Easter 6 - A True Friend of Jesus

 

Homily for Easter 6

May 5, 2024

A True Friend of Jesus

 

            The great St. John Bosco, who spent his life working to bring the youth of Turin to Christ, had many enemies among the atheists and freethinkers of 1800s Italy. They saw Christianity as a backwards superstition, and so they wanted to destroy the Church at all costs, even if it meant taking out this Catholic priest who was so effective at saving souls. So St. John Bosco frequently had to be careful with people he didn’t know.

            One day, two men came to Fr. Bosco’s school, begging him to come and anoint a dying man. Bosco had his suspicions, but also knew that he couldn’t refuse if the request was real. So he agreed to come along – only if he could bring some of his older students with him. He went into the classroom and said, “I need to anoint a dying man, but this might be a dangerous trap for me. Will any of you be willing to come with me?”

            Without hesitation, one of his most loyal pupils, John Cagliero, volunteered to accompany him – along with a few others. They began to set off, but the men who initially made the request objected, saying, “We will accompany you alone – we don’t want to concern the sick person with too many people in the sick-room.” Bosco refused, saying, “My students accompany me wherever I go.”

            So they arrived at the house – which turned out to be a tavern. The boys stayed outside while Bosco went in and asked them, “Where is the dying man?” But the men who summoned him said, “We’ll get there in a moment, but let’s first have a drink before we go up.”

            Bosco refused, knowing what was up. But the men became hostile, insisting that they drink. They handed him a glass of wine, which he noticed had been poured from a special bottle. They offered a toast together, and everyone else drank, but Bosco put his down without tasting.

            “You insult us by not drinking with us,” they said angrily, while the other patrons of the tavern began to gather around and surround the holy priest.

            “Fine, fine,” he replied, picking up the glass as if to drink…but he then threw it on the ground and dashed for the door. Upon opening the door, his loyal students entered, glowering and threatening the evil men.

            Seeing the six strong students who had his back, the men admitted to their ruse and allowed John Bosco to go home unharmed.

            What a blessing to have a loyal friend! Think about the great loyal friendships in our stories – Frodo had Sam in Lord of the Rings…Batman had Robin…Shrek had his donkey…what is Andy Griffith without Barney Fife, or Winnie the Pooh without Piglet? “A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter,” says the Word of God, “One who finds one, finds a treasure.”

            So when Jesus calls us His friends, He is calling us to a similar intimacy and loyalty to Him. Notice that all of these loyal friends play the supporting role, but are blessed to share the adventure with the lead character and share the rewards with them. They have to sacrifice for the main character, but they also experience an intimacy with him. Likewise, our lives – and indeed, all of human history – has only one main character, which is Jesus Christ. But we play a powerful supporting role, as we make Him known and loved, and we share the adventure of the salvation of souls and the advancement of His Kingdom. We sacrifice for Him, but He also shares with us the riches of His grace.

            Those examples of friendship I mentioned before are characterized by loyalty to the point of sacrificing for the main character. Likewise, our friendship with Christ ought to be constantly saying, “Lord, I will do whatever You ask of me.” Perhaps that means being generous with your family size; maybe it means saying a generous “yes” if you sense a calling to the priesthood or to become a nun; maybe it means being available to Christ to evangelize and speak about Him to your family and friends, inviting them to church with you. A true friend is loyal to the point of sacrifice!

            So how do we obtain a friendship with Jesus? Psychologists note that there are three elements of any friendship, all of which apply to our friendship with Jesus Christ. First, at its basic level, friendship is based upon mutual shared experiences. Think about the friendships we had as kids: we were friends with this other kid because we both like to play with Legos or we liked playing baseball. Applying this to our relationship with Christ, we should definitely have shared experiences with Him – inviting Him into every aspect of our lives. There is a young man who is on the path to being named a saint, a young Spanish teen named Faustino Perez, who used to write in his spiritual journal about his conversations with Christ. One time he wrote, “After receiving Communion, I spoke with Christ for ten minutes about the recent soccer game that we won, 6-0.” That is sharing our experiences with Christ!

            But a second element of any human friendship is that we share our inner thoughts and feelings with the other. I may like to be in a bowling league with buddies, but it’s not a very deep friendship until we start talking about deeper stuff – our hopes and dreams, our fears and our joys, our struggles and our blessings. A friendship with Christ is similar – we have to move beyond reciting “Our Fathers” and “Hail Marys” to an actual sharing of what’s going on in our life with Jesus. St. John Newman defined prayer as cor ad cor loquitor – heart speaks to heart. Jesus, I’m really worried about X, but I have seen Your faithfulness since You have blessed me with Y. I bring You this care or concern, I rejoice in this or that, I praise You for who You are.

            Finally, psychologists identify the deepest element of a friendship: having a similar view of the world. Closest friends share similar values and a common purpose in life. We experience that with the Lord when we spend time, daily, in His Word, letting His Word form us so that, as St. Paul tells us, we “take on the mind of Christ” and begin to see the world through His eyes. Elsewhere Paul instructs us “not to be conformed to this age, but to be transformed by the renewal of our mind, so that we might know what is the will of God, what is good, pleasing and perfect.”

            There’s a lot of fake friends out there, though – and I hope our relationship with Christ is not like that. For example, sometimes we have friends who we don’t speak with in ten years – our friendship with Christ is not like that. Sometimes we have friends who always bother us with constant requests for help or to vent – our friendship with Christ should not be like that, only turning to Christ when we need something. Sometimes we have “fair-weather friends” who are around when life is good, but disappear when we really need them. We should not be “fair-weather friends” with Christ – whether in good times or in bad, in suffering or in blessings, we ought to be loyal to Him.

            So let me ask – would you characterize your relationship with Jesus Christ as a friendship? Do you spend time speaking with Him from your heart? Are you generously willing to do whatever He asks? Do you spend time in His Word, so that you share His vision for the world? If not, I challenge you to work on these things. He wishes to call you, not a slave, but a friend. Do you accept the offer?

First Communion Homily - The Presence of the Holy God

 

Homily for First Holy Communions

May 4, 2024

The Presence of the Holy God

 

            Today you will be receiving Jesus Christ today in Holy Communion. And you are truly blessed to be receiving Him so young, because for most of our Church’s history, children didn’t receive Jesus until they were 11 or 12 years old. It was about a hundred years ago that Pope St. Pius X moved the age to seven, and he did so because of an amazing young girl named Nellie.

            Nellie Organ was born in Ireland in the early 1900s. Sadly, her mother died when she was only two, and her father was so overwhelmed trying to raise four children that he sent them off to an orphanage school run by some nuns, who are women dedicated to the Lord.

            The nuns would bring her to the church and teach her about the Lord, whom Nellie called “The Holy God!” She seemed to have amazing knowledge of the Catholic Faith from a very young age – she would keep pointing at the tabernacle and calling out, “It’s the prison of The Holy God!” She knew that the Eucharist was truly Jesus. When the nuns would come back from receiving Communion, she would ask the nuns to kiss her, so that she could share in their Holy Communions. So desperately did she want to have Jesus’ Eucharistic presence with her!

            But it was impossible. She was only four years old, far too young to receive Jesus. As much as the nuns told her she couldn’t receive Him, she kept begging and begging. Finally, a priest came to visit her, and she asked him for Communion. He asked her, “Do you understand what the Eucharist is?” She replied, “Yes, it is Jesus, the Holy God!” The priest was amazed at her understanding and her faith, so he granted her request and she received Communion. What joy that brought her! It also sustained her, because shortly after, she got very sick, and after a long illness, died at the young age of four years old.

            But her love for the Eucharist began to make her famous after her death – a book was written about her, and when the Pope read that book, he decided to make Holy Communion available to children as young as seven years old. So it is young Nellie Organ that you have to thank, for the privilege of receiving Him today!

            And to receive Him, you must believe that He is present here. To your sight and taste, it will appear as bread. But when Jesus said, “This is My Body,” and we know that Jesus cannot lie, we take Him at His word.

            Once when I was young, I was playing at my best friend’s house, who lived across the street from me. She left the room for a minute, and I spied a cookie sitting on a plate on her dresser. I figured she wouldn’t miss it, so I grabbed it and took a huge bite…only to find out that it wasn’t a cookie, but a bar of soap shaped like a cookie! I wonder what she thought when she found a bite taken out of her soap!

            But sometimes our senses don’t tell us the whole truth. It certainly looked like a cookie, but it was actually soap. Sometimes we see flowers and wonder: are they real? Or are they fake flowers made of silk? Sometimes we touch them and smell them, and we still can’t tell! In the same way, the Eucharist looks like bread – but it is truly something different, the Body and Blood of the Lord. We can’t rely on our senses, but on what Jesus Christ has told us – “This IS My Body…this IS My Blood.”

            Little Nellie Organ had a burning desire to be close to Jesus, and she knew that He was truly here in the Eucharist, the physical presence of the Holy God. I pray that you, too, have a burning desire to be close to Jesus – and that you will always find Him here, truly present in Holy Communion.

Easter 4 - The Death Of A Shepherd

 

Homily for Easter 4 – Good Shepherd Sunday

April 21, 2024

Shepherd Dies So Sheep May Live

 

            There was once a four-star general in the American army who was retiring. A friend of mine was at his retirement party, and was amazed by how his subordinates didn’t just respect him, but loved him as a father. My friend asked the general, “How were you able to win over the hearts of your men?” He replied, “It was a simple three-word philosophy that I tried to live by…Officers Eat Last.”

            That’s the difference between being a boss and being a leader. Leaders eat last; bosses make sure to pay themselves the bonus. Leaders are the first to sacrifice and the last to get rewarded. Bosses reward themselves and ask others to sacrifice (this is becoming a huge societal problem – in 1989, CEOs made 59 times what the average employee made; in 2021, their pay was 399 times more). Leadership doesn’t come from a title or an office, but from the courage to set a good vision and sacrifice for it; bosses depend on external positions and titles. Leadership is based in humble service; bosses are often motivated by their ego.

            The greatest leader in human history, of course, was Jesus Christ. As a shepherd, He did nothing for His own glory. He had no pride, no ego – His only concern was for us and our salvation. He was unafraid to sacrifice, even to the point of laying down His life. He “set the vision” – pointing the way to everlasting life with the Father. Such a leader should not have to force, but rather inspire us to follow Him to that joyous Kingdom.

            The saint whom we honor this weekend, St. Padre Pio, is another beautiful example of a shepherd laying down his life for his sheep. As most of you know, he was gifted with the stigmata – one day in prayer, light shot out from the wounds of Christ on the Cross and penetrated his hands, feet, and side. From that moment on, he had wounds in his hands, feet, and side that bled for the remainder of his life. One time a woman asked him, “Do those wounds hurt?” To which the wry saint replied, “Do you think God gave them to me for good looks?” But he knew that if he wanted to help bring souls to Christ, he would have to suffer for these souls in union with Christ. So asked Christ to use those wounds to bring souls to be reconciled to the Lord.

            But his stigmata had to be lived out in a daily dying-to-self for souls. He would spend up to fifteen hours each day in the Confessional, which was exhausting and taxing, but he loved to offer God’s mercy for souls. One time, a woman asked him, “Why do you give such easy penances?” He replied, “I give you a small penance, and I do the rest of the penance for you.” Here was a shepherd who was willing to offer his life as a living holocaust!

            And people responded to such a good shepherd. Many people began to join the “prayer groups” that he would form, and tens of thousands of people per year would visit his monastery – they heard the voice of the Shepherd. Even Americans would flock to his Confessional – and he would welcome all, bringing thousands of souls to Christ.

            People hear, and respond, to a good leader who lays down his life for his sheep.

            Certainly in our lives we’ve met both leaders and bosses. At some point, most of us will have the opportunity to influence others, too, either as a leader or a boss. Perhaps we become a parent and have to lead our family; maybe we’re promoted to manager at work; maybe we’re called to coach a team or teach religious education or mentor someone.

            How do we know if we are a good shepherd, a good leader? There is one clear litmus test – what does life like for those we are leading? Are they flourishing? Do they find joy, and abundant life? Are they growing spiritually, socially, physically? A good leader should not be primarily concerned about keeping the higher-ups happy, or being financially successful, or climbing the success ladder – a good leader should primarily be concerned with serving God by serving those whom God has entrusted to them. Leaders are stewards, and we will have to give an account of how we have led these souls to authentic human flourishing.

            Let us follow the example of Christ – and St. Padre Pio – to become a leader, as we lay down our lives for our flock, whomever they may be.

Homily for Easter 3 - Not Seeing Is Believing

 

Homily for Easter 3

April 14, 2024

Not Seeing Is Believing

 

            Once when I was taking a final exam in college, I was shocked to see a huge spider climb up right next to my hand. I screamed, leapt up from my chair, and threw my pen across the room. Imagine my chagrin when I realized that what I thought was a spider was just the shadow that my pen and fingers were making on the paper! Our senses can sometimes be wrong!

            Generally, we get to know the world through our five senses, and they’re usually pretty reliable. But it would be an error to believe that the only way to know the world is through our five senses.

            For example, I have never seen germs, or Saturn’s rings, or Julius Caesar. But I believe people who have seen these things, and who told me about them. Every day, we believe many things that we have not independently verified.

            So we believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, not because we have seen it, but because the Apostles did see the Risen Flesh of Jesus. They saw Him eat fish, touched His wounds, and heard Him speak to them. And they were so confident that they actually saw Him and not an illusion that every single one of the Apostles was willing to die, professing that Jesus Christ is alive.

            Our faith is not based upon our five senses or us “feeling” Jesus’ presence, but upon the testimony of those who have experienced Him. This testimony has been written in the Scriptures – this is why, when Jesus rose, He explained “everything that referred to Him in Moses and the Prophets” – because the Scripture is the written testimony of people who have personally encountered the Lord or been inspired by His Holy Spirit. And Christ did not leave us only with the Scriptures, but left us a living interpreter of the Scriptures – the Church.

            Thus, it is far more important to base our faith on Scriptures and the unchanging teachings of the Church than to base it on our feelings or our senses. What does this mean for us?

            I speak with many people who tell me, “I just don’t feel God in prayer” or “I feel disconnected from God”. Perhaps you’ve had that experience. But our faith is not based upon what we “feel” in prayer. Many of the great saints felt very disconnected from God. For example, St. Therese of Lisieux said, “I remember that parents love their children as much when they are asleep as awake, so when my soul seems asleep, I trust that the Lord knows my weakness.” Another saint, St. Mary Rosello, was plagued with fears that she was damned to Hell, but she knew that these fears were not based in the truth. She persevered with the motto, “Cling to Jesus. There is God, the soul, and eternity – the rest is nothing.”

            So if you feel disconnected from God or you don’t feel God’s presence at all – a spiritual state known as desolation – do not give up! Faith and love are NOT feelings at all.

            Rather, faith is a firm conviction that what God has revealed in the Bible and the Church are true, and love is a choice to live for God. Our second reading teaches us that “to love God is to keep His commandments.” So whether or not we “feel” God’s presence, we know that we love Him because we make the choice to obey Him, develop a serious prayer life, read Scripture, and live for Him.

            Conversely, faith and love that is based on feelings is very transient. What good is it to “feel” connected to God if we choose to disobey His commandments? The person who skips Mass for a sports game, or live with someone outside of a Sacramental marriage, or refuses to forgive someone and thinks that they love God are fooling themselves. Love is proven in deeds and in obedience, not in ambiguous feelings of “connection” to God.

            The other important takeaway from faith not being based on feelings or senses is that there is so much more to our faith than meets the eyes. Like an iceberg where only ten percent of it is visible, most of what is really, truly going on in our Catholic Faith is beyond our ability to sense. For example, when a child is baptized, all we see and feel is water poured over our head. But in reality, that soul is being filled with the radiant divine life of God and adopted as His son or daughter. This past week, seventy of our eighth-graders received the Sacrament of Confirmation – to our five senses, we may have seen the chrism oil and smelled its pungent odor, but the unseen reality is that the souls of these seventy kids have changed, so that they are more conformed to Christ and entrusted with His mission to bring the world to salvation. We cannot see the soul, but our desires for God, our ability to appreciate beauty, our longing for Heaven is evidence that we truly have one. We cannot see Jesus Christ truly present in the Eucharist, but He told us that He is there, and as Jesus is Truth Himself, He cannot lie.

            At times, we must use our imagination to picture the unseen realities of our faith. Consider the Mass, for example. Listen to the words of St. John Chrysostom: “The angels surround the priest, the whole sanctuary and the space before the altar is filled with the heavenly Powers come to honor Him who is present upon the altar. Think now of what kind of choir you are going to enter. Although vested with a body, you have been judged worthy to join the Powers of heaven in singing the praises of Him who is Lord of all. Behold the royal table. The angels serve at it. The Lord Himself is present.” We do not see the tens of thousands of angels that surround this place; we do not see our Blessed Mother worshipping Her Son; we do not see the Sacrifice of the Cross being made present again in an unbloody manner, as Christ offers Himself once again to the Father for our salvation. We do not see it – but we believe it to be true, for this is what our Scriptures tell us and Christ’s Church teaches us. So do not allow yourself to be dependent upon your senses or your feelings – because Truth is firmer when it is based upon the testimony of those who have encountered the Risen Christ and wrote about it, rather than our senses and feelings.

            Because this is difficult, however, we have sacramentals to help us. It’s hard to believe in that which we cannot see. Hence, we have beautiful angels in our stained-glass windows to help remind us of what is truly present, yet invisible, in church every time we attend Mass. We have crucifixes in our home to remind us of the historical event of the Crucifixion, which has such an invisible but real effect of saving us from our sins. We light candles and use incense and dip our fingers in holy water to make clear to our senses that we are walking into the House of God, Whom we love and worship. These help direct our senses to that which is beyond our senses to the invisible realities that occur here.

            My friends, we get to know the physical world through our five senses. But we get to know the invisible world through what God has revealed to men and women through the Bible and the Holy-Spirit-inspired teachings of His Church. And that which we do not see is far more real than that which we see and touch.

Divine Mercy 2024 - The Door of Mercy

 

Homily for Divine Mercy Sunday

April 7, 2024

The Good News of Mercy

 

            The world was in disarray in 1930. We had just experienced World War I, the bloodiest conflict in human history with over 20 million casualties, and the saber-rattling for World War II had already begun. The world had just seen the Communist Revolution in Russia and China, and within two decades, over 25 countries would go through their own bloody revolution. Abortion was legalized in Russia in 1920, and this began to spread throughout the world. In 1930 at the Lambeth Conference, the Episcopal Church became the first Protestant denomination to allow contraception, sowing the seeds of the Sexual Revolution. The “Roaring Twenties” had led to decadence and flaunting of moral norms, while the Stock Market Crash of 1929 had led to starvation and despair.

            Into this situation, God sent…not a warrior, not a Pope, not a leader…but a young peasant girl from Poland named Helen Kowalska. Ordinary in every way, she became a nun and worked as the convent gardener and cook. She would have lived and died in obscurity if it were not for the events of February 22, 1931.

            During prayer that day, Jesus appeared to her in a vision and began to teach her that, in His words, “I am giving mankind the last hope of salvation, that is recourse to My mercy. Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to My mercy.” In a century that was so full of misery, the answer from Heaven is His Mercy.

            Over the next several years, Jesus continued to reveal the secrets of His Mercy to Sr. Faustina. What secrets? That God burns, aches to have mercy on mankind! Jesus said, “The flames of mercy are burning Me, clamoring to be spent. I want to keep pouring them out upon souls, but souls don’t want to believe in My goodness.” He has so, so many mercies to heal the broken hearts, to forgive the sinners, to give love to the unloveable, to free those trapped in the chains of addictions, to bring hope to the despairing – but He cannot pour these out on souls unless we ask for them and trust in Him. This is mercy – where God’s love meets our misery! No one is excluded – Jesus said, “The greater the sinner, the greater the right they have to My Mercy.”

            In particular, there are three parts to the Divine Mercy devotion. The first is the Feast of Divine Mercy, which we celebrate today. How fitting it is that Pope St. John Paul the Great instituted this feast in 2000 – and then died on this feast in 2005! Our Gospel speaks about Jesus bestowing mercy on the Church as His first gift after the Resurrection. It was as if Jesus had to leave this world to return to Heaven to bring back an endless treasury of mercy – a treasure that had been paid for by His Blood – and then He gives that treasure to the Apostles, our first Bishops, to distribute. The treasure of mercy is distributed through Confession, the Sacraments, the merciful teachings of the Church, the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.

            A second part of the Divine Mercy message is the image. Why this image? Notice Jesus’ hands are raised in blessing, and that He touches His Most Sacred Heart, from which flow out rays of red and white – a symbol of the Blood and Water which flowed from His side on the Cross – and a symbol of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist. When we see His hand blessing; the blood that was poured for us; the words beneath, encouraging us to trust in Him – we see a visual of His goodness. I’m amazed how many Catholics think that God is against them, that God doesn’t really want their happiness, or that God’s commands are to put us through a brutal test. Divine mercy blows that idea out of the water! He is for us, on our side, desiring to shower blessings…maybe not the physical things we pray for like a new job or healing from cancer, but the deeper blessings of eternal happiness, sanctification, and unbounded love.

            Finally, there is a beautiful prayer that was revealed to St. Faustina called the “Divine Mercy Chaplet.” It is a powerful prayer which begs God to have mercy on the whole world, by remembering what He did to obtain it – His Passion and Death. The Chaplet is prayed on regular Rosary beads, and the leader begins, “For the sake of His sorrowful Passion,” and the others respond, “Have mercy on us and on the whole world.” Let’s pray a decade…This prayer is particularly powerful for the dying – I always pray it at the bedside of a dying person.

            This time of mercy, however, will not last forever. Jesus said to St. Faustina, “Before I come as a just Judge, I first open wide the door of My mercy. He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice.” The door of mercy is closing fast, and Christ is coming again, very soon. This is not radical apocalyptic thinking – it’s been the longing of the Church since the very beginning, but now it reaches a certain urgency. After all, Jesus said to St. Faustina, “You will prepare the world for My final coming.” Let us take advantage of His mercy – in the Sacrament of Confession, in praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet, in repenting of our sins and truly seeking the Merciful Face of Christ – lest we be forced to face His justice.

            What a joy to know of God’s mercy! Mercy is not a license to sin; rather, mercy says that our sins have been paid for on the Cross. Turn to His mercy, trust in His mercy, extend His mercy to others.

Easter 2024 - Why Do You Seek the Living Among the Dead?

 

Easter Homily

March 31, 2024

Why Do You Seek the Living Among the Dead?

 

            In a little over a week, much of America will be fascinated by the solar eclipse that will cross our country. Some people are even going to travel to different states to get a better view. Despite the fact that the sun rises every day – a little blessing that we so often take for granted – we are more fascinated by the darkness than by the light.

            Isn’t that always the case? How many of us slow down so we can get a better view of a car wreck? As much as we say we don’t, let’s be honest, most of us enjoy reading the bad news. Why does a scandal or a crime make headlines, but the thousands of people who volunteer at soup kitchens and homeless shelters never get recognized? How many of us watched, perhaps over and over again, the video of the bridge that recently collapsed in my hometown of Baltimore – a bridge that I have driven over multiple times? Even when I’m preaching, when I speak about Jesus and what He did for us, people’s eyes glaze over and they yawn, but as soon as I mention the devil, people sit up and cry out, “Tell us more!”

            Because of original sin – that fundamental brokenness in our human nature – we are more drawn to darkness than to light; more drawn to sin than to goodness; more drawn to death than to life. And so it is that the three women return to the tomb. Despite the fact that Jesus predicted three times in the Gospel that He would rise from the dead, they could not believe it, because they believed the fundamental lie of human history – the lie that death wins in the end.

            But when they meet the angels, according to Luke’s Gospel, they ask the women a very pointed question: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” Why do you seek the living among the dead? Do you really believe that life will triumph, or do you think that the death will have the last word? Do you believe that the wicked who have disobeyed the commands of the Lord will win, or will God bring about the victory of justice? Will sin conquer, or will righteousness? As Christians, we must believe that God wins in the end.

            In a few minutes, we will make a six-fold declaration of our Baptismal promises. The first three promises are renunciations – we declare that we will no longer follow Satan, his works, or his empty show. Then the final three promises are declarations of our belief in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In the early Church, the people used to turn to the West to renounce Satan – turning to the darkness, where the sun sets, to declare that darkness will have no power over our lives. They would then turn to the East, to the place of the sun’s rising, to declare their allegiance to the Lord in Whom they have believed. They turned from the darkness to the light in a very physical manner to demonstrate what must go on in our soul.

            So have you really turned from darkness to light? Why do you seek the living among the dead? Why have we pursued our careers, or success on the sports field, or entertainment, or social media, or pleasure as if these would bring us life? Christ offers us a better way to live – a way that stands in opposition to the tomb of the world. A tomb is dark, it’s a dead-end (no pun intended) and it is a place where death seems victorious. The women are told to leave the tomb immediately, because Christ their Life has arisen and is no longer there. You, too, are to leave the tombs of this world – those dead-end pleasures and riches and popularity of this world, which promise us happiness but leave us empty – to follow the Risen One Who walks in the light.

            In the mid-1800s a young British man named Francis Thompson was studying medicine with every hope of becoming a rich and famous doctor. He became ill, however, and to treat his illness he was prescribed opium – and he quickly became hooked. His addiction became so severe that he dropped out of school, became homeless, and lived on the banks of the Thames River, selling matches for a living. But during this time of deep desolation, he became acutely aware of being pursued…by God. In the depths of his personal tomb, he sensed a call to live in the light – that God hadn’t given up on him, but that in some mysterious way, all of this was part of God’s plan for his life. He scribbled down his reflection of God’s great pursuit of his soul on a dirty scrap of paper, and sent it to the editors of a very popular magazine. The editors, devout Christians themselves, published the poem – which led to a remarkable writing career, and the rescue of this young man from the darkness of the tomb.

            This poem is entitled “The Hound of Heaven”, and it describes a man running away from someone. The man runs as fast as he can, trying not to think about his pursuer. He tries to distract himself with tears and with laughter; he tries to hide in out-of-the-way places, he tried to disguise himself as a rich man, as a socialite, as a pleasure-lover…yet he is continually pursued. We discover that the pursuer is God, Who will not give up on the man, and sees through the disguises and is faster than his flight. Toward the end of the poem, God speaks and says, “All things have left thee, for thou hast left Me” – everywhere he had sought happiness left him empty because he was running from the God Who is his joy. In the end, the man gives up, and God calls to him mercifully, “Ah My son, the blindest and weakest…I am He Who thou hast seekest!”

            Have you sought life amidst the tombs? It is time to arise from the empty vanities of this world and live for Christ alone. Wake, O sleeper, and arise, for Christ Who is Risen will give you light and life.

Homily for Good Friday - Participation In the Cross

 

Homily for Good Friday

March 29, 2024

A Reason To Suffer

 

            Where there’s love, sacrifice is easy.

            Well, perhaps not easy, but where there’s love, suffering takes on meaning and purpose. Christ’s suffering, of course, has the deepest meaning: it demonstrated the depths of God’s love for us; it paid back the debt we owed due to our sins and thereby opened for us the gift of salvation. But one other effect of the Cross is that it gives meaning to our own suffering and death. No longer do we have to cry out with Job, “Why have You done this to me?” No longer do we have to cry out with the millions of innocent victims of every age and time, “Is God silent, absent?” We have an answer – and the answer is the Cross.

            The modern world sees suffering as meaningless, and we ought to avoid it at all costs. Euthanasia has been legalized in ten states across the country, because people see no reason to suffer. The core of our modern drug epidemic is that people want a quick-and-easy fix to the suffering of everyday life. How much of our entertainment industry and social media is really aimed at distracting people from their daily burdens?

            But in light of the Cross, human suffering finds its ultimate meaning, in two ways.

            First, suffering becomes the concrete artform of love. St. Padre Pio says that “The proof of love is to suffer for the one you love.” When we look at the Cross, we realize that love is not a warm, fuzzy feeling – but rather three cold, hard nails and two beams of wood. But this is love, because it was borne for us – and so suffering becomes a gift when it is borne out of love.

            There was a young saint from Italy in the early 1900s named (Servant of God) Guiseppe Ottone. He was born into a tragic situation – his mother was unwed and wanted to abort him, but her friends urged her to give him up for adoption. The adoptive family was tough, too – alcoholic, abusive father. But the saving grace was Guiseppe’s adoptive mother, who was kind and taught the boy about the Lord. Guiseppe loved prayer, visiting the Blessed Sacrament, and making pilgrimages, but in every other respect was a normal boy. Sadly, the mother got struck with a serious illness. The doctors gave her very little chance to live. On the day of his mother’s surgery, twelve-year-old Giuseppe was walking with some friends, very concerned about his mother, when he happened to see a holy card of the Blessed Mother blowing in the wind. He picked it up, kissed it, and said aloud, “I will happily offer my life if my mother is well.” Immediately, he fell to the ground unconscious, and his friends rushed him to the hospital. Sadly he died a couple of days later – but his mother recovered and lived until she was 88. His love was made incarnate in sacrificing his life for hers – and he gained Heaven in the process!

            But suffering can also be used to help Jesus save souls. St. Paul tells us Christians that we are to “make up in our flesh what is lacking in the suffering of Christ.” But what could be lacking in Christ’s sufferings? Weren’t they perfect? Yes – but we as members of the Body of Christ, the Church, can continually unite ourselves to Christ’s redemptive act. Jesus Christ suffered two thousand years ago on a Cross – but Jesus also wants to suffer in Connecticut in 2024 through you, if you allow Him the privilege. Our suffering, united to His, makes manifest His saving death in our modern world, and allows us to be co-redeemers with Him.

            Throughout the Church’s history, God has allowed certain souls to embrace a great deal of suffering for love of Him. They are called victim souls – often mystics who experienced parts of His passion, or other sufferings. St. Padre Pio had the wounds of Christ on his hands, feet, and side – known as the “stigmata”. St. Gemma Galgani used to feel all of the agonies of Christ’s Passion on Fridays. Mother Teresa experienced the deep darkness of the soul, feeling abandoned by God as a way of participating, interiorly, in His sufferings. These are not signs that God has abandoned them, but rather that God esteems them so highly that they are granted a share in His most precious cross. They – and we – become His coworkers and intimate friends when we partake of the Cross. As St. Therese of Lisieux said, “The greatest honor that God can pay to anyone is not to give him much, but to ask much from him.”

            My friends, throughout human history, men and women have wrestled with the problem of evil and suffering. Why does God allow it? What does it mean? But as Pope St. John Paul II said, “Love is the fullest answer to the question of the meaning of suffering. This answer has been given by God to man in the Cross of Jesus Christ.”