All Saints Day 2024 - Remember Who You Are

 

Homily for All Saints Day

November 1, 2024

Remember Who You Are

 

            Young Ben Hooper grew up in Tennessee, in the depths of the Bible Belt. His mother wasn’t married when Ben was born, and the deep South in the late 1800s was a tough place to grow up if you were a child out of wedlock. He recounts that his classmates shunned him, called him names, and he had to eat lunch by himself every day. Even the townspeople of Newport would whisper among themselves when Ben walked through town. He said he could feel their judgmental stares and gossipy comments, as he put it, “bore a hole through him” – everyone wondering who his real father was. In those days there was so much shame and social stigma to being fatherless.

            One day when he was 12, a new preacher came into his church. Ben made it a point to avoid him, ashamed of his background. He would come late and leave early from services so he wouldn’t have to greet the preacher. But one day the preacher happened to run into the boy in town.

            “Hey, boy!” the preacher called out. “I see you in church every Sunday – what’s your name? Who’s your father?”

            Oh here it comes, Ben thought. He felt the old black cloud come down upon him.

            But much to his surprise, the Preacher looked down at the boy for a moment, and a smile of recognition came upon his face. “Wait a minute,” he said. “I know who you are. I can see the family resemblance. You’re a son of God.” With that, the preacher put his arm on the boy’s shoulder and said, “And boy, you’ve got a great inheritance. Go and claim it.”

            Ben Hooper said that was the moment his life changed. He knew who he was, and he no longer had to live in shame. He went on to become a two-term governor of Tennessee.

            Our second reading gives us a consolation and a challenge. The consolation – we are God’s children now, and we shall grow evermore in this sonship. How could He be pleased to adopt me – after all I’ve done – as His son? How could He adopt you – with all your insecurities and wounds – as His child? And yet, out of the gratuity of His love, He has done just that. I don’t care who your earthly parents are, whether they’re saints or deadbeats, Rosary-praying church ladies or drug addicts. If you have been baptized and walk in the faith of Jesus Christ, you are a son of God.

            The challenge – “Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure,

as he is pure.” A son or daughter of God does not wallow in sin. We’re made for more than that! I think of the great story of St. John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests. When he first came to his town of Ars, he found that it had 250 people…and seven bars. That’s not a good ratio! He knew that, to obtain the conversion of his people, he needed to stop the drunkenness and the dirty dancing that went along with it. One day, as a very indecent dance was taking place in one of the taverns, and to stop it, he used a simple tactic. He simply walked over to the tavern, and stood in the middle of the dance floor, wearing his priestly garments. He said nothing, but merely stood there, gazing peacefully at the revelers. When they caught sight of the silent priest in their midst, all of a sudden they were struck by his noble bearing. He looked so dignified, peaceful – and they had been dancing impurely like crazed animals. They began to realize that their drunkenness, lust, and bawdy jokes were humiliating, beneath their dignity. One by one, they began to depart, until the tavern was empty – and within a couple of years every one of those bars was closed down and the people frequented the church instead!

            Jason Evert is a chastity speaker who hosts a podcast called “Lust is boring.” But we could say the same thing about any of the vices. Greed is boring. Envy is disgusting. Wrath and hatred are so beneath you. Sloth and laziness are so immature. Frankly, all sin is stupid and pointless – really, we would trade an eternal crown of glory for a few short moments of degrading pleasure? Let it not be so among you!

            A saint is one who realizes his dignity and lives out of it. As Pope St. Leo said, so powerfully, Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God’s own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Remember who you are, and Whose you are – and do nothing that is beneath your dignity.

            Someday we will see God face-to-face – keep your eyes pure. Weekly Our Lord rests upon our tongues – make sure that your words glorify Him. He has revealed His truth to our minds – let us take every thought captive and make it obedient to Him. We have been purchased at a tremendous price, the Blood of the Son of God – let us delight our good Father with our deeds.

            Saints knew who they were, and acted accordingly.

            My dear Christians, remember who you are: a people redeemed. Now let your life reflect that awesome dignity!

Feast of St. Jude - A New Name

 

Homily for St. Jude Novena

Monday, October 28, 2024

You Are Not Your Name

 

            It would be rough to have a famous last name – you’re always following in someone else’s footsteps. For example, did you know that the hockey great Wayne Gretzky’s son Trevor decided to play baseball instead of hockey? After he washed out of minor league baseball, he got into acting…and did pretty well, I guess, considering he starred in a movie with Bruce Willis. But I wonder if his dad was disappointed that he didn’t follow the hockey path…and I wonder if Trevor had different interests so that he wouldn’t have to live in his father’s shadow.

            Sometimes, though, the name has darker connotations. There are actually three nephews of Adolf Hitler who live in Long Island, but understandably they have changed their last name and refused all media interviews. Who would want to live with a name like that?

            Such is the case with our saint today. The reason why St. Jude is considered the patron of impossible cases is because his name is essentially the same name as the most infamous person in human history: Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed Jesus Christ. It was said that you must be pretty desperate in your prayers, asking every single Apostle for their intercession, before you got to St. Jude, lest you come too close to praying to Judas!

            But St. Jude, with his faith, was not held down because of his name. No, he remained faithful to Christ, penned one of the letters of the New Testament, spent his life ministering in Persia, and ended up winning the martyr’s crown. He was not defined by his name or his association with an evil person – he knew that Jesus Christ had given him a better identity, a truer name.

            When reflecting on our own lives, are you proud of every name you’ve ever borne? Maybe you didn’t have a great family, and you live under the shadow of their dysfunctions and sins. Maybe you were called names as a kid, and these names became your identity. I was recently reading about a young man whose father called him “Seagull”, because, as his dad said, “All you’re good for is sitting around and squawking.” What a terrible identity – and a terrible wound. Do these things define us?

            One of the passages of Scripture that has always mystified me is from the Book of Revelation, where Jesus is speaking to those Christians who were struggling to remain faithful during persecution. He says, “To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.” How fascinating – that one of the gifts God will give to us is a new name, a new identity. If you are in Christ, He doesn’t see your messed-up family, your past, or your reputation. He calls you a new name – Beloved Child, Redeemed One, Conqueror.

            Claim that new name! Live out of that new identity! In Christ, St. Jude went from being one step away from Judas to a powerful Apostle, missionary, martyr, and intercessor. In Christ, you too can shake off the past and be transformed into a saint!

Ordinary Time 29 - The Gift of Human Life, Part 3 - The Life of the Soul

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 29

October 20, 2024

The Gift of Life, Part 3

 

            Many of us have visited Yale’s campus in New Haven. If you have, you’ve probably seen the statue of Nathan Hale, the first American spy. He’s often held up as a hero, but he was kind of a fool because his first spy mission didn’t go so well – due to his own fault. At the young age of 21, he volunteered himself to George Washington to spy on the British. He did so for a couple weeks, but one night he was out relaxing at a tavern in New York, a British soldier approached him and pretended to be a Patriot. Lubricated by more than a few beers, Hale told him everything and boasted about his spy mission. It didn’t take long for Hale to be arrested and found guilty of espionage. But he is perhaps best remembered for his immortal line right before his execution: “My only regret is that I have only one life to give for my country.”

            An inspiring thought! The entire point of this life is to give it away – Pope St. John Paul II said so powerfully, “Man can only find himself in a sincere gift of himself.” In other words, we only truly live when we find something to die for.

            This month of October is known as Respect Life month, when we consider the dignity and sacredness of all human life. I’d like to reflect upon the dignity of human life in light of our ultimate destiny – Heaven.

            In Greek, there are three words for “life”. There is bios, as in “biology”, meaning physical life – living, breathing, walking around. There is psuche, as in “psychology”, meaning the life of the mind – we are conscious, sentient beings. But then there is zoe, meaning fulfillment, joy, living out our purpose. There are an awful lot of people who are walking around, living, breathing, going to work or school – who have absolutely no idea why they were put on this earth. Earlier this year I started my Confirmation classes with the question, “What is the meaning of life?” I got some strange answers – “To live it…to have fun…” or just blank stares. As that famous line from the movie “The Sixth Sense” put it, “I see dead people walking around…and they don’t even know they’re dead.” I see a lot of people who are physically quite healthy – but are spiritually dead, and don’t even know it.

            The best medical practitioners recognize that we are a unity of body and soul, and that our physical life and health is good only insofar as it gives us strength to serve God. I think of the great St. Rene Goupil, a French doctor who traveled to America in the 1600s to serve as a missionary along with several other Jesuit priests. Rene was able to help the priests tremendously by offering his medical services to the native Mohawk peoples in upstate New York – once the natives experienced physical healing, they were more open to receiving the Gospel. However, not everyone was in favor of the missionaries’ presence, and the chief eventually forbade the Jesuits from teaching about Jesus Christ. One day, however, Rene was walking through the woods when a young Mohawk boy asked him to teach him about Jesus. So Rene taught the boy how to make the Sign of the Cross – and an older Mohawk brave saw it, reported it to the chief, who ordered Rene to be martyred. St. Rene Goupil realized that, as good as it was to take care of the physical health of the Mohawk people, they more urgently needed the spiritual health of Christ.

            We see this same dynamic in the Gospel. Bartimaeus receives a physical healing, but that is the least important miracle in the Gospel. More importantly, he receives the grace of faith and becomes one of Christ’s followers. One day his body went into the ground, but his soul still lives to this day – hopefully in Heaven, although the Church has never declared Bartimaeus a saint.

            So what are our takeaways? I’d like to mention three. First, we must always prioritize spiritual over physical health. Both are good, but more important is the soul which is eternal. So if it’s the end of the day and we have only twenty minutes left and we can either pray or work out, we ought to choose the prayer. If we have to choose between worshipping God at Mass and taking our kids to their sports, we need to prioritize Mass. It is good to pray for physical health for our family and friends – but it is better to pray for their conversion and sanctification. Our body is good, for it is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we should care for it. But our soul is better, for it will last into eternity, while the body…as the saying goes, “No one makes it out alive.” So prioritize the soul over the body!

            Second, any health care or medical research must respect God’s law and the dignity of the human person. Unfortunately much of the medical research community is focused on “can we do it?” instead of “should we do it?” Science isn’t a free-for-all where we should do everything that is theoretically possible – the limits of the free inquiry of science should be the eternal Law of God and respect for His plans. Research that is done upon embryos or health care that violates our Catholic teachings must be avoided, and when we are involved in beginning-of-life or end-of-life issues, we should form our consciences well by studying what the Church has taught on those matters, so we know the Mind of Christ.

            Finally, the last takeaway is that life is not absolute, and there are reasons to sacrifice life and health – for Christ, and for others. I know of a priest who, during Covid, decided to continue providing Last Rites to patients dying of Covid – and because of this, the priest was on perpetual quarantine, never left his rectory except to anoint the dying, and caught the disease several times (thankfully, he survived and is fine now). I think of St. Damien of Molokai, the Belgian priest who spent his life ministering in a leper colony in Hawaii, eventually catching and dying of the disease. I think of Bl. Stanley Rother, a priest from Oklahoma who was ministering to the people of Guatemala during their civil war back in the late 1970s. He was threatened by the rebel insurgents so often that his bishop called him back to Oklahoma to save his skin, but he convinced the Bishop to let him return, saying, “How can a shepherd run away when the wolf is at the door?” He was eventually martyred for his faithfulness to his people. There have been many saints who preferred to suffer and die rather than commit sin. The entire point of life is not to preserve it indefinitely – it’s to give it away to Someone worth the sacrifice. I was very inspired when Msgr. Sabia was here in July for his 90^th birthday Mass and, at great personal cost, genuflected during the Consecration. Surely it was difficult and painful to genuflect, as his knees are not good (at 90, whose would be!). But he knows that Jesus Christ is worth the pain.

            My friends, in the midst of Respect Life Month, we remember that life is a sacred gift from God that should be cherished and protected, for ourselves, our families and neighbors, and the most vulnerable in society. But we also acknowledge that the divine life of grace in our soul is infinitely more valuable, and that our human life is given to us so that we can serve God faithfully here, and someday possess Him for eternity.

Ordinary Time 28 - The Gift of Human Life, Part 2 - Who Are the Vulnerable?

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 28

October 13, 2024

The Dignity of the Vulnerable

 

            A random fact about my life is that I was on Food Network for five seconds. Yes, it’s true. When I was a deacon, I was visiting a brother priest who asked me, “Can you assist me at Mass? By the way, a film crew will be here.” So we had Mass and a film crew from Food Network was there, because right after Mass, this priest – Fr. Leo Patalinghug – was going to be on “Throwdown with Bobby Flay”. Fr. Leo won the throwdown, by the way.

            But now Fr. Leo has a much more important ministry than just making good food – he’s making good lives. He runs a ministry called “Grace and Grub” which is a food truck…run by ex-convicts. While much of the world sees these men as wasted lives, Fr. Leo trains them in cooking and job skills, and gives them a chance to contribute to society. It’s a population that so often is seen as lacking human dignity – but Fr. Leo sees their dignity and loves them back into the men they were created to be.

            We continue our series on “human dignity” during this Respect Life month by looking at different facets of human dignity. For all of our technological progress and first-world comforts, the true mark of a civilized society is how it treats the most vulnerable – and we do not do a particularly good job on many fronts, in large part because we’ve lost the Christian understanding of the human person as made in the Image and Likeness of God, from conception until natural death.

            With this understanding of our inherent dignity, our Church teaches that we must have a Preferential Option for the Poor – in other words, in our laws and policies and even in our daily lives, our first thought and concern should be for the poor. But who are the poor? The poor are the unborn, the elderly and sick, immigrants, victims of war or abuse or racism, those who struggle with addictions, the disabled, and those who are materially poor. These particularly vulnerable populations deserve our concern, protection, and aid.

            In doing so, we recognize that dignity does not depend upon which side of the womb you’re on. Dignity doesn’t depend on the amount of money in one’s bank account. Dignity doesn’t depend upon one’s health or having only a short time remaining on earth. Dignity does not depend upon what language you speak or what country you come from. Dignity is not taken away based upon a person’s limitations, what they’ve done, or what they’ve been through.

            St. Vincent de Paul, who worked with the poor his entire life, admitted that to our eyes, human dignity could be hard to see. He once said, “The poor are our masters, but masters who are terribly insensitive and demanding, dirty and ugly, unjust and foul-mouthed. But the harder they are to serve, the more we have to love them.”

            After all, Christ was Himself “the poor”. He was an unborn baby in a crisis pregnancy. He was an immigrant when forced to move to Egypt. He lived in poverty and labored with His hands. He was so disfigured in His Passion that the Scriptures said that He hardly had the appearance of a man. He was injured and helpless upon the Cross. And so He said that those who feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, or shelter the homeless are doing those acts of kindness to Him.

            Some of the saints took this quite seriously. St. Camillus, who was dedicated to taking care of the sick, once came up to a sick person and asked him to forgive his sins – he truly believed that this sick person was Christ! The Hungarian Queen, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, once found a poor man suffering from illness, and not having the ability to take him to a hospital, brought him to her own bed in home. When her husband objected to having a sick stranger in his own bed, he angrily tore off the covers and was shocked to find, instead of a sick man, a vision of Christ stretched out on the Cross upon the bedsheets. Clearly, to respect human dignity and to love our neighbor is to love Christ Himself!

            I hope it is safe to say that we all agree thus far that human dignity is non-negotiable. However, with an election looming and so many issues of human dignity at the forefront, how is this truth to impact our choices? It is important to make a distinction among certain issues.

            Human beings have many rights: life, food and shelter, love, home, a right to an education and employment, a right to freedom of religion and freedom from fear. But of all the rights that a person has, the right to life is the most fundamental and under no circumstances can we allow a person to take the life of an innocent person. Therefore, all persons of good will must be committed to protecting the lives of the unborn and the elderly as a primary value as we look to build a Culture of Life.

            By contrast, there are many issues of human dignity where people of good will can disagree about how best to pursue the good. For example, we all must welcome immigrants, but people of good will can disagree about the best way to do that while protecting our own country. We all must be concerned about poverty, but there can be a wide range of solutions for ending poverty. These are not unimportant issues, but there can be legitimate disagreements about how we can respect human dignity.

            So what are our “action steps” in response to the great dignity of every human being? First – we have a duty to work toward a just society which respects all human dignity. We work toward it through the political process, through making our voices heard in the halls of power, through peaceful and prayerful protests and activism which seek to build a “Culture of Life” and by praying for the conversion of our leaders. Second – we have a duty to respect human dignity in our own spheres of influence – by being there for the friend in a crisis pregnancy, taking care of and not abandoning our elderly relatives, welcoming immigrants in our midst, finding ways to alleviate the sufferings of the poor, and supporting charities which do such things. We aim to build a Culture of Life in our homes, our neighborhoods, our town, state, and country.

            In a truly Christian society, no one is unwanted. No one is disposable. As Pope St. John Paul II said, “The only right response to another human being is love.”

            Let’s build that truly Christian society.

Ordinary Time 27 - The Gift of Human Life

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 27

October 6, 2024

The Gift of Human Life

 

            In 1995, Pope St. John Paul II released a document which became one of the cornerstones of his pontificate: Evangelium Vitae, which means “The Gospel of Life.” This encyclical letter (which is a letter from the Pope to the entire world, carrying magisterial weight) coined that phrase which would be so repeated by the saintly pontiff for the remainder of his tenure: We are facing an enormous and dramatic clash between good and evil, death and life, the “culture of death” and the “culture of life.”. He held up these two contrasting ideas - culture of life and culture of death – as the great battle of our time. And here we are, almost thirty years later, with the battle still raging around us. As our Church enters into October, which is designated as Respect Life month, and as our nation is roiled by continual disagreements about the gift and meaning of human life, today I begin a month-long homily series discussing the Culture of Life and how it is lived out joyfully, with love.

            But first, let us examine what makes human life unique – in a world that is sometimes lost to it! Haven’t we all seen the old Fancy Feast commercial where the cat is being given the choicest, most delectable tidbits to eat out of the crystal goblet – while at the same time there are starving people in Bridgeport? Human life is infinitely more valuable than a pet’s. Why? Let us look at five aspects of human life that makes it unique, valuable, and worthy of respect.

            First, human life is sacred. We are made in the Image and Likeness of God, with an intellect and freedom. The Church has always been on the forefront of human dignity – whether it was the Dominican priest Fr. Bartolome de las Casas objecting to the harsh mistreatment of Native Americans among the Conquistadores, the religious orders like the Camillians who founded the modern hospital system, the great works of charity of St. Vincent de Paul and Mother Teresa, or the bold stand against the Nazi juggernaut by Bl. Franz Jagerstatter. The Church, since it is made of individuals, is not perfect in its history of respecting human rights – but it was truly due to the influence of Christianity that the world shifted from being “nasty, brutish, and short” to being one that sees the sacredness of every human life.

            This was one of the main reasons why Christianity spread so rapidly in the Roman Empire – it was the first religion to actually respect human dignity for everyone, from the poorest to the rich. An anonymous early Church document called “The Letter to Diognetus”, from approximately 130AD, talks about this stark, countercultural juxtaposition of the Roman culture of power, domination and violence with the unique compassion and respect that Christians showed: Like others, they marry and have children, but they do not expose them. (Exposing children was the ancient tradition of taking a handicapped child and leaving them in a field or forest to die). (Christians) share their meals, but not their wives. They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. Obedient to the laws, they yet live on a level that transcends the law. Christians love all men, but all men persecute them. They suffer dishonor, but that is their glory. They are defamed, but vindicated. A blessing is their answer to abuse, kindness their response to insult. It was this radical commitment to the sacredness of all human life that caused the Church to be looked at in wonder – and for Christ’s message to spread

            Second, human life is a right. Our Declaration of Independence was correct when it stated that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” This right to life comes from God and cannot be taken away by any government or individual.

            Third, human lives are equal. If you were in a psychology class in college, you may have had to do the classic “Lifeboat” thought experiment. We were taught something along the lines of, “There are ten people on a sinking ship, and the lifeboat only has five spots. Who do you let on? You have a college professor, a person with cancer, an elderly person, a child, a famous athlete, your mother, someone with Downs’ Syndrome…” and the list goes on. The whole idea of the exercise is to somehow judge which lives are worth saving and which lives are not worth anything. With the eyes of a Christian, though, every life has the same equal value since all are loved infinitely by God and are invited to the same eternal destiny. There is no human life that has greater or lesser value than any other, based on talent or looks or money or size. From the first moment of conception until natural death, every human life has equal value.

            Fourth, human life is a gift. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. He does not owe us another day of life or another breath – but all is gift. It is a gift that we must treat well, lest we offend the Giver – hence, our obligation to take care of our health and the health of others.

            Because it’s a gift, it is not something we are owed. This is especially true for couples who are struggling to have a child, which is a tremendous cross for many families. Recently IVF has made the news, and I know it is very prevalent in this community. But IVF is always gravely immoral, since it makes a child, not a gift, but a commodity to be manufactured. A child has a right to be brought into existence through an act of love, not a scientific technique. In this way, we preserve the nature of the gift – the giver is God, and we receive the gift of human life with gratitude and openness.

            Finally, life, as good as it is, is not absolute and there are many reasons to give it up. Greater love has no man, says that Lord, than to lay down his life for his friend. The fifty million martyrs who shed their blood for Christ demonstrated this profoundly – there are reasons to give up our health, our energy, our very lives.

            As Pope John Paul II said, “The basis for every good thing in society is the dignity of the human person.” Life is always a good, as it participates in the very life of God. This earthly life is a hint and a foreshadowing of that life that never ends, which we all yearn for. As St. Irenaeus put it, “The glory of God is man fully alive” – and this is His destiny for us, not just an earthly existence, but a Heavenly one where this earthly life will reach its fulfillment.