Homily for Ordinary Time 3 - January 23, 2022

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 3

January 23, 2022

Historicity of the Gospels

 

            I love how Luke begins his Gospel because he tells us straight-up that he is writing history, not a legend. Legends begin with, “Once upon a time…”. But history begins with “In this specific place, at this specific time…” And Luke makes it clear that he is not just repeating mythical stories – no, he looked into all of these events himself, and is writing a historical account of a real man named Jesus.

In 1979, an atheist, Yale-educated journalist named Lee Strobel was shocked when his wife, an atheist like himself, converted to Christianity. He wanted to disprove her new faith, so he set about to investigate the claims of Christianity in the hopes of finding Jesus to be a myth.

            Applying his journalistic skills to the person of Jesus, he uncovered some startling facts. He found that every reputable historian agrees that Jesus really existed. In fact, in the first few centuries after Jesus, there were many pagans – non-Christians - who wrote about Jesus. Early historians such as Tacitus, Flavius Josephus, and Pliny the Younger – all of whom wrote in the first two centuries after Jesus – spoke about him as a really existing person. Even from a secular standpoint, Jesus actually has more historical evidence than any other ancient person.

            Plus, the Gospels are historical documents themselves. Two of them – Matthew and John – were both eyewitnesses to the events of Jesus, and wrote their Gospels only 30 years after He lived. We actually have copies of John’s Gospel from about 120AD, so we know that the original manuscripts of the Gospels came from the first century. The other two Gospels – Mark and Luke – interviewed eyewitnesses for their material. Mark interviewed St. Peter, and Luke used St. Paul and the Blessed Mother as his sources.

            These writings agree in the fundamentals. Yes, there are some small discrepancies, but how many times have you disagreed with your spouse about events that happened years in the past? The husband says, “Oh, remember that time last year the Joneses came over and Mary spilled the red wine on her white dress?” And the wife responds, “It was two years ago, it was the Smiths, and it was actually a martini.” The small disagreements in the Gospels don’t change the truth of Jesus – He really lived, preached, did miracles, died on a Cross, and rose from the dead. After studying all this, the journalist Lee Strobel realized there was no escaping the truth that Jesus really existed, really claimed to be God, and really rose from the dead. He converted to Christianity and ended up becoming a Protestant pastor.

            If Jesus is not just a myth – if He really lived and really died and really rose again – this has two consequences for us. First, it means we can have a real relationship with Him. We can’t have a real relationship with Harry Potter or Luke Skywalker, since they don’t really exist. But I can speak to the Lord – and He really hears me, because He is real. And…He speaks to us, too!

            Nowadays, people are seeking spirituality in all sorts of places. A month or so ago I met with a woman who was going through a crisis, and I suggested that she pray about it. She said, “Yes, I shall consult the energies.” Energies? Since when do energies hear or answer prayer? She wanted to be “in touch with the universe” – but the Universe isn’t a person! But Jesus Christ is really alive, a real person, with whom we can have a real relationship. All of our spirituality, then, must be based on pursuing a living relationship with Jesus through daily prayer, Scripture reading, and encountering Him through the Sacraments.

            Second, if Jesus is real and alive, then He truly is the King of the universe – which means that He has a claim on our lives, and we have to follow Him, live for Him. One of our church’s greatest saints, St. Augustine, struggled to come to that understanding. As a kid, Augustine was a wild child. In his autobiography, “Confessions” (which, interestingly, was the first autobiography in history!), he tells a story of his teen years, when he and his friends were passing by a pear orchard. The pears were still small, hard, and unripe, but he decided to steal some and eat them. Even though they tasted awful, he said that he savored the flavor of his sin! He loved indulging in sin – he had a child outside of marriage, he ran away from his super-devout mother St. Monica, and made money and fame the goal of his life. After many years, though, his sin wore him down and he was sick and tired of the emptiness of his selfish life. He began to seek truth and meaning – first looking into a cult of quasi-Christians, before encountering a holy bishop named St. Ambrose. Ambrose taught Augustine about true Christianity, and intellectually he became a believer. But it was a struggle to forsake his sin! One time, he famously prayed, “Lord, grant me holy purity…but not yet!” He was still a slave to sin, even though he knew that Jesus was truly alive.

            One day as he was walking through a garden, he was torn up about living this double life – believing in Jesus but still living for the flesh. He heard a voice off in a distance singing, “Take up and read!” Looking down, he saw a bible on a bench. Picking it up, he read St. Paul’s words, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provisions for the desires of the flesh.” He was cut to the heart and finally able to give up his sin and live for Christ alone. He became a priest, a bishop, and is one of the greatest saints in our church.

            I am so grateful that St. Luke did what he did – giving us an accurate, historical account of Jesus Christ. Because if Jesus is real, then I can have a living relationship with Him, and I must live my life for Him alone. If He really lived and died and rose again – then this changes everything!

Homily for Ordinary Time 2 - January 16, 2022

 

Homily for January 16, 2022

Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

Bride of Christ

 

            A couple years ago, I came across an article on the Internet about a famous Catholic speaker who publicly decided to leave the Church. He said he was fed up with the scandals, the lack of community, the boring homilies, everything. So he publicly disavowed his Catholicism.

            That kind of stuff hits me like a punch in the stomach. It always depresses me when I hear of anyone leaving the Catholic Church, whether a famous speaker or a regular churchgoer. That whole day I was kind of depressed – why should I stay Catholic? I mean, he’s got a point – there are lots of scandals and bad behavior – we can all point to inappropriate behavior by those who call themselves Catholic. For example, I’ll never forget when I was about ten years old being cursed out by the deacon of my church for doing a bad job altar serving.

            But that night I was praying Evening Prayer, and the reading was from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, where Paul wrote: “Christ loved the Church.” I thought, if Jesus Christ could love the Church, with all of its flaws, then so can I.

            Christ loves the Church so much that St. Paul calls the Catholic Church the “Bride of Christ”. In the Old Testament, God’s relationship to Israel is always spoken of as a Bridegroom and Bride. Makes sense – much like a husband and wife promise lifelong faithfulness to each other, God is constantly faithful to His Bride, Israel – even when She was unfaithful to Him. God would do anything for His Bride, even to the point of laying down His life for Her, as a husband should do for His wife.

            So it is fitting that Jesus should do His first miracle at a wedding feast! He is forming a new Israel: you and I, the Catholic Church. Look how He does it – He takes these jars which are used for Jewish ceremonial washings – a symbol of Judaism’s Law – and turns that water into the most delightful wine – a symbol of the grace that we will experience through our faith in Him. The Church then begins at the end of the Gospel today, when it says that “His disciples believed in Him.” Now we have the beginnings of the new Bride of Christ, the Church, which is the gathering of all those who believe in Jesus Christ.

            But, so often we don’t see the Church as the Bride of Christ. A lot of times it just looks like a mess. People leaving the Church, fellow believers who are not truly living their Faith, leaders who are uninspiring or worse. This is when I have the hope that God promises in the first reading: “Nations shall behold your vindication, and all the kings your glory; you shall be called by a new name pronounced by the mouth of the LORD. You shall be a glorious crown in the hand of the LORD, a royal diadem held by your God. No more shall people call you “Forsaken,”

or your land “Desolate,” but you shall be called “My Delight,” and your land “Espoused.” For the LORD delights in you and makes your land his spouse.” At the end of time, we will see the Church as a radiant Bride, perfectly holy, faithful to Jesus – as She was always meant to be.

            Until that day, though, “The Church is not a hotel for saints, but a hospital for sinners,” as Pope Francis says. Thank God, because I’m a sinner! All of us find a home here in the Church, no matter where we are on our spiritual journey.

            Nevertheless, there is real holiness in the Church, in four ways. First, the Founder of our Church is Jesus Christ – so our Founder is holy! (No other church can claim that they were founded by the Lord Himself!). Second, the goal of the Church is to get us to Heaven – out goal is holy! Third, the way we accomplish the goal is holy – the Sacraments and the Teachings of the Church. Only the Catholic Church has preserved the teachings of Christ, unchanged, for the past two thousand years. Finally, we really do have holy people in the Church – the saints! If this is the Church that could produce St. Francis, or Mother Theresa, or St. Patrick – then what can God do with you and I if we stay in the Church!

            Ultimately, where else can we go? Jesus promised that the gates of Hell will not prevail against His Church. There was a great writer in the early 1900s named Walker Percy. His early life was filled with tragedy – his father committed suicide when he was thirteen, and only two years later his mother also took her own life. He was left in the care of an uncle who provided for his education, and he started studying to be a doctor. Years later, he caught tuberculosis and had to recuperate in upstate New York. During his time in recuperation, he began to ask the deeper questions of life: why is there so much suffering in the world? Is there any meaning behind it all? He read voraciously and encountered some Catholic authors who made him wonder if there were answers in the Catholic Church. Much to everyone’s surprise, he and his wife converted to Catholicism very suddenly.

            He was later asked, “What did it? Why did you convert?” He responded, “My life has been such a disaster – this modern world is such a disaster – that I demanded from God a gift equal to the disaster.” The gift was faith in the Catholic Church, the only thing that could make sense out of his tragic life.

            Later on, when a fellow writer was contemplating becoming Catholic, Walker Percy wrote her a letter and said, “The Church is a very untidy group that you’re hooking up with, but it’s the one thing that will be around until the end.”

            If Jesus Christ can love His Bride, the Church, then so can we!

Homily for the Baptism of Our Lord - January 9, 2022

 

Homily for Baptism of Our Lord

January 9, 2022

Sacraments: Source of Living Water

 

            An old grandmother, right before her death, spoke to her granddaughter and promised to give her a great treasure. “My dear granddaughter, I had the great fortune in my life to visit the Holy Land and collect some water from the Jordan River, which I have preserved in a fancy bottle to give to my grandchildren. As you are the oldest granddaughter, I want you to have it. You can find it up there, on the shelf.” The granddaughter was overjoyed at such a sacred, powerful gift as this – to have water from the very river where Jesus Himself stepped foot! She got a stepstool and grabbed the bottle and brought it to her grandmother, but noticed something odd.

            “Grandma, the bottle is empty!” she exclaimed.

            “Well, yes, I spilled the water out some years ago…but you can keep the bottle!”

            Quite a dubious gift – and not exactly what was promised to be handed down! And yet this is exactly what we have been given, thanks to Original Sin. Our First Parents were created by God as beautiful, exquisite containers to hold a magnificent gift. They were created with a body and a soul, an intellect and a free will – but the body and soul were just meant to hold a far more magnificent reality: the grace of God. What is grace? It is God’s Divine Life within us. He wanted us to literally be living, breathing, walking outposts of God’s divine presence, radiance, holiness, and power.

            But something happened. The gift of grace was lost. And now we inherit from our parents just the vessel – the body and soul – without the connection with God. It would be like if you inherited a vintage record player…without the power cord, or a ’59 Mustang without an engine. Nice thought, but it’s missing something vital to make it function. Without the plug or the engine, it just kinda sits there and doesn’t do what it was made to do!

            But God did not want this to be our fate, so He provided a way to have our empty bottles filled at the source of Living Water. The Source, of course, is the Sacraments.

            But the Sacraments look so ordinary! Icebergs also look pretty ordinary, and of course we all know that 90% of an iceberg is underwater. In the same way, what we see in the Sacraments is only 10% of what’s really going on, in the invisible, spiritual world. For example, in Baptism, we see water poured over a baby’s head. No big deal – happens every time you give that kid a bath. But in the spiritual realm, this child is filled with God’s divine life for the first time. Their soul becomes marked with an indelible, unchangeable character that marks their soul as property of Jesus Christ. They become sons or daughters of Almighty God, heirs to the Kingdom of Heaven, members of the Church. They receive the Holy Spirit and every grace and blessing to save their own soul.

            Sometimes in modern America we think that if we can’t measure it, it’s not real, so we think grace is just a nice myth, a warm fuzzy feeling that comforts us at funerals when we sing Amazing Grace. My friends, grace is not like that at all. Rather, grace is an objective reality. Either you have grace within your soul, or you don’t. Much like a light bulb either has electricity running through it (and it’s lit up) or it doesn’t (and it’s dark), you either have God’s grace or you don’t. It’s not something you can feel or measure, but here’s how it works:

            You receive God’s grace at Baptism. You increase God’s grace first of all through the Sacraments, through other good works, prayer, and through the prayers of others. God’s grace is diminished if we neglect our faith or commit venial sin. We lose God’s grace entirely through mortal sin. Mortal sin, such as intentionally missing Mass on Sunday or other Holy Days of Obligation, intentionally getting drunk or doing drugs, sexual sin including pornography and any sexual activity outside of marriage, doing occult things like psychics or tarot cards are all mortal sins. If we find ourself having any of these on our soul, our soul is damaged – we must come to our soul’s Maker in the Sacrament of Confession for repairs. In fact, we cannot receive any other grace if we are in the state of mortal sin – it is like trying to fill your bottle with living water while the bottle has a hole in it – futile until the hole is patched up. From the vantage point of God, He sees all of our souls and recognizes those souls that are darkened and empty because they have no grace, those who are only dimly lit because of little grace, and those who shine with His radiance. And what a beautiful thing it is to shine with grace – St. Theresa of Avila said that if we could see a soul in the state of grace, we would be tempted to worship it!

            Grace is not something we earn, though. It’s a free gift, leading into a deeper relationship. We come to the Sacraments, not to buy our way into Heaven, but as launching-points to a deeper daily friendship with Jesus Christ, Who gave them to us. In fact, Jesus thinks the Sacraments are so important that the Church teaches in the Catechism that “God has bound grace to the Sacraments.” If someone said, “I will give you the key to your very own mansion at such-and-such a day at this time and place,” would we respond, “Eh, can’t you just mail it to me? Can’t I just Zoom call in?” Not if someone is being so generous! When God wants to give us His greatest gift of grace, we should be grateful to receive it in the way He has designed! – the motor to our Mustang, the power cord to our antique record player, the Divine Life that fills and radiates our soul.

            Why did God bind grace to the Sacraments, though? Three reasons. First, because we are both body and soul, we need to encounter His invisible love in a very tangible way – through the water of baptism, the Host in Communion, those healing words in Confession. Grace gets to our soul through our body! Second, because the Sacraments gather us together as a Church. A single match is quickly blown out, but when a match lights a stick which lights a log, it becomes a bonfire. When a soul is apart from the Church, their faith is quickly snuffed. But surrounded by other Christians, our faith becomes ablaze! Finally, the Sacraments continue what Jesus did on earth. Jesus forgave sins – He now does that through His priests. He gave us His Body and Blood at the Last Supper, and He continues to do so at every Mass. He told His disciples to baptize, and for twenty centuries the Church has fulfilled His commands.

            So this is why the Sacraments are so vital – they are our strongest connection to grace. Never stay away from the Sacraments! I hear so many people who think they can have a relationship with God apart from the Sacraments – they are missing out! He instituted these Sacraments as the seven faucets where we can be filled with His Divine Life! We are empty vessels who can only do good works – who can only get to Heaven – by God’s free gift of grace, which we find in Baptism and all the other Seven Sacraments.

Homily for Feast of the Holy Family - December 26, 2021

 

Homily for Feast of the Holy Family

December 26, 2021

The Holy Family: A Model for Families

 

            This year I received a Christmas card from a dear family, and the photograph was the family posing as the Holy Family. It was very cute – their two-year-old was in a wooden manger, their older kids were shepherds and wise men, and the parents were Mary and Jesus. But as I looked at it, I thought…little Joey is never that peaceful. He’s a two-year-old terror. How long did it take to get this photo right? And then I turned it over on the other side and saw the outtake photos – there was Joey throwing a temper tantrum, and the kids looking all disheveled and disorderly, and the parents screaming at the kids…that was more like the family I knew!

            Doesn’t that sometimes feel like life in our families? We want our family to look like the Holy Family, but it ends up looking like a mess. We think it’s too much of a struggle to be like that picture-perfect family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. But today’s Gospel shows us a scene from the Holy Family that is less-than-perfect – they lose their kid for three days! Even messy and imperfect families can be good and holy families. But how? Let’s turn to the Gospel.

            First, we see parents who love the Lord and center their lives on Him. Notice how this Gospel begins by saying that “each year” the family went to Jerusalem “as was their custom.” It was expected that worshipping God would be the centerpiece of this family. I’m sure they kept the sabbath, went to synagogue, taught the child Jesus how to pray and read the Scriptures.

            It is beautiful to hear stories of people who say, “My mother and father are the holiest people I know.” That is true in my case – if my father ever asked me to get something off of his dresser, I would have to search for it amidst a sea of prayerbooks and Rosaries, all of which were well-worn from daily use. If parents have a personal, daily friendship with God, keeping Him at the absolute center of their lives, the children will realize this.

            Ah, but here’s the critical piece – all of us want to believe that Jesus is the center of our families and our lives, but is He? How many times have I heard, “I sent my kids to Catholic school, and we went to Mass most Sundays, why did they abandon the Faith?” Because that’s passing the buck. Christ at the center of a family means that we keep God in every aspect of our life. We go on vacation – and we look up where to attend Mass. We pray about whether God is calling us to be more generous with our family size, or with our money. We are willing to be countercultural and not let our kids have smartphones, or at least put strong parental controls on them. We make it clear to our kids that their souls are more important than their grades or getting into a good college. We live in a culture that screams, “There is no God!” for a hundred hours a week – one hour on Sunday is not enough to counteract that message unless our family is completely living for Christ! It takes sacrifice, but so did an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem on foot…God was worth it for the Holy Family, and He is worth it for yours.

            Did you notice Jesus’ response after this dialogue between himself and Mary? It says that He went home and “was obedient to them.” Pause for a minute and let that sink in. The creator of the Universe, the all-Holy God, was obedient to a mere human being? Yes, and that is the way God ordered families for their holiness. Children under 18 grow in holiness through obedience to their parents! Consider if you had two pens. One didn’t function well and was moody; you had to hold it a certain way to write, and sometimes the ink didn’t flow properly, and it only worked if the room temperature was over 70…and you had another pen that worked any time you needed it. Which would be your favorite? In the same way, God wants young people to develop that total obedience to their parents – not when they “feel like it” or only in things that are convenient – because God wants to mold us to become HIS obedient sons and daughters. The goal isn’t, “Oh, I turn 18 and now I can do anything I want!” – the goal is, “Oh, now I am 18 and have been well-trained in obedience so I will become a good, docile son of God.” Our obedience doesn’t stop when we get older, it becomes given over to God so He can entrust us with greater tasks.

            It is true that over 18, we don’t have to obey our parents, but we must always respect them. I know many of us struggle because we have to take care of ill or aged parents. But it says in Scripture that “kindness to our fathers will never be forgotten by God.” Considering every way our parents were there for us, we learn to love by taking care of them in return. Do not abandon them in the time of their need!

            A final insight into a Holy Family is in this great exchange between Mary and Jesus. Mary asks Him, “Where have you been?” And Jesus gives a seemingly snarky response, “Don’t you know I have to be about my Father’s business?” (Anyone with teens has heard this kind of sarcasm!) But really, Jesus is teaching us that there is one thing more important than family – and that is our relationship to Him.

            King St. Louis IX of France had a very holy mother, Queen Blanche, who would tell him frequently as a young boy, “I love you my dear son, as much as a mother can love her child; but I would rather see you dead at my feet than that you should commit a mortal sin.” Shocking words – but not really, if you realize that she was just teaching him to love the Lord more than anything, including more than loving her. And King St. Louis IX took that instruction to heart – he never did commit a mortal sin, and kept his soul as pure as it had been on its baptismal day.

            Our family is a great gift from God, but it’s not the most important relationship in our lives. So when our sister-in-law doesn’t want us to pray before our family dinner because it “offends” her, or when our uncle asks why we’re such religious fanatics that we go to church every week, we smile and tell them that we love God before all else. Even Jesus had to obey His Heavenly Father over His earthly parents!

            Finally, we can all recognize that family life is messy. Jesus was born in a stable, and got lost for three days. God doesn’t wait until your family is Hallmark-perfect to become a holy family. Rather, seeking the intercession and imitation of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, God wants to make even our messy families into a holy family.

Homily for Advent 4, 2021 - Kerygma Homily 4 of 4

 

Homily for December 19, 2021

Advent 4 – Kerygma 4 of 4

Will You Follow Him?

 

            Catholics are really bad at praying out loud. I know that’s a huge generalization, but I’ve found it to be true. When I teach my freshmen and sophomore theology classes, I have one of the kids start off with a prayer…and not a pre-written prayer, either. They usually say something like this: “Dear God…um…um…thank You…um…and help us in this class. Amen.”

            Why do I bring this up? Because this fourth part of the kerygma, the basic Gospel message, is to have a daily, living relationship with Jesus Christ. And a living relationship is about more than just reciting pre-written prayers – it’s about sharing your entire life with the Lord Jesus.

            We’ve heard over the last few weeks the core of the Gospel message: that God loves us deeply, personally, passionately; but that all of us have sinned and have strayed away from Him; but that Jesus Christ paid the price for our reconciliation by His death on the Cross. But that salvation is only applied to our souls if we receive Christ through faith and a living relationship with Him.

            This same Jesus Who was born in a manger is still alive, forever and ever. Because He is alive, we can have a relationship with Him. But what does that look like, practically? Our response to His incredible love involves four things.

            First, we accept Jesus into our life. In the 1850s, a man named William Hunt painted a famous painting of Jesus knocking on someone’s door – you may have seen it before. It was based off of Revelation 2 where Jesus says, “Behold I stand at the door and knock.” But when the painting was unveiled, some people objected to the artist and said, “You painted the door wrong. There is no door handle on the outside.” The artist responded, “Exactly – you can only open the door to Jesus from the inside.” Our Lord is a gentleman and He will never force His way into our life. He waits for us to surrender – a simple prayer such as, “Jesus, I am Yours, do with me as You will” can invite Christ in.

            Second, we take time daily to speak with Him in prayer. More than just reciting words, it means putting our heart and soul into a conversation with God. Think of how stilted it would be if a husband says to his wife, “Hi Honey…I love you…very much.” She would say, “Do you even mean it?” Prayer from the heart means speaking to Jesus as you would speak to a friend – tell Him your joys and sorrows, share your burdens and worries, ask for His forgiveness, tell Him how much you love Him. It’s fine to say pre-written prayers as long as we mean them from our hearts, just as a man might quote Shakespeare passionately towards his wife, “How do I love thee, let me count the ways…” We can make the prayer “our own” – “Our Father…yes, Lord, I know that You are my Father…Who art in Heaven…my true home is with You in Heaven forever…hallowed be Thy Name…yes, Lord, let your Name be praised for all eternity…” The important thing is that we are truly speaking with God Himself!

            Third, we re-orient our lives toward His will. This means obeying Him and His teachings through the Church. At the end of our lives, either we have said to God, “Your will be done” and we enter Heaven – or God will say to us, “Your will be done” and we enter Hell. There is a beautiful, powerful story told by Fr. Karl Goldmann, an Army chaplain during World War II who was imprisoned along with his brigade in a Prisoner-of-War camp. One of his fellow soldiers was a man who really wrestled with the faith – he would meet with Fr. Goldmann after hours and question him endlessly, searching for the truth. One day, the sad news came to the camp that this soldier’s hometown had been bombed heavily and his whole family, wife and kids, were found dead in the rubble. The soldier, upon hearing the news, went back to his barracks…but a few hours later, no one could find him. Everyone feared that he had killed himself in despair and sorrow. Fr. Goldmann joined in the search for the soldier – and much to his surprise, he found the man in the tent that had been serving as their makeshift chapel. He had flung himself on the altar and was gripping the crucifix as if his life depended on it. Fr. Goldmann compassionately approached the man and asked him if he could pray with him. The soldier responded, “Yes, Father. I need you to help me pray those words from the Our Father: Thy Will Be Done.” Together, they recited the Our Father for hours together, until the man could say those words with complete serenity of heart: “Thy Will Be Done.” He walked out of the chapel-tent with a sorrowful but peaceful heart – having surrendered everything to God. When we have a living relationship with Jesus, we surrender everything to Him.

            Fourth, we seek to imitate Him. As St. Gregory of Nyssa once said, “A Christian is another Christ.” There’s a famous story of a young boy watching Michaelangelo carve his famous statue of David. As the statue started to take shape, the boy asked, “Wow! How did you know he was in there?” And the great artist replied, “I just took away anything that wasn’t him.” Having that deep, personal friendship with Christ means chipping away everything in ourselves that isn’t Him.

            Now, after hearing the Kerygma – the Gospel message – for the past four weeks, we are left with a choice. Some of us have already chosen to follow Jesus. Some of us may be sitting here and thinking, “I was baptized and confirmed, that’s good enough!” Baptism and confirmation may make us Catholics, but they don’t necessarily make us disciples, followers of Jesus – both Hitler and Stalin were baptized and confirmed Catholics! It takes a choice to follow Jesus. And now the choice is yours. Some of us may be unsure of what we believe – that’s okay, just bring those struggles and doubts to Jesus. But wherever you’re at, Jesus is ready to meet you there with healing, mercy, forgiveness, joy…salvation.

            So we’re going to take a few moments of silent prayer. If you’re already a follower of Christ, reaffirm your desire to follow Him. If you want to be a follower of Jesus, in the silence of your heart, welcome Him into your life. If you’re not sure, tell Jesus honestly. But the Kerygma, the Gospel message, demands a response. Will you say yes?

Homily for Advent 3 - Part 3 of 4 - Homily Series on the Kerygma

 

Homily for December 19, 2021

Advent 3 – Kerygma 3 of 4

The Death of Jesus Is His Love

 

            About nine centuries ago, a great theologian named St. Anselm wrote a book called “Cur Deus Homo?” – “Why Did God Become Man?” He concluded that the very reason why Jesus Christ took on flesh at Christmas is so that He could die on the Cross.

            Often during Advent and Christmas we don’t think about Christ’s death – but that is the whole reason for God becoming man. He had to have a body in order to die. And He had to die in order to reconcile us to God.

            We’ve been diving into the kerygma – the core Gospel message – during this Advent season. We started out looking at God’s great love for humanity, but our betrayal of that love by sin, which turned us away from God. But God was not finished yet – He provided the solution to our wretched exile. The solution was the Cross.

            But why death? Wasn’t there some other way? Consider this – imagine you were back in school as a student. What would be the consequence if you punched a classmate? Probably detention, maybe getting suspended. But what would be the consequence if you punched a teacher? You’d get expelled. What would be the consequence if you punched the President? You’d get arrested and put in jail. The same action, when done against someone of a higher dignity, requires a more severe consequence.

            Then what would be the consequence if we were to offend God? He who is All-Holy, the Perfect One, the Creator, the Omnipotent and Majestic King? The natural consequence would be death – both physical death, and spiritual death as we would be separated from Him for all eternity. This was the natural consequence for every sin, no matter how small, since it goes against the august majesty of God. It says in Scripture that even the moon, the stars, and the angels are not spotless in the sight of God! Nothing with the least stain of sin can stand in His presence – hence, the consequence of our sin is to be banished from His presence for eternity!

            Consider, too, that God is the source of all life. If sin means turning our back on God, then we are rejecting the Source of Life, and we are instead choosing death. St. Paul echoes this in Romans: “The wages of sin are death.”

            We owed a debt to God that we could not pay back. We needed someone who could pay it – someone who was infinite, since we offended the Infinitely good God; someone who was human, since they had to die; and someone who was perfect, since he needed to offer a perfectly pure sacrifice to God. Where in the world would we find a human being like that? Nowhere. Among us humans, there has never been a perfect person to offer their life as a ransom for man.

            But…God’s love for us is too radical, too persistent to give up on us. Since we could not find a victim that fit all the criteria, He would have to become man! Such reckless love!

To ransom us sinners, He gave away the Sinless One. To take away our shame, He was willing to be spat upon and humiliated. He was willing to take on our weak humanity so that He could refashion the Image and Likeness of God within us.

            There was once a young boy, the only son of a widow, who could be quite troublesome. One day he was very bad, and his mother tried to swat his backside with a belt, but the boy by this time was much faster than his mother, so he ran outside the house and called back to his mother at the door, “You’ll never catch me! I can do as I please!” The poor mother, worn out with the struggles of poverty and raising a wild son, sighed and said, “I feel ashamed of myself for having brought up a son who is so naughty. I must be a bad mother – and so I will punish myself.” And she started to whip the belt on her own back. The boy was so moved at seeing his mother taking on his punishment which he justly deserved, and so came back crying and begging for forgiveness.

            And so it should be for us who behold the Cross. God did not want to chase us down with punishment, so He took the punishment Himself and hoped to win us by love. Will you let Him?

            One profound way to let Him win us by love is through Confession. Next week will be one of our Confession weekends where the Sacrament of Confession will be offered after every Mass. Please come and take advantage of the forgiveness He won for you. It was purchased at a tremendous cost – the cost of the Blood of the Son. It was this Cross that won reconciliation for the human race – and He waits for our response of repentance and gratitude.

Homily for Advent 2, 2021 - Kerygma Sermon Series Part 2 of 4

 

Homily for December 5, 2021

Advent 2 – Kerygma 2 of 4

Sin Is the Cause of All Unhappiness

 

            We’ve been preaching a series this Advent on the Kerygma – the core of the Gospel message. There are four parts – God loves us, we sinned and brought death and destruction upon the world, but Christ took our sins upon Himself and reconciled us to God, and we can have access to salvation through our living relationship with Jesus Christ. Last time we spoke of God’s immense love for us – but now we turn to the bad-news part of the Good News!

            When I was a teen, I used to attend a wonderful Catholic retreat in the summers – but it had the most awkward name. It was called “Catholic Familyland” – and despite how much fun it was there, I couldn’t ever tell my friends where I was going – such an embarrassing name!

            But at Catholic Familyland, I remember the priest always telling us, “Sin is the cause of all unhappiness in the world!” I have never forgotten those words, and I think they are profound! How much misery is caused by sin!

            You see, every human being is searching for happiness. But sin is choosing a counterfeit happiness over the real one. When I lived in Maryland, it was a big deal for us to make a trip to NYC. One year when I was a seminarian, I accompanied the 8^th graders at the local Catholic school to New York. On the way home, a kid named Alex came up to me on the bus and said, “Hey, look at this great Rolex I got for only $10!”

            I laughed and said, “Where’d you get it?”

            “Oh, some guy in Battery Park was selling it from a blanket on the sidewalk.”

            “You know that’s not real, right? It’s a fake knock-off.”

            “No, no! Of course it’s real! The guy selling it told me it was real!”

            “Okay, Alex. Whatever you say.” About ten minutes later he came back to me, all despondent, and said, “This is terrible. My Rolex stopped working.”

            “Well, yes, that’s what happens when you get a counterfeit.”

            And isn’t that the way with sin? It promises happiness – and it provides misery. It makes us happy for ten minutes, and then when that wears away we feel a greater emptiness than ever before.

            Think about the way we have been hurt by sin, both ourselves and others’ sin. Maybe it was because of our parents’ lack of love. Maybe it was because we were bullied growing up. Maybe we fell into the shame of addictions to drugs or alcohol or impurity. Maybe we broke relationships, or others broke them with us. Maybe we lived selfishly, and are reaping what we’ve sown.

            Even natural sufferings like sickness, poverty, and death are made more bitter by sin. If we truly loved God, we would rejoice at sickness, because it is an opportunity to share in Christ’s Cross. Poverty, in the light of faith, allows us to serve God unfettered by possessions. And death is the door to total union with God in Heaven. These natural sufferings, which are meant to bring us closer to Christ, end up being bitter due to sin. Besides, these sufferings are a result of original sin – so one could truly say that sin is the cause of all unhappiness in the world!

            Consider – a bird is happiest when it is flying; a fish is happiest in the water. So we are happiest when we are doing what we are meant to do. And what is the meaning of our lives? To know, love and serve God here on this earth so we can be eternally happy with Him in Heaven. To sin is to act against the very meaning and purpose of our life. Much like a bird underwater or a fish in a tree, we are unhappiest when we sin!

            All parts of the human person suffer because of sin. God initially intended us to live forever; but now, because of original sin, our bodies suffer sickness and death. God desired our souls to live in intimate union with Him; but now, sin separates us from Him. Our intellect was meant to know truth, but sin blinds us and makes us believe in errors (most atheists I know started down that path because they were living a sinful life and didn’t want there to be a God!). Finally, our free wills have become corrupted because of sin – we now desire things we know to be harmful. Before Original Sin, broccoli would be more delicious than chocolate; praying would have been more enjoyable than Netflix; we wouldn’t have to struggle to do the right thing. Now, our wills are weak and flabby, and we have to exert serious effort to pray or live good lives. Sin corrupted all of us – body and soul, intellect and free will.

            But – here’s the good news – sin is not the final word. There is hope – and hope is named Jesus Christ.