Ordinary Time 15 - The Fruits of Virtue

 

Ordinary Time 15

July 12, 2026

The Cardinal and Theological Fruits

 

            Jesus gives this beautiful parable about the sower who is sowing grains of wheat. But obviously in such a parable, everything is a symbol of something else, as Jesus Himself explains it: the sower are the Apostles, the seed is the Word of God, the four locations of sowing seed are the four different types of souls who receive the Word of God…but there is one element of the parable that Jesus does not explain – what is the fruit that a good person bears thirty or sixty or a hundredfold?

            The fruit is virtue. Virtues are the good moral habits that make us like Christ (or, as the Catechism puts it, “The habitual disposition to do good”). It’s not just an individual action – anybody can be generous once. Rather, a virtue is so ingrained in us that it becomes part of our character, and it becomes even easy to do good, even when it takes sacrifice. This takes both prayer and practice. God can infuse virtue in is when we pray for it, but usually He gives us opportunities to practice virtue when we are challenged in patience, courage, purity, etc.

            But what kind of virtues ought we strive for? Tradition gives us seven main virtues – three that deal with God (the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity) and four that deal with our relationships in this world (the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude). Let’s look briefly at each one.

            First, at our Baptism, each one of us has received faith, hope, and charity. Faith allows us to believe that God exists, to trust Him, and to believe everything He has revealed in Scripture and Tradition. Hope gives us firm assurance that He will be faithful to His promises, especially the promise of everlasting life. Charity means that we love God above all things and that we love others for the sake of God.

            But the cardinal virtues are a little more confusing, so let’s break these down. First, temperance. This virtue teaches us to love God’s gifts rightly – to enjoy them in their proper place. I am reminded of the story of St. Charles Borromeo, the sixteenth-century Italian bishop, who had a great fondness for shooting pool. One day he was playing, when a friend asked him, “What would you do if you knew you were going to die in an hour? Would you run to the chapel, or find a priest for Confession?” He replied, “I would continue playing pool. I began this game with the intention of glorifying God, so why should I stop, even if I enjoy it?”

            There was a heresy in the early middle ages called Albigensianism which believed that all pleasure was evil – that to be a saint, we have to deny ourselves every kind of pleasure. Nope – not at all. Jesus’ first miracle was to make wine at a feast – clearly, God created good things, and we ought to enjoy them! But there is also a mirror-image error called Hedonism which believes that pleasure is the highest good. Also an error. The midpoint is the virtue of temperance – we enjoy God’s gifts rightly, in the way He intended, in balance. So we ought to feast on Thanksgiving and fast during Lent. We ought to enjoy alcohol in moderation – after all, St. Thomas Aquinas once said, “Drink to the point of hilarity, but no further” – in other words, enjoy a drink which can loosen us up and make us laugh, but not so much that we lose our reason. We ought to enjoy rest and recreation, but must not shirk our duties out of laziness. We ought to enjoy sexual pleasure, but only within marriage and open to life. We can all acknowledge that when we misuse God’s gifts, we are harmed – overeating leads to a stomachache, overindulgence in alcohol leads to a hangover, or sexual relations outside of marriage leads to unplanned pregnancy, broken hearts, and addictions. Hence, temperance is necessary for us to experience freedom!

            The next virtue is justice, which means that we give everyone what we owe them. We owe our parents respect and care (and if you’re under 18, you owe them obedience), we owe our country our loyalty, we owe God worship, we owe our neighbor the basic necessities of life. A lot of things we think we’re doing because we’re kind, but it’s actually just plain justice.

            For example, in years past I’ve spoken about the need to dress well for Mass, as we recognize we’re not going to the beach but the very presence of Almighty God. Inevitably someone says, “Oh but Father, we’re just lucky that they’re coming to Mass,” as if we’re doing a favor to God. My friend, our attendance at Mass is actually an act of justice – it is what we owe our Creator as His creatures. God is not “lucky” that we’re here – rather, we owe Him worship, and in His benevolence He is kind to give us so many graces and blessings in the Eucharist and in the Scripture readings. Or we can be that way to our fellow people, too. How many of us have held the door open for others and then had a kind of smug, “Yeah, I’m a good person” feeling? Eh, we’re only doing what we ought to do, since we owe it to our neighbors to treat them with respect. Jesus has a pithy quote in one of the Gospels for this attitude, when He says, “These servants ought to say, ‘We are unprofitable servants, we have only done what was required of us.’”

            Of course, we also ought to exceed justice by practicing mercy. Mercy is giving people what they are not due. Back in 2021, a Rhode Island woman named Lisa Hull awoke to phone ringing to give her the news that no mother wanted to hear: her son had been killed in a tragic automobile accident. Devastated, she was tempted to anger at the other driver, but as a woman of deep faith, brought it to prayer. The Lord opened her heart to realize that the other driver must’ve been suffering from extreme guilt and shame – and she alone had the power to release him from that by publicly forgiving him. But could she do that? She went back and forth, but finally decided to call him and tell him that she forgave him – it was truly an accident, he wasn’t drunk or anything – and this call brought so much mercy into his life. He attended the funeral and burial, and he found peace because of the mercy shown from the mother. So, while justice is critical, we are called to go above it through practicing mercy.

            The third cardinal virtue is fortitude – the courage to do what’s right despite difficulty. Aquinas distinguishes between two types of good things we desire: what he calls concupiscible goods and irascible goods. Big words, I know – but simple concepts. Concupiscible goods are things which are good and easy. So, at the end of a long day, we desire sleep – that is good for us, and it’s easy to do – just lay down on a comfortable bed. But some good things take effort – working out, for example, or having a prayer life, or standing up for a kid who’s bullied in school. These “irascible goods” are those which take fortitude – the strength to pursue the good despite difficulty. These are good things, but they are difficult.

            One of the most devout Catholic athletes is Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza. But his road to stardom was one that required great fortitude. He was drafted in the 62^nd round, and only because his father was friends with the Dodgers’ coach. No one expected him to make the majors. But he knew that God had given him the talent – so he needed the fortitude to persevere, work hard – and not just for his own ego, but to glorify God and to give him a platform to speak about Christ to the public. In fact, when he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2016, he said in his speech, “My Catholic faith [is] the greatest gift, which has had a profound impact on my career and has given me patience, compassion and hope. Pope Benedict the XVI said, ‘One who has hope, lives differently.’” It wasn’t so he could be rich and famous, but so that Christ’s Name could be praised in this professional athlete, that Piazza had to tap into that virtue of fortitude in order to overcome the odds and make the majors. And look at his witness to Christ now!

            Finally, the last of the cardinal virtues is prudence, which Aquinas calls the “charioteer of the virtues” because it drives the rest of them. Prudence is knowing what virtue to exercise in each given situation. For example, let’s say you want to make a small sacrifice for God by giving up dessert for a week. But a friend invites you to his birthday and offers you some cake. Is it more virtuous to take the cake, or keep the fast? Prudence helps you decide. I need to rely on prudence all the time – for example, I often have kids at my school tell me, “Father, can you talk to Johnny, he’s picked up vaping and we’re concerned about him.” I have to discern whether or not to talk to him, when to do it, and what words to say. That’s the virtue of prudence – discovering when and how to live out the other virtues.

            This beautiful parable of the sower and the seed is incomplete without considering what this fruit is that a healthy Christian can expect – the fruit is a life overflowing with virtues. Aristotle said that “virtue is excellence in being human.” One might say that it is the excellence of the Christian life, as well – replete with the human virtues of prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude, as well as the divine virtues of faith, hope, and charity.

Ordinary Time 12 - Don't Fear the Haters

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 12

June 21, 2026

Don’t Worry About the Haters

 

            I don’t care how old you are or what season of life you’re in, peer pressure can be a real struggle. Maybe it’s just bad memories from our middle school days, but we’re all hardwired to follow the herd, go along, fit in. We are social creatures, and no one wants to be ostracized.

            But what do we do when the peer pressure is harmful? When it goes against truth? When it goes against love?

            St. Thomas More was the chancellor of England under King Henry VIII during the 1500s – the second-in-command in the entire empire, and the King’s good friend. The King wanted to get divorced and remarried, but knew this was impossible in the Catholic Faith. So in anger, the King declared himself to be the head of the Church of England, starting the Anglican Church (in America they’re known as Episcopalians, like St. Peter’s Church on the Green). He forced every nobleman and clergyman in his realm to swear an oath acknowledging the King, not the Pope, as the leader of the Church, and most had no problem signing. But Sir Thomas More refused, knowing he could never abandon the Church that Christ founded.

            In the fantastic play “Man for All Seasons” about More’s life, we see the Duke of Norfolk trying to argue with Thomas More about this issue. The Duke says, “Oh confound all this. I'm not a scholar, I don't know whether the marriage was lawful or not, but Thomas, look at these names! Why can't you do as I did and [sign this oath], for fellowship!”

            And Thomas responds, "And when we die, and you are sent to heaven for doing your conscience, and I am sent to hell for not doing mine, will you come with me, for fellowship?"

            Throughout history, we’ve had lots of saints who stood up to the status quo. I think of St. Oscar Romero, the heroic bishop of El Salvador, who preached boldly against the government’s oppression of the poor and human rights abuses – and ended up assassinated for his boldness. I think of St. Maria of Paris, who hid Jews in her tiny apartment during the Nazi regime and lost her life for such charity. We’ve had literally millions of heroic saints stand up against the zeitgeist (the “spirit of the age”) to live boldly for Christ, no matter what the personal cost or how many people are against them.

            And we’d like to think we’d do the same, right? But do we really? I’d just like to mention one opportunity we have today to stand up for truth and authentic love against the mistaken notions of the world.

            June is, of course, “Pride Month”. We see it everywhere, including on the rainbow flag flying over Monroe’s Town Hall. While we ought to be respectful and kind to all people, including our brothers and sisters who struggle with same-sex attraction, the Pride movement is about more than just respect – it’s about approval of a lifestyle that is gravely immoral. Our Lord has taught, in both the Old and the New Testaments, and through His Church, that the only proper use of sexuality is between a man and a woman in a sacramental marriage and open to life. Thus, those who identify as LGBT are encouraged to live lives of chastity, prayer, and friendship. In fact, there is a wonderful Catholic outreach to those of same-sex attraction called Courage – the international director happens to be the pastor of St. Theresa’s Church in Trumbull, Fr. Brian Gannon. This outreach gives support to those who want to live pure and holy lives while struggling with the cross of same-sex attraction.

            But this whole idea of chastity is opposed to the Pride movement, which is an ideology of accepting an objectively disordered view of marriage and sexual relations. This is why no good Catholic can fly the Pride flag or otherwise support the Pride movement. I know in many companies and at schools, people are encouraged and even pressured to support the Pride movement – otherwise they become labeled as a bigot or a hater.

            But it is not bigotry to accept what God has revealed about the nature of marriage. It is not hatred to desire that someone avoid grave mortal sin. In fact, nothing could be more loving than to help our brothers and sisters become saints, even if they carry the very challenging cross of same-sex attraction.

            So – are we bold enough to stand up for truth and love on this issue? Are we willing to lose friends, have family members shun us, or suffer consequences at our job? In today’s Scripture readings, Christ is bluntly clear that to follow Him means that we will be hated. He was rejected; so will we be. And this issue of celebrating Pride may be one of the clearest ways in which Christ’s words are ringing true in today’s society.

            But do not be afraid. You and God equal a majority. People often say, “Oh, I want to be on the right side of history.” But truthfully, as a Christian, we should prefer to be on the right side of eternity – because this LGBT ideology, like the thousands of false ideologies before it, will end up on the trash heap of history. The Word of the Lord alone will endure forever.

            So don’t be afraid to stand alone if you stand with Christ on His Word.

Ordinary Time 11 - Chosen: Vocation and Mission

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 11

June 14, 2026

Chosen: Vocation and Mission

 

            When we were all growing up, one of the most tense moments of school was picking teams on the playground. I don’t care what sport it was – kickball, basketball, whatever – I was usually picked last – maybe you have a similar story!

            We all want to be chosen, included, welcomed onto the team for our valuable contributions. Young people have a syndrome they call FOMO – “Fear of missing out” – when they’re not invited to be a part of something exciting. And this certainly would have been the case with these Twelve Apostles.

            The process of following a rabbi was quite different in first-century Judaism. Every young boy would receive schooling until he was thirteen, but then only the best and brightest would go on to train with a rabbi. The rabbi wouldn’t seek out the boy; it was the other way around. An intellectually sharp and devout boy would ask a rabbi, “May I follow you?” The rabbi, then, would examine the boy to see if he is worthy of investing the time to train him. If he liked what he saw, the rabbi would respond, “Come, follow me.”

            Jesus does things backwards – He seeks out His disciples. He chooses those who are clearly not the best and the brightest – these guys were in their twenties or older, clearly washed-up day laborers. Why does He seek them? Not because they are worthy – but because He has a specific mission for them, and He wants to make clear that it is His power in them, not their own efforts that are doing these miracles and preaching this saving message.

            These Apostles were chosen – and so are you. You, too, have an irreplaceable role to play in this grand epic of what God is doing in history to bring about His Kingdom and save souls. And you can know what this mission is in two ways: your vocation, and your charisms.

            First, your vocation. We know that we are supposed to love God and love our neighbor, but that’s kinda vague – who are the ones we are called to love? The poor in Africa? The homeless in Bridgeport? Maybe – but our vocation gives us a clear direction to love. If you are called to marriage, then your primary responsibility is to love your spouse and children to Heaven. Those called to the priesthood are called to love their parish to become saints. Those called to the single life in the world are called to love their families, their neighbors, and to find a ministry wherein they can love others through authentic self-gift.

            Those of you who are young – how do we know our vocation? There are three steps to discernment. First, look at your holy desires – what desires do you have that you could foresee leading to holiness? A desire to become rich and famous is not a holy desire – a desire to serve the poor is a holy desire. God often puts our vocation on our hearts through our holy desires. Last summer at Camp Veritas, one of our young parishioners had a powerful encounter where he actually saw the face of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist – a true miracle, just for him. It changed his life and afterward we were talking and he sighed, “Well, I guess I have to be a priest now.” I said, “Do you want to be a priest?” “No, not really.” “Then it’s probably not your vocation – and that’s fine! The Church needs holy married men, as well!”

            Second, look at the doors God is opening. I was working with a young man in his 20s who was passionate about the Faith. I asked him if he had considered the priesthood, and he said no, he was going to marry Sarah. I said, “That’s wonderful! I didn’t know you had a girlfriend.” He replied, “Oh, I don’t. Sarah broke up with me a month ago and told me she would never date me again. But I know it’s God’s will that we marry.” Uh, sorry buddy. It’s not God’s will. Pay attention to the doors He opens, and we can see His will.

            Finally, do we have peace when we think about our future vocation? Peace is usually a sign that we are on the path God has set out for us.

            Now, discernment about our vocation is only for those who have not yet made a commitment. Once we have made vows for marriage, priesthood, or religious life, that part of discernment is done – we now have a direction for our love. But our discernment isn’t finished yet – we still must discern our charisms – the unique gifts of the Holy Spirit given so we can live out His mission here on earth.

            St. Paul sets out a list of charisms in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12. Some seem mundane, such as the charism of leadership or administration or generosity. Some seem more extraordinary: charism of healing, prophesy, miracles. A charism is not just an ordinary talent – it is a passion and gift that serious disciples have for the building up of the Kingdom. It’s not just something we train for, but something that goes to the depths of who we are. It’s not for us and our enjoyment, but for God to work through us for others.

            A friend of mine is a tremendous singer who uses her gifts for the glory of God. One day, a Franciscan brother prayed over her (it was Br. Damien, who you may have seen if you came to our Heart-to-Heart Adoration this year). He has the charism of prophesy, whereby God speaks through him, and he said to her, “Your voice will be used to bring many people to Confession.” Kind of an interesting charism, right? Well, the next time she was leading songs during Adoration, she was amazed – the Confession lines stretched all the way around the church! And it happens to her every time she sings during Adoration. A true charism indeed!

            I know a woman with the charism of hospitality. She used to host gatherings for priests and Protestant ministers at her homes, and over dinner and coffee, we forged friendships and organized ecumenical events that brought many Christians together with a shared passion for the Lord. It may seem mundane, but she was never happier than when she saw people connecting with fellow Christians over pasta and tiramisu.

            Some have the charism of teaching, or writing, or working with the poor. Some have the charism of intercessory prayer – they love to pray for others, and feel a real passion for doing so. Some have the charism of evangelization – they get in conversations with their Uber driver and strangers in airports about Jesus. Some have the charism of working with youth – one of the most effective youth ministers in our diocese is a grandmother in New Canaan who runs an absolutely vibrant youth ministry at St. Aloysius.

            If you are a serious disciple, you have a charism. You have to discern what it is and where to use it, but a disciple must use it for Christ to live and work in them. I would encourage you to read more about charisms from Catholic websites or a fantastic book called “Fruitful Discipleship”. Discern what your charism is, try it out, and see how God will work through you.

            Both your vocation – which is your mission territory – and your charisms – which are your tools to work that territory and bear fruit – are gifts from God. The reason why God chose these ordinary Apostles is so that the glory will go to Him and not to them. Throughout history, He has chosen saints from the most common folk and allowed them to do tremendous works.

            For example, St. John Vianney was not the smartest priest ever. He was so behind in his schoolwork that when he was in his twenties, he was sent back to class with twelve-year-olds to learn basic Latin. Even when he became a priest, his fellow priests thought he was too uneducated to be a pastor, so they circulated a petition to have him removed. When Vianney heard about this petition, he asked to see it – and he signed his own name to it! But because he was so humble, God could use him.

            He had founded an orphanage for poor girls, but one day finances were tough and they ran out of flour. The woman in charge ran to Fr. Vianney, who told her, “You cannot make many loaves of bread? Then just make one.” The woman ran home and poured out the meager flour from the bag, and when she had mixed it with water and yeast, it began to rise…and rise…and rise so much that it became a lump of dough so large that they had to make it into several smaller loaves, which fed the entire house. When she came back to thank the priest, he said humbly, “I do not work miracles! I am only a poor ignorant man who once tended sheep. I just turned to the saints and they helped you.” He tried to deflect the praise even when he did the miracle!

            My friends, God called these leftover-men to become the cornerstone of His Church. God has likewise chosen you for a mission: one that unfolds through your vocation, and through the specific charisms God has given you. Our weakness is not an obstacle to His working in and through us, if we are willing instruments in His hands!

Corpus Christi Sunday - June 7, 2026

Corpus Christi Homily

June 7, 2026

The Enemies of Grace

 

           During the Roman persecution of Christians, a priest wanted to bring Holy Communion to those Christians who were in prison for their Faith, but the Christian community refused to let the priest risk his life, for without the priest there would be no Eucharist. So one of his altar boys, a young teen named Tarcissius, volunteered to take the Eucharist himself. No one would ever suspect someone so young for being a clandestine Christian!

            He was going along the road, clutching the Eucharist in a cloth bag around his neck. As he passed by a field, he saw some of his classmates who were playing a game. They invited Tarcissius to join them, but the boy declined, hurrying along. They began to insist, “Tarcissius, come play with us!” But he continued to refuse. They started to gather around him, pushing and shoving, curious as to what was in the cloth bag. But Tarcissius knew he could never allow them to see the Eucharist, because they were pagans. They began to grow angry with him, and soon their pushing and shoving became punching and kicking. They imagined that Tarcissius was keeping some huge secret from them in the bag – perhaps gold or food – and they were going to get it, one way or another. They threw him to the ground and one peer threw a heavy rock, which struck his head. He was knocked unconscious, which made the other boys run away, fearful of consequences for their violence. He was later found in that field by some Christians, who brought him home, but he died of his injuries – St. Tarcissius, a teenage martyr for the Eucharist.

            The enemies of the Lord have always had a special hatred for the Eucharist. The first thing that most of the tyrants of the twentieth century did was to abolish the Mass – from Communist Russia to the Spanish Revolution to the anti-clerical laws of Mexico in the 1920s. Pope Benedict had to make a rule that he would only distribute Holy Communion on the tongue, because people would take the Eucharist from him to keep as a souvenir, or worse, to desecrate it. We sadly had someone steal the Blessed Sacrament here on Good Friday a few years back, which broke my heart.

            But in some sideways way, this actually underscores the truth of Christ’s Real Presence here. Why would the Evil One and his army fight against something that’s just a symbol? You don’t see anyone stealing the Communion bread from a Protestant Church, since everyone knows it’s ordinary bread. But here in the tabernacle is Jesus!

            Today, however, the Evil One has a much more insidious method of attacking the Eucharist, and I bet it’s never occurred to most of us. The Evil One wants to separate us from the Eucharist, so he uses Sunday sports and activities.

            There. I said it.

            Think about it, though. There was a time when Sunday morning was sacrosanct. But now good Catholics are torn, because they want to worship God at Mass, but they spend a ton of money to get their kids into sports or dance or robotics or whatever, and they think they’re committed to this, too. I absolutely believe it’s a subtle ploy of the Evil One to try to separate people from the Eucharist. I’m not saying that these activities are evil in themselves, but the Evil One uses them to convince people that the Eucharist is a “nice extra” to squeeze into a weekend that’s already jam-packed with stuff going on. Then when people get back to Mass after missing a few weekends, the Evil One convinces them to receive Communion without Confession, as if that was fine and dandy, rather than an unworthy reception of the Lord due to the mortal sin of missing Mass. Can we not see this as a diabolical ploy to separate people from the Lord? Satan will never tempt you to worship a golden calf – he will tempt you to think that the meaningless soccer game is more important than Jesus Christ.

            So, let’s just consider the consequence of our belief that Jesus Christ is truly here, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. If we really believe that here He is, the Lover of our soul, our Creator, our Destiny, our Peace…we would make this everything! Barring sickness or other legitimate emergency, we would make sure that we were here in the presence our Eucharistic Lord every Sunday.

            There is, in Fairfield County, a Jewish baseball league. It was founded so that no games would occur on their Sabbath day. Why do we not insist on this for Catholics, who make up 45% of the population of Fairfield County? It is nothing but cowardice for Catholics to stay quiet when their sacred time is invaded with sports and activities. We don’t live for sports and robotics and gymnastics – we live for Christ, and everything else is just extra.

            There was a saint one time who structured her week around the Eucharist. She would receive Jesus on Sunday, and then spend the next three days in thanksgiving. The following three days of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday would be spent spiritually preparing for her next Eucharistic union. What a happy life!

            I close with the powerful words of St. John Bosco, who said: “Do you want our Lord to give you many graces? Visit Him [in the Eucharist] often. Do you want Him to grant you only a few? Visit Him but seldom. Do you want the devil to attack you? Rarely visit the Blessed Sacrament. Do you want him to flee from you? Visit Jesus often!”

            The Evil One knows that as soon as someone abandons the Eucharist, their soul belongs to him. The devil is much wiser these days, and does not close churches or attack the Eucharist directly. Rather, he distracts with a thousand activities that take us away from the True Presence of the Lord. It’s time we Catholics said, “I’m sorry, Coach, but we’ve got an appointment we can’t miss, and it’s with the God of the universe Who has loved us enough to give us His Body and Blood as food for everlasting life.”

Trinity Sunday - In the Name of the Father - May 31, 2026

 

Homily for Trinity Sunday

May 31, 2026

The Fatherhood of God

 

            We spend a great deal of the year speaking about Jesus Christ, and last week’s Feast of Pentecost highlighted the Holy Spirit. Today, however, I’d like to speak about God the Father, the Creator and Ancient of Days.

            First, why do we call God “Father”? God has no gender, right? Correct – God is pure spirit. But we refer to God as “Father” because in all of creation, there is a profound archetypical difference between male and female. The masculine is the giver, the feminine is the receiver. By calling God “Father”, we are recognizing that God is the source of everything there is, and that He does not need to receive anything at all.

            But how beautiful it is that we can call God by the intimate familial name “Father!” Jesus – and St. Paul – took it a step further and called Him “Abba”, which means Daddy. Every earthly father is given three fundamental tasks: to protect, to provide, and to lead. Let’s look at that in terms of God the Father’s relationship with us.

            First, a father protects. God certainly protects us. When the Israelites left Egypt to pursue a land of freedom, the Egyptians began to pursue them, all the way to the Red Sea. This so frightened the Israelites that they made plans to return to Egypt so that they wouldn’t be slaughtered in the desert. But Moses encouraged them, “Do not be afraid – you will see God fighting for you this very day!” And He did just that, in a surprising way – God appeared as a giant column of cloud and fire stood between the Israelite camp and the Egyptians. It was so terrifying that the Egyptians exclaimed, “Let us retreat! The Lord is fighting for Israel!” And they retreated, only to be thrown into the Red Sea. God would not allow His chosen people any harm as they made their way to the Promised Land!

            And we are the new Chosen People, even more beloved than Israel, since we are a people purchased by the Blood of His Son. Would God abandon us? Not at all! He protects us on our journey to the Promised Land of Heaven. Satan would literally destroy us in an instant if his malice wasn’t checked by the hand of God.

            St. John Bosco was known for having prophetic dreams. In one famous dream, he saw a giant ship on a storm-tossed ocean. This ship was being attacked by dozens of other, smaller boats, with cannonballs destroying masts and blowing holes in the big ship. On the prow of the large ship stood the Pope, and the saint realized this dream was about the Church having to fight many enemies throughout its history. The Pope was trying to guide the ship to a safe harbor, but the fighting and the storm was fierce, and it looked as if it was going to capsize. But then, out of the sea rose two giant columns – atop one was a statue of Our Lady, and on the other was the Eucharist. The ship limped between the two columns, and found that the sea grew calm and the enemy ships sank and disappeared. When St. John Bosco awoke, he wrote down this dream with the interpretation: there would be many storms from within and enemies from without trying to destroy the Church, but if it remained tethered to the Eucharist and Mary and led by the Pope, it would never be destroyed.

            Hence, our good Father in Heaven has left us many great protections – not from disease or war or high gas prices, but from sin and futility and eternal destruction in Hell, which our Enemy is working tirelessly to accomplish. The great protections of our King are things like our guardian angels, the Rosary, the Sacraments, the teachings of our Catholic Faith. These things seem ordinary, but they are immensely powerful. Fr. Gabriel Amorth, the Vatican’s top exorcist who did over 10,000 exorcisms in his lifetime, said that a good Confession is better than a hundred exorcisms – it’s that powerful. So we never need to fear any enemies, either physical enemies or spiritual threats to our soul, if we use the protections our good Father has given us.

            But a father also provides. Has God not provided everything we need for a rich life here on this earth? Listen to the great words of St. Augustine, “Some people, in order to discover God, read books. But there is a great book: the very appearance of created things. Look above you! Look below you! Note it. Read it. God, whom you want to discover, never wrote that book with ink. Instead, He set before your eyes the things that He had made. Can you ask for a louder voice than that? Why, heaven and earth shout to you: ‘God has made me!’” Looking at the beauty, intricacy, and richness of nature convinces us that we have a good Father who loves us. He has made it so that cows produce extra milk for humans; He made such a wide variety of food and drink; He made the mountains tremendous, the lakeside relaxing, the flowers so delicate but beautiful.

            But more than providing for the needs of the body, He has provided for the needs of the soul. Who could ever have thought that God would give His own Body for food? Or that God would make it so incredibly easy to be reconciled to Him in Confession? He has tried to convince us by so many signs that He is truly in love with us. Everything we need for our spiritual well-being has been provided for by our good Father!

            Finally, a father leads. And does not God the Father lead us? As Americans we chafe at the idea of laws, but laws order human society and point us to fulfillment. And so God did not abandon us to chaos, but gave us His laws – first the Ten Commandments, and then Christ’s new Law of love – to teach us how to live a peaceful, happy life. And He continues to lead us through the Church He established. The problem is we’re often too prideful to allow ourselves to be led and taught, thinking we know better…but isn’t this the same fatal flaw as our first parents?

            In sum, God fulfills all three roles of a good father: He is a protector, a provider, and a leader. And this has two major takeaways for our own lives.

            First, many of us have not had good fathers in our lives. Maybe we painfully acknowledge how much our dads failed at protecting, providing, or leading. If this is the case, realize that our Heavenly Father is meant to be everything your earthly father wasn’t. The desire for a father runs deep within our hearts. Turn to your Heavenly Father and ask Him to fill that hole in your life. Even those with wonderful fathers must realize that our earthly fathers can’t be everything to us – they can only lead us so far, and then we must take the hand of our Heavenly Father, Who has promised to protect, provide, and lead us to Heaven.

            But the second takeaway is for men – pattern your life on the Heavenly Father! Every man is called to be a father, either a physical father who begets children or a spiritual father begetting saints. Take up that mantle and that role! Protect your family from both physical and moral evil – do not let sin into your home or your children’s minds! Provide for your family – not just by putting food on the table, but by bringing your kids to the Sacraments and leading your family in daily prayer. Lead your family – set an example as a man of integrity, and teach your children how to follow the Lord in daily life. Men, we cannot abdicate this responsibility to others – it is your responsibility to be the image of the Heavenly Father in your home!

            What a beautiful thing it is to call God “Our Father”. Can there be any more intimate name for God? And whether we’ve had good parents or lousy ones; whether we’ve had our own flaws as fathers and mothers, we look to God the Father as our model and our true Abba.

Graduation Homily 2026 - Love One Another

 

Baccalaureate Homily 2026

Love One Another

 

            It was an average Sunday morning outside of Harvest Bible Chapel, an Illinois Protestant megachurch, except one thing was awry: there was a homeless man sitting, begging on the steps leading up to the church.

            Some Church members gave him food or drink or money, some stopped to chat, and some walked right by. Many tried to avoid eye contact, unsure of his mental state or any drug problems that might launch him into bizarre behavior. He certainly looked disheveled – long scraggly beard, unkempt hair, filthy clothes, shopping cart overflowing with the detritus of his existence.

            But when the time came for the service, the congregants were surprised to see the homeless man wheeling his shopping cart down the main aisle of the church. The homeless man stepped into the sanctuary, took off his hat and filthy coat…and then took off his hair and beard. Gasps arose from the congregation as they saw that homeless man transform into their pastor, James MacDonald. He then began to preach the message: “If we are going to love like our Father in Heaven loves, we don't get to play favorites. By favorites I mean, so often we love the people when there is some benefit in it for us. It’s hardest to love when the people are least known.”

            My friends, we have taught you a great deal of things in your tenure at CKA – some of you have been here for six years. But if we have not taught you to love, then we have utterly failed in our mission. Not just to love those who are in our same political party, or who have the same skin color, or the same religion, or the same intelligence level, or the same abilities, or the same sexual orientation. I don’t recall Jesus’ command to “love one another” to have exceptions – it includes those people you don’t like, or sinners, or those who are different. Because Christ died for them too.

            Over the past couple weeks, based on events at CKA, I have been thinking a lot about love. Unfortunately our world has co-opted that word to mean “tolerance” (no, not the same thing as love) or “warm-fuzzy emotion” (also not love). We don’t have to feel anything toward our neighbor to love them. We don’t have to approve of their lifestyle, their choices, their hairstyle. We don’t have to become best friends with them. But we do have to treat them with respect, meet their needs, and even die for them. Remember, you were pretty unlovable when Christ died for you.

            Is this appropriate for a graduation homily? I think it’s most appropriate. Because I don’t give a whit whether you were accepted to Yale or UConn or Hillsdale. I don’t care if you become a CEO or win the Nobel Peace Prize or make All-American in soccer. I don’t care about any of that, and I don’t think Christ does, either. As St. John of the Cross once said, “In the evening of life we will be judged on love alone.”

            Tomorrow morning, I have the incredible blessing of helping at a retreat at the Sisters of Life in Stamford for young people with Downs’ Syndrome and their parents. I can tell you that there will be some truly great souls there – men and women who have accepted their Crosses and still radiate joy. Some of them will be far closer to sanctity than you and me. The world says hide them away, exterminate them, for they remind mankind of our fundamental weakness…and because they demand authentic, self-sacrificing love, which the world recoils from.

            But this virtue of charity is precisely what sets Christians – and hopefully CKA graduates – apart from the world. The early Church suffered three centuries of persecutions of the most gruesome kind. Thrown to the lions, crucified upside-down, skinned alive. But the Christian movement continued to grow. Why? Because Christians loved those whom everyone else rejected. They rescued abandoned and disabled babies. They gave dignity to the poor and to women. When the plague struck the city of Rome, the aristocrats left town, while the Christians remained to care for the victims. Although many of them caught the plague themselves and died, so many others were inspired by their example that they rushed to join this maligned movement. Love was rare in the world back then; it is perhaps even more rare in the world now.

            Imagine how many students our school would have if we loved one another! Imagine the force we would be for good! It’s not too late – and with God’s grace, our lives going forward can be transformed into love.

            I close with the famous story of St. John the Apostle. Exiled on the island of Patmos, he would gather the nascent Christian community every Sunday for Mass and preaching. All would draw near to hear the trembling voice of the Apostle. Sunday after Sunday, he would repeat the same words, “Little children, love one another! Love one another!”

            Finally he was asked, “Why do you repeat this phrase so much?”

            John replied, “Because the Master said it so much.”

            My friends, we cannot love the God we cannot see unless we first love the brother whom we do see. It’s not too late to become students and scholars where love is united to truth. Without love, all our life’s successes are completely empty and vapid. But even the failures and sorrows, crosses and struggles of the future will be turned into joy if they become an act of love towards God and neighbor.

Pentecost - Eager Expectation - May 24, 2026

 

Homily for Pentecost

May 24, 2026

Eager Expectation

 

            What did the Apostles do during those ten days between the Ascension and Pentecost? The Bible said that they devoted themselves to prayer – Christ promised that the Spirit would come, so they were waiting with eager expectation.

            Much of the Christian life is waiting for God with eager expectation. He’s made a ton of promises that He’s fulfilled in Christ (over 500, as a matter of fact), but there are still many that we’re waiting on. Not just abstract promises, but some that are extremely personal. I want to mention three things we need to eagerly expect in our daily walk with Christ.

            First, we should live in eager expectation that God actually hears our prayers. Can we not all look back at our life and see how God has answered prayers in surprising ways? One of our altar servers was telling me that before he served the Easter Vigil Mass this year, he was praying that he could experience God in a new way. The Easter Vigil begins in complete darkness, and at a certain point the organ blares the Gloria and the lights come on. He said that at that moment, he felt a wind – where could that come from, except the Holy Spirit? – and from that time on, there was a new passion in his heart for Christ. A beautiful answer to prayer!

            But to be clear – God only answers our prayer if it is for His glory and our salvation. If we pray for riches or worldly success or health, this may not be best for our soul. As a good Father, He gives us what we need, not necessarily what we want. He will always give us grace – He may give us earthly things if they are truly good for our soul. Back in the sixth century, a young monk named Romanos was embarrassed every time he would join his brother monks for prayer, because his terrible singing voice and lack of musical training made him the object of their ridicule and mockery. So for weeks, he prayed fervently to Our Lady for a better voice. One night, he dreamt that he saw Her, and she offered him a scroll and told him to eat it, which he did. The following day was his turn to lead the singing, and much to everyone’s surprise his voice was clear and resonant, and his pitch was perfect. He ended up writing over a thousand hymns in his lifetime, and in thanksgiving to Our Lady, he mentioned her in every one. He is now St. Romanos the Melodist – clearly God heard his prayer, and it was for His glory and the sanctification of this great saint!

            So, as we pray, we do so with eager expectation – the same fervor with which the Apostles awaited the Holy Spirit!

            Second, we should have the eager expectation that God will make us holy, in His own time. Sometimes we become frustrated by our own lack of progress in the spiritual life. We still struggle with the same sins, still fall back into the old patterns of behavior. Perhaps we want to be holy, we want to start a prayer life, we want to overcome a sin, and we feel as if we’re running in mud. It can get discouraging.

            So we must live in the firm confidence that God can and will make us holy, in His time, if we desire it, too, and take the steps to let Him in (the Sacraments, daily prayer, Scripture, avoiding temptation). We do our part – and then have the eager expectation that He will carry us the rest of the way there. Isn’t this what happened to the Apostles at Pentecost? They struggled with their faithlessness, with their cowardice – and God, in one moment, transformed them into the courageous preachers who would give their lives for Christ.

            Besides, there have been saints who really struggled. St. Augustine struggled so much with lust that one day he prayed, “Lord, give me chastity…but not yet!” And his rival St. Jerome had a wicked – and wickedly funny – temper. Once, he wrote to a rival, “Show no nose upon your face and keep your mouth shut. Maybe then you will be both handsome and eloquent.” About another person, he wrote, “It is useless to play the harp for a donkey” – in other words, you’re not worth speaking with! But he fought his temper – he would often carry around a large rock and beat his chest in repentance (one Pope, upon seeing a painting of Jerome with the rock, quipped, “Ah, without the rock, there would be no sainthood for you!”). It was precisely the struggle and the battle that made him holy. And likewise with us – our firm confidence is that God can and will help us overcome our faults and flaws, if we persevere with eager expectation.

            Finally, as Christians we are called to eagerly expect Christ’s Second Coming. The early Church always prayed, “Maranatha” which means “Come, Lord Jesus!” It was an urgent desire, a burning plea. With all the insanity in the world today, we need to resurrect that plea in the hearts of believers – “Come, Lord Jesus!” For those who love Him, His coming will be the end of the reign of sin, bringing order out of the messiness of this world, finally vindicating all those who have suffered for their Faith. When He comes again, He will wipe away every tear, destroy Satan’s oppression, and lead His people to glory. He will come, not as a baby, but as a King in glory, for all to see.

            We don’t know when He will come, but there are some hints in Scripture and in the Catechism that prepare the way. We know that there will be a great apostasy (an abandonment of the Faith) – have we, perhaps, seen that over the past fifty years? Scripture speaks of the coming of the Antichrist, a man who will set himself up as a “savior” of the human race. He will not do evil things – on the contrary, he will be a great humanitarian and man of wisdom and peace – but he will do so without Christ, saying that humanity can save itself without God. We have not yet seen him, although many Catholic and Orthodox mystics have said that he is alive today. Finally, we know from Scripture that before Christ comes again, there will appear a Cross in the sky, visible to the entire world. All of this probably won’t happen in my lifetime, but it’s quite possible that it might happen in some of yours. But again – this is something to look forward to with eager expectation, because it will be the final victory of Christ!

            My friends, much of the Christian life is lived in eager expectation. I suppose another word for that is “hope” – we hope and expect that, as God fulfilled for the Apostles the promise to send the Holy Spirit, He will accomplish those promises still yet to be fulfilled. For our part, we wait in hope, in eager expectation, confident that God isn’t finished with us yet.

Easter 7 - A Better Way To Live

 

Homily for Easter 7

May 17, 2026

A Better Way To Live

 

            It was three o’clock in the morning when I was startled awake by a high school sophomore barging into my room and crying out, “Fr. Joseph, come quickly, they’re about to call the police!”

            We were on a week-long service trip to build houses for the poor, but one of the students named Peter may have come for other motives. He had quite a reputation in the school – rule-breaker, drug user, overall troublemaker. I was quite reluctant at taking him on the trip, but figured maybe God could do something in his life.

            But here I was at three in the morning, standing in the boys’ bathroom with the camp director and Peter, after other boys had accused him of doing drugs. I was too tired to be furious – maybe only disappointed. I took him off by himself and asked if he did it. Predictably, he denied it – but I knew it was a lie. So finally, in frustration, I said, “Peter, I’m offering you a better way to live. Jesus is offering you a better way to live. Will you take it?”

            He looked at me, mystified. If this were a Disney movie, we’d see this as a life-transforming moment, cue the dramatic music. But life isn’t a Disney movie. And after that week, I never saw Peter again, as he transferred out to another school. I still pray for him.

            This world offers us one way to live – but Christ offers us a better way. Christ is warning His disciples that they live in the world, but are not to be of the world. The “world” does not mean that this physical earth is in any way bad. It was created good, and it was given to humanity to rule in the Name of God. But we believed the lies from Satan that God could not be trusted, and that we could make ourselves gods – and in doing so, we gave the dominion over to the Evil One. So the “world” is Jesus’ shorthand for all of the lies and forces that are opposed to His Kingdom.

            And let’s be honest, we find these lies everywhere. We drive behind an Amazon delivery truck and it reads, “Warning: contents may cause happiness.” Really? Material things can make me truly happy? My box of Cheerios reads: “You deserve joy.” What have I done to deserve joy? And is a bowl of Cheerios the source of it? Jesus wants to offer us a better way to live. He has chosen us Christians in the midst of the world, to live as salt and leaven and light, but living according to the truths of Heaven.

            Let’s examine a few of the lies that the world tells us.

            For example, the world says that image is more important than reality. It amazes me that people can become rich and famous for being “social media influencers”. They may have nothing actually to say, but they’re good looking and so people follow them anywhere. Can anything be more shallow? Some of the teens at my school are all into a trend called looksmaxxing, which can be a pretty extreme focus on making sure we have the perfect physique. Back in the day, we called that the sin of vanity. A man’s strength is more than big muscles – it’s having the interior self-possession to die to self so to live for Christ. A woman’s beauty is more than hair and makeup – it’s being adorned with virtues and holiness. Jesus calls us to a depth of spirit that’s more than skin-deep. Holiness may not look Instagram-worthy but the reality is far more important than the image.

            We frequently receive the message that success is more important than doing God’s will. But as Mother Teresa likes to remind us, “God has not called me to be successful, but faithful.” The world thinks that the successful person is the one who goes to the best schools, climbs the corporate ladder, pads their bank account, is a “winner”. But at our judgment, God will ask, “Did you do My Will? I made you to be a garbage collector – were you the best garbage collector you could be?”

            In the early 1990s, a young Polish girl named Beata had graduated high school but had no funds to go to college, so she prayed about where to go next. She was invited to become a nanny to a wealthy family with one little boy in Italy, so she packed up and moved to a new country. Although this family was not religious in the least, Beata brought a small image of Our Lady to the boy, and taught him some prayers, both in Polish and Italian. The boy was fascinated by these prayers, and asked for more. Beata began bringing him to church, which prompted the young boy to begin asking his parents to take him, as well. Pretty soon, even after the nanny returned to Poland, the boy kept that fervor of faith growing – and we now know him as St. Carlo Acutis. But there would be no St. Carlo if it were not for Beata. To the world, it looked as if she was just a simple, uneducated laborer – but she fulfilled God’s plan for her life, and brought a saint out of it (she’s still alive, by the way!). Have you ever asked God’s plan for your life? And are you living it out?

            We hear the world say, make your own life, your own moral code. It boggles my mind how many people tell me, “Oh, God doesn’t mind what I’m doing.” Last week someone told me that God didn’t mind the fact that they were divorced and remarried, even though Jesus said clearly in Matthew 19 that “he who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery.” Last month someone tried to tell me that God was okay with them being transgender because, as they said, “He made me this way.” No, He did not – we live in a fallen world with many disordered desires, and God has made it clear that there are only two immutable genders. It is an error called relativism to believe that we have the power to make our own ethical or moral compass. Truth is received from God; it’s not invented by man.

            Finally, the world does not believe that eternity is approaching. Driving up the Route 25 connector, you may have seen the graffiti on the rock wall that reads, “Live fast – die young.” The world lives by the motto, YOLO – You Only Live Once. If that were the case, then fill yourself up at the banquet of life! But we actually live twice – and this is just the appetizer. So don’t fill yourself up so much that you lose the hunger for eternity.

            My friends, if we are citizens of a country, we have to follow the laws of that country. As Christians, we are citizens of Heaven – just passing through this world on our way home. St. Claude di Columbiere said, “If you follow the truths of Jesus Christ, you will condemn the lies of the world, you will trample its idols underfoot; the world, henceforth, will want nothing to do with you.” True – rejecting the world’s lies will make the world reject us – but what a better way to live!

            Eight centuries ago, a teen girl named Chiara Offreduccio was living the life. Her family was one of the richest in town, with an estate that overlooked the plaza in front of the church. They were faithful, but shallow people – and Chiara already had her future picked out for her. Marriage to a fine nobleman, a wonderful life full of the riches that the world could offer. One day she was leaning out her window, overlooking the courtyard in front of the church, when she saw a poor beggar stand on the church steps and begin to preach that Jesus Christ alone was worth living for. As a crowd gathered to listen, this teen girl’s ears perked up. What a novel idea – to live for something deeper than just the shallow, vain life of parties, dresses, gossip and intrigue? Was there really a better way to live?

            That night, she went to meet with that beggar, who encouraged her to live according to the Gospel. He was dirt-poor, wearing a patched robe, but radiating joy. She wanted to join him, so she arranged to run away from home. A few days later, she executed the plan, and the humble beggar met her in the church late at night, welcomed her, and cut off her hair as a sign that she belonged to God alone.

            Her family thought she’d lost her mind, so they sent out search parties to find her. When they realized she had followed this young madman, they thought she’d fallen prey to a cult. Her uncles tried to bring her back, but miraculously her body became so heavy that they couldn’t budge her an inch. They eventually relented, and this young girl became known as St. Clare of Assisi, the first female follower of St. Francis of Assisi.

            The great St. Francis had offered her a better way to live – for God, for Heaven. That same offer is extended to you this day. Are you tired of the endless rat-race competition of the American dream? Does it all seem futile to you? If so, maybe you’re ready to reject the lies of the world and live that better life in union with Christ that He offers you now.

Ascension Thursday - May 14, 2026

 

Homily for Ascension Thursday

May 14, 2026

They Worshipped but Doubted

 

            I’ve always been intrigued with the small detail from today’s Gospel: when these Apostles saw the Risen Lord, it states that “they worshipped, but doubted.” How can you worship if you doubt? And why would they doubt after having several encounters with Resurrected Christ?

            I think they doubted because seeing a man risen from the dead was so outside of the realm of possibility that they wondered if it could even happen. Resurrection was impossible! They saw Him die; they saw the body cold, the tomb sealed. And yet He spoke with them again; He ate breakfast in their presence; He invited them to touch His wounds. Psychologists call this “cognitive dissonance” – when we try to make sense of two contradictory truths. The truth is, Jesus died. And the truth is, He is alive.

            So, they worshipped, but they still couldn’t make sense of this new way of being. It was so extraordinary that they still doubted – until the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost, which so convicted them of the truth of the Resurrection that they were able to fulfill Jesus’ command to “go and make disciples” – believing so deeply that they gave their lives for Him.

            I think that we also worship, but doubt – although our doubting comes from the exact opposite reason. We don’t doubt because the Catholic Faith is so extraordinary it’s hard to believe – rather, we doubt because it is seemingly so ordinary that we don’t recognize the full, powerful, earth-shattering teachings of Christ.

            For example, do you believe that Jesus Christ is truly present in the Eucharist – not a sign or symbol, but His true Body and Blood? I certainly hope so. But if the answer is yes, then why do we so easily skip Sunday Mass if we’ve got sports? Why do we show up at Mass in shorts and flip-flops? Why does this church turn into a social hall with loud conversations after Mass, completely ignoring the Real Presence of God Himself in the tabernacle? Why would we not make time in our busy schedule to visit the empty Church during the day and spend time with Him?

            [I’ve seen many of you sitting in the lobby or in the gym while we have our Tuesday Masses going on. What does that say about what we believe? Is it Jesus or is it not? Because if it’s just bread, we should pack this up and go home. If this is Jesus, why would we choose to do anything except be in His presence? And how many of you don’t even bother making a visit to Jesus during your school day? The God of the universe is literally down the hall and we don’t bother stopping by. Do we believe, or do we doubt like those Apostles?]

            Back in the 1960s, there was a lieutenant governor of Quebec named Paul Comtois. He was a man of great devotion, leading his wife and five kids in the Rosary daily even as he led the Province of Quebec with great wisdom. His love for the Lord was so intense that he asked his Bishop if he could turn a spare room in his house into a chapel and keep the Eucharist there. The Bishop agreed, on the condition that Paul be personally responsible for the safety and care of the Blessed Sacrament. He agreed, and would often pray before and after his visits to Parliament.

            However, on a cold day in February 1966, his house caught fire. He was able to get all of his wife and children out safely, but our Eucharistic Lord was still inside! Without a second thought, he rushed back into the burning building to rescue the Lord. But by that time it was too late – the house collapsed around him. When firefighters finally put out the fire, they found that he had died clutching the Eucharist to his chest – and the Eucharist was unharmed.

            Inspiring, right? Here was a man who didn’t doubt – he believed. And that’s how we know what we believe – what we’re willing to die for.

            Or, for example, do we really believe that we will live forever, either as an eternal triumph in Heaven, or an everlasting tragedy in Hell? Because if we really believed this, then why in the world would we care about the really silly petty stuff that occupies our days – and neglect the only thing that really matters: our eternal soul?

            St. John Vianney once said, “The lukewarm soul is that soul who would like to be worldly without ceasing to be a child of God. You will see them at one moment bowing before God, his Savior and his Master, and the next moment bowing before the world, his idol.” He goes on to tell the story of visiting one young woman who was rather careless about her spiritual life, and asking if she wanted to go to Confession. She said, “No, not to you. You would make me give up my fun in life.” (By “fun” she meant many sinful amusements). She continued, “I go to Fr. So-and-so, because he’s not as strict and just tells me to try to be good. After all, we cannot all be saints in this life.”

            Poor girl! She went to Mass weekly and didn’t commit huge sins, but gave no thought to the fact that her time here was limited, and her life was meant to prepare her for eternal glory if it was lived rightly. She believed, but she doubted.

            And this is the case for many of us. Oh, we’re Catholic all right. But we’ve become so bored with our faith that it has failed to impact our lives. We believe, but we doubt.

            So what must we do? We can’t only believe the teachings of Christ, we also have to live out their implications. If the Eucharist is truly Jesus, we must never pass up an opportunity to come to Mass or make a visit to the Lord. If this life really does prepare us for eternity, then we ought to seek to make real progress in the spiritual life. If Jesus really is God, and His teachings in the Scripture are real, then we need to forgive our enemies, love our neighbor, and take up our crosses.

            Our Catholic Faith should always remain extraordinary. God became a person. God died for you. You now get to eat God, and you have the opportunity to be with God forever. Blessed are those who worship, praise, and believe!

Easter 6 - Faith Is Our Rosetta Stone

 

Easter 6

May 10, 2026

Faith Is The Interpretive Key

 

            When Christianity came to northern Africa in the mid-300s, one effect was that people started to read and write in Greek, rather than in the old Egyptian hieroglyphics. After a while, everyone forgot how to read this ancient Egyptian language. For centuries, these pictures remained a mystery to archeologists and researchers, until a game-changing discovery in 1799: the Rosetta Stone. This stone told the same story in three languages, allowing people to place the Greek writing side-by-side with the hieroglyphs – and for the first time in the modern world, archeologists were able to interpret this mysterious language.

            Life can be mysterious, too. Why are we here? What’s the meaning of suffering? How can we find happiness? What’s the secret to a good marriage? Is there life after death? I remember coming across a book one time entitled, “Ten Best Guesses About Life” – the author said that he didn’t have any actual answers, but here were his best guesses about those deep questions that plague every human being.

            But goodness, doesn’t your heart cry out for something more solid than just a “best guess”? We need some sort of Rosetta Stone, some rock-solid interpretive key to understanding what life is all about – and thanks be to God, we have that. It’s our Catholic Faith.

            Faith is the interpretive key to making sense of the mystery of life. Pope John Paul II said, “It is only in the mystery of Christ that the mystery of man truly becomes clear.” Psychology can help us understand ourselves; therapy can give us insights into our behavior; science can shed some light upon what it means to be human; but only our faith in Jesus Christ shows us where we have come from, how we are to live, and where we are ultimately going.

            Where have we come from? Many of you who grew up with the Baltimore Catechism remember the first question: “Who made you? God made you. Why did He make you? To know, love and serve Him so that we can be eternally happy with him in Heaven.” It’s that simple!

            How are we to live? Jesus Christ, of course, is the model of our behavior. If you grew up in the ‘90s like I did, you remember the phrase WWJD – What Would Jesus Do. It was plastered on posters, tee-shirts, bracelets, every bit of Christian swag that my youth minister could find (looking back, it was quite cringe!). A nice, but incomplete, idea. We are to live, not just like Christ, but in intimate union with Christ through grace. In today’s Gospel, He speaks about giving us the Commandments…but also about giving us the Holy Spirit. We obey Him, but with the strength given by grace. We live a pure, forgiving, merciful, courageous, trusting, surrendered life – by His power in us.

            Where are we going? The Spirit puts the answer in our hearts – we were made for a better world, a place without the brokenness and sin that we wallow in here.

            And this sheds light on every aspect of our lives. What is work for? For developing our talents to the glory of God, serving others, and making it an offering to the Lord. What is the purpose of legitimate pleasure? It is meant to be a foretaste of Heaven. How do we have good friendships? By seeking people who are pursuing virtues themselves, so that we may be positively influenced by them. What’s the secret to a happy marriage? Imitating Christ’s self-sacrificing love. How can we suffer well? By offering it up to Jesus in love, and allowing it to purge us of our faults. How do we make good choices? By bringing them to prayer and seeking the Lord’s will for our lives. How can we be truly happy? By loving God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and sacrificing our life for the good of our neighbor. It is our Catholic Faith that helps us interpret the mystery of human life!

            So, I have a homework assignment for you. Consider an aspect of your life that perhaps you’re confused or unhappy or not at peace about. Maybe it’s a relationship; or your marriage; or your work; or a suffering you’re enduring; or some other stress in your life. This week, go and research what Christ has to say about this particular topic. Don’t go looking on TikTok or Youtube; go straight to the source: the Bible and the Catechism. The answers are there if we know where to look!

            And if we start to see the world through the lens of our Catholic Faith, what joy and meaning we will have! In the early 1900s, there was a young man from Poland named Jan Tyranowski. He was a quiet man in his thirties – a tailor, an introvert, a man who kept to himself due to his bad health and shy temperament. One day he was at Mass when the priest said from the pulpit, “It isn’t difficult to become a saint!” Jan realized that this was indeed his calling – to become holy in his own life – and his ordinary life began to make sense. He started imbuing his work with prayer; offering his bad health to God as a sacrifice; studying the Lives of the Saints; frequenting the Sacraments. The priest noticed that this young man became more fervent in his faith, so he asked him to help out with the parish youth group. Reluctantly – because he was still painfully shy – he agreed. But pretty soon, the Nazis invaded Poland and took the priests into the Dachau concentration camp – leaving the parish without any leadership.

            So Jan took it upon himself to keep working with the youth. He began secret weekly meetings at his apartment where young men would gather for fellowship, a spiritual talk, and praying the Rosary together. One day, a new young man named Karol showed up – and was very impressed by Jan’s spirituality. Karol had been questioning the meaning of his own life, but hearing Jan speak about everyone’s call to holiness, he realized that this was the purpose of his existence – to glorify and love God, and spend eternity in Heaven. Young Karol decided to become a priest – and later on became a Pope and a saint, St. John Paul II. For his part, Jan is now Venerable Jan Tyranowski – on the path to sainthood himself. He sought the answers to life, and found them in Jesus Christ and his Catholic Faith.

            Life is not a mystery when it is lived in the light of Christ, who reveals man to himself.

Easter 5 - The Early-Church Lifestyle

 

Easter 5

May 3, 2026

The Early-Church Lifestyle

 

            It was my first semester of college, and I was completely torn. I had made the college baseball team, and they practiced two hours a day, six days a week. At the same time, I had joined one of the “households” on campus (a “household” at Franciscan University is like a Catholic fraternity) and they had significant commitments – they prayed together twice a day, and had other events like mandatory fun nights (nothing is quite as fun as “mandatory fun”!). I couldn’t fully embrace either the team or the household, because both competed for my time and energy.

            Many Christians have a similar struggle. They can’t fully enjoy the life that Christ offers them because their time and energy are split between the soccer field, the office, the internet, the vacation home, and the Lord. But this was not the case in the early Church – we continue reading from the Acts of the Apostles, where the early disciples lived a daily faith that consisted of praying with fellow believers, the “breaking of bread” (the Mass), listening to the teachings of the Apostles, good deeds, and fellowship with one another. It wasn’t just a part of their life – it was their life, and it was beautiful and holy.

            St. John Vianney once said, “Religion must be about us as the air we breathe.” And Jesus in the Gospel calls Himself “the Way and the Life” – He’s not just one part of life, but He is life. He’s not just one way to live, but the Way. So, our Catholic Faith must become a lifestyle.

            That doesn’t mean we don’t work or play or go to parties. I’m sure those early Christians did all of the above – I mean, we gotta make a living – but everything in their lives were evaluated in terms of their Faith. Much like a professional athlete will sit down to dinner and ask, “What food will help me become the best athlete I can be?”, so a Christian must approach his day and ask, “What will help me become the best Christian I can be?” Christianity must become a lifestyle – otherwise it’s not authentically following Christ.

            So here are five very practical ways to make Christianity a lifestyle.

            First, start each day with a morning offering, and begin each activity with offering it to Jesus. Everything we do can be made holy if we offer it to God. For example, did you know there is a patron saint of soccer players? St. Luigi Scrosoppi was an Italian priest who taught at a boarding school for poor children, but he was best known as the kind-hearted, virtuous soccer coach at that school. He taught the kids that sports could develop great virtues such as fairness, courage, perseverance, and teamwork, and he would begin every practice and game by offering it to the Lord. All we have to do is pray, “For You, Jesus,” before we begin a meeting, a homework assignment, a chore, or even an enjoyable activity – and then do it in a way that pleases Him.

            Second, before making a life decision, ask the Lord and consider His will. If one were to take a hike, we would have to get a map. Before a battle, we to consult the general and get the plan. Before we embark on any life choices – we have to consult our King. If we’ve got a difficult conversation coming up, we say, “Lord, guide me – put Your words in my mouth.” If we have a choice to make about what college to attend, we bring it to prayer: “Jesus, show me Your will,” and then we pay attention to the signs He gives us, and the thoughts He inspires in our minds. No more trying to figure life out on our own – we were meant to live in desperate dependence upon our Heavenly Father!

            Third, surround your life with good Catholic media and sacramentals. I know many parishioners have done the “Bible In A Year” podcast with Fr. Mike Schmitz, and there are hundreds more such as “Godsplaining” or “Pints With Aquinas” which we can incorporate into our drive-time or workout routine. And while our ears are occupied with podcasts or Christian music, our eyes can be occupied with the sacramentals (things such as a crucifix, Rosary, statue of Our Lady, etc) that we fill our life with. I happened to be chatting with one of our seventh-graders at the school where I teach, and he opened his locker to grab something, and I saw a small crucifix hanging in his locker. Not in-your-face, but a subtle reminder that God is with us at all times.

            Fourth, the early church valued community – they “did life together”, as our Protestant brethren say. It used to be that the Church was the very center of the community – Bishop Caggiano, growing up in 1950s Brooklyn, reminisces about how the Church was also his school, sports teams, parties, dances, feast days, processions…everything in life was provided by the Church. He and the other families were bonded both by their Italian blood and by their Catholic Faith. That’s not the case anymore, which is why it’s important to be intentional about finding Catholic community. My sister in Maryland has a group of five Catholic families who all gather via Zoom every single morning at 7:30am for morning prayers together – and these are families with young kids (my sister’s youngest is two years old!). Many sociologists say that the increase in loneliness and anxiety is because our American culture has lost what they call the “third places”. We all have our homes (the “first place”), and our work or school (the “second place”) but throughout human history, culture and community thrives at “third places” – the front porch, the café, the local barbershop, and the church. As Woody Allen once quipped, “Half of life is just showing up” – half of discipleship is just showing up to be surrounded and supported by other Christians!

            Fifth, of course daily prayer should season our day with God’s grace. Most Catholics pray at night and at meals, but those “scraps of time” in between are also vital. Those five minutes in the restroom? Don’t scroll your phone – thank God for all the things you’re grateful for. Standing in line in Big Y? Enough time for a decade of the Rosary. Recent stats say that Americans spend 4.5 hours daily on their phones – if we can replace just a tenth of that wasted time with prayer, how quickly our lives would change!

            My challenge for you this week is to make a small change to incorporate Christ into your lifestyle. Offering your day to Jesus, asking the Lord for His will, surrounding your life with Catholic media and sacramentals, intentionally seeking community, and using our scraps of time for prayer. My friends, for the early Christians, their walk with Christ was not just something they did on Sunday. It was a way of life – which is why the early Church was overflowing with saints; why the Church quickly spread to the end of the earth. Jesus is more than a part of the journey – He is the Way. He is more than an academic subject to study – He is the Truth. He is more than just a part of life – He IS LIFE.