Homily for Friday, June 1 - Feast of St. Justin, Martyr

Homily for June 1, 2018

St. Justin, Martyr

Fruit of Holiness

            “The end of all things is at hand” – that’s how our readings started off today, from the Apostle Peter. Yes, the end of school is at hand…but so is the end of all things, the end of your life.

            Perhaps I’m strange, but I love wandering through old graveyards. Maybe it’s because my Eagle Scout project was to clean and fix a graveyard at my local church in Maryland. Right next to Holy Spirit Church, where I live, is a small graveyard from the early- to mid- 1800s that I often wander through. It’s amazing to see these graves, some of which belong to Revolutionary War or Civil War veterans, people who lived through some hard times and monumental changes in the world…I look at the graves and think, I’m going to go join them too. I don’t know how long, I don’t know when, but it’s inevitable: I will die. And so will you. And the sooner we realize and take this to heart, the sooner we can really start to live.

            I’ll never forget the only time I’d ever seen someone die. I was hiking with some friends along the Potomac River in Maryland a few years ago. It had just rained, and the river was truly raging and swollen. There are big signs along the whole trail: Do Not Swim in the River. Fair enough – it looked like chocolate milk, it was so brown and raging. Not something I would want to swim in, anyway. We took a break for lunch and looked across the river, where another group was picnicking on the other side. We saw two young men, in their early 20s, take off their shirts and start to wade in the river. All of a sudden we got nervous – this couldn’t end well. They both started swimming – the first man made it across to our side, several hundred feet downriver because of the strong current. The second man started strong, but soon started struggling. We could hear him crying out, “Help me! Help me!” as he bobbed up and down. We knew we couldn’t go in to help him, or we would drown ourselves. We immediately called 911 as we watched him go under…and he didn’t come up.

            Needless to say, we were all shocked and stunned. After giving reports to the police about what had happened, we sat there to process it. It was a sobering moment for me – it made me realize that life on this earth is temporary. That young man got up that morning, thinking that he was just going for a fun hike with some friends, and because of one bad decision he was now facing Jesus Christ his Judge. He never thought that he would have died that day.

            Interestingly enough, in the days that followed, my friends had two reactions. Some of my friends though, “Wow, life is short. I’d better make my time count” and they started living a better life – praying more, treating their parents with more respect, studying harder. But some of my friends thought, “Wow, life is short. I’d better live it up before I die” and started drinking more, partying more, sleeping around more, smoking more weed. The difference? One group of friends thought that eternity was real – and they lived accordingly. The other group of friends thought that this life was all there is – and they lived accordingly.

            My friends, Jesus makes it clear in today’s Gospel that something is required of us from this life. We see this mysterious story of the Lord cursing a fig tree because it didn’t give Him fruit – well that seems rather strange, now doesn’t it? Why would Jesus curse something He created? It’s actually richly symbolic – He curses something that doesn’t bring Him what it’s supposed to. The fig tree doesn’t produce figs; therefore, it’s useless. You and I are supposed to bring Him something too – a holy life. We are supposed to present our lives before Him, saying, “Lord, here I am. I have tried to live my life for You and Your glory, living a life of holiness.” If, at the end of our life, we are able to bring Him the fruits of a holy life, the fruits of prayer, of virtue, of humility and repentance and love – then we have done what is asked of us from this life. But if we bring Him nothing but a wasted life of pleasures and empty riches, bad habits and addictions, then we will be like the fig tree – cursed, condemned.

            I was reading the life of one of my favorite saints, St. Dominic Savio. He was a young man who achieved great holiness at the young age of 15. In his Catholic boarding school that he attended, I was reading that all of the students participated monthly in a prayer for a happy death. I thought, “Woah! Young teens are preparing for a happy death?” But that was part of the secret of his holiness. St. Dominic Savio lived his life in such a way that he was ready to die at any moment, ready to meet the Lord.

            Are you? If today was your last day on earth, would you be ready to meet Him? Would you be able to present Him with a life of holiness if you were to meet Him this day?

Trinity Sunday - May 27, 2018

Homily for Trinity Sunday

May 27, 2018

With Us on the Journey

            Back in 2012, I had the incredible privilege of hiking El Camino. The Camino is an ancient pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela, a town in northern Spain which holds the bones of St. James. This pilgrim path is ancient – it was first marked out in the 800s – and still wildly popular. Last year, over 300,000 people walked it.

            But it is a long journey! 498 miles, all on foot, through deserts and mountains and cities and forests. We started in southern France in the heart of the Pyrenees mountains, and thirty-three days later stumbled, exhausted, into Santiago de Compostela on the other side of Spain. Definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience…because I’m not sure I’d want to walk quite that far ever again!

            It’s interesting how many stories, movies, and novels are all about journeys. I think of things like Lord of the Rings, or Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. We love a good journey story, in part because life is like a journey – we’re not quite home yet, but still on the road.

            Journeys – whether it’s a 500-mile hike or a quick jaunt to the beach – all have several things in common. There is a starting point, a destination, and a route. We need a mode of transportation, whether on foot, or by car, or by airplane. We need a map, and we need traveling companions.

            So let’s apply all this to the journey called life. Where is our destination? Heaven: eternity with God. That’s where we will finally be at home. What’s our starting point? This earth – a place of great beauty and joy, but also a place of great suffering and pain. So how do we get from point A to point B? Our route is given to us by Jesus Christ – living a holy life in imitation of Him.

            But holding a map in your hand is not the same as taking the first step. And the mode of transportation that brings us from earth to Heaven is His grace.

            Grace is God’s divine life – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – living in us. The very same Trinity that exists above and beyond creation has chosen to dwell within your soul. Grace is like the gasoline that powers our car; like the food we eat that allows us to have the energy to walk. Grace – being connected to Him – is what causes us to grow in holiness and approach the destination of Heaven.

            But how do we receive grace? Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel. The Sacraments, prayer, and the teaching of the Church. Think of how the Sacraments envelop you in the life of the Trinity – in baptism, we become sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father; in the Eucharist we receive the Flesh and Blood of the Son; in Confirmation, we are filled with the Holy Spirit. These powerhouses of grace are what Jesus means when He says “I am with you always” – look no further than the Eucharist if you want to see where Jesus is today!

            With all of this grace, there should be no problem growing in holiness and approaching our destination of Heaven! But why do we look around and not see more saints? Why do we look in the mirror and not see more saints?

            First, for some people, the destination is wrong. I have to apologize, but one of my least favorite movies is “Polar Express”, which I know is a Christmas classic for many of us here. But the reason why I dislike this movie is because of one single line that is so absurd that I just couldn’t appreciate the rest of the movie. The little boy who discovers this gigantic train that just pulled up on his street approaches curiously and asks where the train is going. The conductor responds, “It doesn’t matter where the train is going, all that matters is that you hop on!”

            Wait a second! Doesn’t matter where you’re going? What if you want to go to Albuquerque but you end up in Ottawa instead? That’s a pretty big difference! You may say that’s just a movie but that’s how many people live their life – “Oh, I don’t know where I’m going, I’m just along for the ride!” My friend, we need to know where we are going – to Heaven? Or to Hell? There are only two options on this train line! Which direction do you want to pursue?

            The other reason why we are not yet saints is because we don’t believe we need His grace to get there. One of the very common things I hear from parents at Trinity is, “Oh, I send my kid there so he can get good morals.” Well, good morals is fine, being a decent person is great, but our Catholic faith is about so much more than that! It’s not just about being decent, it’s about being holy…through a living and enduring friendship with the Trinity. If we try to be good without grace, then we are not yet disciples! A disciple of Jesus is one who lives in an intimate relationship with Him. We should desire Him – and our “good morals” will be a response to His unconditional love. Jesus doesn’t say “get to Heaven by being a basically good person” – He says “make disciples of all nations” – disciples who love Him and live for Him!

            My friends, the Feast of the Holy Trinity is an invitation to consider grace – that divine life of the Blessed Trinity that wants to dwell within us to make us holy. We are offered that grace every time we receive the Sacraments, and when we engage the Lord in prayer or reading His Word. We all receive enough grace to become saints – if we ask Him to make us holy, His grace will do it!

Baccalaureate Homily for Trinity Catholic High School - May 31, 2018

Baccalaureate Homily

May 31, 2018

Change the World by Changing Yourself

            All over the world, at every school, graduation speakers are saying basically the same thing to graduates: “Go out and change the world! Make the world a better place!” That’s a nice idea, but how do we do that?

            If we had to be honest, I think most of us will agree that the world is not becoming a better place. If anything, it’s getting worse. School shootings, broken families, poverty, division, racism, unbridled greed, depression and anxiety – it all seems to be getting worse. I think it’s interesting that in the 1950s and ‘60s, if there was ever a futuristic movie or TV show, it always showed the future as something awesome, full of cool gadgets and happy people. Think “Jetsons” or “2001: A Space Odyssey”. But nowadays, when we have a movie that portrays the future, it is almost always dismal, depressing, or dystopian – think “The Hunger Games”. Why is it, with generations of people being told to “Go out and make the world a better place” – it really isn’t getting that much better?

            Because the message is all wrong. Don’t go out and make the world a better place. Make yourself a better person. Strive, with God’s grace, to become a saint.

            “The only people to really change the world are saints,” said Archbishop Charles Chaput. I think of the beautiful story of back in 1982 when a fierce war raged between Israel and Lebanon in the Middle East. This war ended up claiming the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians alike. Caught in the crossfire of this war, in the capital city of Beirut, was an orphanage for disabled children. Mother Teresa heard about the danger these children were in, and volunteered herself to go and rescue them. Officers in Lebanon’s army urged her not to go – she would surely be shot with all the fierce fighting raging around the orphanage! But Mother Teresa was confident in God alone, and promised the general, “We will have a cease-fire tomorrow, and I will go in and take the children to safety.” The general was skeptical – there were no plans for a cease-fire the following day. That night, Mother Teresa and her nuns prayed fiercely for a pause in the military action, and lo and behold, the next day the bombs and gunfire fell silent. Continually in prayer, Mother Teresa courageously crossed the front lines in West Beirut and entered the orphanage. To the horror of everyone present, all of the nurses and caregivers had abandoned all sixty children, and the building had been hit with rockets several times. But Mother Teresa was able to rescue all of them and bring them to a safe shelter outside the city. That, my friends, is a courageous, faith-filled love of God that brought safety to sixty completely neglected children. Mother Teresa was able to gain the cease-fire, to have the courage and desire to rescue these children, precisely because she was a woman so intimately united to God.

            My friends, politics won’t change the world. Money won’t change the world. Wars won’t change the world. New laws, better fashions, catchier slogans won’t change the world. All of that is ultimately empty. We can try with all of our human efforts to change the world, but we forget that we human beings labor under a burden – the burden of original sin, our fallen nature. This makes it impossible, on our own, to improve the world.

Remember the book you read in sophomore year, “Animal Farm”? A stark reminder of how even good intentions go awry. The animals were fed up with being oppressed, with injustice and poverty and sickness, so they rebel and try to set up an government of equality. That works for a time, until the pigs realize they can have power…and abuse power. It’s a cute story, but when that idea was enacted in real life – the desire to make everyone equal only by the power of the government – it ended up with millions of lives lost to the Communist revolutions.

They forgot that real equality does not come from force, but love. They forgot that eliminating poverty is not about the redistribution of wealth, but the increase in love. They forgot that the end to violence does not come through more laws, but through more love. Don’t get me wrong – laws and politics and money has its place, but if we are looking for real and lasting change, look no further than the mirror. Have YOU been changed? Changed into the image of God, who is Love Itself?

Think about today’s feast – Mary is the perfect example of this. She is not anyone the world would consider important. She is poor, uneducated, a woman in a time when women had few rights, too young – and she changed the world because she allowed God to work through her. Her soul “glorified the Lord” – and human history was changed because of it.

If you want to change the world, first allow God to change yourself. The world doesn’t need a bunch of idealistic college students. The world needs an army of saints, people who can bring the love of God to conquer the darkness of this world. Do you want to change the world? Become a saint.

Homily for the Seventh Sunday of Easter & Pentecost - May 13 & 20, 2018

Homily for May 13 & 20, 2018

Seventh Sunday of Easter & Pentecost

The Holy Spirit in the Life of a Christian

            In many ways, the Holy Spirit is the neglected member of the Trinity. We don’t think about Him as much as we do the Father and the Son. Part of the reason is because his role is somewhat unclear – what does the Holy Spirit actually do? It’s easy to see what Jesus does, but the Holy Spirit seems very mystical and hard to grasp.

            But the Holy Spirit’s action in the life of a Christian is not all that mysterious. Today, [in anticipation of Pentecost,] let’s look at four ways that the Holy Spirit is active in the life of Christians.

            First of all, the Holy Spirit makes us enthusiastic about our Catholic Faith. The word “enthusiasm” actually comes from two Greek words, “en” & “theos” – meaning, “possessed by God”. When we get enthusiastic about our Catholic faith, that’s a sign that the Holy Spirit is stirring in our soul.

            For example, I think of Cardinal Avery Dulles, who recently died. He was a nominal Christian studying at Harvard in his twenties when one day, as he stepped outside on a rainy Spring day, he saw the buds in the trees beginning to burst forth. Looking at these tree buds, he immediately thought, “There must be a God if even these trees obey His law!” He was filled with great joy at the thought of an all-loving God Who designed even the smallest details of the universe. From that moment on, he was no longer Christian in name-only – he became a fervent believer, a Catholic, and a priest and cardinal. That was the work of the Holy Spirit – making him enthusiastic about our faith in God!

            Secondly, the Holy Spirit both convicts us of sin, and consoles us with hope in God’s mercy. People often joke around about “Catholic guilt” – they say that guilt is just some neurotic response to being raised Catholic (especially if you were taught by strict nuns!). But actually, feeling remorse for our sins is an act of the Holy Spirit that can lead us to repentance. But remorse is unhealthy if it lacks hope! The Holy Spirit also allows us to hope that God is merciful and loving, even when we are going through a tough time. After all, the Holy Spirit is called the “Consoler” – the One who comforts us in our trials and gives us hope in God’s goodness.

            Thirdly, the Holy Spirit prompts us to have a desire for holiness. I love the great story from the life of one of my favorite saints, St. Dominic Savio, who became a saint at the young age of fifteen. He was in a school Mass one time when the priest, St. John Bosco, began to preach about holiness. Fr. Bosco was making the point that it is easy to become a saint, and that God wants all of us to live lives of holiness. Young twelve-year-old Dominic was deeply impacted by that, and for the next few days, was quieter than usual and had lost his customary smile. St. John Bosco approached him and asked if he was ok or if he was sick.

            Dominic responded, “No, I am quite well! I was just thinking about how necessary it is that I become a saint.” St. John Bosco was pleased with his response and began to instruct him that holiness consisted in remaining joyful, being a good student, and loving Jesus more than anything. Very quickly Dominic advanced in virtue until he did become a saint himself! So if you have a desire for holiness, for virtue, for living a life more radically in love with God, this is an act of the Holy Spirit within you!

            Fourth, the Holy Spirit enables us to use our gifts and talents for God’s glory and the salvation of souls. I had a friend in college named Paul who could beat-box like no other. This guy was like a complete drum kit, all in his mouth. In our college of Franciscan University, they had this epic Spring Break mission trip called Sonlife, where a group of students would head to the beaches of Florida to strike up conversations with others and invite them to church. Paul would have these beat-box competitions which would gather all sorts of people around – and when he had sufficiently impressed the crowd, he would begin to tell them about Jesus and invite them to come to church with him! Whatever our gift and talent – whether beatboxing or gardening, whether we’re good at math or a people-person – we can do all things for the glory of God when we offer ourselves to Him: our gifts and talents, all our activities, even our weaknesses. That’s what the power of the Holy Spirit can do in us!

            This is certainly not an exhaustive list of what the Holy Spirit does in the life of a Christian. But many people wonder if they’ve ever felt the power of the Spirit living in them – well, have you ever been excited about your Faith? Have you ever felt moved to repent of your sin or filled with the hope of God’s mercy? Have you ever desired to live a holier, more virtuous life? Have you used your gifts and talents for God’s glory? If so, you see the Holy Spirit at work within you!

            Let us pray, as we [prepare to] celebrate this great feast of Pentecost, for a new and fresh outpouring of the Spirit. He comes in to hearts that are hungry to receive Him. Do you want Him? If so, let us pray together:

            Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth Your Spirit, and we shall be created, and You will renew the face of the earth. Amen.

Homily for May 6, 2018 - Easter 6

Homily for Easter 6

May 6, 2018

Joy is Loving Rightly

            Look around you. Not actually; I mean metaphorically – think of the people you work with, go to school with, who play on your kids’ sports teams and shop next to you in the grocery store. Do they look joyful? Now, look in the metaphorical mirror – do YOU look joyful? With all of the pleasures, conveniences, and entertainments of the modern world, why are so few people joyful?

            We all want to be joyful – and Our Lord tells us in the Gospel, “I have told you these things so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.” He comes to fill us with joy. Then what is joy, and how do we dwell in it?

            First of all, joy is different from pleasure and happiness. Pleasure and happiness is temporary, joy is eternal. Jesus connects joy to love - to have true joy, we must love rightly. That means we love the right things, and we love them in the right way.

            And here’s where we often make the mistake. We love things that are finite, temporary, and expect them to give us eternal joy. I call this the Christmas Afternoon Syndrome. We’ve all had the experience of being a young kid on Christmas…we have waited, anticipated, anxiously looked forward to this one morning for the entire past month. When we were kids, it seemed like all of our preparations, energies, and thoughts for the entire month of December focused around that one day when we would get tons of gifts. We can’t sleep on Christmas Eve, because we are literally trembling with excitement about Christmas morning. Then it finally comes! We tear open our gifts, delighting in everything that we’ve been given.

            And then Christmas afternoon comes. We’ve seen our toys, we’ve tried on the clothes, we sit amidst the wrapping paper on the floor and think, “Wow. That was fun, but…what next?” I always found it to be such a let-down. Don’t get me wrong, I always had wonderful gifts from a very loving family, but I really thought these gifts would make me deeply happy and satisfied. And now that the gifts are opened and there’s no anticipation anymore, I was left feeling rather empty.

            We do the same thing as adults! We get a burst of joy and happiness from a new car. New Car Smell, shiny and clean, a pleasure to drive. But the first time we spill that Venti Mocha Latte on the front seat, or have a flat tire, or get in a fender-bender, we find ourselves more frustrated than happy at this thing we thought would deeply satisfy us!

            So to find joy that lasts, we must love the things that last. The only thing that will pass with us from this life into eternity is our relationship with the Lord, and our love of others. Jesus Himself says as much – He speaks of joy that comes when we “remain in the Father’s love”. So, we must love the right things.

            But we must also love them in the right way. Jesus ties love to both sacrifice and obedience. This kind of joy-producing love is not a mere feeling. If love is only a feeling and does not involve sacrifice and obedience, then it’s not love at all but mere sentimentality – which can never satisfy us.

            So let’s look at these aspects. We must love sacrificially – Jesus says He gives us a New Commandment, to love one another as He has loved us. But why is this commandment new? After all, it says in the Old Testament, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But Jesus ups the ante – we shouldn’t just love others as we love ourselves, we should love others as Jesus loves us – which is totally, self-sacrificially. Jesus challenges us to love others more than ourselves through concrete acts of self-sacrificing love.

            I think, for example, of the life of St. Gianna Molla. Gianna was an Italian doctor in the 1950s and ‘60s – a lively, vivacious woman, married with three children. A fourth child was on the way, but she was tragically diagnosed with cancer at the same time. Her doctors told her to abort the child so she could go through chemotherapy and remove the tumor. As a doctor herself, Gianna knew the risks, but she said, “No, I will keep my child no matter what.” She continued to grow sicker from the cancer as her child grew within her, and as soon as the baby was born, she was rushed into surgery, but it was too late. Seven days later, Gianna Molla died, having given up her life to save the life of her unborn child. Everyone around her remarked, as she was dying, about her sublime joy that absolutely radiated from her eyes. Interestingly, her daughter, for whom she sacrificed her life, was present in Rome when Pope John Paul II canonized St. Gianna Molla. For those with a worldly mindset, this sacrifice would be unthinkable; but for those united to Christ, this sacrifice brings true joy, because it makes authentic human love become incarnate.

            Finally, and perhaps paradoxically, loving God rightly is related to obedience. Jesus says, “If you love Me, keep my commandments.” We can see this even on a human level – if a child loves their parents, they will obey their rules. If we love God, that love looks concrete in obedience to His commands. But we tend to fudge it, don’t we? We think, “I’m pretty good. I keep most of the commandments.” Look, we are all sinners, and God’s love never fails even if we sin. But we must always set our eyes and our hearts on that perfect obedience that shows our perfect love for God.

Let me be honest – one of the ways in which many modern men and women can easily obey the Lord out of love is by attending Mass every single Sunday. Some people have it in their mind that, “Oh, as long as I get to Mass when I can, when it’s convenient, then I really do love God.” My friends, this is false. Not only is it a mortal sin to miss Mass intentionally, it’s also a sign that we love something else other than God – our dance classes, our vacations, our job. Love demands sacrifice and obedience. We obey His command to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation (including this Thursday, the Ascension!), not out of a servile fear, but out of an obedient love. He is God; we are not.

My friends, all of this is directed to joy. We have everlasting joy when we love everlasting things – the love of God and the love of others. We must then love them in the right way – through sacrifice and obedience. It sounds like a paradox the world cannot understand – we find joy through sacrifice? Joy through obedience? Yes, because the One we are sacrificing for, the One we are obeying, is also the Source of all joy.