paid back our debt with His life. We must never forget the price He paid!

Consider this: if you were standing in the street and a bus was about to hit you, and then someone jumped in front of the bus and pushed you out of the way but died in your place, would you be grateful? Yes! Would you think about them every day? Yes! Would you try to live a life that honored them? Yes! This is precisely what Jesus Christ did for you, in nailing your sins to the Cross so that you could experience mercy.

So instead of being sold into further slavery, this servant is now the slave of the merciful king. The word used for servant is “doulos” which in Greek is often translated slave. But wait? Didn’t the King free him from slavery?

Here is the paradox: we are only truly free when we are slaves of God. This echoes what St. Paul writes about in the second reading: “Both in life and death we are the Lord’s.” We belong to Him – we are not supposed to use our freedom for pleasure and selfishness, but our freedom is meant to be given away in love for God. This is a paradox that people cannot understand if they do not sincerely love the Lord, because to worldly people it looks like religion is meant to crimp our freedom. I remember once when I was a young seminarian in a parish assignment, I happened to be back in the sacristy (where the priest vests for Mass) with a groom on his wedding day. The bride was late (aren’t they all?), so we started chatting, and he asked me how long it would be until I became a priest. I told him I still had six years to go. He looked at me with pity and said, “Ah, so six more years of fun! You can sow your wild oats, get drunk, and party until you become a priest.” I was like, “Wait, what??” He thought that serving the Lord meant boredom and slavery - when in reality, sin leads to boredom and slavery – serving the Lord is incredible freedom, because in the Lord I am free to become the best version of myself, to truly be fulfilled and joyful. In the Lord, I am not a slave to any of the empty pleasures of this passing world!

To sum up: we recognize that Christ has forgiven us of a debt we could not pay, by nailing it to His Cross. We have received mercy and freedom – as now we are not slaves of this world, but we belong to Christ!

I’ll close with a powerful witness of forgiveness and mercy: St. Rita of Cascia. Born in Italy in the 1300s, Rita was married at the age of 12 to a wealthy but abusive man. She had two sons, but her husband’s bad temper made him a lot of enemies. He was finally murdered by an enemy, but at his funeral, Rita (now a widow with two young sons) publicly forgave his murderers and forgave him for all of the abuse he put her through. Her sons, though, grew up to follow in their father’s footsteps, and as young men they made a plan to revenge their father’s death by killing his murderers. Rita heard of the plan and prayed that God would take her sons before they were able to carry out their revenge. Shortly after, both of her sons got sick with dysentery, reconciled to God, and died. She realized that “both in life and death” her life, her husband’s life, and even her son’s lives belonged to God alone. She knew of Christ’s merciful love for her, so she was able to forgive her husband and his murderers, surrendering her sons to the mercy of God. She is now a saint in the Church!

May we all know that we have been forgiven of so much by the Lord – and with this realization, extend that same forgiveness to others.

Homily for Ordinary Time 23 - September 10, 2017

Homily for Ordinary Time 23

September 10, 2017

What Does Your Love Look Like?

 

            Thomas Vander Woude was an ordinary Catholic man – a husband, a father of seven children, a diligent employee, a volunteer at his church in Virginia, a basketball coach…and a hero.

            In September of 2008, he was working in his yard with his youngest son, when he heard a shout. Turning around, he saw that his twenty-year-old son, who has Down’s syndrome, had fallen through a 2’x2’ hole into their septic tank, where he was quickly drowning in sewage. Without a second thought, Thomas jumped in and began to try to rescue his son.

            Neighbors heard the commotion and ran over to help. Initially Thomas was able to keep both of them afloat, but it took a while to pull the large disabled man to safety. By the time the young man had been rescued, Thomas had succumbed to the sewage and drowned.

            Over two thousand people, seventy priests and a bishop attended his funeral, because they wanted to see what love looks like when it’s lived out in a radical way. Because this “love one another” that Paul talks about in today’s second reading is anything but a lofty ideal or a warm fuzzy feeling – no, this love has a cost – the cost of sacrifice.

            This past spring I had to chaperone the eighth grade dance at Trinity Middle School (talk about awkward!). But as I was listening to the songs, I noticed that most of the songs sang about love – but every single time, love was a feeling. “Can you feel the love tonight” and songs like that. But love-as-emotion has disfigured our understanding of what love truly is.

            Pope St. John Paul II defined love as “giving oneself” – it’s not about what one gets from but what one gives to the other. St. Thomas Aquinas says that love is “willing the good of the other”. It is, essentially, an others-centered choice. Does my action benefit another person? Do my words build them up? Do my choices help them to flourish? This is how we understand what love is – it must be proven in deeds.

            When priests hear confessions of little kids, most of the times the sins end up being remarkably similar – “I hit my brother, I disobeyed my mom, I told a lie.” I always ask kids, “Do you love your mom? Do you love your siblings?” And of course they say yes. I then tell them, “If you love them, have you proven that love with your actions? It’s not enough to say you love your mom, you have to obey her. It’s not enough to say you love your siblings, you have to share your toys with them, say kind things, and treat them fairly.” Usually they look quite intrigued with the idea that love has to be backed up with deeds of sacrifice!

            Love even sometimes means correcting someone who has strayed from the right path. Our world often says that if you love someone you can never challenge them or correct them, but that you have to approve of every choice they make. But Christ offers a different view – He says in the Gospel that sometimes the loving choice is to actually correct a friend or family member who has strayed from the right path.

            This makes sense, after all. If love is “choosing the good of another,” then we should always want our loved ones (and even our enemies!) to pursue the highest good. We know that people are happiest when they are in a right relationship with Christ, in the state of grace and avoiding sin, so if we love someone we ought to desire their growth in holiness! This, at times, requires us to speak up – with love, patience, and kindness.

            Consider, you who are parents, the times you speak up to your children. Parents don’t watch their little toddlers heading to a hot stove and say, “Well, it’s a free country, he can choose what he wants.” Of course not! We correct them, not to curtail their freedom, but to help them choose the right path, because we love them. In the same way, Jesus makes it clear that love sometimes involves bringing people back to the right path, as long as our corrections are given out of love.

            So what does love look like for you? For Thomas Vander Woude, who I spoke about in the beginning, love looked like jumping into a septic tank to save his son. For you, love will look different – it might look like doing the dishes without being asked, holding back an uncharitable remark, using your money and possessions for generosity instead of self-indulgence, sitting with the lonely kid at the lunch table, smiling at the person who cut you off in traffic, praying for your difficult mother-in-law, speaking up to the family member who is making self-destructive choices. Love is real when it takes sacrifice, when it costs something, when it is proven in actions. What will your love look like today?

Ordinary Time 22 - September 3, 2017

Homily for September 3, 2017

Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Character Over Comfort

 

            The Carmelite religious order was supposed to be an order of priests and nuns who practiced fasting, penance, and intense prayer – but by the 16^th century, they had become very lax. Instead of praying, they spent their time in idle gossip; instead of fasting, they practiced gluttony amidst considerable wealth. A reform had to be initiated, and a young nun with a powerful personality, St. Theresa of Avila, felt called by the Holy Spirit to begin reforming the Carmelite order.

            But of course no one likes to be told that they are wrong, so she faced opposition everywhere she went. Many Carmelite monasteries refused to welcome her; abbesses fought with her; the other nuns gossiped about her. In all, it was a difficult mission!

            One day she was riding a horse to get to another monastery, praying desperately and frustrated about her mission. As the horse was crossing a river, it got startled and bucked, throwing St. Theresa of Avila into the river, fully clothed. As she got up, soaked and covered in mud, she famously prayed aloud, “Lord, if this is how You treat Your friends, it’s no wonder You have so few!”

            Many people expect God to make their life easier. Back in 2005, two researchers studied the spiritual lives of American teenagers, and they concluded that most teens thought that God’s job was to make them feel good. They called this “moralistic therapeutic deism” – basically the belief that God exists, but He doesn’t interfere with us on a daily basis unless we need Him to solve some problem or take away some pain.

            Sadly, though, many adults treat God in the same way. God, why don’t you heal my mother? God, why am I out of a job? God, take away all my suffering…and then when He doesn’t we often start to question if God exists, if He cares, if He loves us.

            But what if making life easy isn’t God’s job? In today’s Gospel, Peter wants Jesus to choose the easy way – “Lord, since you really are the Messiah, just bypass the Cross! What good does suffering entail?” But Jesus rebukes Peter and then proceeds to reveal the truth – that following Him will, necessarily, involve suffering.

            The Protestant pastor Rick Warren said, “God is more interested in your character than your comfort.” In other words, the goal of life is not to live an easy, suffering-free life. The goal of life is to be transformed into Christ. And often, that transformation comes through suffering.

            I hope we can all point to the good that has come from a difficult situation. I know that from some of my greatest suffering, I matured a lot, grew in compassion and humility, and learned to trust God more. It’s never easy, but it is the only path to becoming holy.

            Consider this example – how is a statue carved from marble? Think about Michaelangelo’s “David” or the “Pieta”. It’s necessary to chip away all of the pieces of marble that are not part of the statue. But what if the marble block could talk and feel? It would say, “Stop! Stop this hammering, this chipping! It hurts! Look, I am losing so much – nothing good can come from this! Too much pain, too much loss!” And yet, when it is finished, it becomes a work of art.

            In the same way, the Father wants to form us into the image of Christ. But to do that, He needs to strip away all that is not Christ – all our selfishness, immaturities, pride, the lies we’ve grown to believe. This takes a complete reorientation of our life, though – to see everything through the lens of “is this making me more like Christ?” This suffering, that disappointment, this pleasure, that relationship – is it making me more like Christ? Because, in the end, isn’t that all that matters?

            The Cross is not an end in itself, just like death on the Cross was not the end for Jesus. For Jesus, the Cross led to the Resurrection, just as for us, suffering can lead to Jesus coming to life in and through us – if we unite our suffering to Christ’s, trust God through the storm, and learn the lessons of holiness that He wants to teach us.

            So do not seek an easy life. Seek a REAL life – one that comes from letting God form you, so that you become like Christ.

Ordinary Time 20 - August 20, 2017

Homily for Ordinary Time 20

August 20, 2017

God’s Favor Is for Our Fruitfulness

 

            Why did God pick the Jews as the Chosen People? Doesn’t it seem like God is picking favorites? That doesn’t quite seem loving of God, right? Here we see in today’s Gospel Jesus seeming to reject this foreign woman because she isn’t part of the Jewish race – is Jesus being racist? Why would He choose one person over another?

            Let’s go back to the Old Testament to see the answer to these questions. God did indeed choose a Chosen People – but He did so in order to prepare the world for His coming. It was never enough for the Jewish nation to be insular, separated – they were supposed to be transformed by obedience to the Law so that other nations saw their holiness and were attracted to the Lord. Our first reading speaks of how any nation or foreigner, who loves the Lord and sacrifices to Him with a virtuous heart, will be accepted.

            The Jewish people were set apart precisely so that they might be a light to the nations. They were given a unique law so that they became holier than the other nations. When the Jews entered the Promised Land, they were surrounded by nations who worshipped Ba’al and the other false idols, who practiced sexual immorality, and who even had human sacrifice at times! So, God needed to give them a Law which set them apart and taught them the true way of holiness.

            But the problem was, the Jewish people became proud, arrogant, and idolatrous. They said to themselves, “We’re the Chosen People – we can do whatever we want and God will protect us.” So they started to adopt the practices of the surrounding nations – worshipping false idols, living lives of violence and lust, breaking the Law. They thought that because they were “chosen”, they would be able to sin with impunity.

            But that is not WHY they were chosen! They were chosen to be a shining example to the other nations of how to live as beloved sons and daughters of God. But they shirked that responsibility and even turned away outsiders who sought to know the Lord – in fact, even now, if a person wants to convert to Judaism, a traditional Jewish rabbi will turn someone away three times or more before allowing them to convert!

            With Christ’s death on the Cross, salvation was no longer only for the Jews, but now accessible to anyone who had faith in Him. St. Paul, in today’s second reading, talks about how God’s mercy is showered upon all people – Jews and non-Jews (called Gentiles) alike. We are the new Chosen People of God – we, the Catholic Church.

            Have you ever thought about how blessed you are to be Catholic? I was born Catholic, like many of you, and so I never had to wrestle with the challenge of conversion – I always knew the Truth of our Catholic faith from the time I was very young. That is a great gift, one that we don’t appreciate enough – the fact that we have been chosen, by God’s free grace, to belong to His Chosen People in the Church. We didn’t earn it – it was freely given to us!

But like the Chosen People of the Old Testament, we too must bear fruit. Just like it wasn’t enough for the Jewish people to say, “God will protect us because we are Jewish”, we cannot believe that God will save us or that we will automatically go to Heaven because we are Catholic. On the contrary – we are chosen so that we will bear fruit! The fruit that the Lord requires is a holy life, so that we too may be the light to the nations.

When I was ordained a priest, a very wise older priest wrote me a note where he said, “Bring thousands of souls to Heaven with you.” I never forgot that exhortation. Yes, my vocation to the priesthood is a free gift, one that I did not earn – and one that I must use now for His glory, for my own salvation and the salvation of thousands of souls. It’s not for my own benefit or pleasure, and it certainly doesn’t guarantee a free ticket into Heaven. As my grandfather used to say, “Just because you put on a collar don’t make you a saint!”

Likewise, just because you are baptized a Catholic doesn’t make you holy automatically! His grace is there – but we must respond with eager hearts. We have been chosen by grace so that we bear the fruit of a holy life.

When you stand before God, you will understand all of the graces you have been given: the gift of your faith, the Sacraments, the ways in which the Holy Spirit has inspired you, the people in your life who have encouraged you along the right path. My question for you is this – when God asks, “What have you done with all of those graces I offered you?” – how will you be able to respond?

Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time - August 13, 2017

Homily for August 13, 2017

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Difficult But Good

 

            Let’s break down this parable and see how it applies to us. Peter starts out in a boat that was sinking. Perhaps many of us find parts of our life that are sinking, that aren’t working out well – maybe we struggle with a particular temptation, or we haven’t really developed a prayer life, or we are estranged from a family member, or we just fall into the same pattern of sinful behavior that isn’t healthy and is spiritually destructive. Many of us have parts of our life that just aren’t working. But we’ve gotten used to it, and it’s become somewhat comfortable with it – we hate it, but we’re used to it, and it would take too much to change, just as Peter would not leave the boat without an invitation from the Lord.

            But Jesus wants Peter to draw near to Him, so He invites him to leave the sinking boat and come towards Him. Christ wants us all to experience abundant life – the freedom from sin, deep inner peace, the security of His love – but to experience this life, we must draw closer to Him.

            The problem is the waves. Peter’s fine until he realizes that it would be difficult to draw close to Christ – then he starts to sink, because he took his eyes off of the Lord. If we really want to follow the Lord, we must expect that it will be difficult. It is difficult to put away our smartphones and really develop a prayer life. It is difficult to give up, once and for all, our addiction to food and lust and alcohol. It is difficult to live simply when we are tempted to surround ourselves with self-indulgent luxuries. When we seek to draw closer to the Lord, it will be opposed – by our fallen nature, by Satan, and by the temptations of the world in which we live.

            If we look at the difficulties instead of Christ, we are likely to be overwhelmed. Who can overcome strong temptations? Who can practice fasting, self-control, constant kindness with difficult people? No one can on their own – but if our eyes are on Christ and His grace, we can do all things!

St. Augustine, even after his conversion to Catholicism, still struggled with some of the temptations of his lower nature – particularly lust. One time he prayed, famously, “Lord, give me chastity, but not yet!” His heart was divided – he wanted to follow Jesus, but also wanted to indulge in the pleasures of this world.

            The turning point came when he picked up St. Paul’s letters one day and read, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.” From that moment, his soul was flooded with grace. His eyes were now fixed, not on his temptations and sins, but on the Lord. It was hard to be pure – but now it was worth it.

            Many people feel like their life is stuck on hamster-wheel mode – going round and round, but getting nowhere. Is that because we are always willing to take the easy way out, live our lives in our comfort zones? Christ is inviting you to a better life – peace, joy, freedom, love – but to have this better life, we must be willing to do the difficult things: give up sin, love our enemies, practice sacrifice, have a disciplined life of prayer and fasting. These things are only possible if we keep our eyes fixed on Christ – when done for love of Him, we will find it easy to overcome all difficulties in our life of discipleship, until by His grace we become saints!

Final Homily at St. Mary's/St. Benedict's Parish, Stamford

Last Homily at St. Mary’s/St. Benedict’s

August 13 & 20, 2017

 

            Carnegie Mellon University has a unique tradition: every year they invite one of their professors to give what they call the “Last Lecture”. If this was the last lecture this professor was ever to give, what would he or she say? Well, this is my “last homily” here at this church. So I have to ask myself – what would I impart to you as I depart from this community?

            I want to leave you with three points. In some way, they’re a summary of everything I’ve tried to preach and live for the past three years here on the East Side of Stamford. First, strive for holiness. Second, stay close to the Eucharist. Third, life is short so do not put off loving God and our neighbor.

            First, strive for holiness and become a saint. To a lot of people, this sounds impossible. We often think of saints as plaster statues, with their hands folded and their eyes looking toward Heaven, instead of seeing them as flesh-and-blood human beings. But to be a saint is simple. We must love God more than anything else on this earth, and love our neighbor to the point of sacrifice. Simple, but not easy – and we do not do this on our own, but through Christ who lives in us through grace.

            I have been very inspired by reading the lives of the saints, who show us that holiness is possible for all of us. One in particular who inspires me is a young man by the name of Venerable Faustino Perez. This young man from Spain died at the age of 17, but had already achieved great holiness. After going on a life-changing retreat at the age of thirteen, he made it his life’s goal to be like Christ. He began to pray the Rosary daily, and to unite all of his daily sufferings to the Lord. He didn’t become some cloistered monk – he still played soccer, enjoyed hanging out with friends and camping, and even smoked cigarettes a little (which was legal for teenagers in Spain in the 1950s). When he came down with cancer, he continued to suffer well, without complaining, remembering the Lord’s sufferings on the Cross. He eventually died of his cancer, but before his death he said, “Holiness is very hard. But I will try, and who knows if I might achieve it?” Here was an ordinary young man whose life revolved around God – and who became a saint because of it!

            It is precisely that union with God that allowed him to be holy, and the best way to be united to Him is in the Holy Eucharist. My second point is to stay always close to Jesus in the Eucharist. I am willing to give up everything, even my life, for the Eucharist, because to receive the Eucharist is to be united to the very Body and Blood of God. Never pass up an opportunity to attend Mass! Make sure that it isn’t just one more thing to fit into your week, but truly the cornerstone of your week! The Mass is an infinite value – every time we come to the Mass, we come to the Cross, and we allow the merits of His death and resurrection to be applied to our souls. If we had to choose between having a long life, great riches, superior talents, constant pleasure, being adored by everyone, or receiving the Eucharist once, we ought to choose the Eucharist. What good are riches, honors, pleasures without God? And when we have the Eucharist, we have God.

            Finally, we ought to consider that life is very short, and eternity is very long. Most days we spend our entire day thinking about things that won’t matter at all in a year, let alone for eternity. If our eternity is going to be about loving and praising God, then we must begin here on earth. What if you were given two options: to be a billionaire for one hour, then spend the rest of your life penniless and in pain; or to suffer and be poor for one hour and spend the rest of your life as a billionaire? Of course, any rational person would choose the second. And yet so often we live this brief life as if it were the only thing that matters, when on the other side of death we can be princes and princesses in God’s Heavenly Kingdom – if only here we learn to live with Him as our King. I can remember when I was probably ten years old, I was sitting outside on a giant rock that was on my family’s property, looking at the leaves changing color in the fall and thinking, “Man, it seemed like summer was just beginning, and now it’s over…life goes by too quickly!” And the older I get, the quicker it goes! So let us live for something eternal – which means living in the love of God and seeking His Kingdom first.

            My friends, I love you and pray for you. Let us pray for each other, that we may meet again in eternity in Heaven with God. Seek holiness – stay close to the Eucharist – and live for God.

Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time - July 16, 2017

Homily for Ordinary Time 15

July 16, 2017

Ridding Our Soil of Sin

 

            One of my least favorite chores growing up was picking up rocks. My dad had a huge garden – probably twice the size of this church. Every year, during the spring time, my dad would pay us a dollar to fill up a bucket of rocks from the garden, and then dump them in the woods. Not a fun task – but an easy way to make a buck, and an important job, because it is hard to make a garden if there are too many rocks in the soil.

            The rocky ground, the hard ground, and the thorn-infested ground in today’s Gospel are symbols of three things. The rocks symbolize unrepentant sin – if our life is full of sin, we will be unable to become holy. The hard ground is a symbol of a hard heart and a bad attitude – we are convinced that we don’t need God. The thorns and weeds are a symbol of worldly desires – we want pleasure and money and comfort far more than we want Christ.

            All of us would like to believe that we are the good ground – that we are living a life of faith in God. But are we really? Let’s look at each of these types of ground more closely to see which ones we really are.

            First – the rocky ground. St. John tells us in his first letter that “if we believe we are without sin, we are deceiving ourselves”. No matter how many rocks my siblings and I took out of our garden, there were always more. It was a never-ending chore! Likewise, all of us are sinners, even if our sins are small. Thus, repentance must be daily. St. Francis wrote to his Franciscan brothers that their lives should be marked with “constant conversion”.

            So what does that look like, practically? Well, when is the last time you have been to Confession? If it is more than a couple months, then you are still living in sin. Are there sins in your life that you have made peace with? Perhaps an addiction to lust and impurity, or greed, or unforgiveness? Or even worse – living in a state of sin, such as those who are divorced and remarried outside the Church, or living with someone without marriage? If we are not making a daily effort to repent and rid our lives of sin (with God’s grace, of course), then we are not truly disciples!

            Second – the hard ground. Many of us live our lives as practical atheists! Perhaps we believe intellectually in God but He makes no real difference in our life. How do you know? Well, do you pray – really pray, seeking Him in Scripture and the Rosary and the Mass and silent prayer? Do you ask God what His will is for your life? I love what Corrie Ten Boom, a Holocaust survivor and author of the famous book “The Hiding Place” says about prayer – she asks, “Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?” In other words, does your relationship with God direct your life? If not, then we are hard ground!

            Third – the thorns and weeds. What do you truly want in life? What is the most burning desire of your heart? Is it to be holy, or to be rich and famous? I sponsored a great kid for confirmation this past year, and at his confirmation party we were all outside playing sports. In the heat of competition, he let out a mild curse word – as mild as you can get. I didn’t think anything of it, but he immediately came up to me and apologized. I said, “Peter, it’s not a big deal.” But he responded, “It is a big deal. I don’t want to be the kind of person who has a foul mouth.” I was taken aback – wow, this kid gets it. His goal in life is to be holy, and he is willing to do what it takes to live for Christ.

            So, for us, what really is our goal in life? What do we spend our time on, our money on, our energy on? Is it soccer, or our job, or living for Christ?

            This was meant to be an honest – even brutally honest! – examination of where we are in the spiritual life. Do not be discouraged if you find your soul to be rocky ground filled with sin, hard ground without a deep relationship with God, or thorny ground distracted by the things of this world. The good news is that soil can change! To make a garden, we have to till the ground, remove the rocks, weed it, water it, and prepare the soil – in the same way, God wants to change you – if you will let Him. Ask Him to do that today. Invite Him into your soul. He will come, with His grace, and like a master gardener, produce the fruits of a holy life in your soul. Invite Him in – start praying deeply from your heart, receiving the Sacraments frequently, seek the Lord in His Word. His grace is all you need to change hard ground into a fruitful garden.

Ordinary Time 13 - July 2, 2017

Homily for Ordinary Time 13

July 2, 2017

Generosity

 

            There was once a poor man who owned an orchard, and one year his trees produced a remarkably beautiful, huge apple. He debated what to do with it – should he eat it, or make it into a pie, or what? Finally, being a generous man, he decided to give it away to a widow who was even poorer than him. So he put it into a basket and anonymously left it on her doorstep.

            She opened the door and was surprised and delighted at what she saw, but immediately thought, “This is far more than I need! I know what I shall do, I will add some of my grapes to this basket and pass it along to a family who is even poorer than me.” So that is what she did, and she went down the mountain and left the basket with the apple and grapes on the doorstep of an even poorer family.

            This poorer family opened the door and was surprised. “We cannot keep such a gift,” they thought. “Let us give it to the even poorer man who lives down the road.” So they added a quart of wild blueberries that they had been collecting, and set off to leave it at the door of the very poor man down the road.

            The poor man saw the basket and was filled with gratitude but said, “I have more than enough. I know – I will bring it to another man who needs food, and I will add some of the eggs from my chickens.” So he went up the mountain to a poor man who lived at the top.

            The man who owned the apple orchard was shocked when he saw his own basket back on his front steps – not just with the apple in it, but also with grapes and blueberries and eggs! He thanked God for the multiplication of the food, and invited all of his poor neighbors to a feast.

            There is a saying that “God is never outdone in generosity.” I have absolutely found that to be true. There have been times in my life when I have debated, “Should I make such a large donation to this organization that helps the poor?” The times that I have said yes, I have found that God – through other people – has actually allowed me to end up with MORE money than before!

            At the risk of sounding like a televangelist, I can confidently assure you that God is never outdone in generosity. He promised in today’s Gospel that anyone who practices hospitality for the sake of the Gospel will receive a reward. Consider what He says – if you give a cup of cold water, which costs nothing and only takes a little effort, you will be rewarded. And if you treat a disciple with kindness, we will receive a disciple’s reward.

            It feels like a risk to be generous sometimes. We wonder if it’s worth the effort, if we will ever get that money back, or if we can really open our homes to someone. What if they are not grateful? What if they take advantage of us? It is risky, indeed – but with risk comes great reward. Just like it’s a risk to invest in stocks, but the payoff is huge, it is a risk to be generous with your time, money, and energy, but the payoff is huge – and guaranteed – in the blessings you will receive back.

            Allow me to suggest three practical ways in which we can practice generosity.

            First, we can tithe. That’s a dirty word to some Catholics! Tithing is a biblical principle which means giving 10% to the Lord – either to the Church or to a Catholic charity. In the Old Testament, the Lord requires a tithe of all of the crops, grain, wine, oil, and livestock. The first 10% belonged to Him – as a sacrifice in the Temple, or as an offering to the priests, or as generosity to the poor. Proverbs 3:9-10 says, “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first-fruits of your crops, and your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.” In the New Testament, St. Paul instructs his churches to practice tithing, and the early Church followed suit.

            We do not tithe because the church needs a new roof or because the poor need food. Ultimately, we tithe as an act of worship! By tithing, we are recognizing that God is the source of all blessings and that we honor Him by our generosity. Money can strengthen our union with God if we use it rightly, by giving it away to the Church and to the needy. I tithe, and I highly recommend the practice to every Christian!

            A second way to practice generosity is to be open to life in our marriage. I used to ask couples preparing for marriage, “How many kids do you want to have?” But I stopped asking that question because it’s a fundamentally stingy attitude! (And because no couple ever said more than 2 or 3!). We should rather be asking, How many kids does God want us to have? If children are a gift, why would we not want more gifts from God? Yes, it does take time and effort to raise children – and this is where the generosity part comes in. God wants us to be as generous as possible in opening our family to His gift of new life!

            Finally, one last act of generosity that we ought to practice is to give time. Think to yourself – how many of you would say that your life is “busy”? Busyness is the curse of the modern age. Often, we are too busy to take time to listen to people, to reach out to family members and friends who would benefit from a conversation or a visit. This can be a powerful form of generosity – to reach out to a neighbor, friend, or family member who could use a listening ear or a friendly visit.

            So, my challenge for you is to challenge God. I said at the beginning that God is never outdone in generosity – put that to the test! Pick one of those three ways: tithing, openness to life, and spending quality time – and practice it this week or this month. See if God does not overflow your life with joy and blessings in response to your generosity!