Advent 1 - The Second Coming of Christ, Part 1

 

Homily for December 3, 2023

Advent 1

The Coming of Christ, Part 1

 

            During the Communist oppression of Russia, parents used to whisper into the ears of their children as they drifted off to sleep, “Do not be afraid, Christ is coming soon.” This did not cause them fear but comfort – amidst the absolute chaos and violence of the Revolution, they had the hope that Christ will win in the end.

            In these past few years, many people have lamented to me about “the craziness of everything that’s going on” – that seems to be a catch-all phrase for so much of the chaos we see in our modern world: war, broken families, addictions, mental illness, redefining everything that once was stable, economic chaos, pandemics…you name it. At a certain point we human beings have made such a mess that we need a Divine Intervention to set things right – which is why, for those who are on His side, Christ’s coming will be a joyous occasion, for all things will be made new when He returns!

            During Advent, we are not only waiting for Christmas, we are also waiting for the Second Coming of Christ. How fitting it is in this northern hemisphere that we await the shortest day of the year, knowing that afterward, the light will return. So as we see Western Civilization drifting into darkness, Christians are able to see it with the firm confidence that the Light will return when Christ comes again.

            Our readings today make it clear that every generation should be vigilant, because Christ may come again at any point. But I think in a particular way our generation is called to vigilance, for several reasons.

            First, if we consider that human history is a storybook telling the story of Salvation History, every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The beginning was Creation and the Fall. The climax was Christ’s death and resurrection, which began the process of bringing the world back to its original glory. The end of the book is when we all live “happily ever after” in the New Creation when Christ returns. We are already 2023 pages past the middle of the book…which means we must be getting towards the end! In fact, we are now about as many years removed from Christ as Abraham was – a ponderous thought!

            In addition, I think there are some elements of our modern world that make this time uniquely ripe for Christ’s return. For example, never before in human history has the a world been so interconnected – someone can post something in Australia and it will be read in Paris in a matter of seconds. While this has been used for great good, Popes Benedict and Francis have often decried what they called “ideological colonization” – the fact that we can now export the worst elements of modern culture around the globe. For example, through the influence of American media, we have exported our materialism into third world countries that at one time were content with their simple lives. Many lucrative grants are offered to third-world countries to provide food and clean water…but only if they promote and comply with first-world family planning (i.e. population control).

            Another element of our modern world that could signal Christ’s immanent return is the widespread atheism and apostasy that has never before been seen on such a large scale. People are leaving religion in droves – we have never before had a culture that is truly secular, as we do now. In fact the word “culture” comes from the Latin “cultus”, meaning worship – it was always some sort of faith that held a culture together (whether Christianity, Islam, Eastern religions, or just the ancient pagan religions that all tribes ascribed to). We now have a world where religion is passe. Since religion no longer binds us together (as the word “religion” comes from the Latin “re-ligare” which means to bind), then the result is relativism – the belief that there are no truths, we can all define our own. Never before in human history has relativism been the prevailing philosophy.

            Finally, although sin has always been there, the sheer magnitude of sin cries out for God’s redemption. On a daily basis, how many millions of people commit the sin of gossip through social media? Every year, over 930,000 unborn babies lose their lives to abortion in America alone – this is more than any war or barbaric society could even conceive of in the past. The amount of bad pictures and videos of sex and violence that a man can look up in an afternoon is more than the most decadent Roman emperor could see in his lifetime. The ease with which one can fall into sin, coupled with the abandonment of God, cries out for His intervention!

            And thus, I feel like we are like the Israelites of today’s passionate first reading: “Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways, and harden our hearts so that we fear you not? Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, while you wrought awesome deeds we could not hope for!” As Christians our whole lives should be “Maranatha,” the ancient Christian cry meaning “Come, Lord Jesus!”

            Whenever it does come, let us be prepared – our lamps burning, our faith strong, our hearts expecting Him to come and bring about the healing that we cannot. The world will not be saved through politics, laws, or economics – it will only be saved when God radically breaks into human history to return triumphantly – not as an innocent baby, but as a mighty judge who will bring justice for His people who await His return.

            And so we watch and we pray, “Come quickly, O Lord!”

Ordinary Time 32 - Wisdom vs Knowledge

 

Homily for November 12, 2023

Ordinary Time 32

Wisdom vs Knowledge

 

            There was an old man praying the Rosary in a horse-drawn public carriage (which were like buses back in the olden days) when, at a certain stop, a young man got in. The young man, noticing the man devoutly praying the beads, replied, “Sir, do you still believe in that?”

            He nodded that he did, and the younger man launched into a long monologue. “Oh, but religion is over! We don’t need superstition like that any more. We have science, we have reason!” And he began to try to tell the older man about all of the scientific advances that were up-and-coming.

            The older man listened patiently, and they came to his stop. He said to the younger man, “This has been a very enlightening conversation, I would like to discuss this further with you. May I give you my address, and you can pay me a visit to tell me more about this science?” The young man agreed, so the old man wrote his address on a scrap of paper and departed.

            When the old man had disembarked, the young man glanced at the paper and was shocked. It read, “Blaise Paschal, Paris Academy of Sciences.” The young man had tried to explain science to one of the greatest scientists in history, one who also possessed a rich Catholic Faith. Both men had knowledge, but only one of them had wisdom.

            Our first reading is a panegyric to wisdom. Despite all of our advances in science, technology, and learning, our world is rather short on wisdom. What is wisdom? How does it differ from knowledge? How do we grow in wisdom? Let’s examine these questions!

            Knowledge is facts, wisdom is an understanding of how the facts fit into the whole, what it all means. We may know what type of tree that is, but wisdom tells us that the tree is beautiful. We may know how the human body works, but wisdom tells us what it means to be human and what the meaning of our lives is. Knowledge can tell us what the stars are made of, but wisdom stands in awe and wonder at the heavens.

            Knowledge is good, but can be very dangerous when divorced from wisdom. After all, the first sin was to desire the “tree of knowledge” – growing so much in knowledge of all things, both good and evil, so that we would become “like gods”. Even today we see a tremendous temptation to be “like gods” with our knowledge. For example, there is a movement in science called transhumanism which seeks to live forever by merging technology and the human body. The ultimate desire of transhumanism is to download our consciousness onto a hard drive so that our personality lives on a computer, which will never die – an attempt to be like gods, without God! It is also acting “like God” to create or manipulate human life in a laboratory, instead of seeing human life as a free gift from God that we receive with gratitude. It is acting “like God” to develop technologies that cause death and destruction – after Robert Oppenheimer created the nuclear bomb, he famously declared, “I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds” – almost proud of his quasi-godlike powers.

            Wisdom is the proper balance to knowledge. Knowledge asks, “Is it possible to do this?” while wisdom asks, “Is it prudent, just, or good to do this?” Wisdom helps us to see everything in this life in the light of eternity. For example, wisdom understands that money is not an idol; wisdom understands that suffering can be redeemed by love; wisdom sees every human being in light of their intrinsic dignity from God.

            So how do we grow in wisdom? How do we cultivate that understanding of the meaning of life, the proper understanding of all things in light of eternity? Three ways.

            First, study the wisdom of past ages. Every page of the Scriptures is full of rich wisdom of how best to live life. The lives and writings of the saints show us how wisdom is put into practice. Surround yourself with wise people, both those of the past and those alive now, and seek out their wisdom. It’s far easier to glean the wisdom of others than to try to discover it ourselves!

            Second, learn the lessons God is trying to teach us, particularly through suffering. We almost always seek to get out of suffering – be it physical, emotional, relational – but this is a priceless opportunity to gain a new, eternal perspective. What is God trying to teach you through your bad diagnosis? What is God trying to form in you through that difficult boss or challenging marriage? How will your perspective change because of the loneliness, struggle, or pain that you’re going through? Nothing is wasted – all can form wisdom within us.

            Finally, we can grow in wisdom through wonder. We don’t have much wonder in today’s world. We like to have everything under our control, with all knowledge literally in the palm of our hands. But we should also cultivate wonder, which is the antidote to the pride that knowledge can engender. Sit one evening and marvel at the stars. Listen to a beautiful piece of music without trying to critique it. Spend time in Adoration and listen to the Teacher. Wonder makes us realize our proper place in the cosmos – we do not, and will never, know all things, and that is good! As God revealed to St. Catherine of Siena, “I am He Who is, you are she who is not.” It’s good to feel small in the universe!

            Even the most learned scholars in history needed to cultivate wisdom. St. Thomas Aquinas, who was perhaps the most brilliant man to ever live, who wrote literally millions of words about every subject under the sun, stopped writing towards the end of his life, leaving his magnum opus unfinished. When his friends asked why, he told them that he had experienced a vision of Christ Crucified while he was celebrating Mass. He said that compared to seeing the greatness of God, everything he had written was “like straw”. A man of profound humility – and wisdom.

            Knowledge is good – very good. It has immeasurably improved human lives in our modern world. But I fear that we have lost wisdom – we do not understand where we’ve come from, where we’re going, or any meaning behind all this knowledge. But Christ, Who is Wisdom incarnate, wants to balance our knowledge with His wisdom – so that we can keep everything in its proper eternal perspective.

Ordinary Time 31 - What If It's All True?

 

Homily for November 5, 2023

Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time

What If It’s True?

 

            Mark Hart was a young teen when he was forced to go on his confirmation retreat. He dreaded it. Oh great, some super-boring weekend where I have to listen to lectures. And, indeed, the weekend turned out to be as bad as he expected…until Saturday night. The teens were all having Eucharistic Adoration, and he sat in the back, leaning against the wall, bored out of his mind. The band was playing a worship song, but he wanted none of it. He just wanted to be done and out of there.

            And then – the most random thought popped into his mind.

            What if it’s…true?

            What if that Eucharist is really…God?

            All of a sudden, he was consumed with hunger to know. Was it really true? Was the Eucharist really God? Was Jesus really who He said He was? Are Heaven and Hell real? Is the Catholic Church really the true Church?

            For the rest of that night, he spoke to the Lord and asked the questions – and then when he got back home, Mark investigated the answers, and came to the conclusion that yes, all of this is true. It was the beginning of his conversion. He’s now a professional Catholic speaker and teacher, an expert in the Bible.

            St. Paul rejoices that the Thessalonians accepted the Gospel, not as a human teaching, but as Divine Revelation. But it still boggles my mind that there are many – yes, many – churchgoing Catholics who don’t believe that Catholicism is true. Recently one of our parishioners, who teaches at St. Joseph’s High School, was telling me that the school chaplain had requested an exorcist to come into the school and give a solemn blessing to the place, because some weird and creepy stuff had been going on. This teacher was sitting with another teacher in the lounge, talking about the spiritual warfare they had been experiencing, when another teacher there – a Catholic – spoke up and said, “Wait, do you guys really believe that stuff about angels and demons?” Uh, yes, they do. Christianity isn’t just a nice myth or a comforting philosophy that makes us feel better about ourselves – I am here to make the claim that everything the Church teaches is true!

             How can we be sure? Well, it’s not something we can scientifically prove, true. I cannot prove that I have a soul, or that the Eucharist is Jesus, or that Heaven and Hell are real. But there are many things in life I cannot prove – I cannot scientifically prove that my mother loves me, or that Julius Caesar really existed. It would be impossible to personally verify everything I’ve ever been told or taught. Instead of proof, we look for the evidence.

            And what is the evidence for the truth of Catholicism? Let’s look at several pieces of evidence (and this is not a comprehensive list):

            First, the Bible is a historical document, telling real stories of real people who really encountered God. We have over 6,000 manuscripts – fragments and entire books – of the Bible from before the end of the first century. In contrast, there are only 49 manuscripts about Aristotle’s sayings. Archeology has consistently backed up the Scriptures – for example, researches have found chariot wheels at the bottom of the Red Sea, showing that the Egyptians really did chase the Israelites through the Red Sea upon their departure from Egypt.

            Throughout the past twenty centuries, fifty million people who shed their blood for the Catholic Faith, showing that this is not an empty myth but a Truth worth dying for. In fact, the witness of all the saints throughout history is evidence of the truth of Christianity: the martyrs, the priests and religious, the holy marriages, the works of mercy, the scientifically-unexplainable miracles that have happened – all of these help to bolster belief that this is all true.

            These pieces of evidence do not prove that Catholicism is true, but they are pieces of convincing evidence. And I’ve seen enough evidence that I’m convinced. Our faith is not blind – the Medieval scholastics had a saying, Fides Quarens Intellectum – faith seeking understanding. We believe, and we look for reasons to back up our belief.

            But faith is not merely an intellectual exercise. Once we believe that Christianity is actually true, the consequence is that we must live like it’s true. This was the issue Jesus had with the Pharisees in the Gospel – the Pharisees believed, but didn’t live like it’s true.

            For us Christians, there are real consequences to our intellectual faith. If we really believe that Heaven and Hell are realities, which one are we living for? If we believe that our soul lives forever, why do we not take more care of it? If we believe that God really hears our prayers, why do we not dedicate serious time to daily prayer? If we believe that the Bible is the Word of God, why do we not spend time reading it daily and letting it inform our life? If we really believe that the Eucharist is Jesus, we would never miss Mass or receive without regular Confession.

            I gotta be honest, I believe with my whole heart and soul that Catholicism is true. Some of us here may not be there yet – and that’s fine, but seek. I’m not asking you to believe blindly. I’m asking you to examine the evidence and see if all this is real. St. Augustine said, “Truth is like a lion – you don’t have to defend it, just let it loose and it will defend itself.”

            I want to live my life like all this is true. Do you?

Homily for All Saints Day - Joyful Paradox

 

Homily for All Saints Day

The Paradox

 

            Saint Francis was walking back to his monastery with Brother Leo on a bitterly cold, rainy day. They were discussing what it mean to be truly joyful. Brother Leo suggested several things that might be joyful: being in perfect health, having knowledge of all sciences and nature, having the ability to work miracles, converting souls to Christ. Yet every time Leo would mention one of these, St. Francis would shake his head and say, “No, no, that’s not true joy.”

            Finally, Brother Leo ran out of ideas, and in frustration, demanded of St. Francis, “Then what is true joy, really?”

            St. Francis replied, “When we have arrived at our monastery cold and shivering, exhausted and starving, and the doorkeeper looks at us and says, ‘You two are not really among our brothers,’ and he leaves us outside and begins to insult and abuse us – if we can accept all that as the will of God for us at that moment, that is pure joy.”

            Francis is quite right – and one could certainly consider him one of the happiest men to ever live.

            We all want to be happy. In fact, every decision we make is for our happiness. Why do we come to school? Because we think a good education will give us a good job someday, and that will make us happy. Why do we spend time with this friend or that friend? Because they make us happy. Why do we play this sport or that sport? Because we enjoy it – it makes us happy.

            And Jesus in the Gospels gives us eight guidelines for happiness! He begins each Beatitude with those words, “Blessed are you…” – in other words, you will be happy if you do these things!

            But notice what comes afterward. Blessed are you…who are poor in spirit. Wait, I thought the rich were happy? Nope, if you want true happiness, embrace the poverty of spirit that prefers nothing to Christ. Blessed are you…who are meek. Wait, the world tells me that I need to become famous and popular to be happy? Nope, if you want true happiness, choose the route of humility, being forgotten by the world and remembered in the Heart of God. Blessed are you…who are pure. Wait, the world tells me that happiness is having as much pleasure as I want? Nope, if you want true happiness, we deny our flesh so that our spirit will thrive. Blessed are you…when you are persecuted. Wait, the world tells me I have to be successful and have a good reputation? Nope, if you want true happiness, pursue God alone and don’t worry about what other people say or think or do.

            So the Beatitudes are a paradox. A paradox means that two things that are seemingly opposite are actually both true. On one hand, we have to deny ourselves – on the other hand, we find joy in God. Both are true!

            I think it’s important to make a distinction between two types of happiness. One type of happiness is based on our circumstances – when everything in our life is going well (we are healthy, we have lots of friends, we have money in our bank account), then we experience happiness. But the problem with this type of happiness is that it’s fickle – it can change in an instant when our circumstances change – we get sick, we lose a friend, we lose our job.

            A deeper kind of happiness – a true joy – is based on the unshakeable confidence that we are profoundly, personally, passionately loved by God, and that our life has meaning and purpose in glorifying Him here and enjoying Him forever in Heaven. This can never be taken away!

            And it is this deeper happiness that all the saints had. This is why St. Mother Theresa could smile while picking up a maggot-infested dying man from the gutter. This is why St. Cecilia could sing with joy when she was being martyred for her faith. This is why St. Francis could praise God in utter, abject poverty. This is why St. Thomas More could make a joke when about to be beheaded for his Catholic faith, saying to the executioner, “Please do not harm my beard, it did nothing wrong.”

            The saints knew that their happiness did not come from their circumstances, but rather from an unshakeable belief that they were loved and that their life was directed to Heaven. Paradoxically, their circumstances were opposite of what the world considers happiness – they were often poor, suffered a great deal, disciplined their desires, practiced virtue amidst difficult trials, and sometimes lost their lives for their Faith. And yet they are the happiest people I know – and I want that kind of deep, unshakeable joy.

            As Bl. Carlo Acutis said, “Sadness is looking at oneself; happiness is looking at God. Conversion is nothing but a movement of the eyes.”

            Want to be happy? Strive to be a saint.