Homily for Sts. Peter and Paul - The Glories of Catholicism

 

Homily for June 29, 2025

Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul

Triumph of the Church

 

            On the day that Pope Benedict was elected, many Cardinals came out on the balcony with him to greet the world. Cardinal George from Chicago was caught on camera staring at the horizon with a very distant and thoughtful look on his face. Later, a reporter asked him what he was thinking about, and the Cardinal responded, “I was there, in the place where Peter was crucified by Nero, but I realized that I was standing next to the successor of St. Peter, but where was the successor of Nero? His empire had crumbled and gone, but the Church lives on.”

             God chose two very ordinary men to be the foundations of His great Church – Peter, the fickle fisherman who denied Christ; Paul the arrogant tentmaker who, before his conversion, was a persecutor of Christians. And yet by God’s grace, these two men became the pillars of the Church – Peter the first Pope, Paul the great evangelist who wrote most of the New Testament. Clearly this Church is not the brainchild of a committee or the idea of a wise man – no, it is the work of God alone!

            Any reputable historian, even those without faith, would agree that the Catholic Church has been the most impactful organization in all of Western Civilization. It has spread further than any empire, lasted longer than any other establishment, and brought immeasurable good into the world. I want to focus on four ways the Catholic Church has changed the world.

            First, it is because of the Catholic Church that we understand the dignity of the human person. The ancient world was rather cruel – as the philosopher Hobbes said, the basic life of man is “nasty, brutish, and short.” Women were property, the poor were seen as accursed and forsaken by God, disabled children were left out in fields to die…but Christianity had a whole new vision of every person made in the Image of God. In the year 258, the Emperor Valerian launched a new persecution of Christians. He had heard that the Church had gold and silver vessels and priceless works of art, so the emperor captured the deacon St. Lawrence and gave him three days to turn over all the riches of the Church. Three days later, Lawrence appeared at the Emperor’s palace and said, “Behold, the true treasures of the Church!” – and upon opening the door to the palace, in came the sick, the blind, cripples, the poor. Valerian was not amused and ordered Lawrence to be executed by being grilled. The saint famously quipped, as he was being roasted alive, “Turn me over, I’m done on this side.”

            But it was precisely this valuing of human life that set Christians apart from others. During the great plague of 251, when almost five thousand Romans were dying of the plague daily, the pagans fled to the hills to save their skins…while the Christians stayed in the city to nurse the sick, many catching the plague themselves due to their charity. Here is what an early Church father Dionysius had to say about it:

            Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy .… Many, in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead .… The best of our brothers lost their lives in this manner. The heathen behaved in the very opposite way. At the first onset of the disease, they pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest [relatives]. You might think that’s just pious talk, but even the pagan emperor Julian bore witness to it when he wrote: It is disgraceful that the Christians support not only their own poor but ours as well, but all men see that our people [who practice the ancient Roman religion] lack aid from us. He was embarrassed that the Christians took care of both Christians and pagans, while the pagans didn’t even care for their own!

            Which brings me to the second great glory of Catholicism – we are the largest social service organization on the planet. But more than just a charity, Christians serve because we see Jesus in one another. Once a reporter was observing Mother Teresa taking care of a smelly, dying man, and he said, “I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars.” Mother Teresa replied, “Neither would I. But I would do it for the love of Jesus.” No government program, no secular institution, no NGO is motivated by the love of Jesus. As Mother Teresa said, “Wash the plate not because it is dirty nor because you are told to wash it, but because you love the person who will use it next.” It is love that sets Christian charity apart from a government handout or a philanthropist – and that love has motivated Christians to do good for the world.

            In the 1950s, a young man from Washington DC named Aloysius Schwartz was making a retreat right before he became a priest. On the retreat, he knelt before a statue of Our Lady, and promised that he would do anything she ever asked. After ordination, he began to read about the difficult conditions in Korea after the Korean war – almost one-half of the adult population was homeless and unemployed due to the war. He received permission to become a missionary to Korea. Later he recalled that when he stepped off the train in Busan, he was not prepared for the vast poverty he saw – people who were literally going through trash bins trying to find something to eat, children running around without clothes, their emaciated ribs showing, the sick literally dying in the streets. He wrote to all his friends back home and begged money, starting an orphanage and programs for the poor. First in Korea, then the Philippines, then Mexico – Fr. Schwartz didn’t stop seeing the poor as Christ. Sadly he was diagnosed with ALS, but he ordered that his tombstone read, “Here lies Fr. Schwartz, he did his best for Jesus.” About 200,000 children have been saved from poverty by his Boystown and Girlstown boarding schools, and Fr. Schwartz is now on the path to sainthood – not because of what he did, but because he did it for the love of Jesus.

            A third great impact of the Church on the world is that the Church has preserved learning throughout the centuries. Pretty much any branch of knowledge – from law to medicine, from philosophy to astronomy to art, the Catholic Church has been a part of it. For example, did you know that the Big Bang Theory was actually developed by a Catholic priest, Fr. Georges Lamaitre? Or that the Vatican owns and operates a state-of-the-art observatory – in Arizona, of all places? A few years ago, historian Thomas Cahill wrote a famous book called “How the Irish Saved Civilization”. The thesis is that after the Fall of the Roman Empire, those doggone illiterate barbarians destroyed books and basically squelched all education across Europe – but the one place it survived was in the cold hinterlands of Ireland, where monks faithfully copied the Bible and other books by hand. Those Catholic monks preserved the light of learning in the midst of the darkest centuries – as the Church has done for the past 20 centuries!

            But the most important impact of the Church isn’t how it changed the world, because the goal of the Church is Heaven, not earth. It is said that the Church doesn’t have a mission, the Church is a mission – the mission to bring all souls into a relationship with Jesus Christ, and to bring them to Heaven. Those simple, humble souls who draw near to Jesus in the Eucharist…the many Rosaries prayed down through the centuries…the great saints, and the many holy people we will never know in this life…the Church has been a conduit of grace for twenty centuries. Imperfect, yes…full of sinners, definitely…but still the great place of encounter with Christ, where His Real Presence resides in the Eucharist, where His truth is proclaimed unchanged, where we come to know and love our Lord and are sanctified by His grace.

            So what are our takeaways: first, be proud to be Catholic! We can hear people talk about all the sinners in the Church, but we can counter that with all the good that the Church has done. We have every reason to hold our heads high – because we are a part of the only religion that traces its lineage back to Jesus Himself, and which will be around until the very end.

            Second, consider how you are called to contribute to this great Mystical Body of Christ! If you are baptized, you are invited into this mission! What does that look like? First, live your vocation well – seek holiness as a husband or wife, mother or father, student or young adult in the world. Second, evangelize – you too are responsible for the Good News reaching the end of the earth. Third, make your life abound in those good works for which the Church is rightly known. Remember that St. Peter and St. Paul were nobodies, too – but God built the entire Church upon these weak men. God has truly done amazing things through the Church, His Mystical Body!

Homily for Trinity Sunday 2025 - It's A Mystery

 

Homily for Trinity Sunday

June 15, 2025

It’s A Mystery

 

            One day St. Augustine was trying to understand the Trinity – how could it be that there are three Persons but only one Divine Being? How can we explain that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all fully God, but God is not divided? Augustine was walking along the seashore pondering this mystery, when he came upon a boy taking buckets of water from the ocean and pouring it into a hole that he dug in the sand. The great bishop asked the lad, “What are you doing?” The boy replied, “I’m trying to fit the ocean in this hole.” “That’s impossible,” Augustine replied. “The hole is far too small.” The boy looked at him and replied, “It is easier for me to pour the ocean in this hole than for you to understand the Trinity.” – and then the boy disappeared! Augustine realized he had seen an angel.

            Mystery is essential in faith. There are many things we will never understand in our Catholic Faith. How does bread become the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ? God knows everything we will ever do, but we are truly free and not predetermined? How is it that the death of one Man on an obscure hill in Israel has redeemed the entire universe? Why do bad things happen to good people? Much of our faith is built upon mystery.

            But some people think that “mystery” is a cop-out – perhaps they think that “mystery” means “just stop asking questions.” But mystery is absolutely essential to faith, because we believe in a God Who is infinite and unlimited, and we are finite and limited. If we understood everything about God and His ways, then we would be gods. I only want to worship Someone greater than myself – so it is fitting that my small mind couldn’t contain the fullness of who He is and what He does!

            Mystery does not mean that something is unknowable, but that it is infinitely knowable – just as we can drink from a stream again and again without ever exhausting the water, we can ponder the Trinity, or the Eucharist, or the life of Christ, forever while still discovering new riches.

            We have to remember, though, that mystery is present in every aspect of human life. Even human relationships have mystery – can I scientifically prove that someone loves me? Can we ever fully know another human being, even our spouse? Of course not – these things must remain a mystery – and that is good because mysteries are exciting, alluring! These mysteries are not a mathematical equation to be solved; they are meant for us to contemplate in love. Mystery draws us in and makes us excited about an encounter – even movies know this – notice how Jaws doesn’t show the shark until the very end of the movie? How boring that movie would be if you saw it at the beginning and if you knew how it would end! How boring would be our relationship with God – or even with others – if we knew everything about them!

            Of course, mystery does NOT mean that we should stop trying to understand our Faith. On the contrary, the Medieval Scholastics had a wonderful phrase, Fides Quaerens Intellectum – faith seeking understanding. We believe, so that we might understand more – not the other way around, as some people say, “I have to understand first, before I believe.” No, faith is primary, and then we seek to understand the Faith – and the whole world around us. The Church has always encouraged learning more about the mysteries of faith and the mysteries of the physical world – in fact, in 1079, Pope Gregory VII decreed that every diocese needed to have at least one Catholic school – this was rather revolutionary considering how rare education was in those days! These Catholic schools became the foundation of the university system – the first universities were Catholic schools connected to Cathedrals, such as the University of Paris, Oxford, or Bologna. Our Faith is not afraid of being questioned – we just have to realize that it is larger than our capacity to understand, and we have to be content with not being able to explain everything.

            But even science has mysteries that science cannot answer: why is there something rather than nothing? How did life originate from non-life? What happens after we die? Science will not be able to answer these questions – rather, we turn to our faith – based upon God’s revelation – to inform us.

            The Church teaches that God’s public revelation stopped at the death of the last Apostle – apparitions like Fatima or Lourdes, mystics and saints, do not add to the revelation but rather unpack it and explain it a clearer way, but God’s Truth remains unchanged. If one were to plant an acorn, an oak tree would grow – the acorn would, in a sense, become more of what it was meant to be. But if it started growing pears, we would say that something went haywire! Likewise, Jesus left the entirety of His revelation to the Apostles, but it has unfolded and developed over the last two thousand years. But it has to remain faithful to what He has taught. I sometimes drive by Protestant churches who have signs out front that say, “God is still speaking.” Well, yes, He still speaks to us in prayer and in our hearts, but they often mean that God is revealing new (and sometimes contradictory) things, redefining human life and marriage and gender and all sorts of fluid things. But God cannot contradict Himself – He cannot say something in 2025 that contradicts what He said in 1250. Rather, we can unpack what He revealed in Jesus Christ, which is what we will be doing for all eternity! As it says in Deuteronomy, “Secret things belong to the Lord our God, but things He has revealed belong to us and our children forever.” Our faith is based upon these things He has revealed, such as the Trinity!

            I want to close with the story of an inspiring saint who sought to uncover mysteries of the natural world – and ended up falling in love with the mystery of God. Blessed Nicholas Steno was from Denmark in the mid-1600s. He was a brilliant student and started studying medicine at the young age of 19 at the University of Copenhagen. Science as we know it was still in a young stage, and Nicholas started to question some of the prevailing theories of the day. For example, scientists believed that tears came from the brain – so Nicholas studied it and realized that they came from the eyes, not the brain – he was so influential that a part of human anatomy is named after him, Stensen’s Duct. He then turned his sights to geology – at the time, people thought that fossils just grow randomly in the ground. He was the first to prove that fossils were actually the remains of animals. In fact, he is considered the father of geology.

            His questioning mind eventually turned to religious topics – he began to question his Lutheran upbringing. After years of searching, he began to realize that the Catholic Faith had the answers he was looking for – and even its mysteries invited him to love God more. He converted to Catholicism, and continued his studies of the natural world while studying for the priesthood. He ended up becoming a bishop and lived a very simple and pious life, selling his gold ring and his cross so he could give money to the poor. But he never stopped his inquiry into the natural world – even as a bishop he would do scientific studies on the brain and on geology.

            One time, Bl. Nicholas Steno was asked how he could be a religious man and a scientist. He replied so well, “Beautiful is what we see, more beautiful is what we understand, but most beautiful is what is still veiled.”

            Do not be unafraid of mysteries in our faith. It does not mean that our faith is not true, but that it is far greater than we could ever conceive. We will spend eternity uncovering the mysteries of the greatness of God!

Homily for Easter 7 - Come, Lord Jesus!

 

Homily for Easter 7

June 1, 2025

Come Lord Jesus!

 

            Since the beginning of time, evil has been oppressing the good. Ever since Cain killed Abel, injustice seems to win the day. Today we see myriad examples of the suffering of the innocent: the unjustified invasion of Ukraine, the genocide of Palestine, where 80% of those killed in the war are civilians, the extreme poverty of 770 million people in the world who make less than $2 per day, the sixty million unborn babies in America who are unable to see the light of day due to a woman’s choice, the people addicted to drugs and lust to fill corrupt wallets. These injustices should break our hearts, as I’m sure it breaks the heart of God.

            Such injustices cry out for justice – will the evil always triumph? Why do the wicked prosper while the good suffer? Is God silent in the light of such tragedies? We ought to do our part to end these injustices, but we live in a world where there will always be more injustice, more evil to fight. It can get depressing just to read the morning news!

            Which is why the Church has cried out for all time, “Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus!” We need a definitive answer to human evil – a definitive judge to set right all that humans have messed up – and Jesus Christ is the answer to human evil and the suffering of the innocent!

            In today’s first reading we see one such injustice: the martyrdom of St. Stephen. He was the first one to shed his blood for Christ, but only the first of many – there have been about fifty million people who have been faithful to Christ until death, and the persecution of Christians continues today. For example, this past Tuesday, Islamic radicals attacked two Christian villages in Nigeria, taking the lives of over 40 Christians, solely for the “crime” of believing in Jesus Christ. In 2019, Xi Jinping in China ordered Catholic churches to stop displaying the 10 Commandments in their churches, and instead to display quotes from President Jinping himself - closing any churches that do not obey. In May of 2023, a two-year-old in North Korea was sentenced to life in prison because his parents were caught with a Bible. In that country, over 70,000 Christians suffer in prison camps due to their faith – and many more in the middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, and Asian countries. Persecution is, sadly, quite prevalent in much of the world.

            This should break our hearts, and move us to cry out to God for all the innocent who suffer, particularly among His people. Our hope, then, is in Jesus Christ, Who promised to end all injustice when He returns. Our second reading is full of this hope – come, Lord Jesus! Come to bring justice to the innocent!

            In our Catholic tradition, there are four sins that have been called “sins that cry to God for vengeance” – all of which are sins of injustice. They are: oppressing the poor and widows and orphans, killing the innocent, unnatural sins of impurity, and cheating the poor out of their money. Just this past Sunday, my friend Colleen was telling me how she fell for scammers. They had hacked the email of their pastor and she got an email she thought was from him, asking her to buy a bunch of Amazon gift cards. She ended up buying $500 worth, and then the next email came in telling her to send the PIN numbers. This made her suspicious, so she called up the pastor, who was (understandably) confused and told her that he didn’t need any gift cards. She felt incredibly foolish – having spent a large chunk of her family’s money on this scam!

            But then she did something surprising – she wrote back to the scammer, “I want you to know that I forgive you for your lies and evil. You must have had some real problems in your life to lead you to do this – please know that I will pray for you.” And to her surprise, the scammer wrote back, “Please do pray for me.”

            So what do we do when injustice hits close to home? Perhaps some of us have been seriously wronged – abused, maltreated, unjustly accused, lied to. Our role is to forgive them, love them, and leave the justice up to God. It says in Scripture, “Vengeance is mine, says the Lord.” And trust that God really will bring justice – the guilty will not go unpunished – this is good news because evil needs a real answer!

            Of course, we do not want any soul, no matter how wicked, to be lost for eternity. We want all to be saved, but not without repentance. Consider that the young man Saul, from the first reading, consented to the stoning of Stephen…and then converted to Jesus Christ, was re-named Paul, and wrote most of the New Testament. How beautiful that both St. Stephen and St. Paul rejoice together in Heaven! Although I’d imagine their first meeting in Heaven may have been a little awkward… “Hey, Paul, remember that little incident with the rocks?” It is Christ’s desire that all be saved, but evildoers must first turn from their evil ways – Scripture also says, “God is not mocked”. Our second reading actually omits a line from the Book of Revelation – after Jesus says, “Blessed are they who wash their robes so as to have the right to the tree of life and enter the city through its gates,” He then says, “Outside are the sorcerers, the unchaste, the murderers, the idol-worshipers, and all who love and practice deceit.” Only the repentant receive mercy.

            This may seem a bit dark, but ultimately it is good news that wickedness will not win. Christ is the triumphant victor – so even if we suffer from injustice, God will bring about our redemption.

            I close with a powerful story of a saint who endured a great deal of injustice – but found vindication in the Lord: the first Black priest in the United States, Venerable Augustus Tolton. Augustus was born a slave in Missouri before the Civil War, but his whole family escaped when he was a young boy. They settled in Illinois, which was a Union state. His family was Catholic, but uneducated. However, the local parish priest saw great intelligence in the ten-year-old Augustus, and offered him a full scholarship to his Catholic school. This was unheard-of – even the Catholic schools were segregated in those days. But Fr. McGurr was adamant that Augustine be treated well. Despite great racism, the lad received a great education, and even graduated as valedictorian for his class.

            But entering seminary was another matter. He was rejected by every American seminary due to his skin color. But Fr. McGurr was persistent – and kept writing letters on behalf of young Augustine. Finally, it was decided that he would study in Rome, where racism wasn’t such an issue. He was finally ordained a priest in Rome, and, realizing that America wasn’t ready for a Black priest, prepared himself to do mission work in Africa, and asked the Cardinal in charge of the missions where he should be sent. To his shock, the Cardinal famously replied, “America has been called the most enlightened nation. We will see if it deserves the honor. If America has never seen a Black priest, it will see one now." He was sent back to Illinois to minister – and what a job he did! He was such a good preacher and singer that many white people began to attend his Black church. He was known as “Good Father Gus” – and is now known as Venerable Augustus Tolton, on the path to sainthood. Here was one who endured injustice – but forgave, persevered, and trusted that God was going to bring justice in the end.

            When faced with injustice – either in the world, or in our own lives – we must do the same. Forgive, persevere, and cry out with the Church in every age: “Come, Lord Jesus!”

The World Needs What You Are

 

Homily for CKA Baccalaureate Mass

May 30, 2025

The World Needs Who You Are

 

            What is success? What does it look like? We have had many towering scholars in the history of the church – Aquinas, Anselm, Bonaventure, Augustine. We have had many saints who have built enduring movements – St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. We have had many saints whose lives impacted thousands – St. Francis Xavier, Mother Teresa. And perhaps some of us are called to change history, to impact the world. Perhaps some of us will be remembered long after our death for our contributions, the memorials we have built, the mighty deeds we accomplished, the brilliant words we have spoken.

            But I would hazard to guess that the vast majority of Christians are called to live a hidden life, unfamous and unknown. Most of us will not have a Wikipedia page written about us – most of us will not be remembered apart from a tombstone with our names inscribed in stone.

            Which is why the greatest thing you could ever do, the most important work of your entire life, is to become holy. Not necessarily a canonized saint, but a small outpost of the love of God here in this world. As Archbishop Charles Chaput once said, “The only people to really change the world are saints.”

            It was St. Theresa Benedicta of the Cross who said (and I paraphrase), “The world does not need what you have or what you do – the world needs who you are.” The greatest work you ever do will be primarily interior – yielding your heart and soul more and more to Christ, that you may decrease and He may increase. The world doesn’t need your gifts and talents – the world needs Christ living through your gifts and talents. Your gifts and talents weren’t given to glorify you, they were given to glorify God. What good is it to build skyscrapers and pass laws and make money and win championships if the only thing that is eternal – your soul – is left abandoned, dark and empty?

            We live in a world where there are a lot of action, but very little stillness. There is lots of noise, but very little silence. There are lots of opinions but very little wisdom. When our new Holy Father was elected a few weeks ago, I was shocked at how many people asked me for my comments – why do I, or any of us, need to comment about every event that occurs in the world? Sometimes, it’s better to be still, silent, and pray.

            As you graduate, you will be encouraged to go change the world, make the world a better place, seize the day. But the world already has a Savior, and it’s not you. I don’t mean this to discount all the good you have done, and will continue to do, but we have to keep in mind that “making the world a better place” is only possible with the one Savior of the human race. We need to make the world a better place because it’s been wounded by sin…which means that the antidote is grace and love, not more humanistic solutions.

            So, as you go forth to conquer college, high school, and the rest of the world, remember that the most enduring and important thing you can do is not what you do in the world, but what you allow Christ to do in your soul. When you are transformed into Christ through grace, this is what the world needs. For the world needs, not what you do or what you have, but who you are.

            I want to close with a saint story, of one who realized that the interior life is what changes the world. In the early 1900s in rural Portugal, a young girl named Alexandra was living a simple, humble life. She was uneducated, and toiled on her family’s farm. But she had a devout faith, and would often pick flowers to adorn Mary’s altar, loving the Rosary and keeping herself holy. When she was fourteen, she was on the upper floor of her family’s house when robbers broke in. Afraid for her life, she jumped out the window – and broke her spine on the fall. From that time on, she was painfully crippled. At first she could drag herself to Mass, hunched over, but pretty soon she became paralyzed and bedridden. She prayed for a cure, but more than that – she prayed to offer her life to Christ as a living sacrifice for the salvation of souls.

            For thirty years she did nothing earth-shattering. She smiled constantly, prayed without ceasing, and continually offered all her suffering for Christ and for souls. Even her prayer was suffering – she rarely experienced Christ’s presence, but persevered nonetheless. For the final thirteen years of her life, she only consumed the Eucharist and no other food – a fact verified by a team of medical doctors who observed her around-the-clock. When she died in the 1950s, she had the following words written on her tombstone: Sinners, if the dust of my body can be of help to save you, come close, walk over it, kick it around until it disappears. But never sin again: do not offend Jesus anymore! Sinners, how much I want to tell you.... Do not risk losing Jesus for all eternity, for he is so good. Enough with sin. Love Jesus, love him!

            She is now Blessed Alexandra da Costa, a mystic and victim soul. In the eyes of the world, a nothing-person. She literally could do nothing, being paralyzed – but only in eternity will we see how this poor woman changed the history of the world, not because of what she did, but because of who she was when she let Christ reign in her heart.

            This is your mission, too. Not to seek after great deeds, fame, or success as the world views it – but to fulfill God’s will for your life. If He lives in you, then whether you be the President or garbage-man, your life will change the world, because the world doesn’t need what you do – the world needs who you are, if you are Christ’s.

Homily for Easter 6 - A Wholeness The World Cannot Give

 

Homily for Easter 6

May 25, 2025

A Wholeness the World Cannot Give

 

            The first words spoken by our Holy Father as he addressed the world: “Peace be with you!” And boy, does our world ever need peace!

            The word that Jesus used for “peace” is shalom. Shalom means more than just an absence of conflict – rather, it implies wholeness and delight, fulfillment and flourishing. As one theologian put it, “Shalom is the way things out to be” – putting right all the chaos in the world and in our lives.

            And God wants our shalom! Sometimes we think that God doesn’t want us to be happy – that He’s constantly testing us and wants to take away our happiness. Recently I asked a friend, “What is making you happy these days?” He told me about the kayak he had just bought, how he loved to take it out and enjoy nature. But then he said, “But I just feel like God is opposed to it.” That struck me as odd. I asked him why, and he said, “I don’t know, it’s just hard to believe that God wants anything good for me.”

            Do you ever feel that way? Pope Benedict addressed this feeling when he said, “Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to him, are we not afraid that He might take something away from us? No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide.” God desperately desires your “shalom” – He said, “I came that you might have life, and have it abundantly.” God wants your shalom – not in a worldly sense of success, riches, constant good health – but a richer, deeper peace, joy, and purpose for our life.

            So how do we obtain this shalom? First, we live in right relationship with Him. In the Gospel, Jesus defines Himself by His relationship to His Father. He says, “The words you hear are not Mine, but my Father’s…rejoice that I am going to the Father…the Father is greater than I.” Everything about His being is related to God. A lesson for us – if we want shalom, we make sure we are in right relationship to God: giving God glory for our blessings, offering to Him our sufferings, spending time with Him in prayer, receiving the Sacraments regularly.

            The Carthusians are a group of hard-core Catholic monks, mostly hermits, whose motto has always stuck with me: Stat crux, dum volvitur orbis – the cross stands while the world turns. The only stability, the only peace can be found in the unchanging foundation of our lives: God Himself. Twenty-five years ago, British sociologist Zygmunt Bauman wrote a book called “Liquid Modernity”, claiming that the world is changing at such an epic speed that it kinda messes up our inner peace because we weren’t made to react to such drastic changes so quickly. For most of human history, if a person saw two new inventions in their lifetime, that would be remarkable – now we get new inventions weekly. So we need something to keep us grounded – and the only thing that has been there since the beginning, and will be around until the end, is God. If you’re feeling tossed about by the chaos of the modern world, perhaps we’re missing our anchor – the unchanging God.

            Jesus then connects loving God with keeping His commandments. And His commandments are also for our shalom! I’m a big fan of Calvin and Hobbes, and one of the recurring storylines is Calvin playing Calvinball, a game he invented – but the problem is that the rules literally change every play, every time. Sometimes the score is Q to 16. But that wouldn’t be a very fun game in real life, would it? We need guidelines to understand how we are to flourish. If I want to play a piece on a piano, I have to follow the rules of music – putting my fingers on the right keys, playing them at the right time. Otherwise it is not music, only noise.

            Likewise, shalom cannot exist in chaos. We need order to understand the path to fulfillment. We see this in the first reading – there was chaos in the early Church because some were saying you had to follow the Jewish law as a Christian, while others said that it wasn’t necessary. This chaos led the Apostles to gather for the Council of Jerusalem in 50AD. Jesus promised in the Gospel that the Spirit would lead them into all truth, and the Spirit led the Apostles to conclude that the Jewish Law was unnecessary, but that they still had to avoid idolatry or illicit marriages. It wasn’t that they had no commands to follow, but the Apostles offered commandments that were in accord with shalom – with human happiness.

            And so it is with the commandments of God – they lead to shalom. We forgive others, because that leads to a peaceful society. We are honest, because that leads to trust. We are generous to the poor, because it puts love into action, and love fulfills both the giver and the receiver. We practice chastity and purity, because we desire authentic human love and not using others for our own benefit. Notice that shalom is not equal to pleasure – it’s not always convenient – it’s not always easy. But shalom is worth it.

            Do you have shalom? Is your heart at peace, is your life overflowing with joy, is your life filled with love? If not – perhaps we’re looking in the wrong places. As St. Gerard Majella said, “Who except God can give you peace? Has the world ever been able to satisfy the heart?”

Homily for Easter 5 - Hidden In Plain Sight

 

Homily for Easter 5

May 18, 2025

The Dwelling of God Is the Eucharist

 

            Have you ever been in search of something that’s right there in front of you? Maybe you’ve lost your glasses only to find them on your head. Or you search everywhere for your keys, when they’re hidden in plain sight, right there on the dining room table. Sometimes our search for God can be like that – we’re looking everywhere for Him, when He’s right where He told us He’d be.

            John has a vision of Heaven in the Second Reading, from the Book of Revelation: “Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them as their God.” God has promised that He would always be with us – but where? Do you ever feel like God is distant? Well, perhaps He’s hidden in plain sight – right where He told us He’d be – here in the Eucharist and at Mass.

            But, I can hear many of you saying, “But I don’t feel God here!” Sometimes it feels like empty ritual, just a habit we do every week, and not like the living glory of God come down among us. It is true that in Heaven we will have vision, while here we walk by faith – but the same God Who dwells forever in Heaven also dwells, hidden, in the Eucharist. How can we experience His presence? I’d like to make five super-practical suggestions of how to actually experience God’s presence at Mass and in the Eucharist.

            First, sing! The Bible speaks about singing praise to God over 400 times, with 50 direct commands to sing to Him. St. Paul tells us: “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord!” St. Augustine pointed out, “Singing is praying twice!” I look out on a Sunday morning and see a lot of closed mouths. Do we not want to praise Him? Don’t worry about talent or ability – all that matters is the love in our heart, expressed by our lips. As a friend of mine said, “If God gave you a good voice, praise Him with it. If not, sing loud and get even!”

            St. Augustine said that singing to the Lord is evidence that we’ve been changed by Him. Listen to this quote – long but rich: “We are urged to sing a new song to the Lord, as new men who have learned a new song. A song is a thing of joy; more profoundly, it is a thing of love. Anyone, therefore, who has learned to love the new life [in Christ] has learned to sing a new song, and the new song reminds us of our new life. The new man, the new song, the new covenant, all belong to the one kingdom of God, and so the new man will sing a new song and will belong to the new covenant.” A man in love will sing to his beloved – our hearts will learn to love God if we sing to Him.

            Secondly, engage your body! Our souls often follow where our body leads – so if we want our soul to believe more deeply, our bodies should act like we believe. This means dressing up for Mass in our “Sunday best”, keeping the Eucharistic Fast (which means that we do not eat or drink anything but water for an hour leading up to Mass, to show our bodies that what we receive is not ordinary bread but truly the Flesh and Blood of Christ). It is easier to believe this if our bodies kneel and receive on the tongue, too – making clear to our soul that this is Jesus, not regular food. And finally, we can worship more easily if you use the restroom at home before you come here – you know who you are!

            Our bodily actions show what we inwardly believe. There was once a holy nobleman in Austria who was hunting on a drizzly, gray, muddy day. He saw a priest bringing the Blessed Sacrament to a sick person, and the nobleman immediately got off his horse and insisted that the priest take it, so that he wouldn’t get muddy when he was carrying Jesus. The priest did so, and an hour later returned, and tried to give the horse back to the nobleman. But, devout man he was, the man refused, saying, “I am not worthy to ride upon a horse that has carried my Lord.” This nobleman was willing to get muddy for the Lord – what are you willing to do for Him?

            A third help is to use our imagination during Mass! Not to picture yourself in Cancun, but to picture in your mind what is truly going on here. The Mass makes present the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross – put yourself there at Calvary, in your mind’s eye offer Christ back to the Father (as an aside, this is why we installed a crucifix here – so we could see, visibly, what happens at every Mass). St. John Chrysostom said that tens of thousands of angels, saints, and our Blessed Mother are present at every Mass – use your imagination to see it! We know that Jesus Christ is truly present in the Eucharist – imagine His face or His Cross when you see Him elevated on the altar. I often imagine rays of grace radiating from the Eucharistic Host when I hold Him aloft, the rays penetrating the souls of those who are attending the Mass.

            I know we want to see with our eyes, but God gave us our imagination so we don’t have to physically see to believe. Back in the 1100s in England, there was a Eucharistic miracle in a small town in England where the Eucharist began to bleed at Mass. The Eucharist and the bloody altar cloth were kept as relics and venerated there. One day the holy priest St. Hugh happened to be passing through that town, and some townspeople invited him to see the miracle. He refused to see the miracle, and when his traveling companions expressed a desire to see them, he sharply rebuked them, saying, “Miracles are only for those who don’t believe. If you believe, let faith be sufficient – after all, Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and still believe!”

            Fourth, bring much! Bring the mess of your life, and spiritually lay it upon the altar. Don’t try to forget the life outside these church walls – bring it to Him here. All our worries, concerns, sins, brokenness – pray about it. Bring it to Him. Lay it before Him. And tell Him you trust Him.

            St. Gregory the Great tells a beautiful story about a man who was a soldier and was captured in battle. He was imprisoned and his chains caused him a lot of physical pain. The soldier’s wife, fearing him dead, prayed for him at every Mass. After a long time, the man was released, against everyone’s expectation. He returned home, to the delight of his wife, and explained that every week at a certain time, his chains would simply fall from his wrists, and his captors had to reattach them. After years of this, his captors thought this was a bad omen, so they released the man. Upon investigation, the woman realized that the chains would fall from his wrists exactly when she would be praying for him at Mass! St. Gregory goes on to say that, if the Mass can break literal chains, does it not have the power to destroy sin, addictions, resentments, and all the spiritual wounds and burdens that we carry into the Church this morning?

            Finally, expect much from God here! Some of us come here with a shot glass, expecting that much grace. Others come with a bucket. Others come with a bathtub. How much grace are you expecting? Do you really think that the Scripture readings actually have something to say to you? Do actually believe that you are receiving God here? Come hungry, and you will leave filled. Expect much from God, and He will be able to superabundantly pour Himself into you. As long as your glass or bucket or bathtub is cleaned (by living in the state of grace and Confessing regularly), He’ll meet you here if you expect Him to.

            At the end of Jesus’ life, there was a big dispute between the angels and human beings. The angels wanted Jesus to return to Heaven, while men wanted Him to remain on earth. So Christ found the best way to satisfy both – He returned physically to Heaven, and remains sacramentally on earth. God is never distant – He is hidden in plain sight, in the Eucharist.

Homily for Easter 4 - What's the Papacy All About?

 

Homily for Easter 4

May 11, 2025

The Pope-Shepherd

 

            How beautiful in God’s timing that the election of our Holy Father comes right around Good Shepherd Sunday. Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd, but since one of the titles of our Pope is “Vicar of Christ”, we hope that he will have the same care for the sheep that Jesus has. Let’s discuss what the Pope is all about so that we can better understand the role of our new shepherd.

            It was Jesus Himself who made Peter the first Pope. In Matthew 16, he takes the Apostles on a field trip to a town just north of the Holy Land, where He asks them, “Who do you say that I am?” Simon is the only one to get it right: “You are the Christ, the Son of God.” And Jesus gives him a new name and a new identity, “You are Peter, and upon this rock (your faith) I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail upon it. To you I give the keys of the kingdom of Heaven, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven.” To hand someone keys is to give them the authority and ownership of the house – hence, Jesus is giving all power over His Church to Simon Peter, the first Pope. Since then, 266 Popes have taken been elected in the lineage of Peter.

            But there are some myths about the Pope’s role in the Church. So before we talk about what the Pope is, we have to talk about what the Pope is NOT.

            First, the Pope is not an oracle from God. Not everything he says is always true, and Popes can (and have been) very imperfect people. For example, in the 800s, there was a Pope who disagreed with the previous Pope’s political leanings, so he had his corpse dug up and put on trial for treason! Of course the skeleton couldn’t defend itself, so he was found guilty, and as punishment he wasn’t reburied but thrown into the Tiber River! A crazy political rivalry gone haywire! We’ve had some very imperfect Popes in history, and they can even make mistakes in their words. We believe a Pope is infallible (i.e., protected by the Holy Spirit from making an error) only when officially teaching about faith and morals, in union with the other Bishops and in continuity with what has always been taught. So if a Pope gives an interview to a journalist, he can make mistakes! A Pope is not automatically an oracle from God.

            The Pope is also not a political leader. Over the past few weeks we have heard many news outlets talk about whether this or that Cardinal is “liberal” or “conservative”. But these political labels don’t belong in the Church. All that matters is whether or not we are faithful to Jesus Christ and His perennial teachings in Scripture and Tradition. The Pope’s role isn’t to be just another world leader, but to point to a Kingdom yet to come.

            Finally, the Pope is not a religious celebrity. We’ve had some wonderful Popes in the last century, but many were aware of their own weaknesses. For example, Pope John XXIII was a rather large man who was short with huge ears. One day after his election to the papacy, a woman who saw him whispered to her friend, “Goodness, he’s so fat!” The Pope overheard and replied, “Surely you understand, madam, that a conclave isn’t a beauty pageant.” As much as the world wants to make the Pope into a religious rock-star, the reality is that they are frail men, sometimes quiet, sometimes weak – regular human beings, just like us, entrusted with a monumental task.

            So, then, what is the role of the Pope? Three elements. First, his role is to be a shepherd and father. The name “Pope” comes from “Papa” – an intimate term for a dad. One of my favorite stories of Pope John Paul II is that he used to leave the Vatican in disguise to go skiing, one of his favorite activities (according to the Swiss Guard, he snuck out over 100 times in his papacy). One time he was skiing incognito when an eight-year-old boy kept staring at him in line for the ski slopes. Finally, the boy got up the courage to ask him, “Are you the Pope?” And John Paul II said, “Why, yes I am. Would you like to ski together?” So they skied a couple runs together, and then the young lad excitedly ran in to the lodge to tell his mother that he had been skiing with the Pope. The mother thought he was just telling stories, until he said, “No! Come out and meet him!” She reluctantly came out and was utterly shocked to meet John Paul II there on the slopes! But what a beautiful story about a Pope who was truly a father – someone who loved his children, so that he could tell them about Jesus. This was the Pope who traveled 750,000 miles during his papacy – three times the distance to the moon and back – because he wanted to be with his flock.

            Secondly, the Pope must preach the truth in love. He does not have the power to make up a new teaching, but only to faithfully hand on what Jesus has always taught. At the Last Supper in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus makes a really powerful prediction about the trials that the Apostles will go through, when He said: “Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you [Apostles] like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” In other words, do not be tossed about by the trials of this world, by the whims of popular culture, but preach the Truth, in love.

            Back in 1960, there was considerable controversy about whether or not the Church could change its teaching that artificial birth control is gravely immoral. Pope John XXIII started a commission with theologians, scientists, doctors, and regular married folk, to discuss this topic. After six years, the commission was divided, but the majority said that the Church should change its teaching. The world collectively held its breath when awaiting the final document of Pope Paul VI. Much to everyone’s shock, in 1968 the Pope put out a famous encyclical “Humanae Vitae” in which he reaffirmed what the Church always taught, that the marriage bed needs to remain open to life. Although it caused no little controversy, it was also a profound example showing that the Pope’s job isn’t to change teachings according to the whims of the culture or majority opinion, but to strengthen that which has always and everywhere been taught by Christ through His Church – speaking truth in love.

            Finally, the Pope is the “visible sign of unity”. You know you are Catholic if you believe the same things as the Pope teaches, and consider him your spiritual leader. Ever since Martin Luther began the Reformation in 1517, our Protestant brethren have since fractured into 45,000 different denominations – without a central figure of unity, everyone becomes their own pope, each interpreting the Scriptures as they see fit. But Christ so desperately desired Christian unity that his final prayer in John’s Gospel was, “Father, make them all one, as we are one.” And we have a visible sign of this unity in the office of the Pope.

            One of the debates in the early Church was whether or not Jesus was truly human. Perhaps He merely appeared to be human, but was only an apparition? The bishops met at Chalcedon in 451 to debate this. Pope Leo the Great was too sick to attend, but he sent a letter to the bishops, confirming that Jesus was indeed fully God and fully man. When this letter was read aloud, the bishops ceased debating and instead cried out, “This is the faith of the fathers! This is the faith of the apostles! So we all believe! Peter has spoken through Leo! . . . This is the true faith!” The Pope was able to unite these warring factions, as he is the sign of the Church’s unity.

            So, as the Church prepares to elect/inaugurate a new Holy Father, we pray that above all else, he is holy and filled with the Spirit. We do not want a Pope who is merely a nice man, one who “puts a good face” on Catholicism, or only says the right words. Rather, we want a Pope who is in constant union with Christ. The Church is not just a charity or an NGO or social service organization – the Church is the supernatural Body of Christ in the world, with a supernatural founder (Jesus), supernatural goal (Heaven) and supernatural means (the Scriptures, the Sacraments). Hence, we pray that our Holy Father may be a supernatural man, led by the Holy Spirit to be in constant communion with Christ.

            For our part, there are three things we must do. We must love the Pope, because if we love Christ, then we love what He loves, and He loved the Church unto death. We must pray for the Pope, for he is our spiritual father. And we must respect the Pope, no matter who he is, because the Papacy itself is willed by God. Once a saint was asked how they could remain faithful to the Church when there was an evil Pope, and he responded, “I respect the seat, but not the sitter.” In other words, we can respect the authority of the Church, even if the members are imperfect. After all, at the end of the day, it’s Christ’s church, not the Pope’s. Every night before bed, Pope John XXIII would go to the chapel and tell the Lord all the troubles of the day – bishops fighting with each other, Christians persecuted, financial woes, secularism winning the day…and at the end, he would close with, “Well, it’s your church, Lord. I’m going to bed.”

            My friends, it is a great gift that we have/will have a new Holy Father. On this Good Shepherd Sunday, let us recommit ourselves to praying for the Pope, that he may truly become a good shepherd after the heart of Christ.