Homily for Lent 1 - March 6, 2022

 

Homily for Lent 1

March 6, 2022

Temptations and How to Overcome Them

 

            The story goes that a man who was running a fruit stand at a market had to step away for a moment, so he put a note on his large basket of apples that read, “Do not take – God is watching.” Some cheeky fellow hand-wrote a note and put it on his basket of oranges that said, “Take all you want – God is watching the apples.”

            Temptation – it’s everywhere. Among our friends, at parties, on the internet, even within our own thoughts. But our Gospel gives us wisdom on what temptations to watch out for, and how to fight the battle so that Christ can win the victory in you.

            First, in our Catholic tradition, there are three “sources of temptation”. We receive temptation through the world, the flesh, and the devil. All three of these are present in the Gospel today; let’s look at them separately.

Jesus is tempted to turn stones into bread, satisfying the cravings of the flesh. So…why is that bad? He’s hungry, and there’s nothing wrong with eating when you’re hungry, right? The problem is that He is eating at the wrong time – He is supposed to be fasting. The flesh tempts us by wanting pleasure at the wrong time or in the wrong way. Eating isn’t bad – but eating too much becomes gluttony. Drinking alcohol isn’t bad – only getting drunk and abusing it. Sex is a good and beautiful gift from God – but becomes sinful when it is used outside of a marriage between a man and a woman, open to life. Sleep and rest are beautiful, but if we do them too much then we become lazy and neglect our daily duties. So when we say that the flesh is a source of temptation, we aren’t saying that the body or its desires are bad. But we need to respect God’s plan for how we enjoy the pleasures of the flesh.

If we find that we are tempted to seek pleasure in the wrong way and our flesh becomes a source of temptation, then the antidote is fasting. Giving up desserts or TV for Lent helps to deny and train the flesh so that it becomes disciplined. We want our bodies to more easily choose that which is truly good – and this requires self-denial. If we can deny ourselves a chocolate bar, we have strengthened our will to have mastery over our flesh, which makes it easier for us to deny ourselves that fourth beer or that immoral sexual temptation.

After the temptation of the flesh, Jesus is then presented with the power, the riches, and the glories of every Kingdom – the things of the world are in His grasp. Once again, is the world and its possessions and riches bad? Not at all – but they become a snare when we make them an end in themselves. Money, possessions, physical beauty, power – none of these things should become an end-goal in themselves. Rather, all of these things are given to us so that we can serve God, love others, and bring the world to Heaven.

So if the empty and passing things of the world are our biggest temptation, then the antidote is almsgiving – generosity to the poor. Giving money or items to the poor puts “the world” in its proper perspective – it makes us realize that our lives cannot revolve around possessions or power.

Finally, the devil tempts Jesus to throw Himself off the temple, telling Him to command God to rescue Him. This is the most insidious of all sources of temptation: a Satanic pride that says that we get to tell God what to do. We may say, “Oh, who would tell God what to do?” I can give you plenty of examples, but here are just a few that are very common.

I once knew a man who would always say that religion is just a crutch, that he didn’t need anyone to help him live his life – he was a self-made man, and would keep it that way. Other people do not pray daily because they believe they can figure out life on their own, they don’t need God.

Some people disagree with Church teaching on this or that – I remember a man saying to me in Confession, “Oh Father, I don’t think such-and-such is a sin.” I asked him where he got his information that this particular sin, which had always and everywhere been taught as immoral by the Church, was somehow now okay. He said, “Well, I just don’t think God has a problem with me doing that.” So, the fact that this action is clearly wrong from Scripture and has been taught as wrong for two thousand years was irrelevant to him…and he gets to decide it’s okay for him? That is a philosophical error called “moral relativism” – which stems from the pride that says, “I get to be the determiner of right and wrong; I get to tell God what He should approve of.”

So what is the antidote to this kind of pride? Prayer. Prayer recognizes that we aren’t in control. Authentic prayer isn’t, “God, You must bend to MY will and do what I want you to do,” but rather, “Lord, Your will be done. I humbly submit to Your loving, holy will.”

There we have it – the three sources of temptation: the world, the flesh, and the devilish pride. The antidotes are our Lenten disciplines: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. How did Jesus deal with these temptations? He didn’t entertain it but shut it down immediately; He used texts from Scripture to defeat Satan; He didn’t rely upon His own strength but the strength of His Father. We can use these techniques too, because all of us are tempted – even the saints.

St. Jerome had such a temper and was so tempted to raging fits of anger that he carried around a large rock and when he felt himself growing upset, he beat his chest with the rock to prevent him from raging! (A later Pope, passing by a painting of St. Jerome with the rock, commented that if it weren’t for the rock, he would never have become a saint!). St. Francis of Assisi was so tempted with lust that he threw himself into a thornbush to rid himself of the temptation. St. Theresa of Avila felt strong temptations to doubt her faith, so she pricked her finger and wrote out the Creed in her own blood. Even the great saints underwent temptations, and we will too until our final breath.

But with the strength of Christ, and with the weapons of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil will never overcome us. Christ has already won the victory – by our faith and humble trust in Him, He will win the victory in us, as well.

Homily for Ordinary Time 7 - February 20, 2022

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 7

February 20, 2022

Love Your Enemies

 

            Daryl Davis is a truly gifted Black jazz musician…whose life was forever altered by a chance meeting in a bar where he was playing. After his set, a man approached him and complimented him on his playing, and the two began chatting. A couple of beers later, the man admitted to Daryl that he was part of the KKK, and Daryl began to wonder what made people join an organization that is based in such hatred for blacks.

            So he began a personal quest to answer that question. From this man, he got the contact information of the Imperial Wizard of the KKK, Roger Kelly. He called Roger out-of-the-blue and asked for a meeting, under the pretext that Daryl was writing a book on the KKK. The two met – and Roger was quite surprised to find that Daryl was black. But over the course of several meetings, the two became unlikely friends, and eventually Roger left the KKK and turned his robes over to Daryl, apologizing for his racism and asking Daryl to be his daughter’s godfather.

            Daryl has made it his life’s mission to stop hatred through friendship. He has befriended dozens of KKK members and over 200 members have left the Klan through his influence. His actions are not without controversy, though. Another African-American activist called him once to tell him to stop wasting his time with people who hate him, saying that white supremacists can’t change. But Daryl’s success proves the opposite – when you love your enemies, there is a transformation: both in the enemy, and in you.

            “Love your enemies” – one of the most difficult teachings of Christ. Why should we love our enemies, and how should we love our enemies? (And when I speak about enemies, I include anyone that we don’t like, people we find difficult to be around).

            We should love our enemies for three reasons. First, because they are made in the image and likeness of God. St. John asks a poignant question in his letter in the Bible: “How can we love the God we cannot see if we do not love the brother that we do see?” That person standing in front of us, no matter how obnoxious or difficult or evil, carries within him the imprint of God. That annoying, bad person has the capability to be a saint!

Second, we love our enemies because Jesus Christ died for them too and wants their salvation. One of Jesus’ last words was, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” If Jesus is able to forgive the very people who were driving nails into his wrists and feet, how can we do any less?

Finally, we love our enemies because if we do not, then we become filled with hatred and evil ourselves. Hatred corrupts the person who hates – thus, if we want to be like Jesus, Who is all-loving, we must make sure that the poison of hatred and revenge do not infect our souls.

But it can be difficult! How do we love our enemies? First, we must remember that loving someone does not equal liking them. We do not need to be friends with everyone. Some people we shouldn’t have in our lives – people that are toxic, abusive, truly evil, people who lead us into sin. For the most part, we don’t have an obligation to be around such people. Rather, to love is to will the good of the other. So even though we don’t like a person because of their actions or their personality, we still must will their good – desire that they be converted, blessed, and that they go to Heaven.

We must remember that even saints didn’t always get along with each other! Two of the greatest saints in history, St. Augustine and St. Jerome, wrote bitter letters to each other criticizing each other’s theological writings! Yet they remained holy men, even though they were never friendly with one another. So we can love without liking – we may never feel emotionally close to enemies or people who have hurt us – but we can still choose to will their good.

How to love, then? Three suggestions. First, pray for them. Ask God to bless them, ask God especially to give them the grace to change their ways, if need be. It is impossible to hate someone we are praying for. And while we’re at it – pray for the grace for ourselves to be able to love as Christ loves.

Second, seek to find ways to do good to them. St. Paul writes that “doing good for our enemies is like heaping hot coals on their heads.” We find practical ways to help them – sending them a birthday card, or providing a meal for them if they need it. Practical acts of kindness can soften a hard heart.

Finally, we must make sure to never speak ill of them unnecessarily. It’s tempting to tell others of how much so-and-so drives us crazy, or what bad thing this person did to us, but to truly love someone is to keep our mouths shut. If our lips are used for praising God, how can they be used for tearing down the Image of God in another human being?

Loving our enemies is not easy – in fact, it is one of the most difficult of Jesus’ teachings. But it is also a way to change the world…or at least change a soul. A saint one time was made because of loving one’s enemies. Back in the early Church, one of the great debates was about what to do with those who had denied Christ under persecution. In the Roman Empire, many people would be captured and tortured to give up their Faith, and while hundreds of thousands did shed their blood for Jesus, some denied the Faith. Later on these people, called lapsi, repented of their cowardice and asked to be readmitted to the Church.

The Pope at the time, St. Pontian, allowed them to return to the Church after a time of penance. But there were factions in the Church who wanted these lapsed-Catholics to be permanently kicked out. A priest by the name of Hippolytus was so outraged by the Pope’s merciful attitude that he decided to declare himself an anti-Pope and try to split the Church.

Well, the pagan Emperor didn’t care about this inter-Church debate, so he exiled both Pontian and Hippolytus to an island where they were forced into slavery, working in the mines. Pontian treated his enemy with such kindness and love that Hippolytus soon recognized his errors. He asked forgiveness from Pontian for the way in which he divided the Church, and the two were reconciled – just before both of them were martyred for the Faith. They are now celebrated on the same feast day – former enemies, now united in eternal life.

I think if we are so blessed to enter into eternal life, we will be surprised to find some of those difficult people already there – and some people will be surprised to find us there! So let us love our enemies here on this earth, so that we are ready to love everyone likewise in Heaven.

Homily for Ordinary Time 6 - February 16, 2022

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 6

February 13, 2022

In Whom Do We Trust?

 

            October 29, 1929 was no ordinary day. That was the day that the stock market crashed, with investors losing over 50% of the value of their stocks overnight, launching our country into the Great Depression. It was not only an economic depression – it caused many people to take their own lives in despair. In fact, when one actor was seeking a 19^th floor hotel room in New York to stay the night, the clerk asked him, “Will this be for sleeping or for jumping out the window?” Another man, Wellington Lyle, down to his last four cents, wrote in his final note, “Give my body to science, my soul to the Secretary of the Treasury, and my sympathy to my creditors.”

            But not everyone fell into despair. It was said that during the Great Depression, atheists jumped out windows while Christians went back to work. In New York, a group of ex-carpenters, ex-plumbers, ex-laborers used rickety wooden carts to bring scrap metal to junk dealers to make a quick buck. Some enterprising neighborhoods would repurpose empty lots into gardens. We Americans are a hardy lot – and though there was a lot of suffering during the Great Depression, there were a lot of inspiring stories of charity and perseverance.

            The way people dealt with the Great Depression depended, in large part, to where a man put his trust. Was his trust in the New York Stock Exchange? Or in God?

            That same question looms equally large in our modern world, because there are many things we put our trust in.

            Some of us trust in money. I have always found it ironic that every dollar bill has the words, “In God We Trust” – when more people trust in the dollar bill than in God! We sometimes think that a comfortable nest egg, or a solid stock portfolio, or a good job is security. We won’t suffer if we have enough money.

            But let’s be honest – can money ever give us a truly secure life? How much money would be enough that we wouldn’t worry about the future? Andrew Carnegie, who was worth millions, once said, “The rich never smile” – because they were too worried about their bank account to truly enjoy life. Study after study has shown that lottery winners do not report greater happiness than ordinary folks. So often, we put our trust in money, and in the end it leaves us empty.

            Some of us trust is science and technology. We often think of science as settled, rock-solid, something we can trust - but it has changed drastically over time – just remember how doctors used to practice bloodletting and put leeches on people’s body in an attempt to heal them! As good as science is, it’s not foolproof.

Technology, too, is fragile. It’s amazing how dependent we are on technology. A couple years ago I accidentally tripped and fell, and when I got up I found that my cell phone had shattered in my pocket. You’ve probably felt that panic of thinking, “Oh no! What’s going to happen? I don’t have my phone!” We act as if our phones are indispensable, but how fragile they are! About three weeks ago the World Economic Forum published a video saying that a cyber-attack that takes out the world’s internet is, quote, “inevitable”. We can’t trust something as fragile as science and technology.

            Some people put their trust in public opinion. If people think well of us, we think we are secure. If we get into the right college, have the right resume, say the right things on Twitter, we think we’re set. But the example of Jesus shows us just how fickle public opinion can be – the very same crowd that praised Him on Palm Sunday were yelling “Crucify Him!” on Good Friday. Look at how many good people have been “cancelled” in our cancel-culture by the social media mob – there is no security in what others think of us.

            Some of us trust in our beauty or our health. A friend of mine is a gym rat and often spends three or four hours a day at a gym (he’s single, so he can do stuff like that). One day he asked me if it was a sin to work out so much. I asked him, “Well, how much time do you spend every day on your soul?” He didn’t want to respond. In a hundred years, his body will be rotting in a grave and his soul will be around forever, as an eternal triumph or an eternal tragedy. So we cannot trust in our health or our beauty, because that too will end up passing away.

            So – who can we trust? Only one – God. Only He never changes; only He is always faithful; only He remains when the money dries up and the wifi goes down and the friends betray us. Today’s first reading reminds us: “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord alone!”

            What does it mean to put our trust in Him? It means that He is our rock, our foundation, our truest happiness. Even as we go about our necessary daily duties of making money and paying bills and going to the doctor, we remember that all things are passing except for God alone. This helps us not to worry about the future, and not to get upset when we lose our money or our hair or reputation.

I love the example of the holy man Job in the Scriptures – he ended up losing his house, his children, his flocks, his health, his standing in the community…all in one day. But he still said, “The Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away! Blessed be the Name of the Lord!” He wouldn’t let it upset him, because he knew that God was faithful, and would repay him when it pleased the Lord. And – God was faithful, giving him abundant blessings at the end of the Book of Job.

How do we grow in trust in Him? Invest more in generosity than in the stock market; spend more time with the Lord than putting on makeup; seek His approval, rather than the approval of the world. To trust Him more, remember how He has helped you in the past. Search the Scriptures, and you will find ample evidence that He comes through for His friends. Pray a very simple prayer to grow in trust: “Jesus, I trust in You” – which we see on the image of Our Lord behind us.

            There’s a great story from the life of St. Clare of Assisi, the friend of St. Francis. Inspired by St. Francis, Clare also embraced a life of poverty and penance, as a cloistered nuns. One time, her city of Assisi was in danger of being attacked by a vicious army bent on destroying the whole town. Clare’s fellow nuns were all terrified and wanted to flee the convent. But despite the fact that Clare was elderly and sick in bed, she rallied her strength and gathered her nuns around her, telling them, “If you only trust in the Lord, you will have nothing to fear.”

            Struggling to her feet, she went to the tabernacle and took out a golden vessel called a ciborium containing the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. She then went to the roof of the convent and stood there holding up the Eucharistic Lord just as the army began to invade the town. When the general and the soldiers caught sight of this fearless elderly nun holding up Jesus Christ, they realized that God was on their side – and fear struck their heart. They fled the town, and never attacked again. Clare turned to her sisters and said, “I assure you, daughters, that you will suffer no evils if only you have faith in Christ.”

            Do you want to build your life on something that cannot fail? Not money, or popular opinion, or science and technology, or our health. No – “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord” – in every suffering or trial, they will stand firm.

Homily for Ordinary Time 5 - February 6, 2022

 

Homily for February 6, 2022

Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Mission, Repentance, Encounter

 

            All three readings today have a similar progression of three themes. A person is called for a mission, they recognize their sinfulness, and they encounter the merciful God Who forgives them and confirms them in their mission. Isaiah, Paul, and Peter all experience those three parts to their call. But this idea of mission is not only for prophets and Apostles – every single person in this world is created for a purpose. But what is it? What is the meaning of life?

            Some people say that we don’t have a meaning – in fact, a recent study in the UK found that 89% of young people ages 16-29 “believe that their lives have no meaning.” If we don’t have a meaning to life, then all it’s about is just trying to get through the day. Without a purpose to life, we just try to strive for a little pleasure, for a few successes – but doesn’t that just seem meaningless? What are we living for: a Bermuda vacation, for a nice retirement, or just to get through another day? We all want more than that – we know there has to be a meaning.

            But what is it? I asked our Confirmation class two weeks ago what the meaning of life was, and one kids said, “To eat food.” (My kind of guy!). The modern world says that the meaning of life is “to be a good person” or something generic like that.

            But I’d like to make a claim. The claim is this: the meaning and purpose of this life is to know, love, and serve God in this world, so that we can be eternally happy with Him in the next. That means the purpose of this life…is not about this life, but about the next! Haven’t you ever had the thought, “There must be something more than all of this”? That intuition points to a deep reality – we have eternity in our heart because we are not just evolved animals – we are made in the image and likeness of God, and our souls long to be united to the One Who created us.

            Think of it – why do we spend nine months in the womb? It’s not so that we can stay there indefinitely. That would be weird! Rather, it is so that we become physically ready for the outside world – strong muscles, developed lungs, ready to breath air and eat food. Those nine months are really about preparation for the outside world. So then why do we spend 70, 80, 90 years here? So that we can become spiritually ready for the next world. So we develop our muscles of virtue, our lungs to breathe grace, ready to be nourished with Heavenly food. If earth was our final stop, we would feel satisfied here – but pretty much every human being experiences a restlessness here on earth. We were made for a different world! We’re pilgrims here, passing through a foreign land; in Heaven we will finally reach our true home.

            So that’s the meaning of life: to know, love, and serve God in this world so that we can be eternally happy with Him in the next. Obviously this purpose includes following the commandments, loving our neighbor, having a prayer life, growing in virtue. But the mission is the same for us all…but everyone lives it out differently. Isaiah lived it out as a prophet; Paul lived it out as a missionary; Peter lived it out by being our first Pope. How is God calling you to live out your life of loving God? Some people live it out in marriage, some in the single life. Some as a teacher, a shopkeeper, a computer programmer, a lawyer, a priest or nun. And all of us who have discovered the meaning of life, have a mission to bring that Good News to as many people as possible.

            Around the turn of the century, a French philosopher named Jacques Maritain and his wife Raissa felt that restlessness. Both were atheists, but were genuinely seeking the truth and authentic fulfillment – and couldn’t find it in the money, the pleasure, the things of this world. The two of them, after having searched for years, in 1901 made a pact with each other that if they did not find a meaning for life in the next year, they would mutually commit suicide at the end of the year. By God’s mercy, a friend invited them to a talk by a Catholic philosopher. They realized that Catholicism made sense – and found the meaning and purpose of their lives, and became dedicated, holy Catholics. All because a friend took the time to invite them to discover the meaning of life through the lens of our faith in Jesus Christ. I bet a lot of people we know are wrestling with that inner restlessness, that discontent in life. So – part of our mission is to bring as many people as possible to Heaven with us!

            So, we’ve got the purpose of our life – but when Isaiah, Peter, and Paul hear about their mission, they recognize that they are unworthy of the task. Indeed, this is the problem with you and me and every other human being – we are sinners. If our life’s purpose is to love God for eternity, then sin is acting against the purpose of our lives. And that is why we need a Savior.

            And what a Savior we have! He doesn’t deny that we’re sinful – He does something better – He forgives it! He looks at Peter and says, “Yes, I know your sinfulness – and I forgive you. Come follow Me.” He looks at Isaiah and says, “Yes, you do have unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips – so let me purify them, and go forth.” What mercy! He doesn’t require us to travel to foreign lands or undertake arduous penances or pay money to be forgiven. All we have to do is humble ourselves, like Peter and Paul and Isaiah, and say, “Lord, I have sinned,” and in the Sacrament of Confession our sins are forgiven – and we are back on our way to being the saint God has created us to be.

            What a joy it is, then, to find God’s mercy and to live out our purpose! This Easter, we are going to give all parishioners a book by a Catholic writer named Chris Stefanick about joy in Christ. He became a serious believer through joy. When he was in eighth grade, he was a typical kid who didn’t care much for the whole “Jesus thing”. His parents convinced him to go to a youth conference for Catholic teens. Reluctantly he went, and he was struck…not by a talk, or a small-group discussion, but by a man. This man was in his late 60s, overweight, not particularly good-looking. But as everyone began singing hymns during Eucharistic Adoration, Chris noticed this man standing in the back of church, his hands raised, eyes closed, singing, and a look of pure joy on his face. It was the look of joy that struck that eighth-grade boy – and he thought, “That man is joyful – that man knows and loves Jesus - I want joy, so I must know and love Jesus!” And from that moment on, he gave his whole life to Jesus Christ.

            And you know what? If we fulfill the mission for which we were created – to know, love, and serve God in this life, so we can be eternally happy with Him in the next – then we, too, will know joy – the joy of sins forgiven, the joy of inner peace, the joy of knowing the love of the Lord.

Homily for Ordinary Time 3 - January 23, 2022

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 3

January 23, 2022

Historicity of the Gospels

 

            I love how Luke begins his Gospel because he tells us straight-up that he is writing history, not a legend. Legends begin with, “Once upon a time…”. But history begins with “In this specific place, at this specific time…” And Luke makes it clear that he is not just repeating mythical stories – no, he looked into all of these events himself, and is writing a historical account of a real man named Jesus.

In 1979, an atheist, Yale-educated journalist named Lee Strobel was shocked when his wife, an atheist like himself, converted to Christianity. He wanted to disprove her new faith, so he set about to investigate the claims of Christianity in the hopes of finding Jesus to be a myth.

            Applying his journalistic skills to the person of Jesus, he uncovered some startling facts. He found that every reputable historian agrees that Jesus really existed. In fact, in the first few centuries after Jesus, there were many pagans – non-Christians - who wrote about Jesus. Early historians such as Tacitus, Flavius Josephus, and Pliny the Younger – all of whom wrote in the first two centuries after Jesus – spoke about him as a really existing person. Even from a secular standpoint, Jesus actually has more historical evidence than any other ancient person.

            Plus, the Gospels are historical documents themselves. Two of them – Matthew and John – were both eyewitnesses to the events of Jesus, and wrote their Gospels only 30 years after He lived. We actually have copies of John’s Gospel from about 120AD, so we know that the original manuscripts of the Gospels came from the first century. The other two Gospels – Mark and Luke – interviewed eyewitnesses for their material. Mark interviewed St. Peter, and Luke used St. Paul and the Blessed Mother as his sources.

            These writings agree in the fundamentals. Yes, there are some small discrepancies, but how many times have you disagreed with your spouse about events that happened years in the past? The husband says, “Oh, remember that time last year the Joneses came over and Mary spilled the red wine on her white dress?” And the wife responds, “It was two years ago, it was the Smiths, and it was actually a martini.” The small disagreements in the Gospels don’t change the truth of Jesus – He really lived, preached, did miracles, died on a Cross, and rose from the dead. After studying all this, the journalist Lee Strobel realized there was no escaping the truth that Jesus really existed, really claimed to be God, and really rose from the dead. He converted to Christianity and ended up becoming a Protestant pastor.

            If Jesus is not just a myth – if He really lived and really died and really rose again – this has two consequences for us. First, it means we can have a real relationship with Him. We can’t have a real relationship with Harry Potter or Luke Skywalker, since they don’t really exist. But I can speak to the Lord – and He really hears me, because He is real. And…He speaks to us, too!

            Nowadays, people are seeking spirituality in all sorts of places. A month or so ago I met with a woman who was going through a crisis, and I suggested that she pray about it. She said, “Yes, I shall consult the energies.” Energies? Since when do energies hear or answer prayer? She wanted to be “in touch with the universe” – but the Universe isn’t a person! But Jesus Christ is really alive, a real person, with whom we can have a real relationship. All of our spirituality, then, must be based on pursuing a living relationship with Jesus through daily prayer, Scripture reading, and encountering Him through the Sacraments.

            Second, if Jesus is real and alive, then He truly is the King of the universe – which means that He has a claim on our lives, and we have to follow Him, live for Him. One of our church’s greatest saints, St. Augustine, struggled to come to that understanding. As a kid, Augustine was a wild child. In his autobiography, “Confessions” (which, interestingly, was the first autobiography in history!), he tells a story of his teen years, when he and his friends were passing by a pear orchard. The pears were still small, hard, and unripe, but he decided to steal some and eat them. Even though they tasted awful, he said that he savored the flavor of his sin! He loved indulging in sin – he had a child outside of marriage, he ran away from his super-devout mother St. Monica, and made money and fame the goal of his life. After many years, though, his sin wore him down and he was sick and tired of the emptiness of his selfish life. He began to seek truth and meaning – first looking into a cult of quasi-Christians, before encountering a holy bishop named St. Ambrose. Ambrose taught Augustine about true Christianity, and intellectually he became a believer. But it was a struggle to forsake his sin! One time, he famously prayed, “Lord, grant me holy purity…but not yet!” He was still a slave to sin, even though he knew that Jesus was truly alive.

            One day as he was walking through a garden, he was torn up about living this double life – believing in Jesus but still living for the flesh. He heard a voice off in a distance singing, “Take up and read!” Looking down, he saw a bible on a bench. Picking it up, he read St. Paul’s words, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provisions for the desires of the flesh.” He was cut to the heart and finally able to give up his sin and live for Christ alone. He became a priest, a bishop, and is one of the greatest saints in our church.

            I am so grateful that St. Luke did what he did – giving us an accurate, historical account of Jesus Christ. Because if Jesus is real, then I can have a living relationship with Him, and I must live my life for Him alone. If He really lived and died and rose again – then this changes everything!

Homily for Ordinary Time 2 - January 16, 2022

 

Homily for January 16, 2022

Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

Bride of Christ

 

            A couple years ago, I came across an article on the Internet about a famous Catholic speaker who publicly decided to leave the Church. He said he was fed up with the scandals, the lack of community, the boring homilies, everything. So he publicly disavowed his Catholicism.

            That kind of stuff hits me like a punch in the stomach. It always depresses me when I hear of anyone leaving the Catholic Church, whether a famous speaker or a regular churchgoer. That whole day I was kind of depressed – why should I stay Catholic? I mean, he’s got a point – there are lots of scandals and bad behavior – we can all point to inappropriate behavior by those who call themselves Catholic. For example, I’ll never forget when I was about ten years old being cursed out by the deacon of my church for doing a bad job altar serving.

            But that night I was praying Evening Prayer, and the reading was from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, where Paul wrote: “Christ loved the Church.” I thought, if Jesus Christ could love the Church, with all of its flaws, then so can I.

            Christ loves the Church so much that St. Paul calls the Catholic Church the “Bride of Christ”. In the Old Testament, God’s relationship to Israel is always spoken of as a Bridegroom and Bride. Makes sense – much like a husband and wife promise lifelong faithfulness to each other, God is constantly faithful to His Bride, Israel – even when She was unfaithful to Him. God would do anything for His Bride, even to the point of laying down His life for Her, as a husband should do for His wife.

            So it is fitting that Jesus should do His first miracle at a wedding feast! He is forming a new Israel: you and I, the Catholic Church. Look how He does it – He takes these jars which are used for Jewish ceremonial washings – a symbol of Judaism’s Law – and turns that water into the most delightful wine – a symbol of the grace that we will experience through our faith in Him. The Church then begins at the end of the Gospel today, when it says that “His disciples believed in Him.” Now we have the beginnings of the new Bride of Christ, the Church, which is the gathering of all those who believe in Jesus Christ.

            But, so often we don’t see the Church as the Bride of Christ. A lot of times it just looks like a mess. People leaving the Church, fellow believers who are not truly living their Faith, leaders who are uninspiring or worse. This is when I have the hope that God promises in the first reading: “Nations shall behold your vindication, and all the kings your glory; you shall be called by a new name pronounced by the mouth of the LORD. You shall be a glorious crown in the hand of the LORD, a royal diadem held by your God. No more shall people call you “Forsaken,”

or your land “Desolate,” but you shall be called “My Delight,” and your land “Espoused.” For the LORD delights in you and makes your land his spouse.” At the end of time, we will see the Church as a radiant Bride, perfectly holy, faithful to Jesus – as She was always meant to be.

            Until that day, though, “The Church is not a hotel for saints, but a hospital for sinners,” as Pope Francis says. Thank God, because I’m a sinner! All of us find a home here in the Church, no matter where we are on our spiritual journey.

            Nevertheless, there is real holiness in the Church, in four ways. First, the Founder of our Church is Jesus Christ – so our Founder is holy! (No other church can claim that they were founded by the Lord Himself!). Second, the goal of the Church is to get us to Heaven – out goal is holy! Third, the way we accomplish the goal is holy – the Sacraments and the Teachings of the Church. Only the Catholic Church has preserved the teachings of Christ, unchanged, for the past two thousand years. Finally, we really do have holy people in the Church – the saints! If this is the Church that could produce St. Francis, or Mother Theresa, or St. Patrick – then what can God do with you and I if we stay in the Church!

            Ultimately, where else can we go? Jesus promised that the gates of Hell will not prevail against His Church. There was a great writer in the early 1900s named Walker Percy. His early life was filled with tragedy – his father committed suicide when he was thirteen, and only two years later his mother also took her own life. He was left in the care of an uncle who provided for his education, and he started studying to be a doctor. Years later, he caught tuberculosis and had to recuperate in upstate New York. During his time in recuperation, he began to ask the deeper questions of life: why is there so much suffering in the world? Is there any meaning behind it all? He read voraciously and encountered some Catholic authors who made him wonder if there were answers in the Catholic Church. Much to everyone’s surprise, he and his wife converted to Catholicism very suddenly.

            He was later asked, “What did it? Why did you convert?” He responded, “My life has been such a disaster – this modern world is such a disaster – that I demanded from God a gift equal to the disaster.” The gift was faith in the Catholic Church, the only thing that could make sense out of his tragic life.

            Later on, when a fellow writer was contemplating becoming Catholic, Walker Percy wrote her a letter and said, “The Church is a very untidy group that you’re hooking up with, but it’s the one thing that will be around until the end.”

            If Jesus Christ can love His Bride, the Church, then so can we!

Homily for the Baptism of Our Lord - January 9, 2022

 

Homily for Baptism of Our Lord

January 9, 2022

Sacraments: Source of Living Water

 

            An old grandmother, right before her death, spoke to her granddaughter and promised to give her a great treasure. “My dear granddaughter, I had the great fortune in my life to visit the Holy Land and collect some water from the Jordan River, which I have preserved in a fancy bottle to give to my grandchildren. As you are the oldest granddaughter, I want you to have it. You can find it up there, on the shelf.” The granddaughter was overjoyed at such a sacred, powerful gift as this – to have water from the very river where Jesus Himself stepped foot! She got a stepstool and grabbed the bottle and brought it to her grandmother, but noticed something odd.

            “Grandma, the bottle is empty!” she exclaimed.

            “Well, yes, I spilled the water out some years ago…but you can keep the bottle!”

            Quite a dubious gift – and not exactly what was promised to be handed down! And yet this is exactly what we have been given, thanks to Original Sin. Our First Parents were created by God as beautiful, exquisite containers to hold a magnificent gift. They were created with a body and a soul, an intellect and a free will – but the body and soul were just meant to hold a far more magnificent reality: the grace of God. What is grace? It is God’s Divine Life within us. He wanted us to literally be living, breathing, walking outposts of God’s divine presence, radiance, holiness, and power.

            But something happened. The gift of grace was lost. And now we inherit from our parents just the vessel – the body and soul – without the connection with God. It would be like if you inherited a vintage record player…without the power cord, or a ’59 Mustang without an engine. Nice thought, but it’s missing something vital to make it function. Without the plug or the engine, it just kinda sits there and doesn’t do what it was made to do!

            But God did not want this to be our fate, so He provided a way to have our empty bottles filled at the source of Living Water. The Source, of course, is the Sacraments.

            But the Sacraments look so ordinary! Icebergs also look pretty ordinary, and of course we all know that 90% of an iceberg is underwater. In the same way, what we see in the Sacraments is only 10% of what’s really going on, in the invisible, spiritual world. For example, in Baptism, we see water poured over a baby’s head. No big deal – happens every time you give that kid a bath. But in the spiritual realm, this child is filled with God’s divine life for the first time. Their soul becomes marked with an indelible, unchangeable character that marks their soul as property of Jesus Christ. They become sons or daughters of Almighty God, heirs to the Kingdom of Heaven, members of the Church. They receive the Holy Spirit and every grace and blessing to save their own soul.

            Sometimes in modern America we think that if we can’t measure it, it’s not real, so we think grace is just a nice myth, a warm fuzzy feeling that comforts us at funerals when we sing Amazing Grace. My friends, grace is not like that at all. Rather, grace is an objective reality. Either you have grace within your soul, or you don’t. Much like a light bulb either has electricity running through it (and it’s lit up) or it doesn’t (and it’s dark), you either have God’s grace or you don’t. It’s not something you can feel or measure, but here’s how it works:

            You receive God’s grace at Baptism. You increase God’s grace first of all through the Sacraments, through other good works, prayer, and through the prayers of others. God’s grace is diminished if we neglect our faith or commit venial sin. We lose God’s grace entirely through mortal sin. Mortal sin, such as intentionally missing Mass on Sunday or other Holy Days of Obligation, intentionally getting drunk or doing drugs, sexual sin including pornography and any sexual activity outside of marriage, doing occult things like psychics or tarot cards are all mortal sins. If we find ourself having any of these on our soul, our soul is damaged – we must come to our soul’s Maker in the Sacrament of Confession for repairs. In fact, we cannot receive any other grace if we are in the state of mortal sin – it is like trying to fill your bottle with living water while the bottle has a hole in it – futile until the hole is patched up. From the vantage point of God, He sees all of our souls and recognizes those souls that are darkened and empty because they have no grace, those who are only dimly lit because of little grace, and those who shine with His radiance. And what a beautiful thing it is to shine with grace – St. Theresa of Avila said that if we could see a soul in the state of grace, we would be tempted to worship it!

            Grace is not something we earn, though. It’s a free gift, leading into a deeper relationship. We come to the Sacraments, not to buy our way into Heaven, but as launching-points to a deeper daily friendship with Jesus Christ, Who gave them to us. In fact, Jesus thinks the Sacraments are so important that the Church teaches in the Catechism that “God has bound grace to the Sacraments.” If someone said, “I will give you the key to your very own mansion at such-and-such a day at this time and place,” would we respond, “Eh, can’t you just mail it to me? Can’t I just Zoom call in?” Not if someone is being so generous! When God wants to give us His greatest gift of grace, we should be grateful to receive it in the way He has designed! – the motor to our Mustang, the power cord to our antique record player, the Divine Life that fills and radiates our soul.

            Why did God bind grace to the Sacraments, though? Three reasons. First, because we are both body and soul, we need to encounter His invisible love in a very tangible way – through the water of baptism, the Host in Communion, those healing words in Confession. Grace gets to our soul through our body! Second, because the Sacraments gather us together as a Church. A single match is quickly blown out, but when a match lights a stick which lights a log, it becomes a bonfire. When a soul is apart from the Church, their faith is quickly snuffed. But surrounded by other Christians, our faith becomes ablaze! Finally, the Sacraments continue what Jesus did on earth. Jesus forgave sins – He now does that through His priests. He gave us His Body and Blood at the Last Supper, and He continues to do so at every Mass. He told His disciples to baptize, and for twenty centuries the Church has fulfilled His commands.

            So this is why the Sacraments are so vital – they are our strongest connection to grace. Never stay away from the Sacraments! I hear so many people who think they can have a relationship with God apart from the Sacraments – they are missing out! He instituted these Sacraments as the seven faucets where we can be filled with His Divine Life! We are empty vessels who can only do good works – who can only get to Heaven – by God’s free gift of grace, which we find in Baptism and all the other Seven Sacraments.