Homily for Ordinary Time 21 - Discipline to Discipleship

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 21

August 24, 2025

Discipline to Discipleship

 

            The word “discipline” gets a bad rap. Sometimes we associate it with punishment, or we imagine rigorous asceticism like a thousand push-ups or sleeping on the floor. But discipline comes from discipulus, meaning “follower, pupil, student” – from which we also get disciple. And the two ideas are closely connected: if we wish to be a disciple (a follower) of Jesus Christ, then we must engage in the disciplines that make us one. The Christian life here is training for Heaven!

            Before Original Sin, all of us were naturally inclined to Heaven. Our first parents enjoyed prayer. They loved to make sacrifices. It was easy for them to resist temptation. But one of the most far-reaching results of original sin is called concupiscence – the weakness of will by which our desires are disordered. So now we love watching TV more than prayer, even though intellectually we understand that prayer is better for us. Now we love donuts more than broccoli, we love getting our own way more than sacrificing for others, we love ourselves more than God.

            So, with God’s grace, we must use discipline to bring our unruly desires back into their proper order. Since it is no longer natural for us to love God, we must learn to do so: by prayer. We no longer automatically choose God over physical pleasure – we have to practice fasting and sacrifice. We are often drawn to fame and fortune over God, so we must retrain ourselves by almsgiving and generosity to the poor.

            All of this training is difficult – as it would be to learn any skill that did not come naturally, such as piano playing or lacrosse. This is why the second reading speaks of God disciplining us through suffering. Sometimes we think that we suffer because God rejects us, but Scripture makes it clear that we suffer because God loves us and desires, not our comfort, but our holiness. He is training us! Consider those great training scenes in those movies we love so much: how Mr. Miyagi treats the Karate Kid, or how Yoda treats Luke Skywalker. They are often tough with them, challenging them, looking none too loving. But it is loving to help them to become the best they could be. We, too, must be trained in the art of loving God – it does not come naturally to us.

            And what is the fruit of discipline? Our second reading makes clear: peace and holiness. It was said of St. John of the Desert, an early church hermit, that when he would go out to spend time with others, he would return home with his mind so full of chaotic thoughts that he would spend an hour of prayer to calm his mind and put his thoughts in their proper order. Don’t you ever feel that way – like our mind or spirit is just disquieted? If so, then the disciplines of prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and accepting the suffering God sends can restore peace and holiness to our souls.

            But not everyone wants to overcome concupiscence through discipline, which is why Our Lord says that it is a narrow gate, and that few are saved. Many like the idea of Heaven but not actually what Heaven is. It’s not clouds and harps and an endless party – it’s union with the One Who created us and loves us and gives us life. Such a mind-blowing gift – to be united to God – requires that we be prepared for it.

            A job that I very much admire, but couldn’t do, is being one of the linemen to fix power lines. Five hundred thousand volts coursing through those lines – I am very glad those men are well-trained on how to handle it! Something that powerful can do great damage if they do not practice the proper disciplines. They have to train for years. Likewise, being in the presence of the Living God would completely overwhelm us unless we have “trained” here on earth for years – prayer, fasting and sacrifice, almsgiving and generosity, giving our lives to the Lord. Increase your capacity for Him here and you will be prepared to receive Him in His fullness in Heaven.

            Our Lord’s injunction about the number of people saved is meant to help us avoid two dangerous extremes: presumption and despair. Despair is the belief that our sins are too big for God’s mercy, that we could never be saved. This, of course, is an error – no sin is bigger than the mercy of God. But the opposite is far more common these days: presumption, the belief that we’re going to Heaven no matter what. I hear that all the time at funerals: “Oh, we know Aunt Sally is in Heaven.” Actually, we don’t know that, and it is spiritually dangerous to think that way, for two reasons. First, if we assume our loved ones are in Heaven, then we don’t pray for them – and if they are in Purgatory (which is where most people probably go when they die), they need our prayers! Second, we will tend to overlook their sins. We no longer allow eulogies in the Church (I could tell horror stories) but one family really wanted to do one at the graveyard. So I allowed it, and he told a story about how his grandfather used to take him out to restaurants and tell the waitress that he was only twelve to get the child discount when he was really fourteen. And the man telling the story was saying, “Oh wasn’t Grandpa just so much fun!” Uh, that’s a lie and a sin – we should not admire that side of grandpa – and we should not assume that God will overlook those small sins!

            So what’s the middle ground between presumption and despair? Hope. Hope is the firm confidence that God alone can make us holy and save our souls. Not our own efforts, not just “being a good person”, but by His grace and mercy alone. But we receive that grace through those disciplines: prayer, sacrifice, generosity.

            One of my favorite saints – who lived a wild life – demonstrated this so well. His name was St. Moses the Black, and he was a gang leader from Ethiopia in the 400s. He led a gang of 75 men across the countryside, murdering, pillaging, burning down villages. After a while, the authorities were after him, so he decided to hide out at a local monastery of Catholic monks. He went up and banged on the door, preparing to break it down, when the abbot opened the door and did something surprising…he welcomed him in. Moses was shocked, and saw in the abbot’s face a joy and peace and love that he had never before experienced. He went in to speak with the abbot and came out two hours later, and dismissed his men, saying that he had decided to become a monk.

            But old habits die hard. He struggled mightily with lust and a terrible temper. It got so bad that he made up his mind to leave. But the wise abbot one morning took Moses to the roof of the monastery just as the sun was cresting the horizon and said, “See how the sky does not light up all at once, but only gradually. Thus it is with your soul – through persevering in discipline, the light of Christ will begin to dawn.” It took many more years of persevering in prayer, self-sacrifice, and charity, but he eventually experienced the freedom and peace of a well-ordered life. He became a priest and founded his own monastery with 75 men, figuring that since he led 75 men into sin, he must now lead 75 men into Heaven.

            Discipline is not something to be feared – it is a training in the ways of the Lord. Those whose souls have been prepared by the disciplines of daily prayer and frequent reception of the Sacraments, who are freed from slavery to physical pleasures through fasting and sacrifice, and who are not attached to material goods through generosity to the poor will be able to contain the fullness of God in Heaven.

            Let us be like those great, disciplined souls!

Homily for Ordinary Time 20 - Fire, Baptism, Contradiction

 

Ordinary Time 20

August 18, 2025

Fire, Baptism, Division

 

            Jesus shares with us three important elements of the Christian life, through three symbols: fire, baptism, and division. Let’s look at what He means.

            Fire has a way of making everything else into fire. If a fire touches a log, then the log becomes fire, even though it doesn’t stop being a log. Likewise, the goal of the Christian life is to be like Jesus. When we draw close to Him, we become like Him, even though we don’t stop being ourselves. I’ve often quoted the words of St. Gregory of Nyssa: “A Christian is another Christ.” This is the goal of the Christian life: as St. Athanasius put it, “God became man so that man may become God.”

            We do this through grace. Just like a piece of wood can’t light itself on fire, so we can’t become holy without God doing it in us. Grace is God’s fire lighting our soul on fire; we desire to burn for Him. Grace is given through the Sacraments, especially Confession and a worthy reception of Communion, and through our daily prayer. The closer we get to a fire, the more likely we will be set ablaze – the more time we spend with God through the Sacraments and daily prayer, the more likely we will “catch fire” with love for Him.

            Jesus then speaks about baptism – which is about cleansing and purification. Spiritual writers have identified three main stages in the spiritual life. The first stage is called the Purgative Way – that is, the goal of this stage is to eliminate sin. Certainly all mortal sin, which destroy the life of grace in our soul (sins such as intentionally missing Mass, drunkenness or drugs, dabbling in the occult, or any sexual activity outside of marriage), but even deliberate venial sin (a lesser kind of sin such as small lies, petty thefts, unkind words, impatience, saying God’s Name irreverently) and even accidental venial sins. Most Christians get stuck on this first stage of the spiritual life and don’t realize that they are called to full union with God! But to be like Jesus means to give up anything in your life that is not like Jesus.

            In pagan Roman times, it was customary for a father of a family to place a special amulet around the neck of their newborn children – a gold or metal one with the image of a pagan god on it for the boys, a gold one in the shape of a crescent moon for the girls. But when many of these pagans began converting to Christianity, they were instructed to throw them away. Even St. Gregory of Nazianzen wrote, “You have no need of amulets... with which the Evil One makes his way into the minds of simpler folks, stealing for himself the honor that belongs to God.” If they were unwilling to throw away the amulets, they were unworthy of the grace of baptism.

            Likewise, this baptism that Jesus refers to is not just the Sacrament that babies receive – He is referring to the complete cleansing of our souls from sin. We must be willing to throw away our “pagan amulets” – whatever sins we are clinging to, whatever bad habits we’ve developed – so that we are purged and purified for the grace of salvation.

            Finally, Jesus mentions that the consequence is division. Or rather, more broadly, that Christians are called to be a sign of contradiction. Jesus says in the Gospels that “the ruler of this world” is actually Satan – for two thousand years, it’s never been the “popular” thing to be a Christian, even sometimes within one’s own family. Thus could St. Francis stand in the town square and strip off all of his clothes, throwing them at his father and declaring that he would have no other Father than God. Thus could St. Thomas More declare, right before his martyrdom, that he was “the king’s good servant, but God’s first.” Thus could St. Edith Stein convert from Judaism to Catholicism, despite the fact that it meant her family would never speak with her again. Thus could St. Pier Giorgio Frassati continue to use his family’s wealth to serve the poor, while his family thought he was just a delusional religious fanatic. If we’re not a sign of contradiction, we’re not on-fire with the love of Jesus Christ!

            But all this is hard – to repent of sin, to pursue virtue, to cooperate with grace, to be a sign of contradiction. So our second reading gives us the strength: keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. He is worth it. He has endured it first. He has entered into Heaven and invites us to join Him. In fact, this reading is so jam-packed with strength that I want to quote it again: “[Let us keep] our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith. For the sake of the joy that lay before him

he endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God. Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.” Notice we see all three elements: the fire of divine love (keep your eyes fixed on Jesus and what He did for us on the Cross). The baptism (we must struggle against sin). The contradiction (He already endured such opposition). And also – the hope (it was for the sake of the joy that lie before Him that He did all this).

            So – have you drawn near to the fire or do you need to make the Sacraments and daily prayer a more central part of your life? What sins are preventing you from the purification God desires to do in you? And do you need more courage to stand apart from this world for the sake of God?

            It’s all worth it. Jesus is worth it, and the hope found in Him is worth it. He’s offering us a better way to live – with fire, with purpose, cleansed from sin, made holy and righteous through His grace.

Ordinary Time 19 - Beggars With Empty Hands

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 19

August 10, 2025

Empty Hands

 

            Lord Robert Baden-Powell, the British General who founded the Boy Scouts, chose as the organization’s motto: “Be Prepared.” One time he was asked, “Be prepared? For what?” And he responded, “Why, for any old thing!” And I must admit that Boy Scouting did prepare me – for camping, first-aid, swimming, and learning how to play poker (a critical life-skill!).

            But when Jesus tells us to prepare, it’s not like we’re preparing for a disaster. Rather, it’s that we’re preparing to receive a gift. If a friend came to you and said, “I work for a Ferrari dealership and we have an overstock of some vehicles, I’m giving one to you.” After the initial excitement, the first thing we’d do is clean out our garage – a gift so valuable requires that we make the proper space, rather than leaving it out in the driveway!

            Likewise, what is the gift? Eternal life. Jesus says that He is preparing to give us a Kingdom. But then He says that if we want the Kingdom, we should sell what we have – in other words, we have to prepare by emptying our lives of anything that would hinder the Kingdom.

            In the deep South, there is a creative way in which people catch racoons. They drill a small hole into a log, and put something shiny in there – maybe a shard of a mirror, or a piece of tin foil. Then they put a couple nails into the hole. A raccoon will see the shiny thing, reach in and grab it, and once the racoon’s fist is balled up by grabbing it, he won’t be able to retract his hand because of the nails. It would be so easy to get his hand out – he would just have to let go of the shiny object. But he is so intent on gripping the worthless shiny object that he stays trapped, allowing people to capture the raccoon. Apparently this does work – I’ve heard from people who have successfully tried it.

            And how frequently we find ourselves trapped, too, with things that prevent our hands from being open to receive the gift of eternal life!

            For example, many of us are trapped by our reliance on the digital world. A couple weeks ago I visited Lancaster, PA to tour the Amish country. I must admit that I was a bit envious of how simple their life was. They were so close to God because their whole life was imbued with the rhythm of the seasons: planting and harvesting, the rain and the sun. They literally needed God for their daily bread. Plus, they’re committed to love one community. They have a rule that they cannot ride on bicycles but only scooters. And at first that seems like a silly, arbitrary rule but upon further inquiry, I discovered it was because on a scooter they could only ride about 15 miles per day, while on a bike they could ride 60 miles per day. This was meant to keep them physically – and spiritually - close to the people around them.

            How different that is from us! How often do we not notice God’s glory in creation because we’re on our cell phone or watching TikTok! How often have we gone out to dinner and seen an entire family lost in their own digital worlds, completely oblivious to those people sitting three feet from them? If the Kingdom is an intimate union with God and a loving union with one another, then we must limit our digital world to desire the Heavenly world.

            Many of us have our hands full with our sports and extracurriculars. Sports are great – but how much time and effort and money are given away to…a game? I played baseball in college and our coach had a great line: “Nothing in sports is eternal.” How many times do I hear parents tell me, “Oh, we couldn’t make it to Mass because of a sports game.” God wants to give us His very divine life in the Eucharist – and we prefer a soccer game? Ask your child in one year what the score of the game was – I’d bet they won’t remember. But the graces we receive from one Mass are literally infinite!

            Some of us are too preoccupied with our daily self-indulgences and pleasures to think much about the Kingdom. I remember speaking with a retiree one time and I asked him how he spent his days. His response surprised me: “About seventy-five percent of my waking hours are filled with food preparation and clean-up.” Isn’t there more to life than eating and pleasure? Yet we’re consumed with striving, striving, striving for a little more indulgence, as if that can give our life meaning!

            Some of us are clinging to unholy relationships. Maybe we’re living with someone that we’re not sacramentally married to, or are in a relationship where we are constantly led into sin. This relationship might be preventing us from radically abandoning ourselves to Christ – but Jesus was being real when He said, “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off…if a relationship leads us into sin, walk away!”

            Sometimes our hands aren’t open to receive the gift of eternal life because they are filled with the desire for possessions. We spend our waking moments thinking about that new car, that second home, and we’ve got no space in our life for true riches, for the grace of God. It’s no coincidence that poor countries tend to have a much higher level of faith than rich countries – who needs God when we have a steady income and food on the table? We forget the Giver when our lives are focused on the gifts.

            Sometimes we’re trapped by our own plans. How many of God’s gifts come about when our plans have failed! A young man named Louis Martin failed out of seminary, and was pretty despondent and saddened. At the same time, a young woman named Zelie Guerin had tried to become a nun but her bad health caused her to be dismissed. Both were pretty lost and floundering when they happened to be walking across a bridge from opposite directions, and at the exact moment when they passed each other, they heard the voice of God saying to each one separately, “This is the one I have prepared for you.” They began dating, got married to each other, and had five daughters, all of whom became nuns, and one of whom became a saint, St. Therese of Lisieux. And St. Louis and Zelie Martin were also recently canonized – when they abandoned their plans, even their good plans of trying to serve God as a priest and nun, they discovered God’s real plan for their life – and what a gift that was!

            Finally, we’ve got our sins that prevent us from embracing His gifts. Every sin is, at its heart, a rebellion – it is often said that Satan’s motto is “Non Serviam” – I will not serve. So we cannot accept the gift of eternal life from a God Whom we have turned against.

            So we must give up all these things if we are to prepare for His gift of eternal life, grace, love, meaning and purpose. Our Lord wants us to come to Him as beggars with empty hands – only then can He bestow on us the gift of His Divine Life here and for eternity. He is pleased to give us a Kingdom – but do we even want it?

Homily for Ordinary Time 18 - The Financial Lessons of St. Homobonus

 

Ordinary Time 18

August 3, 2025

Financial Lessons from St. Homobonus

 

            Can a Christian desire to be rich? Certainly many people dream about hitting it big – whether having a career that pays in the seven figures, winning the lottery, or investing right. But can a Christian pursue riches?

            Let’s turn to a saint to show us how we ought to deal with money. St. Homobonus (whose name literally means “good man”) lived in Italy in the 1100s. He was a married man with kids – and he was doubly blessed, as he inherited a tremendous fortune from his father, and his own clothing business was extremely prosperous. But he believed that all of this was a gift from God, not given to him for his own benefit, but so that he may help the poor. How did he do this?

            First, he was scrupulously honest in his business dealings – he knew that wealth which came from deceit could not honor God. Second, in a time period where society was very stratified and the rich lived quite differently from the poor, he and his family dressed and lived simply, without flaunting their wealth or living luxuriously. Finally, he gave away most of his earnings to various charities and individuals – he had a particular emphasis on buying graves for those who died without the money to buy a plot in the cemetery.

            The old saying goes that “God is never outdone in generosity” – and Homobonus experienced that! Despite giving away so much, his business kept exponentially increasing – which only motivated him to give away more! One time on a journey he shared his food and drink with a beggar. When he went on and found a stream, he re-filled his water jug, only to find that God had miraculously turned the water in the jug to wine – a sign that God was blessing his generosity!

            His life answers the question – can a Christian desire to be rich? The answer is: only if these riches are used to do good, to give away to the needy, not to be self-indulgent or miserly.

            As Tolstoy said, “I am a participant in a crime if I have extra food and another has none.” Yes, provide for your family. Yes, live a comfortable life – go on vacation, eat at Prime 111 every now and then, save for retirement. But when it comes to desiring to become rich for our own sake, it would indeed be the sin of greed to try to increase our income or our possessions just so we can have more luxuries that we don’t really need.

            After all, doesn’t St. Paul tell us in the second reading to “seek the things above”? When someone wants fancy cars or second homes or just a bigger bank account, doesn’t that consume our thoughts and take a great deal of time? And so, in our pursuit of riches, we have little time for prayer or good works; so we have little opportunity to think of God.

            Let us follow the example of St. Homobonus regarding riches. First, we ought to only earn them with honesty – no shady business dealings. Second, we ought to not flaunt our wealth. I have a friend who is a multimillionaire – and his kids don’t know it, because he drives a beat-up minivan and wears Walmart clothes. That’s how we ought to live if we have been blessed with wealth – with great humility. And finally, we ought to give away what we do not truly need, and maybe some things that we do need – as Mother Teresa said, “I have found the paradox, that when we love until it hurts, there is no more hurt, but only more love.”

            So I ask you – do you desire to be richer – and if so, why? To glorify God with it, to give it away, or to live a more self-indulgent lifestyle, as if that could make us happier? All of our riches will end with our last breath – but the good works we do with our money will reverberate into eternity.

Homily for Ordinary Time 17 - A Deep Dive Into the Our Father

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 17

July 27, 2025

The Most Powerful Prayer

 

            Of all the prayers we have in our Catholic Tradition, the Our Father takes pride of place. Every other prayer was written by human beings, but this prayer was written by God Himself – which means that God is telling us how to pray to Him! Church Father Tertullian said that the Our Father is the summary of all the New Testament. This prayer alone is enough to make us a saint: one time a young nun asked St. Theresa of Avila, “Dear Mother, what is the quickest way to reach union with God?” And the saint replied, “Say one Our Father…but take an hour to say it.” So let’s dive into the richness of this beautiful prayer that Our Lord taught us.

            The first word: “our”. St. Paul writes that “we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” – we are never alone as we approach the Father. We call it the “Communion of Saints” – that we are united to the Church Triumphant (those who are seeing the Father’s Face in Heaven), the Church Suffering (souls in Purgatory who are longing for Heaven) and the Church Militant (souls on earth who are still fighting the good fight). We belong to a Church that not only spans the globe but spans human history – so we are never alone when we call God “our” Father. When we pray, we are praying for others and in union with others, even if we’re alone.

            “Our Father” – how amazing that God is not a distant, unreachable deity, but one who invites us to call Him by that most intimate name: Father! If you’ve had a good earthly father, realize that he reflected the Heavenly Father’s love to you. But many of us have had absent or weak or cruel fathers. If that is the case, realize that all the fatherly love you lacked can be found in God the Father.

            “Our Father who art in Heaven.” Sometimes children will play that game of, “My dad is stronger than your dad.” Or “My dad has a better job or a cooler car than your dad.” But Jesus makes clear that our Father is the Lord of Heaven and earth – with complete power and perfect love. At some point in our lives we realize that our parents are human – my father is now suffering from Parkinson’s Disease and it saddens me to watch how this once-strong man has grown weak under the burden of years…but it is consoling to know that both he and I have a strong, perfect, majestic Father Who rules Heaven and earth.

            “Hallowed be thy name.” To hallow means to make holy. But isn’t God already holy? How can we pray that God’s Name be holy? We are praying that God may be praised in us. That others may see our lives and praise God because of us. There was a certain clocktower on a courthouse in America which had no hands on the clock. The clock worked perfectly well, but nobody knew it because there were no hands. Likewise, if we are only a Christian in our minds but not in our deeds, then God’s Name would not be praised. Although we don’t do good deeds just to perform, still we want people to see our lives and say, “How good God is, that He is doing such great things through Sam! Through Lucy! Through John!”

            “Thy Kingdom Come.” God’s Kingdom will come whether we like it or not, but we choose to welcome His Kingdom when we allow Christ to reign over every aspect of our lives. That means Christ is king of our workplace, our car rides, our bedrooms; that He is the King of how we spend our free time and what jokes we laugh at; King of the music we listen to, the internet sites we visit, the plans we make for the future.

            Closely connected is “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” In Heaven, the angels and saints fulfill God’s will perfectly. We are asking to do the same – to be a docile instrument in the Hand of the Lord. Which one would be a better tool: a pen that looks nice but constantly runs out of ink, or one that looks plain but writes whenever we need it to? We, too, are pens in the hands of God, and He loves those whom He can count on to say “yes” to Him, no matter what He asks.

            “Give us this day our daily bread.” This can mean two things: first, we are asking God to give us the material things we need for that day. Notice we are not asking for Him to make us rich and to give us what we want, but to give us what we need. But there is a spiritual sense, too – we are asking for the Eucharist. During the Covid lockdown when churches were closed, I would spend my Sundays driving around to parishioners’ houses bringing them Holy Communion if they felt comfortable having visitors. It was amazing to see tears streaming down the faces of those who had been deprived of Jesus for six weeks, two months. There was such a hunger for Him – this prayer asks that our spiritual hunger be nourished by the Eucharist, as well as asking God to take care of our physical needs.

            But notice that we are told to pray for daily bread. We can’t eat enough on Monday to last through the whole week; nor can we pray enough on Sunday to last until the following one. As a seminarian, I was once assigned to a cranky older priest. One night I asked if he would lead grace as we sat down to dinner, and he responded, “I blessed all the food I will ever eat in 1983, I don’t need to say grace today!” He meant it humorously, but perhaps Christians need to remember that we need Jesus daily, hourly – hence, we pray for our daily bread.

            “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” We are only forgiven in the measure we forgive others. We grow angry with others because we think we are not at fault; but if we realized the magnitude of our own sins, we would find it quick and easy to forgive the sins of others, because of the amount of mercy we have received!

            St. Joseph Vaz was a Portuguese missionary to Sri Lanka in the 1700s who was effective at converting many of the natives to the Catholic Faith. Some of the Sri Lankan King’s advisors, jealous of his success, told the King that the priest must be a Portuguese spy, so the King unjustly imprisoned him for quite some time. St. Joseph willingly accepted the imprisonment, seeing God’s hand in it since it gave him time to learn the language of Sri Lanka. Finally, the King realized that St. Joseph was innocent, and had him released, but on one condition. The island had been stuck in a devastating drought, and the King said, “Prove to me that your God is the true God by praying for rain.” St. Joseph must’ve been tempted to shake the dust from his feet and get out of there – after all the King had just put him in jail for years, so why is the King’s problem, his problem now? But, moved with compassion, Fr. Joseph Vaz agreed to pray for rain. Upon making his prayer, a torrential downpour ensued, but miraculously Fr. Vaz stayed completely dry – not a drop of rain fell on him. In gratitude, the King allowed him to preach the Faith anywhere he wanted in his kingdom, and thousands more souls became Christian, all because St. Joseph Vaz was able to forgive his captor – knowing the mercy of God!

            “Lead us not into temptation.” Pope Francis made headlines back in 2017 when he asked the Italian Bishops to change the words of the Our Father into “Do not abandon us in temptation.” That actually makes more sense – God does not “lead us” into temptation, but He allows it so that we can choose Him. Denying ourself one temptation is worth more than hundreds of prayers, because it usually costs us a great deal to say “no” to our flesh or the suggestions of the Evil One. So we ask God to remain by our side as we fight the spiritual battle!

            “Deliver us from evil.” In this fallen world, there are so many evils we face: death and disease, strife in families, anxiety about work or school. We conclude by asking that God may bring us through the fires and trials, so that we may be stronger and more faithful to Him.

            This prayer, first learned as young children, is still the most powerful prayer of all, clearly articulating how we should turn to God. Pray it well – with attention and love – and it has the power to grant you a peaceful life, and to make you a saint!

Homily for Ordinary Time 14 - The Souls We're Responsible For

 

Ordinary Time 14

July 6, 2025

The Souls We’re Responsible For

 

            Maria Simma is a recent German mystic (died in 2004) who allegedly had visions of some souls in Purgatory. One time she was in bed, waiting to fall asleep, when she saw a vision of a soul walking into her room. By this time she had been having these mystical apparitions regularly, so it did not bother her – rather, she simply asked, “Who are you?”

            He replied, “Do you not remember me? We met one time on a train. I have returned to thank you.”

            She looked closely at his face and all of a sudden remembered. Decades earlier, she had been riding the train, praying her Rosary, when this man sat down across from her. Noticing the Rosary, the man began to make fun of her. “Who believes in that stuff any more? The Rosary – just hogwash! Don’t waste your time!” She defended her faith as best as she could, but he was adamant that it was stupid to believe in God. Finally, the man reached his station, and as he left, Maria whispered a small prayer: “Lord, don’t let that man be lost for eternity.”

            The soul of that man said to her, in that apparition many years later, “That prayer you prayed for me was the only thing that kept me from Hell. So I came to thank you.” The power of prayer – and the responsibility we can have over another person’s soul!

            What a blessing that the Lord uses us to save souls! Jesus does not need to use 72 disciples to prepare His way; neither does He need to use you and me. He could save souls and give grace directly, by Himself. But He chooses to allow us to help Him save souls because God receives more glory using weak, frail instruments like us. Back in the Medieval days, a King showed how glorious he was by how many people were in his court. King Henry of England had about 700 people in his court; the Palace of Versailles in France housed 10,000 servants at one time. It belongs to the glory of the King to have many servants surrounding him – so it belongs to the glory of God to share His work of saving souls with each and every baptized Christian.

            And it is not an exaggeration to say that eternity hangs in the balance. Of all the things we do in this world, the only thing that will remain in eternity are souls. Winning championships, building skyscrapers, making millions – all of this will be gone in a thousand years. But bringing a soul to Heaven will be a triumph that never disappears for eternity. Eternal souls are literally depending upon our faithfulness to Jesus Christ.

            The first way to cooperate with Christ in saving souls is through our vocation. The primary souls for us to impact are our spouse and kids and family. We have to be intentional about it – seeing our vocation, whether to marriage or the single life or priesthood and religious life – as primarily about forming souls for Heaven. You may be familiar with the life of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born saint. At first, her life was easy – she was married to a wealthy merchant, a happy New York socialite. But soon tragedy struck – her brother-in-law died, and she had to adopt his six kids, along with her own five children. Then her husband died and they were thrown into poverty. Through the influence of friends, she converted to Catholicism – and her parents and siblings refused to speak to her, because of the anti-Catholicism rife in America at the time. To add to this tragedy, two of her daughters died of illness.

            In all of this, her son William began to rebel in his teen years. He questioned his faith, wondering how a good God could allow them to go through such suffering. He was in danger of losing his faith entirely, but his saintly mother spent many long hours patiently discussing the faith and praying with him. Still conflicted, William joined the Navy, and his mother kept writing to him to encourage him in faith – up to three letters per week, many of which went unanswered. But after years of prayer and years of encouraging letters, William again returned to his faith with great devotion – much to his mother’s delight – and William had one daughter become a nun and a son become an Archbishop. The faith of his mother helped William Seton return to his own faith and become a fervent disciple! We, too, are called first and foremost through our vocation to help our spouse, kids, grandkids, and family members to Heaven.

            We also cooperate through evangelization. St. Francis Xavier was a missionary in India and the Philippines, and he wrote back to his friends in Europe, “There is now in these parts a very large number of persons who have only one reason for not becoming Christian, and that is that there is no one to make them Christians.” He found fields ripe for the harvest – and my goodness, we have that here too! I have never seen such an absolute openness to Christ than I see right now. We have over 10 people who are interested in exploring converting to Catholicism this coming Fall, with more coming – if you invite. Look around in your school, your work, your neighborhood to see if there’s someone who’s looking for more out of life…and invite them to come to church with you. See what doors the Holy Spirit will open!

            Finally, we cooperate with Christ through intercession. Our Lady at Fatima said, “Pray a great deal and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to hell because they have no one to pray and make sacrifices for them.” We pray for all sorts of material blessings for our family and friends, but why not pray for their conversion and sanctification? You may be familiar with St. Augustine, who was quite a wayward youth – he was a thief, got involved in a cult, had a child out of wedlock. His mother St. Monica was always hounding him to go to Church and get right with the Lord, but Augustine couldn’t stand her pious nagging. So one day Monica visited the holy bishop St. Ambrose, who told her, “Talk less to Augustine about the Lord, and talk more to the Lord about Augustine.” In other words, stop nagging and start praying! She did, and soon thereafter Augustine was converted. Sometimes I’ll be driving down the road and see someone walking on the sidewalk, and I will feel the Holy Spirit say, “This person needs a prayer.” So I’ll bless them and offer them to God – who knows what good that will do!

            But in all this, we must never forget that we don’t save a single soul. St. Paul was clear when he said, “I planted, another watered, but God gave the growth.” It is only grace that brings a soul closer to Christ, not our efforts alone. This is why Jesus tells these 72 disciples, upon returning, not to rejoice in the good works they did (works so amazing like healing the sick and casting out demons), but rather rejoice only that God loves them and that they are sanctified by their labors. Even St. Paul says that the only thing we should boast in is Jesus Christ – it is His work, already accomplished on the Cross, that saves souls. We are only messengers of the King, beggars telling other beggars where to find bread.

            But we find, though, that when we cooperate with his grace in saving souls – through our vocation, through evangelization, through intercession – we become holy. I had a sixth-grade student at my school ask me last year, “Fr. Joseph, how do I become a saint? What must I do?” We spoke about prayer and virtue, avoiding temptation and practicing acts of kindness and sacrifice – but I came away from that conversation thinking, “In helping him become a saint, I have a deeper desire to become a saint!” So in helping others find Christ, we find Christ more.

            The mission of Jesus Christ on this earth is literally the most daring, important mission in history – that of saving souls for eternal life. He does not possess this mission alone, for we belong to Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church – which means that all of us must also seek to save souls through our vocation, evangelization, and intercession. Only in Heaven will we meet those souls we have brought there, through our faithfulness!

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.