Lent 2 - February 25, 2018

Homily for Second Sunday of Lent

February 25, 2018

Faith

            In Connecticut we have lots of official state “things”. Our state flower is the Mountain Laurel, our state mineral is the Garnet (who knew we could have an official state mineral!), the official state cookie is the snickerdoodle. I kid you not – these things are officially named, by our state legislature, as our state symbols. We also have an official state hero: Nathan Hale. You may have heard of him in your studies of state history!

            Nathan Hale, a Connecticut native, was an American spy during the Revolutionary War sent to gather information about the British forces in New York. He was captured in his work and sentenced to death by hanging, but it was on the gallows that he uttered his famous line: “I have only one regret: that I have but one life to give for my country.” He was proud to die for what he believed in. He had faith in the cause, and so for him it was a privilege to lay down his life.

            But we live in a culture nowadays that lacks faith – in anything. Our wider culture certainly does not have faith in God, many people have lost their faith in their country or in other human beings…but what is life without faith? Don’t we need something that we can trust, something we can build our lives on, something bigger than ourselves that we can live for?

            I look at Abraham, who is the model of faith in the first reading. He has already believed God once, when God promised him some unlikely things – that he and his wife would have a son despite their old age. God came though on that promise, but now He ups the ante – “Ok, Abraham, you trusted Me once and I gave you a son. Now, will you trust Me again and give your son back to Me?” Abraham is forced to confront some really tough questions – is God real? Are His promises trustworthy? Or is all this just my own imagination talking to me? He steps out in faith, says a radical “yes” to the Lord, and the Lord blesses him abundantly for such radical faith.

            My friends, all of us have to face that same decision: is God real, or is He just a myth? Is the Catholic Faith true, or just one option among many? Are Heaven and Hell real, or is it just wishful thinking? Is the Eucharist really the Body and Blood of Jesus, or is it just a symbol? The reason why many people no longer attend Mass, no longer identify as Catholic, and no longer cling to organized religion is that many people see all of this as just a fairy tale, a myth, an old legend that makes us feel good but doesn’t really have real answers to life’s tough questions.

            What a far cry from true faith! Look, for example, at the faith of the martyrs, who were so convinced that this Catholic Faith was true that they shed their blood for it. One of my favorites is St. Margaret Clitherow. (Her story can be found here: http://www.ewtn.com/library/Mary/Clither.HTM ). These martyrs believed wholeheartedly that this Catholic Faith is true!

            Please don’t misunderstand me – faith is not some blind belief. Faith seeks to be illuminated, and our faith is the most logical and rational of all faiths. We ought to understand reasons for our faith – there are ways in which we can know that God exists, that Jesus rose from the dead, that the Eucharist is truly His Body and Blood. But we know these things from evidence, not from proof. The difference is that proof is scientific knowledge – we know things because we can examine them in a laboratory. We cannot scientifically prove the teachings of our Faith. But we also can’t prove the existence of Julius Caesar. We have testimony about him, but we can’t scientifically prove that he existed, in the sense that we could perform a laboratory experiment on him. We only have historical evidence – which is pretty convincing that he was a real person! I also cannot prove that my mother loves me. There is no biological test to measure for love. But I have received her love on many occasions – her kind words, her gifts, her thoughtful gestures, her hugs. All of this says that I can experience her love, even though I cannot scientifically prove it.

            Likewise, even though we cannot scientifically prove our Faith, we believe it because we have historical testimony (the Apostles who saw the miracles, who walked with Jesus, who touched the Resurrected Lord, the other miracles throughout the centuries, etc), and we also have had personal experiences of the Lord (ways in which God has worked in our life, times of beauty or love or goodness where we have experienced Him). These two types of knowledge – historical testimony and personal experience – are enough evidence to make me say that this Catholic Faith is absolutely true, worth living and dying for!

            My friends, I want to speak the truth. The truth is that God exists. The truth is that Jesus Christ is God-made-man. The truth is that He really died and really rose from the dead. He really established His Church and the Sacraments for us to follow. He really left us His Body and Blood in the Eucharist. He really invites us into eternity with Him in Heaven. These aren’t myths; they aren’t fairy tales. These are truths that we can build our lives on through faith.

            If you believe these truths as well, let us profess our faith.

Homily for Lent 1 - February 18, 2018

Homily for Lent 1

February 18, 2018

All Is Grace

            A young boy was trying to move a large rock that was in the middle of his backyard. He strained and pulled but was unable to budge it. His father saw him struggling and came over to him. The dad asked, “Son, have you done everything you could to move this stone?” The son replied in frustration, “Yes! I’ve tried everything!” The father replied, “No, you haven’t done everything…you haven’t asked me to do it for you.” With that, the father picked up the stone easily and moved it out of the way.

            There are some things in life we can’t do on our own. When we’re kids, we’re dependent on our parents for everything: food, clothing, shelter. Even as adults who like to think we’re so independent, we need each other for friendship, support when we’re suffering, and so many other things. We were made to depend on others, and there are some things we just can’t do…like save our souls.

            A lot of times in Lent we make it all about what we are doing for God. I’m giving up chocolate, I’m praying more. All of that is great, but let’s start at the beginning…what God has already done for us! All that we do is only a response to His free gift of grace.

            And what a grace it is! Today’s first reading features God swearing a holy covenant with Noah. Covenants established family bonds, so God is inviting Noah to enter into His family. But lest that family be only for the Jewish people as the descendants of Noah, our second reading speaks of the covenant being opened to all mankind through the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Just as the human race was cleansed and purified through Noah’s flood, so the human race is now cleansed and purified from sin through the waters of baptism, which first flowed from the side of Christ as He hung on the Cross.

            We hear that word “covenant” a lot in Mass, especially as we consecrate the wine into the Precious Blood. It is the “blood of the New and Everlasting Covenant” – Jesus’ blood did for us what we could not do for ourselves – we could not forgive our own sins, we could not belong to God as His beloved Sons and Daughters on our own, we could not enter Heaven by our own efforts. It was this New Covenant that Jesus Himself established that allows us to do so!

            We Catholics like to believe that if we do enough, we get to Heaven. That’s actually completely false – and a heresy (Pelagianism, which was condemned in the 500s!). We do not get ourselves to Heaven, only Jesus Christ can do that! I always cringe when I hear people say at funerals, “They were a good person, so they’re in Heaven.” We don’t get to Heaven by being good people – we inherit Heaven solely through the free gift of Jesus Christ. Of course, if we are followers of Jesus, we will want to walk in His footsteps and live a life of holiness. Our faith in Him cannot remain only on the surface if it doesn’t permeate our entire lives. But it is precisely that – faith in Him – which saves us!

            St. Thomas Aquinas had an experience like that. He was one of the greatest writers the Church has ever known, and one of the most profound thinkers in history. He wrote over one hundred volumes about Christ, the Bible, the Catholic Faith…it was said that he could literally write six books at one time with six different scribes in the same room! But towards his later years, he stopped writing his masterpiece, the Summa Theologica. People asked him why he stopped writing, and he told them that he had seen a vision of Jesus on the Cross. St. Thomas said that when looking at the Cross, he realized that all he had written and all he had done “was like straw” – it meant very little compared to the grace of the Cross.

            All of our good works are like straw compared to the good work Christ has already accomplished – that of reconciling us to God through the Cross.

            So this Lent, as we begin our fasting, our prayer, and our generosity to the poor, let us not do them in the hopes of “earning” Heaven. We don’t earn it. We receive it as a gift – the gift of grace, which is freely given to those who have a faith in Jesus Christ. 

Ordinary Time 6 - February 11, 2018

Homily for Ordinary Time 6

February 11, 2018

Imitators of Christ

            “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, and then walk out the door and get on with their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

            That quote from the author Brennan Manning is striking – almost as striking as the words of St. Paul today when he tells the Corinthians, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” Could you say that? Could you tell others, “Imitate me, because I live like Christ.” Or would we rather say, “Do as I say and not as I do.” Perhaps it is somewhere in-between!

            It is essential for Christians to set a good example. If our life does not match our beliefs, then our beliefs themselves are undermined. There was a great painting by Norman Rockwell called “Sunday Morning” where a mother and her three children are walking crisply out the door. They are wearing their Sunday best and clutching their prayerbooks, obviously heading to church, but the father is slumped down in an easy chair, reading the newspaper and dressed in his bathrobe, clearly not going anywhere. The mother and the two daughters are looking straight ahead, out the door, but as the son walks out, following the women, he is staring directly at his father. The implication is that the father is preaching powerfully by his non-attendance – he is saying that he doesn’t need Jesus, that a man does not need to go to church. And that example is being understood, loud and clear, by his son.

            Gandhi once said to Christians, “I like your Christ; I do not like you Christians. Christians are so unlike your Christ.” While that might be a bit harsh, it is important – we Christians must be a good example in the world, because people will follow our example.

            The example that we must follow is Jesus Christ Himself. And what a wonderful example He sets! Today’s Gospel shows His immense kindness and compassion. Not only does He heal a leper – He does so in a way that is so loving and tender – he reaches out and touches this man who has probably not been touched by another human being since he developed this deadly. There has never been anyone more kind, more loving, more patient, more pure, more sacrificial, more holy than Jesus Christ – so He is the example that we must follow. We find His example by studying the Scriptures – once Mother Teresa was asked, “What is your favorite book for spiritual reading?” And she responded without hesitation, “The Four Gospels”. Read the Bible – and you will know how you are to live.

            But there are many people in today’s world who will never read the Bible. There is a wonderful quote, “Your life may be the only Gospel some people ever read” – in other words, many people will only get to know about Jesus because of your example.

            There is a term used in convents of nuns and monks throughout the world: “Living Rule”. A Living Rule refers to an older monk or nun whose conduct is so exemplary that if all of the written rules of the congregation were destroyed somehow, they would be able to rewrite their rules by observing the life of these holy older monks or nuns. Likewise, Catholics should be a “Living Gospel” – if all the Bibles in the world were destroyed, people would still be able to know what they said by observing the faith and life of Christians like you and I!

            A boy in London, England was walking through a dense evening fog, carrying a lantern. He was approached by a man who said, “If you show me the way to my hotel, I will give you a shilling.” The boy proceeded to lead the man through the streets, his lantern lighting the way. When he arrived at the hotel, he held up the lantern to find that not one but four men had been following him! They had all been lost and saw the light as their one way to find safety!

            Likewise, in today’s murky world, people are looking for a way to live and to love, and they are willing to follow anyone who lives according to the Light of Christ. So take as your example the example of Jesus Christ. Live like Him, so that others can see Him in us. I want to be able to say with St. Paul, “Be imitators of me, as I am an imitator of Christ.”

Homily for Ordinary Time 5 - February 4, 2018

Homily for Ordinary Time 5

February 4, 2018

The Great Value of Sickness

            It is providential that this Gospel occurs during one of our worst flu seasons ever, since it features Jesus performing numerous healing miracles. We all get sick – it’s just a part of life. But have you ever wondered why it is a part of life? If God is all-powerful and can heal us (as we see Jesus doing), why does He allow us to get ill?

            First of all, we have to understand that sickness was not part of God’s original plan. It came about as a result of original sin – it is part of the fallen nature that we all share as human beings. But please understand – sickness is not a punishment for sin, it is a remedy for sin. We take medicines that are bitter and taste disgusting to get well – likewise, if we approach sickness with a Christian view, it has the power to spiritually heal us.

            After all, Jesus, being fully human and fully divine, Himself got sick. We don’t have a record of that in the Bible per se, but the Gospels do say that Jesus got tired, hungry, thirsty – and of course suffered physically in His crucifixion. Since we believe that Jesus Christ is like us in all things but sin, I think it’s safe to assume that Jesus also got colds and flus, that He scraped His knees as a boy, that He probably had indigestion and banged His thumb with a hammer and all sorts of other physical ailments.

            So Jesus can show us the proper way to face sickness and suffering. Two things I would like to point out: first, Jesus shows us that we are never alone in our suffering. Second, Jesus shows us how to redeem our suffering and use it to make us holy.

            First of all, we are never alone in our suffering. It’s a frightening thing to face a cancer diagnosis, or to watch your child come down with the flu. Our first reaction might be, “God, where are You in all this? Don’t You care? Can’t You do something?” This is the reaction we see in Job from today’s first reading – he says, basically, “God, my life is misery! Where are You?”

            When I look at the Cross, I see the answer. I see a God Who is not afraid to enter into the mystery of human suffering and be with us. The prophet Isaiah says, “He bore our infirmities and carried our sorrows.” There was once a man of deep faith who was paralyzed from the neck down due to a car crash, unable to speak. His wife and a team of nurses took care of him, and every week the parish priest would visit him to pray with him. One week the priest came in, but the man looked restless – he was constantly moving his eyes, trying to communicate something to the priest. The priest didn’t know what he was trying to say, though, so he turned to the wife and asked, “What is he trying to tell me?” The wife answered, “Oh, Father, he’s asking you to move. He always likes to look at the crucifix, and you’re standing right in the way.” When we look at Christ on the Cross, we are reminded that we are never alone in sickness or suffering.

            Second, Jesus shows us how to redeem our suffering. Blessed Chiara Luce Badano was an ordinary teen girl who lived in Italy in the 1990s. She enjoyed the good things of life – playing guitar and tennis, hanging out with friends, watching movies. But she also had a deep faith in Jesus Christ through her parish youth group. When she was playing tennis one day when she was sixteen, she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder that wouldn’t go away. After many tests, it was determined that she had bone cancer. When told of her diagnosis, she said, “This is all for You, Jesus – if You want it, then so do I.”

            The chemotherapy and radiation was always painful, but she refused morphine, saying that she wanted to be fully conscious to offer her suffering to the Lord. When clumps of her hair would fall out, she would hold them up and say, “For You, Jesus.” She would take walks to brighten the day of another patient who was suffering from depression, even though it caused Chiara greater suffering to try to walk. In this suffering and sickness, she began to grow immensely in her love for God and neighbor; so much so that when she was visited by a bishop from Rome, the Bishop remarked, “The light in your eyes is amazing – where does it come from?” She replied, “I simply try to love Jesus as much as I can.”

            She died at the age of 18 but is now a Blessed in the Church. Her suffering was a critical part of her sanctification. By offering her suffering to the Lord, she was purified, much like gold and silver are refined by heating them up in fire. She grew in the virtues of kindness, patience, humility, and love.

            And this is where our faith sheds light on the mystery of suffering. God’s desire for you is not an easy life – God desires you to be holy – to be like Him. Recently in confirmation class, we were speaking about Padre Pio, who had the gift of the stigmata – the wounds of Christ. The kids were asking, “Why do you call it a gift? It would hurt to have the wounds of Jesus!” Yes, it hurts – but because Padre Pio wanted to become like Jesus Christ in everything, he knew that suffering with patience and uniting it to Christ’s suffering on the Cross would make him holy.

            My friends, with faith, we do not need to fear sickness, weakness, illness, and death. We are comforted by the fact that God does not abandon us in our sickness, and that He can use even our sicknesses to make us holy if we offer it to the Lord. So the next time you get a cold or flu, don’t waste that suffering – allow it to make you a saint!