Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - July 5, 2015

            We’re all familiar with the story – the Israelites spent hundreds of years as slaves in Egypt until Moses led them out, across the Red Sea, and into the Promised Land. But things were not as promised – because the Israelites were given strict instructions to follow the Law that Moses received on Mount Siaini – basically the Ten Commandments. They would only live in peace if they obeyed God’s laws.

            But the temptation was too strong to act just like the surrounding pagan nations. So Israel started to worship false gods, and forsake the Law. They intermarried with the pagan kingdoms and basically lost their Jewish heritage.

            So God allowed these pagan peoples to oppress the Jews, so that they would repent and return to the Lord. But instead of repenting, they asked God for a king to save them from their oppressors. God was reluctant to do so, because He was supposed to be their only King. If they had followed His law, they would not need another ruler. But He granted their request, and raised up King Saul, then David, then Solomon.

            Solomon’s two sons both claimed the Kingship, so the kingdom was divided, and subsequent kings were, for the most part, wicked men who continued to wage wars and worship false gods. These men were leading Israel into ruin, as the Jews were acting just like the surrounding culture.

            So God raised up prophets to draw people’s attention back to God. Elijah the prophet was one such man, raised up by the Lord. Of course Elijah was rejected frequently for his message of turning back to the Lord, just as Jesus was in today’s Gospel. Yet he was steadfast in his mission – in today’s first reading, we see Elijah passing on the torch to a younger man, Elisha, who would be the prophet to take over for him once he died.

            The role of prophet was critical in the Old Testament. Prophets were NOT future-tellers; rather, they simply told the Israelites what the consequences would be if they did not turn back to the Lord. So, since no one likes to hear bad news, prophets were often silenced, sometimes violently.

            Jesus also shared this prophetic role. He shook people up by His message, and for this reason was unwelcome in places where people were pretty comfortable with the status quo, like in today’s Gospel. But Jesus nevertheless urged and pleaded for the peoples’ repentance, because He knew that they would only find joy and peace if they turned back to the Lord.

            Ya know, twenty-first century Christians aren’t much different than the ancient Israelites. Just as the Israelites started to act like the surrounding pagan nations, so often we try to blend in to the general culture, trying not to make waves, and we worship the same gods as the surrounding culture does – the gods of consumerism, the god of sports, the Almighty Dollar, the god of public opinion. We’re nicer to our prophets, for sure – people like Pope Francis or maybe people in our life who are trying to lead us into a deeper friendship with Jesus Christ – but on the whole we kind of dismiss their message.

            But we as Christians are supposed to be prophets to the world. When we are baptized, we are baptized priest, PROPHET, and king. This means that Christians can’t blend in to the modern culture – we must, at times, stand out! And to stand out means to take a stand, dare to be different. For example, if all of our friends are watching a certain TV show that’s pretty filthy – something like “Big Brother” or something like that – are we willing to simply not watch it? Perhaps people will think we’re weird, or out-of-touch. So what? If we just simply “blend in,” then we’re not very good Christians. Or what if enough Christians just plain told their child’s sports coach that, no, we will NOT go to practices and games on Sunday mornings because that’s the time for Mass? If enough Christians had the guts to say that, then they would be forced to respect Sunday mornings as a time for worship.

            Our biggest flaw as Christians is simply blending in. Christians are supposed to be prophets to the culture, not so saturated with the culture that we are indistinguishable from it. Prophets think with the mind of Christ, not with the mind of the culture. Prophets follow and point out to others the way to life, while the culture just leads to emptiness, ultimately. Prophets dare to be different, because they aren’t living for this world but for the next. Are you a prophet, or just another copycat of the culture?

Homily for 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time - June 28, 2015

Homily for Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

June 28, 2015

Redefining Marriage

 

                I am originally from Frederick, Maryland, which is kind of an obscure town in the foothills of the mountains in Maryland. But there were a few famous people from Frederick. For example, Francis Scott Key was from there, who wrote the Star Spangled Banner. So was Patsy Cline, the famous country singer. But perhaps one of the most notable Frederick natives was the Supreme Court Chief Justice, Roger B. Taney.

                Justice Taney was famous –or infamous – judge who handed down the famous Dred Scott decision. The Dred Scott decision in 1857 declared that black people had no ability to become citizens, or even to have basic equality and rights. The Supreme Court redefined human dignity, based upon being born in the right race. This terrible decision led to hundreds of years of suffering for the African-American community, much of which is still being felt today.

                So people from Frederick are not particularly proud of Justice Taney. With hindsight, we can see the devastating effects of his decision.

                Fast-forward a hundred and twenty years. The Supreme Court is called upon to decide another case, one which will define personhood. In 1973, the Supreme Court ruled in the Roe vs. Wade case that human beings were not persons with basic human rights until they were outside of the womb. Another terrible redefinition of personhood – and this time, the result was over 50 million babies killed by abortion in the 42 years since the decision.

                This past Friday, the Supreme Court once again attempted to redefine something fundamental in our society. The Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage is now legal in all 50 states, redefining the very definition of marriage from “a union of man and woman ordered to building a family” to “a commitment of two people who are attracted to one another”. This redefinition disagrees with God’s own definition of marriage. Such a redefinition will have long-lasting consequences.

There are many reasons why homosexual marriage is an impossibility. First, let’s consider who created and defined marriage. Is marriage an invention of man, or of God? Of course, it was God, who wrote within the human heart – and body - the desire for union with a member of the opposite sex. So if God has already defined what marriage is, then who are we to redefine it?

Second, let us consider the purposes of marriage. Marriage was created by God so that a husband and wife could enjoy companionship, so they can help each other get to Heaven, and so that they could bring children into the world, new souls to love God and reach Heaven. Gay marriage cannot do any of these three things. They cannot truly enjoy real companionship, because any companionship that is not based upon a mutual seeking of virtue is only a false substitute – just a quick cure for loneliness, instead of deep love. They cannot help each other get to Heaven, because homosexual actions are gravely sinful, and they would be a constant source of temptation for one another. And, of course, they cannot be open to children. Even gay adoption is immoral because it deprives a child of his or her natural right to have two parents of opposite genders – and besides, it would be a grave scandal to teach a child that this type of relationship is natural.

Please do not misunderstand me – we love and respect everyone, including our gay brothers and sisters. Everyone is welcome in this church, regardless of sexual orientation, and we condemn any hatred or violence or discrimination against those who struggle with same-sex attraction. But it is not discrimination, it is not bigotry, to insist that marriage was created by God with a specific definition and a specific purpose.

My friends, if someone were building a house with bricks and they started to replace some of the bricks with Styrofoam blocks instead, could the house stand tall? It would be weakened. If too many bricks were replaced, the house would collapse. In the same way, the building block of society is the family. If we start redefining the family, weakening it, changing the very nature of it, then we risk weakening society as a whole. The impact is felt by everyone.

My friends, when the Supreme Court attempted to redefine personhood, millions upon millions of people suffered as a result. Now that the Supreme Court has attempted to redefine marriage, the consequences will also be dark, and long lasting. Pray very hard that this country may regain our respect for God, Who created marriage as a beautiful and holy vocation!

Homily for the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time - June 21, 2015

Homily for Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time

June 21, 2015

Awesome

 

            Awesome! That’s a word that, if you’re of a certain generation, gets tossed around a lot. That Frisbee game was awesome. Pizza is awesome. The St. Mary’s Family Fair is awesome. But perhaps we use that word so much that it’s lost some of its power!

            Awesome means that we are filled with awe in the presence of greatness. I’ve had some good pizzas in my time, but none filled me with awe in their presence. Awe is a reaction that we should have when we ponder truly great things – deep truths, heroic men and women…and the works of God.

            The disciples are filled with awe when they see this man, Jesus, command the winds and the storm, and they obey Him. And rightly they should have awe, because standing in the boat with them was the Creator of this vast and magnificent universe.

            Consider this: by recent scientific estimates, there are over 70 billion trillion stars in the entire universe. That’s seven with twenty-three zeros after it. It’s hard to even fathom such immensity – but we have a Creator who has not just created them, but knows every single molecule, every flame that engulfs these stars. Closer to home, the average adult human body contains about 37 trillion cells – each one created by God, Who promised that not a hair on our head falls to the ground without His notice.

             The grandeur of the mountains, the unexplored depths of the oceans, the beauty of human love, the delicate intricacy of a spider web – all of this comes from the Hand of our all-loving Creator. His works are magnificent – and we too should be filled with awe at them!

            As Catholics, we can certainly believe in evolution. In fact, Pope St. John Paul II called it “more than a theory,” and popes all the way back to Pope Pius XII in the 1940s encouraged studying evolution. The Big Bang theory was actually proposed by a Jesuit priest, Fr. Lamaitre, in 1927! But as Catholics we do not believe that evolution or the Big Bang happened by random chance. Everything came to be and unfolded and evolved according to the plan of God, the Divine Designer.

            Even atheists have to grudgingly admit that evolution could not have happened on its own. Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant astrophysicists in the world today (and a confessed atheist) said recently, “We don’t know how DNA molecules first appeared. The chances of a DNA molecule arising from random [chance] are very small.” He recognizes that science cannot explain how life (DNA) came to be. Creation proclaims the awesome majesty of the Creator!

            But creation is only one part of God’s greatness. Creation has fallen – we believe that we share a fundamental corruption called original sin, which makes us inclined to choose evil. We need to be saved from our weakness, our temptation, our separation from God! So God shows His greatness even more radically by sending His Son to die for our sins, to reconcile us to God.

            If it was a magnificent action to create us, it is even more remarkable that we are a new creation in Christ, as St. Paul declares in our second reading! Because of what God’s grace has done in us through baptism (which heals us from original sin) and the Eucharist (which unites us to Christ), we now live no longer for ourselves but for Him. My friends, grace is even more remarkable than creation, because creation made us mortal, weak human beings…grace makes us like God!
            Creation, redemption, being transformed by His grace…these things are truly awesome. I pray that we will always remain awestruck at what God has done.

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time - June 14, 2015

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

June 14, 2015

Small Choices Have Big Effects

 

            St. Anthony the Abbot became a saint almost by accident. He was going through a tough time – eighteen years old and both of his parents had died suddenly, leaving him in charge of his younger sister and a large farm. He was wandering through town one day, his mind and heart in turmoil, unsure of where his life was going. On a lark he decided to stop into the local church. Stepping inside, Mass was going on, and the priest was reading the Gospel where Jesus said, “Go, sell all that you have, give to the poor, and come, follow Me.” At that moment, God’s grace penetrated his heart, and Anthony went and did just that – he gave up all of his earthly possessions, entrusted his sister to relatives, and went to live as a hermit for the rest of his life.

            From that small beginning, God was able to form a saint. If he hadn’t made that choice to walk into that church, his life would have been completely different. It looked like a small choice at the time, but it impacted him – and everyone who has been inspired by him throughout history!

If we cooperate with God’s grace, even in the smallest things, our choices will have huge – even earth-shattering - ramifications!

            Jesus gives us two parables in today’s Gospel. One is of the mustard seed – the small seed grows into a huge tree, just as God’s grace, when we cooperate with it, will do great things in our lives. The other parable is about how God’s grace is mysterious – like plants grow in silence and mystery, so we grow in holiness when we cooperate with God’s grace in the little things.

            Every choice we make, to cooperate with God’s grace or to reject it, to love or to sin, forms us. It shapes who we become. It either makes us more into the image and likeness of God, or deforms the image of Him within us. All of the simple, small good things we do – giving a smile to someone, holding the door open for another person, making a sacrifice and giving up the last dessert for a family member – it seems small at the time, but it will have a huge impact on who we become…and it will have a huge impact on other people, as well. By the same token, even our small sins – an impure glance, an unkind word, a little white lie, a hateful thought – corrupt us and prevent us from becoming the saints that God wants us to be. The good news, of course, is that God is merciful, and He understands that we mess up in small ways every day – all we need to do is repent, turn back to Him in Confession, and keep striving for holiness.

            As Catholics we believe that after death, we are judged immediately based upon how well we have loved God and our neighbor, and by our choices we are then ushered to Heaven, Purgatory, or Hell. This first judgment of our soul is called the particular judgment. But the Church also teaches that at the end of time everyone who ever lived will be gathered again in the presence of Jesus, Who will then reveal to us how our actions – both our virtues and our sins – impacted the course of the world. This is called the general judgment – not that we will be “judged again”, but that we will be able to see how every single action of ours affected the course of world history in some way! I’m excited to see this – but I pray that my actions may have always influenced the world for the better!

            From our vantage point, we often don’t see how our small choices, to love or to sin, affect the world. When I was in my first year of seminary, I had a friend who lived across the hallway named Clinton. He complained about everything – the food, the professors, the homework, the dingy building – nothing was to his liking! One day, I had been listening to another one of his complaint sessions when I was finally fed up with it. Frustrated, I exclaimed, “Clinton, I’m tired of listening to these complaints. I’m going to go pray.”

            He offhandedly commented, “Okay, well, say a prayer for me.”

            Still angry, I shot back, “No, Clinton, go pray for yourself.”

            Later on, I felt really bad about that comment; I came across as such a jerk! But we never talked about it. Fast-forward three years – Clinton was now preparing to be ordained a priest in a few months, and he came to me one day and said, “Hey Joe, thank you for saving my vocation. I never would’ve been a priest without you.”

            I was quite taken aback, and said, “What do you mean?”

            He said, “Remember that conversation three years ago, when you told me to go pray for myself? Well, I realized you were right. I hadn’t been praying – that’s why I was so miserable in seminary. So that night I started praying – really praying – for the first time in seminary. And it’s what saved my vocation!”

            And I thought to myself, “Gee, I thought I was just being a jerk!”

            All of this is both a hope and a challenge. It’s a hope because we realize that no good work, no prayer of ours, is ever wasted. God uses even the smallest acts of kindness and love to build us into saints and to impact the world. It’s a challenge because it means that we can’t give ourselves a break on the “little stuff” – we can’t say, “Oh, that sin’s not so bad, it’s just so little.”

            You see, in God’s economy, everything matters. Whether or not we cooperate with God’s grace and become a saint will change the world!

Homily for Trinity Sunday - May 31, 2015

Homily for Trinity Sunday

May 31, 2015

The Trinity and the Family

 

            One day St. Augustine, the brilliant theologian and Church Father, was trying to figure out the Trinity. He was deep in thought, walking along the beaches along the Mediterranean Sea, when all of a sudden he came upon a boy who was taking a bucket of water, and dumping it into a hole he had dug in the sand. He then went back to the ocean, got another bucketful of water, and dumped it again into the hole. He kept doing this – filling the bucket from the sea, then emptying it into the hole. After some time, St. Augustine asked him, “What are you doing?”

            The boy answered, “I’m going to fit the ocean into this hole.”

            Augustine laughed and said, “That’s impossible! The ocean will never fit into your little hole.”

            The boy looked at him most seriously and said, “It will be easier for me to fit the ocean into this hole than for you to figure out the mystery of the Trinity.” Augustine realized that the boy was actually a vision of an angel.

            A mystery of our faith, however, doesn’t mean that we can’t say anything about it. Mystery simply means that we can never say everything about it. It’s like the boy and the ocean – he could always go back and take more water from the ocean; he’ll never finish emptying it out. Likewise, every time we think about a mystery of our faith – like the depths of God’s love, the redemption of the Cross, the joys of Heaven, or the Trinity – we will always be able to discover new and deeper aspects of these truths that we believe.

            In a nutshell, the mystery of the Trinity means that we believe in one God, Who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It’s not three gods, but it’s three Persons in one God. It’s kind of like water – we have liquid water, steam, and ice. All three are water, but they are water acting in different ways. Likewise, the Father, Son, and Spirit are all God – but they have distinct characteristics and they act in different ways. The Father is the Creator, the Son redeemed us on the Cross, and the Spirit dwells within our souls to make us holy.

But the Trinity isn’t just some out-there, abstract thought. It has very practical consequences, because there is something on earth that resembles the Trinity very closely: the human family.

You see, the Trinity shows us that God is not some isolated, anti-social individual sitting in a distant heaven somewhere. The fact that God is Father, Son, and Spirit means that He is a community of love. The Father loves the Son perfectly and gives all things to Him, and the Son loves the Father perfectly and gives His very life back to the Father as a gift. This love is so intense that the Holy Spirit proceeds from their love.

That is the same way a family is supposed to operate. A family is supposed to be a community of self-giving love. The husband must love his wife, pouring out his life in service and sacrifice for her. The wife, in turn, opens herself to her husband in vulnerable trust and love, giving her life to him as well. This love is so intense that it can create a third person – a child, the result of loving self-gift.

The Trinity’s love for each other naturally spilled over, so They created the world on which to lavish their love. Likewise, a human family is supposed to be a place where God’s love is channeled into the world.

A lot of modern mainstream media want to redefine the human family in all sorts of bizarre ways, and they often reject Catholic teaching about family life, human sexuality, and love itself. But when we see the human family as a reflection of the Trinity – the great dignity of the family – then we can begin to see that Church teaching makes sense. Married love must be free, faithful, total, and fruitful, mirroring the Trinity’s free, total, faithful, and fruitful love for each other. Human sexuality must be open to life, since life and love are inseparable. Marriage must be permanent, because a community of love should not be destroyed. Children and parents must be willing to give of themselves in sacrifice to each other, just as the Father, Son, and Spirit are constantly pouring Themselves out for the Others. In a word, a faithful Catholic family is supposed to be a witness to the world of the love of God!

My friends, allow God’s grace to transform your family, that you may mirror the Trinity!

Pentecost Sunday - May 24, 2015

Homily for Pentecost

May 24, 2015

The Spirit, Like Water

 

            Deacon Mike Oles had been working at the local homeless shelter for some time. After years of seeing the same faces show up at the shelter, he began to grow frustrated at the whole problem of chronic homelessness…if only there was a way to get the homeless off the streets and into a house of their own! But he had no idea how that would work.

            One day, he was invited by a local Catholic church to talk to their confirmation students about his work with the homeless. He gave an inspiring talk about how to serve the poor, and he even invited a currently homeless man to tell the students his life story, and how he became homeless. The talk was a great success – the kids really seemed interested in his work with the homeless – but in the months that followed, he returned to his regular life and forgot about the talk…until he received in the mail a thank-you note, with a seven-hundred-fifty-dollar check. The kids had been so moved by meeting the homeless man that they took up a collection of their own money, and sent it to Deacon Oles, asking him to get that homeless man off the streets.

            But Deacon Oles had no idea how to go about doing this! The money sat on his desk for months, until finally someone from the church contacted him again, asking if he had gotten the homeless man off the streets yet. Finally, in desperation, Deacon Oles used the money to pay the security deposit on an apartment for that homeless man – and still to this day the homeless man lives in that apartment!

            But it didn’t stop there. People heard about how Deacon Oles was able to get him into the apartment, so they began to send him more and more money to get homeless people off the streets. Finally, after getting twelve people off the streets and into homes of their own, Deacon Oles decided to start a charity – called “Off the Streets” - that is now in four cities across the United States. Since its founding in 2010, over 200 people have gotten off the streets, and over 80% of them have been able to stay that way. A pretty good success rate!

            I met Deacon Oles when he and I were assigned together at my last parish in Bethel. He started Off the Streets in Danbury, Connecticut. I was always amazed at what he accomplished – or rather, what the Holy Spirit accomplished in and through him.

            It was the Holy Spirit that inspired those kids to send him the money, and it was the Holy Spirit that prompted Deacon Oles to start this organization which has impacted hundreds of lives. In fact, the Holy Spirit is the one who prompts us to do anything good. If we have an inspiration to pray, that is from the Spirit. If we have a desire to make a sacrifice for others, that comes from the Holy Spirit. If we are moved to serve another person, we can trust that the Holy Spirit is behind that! The Holy Spirit is how God lives in and through us!

            St. Paul teaches us that the Spirit causes different good works in everyone. A good analogy is like that of rainwater. When it rains on a garden, the rain causes different plants to grow and bear fruit – from apple trees to eggplant to blueberries. It’s the same rain, but it makes everything grow in a different way.

            We look around at the world and we can notice that there are so many needs that one person couldn’t possibly satisfy all the needs – there is poverty, lack of education, illegal immigration, people who struggle with addiction, children who need a loving home, the problem of abortion, the need to bring Christ into politics or business or law, the need to spread the Gospel…there is no way that one single person can work to fill all these needs. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit gives each of us different promptings and different passions. These are often called charisms. For example, Deacon Oles has a charism – a gift from the Holy Spirit - for working with the homeless.

            What is your charism? In other words, in what way are you passionate about improving the world with the aid of the Spirit? How can you put your gifts at the service of the world? Every Christian who has the Holy Spirit dwelling within them has charisms!

            Perhaps you are elderly and have a lot of time on your hands. If that’s the case, you might have the charism of praying for the world, or perhaps you are called by the Holy Spirit to volunteer somewhere. If you work in the world, perhaps you have the charism of bringing Christ to the world through your job – your workplace is your mission field. Maybe you’re still in school – then your charism can be to be a good example to your peers, or maybe to get involved in the pro-life cause or serving the poor. Everyone has a charism, a gift and passion from the Holy Spirit – what’s yours? There’s an easy way to find out what your charism is: look for where your passions and your gifts intersect. So if you’re passionate about some good cause (like ending hunger or spreading the Gospel), and you have the gifts and talents necessary to make a difference in that area, then the Holy Spirit has given you a charism – and we must use it!

            We must always remember that it’s only in and through the Holy Spirit that we can do any good – we can’t do good in this world on our own! So we invite the Holy Spirit to live in and through us. One great way is through the old traditional prayer to the Holy Spirit – so, please repeat after me:

            Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Your love. Send forth Your Spirit, and they shall be created, and You will renew the face of the earth.

Homily for the Seventh Sunday of Easter - May 17, 2015

Homily for the Seventh Sunday of Easter

May 17, 2015

The True Church

 

            The author of the “Lord of the Rings” series, JRR Tolkien, converted to Catholicism through an interesting route. He was born with virtually no faith at all, but his father died when he was quite young – age 4. His mother Mabel, torn with grief, sought a way to deal with her sadness – so she turned to faith, but her nominal Protestant background provided little consolation. So Tolkien’s mother started to search for another faith, one that was more substantial and offered greater truth. When JRR was eight, his mother converted to Catholicism – and brought her two young sons with her!

            But the story doesn’t end there. Sadly, the family was immediately rejected because of this conversion – they thought Mabel and the boys had gone off the deep end! Within a year, the stress of having their entire family turn their backs on them proved too much, and Tolkien’s mother died tragically, leaving her two boys in the care of an old aunt who paid them no attention. Left to themselves, the Tolkien boys found themselves spending more and more time at their local Catholic church – they would serve Mass for the priest, clean up around the church, and even eat breakfast with the priests before heading off to school. Later on in life, Tolkien said that he first learned charity and forgiveness from the pastor of that Catholic Church. He remained convicted of the truth of the Catholic faith and was willing to hold to it, despite personal cost.

            Truth is something worth seeking. It’s something worth fighting for, even worth dying for. But our world is one that is full of opinions – just look at the vast number of blogs and comment boxes on websites, all full of opinions…and very little truth. Is it possible to find truth in the modern world? In particular, is it possible to find truth about God, about humanity, about our eternal destiny?

            Yes, it is. In John’s Gospel, Jesus says that He is the Truth – He’s not an opinion, not one man among many, but THE Truth. He proved that His words are truth when He rose from the dead. So if Jesus is the Truth – if He reveals the Truth about God, about who we are as His beloved sons and daughters – then we must follow Him.

            And if Jesus, Truth Himself, starts a religion, we can be assured that it is the true one. Jesus set up the Catholic religion upon the faith of Simon Peter, the first Pope, and He promised His Apostles that “the gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church” – in other words, that His Church would never stray from teaching the truth about God and our relationship to Him.

            I am Catholic because I believe that the Catholic Church is the one true Church founded by Jesus Christ. But I almost wandered away in my teen years. Growing up, I went to a Catholic church that was pretty cold and unfriendly. The people were grumpy, the priests were boring, the music was lame…so when I reached my late teens, I started to go to a Methodist church a few times, and I went with my friend to his Lutheran church. I was amazed at how warm and welcoming these other churches were! I immediately felt at home there…except, they didn’t have the Eucharist, and they didn’t have the fullness of truth. So, I returned to the Catholic Church, knowing that truth is more important that warm feelings or good preaching.

            You see, we believe, as Catholics, that the Catholic Church has the fullness of truth. Other faiths have partial truth – for example, our Protestant brothers and sisters share with us truths such as baptism and a love for the Scriptures. Even other non-Christian religions like Muslims and Hindus have part of the truth – they all encourage people to be kind and compassionate, for example. But the Catholic Church has the fullness of truth – everything that we need to know about God and how to best love Him, we can find in the Catholic Church. It’s a bold claim, I know…but who would want to belong to a religion that didn’t claim to be the true religion?

            It’s kind of like this: you could probably build a house with just a hammer, a saw, and a few nails, right? It may not look pretty, but you could do it if you had to. But it would be a lot easier if you also had a tape measure, and a level, and a screwdriver, right? Of course! We would want every tool we need to build the best house possible.

            In the same way, can those of other faiths get to Heaven with the partial truth in their religion? Yes, but it is harder. As Catholics, we have so many tools for holiness: the Rosary, devotions, Eucharistic Adoration, the teachings of the Holy Father, the examples of the Saints, the two-thousand-year-old Tradition, and so much more. Why settle for less when we can have every tool in the toolbox?

            Jesus only wants one religion – He says so in today’s Gospel, as He prays “that all may be one.” There are currently over 33,000 different branches of Christianity, from Methodists and Episcopalians to Evangelicals and Non-Denominationals. That was clearly not Jesus’ will! He wanted all to be one, united in the one Church He founded – the Catholic Church.

            When we read this weekend’s Gospel (John 17), we are basically eavesdropping in on Jesus’ final prayer before He is crucified. He prays to the Father for us – for the Church – and He prays that we may be consecrated in the truth – in other words, He is consecrating the Apostles to bring His Truth to the world. Our Catholic faith is built upon those Apostles who handed on that Truth down through the centuries. The teachings of the Catholic church are the same, unchanging teachings that were handed on to the Apostles from Jesus.

            So, for this reason, we should be proud to be Catholic. In today’s world where many people believe that there are “many equal paths to God” or that they can be “spiritual but not religious,” we respectfully disagree with those assertions. While we respect the partial truths that are in all other religions, we are confident that we have the fullness of truth in the Catholic Church, the religion that Jesus founded. And this Truth, more than any external reason like good music or a beautiful church building, is why we are Catholic!