Lower Your Nets

"Pray 60"

2012-02-05T06:15:00.000-08:00

Homily from the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year B

It goes without saying that today is a big day for football fans as the Super Bowl is getting ready to kick off. And what’s just as fun as the game itself are the commercials. The Super Bowl may be the only television event where the vast majority of viewers wait for the commercials to end before getting up to go to the fridge.

Over the last couple of years the NFL has been airing a commercial campaign on television and radio promoting a program called “Play 60.” “Play 60” is a public awareness campaign designed to fight child obesity by encouraging kids to get at least 60 minutes of physical activity everyday.

It’s a great idea. I know I’m carrying around more than my fair share of extra weight. I need to take better care of myself physically and those commercials remind me of it everyday when I hear them on ESPN Radio as I’m getting ready each morning. I identify well with Blessed Pope John XXIII when he said, “They say the body is a temple. Mine is a major basilica!”

We have to take care of the temple of our bodies. We also have to take care of the temple of our souls. We need to be just as attentive, if not more so, to our spiritual health as our physical health. Today’s Gospel talks about how dedicated Jesus himself is to his own spiritual health. We hear how Jesus rises very early before dawn and goes off to a deserted place, where he prays. Of course, Jesus set aside time every single day to enter into a good, deep conversation with his Father in prayer. You’ll often hear in the Gospels that Jesus spends the entire night in prayer with the Father.

I’d like to suggest we follow Jesus’ example. Now I’m not suggesting spending the entire night in prayer. However, I’d like to suggest a practice my spiritual director insisted I adopt as a seminarian and a priest: the Holy Hour.

My spiritual director told me he wanted me to spend an hour each day in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. I guess you could call it “Pray 60.” I was free to pray in any way I wanted during that time. I might spend it doing Lectio Divina reflecting on a passage from Scripture, praying the Rosary, or simply just being there in the presence of the Lord without necessarily saying a word just sitting with Christ. Most often it was a combination of all these and more.

What do you think of making a Holy Hour? Now I’m not suggesting you necessarily do it everyday (although some of you might be able to or do so already.) Not many of you live a vocation that allows for an hour of prayer every day. Many of you have families and careers that require so much of your time. So a daily Holy Hour may not be realistic for your spiritual diet. However, one Holy Hour a week might be exactly what you need. Or maybe one every two weeks. Or one a month.

The Holy Hour was an integral part of Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s spiritual diet. He said that the only time Jesus ever asked the disciples for something was the night of his agony in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus asked Peter, James and John: “Could you not watch one hour with me?” Jesus asks not for an hour of activity, but an hour of companionship.

One time, during an exhausting day, Fulton Sheen fell asleep as soon as his Holy Hour began and woke up exactly at the end of one hour. He looked up to the Lord and asked, “Have I made my Holy Hour?” And he said he thought he heard God’s angel say, “Well, that’s the way the Apostles made their first Holy Hour in the Garden, but don’t do it again.”

The Holy Hour is of superb value, Sheen says, because it takes some time to catch fire in prayer. Ever kneel or sit down to pray and you spend about five or ten minutes there and nothing seems to happen? Perhaps that’s because we need time to shake distractions and collect one’s self.

How should you make your Holy Hour? What should you do during that time? Well, the possibilities are limitless and what you do is ultimately up to you and the Holy Spirit. Maybe you’ll want to spend 20 minutes of it reflecting on the Gospel for the upcoming Sunday? Wouldn’t that enrich your Sunday worship? Maybe you’ll want to spend 20 minutes of it praying the Rosary. Maybe you’ll want to spend 20 minutes of it just resting in silence in the presence of Jesus not worrying about saying anything. Just be there with Christ.

Come. Spend a Holy Hour this week in the Blessed Sacrament chapel. It’s open until 9PM. Come ‘Pray 60.”

Jesus the True Authority

2012-01-29T14:26:00.000-08:00

Homily from the 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year B

This year, we’ll hear from the Gospel of Mark for much of Ordinary Time. And thus far, we’ve heard a kind of introduction or set-up to Jesus’ public ministry. Over the last few weeks, we heard about the ministry of John the Baptist who prepares the way for Jesus. The baptism of Jesus, in which he is announced as the Son and Lamb of God. We hear the theme of Jesus’ preaching, the coming of the Kingdom of God. And we see him call his disciples who would eventually carry on his work.

Today, we hear the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. And it’s interesting to note that at this beginning, when people hear Jesus speak and see him act, they immediately notice something is very different about this Jesus than anyone else they’ve heard or seen before.

Today’s Gospel can be divided into two halves: Jesus speaking and Jesus acting and he does both with authority. In the first half of the Gospel, Jesus speaks. He enters the synagogue and teaches. And the people are astonished because he teaches not as one of the scribes, but as one with authority.

Scribes would teach by quoting well-known Rabbis. They would pass on the words of another. But Jesus does not pass on the words of another. He teaches with his own words With authority in the literal sense of the word. As he is the author of the teaching. We hear Jesus do this also in his Sermon on the Mount when he first quotes the Law of Moses and then rewrites it himself. “You have heard… you shall not kill… but I say to you, [you shall not even be] angry with [your] brother.” (Mt 5:21-22)

In the second half of the Gospel, Jesus acts. A man with an unclean spirit enters the synagogue. Jesus casts the demon out of the man. And the people react to this action the same way they reacted to Jesus’ teaching: with amazement. Because, they say, Jesus casts out the demon with authority.

Jesus does not call upon the power of another God to cast out this demon. He uses his own power. He is able to act with authority in the literal sense of the word. Because, again, he is the author of everything that is going on. Just as Jesus was the author of his own teaching, so too he is the author of the life of this demon he casts out. For God is the Creator of all things, visible and invisible. Everything on earth and in heaven, including the angels and even the fallen angels demons. So, since he is the author of this demon’s life, when Jesus says “Git!” the demon gits!

This is good authority. Very good authority. Because it is authentic authority. Authority used according to it’s author.

Authority is not a word or concept that is always met with joy. Sometimes you’ll hear it said of someone, “They have a real problem with authority.” Monsignor says that of me on occasion! Perhaps that’s because authority is often abused.

Take for example, the Department of Health and Human Services order that all employers and health care insurers, including Catholic employers and insurers, must soon offer contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, in violation of our religious beliefs and religious freedom. I’ve got a real problem with that abuse of authority.

Authority, used rightly, is one of the greatest gifts at our disposal. Because all authority, exercised properly, derives from the authority of God. Any law enacted in this country, or any other for that matter, is only just if it is derived from the Eternal Law of God.

Our own Declaration of Independence, the very first words uttered by our infant nation, speak of the Eternal Law of God. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…” Our Founding Fathers recognized that God Himself has gifted “certain unalienable Rights” to his creatures; that God Himself is the author of these Rights and therefore, is the ultimate authority.

As Catholics, we recognize this authority not in a teaching, or a philosophy, or even a Constitution. Rather, this authority is a person: Jesus Christ. When Jesus and his disciples were in Caesarea Phillipi, he asked them, “Who do the people say that I am?” (Mt 16:13) Notice he didn’t say “What are the people saying about my teachings?” Or, what are the people saying about my miracles?” He said, “Who do the people say that I am?” He is the author of all that exists. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is the true authority.

And he continues to exercise his authority today, guiding each of us in our pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. Doing so through the Church which he established. After Jesus asked the disciples who the people said he was, he then asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter confessed Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God. Peter recognized Jesus as the true authority and thus worthy to possess this same authority. Jesus said to Peter, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church… I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Before leaving this earth and ascending to his Father in Heaven, Jesus asked the disciples to exercise not their own authority, but his: “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [Teach all nations] to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Mt 28:18-19) Then “he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and who sins you retain are retained.”

The first and final authority over our lives is the one who speaks and acts with authority. The one who talks the talk and walks the walk: Jesus Christ. He will never lead us astray or demand more of us than we can handle. For he is a good and loving author.

March for Life and Religious Liberty

2012-01-22T09:50:00.000-08:00

Homily from the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year B

I have some very good news to share with you today as well as some very bad news.

First, the good news.

Today, a number of our teens did not attend Mass at St. Vincent’s. Ordinarily this would not be good news. But today it is. Because today, instead of attending Mass at St. Vincent’s, a number of teens from our parish and the diocese are attending Mass in Washington D.C. with Bishop Rhoades as they prepare to take part in the annual March for Life tomorrow.

Tomorrow marks the 39th anniversary of the infamous Roe Vs. Wade decision by the Supreme Court legalizing abortion in our country. And sadly, since that decision, over 50 million American lives – unborn children in the womb, have been legally killed in our nation.

Today, our nation’s population is approximately 312 million. So do the math: one sixth of our nation’s population has been eradicated by abortion.

I’m so very proud of our young people, and Sarah Hill, our Life Teen youth minister, who will be sleeping on the floors of church gymnasiums throughout the Washington D.C. metro area. I dearly wish I could be with them. I’ve been on 4 marches. However, as Monsignor is visiting our sister parish in Honduras, I must be here.

The March for Life is truly one of the greatest displays of witness for the dignity of human life in our country. Our teens will join over 400,000 people from across our nation on the march tomorrow.

And all of us must realize our Christian responsibility to defend with concrete action, and not mere sentiment, all human life from conception until natural death as well as our responsibility to reach out in love to mother’s and father’s who suffer the wound of an abortion; to let them know we have a merciful and loving God who offers forgiveness and healing.

So, the courageous and enthusiastic witness of our teens is very good news indeed.

However, as I mentioned I must also convey some very bad news.

Two days ago, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it is ordering nearly every employer and insurer in the country to provide in its health care plans sterilization, contraception and even drugs which induce abortions.

Furthermore, and this is most egregious point of all, the administration announced that it would not expand an exemption to religious employers who object to this move on the grounds of conscience.

Meaning that the federal government may be forcing many religious employers including Catholic hospitals, universities and other institutions to offer such things as sterilization, contraception, and abortion inducing drugs free of charge against their will, conscience and beliefs.

Now a religious exemption is offered. However, it is so narrow, to call it an exemption is laughable. The federal government says that in order to qualify for a religious exemption, a religious employer must employ and serve primarily members of their own faith and must exist for the purpose of teaching religious values.

Of course, you can see how this so-called exemption is laughable.

A Catholic hospital for example does not, by mission, employ and serve primarily members of only their own faith. A Catholic hospital serves all people regardless of faith. Likewise, Catholic universities and other agencies provide education, health care and other services to people of all religions.

But nevertheless, the administration has stated that faith-based entities like hospitals and universities will have until August 1, 2013 to provide free birth control, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs as part of their health care plans.

Click here to see Cardinal-elect Dolan's video response.

The bishops of our nation, led by Cardinal-elect Timothy Dolan of New York have vowed to fight this unconscionable decision by our administration and I hope and pray you will too.

Last September, Fr. John Jenkins, President of the University of Notre Dame, wrote Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services objecting to this mandated government interference.

He pointed out, correctly, that the federal government is placing the University of Notre Dame and similar Catholic institutions in the “impossible position” of having to violate our Catholic beliefs, no matter what we do.

He stated that this mandate, “would compel Notre Dame to either pay for contraception and sterilization in violation of the church’s moral teaching, or to discontinue our employee and student health care plan’s in violation of the church’s social teaching.”

This is a clear attack on the First Amendment of our Constitution which guarantees religious freedom. With this action, the federal government is saying it can force us to violate our religious beliefs.

So, let's do something so this can turn into good news. Do not just sit back and watch. Do what the Apostles do in today's Gospel: they hear the voice of Christ and they literally drop everything they are doing and follow him. Do something today to speak out against this gross attack on your religious beliefs and freedom guaranteed by the United States Constitution.

Write your Congressman Marlin Stutzman tonight. The contact page of his web site is here.

Write Senator Dick Lugar. The contact page of his web site is here.

Write Senator Dan Coates. The contact page of his web site is here.

Write the Department of Health and Human Services. Their address is 200 Independence Ave, S.W. – Washington D.C. 20201. Their contact page of their web site is here.

Write the President of the United States. He lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W. – Washington D.C. 20500. The contact page of the White House’s web site is here.

And between now and Election Day in November, give very thoughtful and prayerful consideration to voting for a candidate who will honor and respect your religious liberty and who will protect and defend the Constitution of the United States which they have sworn to do.

Click here to read an article about the HHS mandate.

A King Who Lives With His People

2011-12-25T08:40:00.000-08:00

Homily from the Nativity of the Lord - Year A

I asked our young children at the 4PM Mass on Christmas Eve to imagine they were a great king or queen of a powerful nation.

"If you were a king, where would you live?" "A castle!" they responded.

"If you were a king, what would you wear?" "A crown!" one boy shouted. "Robes." another child answered. "Fancy shoes" said another.

"If you were a king, who would be your friends?" "Rich people!" shouted one kid.

"If you were a king, what would you eat?" "Anything I wanted" said one child.

When Jesus was born, there was a king who lived just like that. We heard his name in the beginning of today's Gospel: Augustus Caesar. Augustus Caesar was the king of the Roman Empire and he was the most powerful man in the world. He lived in the best house. He wore the best clothes. His friends were the richest and most powerful men in the world. And he ate whatever he wanted with just a snap of his fingers.

Then I asked the kids the following question: "But was Caesar the true king?" "No!" they shouted. "Who is the true king" I asked. "Jesus!" they responded in enthusiastic unison. (By the way, every young child answers "Jesus" to every religious question: "Who's the Son of God?" "Jesus!" "Who's the mother of God?" "Jesus!")

However, Jesus did not have any of the things we say belong to a king. He didn't live in a palace; he was born in a stable. He didn't wear fancy robes: he wore swaddling clothes, strips of rags. He wasn't surrounded by the rich and powerful; he was surrounded by poor shepherds.

"So," I asked the children, "If Jesus is the true king, why was he born in such a poor way? And one child answered, "Because he's humble."

Perfect answer.

Jesus was born in humble means so that we might know that we have a king who does not merely rule over us. We have a king who loves us and wants us to know that no matter who we are or what conditions we're born in, we have a God who loves us, who cares about us, and who wants to live with us.

A long time ago, there was a king in Europe who use to put on a disguise, sneak out of the palace at night, and walked around with the poor people of his kingdom without their knowing it. His servants warned him not to do this because it was unsafe for him, he wouldn't be protected by the palace walls. The king responded, "I cannot rule my people unless I know how they live."

That's the kind of king we have in Christ Jesus.

Jesus "humiliates" himself for our sake. And I don't mean "humiliate" in the negative sense of the word as in "to put down," but in the true sense of the word, as in "to come down to earth." That's where we get the words "humiliate" and "humble" from. They both come from the same Latin root "humus" which means earth or dirt. If you've ever eaten pitas and humus, you know that humus kind of looks like a sandy, wet mud.

God humiliates Himself, comes down to earth, as a small child so that we might know that we have a king who knows everything we're going through. Like the good king mentioned above, He, who is God; He who is fully divine, put on the "disguise" of humanity, if you will. And, while never losing any of his divinity, lowered himself to share fully in our humanity. Jesus didn't stay locked up in a palace. He left his palace, the Kingdom of Heaven, so that he could live here on earth among us. The only thing he ever owned was the simple robe he wore. He befriended sinners so they could become Saints.

And he didn't eat fancy food. Instead, he came to feed us; by giving us his Body and Blood in the Eucharist. That's why Jesus was born in a manger, a feeding trough for animals, so that he could become food for us so that we might have eternal life.

That's the kind of king we have. A king who loves us so much, he chooses to live among us, his subjects. "Emmanuel" - "God with us."

Home! The Lord is With You!

2011-12-18T19:00:00.000-08:00

Homily from the 4th Sunday of Advent - Year B

During the first three weeks of Advent, we have heard very definitive themes in our readings. The theme of the First Sunday of Advent was “watch.” Jesus said three times in the Gospel to “watch” for we do not know the hour when the Son of Man will come. In week two, our theme was “prepare” as John the Baptist called us to “prepare the way of the Lord” through repentance. Last week, on Gaudete Sunday, the theme was “rejoice” for the coming of the Lord grows near. This week, the prominent theme in our readings is “home.”

You could say that this week’s readings talk about God building a home for Himself. In the first reading, David, the great King of Israel laments that fact that God is basically living in a tent. God’s presence at that time was represented by the ark of the covenant which held the tablets of the Ten Commandments. The ark was kept in a tent while King David lived in a luxurious house of cedar. So David has it in mind to build the Lord God a more worthy dwelling place.

However, God has other plans. God tells David’s servant Nathan to ask David, “Should you build me a house to dwell in?” And then God goes on to present a litany of everything He has done for David and the people of Israel, pointing out that it was by God’s power, not David’s that these things were done: “It was I who took you from the pasture... I have been with you wherever you went… I have destroyed all your enemies before you… I will make you famous… I will fix a place for my people Israel… I will give you rest from all your enemies… I will raise up your heir after you… and I will make his kingdom firm.”

Basically, God is telling David, “All this has happened to you because of Me. You can’t build Me a house to dwell in, only I can.”

Now, jump ahead 1,000 years, to today’s Gospel and we hear the story of God building the house for Him to dwell in. The angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will conceive and bear the Son of God. Then, Mary, asks an interesting question: “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” In a sense, Mary is asking, “How can I bear this child? How can I provide a place for him to be conceived and to grow? How can I build a house for him to dwell in? I’m a virgin!”

And the angel’s response to Mary is just like God’s response to David. “Should you build me a house to dwell in? No. It’s not by human powers that this house will be built. It’s not by human conception that this house will be built. I will build the house.” The angel says to Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you… nothing will be impossible for God.”

So in Mary, we see the House of God. Built and prepared by God, she is the first place the Son of God calls home. In her person, she and Jesus dwell together. She is the first Church, the first House of God.

That’s what the Church is. It's where God dwells. It’s where God dwells with His people.

And if you are here today, perhaps after an absence of some time; if you’re here because you’ve accepted the invitation of a friend, or perhaps you’ve seen the “Catholics Come Home” commercials on TV, I want to say, “Welcome Home!” On behalf of Monsignor John, Father Polycarp, and our entire parish family, welcome back to your home, the Catholic Church. Our parish family is incomplete without out you. We want you here. We need you here. And we are overjoyed that you are here.

This is your truest home on earth for in this place where the Son of God dwells. Jesus literally lives here. He is present in the Eucharist, the Blessed Sacrament of Holy Communion, which is reserved in the tabernacle in our Blessed Sacrament chapel and there he dwells 24/7. Just as he tabernacled himself in Mary. And just as he tabernacles himself in you through the Eucharist. Think about that. Whenever you receive Jesus in the Eucharist, He finds a dwelling place, a home, in you.

Now, maybe you’re saying to yourself, “I’m not worthy to receive him.” Well, none of us are, that’s why we say each time before we receive the Eucharist, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” You’re not worthy, I’m not worthy, none of us are worthy. But Jesus chooses to enter under our roofs, to dwell within us.

But don’t fall into the trap of thinking that we make ourselves worthy. Just like King David and Mary, we are powerless to build in ourselves a worthy dwelling place for Jesus to dwell. Only God can build the house.

So maybe there’s some cleaning up to do under our roofs. Let God do the cleaning. Come to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Come to our parish Advent Penance Service Monday night at 7. Let Jesus say those words through the priest: “I absolve you from your sins.” Let Jesus only say the word, and your soul shall be healed.

Then, just as Nathan said to David and as the angel Gabriel said to Mary, “The Lord is with you.” Then, the Lord will find a place to dwell within you. He will find a home in you and you will find a home in Him.

Rejoice! In All Circumstance Give Thanks!

2011-12-11T08:12:00.000-08:00

Homily from the 3rd Sunday of Advent ("Gaudete Sunday") - Year B

Today, the Church celebrates “Gaudete” Sunday, which means “Rejoice” in Latin. Called so, because “gaudete” is the first word in the introit, the entrance chant, to this Mass. “Gaudete in Domino semper.” “Rejoice in the Lord always.”

When the season of Advent was first celebrated in the Church, it was seen as a kind of “little Lent” marked by acts of penance, prayer and fasting. And in both seasons, Advent and Lent, one of the Sundays is set apart to lighten the mood a bit and encourage us in our prayerful preparation for Christmas and Easter.

The fourth Sunday of Lent is called “Laetare” Sunday. The third Sunday of Advent is called “Gaudete” Sunday and one of the subtle ways we rejoice and lighten the mood a bit is by wearing rose colored vestments and lighting the rose colored candle.

And for many, this time of year is one for lightening the mood a bit and rejoicing. There’s a dusting of beautiful white snow on the ground – and it’s always beautiful when it remains just a dusting isn’t it? We gather in each other’s homes for Advent and Christmas parties. Cookies and candies start showing up in our homes and workplace. We hear the beautiful sound of Nat King Cole singing “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire,” Johnny Mathis’ “Sleigh Ride,” and of course, Bing Crosby singing “White Christmas.” And the cards and letters fill our mailboxes.

So, I thought I’d lighten the mood a bit by sharing something with you that made me rejoice this past week. The 2nd graders wrote me letters.

Grace wrote: “Dear Father Andrew, Did you watch the Notre Dame game on November 26 on Saturday? I did. It was pretty good. I thought of you when we were watching it. They lost! I bet you were mad.”

Jacob wrote: “Dear Father Andrew, Hi. I have a question for you. What is it like being a priest in Church? This year I am going to have First Communion and Reconciliation. That is going to be fun. Do you like Notre Dame? I do too. I want to be a priest. Bye.”

Lucas wrote: “Dear Father Andrew, How is Mass going? Do you like being a priest? Is your day going good? Every Sunday or Saturday I see my friends at Mass! I pray every day. Praying is good, even if you don’t want to. Maybe I can pray more.”

And finally, Will wrote: “Dear Father Andrew, How do you remember all those words in Mass? We are making two sacraments this year. It’s a big year. Don’t eat the yellow snow.”

It’s the little things right? The little things that make us rejoice. It's letters from our kids. The coloring pages they give us that we display proudly on the refrigerator. Our friends that bring us joy simply by their presence. Because the littlest things make the biggest difference.

Like a tiny baby, born in an animal’s stable, sleeping in an animal’s food trough, who would grow up to do nothing less than save the world.

This little thing, this child is the source of all our rejoicing. As Isaiah says in today’s first reading: “I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul.” As Mary says in today’s psalm: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” And as St. Paul says in today’s second reading: “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstance give thanks.”

So I want you to do something before you go to bed tonight: follow St. Paul’s advice: “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances give thanks.” Before you go to bed, mentally walk through your entire day, and rejoice, give thanks to God for everything He has given you today, big or small.

Thanks for the warm bed you woke up from.

Thanks for the alarm clock that kept you from sleeping too late.

Thanks for the hot water in your shower.

Thanks for soap, shampoo, toothpaste and deodorant.

Thanks for everyone else’s soap, shampoo, toothpaste and deodorant!

Thanks for a family that brought you joy or tested your patience and in either instance gave you the opportunity to grow in holiness.

Thanks for hot meals.

Thanks for warm clothing.

Thanks for Nat, Johnny and Bing.

Thanks for a vehicle that brought you to Mass this morning.

Thanks for the gift of God’s Son, Jesus, who gave Himself completely to you in the Eucharist so that you might have nothing less than eternal life.

Thanks for letters from your 2nd grader.

Thanks for friends.

Thanks for laughter.

And if it’s the case, give thanks to Him for being there always and especially when there aren’t things like hot meals, warm clothing, or laughter.

Yes, it’s true, sometimes we have good reason for not feeling like rejoicing. But remember that there’s always a cause for rejoicing: a baby born in a manger.

“In all circumstances give thanks” and rejoice.

Remember How Good You Are - True, Authentic Human Nature

2011-12-08T08:14:00.000-08:00

Homily from the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

You've all heard the phrase: “Boys will be boys." It's often used when boys are misbehaving. Similar phrases are: “They’re only human.” “It’s just human nature.” Which are often used when describing human failings.

Both of these statements imply a human nature that is often viewed as inherently flawed or failed. However, truth to be told, our true, authentic human nature is not flawed or failed. True, authentic human nature is good.

To understand true, authentic human nature, we have to go back to the beginning to see human nature as God originally created it.

In today’s first reading, we hear about a flawed and failed human nature. After the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree, the Lord God called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?”

The very question itself, “Where are you?”, suggests that mankind is lost. Adam has no direction. He is disoriented; because he is no longer oriented towards God.

Adam answers: “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid because I was naked so I hid myself.” Listen to how Adam describes himself: “I was afraid,” “I was naked,” “I hid myself.” Language riddled with shame and guilt.

God points out, “You have eaten, then, from the tree.” And Adam immediately responds, “The woman whom you put here with me, she gave me the fruit from the tree.” Shame turns into blame. "Boys will be boys" right?

So God asks Eve, “Why did you do such a thing?” Eve follows the example of her husband, “The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.” “The devil made me do it!” “They’re only human” right? “Just human nature” right?

No. This isn’t true, authentic human nature. To find it, we have to go back even further.

Listen to the first words of today’s reading, “After the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree” things went terribly wrong. Which means before the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree, things were very good. Before the fall, Genesis says, “The man and the wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame.” They live in harmony with one another. They live in friendship with God. They are free from sin; or, another way of putting it: they are full of grace, immaculately conceived.

Sound like someone you know?

This is Mary. Living in harmony with mankind. Living in friendship with God. Free from sin; or, as the angel Gabriel puts it: full of grace, immaculately conceived.

Mary reveals to us God’s original design for true, authentic human nature.

Here’s the point: who we really are, who God created us to be more closely resembles the immaculately conceived Virgin Mary than it does fallen Adam and Eve.

“Boys will be boys” or “They’re only human”, and the negative aspects those phrases imply, present a false view of human nature.

Here’s the further and ultimate point: we are good. You are good! That’s how God created you.

When God created everything, Genesis says that He saw how good it was. He creates the water and the sky. God saw how good it was. God creates the plants and vegetation. God saw how good it was. God creates the sun, the moon and the stars; the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the animals on land. God saw how good it was.

But then God creates mankind, male and female. You know what He saw. Not just how good it was. But how very good it was. In Genesis we read, “God looked at everything He had made, and he found it very good.”

Everything He had made. That includes you. We are not just good. We are very good.

A friend of mine shared with me something his priest would always tell teenagers at the end of their youth group meetings, and I want to share it with you today: "Remember how good you are."

I will frequently tell people that: "Remember how good you are." And I will get looks sometimes as if I’m crazy. Many times people cannot accept it: that you are good. Because we’ve bought into the false notion of human nature: that we’re fallen and failures. We’ve forgotten who we are.

That’s why we have to remember how good we are. We have to remember how God made us, before the fall. That we’re very good – that’s true, authentic human nature.

Now, do we sin? Of course. We’re even inclined to sin. But at the core of our being, we are good. Because God made us that way and God doesn’t make mistakes.

Listen to St. Paul’s words to the Ephesians from our second reading: “He [God] chose us in Him [Jesus], before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.” You were chosen by God to be holy and without blemish.

Sound like someone you know?

“You were chosen by the Father, you were chosen for the Son.”

Who you really are, more closely resembles the immaculately conceived Virgin Mary than the fallen Adam & Eve. Become who you were meant to be by imitating the live of Mary, the Immaculate Conception. Let the Holy Spirit come upon you. Let the power of the Most High overshadow you. Let the new life of Jesus Christ be conceived in you. Become a handmaid, a servant, of the Lord through obedience to Him as Mary was obedient. In the simple, everyday tasks and challenges of life; follow the will of God always. And let it be done to you according to His word.

Then, you will know lasting happiness and peace even in difficult times.

Then you will discover your true, authentic human nature.

Then, you will remember how good you are.

Prepare! What Sort of Persons Ought We to Be?

2011-12-04T12:14:00.000-08:00

Homily from the 2nd Sunday of Advent - Year B

Last week’s Gospel had a very clear theme of watching for the Lord. This week’s readings also have a very clear theme: one of preparing for the Lord’s coming.

The prophet Isaiah says “In the desert prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!” And then, in today’s Gospel, the prophecy is fulfilled: John the Baptist comes out of the desert preaching repentance for one mightier than he is coming.

Isaiah and John the Baptist are talking about preparing a way for Jesus to enter into our hearts. It’s very simple really. There is no greater joy in life than the life of Christ in us.

Jesus is coming. Not just at Christmas; but at the end of our days. Are we ready to meet him? If he were to walk through that door right now, would we be ready?

St. Peter asks us a very loaded question in today’s second reading: “What sort of persons ought you to be? Waiting for and hastening for the coming of the day of God.”

What should we be doing to make ourselves ready for the coming of the Lord? How should we prepare a way for him to enter our hearts? I would like to suggest to you four ways for you to truly come to know Jesus more intimately.

The first one is easy because you’re already doing it right now. Receive Jesus in the Eucharist. There is no greater way to enter into intimacy with Jesus than by receiving his Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity within our very persons. Receive him as often as you can. Prayerfully consider coming to additional Masses throughout the week. Take a look at the Mass schedule in the bulletin.

Second, come to our parish Advent Penance service Monday, December 19th. Prepare a way for the Lord by allowing Him to lower the mountains of sin and fill in your valleys with grace. Let the Sacrament of Reconciliation make a straight path for Jesus to enter into your heart.

Buy "Catholicism" here.

Third; maybe some of you saw a television series lately on PBS or EWTN called “Catholicism.” It’s hosted by a very powerful preacher Fr. Robert Barron. He explains with clarity the beauty of our Catholic faith. Everything from the Trinity, to Jesus Christ, Mary and the Saints, the Church, the Mass and Sacraments, Prayer, Heaven, Hell and everything in between. And it’s done beautifully; Fr. Robert explains the mysteries of the faith, showing amazing locations such as Bethlehem, Jerusalem, St. Peter’s in Rome, the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, Lourdes, and so on. It’s ten episodes long and guess what? We’re going to give you the opportunity to see all ten. Beginning Monday, January 16th, we’re going to show this series for ten straight Monday nights in the Spiritual Center. The first episode is about who the person of Jesus Christ is and the the second episode focuses on his teachings.

And lastly, come to know Jesus Christ through your daily personal prayer. Every year in the Church, we hear from a particular Gospel writer. Today we began the Gospel of Mark and we’ll be hearing it throughout the year. I want to suggest that you pray the entire Gospel of Mark this year. Pray a small passage from Mark every day. Begin today with today’s Gospel. Spend a few minutes, reading the Gospel slowly and prayerfully. Then think about what God is saying to you in the passage. Then offer Him a prayer in return. It’s that simple. And each day, pray through the next passage until you reach the end.

If you want to know Jesus more, come to know him by praying the Gospels. Especially the Gospel of Mark in which people are continually asking, “Who is this Jesus?” When Jesus calms the storm at sea the disciples ask, “Who is this whom even wind and sea obey?” This Gospel answers the question in the very first verse. “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.” It answers it again right in the middle. When Jesus asks the Apostles who they say he is, Peter responds firmly, “You are the Messiah.” And it answers it a third time at the end, when Jesus breathes his last on the cross, the centurion standing there says, “Truly, this man was the Son of God!”

Everyone I know wants to know Jesus more. It’s the greatest desire of the human heart: union with the divine. That’s why we’re drawn to enter into union here on earth; to get ready for divine union. Come to know Jesus more this Advent through his Word and Sacraments.

Watch! It's here! It's here!

2011-11-27T10:41:00.000-08:00

Homily from the 1st Sunday of Advent - Year B

I went to South Bend to spend Thanksgiving with my dad and my brother and his family. We ate great. I slept a lot. And I watched a lot of TV. In fact, I’m pretty sure I watched more TV on Thursday and Friday than I have in the entire month prior.

And if you watched any TV at all over the Thanksgiving holiday, you saw non-stop commercials for this and that sale. One in particular, was exceptionally ridiculous. It was for Target.

It showed this lady with platinum blonde hair, ruby red lipstick, and a red jogging suit opening her mail. Apparently she opens a flyer saying that the Target Thanksgiving sale has begun. Because she starts hyperventilating, and crying uncontrollably and then she screams, “It’s here!” That’s all it was. Someone got paid a lot of money for coming up with that idea.

As it turns out, this lady was the main character of Target’s commercials over the last several weeks. And the commercials have been about her getting ready for the big sale. I watched a slew of them this afternoon on YouTube. They show her lifting weights, running through the aisles with a shopping cart, making lists and maps of the store.

As I watched each commercial, my celibacy was confirmed more and more.

Today, we’re entering a season in which we get ready for the big day. We enter the season of Advent, a season of preparation, a season of anticipation, and a season of waiting and watching. But not for the Black Friday sale at Target. And not even, I would dare to say for Christmas. Instead, Advent gives us the opportunity to prepare and watch not for the day of Christ’s first coming in Bethlehem, but for his second at the end of time.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says three times: to watch. But Jesus is a grown man when he says this. He’s not talking about his birth. How could he, right? He’s already been born of course. Instead, this passage comes from near the end of the Gospel of Mark, as Jesus is awaiting his death. So, he warns his listeners to be watchful for the day when they will leave this world as well.

It’s ironic actually. Here at the beginning of a new liturgical year, we’re not talking about beginnings. Rather, we’re talking about endings. The end times. Both the end of our time here on earth and the end of time itself.

I think if we all had to admit the truth, we’d have to admit that for the most part, we spend a lot more time thinking about today rather than tomorrow. We think about the things of this world rather than the things of heaven. We think more about the 2-day sale than the second coming.

However, as Christians, we need to be mindful of the fact that we’re only on this earth for a time. That’s why we call ourselves a pilgrim Church. Because we’re not here forever. We’re only on a journey through this earth. In fact, how we begin each and every Mass signifies this pilgrim journey. In the procession, the priest walks through you the people which symbolizes our pilgrim journey through earth on our way to our true home, which is heaven, symbolized by this sanctuary.

Every time we come to Mass, we get to prepare for our heavenly destination. In fact, so much of what we do and say in the Mass, especially with the new translation we begin today, is directed towards preparing us for the next life, our ultimate life.

We begin every Mass with a penitential rite in which we “prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries.”

In our opening prayer, we pray for “the resolve to run forth to meet… Christ with righteous deeds at his coming.”

In the Creed, we say “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.”

In the prayer over the gifts we pray for “the prize of eternal redemption.”

In the preface before the Eucharistic Prayer, we hear about how Jesus will come “again in glory and majesty” and pray that “we who watch for that may inherit the great promise in which we now dare to hope.”

In the Memorial Acclamation we sing to Jesus himself, “When we eat the Bead and drink this Cup, we proclaim your death, O Lord, until you come again.”

In the Eucharistic Prayer we remember Jesus’ Passion, Death, Resurrection, his Ascension into heaven and that “we look forward to his second coming.”

As we pray the Our Father, we pray “thy kingdom come.”

“We await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.”

And right before receiving Jesus in the Eucharist, we are invited to the “supper of the Lamb” which is not only the supper of this Eucharist, but the supper of the Lamb, Jesus, in the heavenly kingdom.

In this Mass and in our life, we live, as one biblical commentator stated, in the shadow of eternity. Think about that for a moment: we live in the shadow of eternity. We’re not there yet, but it’s definitely in our future.

And the good news is, we don’t have to live in fearful or hysterical expectation. Instead, we live in day-to-day readiness for the Lord. Grateful to him for the gift of the Sacrament of Reconciliation which cleanses us for his coming and the gift of the Eucharist which gives us strength for the journey.

So, as our closing prayer today will say, may this Mass, “may these mysteries… profit us… even now as we walk amid passing things” as we walk amid the Black Friday sales, may we “love the things of heaven and hold fast to what endures.” So that when the day of our meeting the Lord comes, we can say with joy, "It's here! It's here!"

New Roman Missal Part 4 - Concluding Rites and Dismissal

2011-11-20T09:35:00.000-08:00

Homily from the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King - Year A

"Behold the Lamb of God"

Beginning next week, when the priest shows you the host and the chalice he’ll say, “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.”

The first part of the phrase is the words of St. John the Baptist from the Gospel of John. When John the Baptist first saw Jesus coming toward him he said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

The second part of the phrase is also words recorded by St. John the Evangelist, this time from the Book of Revelation. An angel said to John the Evangelist: “Write this, Blessed are those who are called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” Referring not only to the feast we celebrate in this Eucharist, but also to the heavenly banquet; the wedding feast of the Lamb when we will be gathered as one around Jesus, the Lamb of God.

Jesus is the Lamb of God because like the sacrificial Lamb of Passover which saved the ancient Jews from death, Jesus is the sacrificial Lamb of God who gives his life for us to save us from death and sin.

"Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof."

This is perhaps my favorite change in the new translation. Beginning next week, as you look upon the host and chalice, Jesus, the Lamb of God, you’ll say to him, “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”

This is from the story of the centurion who had a sick servant and came to Jesus asking him to heal his servant. Jesus said, “I will come and cure him.” But the centurion immediately responds, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.” The centurion knew Jesus was a man of power and authority and he trusted that although he was not worthy to receive Jesus into his house, that Jesus’ love would nevertheless heal his servant.

Likewise, when we say these words, we acknowledge the power and authority of Christ and that we are not worthy to have Jesus enter “under our roof” and that we trust him to heal us through the gift of himself in the Eucharist.

New Dismissals

Two will sound somewhat familiar: “Go forth, the Mass is ended” and “Go in peace.”

However, there are two new dismissals which will sound quite new. “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.” And “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.”

These two new dismissals have actually been chosen by Pope Benedict XVI himself. In choosing them, the Holy Father wanted us to see more clearly our responsibility as Christians to evangelize the world.

The dismissal isn’t just bringing the Mass to end. It’s a “sending forth.” That’s what dismissal means: to be sent on mission. In fact, that’s why the Eucharistic celebration is called the “Mass.” It comes from the final words of the Mass in Latin: “Ite Missa est.” Which literally means “It is sent.”

The Mass is a sending of you and I to be witnesses of Jesus Christ to the world by our words: “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord” and our actions: “Go in peace glorifying the Lord by your life.”

New Roman Missal Part 3 - The Liturgy of the Eucharist

2011-11-13T11:00:00.000-08:00

Homily from the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A

"My sacrifice and your sacrifice."

When the priest says “my sacrifice” he’s referring to the sacrifice of Christ being made by the priest who acts in the person of Christ, in persona Christi. The “your” part of the sacrifice refers to the sacrifice of all the people; the sacrifice of your lives: your prayers, works, joys, sufferings, your entire lives are being joined to Christ’s sacrifice on the altar and offered up to the Father. Often a family will bring up the gifts of bread and wine. This is a significant gesture for it represents you offering back to God the gifts of creation and the fruits of your labor.

Also, the fact that the family brings the gifts up in procession through the people signifies the bringing up of the spiritual offerings of all the people. When you watch the family bring up the gifts, think about the joys and sufferings of your life that you wish to place on God’s altar.

"Lord, God of hosts."

For a few weeks now, we’ve been singing the new translation of the Sanctus which now begins, “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Hosts” The new translation is from Scripture. The prophet Isaiah saw a vision of angels worshipping God, “‘Holy holy, holy is the Lord of hosts! they cried out one to the other, ‘All the earth is filled with his glory!’” (Isa 6:3)

Now by “hosts” we don’t mean the little white hosts of Holy Communion. The heavenly hosts are the army of angels. This is the great hymn of the angels as they praise God. St. John wrote of it in Revelation. The angels sing “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.” (Rev 4:8) The angels are worshipping God at this moment and at all times.

You’ll notice that immediately before we sing these words with the Angels and Saints, the priest will say something like this: “And so, with the Angels and all the Saints we declare your glory as with one voice we acclaim.” At this point of the Mass, we are joining the Angels in their praise of God. We are uniting the liturgy here on earth with the liturgy of Heaven.

The Eucharistic Prayer

“Like the dewfall”

You’re familiar with Eucharistic Prayer II. It’s probably the most commonly used of the Eucharistic Prayers and it’s the shortest. It’s an ancient prayer of the liturgy, written by St. Hippolytus around the year 215 AD.

You’ve heard it thousands of times before. It begins, “Lord, you are holy indeed, the fountain of all holiness. Let your Spirit come upon these gifts to make them holy, so that they may become for us the body and blood of our Lord, Jesus Christ.” The new translation will read like this: “You are indeed Holy, O Lord, the fount of all holiness. Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall.”

Dewfall? What’s that all about?

Well, you remember when Moses was leading the Israelites through the desert and they were hungry, so God fed them bread from heaven or, manna? We read in the book of Exodus, “In the morning a dew lay all about the camp, and when the dew evaporated, there on the surface of the desert were fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground… Moses told them, ‘This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.’” Similarly, the Lord is about to give us bread to eat, the Bread of Heaven, the Body of Christ.

"Chalice"

First of all, these are words from Scripture. In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke and St. Paul’s account of the Last Supper in First Corinthians, the original Latin says that Jesus took a “chalice.”

Plus, “cup” is too generic of a term. A cup is any vessel that holds a liquid (i.e.: a coffee cup or a Solo cup.) What we use at Mass however is a very specific type of cup, a chalice, which holds the Blood of Christ.

Virtually every item we use in the Mass has a special name, specific only to the liturgy. For example, this is not a napkin, it’s a purificator. This isn’t a placemat, it’s a corporal. What happens in the Mass is unlike anything that happens on earth, so our language is very special too.

"For you and for many."

This particular translation is the one which has probably drawn the most questions Some people have raised concerns, saying that the new words give the impression that Jesus did not die on the cross for everyone – that he offered his blood on Calvary not “for all” but only for a select group of people (“for many”).

Well, don’t worry. This isn’t what the translation means. Jesus did die for every single one of us. After all, Jesus begins his words saying, “Take this, all of you, and drink from it,” What the new translation means is that while Jesus died for all, not everyone chooses to accept this gift. All of us have a choice to make, to accept the gift of salvation and be among “the many” described. Moreover, these are the words Jesus himself uses at the Last Supper as recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark.

Simply more beautiful language for a beautiful event.

In Eucharistic Prayer III, the priest used to say, “From age to age you gather a people to yourself, so that from east to west a perfect offering may be made to the glory of your name.” Now, the priest will say, “You never cease to gather a people to yourself, so that from the rising of the sun to its setting a pure sacrifice may be offered to your name.”

In Eucharistic Prayer I, the priest used to say, “from the many gifts you have given us, we offer to you, God of glory and majesty this holy and perfect sacrifice” Now, the priest will say, “we, your servants and your holy people offer to your glorious majesty from the gift you have given us, this pure victim, this holy victim, this spotless victim” Certainly a more elevated and worthy manner of speaking about Christ, the pure, holy and spotless victim, offered in sacrifice for our sins. But you’ll probably notice that the language is more poetic, more exalted, and quite frankly, in my opinion, more beautiful.

A few weeks ago, a number of the teens and I gathered together to listen to the new words of the EPs and I asked them what they thought. One of them said, “Father, that’s legit!” They said it gave God greater praise. That it was holier. The teen who said “that’s legit” said the new words sound “more formal.” But then they immediately added, “Maybe we need that.”

Read New Roman Missal Part 4 - Concluding Rites and Dismissal.

New Roman Missal Part 2 - The Liturgy of the Word

2011-11-06T08:29:00.000-08:00

Homily from the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A

The Readings

As far as the readings are concerned, virtually nothing is changing. The only change is before the Gospel, when the priest says “The Lord be with you” your response is “And with your spirit.”

The Creed

"I Believe"

With virtually all the changes in this new translation there’s a short answer and a longer answer. The short answer is that it’s a correct translation of the original Latin. In Latin, the Creed begins with the word “Credo” which literally means “I believe” not “We believe.” Secondly, “I believe” is what the rest of the world has already been saying. We’re just joining them.

Now, the longer answer to the changes deal with the spiritual meaning of the words. I asked our 7th and 8th graders on Friday why they thought “I believe” might be a better translation. Some said, “I can’t speak for someone else, I can only speak for myself.” Others said, “Maybe everyone doesn’t believe what we say in the creed.” Still others said, “It makes me take personal responsibility to say what I believe.” These were all excellent answers and they were correct.

To say “I believe” takes guts, conviction and it requires more responsibility.

Here’s an example of what I mean: if I were to ask all of you to say with one voice “Monsignor, we love you.” You could do it easily. In fact, let’s do that now: “Monsignor, we love you.” However, if I were to ask one of you to stand in the midst of all of us and say “Monsignor, I love you” that requires more strength.

When you hear a group of people say to you, “We love you” sure, that is something special. But when we hear one person say, “I love you” that’s personal, that’s intense, that’s intimate.

When we profess our faith we are professing something very personal, very intense and very intimate.

Another reason is we are the one Body of Christ. And the Body of Christ speaks with one voice. So in this case, to say “I believe” as one person is actually a greater sign of our unity than saying “We believe” as a collection of individuals.

"Visible and Invisible"

Standing here in the sanctuary, you can see me right? Yes, of course. But if I were to go back into the sacristy would you be able to see me? No, of course not. But I wouldn't be invisible would I? No, I would just be unseen to you at the present moment.

However, the new translation of the Creed is saying that God is the maker not just of that which is seen and unseen, but also that which is invisible.

God has created many things that are invisible to our eyes: how many people are in this Church? 1,000? How many angels? 1,000! “Visible and invisible” includes everything that God created.

"Born of the Father"

To say that Jesus is “born of the Father” does not refer to a birth like ours which marks the beginning of our life. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit exist for all eternity without beginning or end.

Rather, to be “born of the Father” means that the Son is sent to us by the Father. Kind of like how sunrays are sent to us by the sun. The sun sends its rays to descend upon us, yet the rays have existed as long as the sun has existed. Likewise, the Father sends His Son to descend upon us. “Born” in this case is a way of saying Jesus is sent on mission by the Father to us.

"Consubstantial"

Yes, this is a dense word. And the explanation might seem a little dense too. However, we don’t want to just dump new words on you without trying to explain their meaning.

We used to say: “one in being with the Father." The Latin word for "one in being with" is "consubstantialem." The Creed comes from the Creeds of the Council of Nicea and Constantinople, two 4th century councils that were called to address heresies about Jesus. At that time, theologians were speculating about the nature of Jesus. Some said he wasn’t God. They said he was only like God.

We know that Jesus is both fully divine and fully human. But we only know this today because the Church clarified such questions and said that God the Father and Jesus the Son were of the same substance. Or as its said in Latin “consubstantialem.” Jesus and God the Father share the same substance or the same nature.

So why isn’t “one in being with the Father” a good enough way to express this? Well, it’s still too vague.

For example, since God has created all that exists and sustains all that exists, everything in some sense can be said to be one in being with God, or like God.

Jesus’ sameness that he shares with the Father isn’t like that. Jesus’ sameness with the Father is that they truly share the same substance or nature. Jesus possesses fully the Godliness of the Father.

Perhaps you’re saying to yourself, “Why are we using words in the liturgy we literally do not use anywhere else? These words seem strange, almost foreign.”

Well, we already use words in the liturgy we don’t use anywhere else. Let me give you an example: “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name.”

Here we use three words: "art," "hallowed," and "thy" that we don’t use anywhere else. But we wouldn’t dream of changing the words of the Our Father. Why? Because those words are special, sacred, and specific to the liturgy because they speak about special, sacred, and specific things.

“Incarnate of the Virgin Mary”

Again, here’s an example of a word that may sound foreign to us but is very specific and significant. We use to say “born of the Virgin Mary” But Jesus wasn’t just born of the Virgin Mary

He existed for all eternity as the Eternal Word of God But at a particular time in history, the Eternal Word took flesh The Gospel of John states, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” That’s the incarnation. Becoming flesh. This word indicates not just another ordinary birth but the enfleshment of God Himself.

Bowing during the Creed

Finally, it’s during these words, “and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man” that we all bow. Why do we bow? When a king would enter a room, his subjects would bow to him. We don’t bow to earthly kings, but to the King of Kings, Jesus Christ. These words are about Jesus’ “entering the room” if you will, his entering the world. Plus, Jesus lowered Himself to take the form of a slave and being nailed to a Cross. We merely bow to Him in response to His having bowed to us when he became man.

Read New Roman Missal Part 3 - The Liturgy of the Eucharist.

New Roman Missal Part I - The Introductory Rites

2011-10-30T11:18:00.000-07:00

Homily from the 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A

Why this change?

Why, beginning on November 27th, the First Sunday of Advent, will we begin using a new translation of the Roman Missal? All the parts of the Mass come out of Scripture or ancient texts that have been part of our Church for hundreds and hundreds of years. Those texts are originally written in Latin. The Church wants to make sure the words we pray in English every week is the best possible translation we can get.

In the late 1980’s, Blessed Pope John Paul II recognized that the English translation of the Roman Missal should be better. As you know, John Paul II spoke several languages and traveled the world. So, the first reason why we’re using a new translation is so we can use a more exact translation of the Latin into English.

Another reason we’re using a new translation is so that we here in the United States and other English speaking countries will be saying the same thing the rest of the world has already been saying in the Mass for over 40 years. With this new translation, we’ll, in a sense, be catching up with what everyone else in the world is already doing.

"And with your spirit."

Let’s look at one of the first things you, the people say at Mass. Today, when the priest says, “The Lord be with you” you respond, “And also with you. However, in the new translation, your response will be “And with your spirit.” Why?

Well, the original text in Latin is “Et cum spiritu tuo” which literally means, “And with your spirit.” For the last 40 years or so, when we’ve said “And also with you” we’ve been saying an interpretation of the Latin instead of the best translation possible.

When I was in the seminary, we would have Mass in Spanish every Wednesday, and this response was “Y con tu Espiritu” which literally means “And with your Spirit.” So, we’re merely joining what the rest of the world is already saying and thereby, will be more unified in our prayer with the rest of the world.

But there’s another reason why this translation is better. Not just because it’s the correct translation, but also because it brings out deep spiritual meaning that’s been lost for the last 40 years. The reason why you’ll say “And with your spirit” is because you are acknowledging the unique activity of the Holy Spirit working through the priest during Mass.

Now, perhaps “And with your spirit” sounds like you’re putting the priest on a pedestal. Actually, it’s quite the contrary. “And with your spirit” is a humbling reminder to Monsignor and I that what we are about to do is not about us, but about the Holy Spirit working through us. We can do nothing on our own. So, unlike “And also with you” which puts the emphasis on Monsignor and I, “And with your spirit” put the emphasis where it belongs: on the Holy Spirit working through us.

"Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault."

The words of the “I confess” also known as the “Confiteor” are changing somewhat. Today, we say, “I have sinned through my own fault.” In the new translation, we’ll say, “I have greatly sinned… through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.” First, it’s a literal translation of the Latin: "mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa."

Perhaps your thinking, “Why such an emphasis on our fault?” Do we have to say it three times? Well, just think about how you already say your sorry when you’ve offended someone. Let’s say I took this book and hit Monsignor over the head with it. Then let’s say I wanted to apologize and let him know I was truly sorry. If I said, “Hey, sorry” and then walked away would you believe me? No, when we’re really sorry for something, we always apologize more than once. We say something like, “Monsignor, I’m so sorry I did that. I don’t know what came over me. Please forgive me.”

Plus, we’re not only going to use new words, but we’re also going to add new gestures. When we say “through my fault” three times, we’ll tap our breast with our fist.

Why? A couple of reasons.

First, it’s an action we find in Scripture. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells the parable of two people who went to the temple to pray. One was arrogant and blind to his sins and said, “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity: greed, dishonest, adulterous.” But the other man who was truly repentant, “beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.”

Second, we’re sacramental people. In the sacraments, we use all our senses in our worship of God: we use sight to look upon beautiful art, we use hearing to listen to the Word of God, we use our sense of smell when we smell incense, we use our sense of taste when we receive the Body and Blood of Christ. We also worship through the gestures we make. We make the Sign of the Cross... we also trace the Cross on our foreheads, our lips and our hearts before we hear the words of the Gospel… we kneel during the Eucharistic Prayer… we bow right before we receive the Eucharist. We associate physical actions and make use of our senses with our words to give our worship fuller meaning.

And lastly, we sin in bodily ways don’t ways don’t we? Ever wave high to someone and use only one finger instead of all five? Well, were showing ourselves and one another that as we sin in a bodily way, we repent in a bodily way too.

The Gloria

We used to sing, “Glory to God in the highest and peace to his people on earth.” Today we sang, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will.”

Those words come from the Gospel of Luke. They’re the hymn the angels sang on Christmas morning when angels announced to shepherds the birth of Jesus: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people on whom his favor rests.”

Why wouldn’t we want to use the most precise translation of Scripture, the inspired Word of God? If we, as Catholics, take this seriously, the new translation can lead us to a new understanding of the Mass and Scripture than we’ve ever had before.

Read New Roman Missal Part 2 - The Liturgy of the Word.

$12.41

2011-10-23T14:23:00.000-07:00

Homily from the 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A

Before entering the seminary, I worked for a radio station. And every year, our radio station hosted a week-long telethon to raise money for child abuse prevention. It was hosted by our morning show djs from the roof of a local supermarket. Up they went Monday morning, and from the roof of this supermarket they broadcast their show from 6AM until 10PM everyday until they finally came down from the roof on Friday evening. They lived and worked up there. They ate their meals up there. They slept in sleeping bags and tents up there. They even had a port-a-potty up there and a hose to take a shower with.

All week long, our morning show would interview people who were brought up to the roof on a cherry picker. They interviewed victims of child abuse who had the courage to share gut-wrenching stories of suffering, and torment as well as stories of healing, recovery and triumph. They also spoke with counselors and case workers.

They also interviewed owners of local businesses would be brought up to the roof on a cherry picker and they’d present giant cardboard checks. Huge amounts of money: $5,000, $10,000, $20,000. Over the course of the week, the radio station would raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for child abuse prevention.

One day, as we were sitting on the roof, we saw the cherry picker rise up over the crest of the roof, and on the cherry picker was Lou, the director of South Bend’s Center for the Homeless. And in his hands he held not a giant cardboard check but a coffee can.

Lou stepped up the mic and said that the guests at the South Bend Center for the Homeless, the homeless themselves, had been listening to the broadcast, they had heard the stories of abuse and how other people were donating money; and they wanted to make a donation too. So they passed the coffee can around the homeless shelter and they gave what they had and Lou said, “The guests at the South Bend Center for the Homeless are pleased to make this donation of $12.41.”

It was the biggest donation of all.

Do you remember the story of Jesus and the disciples sitting outside the temple treasury watching wealthy people make their offerings? Jesus is unphased by their generosity until He sees a widow give two small coins. And He says, “this poor woman put in more than all the rest; for these others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood.”

That’s what the guests of the South Bend Center from the Homeless did. These people, who had no job, no place to call home, no possessions except the clothes on their back, gave what little they had. But the little they had was everything they had. They gave their whole livelihood.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment in the law is “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.” We cannot love God with half a heart, half a soul and half a mind. We must love Him completely, holding nothing back, with a love that knows no limits.

Why? Is God greedy? No. God has no need for our love or praise.

Is it because we owe God complete and total love? We certainly do but I think there’s an even more satisfying answer.

We must love God completely, because we need to. Unless we love God completely, with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind, we will never know true happiness; we will never truly be satisfied.

The guests at the South Bend Center for the Homeless gave all they had because they needed to. They could not stand to stand by while injustice and violence was committed against innocent children. To give any less than they had would have left them unhappy and unsatisfied.

We need to give God all our love, not just our leftover love that’s remaining after we’ve loved our possessions, our houses, our wealth, our trips, our families or ourselves. Indeed, we can only love one another if we love God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind.

We can love God in this way because He loves us in this way. Jesus loves us with all his heart, with all his soul and with all his mind. All we need to do is look to the cross to see this love. Jesus kept nothing for Himself. He gives Himself completely to us.

This is the love that we need to imitate. Loving God in this way is the only love that will satisfy us. Anything less, will leave us frustrated, incomplete and indeed, inhuman. All our time, all our energy, all our wealth, all our possessions, all of us must be given back to God in one way or another.

Now I’m not saying that we have to drop our whole paycheck into the collection basket. But we do have to ask ourselves if we use our time, our money, our hearts, our minds, our souls for God or for less than Him.

So, let us ask ourselves these questions:

Is God my first thought of each day? Do I give Him thanks for the gift of my life and the gift of another day?

Do I give God thanks for the gift of the spouse I wake up next to, and my children; my family and my friends?

Do I thank God for the blessings He has poured out upon my life?

Do I recognize my good fortune as blessings from God?

And when I experience misfortune or tragedy in my life do I blame God? Or do I sincerely ask Him for help and trust Him?

Do I share the good gifts I’ve been given with others and especially with the poor?

Do I put the needs of others first or do I think of them only after I’ve satisfied my own needs?

Do I love God with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my mind? And do I love my neighbor as myself?

Natural Family Planning - A Love That Knows No Limits

2011-10-02T11:15:00.000-07:00

Homily from the 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A (Respect Life Sunday)

One of the great joys I get to share in is helping couples prepare for marriage. If you’re a married couple, think back to how excited you were as you prepared to begin your life together. And even if you’re not married, surely you’ve seen the joy of your family and friends as they get ready for marriage.

Now I won’t be coy and pretend as though the days leading up to marriage are completely free from all anxiety. There’s all the details of the ceremony: invitations, dresses, tuxes, who to stick your weird Uncle Bill with at the reception and so on. And that’s just the small stuff! There’s also stuff like putting together a financial plan, buying a house, whose parents you’ll spend Thanksgiving with, living the life of faith, getting each other to Heaven, and so on.

But on the whole, helping couples prepare for marriage can be a real joy. Especially when they talk about their hopes and dreams. When they talk about how they want to make a life together… how they want to give their lives to one another… and how much they love one another. Conversations about invitations and cake cease as soon as the wedding day is done (or at least as soon as the bills are paid!). But hopefully conversations about your hopes, dreams, expectations and love for one another continue through the years.

Just about every couple mentions the following things they want from their marriage and their spouse: they want good communication. They want complete and total commitment from their spouse. They want healthy and happy children. They are ready and willing to sacrifice for one another. They want to be faithful to one another their entire lives. They don’t want to hold anything back from one another.

In other words, they want a love that knows no limits

Which is great because this is precisely the love Christ has for us: a love that knows no limits. Christ’s love for us is so great, He, who is God, became one like us. He lived and worked like us. He grew up in a family like us. He suffered hardship like us. He also suffered his passion and death on the Cross for us. He gave his entire life for us and held nothing back. His love for us is a love that knows no limits.

Christ tells us to follow His example of love. “As I have loved you,” Jesus says, “so you should love one another.” We are to love one another, and most especially our spouse by giving our entire lives to them and holding nothing back. These are the dreams that were born the day you fell in love with your spouse. This is the type of love you hoped and prayed for as you got ready for marriage. This is the love you pledged yourselves to when you said your wedding vows. And this is the type of love you choose to live everyday of your marriage: a love that knows no limits.

However, as we all well know, multiple forces attack this love that knows no limits. Arguments about money… jealousy… inattentiveness… lack of communication. All these can lead to breakdowns in our marriages. They pile up barriers between husbands and wives. They prevent us from giving ourselves completely and unselfishly to our spouses.

And there’s another force that attacks this love we all yearn for, this love that knows no limits, and that’s contraception. Although we may not realize it or intend it, marriages are under attack by contraception because contraception prevents us from giving our entire lives to our spouse.

Now, I’m not saying that a couple who uses contraception doesn’t love each other. I am absolutely certain that couples who use birth control love each other in so many authentic ways. However, the act of contracepted love itself can never be an act of authentic love. Because, when we use contraception, whether we’re aware of it or not, whether we intend it or not, we say to our spouse with our bodies, “You can have all of me… except for this one part of me: my fertility. I’m keeping that part of me to myself and you can’t have it at the present moment.” And, when we use contraception, we say to God, whether we’re aware of it or not, whether we intend it or not, “I’m sorry God, but I’m not going to let you completely into this union at the present moment.”

Because there aren’t just two in a marriage, there are three: a husband, a wife, and God who unites them and gives them the gift of children.

When couples contracept, they close themselves off from the two things God designed the marital embrace for: a two in one flesh union and children. Or, as I like to say, the two things God made the marital embrace for: bonding and babies.

Now don’t get me wrong, God is not saying that you must conceive a child with every single marital embrace. There are many good reasons why couples need to regulate the number of children they have. The ability to provide financially for a bigger family for instance. Or the health of the mother. God is not saying you have to have as many babies as your bodies can tolerate.

However, He is saying that husbands and wives must cooperate with His design for the marital embrace: husbands and wives must be truly be bonded to one another, holding nothing back and they must be open to the possibility of children.

There is however, a way husbands and wives can regulate how many children they have and when they have them without saying “no” to God’s design for bonding and babies. It’s called Natural Family Planning.

Natural Family Planning, or NFP, is a method by which spouses may achieve or avoid pregnancy by observing naturally occurring signs in the woman’s body. Unlike contraception which invades and sterilizes the body, NFP looks at you the individual person and tells you when you are fertile and ready to conceive and when you’re infertile and unable to conceive.

Now, if you’re thinking that the NFP I’m talking about is the old calendar rhythm method that was developed in the 1930’s, I’m not. The old rhythm method was often inaccurate because it did not take into account the uniqueness of each woman’s fertility cycle. Today, NFP reveals the fertility cycles of every single individual person, even if their cycles are irregular. And NFP today, used correctly, is over 98% successful in spacing or limiting births which is as good, if not better, than any form of contraception.

Now maybe you’re saying to yourself, “If a couple using contraception and a couple using NFP are both trying to avoid pregnancy, what difference does it make if I use contraception?” The answer is, “A huge difference.”

First, contraception is the choice to sterilize the marital embrace. For example, a contracepting couple chooses to engage in the marital embrace, and knowing it may result in a new life, willfully suppresses their fertility.

However, an NFP couple never contracepts. With NFP, you abstain from the marital embrace during the fertile period rather than sterilize and frustrate what it was created for. The difference between sterilizing the marital embrace ourselves or working with our God-given infertile times is very big indeed.

And if you’re thinking you don’t have the will power to abstain from the marital embrace from time to time, you do and I can prove it; you’re all abstaining right now. Besides, NFP is not about constant abstinence. If you’re using NFP, and engage in the marital embrace on all the days of the month when abstinence is not required, you’d be enjoying the marital embrace almost twice as much as the national average. Yes, there are statistics for such things. I’ve looked them up!

Speaking of statistics, we’re all familiar with the fact that 50% of all marriages end in divorce. You know what the divorce rate is for NFP couples? Less than 5%. That’s a category we all want to be in.

Why is NFP so powerful for strengthening marriages? It’s because NFP respects the bodies of spouses. It encourages tenderness between them. It fosters really, really good communication, cooperation and commitment. Yes, it requires some sacrifice. But that’s a good thing. A real good thing. Show me anything good in this world that doesn’t require sacrifice. It doesn’t put up barriers between spouses the way contraception does. Rather, it allows spouses to give themselves completely to one another. Finally, it helps us love our spouse the way Christ loves us: completely and fruitfully with a love that knows no limits.

There are a number of ways you can learn about Natural Family Planning:

Here is the contact information for three area Creighton Model NFP teachers:

Jackie Oberhausen
Trinity FertilityCare Services
Fort Wayne, IN 46835
Features NaProTECHNOLOGY®
Phone: 260-414-1634
e-mail: jackieoberhausencrms@gmail.com

Theresa Schortgen
FertilityCare Specialist of Northeast Indiana
New Haven, IN 46774
Features NaProTECHNOLOGY®
Phone: 260-494-6444 Fax: 240-749-6706
e-mail: chartdaily365@frontier.com

Leah Oberhausen 260-418-9404

More Creighton Model NFP teachers can be found at http://www.fertilitycare.org/.

Dr. Patrick Holly, a St. Vincent's parishoner, is a Creighton Model NFP physician. His contact information is:

Dr. Patrick Holly
6400 Rothman Rd
Fort Wayne, IN 46835
(260) 486-6197

An introductory class on Natural Family Planning will be offered at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish in Fort Wayne on October 29th. St. Elizabeth's phone number is (260) 432-0268.

A complete list of Natural Family Planning classes offered by the Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend may be found here.

Information about Natural Family Planning may also be found on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website.

The USCCB has also put together a great website, foryourmarriage.org, to help married couples and those preparing and discerning marriage strengthen the marriage covenant.

And as your spiritual father and bridegroom I am always available and ready to help. I understand that this is a very misuderstood issue. I want to help you understand it. Call me anytime at our parish office at (260) 489-3537.

If you want to strengthen your marriage with all the benefits NFP has to offer, and if you want to experience a love that knows no limits, please take one of these steps to learn about NFP.

Kenosis: Let Go & Let God

2011-09-25T18:22:00.000-07:00

Homily from the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A

This weekend, twenty-five women from our parish and beyond are on a “Christ Renews His Parish” weekend. This is the 50th women’s “Christ Renews” weekend at St. Vincent’s. A couple of weeks ago, the 50th “Christ Renews” weekend for men was held. It’s a kind of milestone.

Every team selects a theme and has a banner made depicting this theme and those banners are hung throughout the various rooms used during the weekend: in the cafeteria, the Spiritual Center and so on. A couple of past “Christ Renews” teams selected the theme “Let Go and Let God.” It’s a great theme and you could say it’s the theme St. Paul speaks so beautifully about in his letter to the Church in Phillipi – our second reading today.

Today, St. Paul tells us about the attitude of Jesus; the same attitude he wants us all to have. Paul says, that though Jesus “was in the form of God, [He] did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave.” It’s a beautiful description of Jesus’ attitude: “he emptied himself” The Greeks have a word for this we heard all the time in the seminary: “kenosis” – the emptying of one’s self. And the fullness of Jesus’ kenosis is the gift He makes of Himself for us on His Cross.

Although He is fully divine; He let’s go of His divinity. The night before He died, He begged His Father that if it were possible, to let the cup of His passion and death to pass Him by. But then He immediately submitted Himself to the Father’s will: “Not as I will, but as You will.”

Jesus let’s go: He let’s go of His own will. And Jesus let’s God: He defers to the Father’s will completely. It’s ironic isn’t it? Jesus, who is God, is the epitome of letting go of Godliness.

One of my favorite depictions of Christ on the Cross is this one: this was the type Crucifix, Blessed Pope John Paul II carried as his crozier during his pontificate. One of the unique and beautiful features of this Cross is Jesus’ hands. You see, in this Cross, Jesus’ hands are not only pierced by the nails. Jesus actually grabs the nails, he embraces them, he grasps them.

The Original Sin of Adam and Eve was that they regarded equality with God something to be grasped. They weren’t satisfied with gratefully accepting all that God had to offer. Instead, they grasped for themselves the gift of God when they grasped the fruit from the tree; like children who won’t let you simply hand them a cookie. Even though you are going to give it to them, as soon as they see it, they lose sight of the fact that you are offering it to them and they reach for it saying “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!”

Unlike Adam however, Jesus, the New Adam, grasps not the fruit from the wood of the tree. Rather, he grasps the nails from the wood of the tree. He grasps, and firmly holds onto, our salvation until His dying breath.

This is the attitude of Jesus Christ. This is the attitude St. Paul urges us to adopt for ourselves. “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out for his own interests, but also for those of others.

If we insist on continuing to grasp our own selfish interests, we will be unable to grasp God and our loved ones. If we fail to undergo our own kenosis; if we fail to empty ourselves, we will have no room for God, for our spouse, for our family and friends. We need to let go, and let God.

I’d like to close by sharing with you the words of another preacher, Dr. James Allen Francis – a Baptist preacher who, in 1926, spoke immortal words about Jesus Christ. The following is an adaptation of his sermon. And as you listen to his words, I invite you to look upon Him. Look at Jesus on this magnificent Cross in our sanctuary and listen to these words:

“Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked as a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.

He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put his foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself…

While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trail. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.

I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.”

My friends, Christians throughout the world, regard Jesus Christ the way they do not because He elevated Himself, but rather because He allowed Himself to be elevated on the cross.

We love Him not because He climbed the corporate ladder or the political world or a popularity contest, but rather because He climbed the mountain of Calvary.

We worship Him as our God not because He grasped Godliness, but rather because He grasped God-forsakenness by grasping the nails which pierced His hands.

We give our lives to Him because in Him, and in Him alone, we find a place to live for all eternity.

We find it in Him, in His Sacred Heart because He emptied His Heart to give us a place to live.

We love Him because He let go and let God.

The New Roman Missal

2011-09-23T14:00:00.000-07:00

On November 27th 2011, the First Sunday of Advent, we at St. Vincent's and, in fact, all Roman Catholic parishes throughout the United States will begin to use a new translation of the Roman Missal.

The Roman Missal contains all the ritual text for the celebration of the Mass. So, since we'll be using a new translation, that means that a number of the words both you and the priests have been saying in Mass will change.

You might ask, "Why this change?" and "What are the changes?" Last week, the 7th and 8th graders at St. Vincent's and I watched the following video about the new translation. It does a great job of explaining why the changes are coming. The students enjoyed the video and they seem to be looking forward to the changes. I invite you to watch the video as well.

If you would like to see the forthcoming changes, you can read the entire text of the new translation of the Mass here. Additionally, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has an entire website of information, including Frequently Asked Questions and more.

Here at St. Vincent's, Monsignor John and I will give a series of catechetical homilies on the new translation at all weekend Masses beginning late October. These homilies will focus not only on the new translation but also give us the opportunity to examine the Mass anew! The 7th and 8th graders will be studying the Mass on "Father Fridays" throughout the semester. And I'll be giving what's called a "Dry Mass" at Catholicism Revealed in November. "Dry Masses" were "practice Masses" we'd say in the seminary as we were getting ready for ordination. They're not actual Masses but rather "practices." During this Catholicism Revealed "Dry Mass" we will literally walk through the Mass, step by step, teaching as we go; not only the new words, but also the "what" and "why" of everything we do at Mass from what the priest wears when he says Mass to the meaning of the final dismissal.

The Mass is the most important prayer of the Catholic Church. What a great opportunity to dive more deeply into the richness of this most sacred of our faith and our lives!

Why Bargain With God When He Will Give You More Than You Ask For?

2011-09-18T18:20:00.000-07:00

Homily from the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A

Every true, red-blooded American knows that one of the greatest movie genres is baseball movies. I love baseball movies. I think because many of them are not really about baseball. They’re about humanity and use baseball merely as the backdrop.

One of my favorite baseball movies is “Field of Dreams.” A handful of us in Life Teen got together this past summer and watched it. It’s a real touching movie and I’m a huge sap. So it gets to this one part when Kevin Costner’s character, Ray, asks his dad a question. And it’s this awesome moment between a father and son. Ray asks his dad, “Dad, you wanna have a catch?” And Ray’s voice cracks. And the waterworks start to flow. And I’m sitting there in a chair and all the teens are there. And I’ve got my hand leaned up against my head so they don’t see me weeping like a six-year old girl with a skinned knee.

If you haven’t seen “Field of Dreams” go rent it tonight and watch it. You shouldn’t be allowed to vote in the next election without seeing it.

Ray is a farmer and one day he hears a magical voice say, “Build it and he will come.” Well, Ray is a huge baseball fan, so he concludes that if he rips up half of his corn crop and builds a baseball field there, that the long dead Chicago White Sox outfielder, Shoeless Joe Jackson, who was banned from baseball for throwing the World Series, will get to come back to life and play the game again.

So he builds the field and Shoeless Joe Jackson comes and plays baseball. And Shoeless Joe brings other long gone players with him. And at the close of each day, when the baseball game is over, the players leave the field by walking into the corn beyond the outfield, where they disappear into some mysterious world beyond our own which we do not see.

Then the voice tells Ray to do more crazy things like drive halfway across the country to bring his favorite childhood author to the park. And he does so. He is blindly obedient to the voice and does whatever it says.

Then, one day, as Shoeless Joe Jackson and other long gone baseball players are getting ready to leave and disappear into the world beyond the corn, Shoeless Joe asks the question, “Hey, do you want to come with us?” Except Joe isn’t asking Ray. He’s asking Ray’s favorite author instead who had only arrived a few days ago.

Ray is outraged and blurts out, “Him? Wait a second, why Him? I have done everything I have been asked to do and not once have I asked what’s in it for me?” Shoeless Joe asks Ray, “What are you saying Ray?” Ray responds, “I’m saying, what’s in it for me?” And Joe asks Ray, “Is that why you did this? For you?”

Today, Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a landowner who goes out to hire laborers to work in his vineyard. And as it turns out, everyone gets the same pay, regardless if they started at the beginning of the workday or at the end. And those who worked all day long are outraged that they are being paid the same amount as those who show up at day’s end. It doesn’t seem fair. Why are the latecomers being paid the same and furthermore why are the latecomers being paid first?

Well, consider what the various laborers agreed to and what they were promised by the landowner: to the laborers hired at dawn, the landowner promises, “the usual daily wage.” They will be paid the amount due for a full day of work. And they agree and go work.

To the laborers hired in the middle of the day, the landowner promises to pay them “what is just.” So, they anticipate a half-day’s wage for a half-day’s work. And they agree and go work.

Finally, to the laborers hired near day’s end, the landowner promises nothing. He simply tells them to go to the vineyard. No payment terms have been negotiated. These laborers are merely given the opportunity to work in the vineyard with no promise of a payback. And with great trust and no concern for “what’s in it for them” they agree and go to work.

So, it’s the latecomers who are the most selfless and trusting and thus, they are paid first. And they are paid the full amount not based on the work they have done. But rather because they accepted the Master’s invitation – His will.

Have you ever prayed like this: “God, if you will just do “x” for me, I promise that I will do “y.” I distinctly remember at least one occasion in which I prayed that way. It was at a baseball game: game six of the National League Championship Series between the Cubs and the Marlins. And I said, “God, if you will just let the Cubs go to the World Series, I promise I will become a priest.”

Then, on the very next play, a fan interfered with a routine pop fly that would have been an easy out to help the Cubs retire the side. Instead the inning was prolonged for the Marlins and they took the lead, won the game and went to the World Series instead of the Cubs.

We can’t get what we want by making a bargain with God. Instead, if we place our trust in God, He will give us so much more than we could ever bargain for. He will give you His Kingdom. He will give you His love. And love never counts the cost.

You are loved by God not because of the good things you do. You are loved by God just because.

We cannot earn God’s love. We cannot earn God’s love just because; just because He already loves us and always will and He’ll never stop loving us.

Now obviously, we can reject His love. He has given each of us a free will. And we can choose to accept His invitation to work in the vineyard or not. And we agree or disagree to work in His vineyard, to enter or not enter into His Kingdom by the choices we make.

But He always keeps the door open. And it doesn’t matter when we enter, be it at the beginning of the day or at the end; at our baptism or on our deathbed, so long as we accept His invitation.

And we don’t need to worry about “What’s in it for me?” Because we have a Father who knows our needs more than we do and offers all of us more than we could ever ask for.

Forgiveness

2011-09-11T18:30:00.000-07:00

Homily from the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A

Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty

Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty was an Irish priest who worked at the Vatican during the Second World War. He made it his mission to hide thousands of refugees in the Vatican and throughout the city of Rome during the Nazi occupation of Italy. The local Gestapo chief, Colonel Herbert Kappler, painted a white line on the pavement that marked the boundary between the Vatican and Rome and ordered that if Monsignor O’Flaherty ever crossed that line and was captured that he would be tortured and executed. However, the priest frequently snuck out into Rome in disguise to find refugees and help them find safety. Throughout the war, he saved the lives of over 6,500 American soldiers and Jews.

Colonel Herbert Kappler

When the war came to an end, Colonel Kappler was captured and sentenced to life in prison. During this time Colonel Kappler had a frequent visitor: Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty. For many months, the priest was the only visitor the Nazi ever had. Eventually, Colonel Kappler’s heart would be penetrated by the love, mercy and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. And in 1959, Colonel Kappler was baptized and received into the Catholic Church by Monsignor O’Flaherty.

This famous and moving story is depicted in the movie “The Scarlet and the Black.” Gregory Peck plays O’Flaherty and Christopher Plummer plays Kappler.

There was a man watching this movie once who, when he saw how it ended, how Kappler was forgiven and welcomed into the Church, hit the roof. He was a veteran of the Second World War who saw the horrors and atrocities of the Nazi regime. He had decided long ago that under no circumstances would he ever forgive them. They were too evil, they had done too much harm. To forgive them would be wrong because it would not be fair.

He is right. Forgiveness is not fair. Forgiveness is not something that can be earned or merited or deserved. Forgiveness is a gift; a gift given by the one who is offended to the one who offends regardless if they deserve it or not.

God gives you and I the gift of forgiveness. And thank God that He doesn’t give us what we deserve. We offend Him constantly by our sins; so what do we deserve for that? Walking into the confessional with the mentality that we deserve forgiveness is a truly bad idea. We receive forgiveness not because we deserve it. We receive forgiveness because God is merciful and loving and He forgives. It’s a pure gift He gives to you and I.

We struggle however to forgive others as we’ve been forgiven. C.S. Lewis once said that “Everyone says that forgiveness is a lovely idea until they have someone to forgive.” We don’t want to forgive because we’ve been terribly wounded, we’re angry, it doesn’t seem fair, we don’t think we should let the offender off the hook. When we’re in pain, being told we need to forgive can even seem offensive.

However, forgiveness is, in fact, a necessity in the life of a Christian. Not because it’s a lovely idea. But because if we fail to forgive how our hearts have been wounded, we will allow a callous to grow around our heart that will close out peace, goodness and perhaps even God Himself.

We need to forgive for ourselves. There’s an ancient Chinese proverb: “If you’re not willing to forgive, you’d better get ready to dig two graves.” Ironically, in refusing to forgive others, we’re the ones who often wind up hurt.

Perhaps we’re reluctant to forgive because we have a false understanding of what forgiveness is.

Forgiveness is not forgetting. You’ve all heard the phrase “forgive and forget.” It’s not from the Bible. It’s from the novel “Don Quixote.” And it’s nonsense. You can’t forget past wounds. Our brains are not hard drives that can be erased. Forgiveness doesn’t require forgetting, but it does require letting go. It’s about putting the past where it belongs: behind us. It’s about not looking back in bitterness but instead looking forward in faith.

Forgiveness is not being a punching bag. Sometimes people cause great harm. That doesn’t mean they’re not worthy of our forgiveness, it means they’re not worthy of our trust at the moment. If someone commits a crime they can be forgive and go to jail. Do you remember when Blessed Pope John Paul II was shot? And how he visited his would be assassin in jail? The Pope forgave him. Then he left and let him serve his time in jail.

Forgiveness is not kissing and making up. Sometimes people are dangerous or unrepentant. And sometimes we need to forgive from a distance those who need to be kept at a distance.

Forgiveness is possible and it is necessary. And forgiveness is not offered only to those who ask for it. Forgiveness is offered to those who need it. And sometimes we need to forgive even those who are unwilling to ask for it.

This past Friday night, Dateline NBC did a story about the attacks of 9/11. And in one segment they were telling the story about United Airlines 93. That was the flight where the passengers had learned about the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center and decided to fight back. And because of their heroism, United flight 93 crashed into a field in Pennsylvania rather than the White House.

Todd Beamer

Todd Beamer was one of the heroes on that flight. Todd was the one who said “Let’s roll” as they ran to take back control of the airplane. However, before Todd Beamer said “Let’s roll” he prayed with the only person he could get on the phone, a customer service representative from GTE. Together, Todd and the operator, prayed the prayer you and I will pray in a few moments, the “Our Father.” And they prayed the words “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

On Friday night, Todd’s widow Lisa, said that “in some way he was forgiving those people for what they were doing; the most horrible thing you could do to someone.”

He did so not because they deserved it. They didn’t. Forgiveness is never something deserved.

He did so, not because he wanted to be a punching bag or wanted to kiss and make up. He was anything but.

He did so, not because it was fair.

He did so because in the midst the terrorism, in the midst of “those people… doing the most horrible thing you could do to someone,” as he was about to lose his life, Todd Beamer would make Jesus Christ present in that very plane by making Christ’s mercy present. Todd Beamer knew he would be forgiven his trespasses only to the extent he was willing to forgive those who trespassed against him, even his worst enemies.

That is tremendous forgiveness. That is the same forgiveness Christ offered from His Cross. As He was about to lose His life He prayed to His Father to forgive us.

So who do we need to forgive? What do we need to let go of? What do we need to be freed from? And where do we need to make Christ present in the world today?

Watchmen for Israel

2011-09-04T08:39:00.000-07:00

Homily from the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A

Last year I went to the Notre Dame/Michigan football game with a couple friends and we enjoyed the game for the most part. I say “for the most part” not because Notre Dame lost. But because of the bad behavior of the people sitting one row in front of us.

The young people sitting in front of us that day had clearly done their unfair share of tailgating beforehand. To put it bluntly, they were highly intoxicated and their inebriation quickly turned into rudeness and foul language.

The pair were a brother and sister and they were having a “discussion” of some sort, about what exactly I don’t remember. I do remember however, the brother beginning to drop a number of unpleasant curse words. He began to use four-letter words like they were article adjectives.

So, one of my buddies immediately asked him to watch his language. And this fellow immediately got defensive and belligerent. “You want me to watch my language? Why?” he smugly asked. “Because it’s offensive” my friend replied. “Really?” the guy asked. “My language offends you?” And he kept turning around after every single play and asking my friend, “My language offends you?”

He was upset that someone called him out on his bad behavior and got defensive and responded the only way he could which was to be a jerk.

This continued for several plays. Then someone else sitting near us chimed in and told the guy to pipe down and watch his language. The guy retorted with the same witty response: “My language offends you? What’s your problem dude?”

Finally, I had had enough. I was dressed in what priests call “civvies.” That means civilian clothes. I didn’t have my collar on. But I decided to do something I almost never do which is to pull the priest “trump card.” I leaned in to him and said, “Look, I’m a priest and you’re drunk. And that usher down there at the end of the row is going to believe me and not you. So you can either turn around and be quiet and enjoy the rest of the game or we can ask him to remove you from the stadium.”

He just stared at me. And it wasn’t an “Oh no, I’m in trouble stare.” It was more like an “If you weren’t a priest and all these people were around you, I’d punch your lights out” stare.

I just stared back. There was no way I was going to break first. It was kind of like when you get into a staring contest with your dog when you want to show it who’s boss.
Finally, someone broke the tension and told the guy, “Hey, he’s a priest, why don’t you go to confess your sins?” I said, “Yeah sure, I’ll forgive you if you’re sorry.”

He tuned around and watched the game. Then two plays later he turned around to my buddy and said, “My language offends you?” That was the last straw. My buddy got the usher and he was escorted out of the stadium.

We followed the four-step process of admonishing the sinner that Jesus prescribes in our Gospel today.
Step one: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault.” That’s what my buddy did when he first asked him to watch his language.

Step two: “If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that ‘every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.’” That’s what happened when someone else sitting next to him asked him to pipe down.

Step three: “If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church.” That’s what happened when I spoke up and nearly became a martyr.

Step four: “If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or tax collector.” That’s what happened when the usher kicked him out. We treated him as we would a Gentile, or a tax collector, or a Michigan fan.

We have an obligation to correct one another when we fall into sin. It’s one of the Spiritual Works of Mercy; to admonish the sinner.

Sometimes however, we neglect this obligation thinking that we should just mind our own business. But when we see a brother or sister falling into sin, it becomes our business. It’s our business because we are all interconnected members of the one Body of Christ. And when one of us sins, it affects the whole body. There is no such thing as a private sin.

When we see someone sinning, we have to do what we can to pull them away from sin. To say, “Well, that’s their affair. It’s not my problem. It’s not my place to stick my nose in.” is like watching your child go chasing after a ball that rolls into the street as a car is bearing down on them and saying, “Well, that’s their affair. It’s not my problem. It’s not my place to stick my nose in.” No, we go running after that child because we love them and we don’t want to see them get killed. We don’t want that pain in the world.

Likewise, we tried to get this guy to curb his language because, in a sense, we loved him and we didn’t want to watch him continue to harm himself by degrading his human dignity with foul language, not to mention the harm he was inflicting on everyone else sitting around him through scandal.

Some like to correct others because they are nosey busybodies and tattletales. Others like to correct others because they like to exalt themselves and put others down. A disciple of Jesus Christ however, corrects others out of love: love for God, love for God’s children, but most especially, love for the sinner who causes the most harm to himself through his sin.

You might say, “Why bother? They won’t listen.” We bother because God commands us to. God tells the prophet Ezekiel in the first reading, “You… I have appointed watchman for the house of Israel.” It was his job to warn others when they were headed to destruction. If he warned them and they did not listen, Ezekiel still fulfilled his responsibility. But if he did not warn them, God would hold Ezekiel responsibility for their misdeeds. And all of us have the same responsibility because we are all prophets. We were made so at our baptism when we were baptized priests, prophets and kings.

If we don’t intervene, and we say to ourselves, “Well, it’s not my business” then we’re no different than Adam, who when his wife took the fruit from the tree, just stood there and did nothing. Adam’s “do nothing” attitude affected the whole Body of Christ.

Don’t do nothing. Be a watchman for Israel. Be watchmen for one another. You have been appointed so by God.

A Perfect Pilgrimage

2011-09-04T08:10:00.000-07:00

Homily from the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A

Before going to Madrid, Spain for World Youth Day, the pilgrims from our parish and diocese visited Lourdes, France where, in 1858, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared 18 times to a 14 year old girl named Bernadette Soubirous.

Lourdes’ best known landmark is the stone grotto where Mary appeared to Saint Bernadette. Another beautiful landmark however are a set of Stations of the Cross that go up a small mountain. Each of the Stations feature life-size, bronze colored statues which truly give you the impression of being there as Christ carried his Cross.

As we walked in the footsteps of Christ up this small mountain we had the opportunity to follow the Lord's command in today's Gospel to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. This was particularly true for the Franciscan brothers who accompanied us on the World Youth Day pilgrimage as they walked up the rocky path in their bare feet.

So moved by this were our teens that a number of them took of their shoes and socks as well to join in the brothers' suffering.

One of the teens who did so was Emma Gray. This past Wednesday at our Ministry Hour, I asked Emma if she found any joy in her suffering. With a very serious look on her face she emphatically responded, "No!"

The she added, "Well, I don’t mean to sound weird, but it was good to suffer like that, because we were all suffering together."

And I said, "That's it! You get it! You understand the meaning of suffering. It's not weird at all. It's beautiful. Suffering is never meaningless when we suffer with one another. And we never suffer alone. Jesus always shares in our suffering."

I once heard a priest at Notre Dame give a homily in which he said he thought the perfect season would consist of six wins and six losses. And I thought, "That's stupid!" A perfect season, of course, would be an undefeated one.

But I understood what he was trying to get at: that such a season would be emblematic of life which brings with it both joy and sorrow. Life is not perfect.

So, from that perspective, our pilgrimage to World Youth Day was perfect. It had equal amounts of joy and sorrow, excitement and disappointment, comfort and suffering. And the fact that it was so made it all the more meaningful, rewarding and fruitful. And Jesus, Mary, the Apostles and all the Saints were with us as we made this perfect pilgrimage and planted in our hearts lasting images that will remain with us always.

The next time our pilgrims hear the reading of the Passion of Jesus or make the Stations of the Cross perhaps they’ll remember walking barefoot over rocky paths up a small mountain in Lourdes.

The next time our pilgrims hear an Old Testament account of the Jews going up to Jerusalem for one of the great feasts perhaps they’ll remember marching in a river of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims entering Cuatro Vientros Airport the site of the Saturday Vigil prayer service and Sunday Mass with the Pope.

The next time our pilgrims hear the story from the Acts of the Apostles in which people were bringing their sick out into the streets where St. Peter was walking in hopes that merely coming into contact with the shadow of Peter perhaps they’ll remember how they strained to get close to the Pope’s presence, even if many of them never actually saw him.

The next time our pilgrims hear the story of the Apostles being tossed about in the boat in the storm on the sea and cried out to Jesus, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing!” perhaps they’ll remember how we and two million other pilgrims at Cuatro Vientros airport huddled down on the ground praying a rosary as lightning streaked across the sky over our heads and we thought, “This could be it for us.”

The next time our pilgrims hear Jesus say “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man* has nowhere to rest his head” perhaps they’ll remember sleeping that night amongst those millions in the wide open air with nothing more than the dirt of the earth for a mattress and the stars above for a blanket.

Taking up our cross everyday involves suffering; but not suffering just for the sake of suffering... suffering for the sake of salvation. The Cross is not just something that kills you. The Cross is the key that opens the door to eternal life.

So there can be true joy in our suffering because of who we suffer with. We suffered with one another and Jesus suffered with us. He was there.

He was there in our prayer in the midst of the storm. Shortly after we started to pray the Rosary, the lightning stopped. And when Pope Benedict XVI brought out the monstrance with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament for Eucharistic Adoration the rains stopped.

And two million young people from around the world simultaneously fell to their knees and worshipped Jesus Christ in total, perfect silence for fifteen minutes.

And sure enough, when the Holy Father reposed the Blessed Sacrament, it started to rain again. We all thought to ourselves, "Bring Jesus back!"

When Mary appeared to Saint Bernadette in Lourdes she told her, “I do not promise you happiness in this world, but in the next.” There will be suffering. Husbands and wives declare this fact to each other on their wedding day when they say, “I take you in good times and in bad.” There are going to be bad times. There will be suffering.

But husbands and wives also declare that they will not allow each other to suffer alone when they say, “I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.”

Jesus makes the same promise to us. There are going to be bad times. There will be suffering. But from His Cross He perpetually declares to us that He will love and honor us all our days. Yes, he asks us to deny ourselves, take up our crosses and follow Him. But only because He has taken up His Cross and gone before us.

That is the story of our salvation: that when we are lost, Christ makes Himself present to us.

And when our pilgrims hear the Gospel of the Nativity story when Mary and Joseph could find no room at the inn, perhaps they'll remember how we arrived at the vigil site on Saturday and despite having tickets could not be admitted inside.

And how when we woke up the next morning for Mass and were told that the crowd had thinned out and could now go inside, after walking two miles to the main gate, our group was told that it had filled up and again there was no room.

We’ll recall that it was precisely at that moment, when Mary and Joseph could find no room at the inn, that Jesus showed up. That was the moment when He was born. That was the moment when He entered the world and came looking for us.

Because Jesus did the exact same thing for the pilgrims from the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. For our pilgrims had decided to go back to Madrid to celebrate Mass. And as they walked back into the city, it was announced at the site of the Papal Mass that the storms the night before had knocked over several of the temporary chapels where the hosts to be consecrated at Mass were being held. And unfortunately, the Eucharist would not be distributed to the entire crowd, but only to a few thousand in and around the Sanctuary.

Two million people went to Cuatro Vientros airport that day for Mass with the Pope and did not receive what the 120 from the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend did: Jesus in the Eucharist. When we were lost and locked out of the inn, Jesus made Himself present to us.

It was a perfect pilgrimage.

Because Jesus asked us to deny ourselves and take up our cross. And sure, in this there was suffering. But he also asked us to follow Him. And He showed us that He is always one step ahead of us. And in this, there is great joy.

Taken, Blessed, Broken, Given

2011-07-31T14:13:00.000-07:00

Homily from the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A

Do you know what a motif is? It’s a French word that means “dominant idea or recurring theme” You see and hear motifs all the time in books, movies and music. For example, if I hummed the Imperial March, you’d immediately think of Darth Vader – it’s his theme song, it’s the motif that plays over and over again to let you know he’s nearby.

There are a number of motifs in Salvation History, the story our being saved by God; recurring themes such as the fall and redemption, the many becoming the one and self-sacrificial love.

In today’s Gospel we hear another motif from Salvation History. It’s a motif that is repeated at the Last Supper. And it’s a motif that is repeated every single time we come to celebrate the Eucharist at Mass. This particular motif is a four-step process. It’s what Jesus does to the bread; a four-fold action: Jesus takes, blesses, breaks and gives.

This miracle of the multiplication of loaves and fishes is the only miracle that is recorded in all four of the Gospels. It's a very important miracle. Important because it points to the same thing Jesus will do to the bread at the Last Supper. It’s what Jesus will do to the bread when he eats with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. It’s what Jesus will do to the bread in a few moments when the bread is changed into His body on this altar. Jesus takes, blesses, breaks and gives.

And it’s what Jesus does to you and I in our lives of continual conversion in Him. Jesus takes you, he blesses you, he breaks you and he gives you.

Jesus takes you. Another way of saying this is that Jesus chooses you. Think about that for a moment, Jesus chooses you! Jesus says, “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you.” (Jn 15:16). Perhaps that’s a difficult thing for us to understand sometimes.

God chooses me? Yes. God loves you. Remember what Fr. David Mary said at our parish mission? He reflected on Jesus’ words at the Last Supper in the Gospel of John when Jesus said to His Father: “You loved them even as you love me.”

St. Peter says, “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own.” (I Peter 2:9). St. Paul says, “he chose us in [Christ], before the foundation of the world.” (Eph 4:1).

Jesus takes you. He chooses you.

Jesus blesses you. Another word for bless is benediction. For example, at the end of Eucharistic Adoration you receive the Benediction when the sign of the Cross is made over you with the Eucharist in the monstrance. It’s a blessing. Benediction is a word of Latin origin. It’s actually two Latin words put together. “Bene” means “good” and “dictus” means “say.” So “bene dictus” or “benediction” means "to say good." To say good things about someone. To speak well of them.

God speaks well of you. He says good things about you. In Psalm 139 He says you “are fearfully and wonderfully made.” In Psalm 17 He says you “are the apple of His eye.” In Deuteronomy He says you are “His treasured possession” Jesus says you are not slaves but “His friends” (Jn 15:15). And again and again throughout scripture you are called beloved sons and daughters of God.

Jesus blesses you.

Jesus breaks you. This is a hard one to accept sometimes. But the truth is, unless Jesus breaks the bread, He cannot give it to so many. In order for us to be gift, we have to be broken. We are broken in that we all fall, we all sin. But we’re also broken in the sense that Jesus breaks us. He breaks us of our sin. A simple illustration is one that every athlete knows: “No pain, no gain.”

Jesus breaks you.

Jesus gives you. I want you all to know something, but especially you teens. Some of you, those of you who are married, already know this. But I want those of you who await marriage to know that you are the greatest gift someone in this world will ever receive. God has created you to be a gift to your future spouse. Or if you’re called to be a priest or religious, to be a gift to Christ and His Church. Or if you’re called to be a generous single person to be a gift for the building up of the Kingdom of God.

Jesus gives you.

In a few moments, we will see this same four-fold action, this same four-fold action unfold in front of our very eyes. And as you watch those actions and hear those words, I want you to envision Him doing the same in your lives.

As bread and wine are taken and placed upon the altar, envision Jesus taking your lives, choosing you, claiming you for his own and offering you up to His Father.

As the blessing is said over the gifts of bread and wine and as the Holy Spirit is called upon to change them into the Body and Blood of Christ, envision Jesus calling the Holy Spirit upon you and to bless you and transform you into Christ's likeness.
As Jesus allows His own Body to be broken on this altar as it was on Calvary, envision Jesus breaking you free from the chains of sin.

And as Jesus gives Himself over to you in Holy Communion, envision Him giving you to your future spouse or your current spouse, your family or your vocation.

Each and every time you come to Mass, as you watch bread be taken, blessed, broken and given, you are watching Jesus be taken, blessed, broken and given, and you yourselves are taken, blessed, broken and given.

Pearl of Great Price

2011-07-24T06:52:00.000-07:00

Homily from the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A

A number of years ago, long before I entered the seminary, Fr. Bernie Galic, my parish pastor at Holy Family and our diocese’s Vocation Director, was our guest for dinner. And he asked me if I would be interested in going with him to an “Andrew Dinner.”

I had heard of these “Andrew Dinner’s” before. The parish priest will invite young men he thinks might make a good priest someday to come have dinner with the bishop, other priests and seminarians to hear from them about the life of a priest and seminarian.

They’re called “Andrew Dinners” because the Apostle Andrew was the first of the twelve to meet Jesus and afterwards he immediately brought his brother Peter to meet Jesus too. So, the priest brings young men to encounter Christ. You have a nice meal, hear talks from the bishop, priests and seminarians about their vocations and so forth.

So when Fr. Galic asked me if I wanted to go I responded, “Absolutely not!” I had my life all figured out. I had a career, my own apartment, money, a car and a girlfriend.

So I rudely told Fr. Galic “No.” And he said, “O.K." And then he waited.

I was somewhat agitated when he asked me that question. Why would I give that life up? However, it also got me started thinking, “Why would Father ask me if I wanted to be a priest?” It was a very small seed that was planted in me against my will to which I initially reacted very negatively.

I reacted much in the same way an oyster reacts when one tiny grain of sand sneaks its way into its shell. When a foreign body, like a grain of sand, enters an oyster’s shell, the oyster reacts by protecting itself and covering up the foreign body with the same substance that makes up their shell. They bombard the grain of sand with so much of the substance that it eventually becomes a pearl. What was once an agitating, invasive foreign body becomes a precious treasure worth giving everything up for. Thoughts of the priesthood were initially agitating and invasive, but soon became something worth giving everything up for.

Obviously, when you enter the priesthood, you do give some things up. But you don’t lose everything. I still have a car and I’ve got all the money I need. I don’t have a career. Instead I have a vocation. My work isn’t just something I do, it’s who I am. When I wake up in the morning and come home in the evening I am “Father.” But when I go to my office or out on appointments, I’m still “Father.” I don’t have my own apartment anymore. Now I share a home with two great, holy priests. I don’t have a girlfriend anymore. Instead, I have a bride. You.

The Church is the bride of Christ. You are called the “Mystical Bride.” And since I’m a priest of Jesus Christ, and act in his person, I have you for my bride.

A couple of weeks ago was my 1-year anniversary as a priest. And that particular Sunday, I walked back into the sacristy following the Life Teen Mass. And there on the counter was an envelope addressed to “Father Andrew – My Beloved Spouse.” I opened the envelope and inside was a card. Not a card congratulating me on the anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood. But a wedding anniversary card that a bride gives to her groom. And inside, was handwritten a thank you for the union of our love and a prayer that this love would continue to grow in Christ. And it was signed, “Your Mystical Bride.”

So, I want to thank you, my mystical bride, for that card, for the love you’ve shown me and for being such an awesome and beautiful bride. I have to say thank you to all of you because in reality, that card did not truly come from one person, but from all of you.

And I want you to know that it’s not really me who thanks you. Because in reality, it is your beloved spouse, Jesus Christ, who thanks you and loves you.

We often think of Jesus as being the pearl of great price for us. Have you ever stopped to think that maybe we are the pearl of great price to him? The pearl of great price is worth giving everything up for. And Jesus has given everything up for you – he has given up his life for you, his Mystical Bride, so that you might dwell with him in the Kingdom of Heaven. A couple of weeks ago, I heard an incredible quote: “God would rather die than risk spending eternity without you."

So, I want to say to the single gentlemen out there, if you think God might possibly be calling you to be the beloved spouse of his mystical bride If you think there’s just one sliver of a chance that the priesthood could be your vocation. If there’s just the tiniest grain of possibility, I want to invite you to an “Andrew Dinner.” Our diocese’s next “Andrew Dinner” is next Tuesday, August 2nd, 6PM at St. Martin de Porres parish in Syracuse. If you’re a young man who’s going to be a high school freshman or older this coming fall see me after Mass and I’ll save you a spot at the table.

Weeds and Wheat

2011-07-17T11:55:00.000-07:00

Homily from the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A

How many of you use a lawn care service? Do you remember the good old days before lawn care service and how you used to get rid of dandelions? You had to use a dandelion fork. You spend hours and hours of backbreaking work uprooting dandelions one by one and you'd wind up with a yard full of holes.

Now, however, lawn care specialists will tell you that the best way to get rid of dandelions and other weeds is not by uprooting them, but rather by growing thicker, fuller grass. The grass itself will choke the weeds out.

In Jesus' parable today, he warns against pulling up the weeds because it will pull the wheat up with it. The specific weed Jesus is talking about is a weed called "darnel." It grows right next to wheat and looks nearly identical to it, so much so that farmers call it "false wheat." And as this false wheat begins to grow, it wraps its roots around the real wheat. So, just as Jesus warns, pulling up the false wheat will uproot the real wheat as well. There's no choice, therefore, but to let them grow side by side until the harvest time.

It's a good strategy for our lives, our families, our community as well. This Church is a field where Saints and sinners grow side by side. All of us, myself included, is a person in which Saintliness and sinfulness are both present.

Perhaps Jesus suggests letting the weeds and wheat grow side by side so that the weeds have time to repent; while, at the same time, cultivating the grass in us, the virtue in us, so that the dandelions in us, the vice in us, eventually gets weeded out.

Some of the greatest Saints were the worst sinners. Just look at the men Jesus himself hand-picked: Matthew was a lying, cheating, stealing tax collector, Peter denied knowing Jesus three times, Paul persecuted the Church trying to destroy it. However, their personal encounter with Christ and their continued relationship with Jesus purified them.

Our encounter with Jesus purifies us. And our encounter with those who follow Jesus closely purifies us as well. Thick, full grass chokes out the dandelions.

Last night I was invited to a parishoner's house where they and five other couples celebrated their vocation of marriage. They came to the 5 o'clock Mass on Saturday to receive a blessing by Monsignor John. Then they gathered together in one of their homes for dinner. They watched snippets of their wedding videos and ate wedding cake. At the end of the dinner, these husbands and wives toasted each other and spoke lovingly and candidly about their marraige bond. And one of the grooms said to his bride, "When we work together, we become wheat. When we don't work so well together, we become like weeds."

We exhibit powerful influence on each other for good and for bad. So please pray about who and what you are surrounding yourself with. Is the "who" and the "what" your surrounding yourself with "false wheat" that, on the outside, appears to be genuine, but deep down is choking the life out of you? Or is the "who" and the "what" you surround yoruself with "true wheat" that helps chokes out your "weediness" and grow stronger?

Are you and your boyfriend or girlfriend mutually choking the life out of each other by entering into a heavy physical relationship? Or, are you helping each other prepare well for marriage by being good stewards today of someone who, in all likelihood, will be someone else's spouse tomorrow?

By the way, dating, true dating, is discernment for marriage. It is the so very important time in your life when you discern if you are called to marriage or not. And dating is also stewardship. Stewardship, as you know, is when you are entrusted to take care of a gift for a period of time. When you are dating, you are stewards of someone else's future spouse! Ask yourself if you are truly taking care of someone else's future spouse in a worthy manner.

Are you and your friends mutually choking the life out of each other by drinking underage which is a huge gateway to bigger trouble? Are you a positive or negative example for your younger brothers and sisters to follow? Are you honoring your father and mother or showing them dishonor? Are you helping your friends grow in self-control, self-discipline and self-possession?

Be a lawn care service for one another. Be "true wheat" for one another. Become Saints with one another.

A Healthy Root System

2011-07-10T08:41:00.000-07:00

Homily from the Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A

One hot summer day, like today, I was riding my bike around the campus of the University of Notre Dame. And as I was pedeling down the sidewalk, I saw something rather unusual. Out of a crack in the sidewalk grew a single bright red flower: a petunia.

It had gotten there for two reasons - number one: the gardener was careless. There was a flower bed nearby, but one seed had apparently fallen down that crack in the sidewalk. And number two: the seed managed to find rich soil deep down underneath the sidewalk.

Today's parable is about a careless gardener. The sower is throwing seed all over the place. He's throwing it on the path, on rocky ground and in the thorns.

Jesus is a careless gardener. He sows the seed of His word everywhere. He sends his word to anyone who has ears. He gives everyone a chance to hear his word. But will the seed of his word take root in us?

Today's Gospel is about the sower: Jesus; and the seed: His word; and us: the soil. There's another very important component in today's Gospel: the root system: our spiritual life.

Jesus describes four root systems. Notice how, as Jesus tells the parable, the root systems go from the very barren to the very fertile.

First, there's the path: the non-existent root system. The path is so hardened by the trampling of feet that there's not even a crack for the seed to penetrate. This is the non-existent spiritual life that opens no doors for Jesus to enter.

Second, there's the rocky ground: the shallow root system. In Palestine, there are sections of ground where large slabs of limestone are covered by only an inch or two of soil. There's no depth. This is the shallow spiritual life which gives up after difficulty and tribulation.

Third, there's the thorns: the polluted root system. There's a certain plant called the "strangler fig" which begins life nesteled in the branches of a host tree. It sends its roots down to the soil and as soon as they touch earth, it grows rapidly and envelopes its host, strangling it. This is the polluted spiritual life in which we give greater honor to things than to God.

Then, there's the rich soil: the healthy, cultivated and fertilized root system. The right environment for seed to take root.

If we don’t have a healthy root system, we won’t be nourished. And if we’re not nourished, we will eventually wither up and die. Our spiritual life is our root system. What goes into a healthy root system? What is a healthy spiritual life made up of?

Every living creature, every animal and every plant, requires water for life. We receive new life though the waters of Baptism and we continue to be watered when we renew our baptismal promises to accept God and reject Satan, signified when we bless ourselves with water from the baptistery and actualized when we love God and our neighbor in thought, word and deed.

Every living creature needs food for growth. Our food is the Body and Blood of Christ and it gives us eternal life.

No matter how good the soil is, weeds always creep in. Why do we always struggle with this sin? Well, because their like weeds. Flower beds have an inclination, if you will, for weeds to grow. Likewise, we suffer from something called concupiscence, which is our inclination to sin. It doesn't mean we're evil. It means we need regular weeding where our sins are ripped out by the roots which happens in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Soil stays fertile through routine tilling, turning over, and fertilization. This is the life of prayer; daily maintenance where Jesus digs his hands into you and turns you over, forming you.

Plants and animals need the sun. One day when Monsignor was recovering from his heart surgery I found him sitting on a chair next to the patio door in the living room. I said, "What are you doing?" "Getting my Vitamin D!" he replied. He needed the sun for his health. You know how you feel when the permacloud of a Fort Wayne winter settles interminably over us. We get depressed for lack of the sun. Plants always turn to face the sun and they follow it throughout the day. Likewise, we need to turn and face the Son in Eucharistic Adoration. Facing the Son keeps us oriented toward him throughout the day.

And we need a farmer: Jesus Christ who plants, waters, tills, feeds you through his chosen instruments: parents, families, teachers, catechists, priests.

This is what a healthy root system, a healthy spiritual life, is comprised of.

A healthy root system is not comprised of a successful career, a solid 401K, or a strong portfolio. It is not an impressive resume. It is not the esteem of your friends and popularity. Nor is it the neighborhood or house you live in, the car you drive, the clothes you wear or the latest technology, or a built up sense of pride.

A healthy root system is your relationship with Christ. It is your willingness to allow the soil of your lives to be exposed and penetrated by Christ the sower. So let him cleanse and fertilize your soil. Amazing things will happen. He can even make petunias grow through cracks in the sidewalk.

A New Birth of True Christian Freedom

2011-07-03T19:00:00.000-07:00

Homily from the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A

I love the Fourth of July. One of my favorite figures of American History is John Adams. John Adams was probably more responsible for American independence and freedom than any other person in our history. He was short, fat, balding, obnoxious and loved to hear himself talk. I can relate to him in every way.

A couple of years ago, some of my brother seminarians and I went to Pennsylvania for fall break. We went to Philadelphia and visited Independence Hall where in 1776, in a small room not much bigger than this sanctuary, men such as Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin literally created the United States of America based on the idea that this nation should flourish in freedom.

We also visited Gettysburg where, for three days in the summer of 1863, approximately 50,000 Americans ended up as casualties in a great epic battle over whether or not our nation conceived in freedom could long endure.

And as I stood in the room in which our nation’s freedom was born and on the fields on which it faced its greatest test, I was filled with a tremendous amount of pride and gratitude for the freedom we enjoy, for which so many have given, and continue to give, their lives.

If you were to go up to someone on the street and ask them to define “freedom” they’d probably say something like, “Freedom is the ability to do whatever you want.” But I question the validity of that definition. Are we truly free, simply by doing whatever, whenever we want?

True freedom is choosing to do what is good for us and good for others and rejecting what is harmful to us and harmful to others. “The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to… do evil is an abuse of freedom” which only makes us slaves… slaves of sin.

We all know that bad feeling inside when we fail to choose to do good, don’t we? When we give in to temptation and slip into sin, if we ask ourselves honestly, we have to say we do not truly feel free.

Imagine the freedom, the power you feel when you say to yourself: “I have the freedom to avoid indecent images on the TV or the internet. I am not a slave to pornography.” “I have the freedom to remain chaste before marriage and save myself for my future spouse and them alone.” “I have the freedom to not take a drink today, or use drugs. I am not a slave to addiction.” “I have the freedom to not eat 6 coney dogs at Coney Island.” That is true freedom. That is Christian freedom. I think this is the kind of freedom the patriots of 1776 and the men of Gettysburg fought and died for. At the very least, it’s the freedom Jesus Christ died for.

This true freedom is what Jesus is talking about in today’s Gospel when he says “my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” The yoke of freedom from sin is far lighter and easier than the yoke of slavery to sin. We labor under the yoke of sin and are heavily burdened. Jesus invites us to come to him, particularly in Confession, so that he may give us rest.

In his address at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln prayed that our nation, tested by the scourge of Civil War, would have a new birth of freedom. We too should pray and work for a new birth of freedom as well – a new birth of true Christian freedom; not just a psuedo-freedom to do whatever, whenever we want, but the freedom to live in virtue, free from the slavery of sin.

This new birth of true Christian freedom cannot be born in a small room in Philadelphia. It must be born here, in this Church where Jesus takes away our sins and feeds us with his Body and Blood. And this new birth of true Christian freedom cannot be fought for by someone else on the fields and farms of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. We, empowered by the grace of God, must fight for it here in our fields and farms, on our streets and sidewalks, in our workplaces and our classrooms, in our hearts and homes and lives.

Real Presence

2011-06-26T05:52:00.000-07:00

Homily from the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (Corpus Christi Sunday) - Year A

In 1992, a Gallup Poll of Catholics was conducted regarding the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. It showed that many Catholics do not understand what the Eucharist truly is. 30% of Catholics believed correctly that they are really and truly receiving the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ under the appearance of bread and wine. However, the remaining 70% of Catholics polled did not believe in the Real Presence.

29% of Catholics believe they are receiving bread and wine that symbolize the Body and Blood of Jesus.

10% believe they receive bread and wine in which Jesus is also present.

And 24% believe they are receiving what has become Christ’s Body and Blood because of their personal belief.

Not only that, but the problem increase dramatically among younger Catholics:

Age 65 and over …………… 51% believe in the Real Presence.

Age 45 – 64 ……………….... 37%.

Age 30 – 44 ……………….... 28%.

Age 18 – 29 ……………….... 17%.

Now granted, this poll was conducted nearly 20 years ago when, let’s face it, catechesis wasn’t as good as it is today. And I’m going to guess that our teens today hold a much more convicted belief in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. When you see our teens kneeling in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament at Eucharistic Adoration, some of them in tears, you know they believe in the Real Presence. People don't cry over bread and wine.
I’m fairly certain that, as a whole, we have a better understanding fo the Real Presence. Nevertheless, I can’t help but assume that there are perhaps still many among us who do not understand and/or believe in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. So, we’ve got some work to do.

How do we know, that what we are about to receive at Communion, is really and truly the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ and not just a symbol? We know it for two huge reasons:

1.) Jesus said so himself

2.) This is what the earliest Christians believed unanimously.

In today’s Gospel we hear a portion of Jesus’ “Bread of Life Discourse”, the Magna Carta of the Real Presence, from chapter six of St. John’s Gospel. And we heard Jesus say, very clearly, “the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” Jesus says that the bread he gives is his flesh. He is saying that the bread he will give in the Last Supper and at all subsequent Eucharists is in fact, his flesh.

Now the usual objection is, “Jesus isn't speaking literally. He is speaking only metaphorically, right?" The answer is “no.”

Jesus is speaking literally. And some of his disciples take him literally. And they are shocked that Jesus would say such a thing. They are, for lack of a better term, “grossed out” at Jesus’ suggestion that they eat his flesh.

So, they question the literalness of his statement. They ask, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

Then, instead of explaining to the Jews that there were misunderstanding him, that he was only speaking figuratively, Jesus – using the strongest possible language – emphatically repeats the literalness of his teaching, not once, but five times:

“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.”

“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life.”

Jesus says, “My flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.” Not, “My flesh is symbolic food and my blood is symbolic drink.”

“Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him.”

“The one who feeds on me will have life because of me.”

And when the Jews can handle no more of this kind of talk, Scripture tells us that “As a result of this, many (of) his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.”

And you know what Jesus does? He lets them go. He lets them walk away. He lets them leave him.

Now if Jesus intended the Eucharist to only be a symbol of his Body and Blood, why didn’t he call them back and explain that he is only speaking figuratively? Because he has spoken literally, and because these disciples understood him literally.

Besides, if Jesus wanted us to encounter him only through symbols, why wasn’t the Cross enough? Jesus could have said “Remember me when you see the Cross. Do as I instructed you when you see the Cross. Think of me and I’ll be thinking of you when you see the Cross.” No. Jesus said, “This is my Body… this is my Blood.” And “I am with you always, until the end of the age.” Jesus remains with us until the end of the age in the Eucharist.

You remember when Moses and the Jews were slaves in Egypt under Pharaoh; what they had to do to escape the 10th plague of death to the first born son? They had to eat the Passover lamb. If they wanted to live, they had to eat the lamb.

The Last Supper in which Jesus gave himself to the Apostles in the Eucharist was a Passover meal. A New Covenant in which we are saved from the death of sin. And we do so by eating the Lamb.

If we want to live, we have to eat the Lamb. Not a symbol of the Lamb, but the Lamb of God Himself.

We know, that what we are about to receive at Communion, is really and truly the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ and not just a symbol, because Jesus said so. And also because its what the earliest Christians believed.

The Apostles believed in the Real Presence St. Paul said so in our second reading: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?”

And those who learned from the disciples, the Church Fathers, believed in the Real Presence.

St. Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple of St. John, said that some people “abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the Flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ.”

St. Justin Martyr from the 2nd century said, “not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these… [but] the Flesh and the Blood of that incarnated Jesus.”

St. Cyril of Jerusalem from the 4th century said, “Do not, therefore, regard the bread and wine as simply that, for they are, according to the Master’s declaration, the Body and Blood of Christ.”

But don’t take my word for it. Listen to this quote by a theologian who was writing at the time of the Protestant Reformation when the doctrine of the Eucharist began to be corrupted:

"Of all the fathers, as many as you can name... none of them uses such an expression as, 'It is simply bread and wine,' or, 'Christ’s body and blood are not present.' Yet since this subject is so frequently discussed by them, it is impossible that they should not at some time have let slip such an expression as, 'It is simply bread,' or, 'Not that the body of Christ is physically present,' or the like... actually, they simply proceed to speak as if no one doubted that Christ’s body and blood are present. Certainly among so many fathers and so many writings a negative argument should have turned up at least once, as happens in other articles; but actually they all stand uniformly and consistently on the affirmative side."

Those words were spoken by Martin Luther, who, during the Protestant Reformation, altered the Church’s understanding of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.

Which is more likely? That Jesus would have said, “This is my Body and this is my Blood” and that’s what everyone believed, but were wrong until Martin Luther came along 1,500 years later and got it right? Or, that Jesus said, “This is my Body and this is my Blood” and that’s what everyone believed and that’s what continues to be believed in the Catholic Church today because it is, in fact, true?

We believe in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. It’s not a symbol. I didn't give up a wife and children for crackers and grape juice. It’s not Jesus cohabiting with bread and wine side-by-side. It’s all Jesus, Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, under the appearance of bread and wine. And it’s not that way because you or I personally believe it to be so. It’s that way because Jesus said so.

If we don’t believe Jesus is truly here in the Eucharist, then why bother coming to Church? We don’t come here primarily for good music and powerful messages. We don’t come here primarily for community and fellowship. We don’t come here primarily to feel better about ourselves.

We come here, first and foremost, for the Eucharist. And nothing else is even a close second. We come here to the Catholic Church, because it (and the Orthodox Christian Church) is the only place on Earth where Jesus is truly and really present in the Eucharist.

Communion of Persons

2011-06-19T05:36:00.000-07:00

Homily from the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity - Year A

One of my seminary professors threatened my life once. He said, “If I ever hear that on Trinity Sunday, you said in your homily that the Trinity is a “mystery” we can’t understand and say nothing more, I will hunt you down like the dog that you are and destroy you!” He lives only three hours away, so I never know when he might sneak into the back pew so here goes.

My dad loves to golf. He’s one of those guys, if you ask him what he did five minutes ago, he doesn’t have a clue. But you ask him how his round of golf went and he knows every single shot from memory. After a great round he can’t just keep it to himself. He has to tell someone about it.

I love the movies. Whenever I see a great movie, the first thing I do is I gotta tell someone else about it.

Same thing with food. When you take a bite out of something amazingly delicious, what’s the first thing you say to the person sitting next to you? “You touch my food and I’ll stick this fork in your ribs. Hopefully not. I think most normal people say, “Oh my goodness this is so good; you’ve got to try this.”

We have a natural inclination to want to share the things we love. “You’ve got to read this book.” “You’ve got to go to Arizona.” “Let me introduce you to my mother-in-law.”

OK, maybe not that one.

That’s the nature of love. Love cannot remain in isolation. The nature of love is that it must be shared; it must be given to another. Love “unbottles” itself as it were.

That’s the nature of God too. After all as the Gospel of John states, “God is love.” God cannot remain in isolation. The very nature of God is that He must share Himself; He must give Himself to another. God “unbottles” Himself.

And He does this in so many ways, but today, let’s consider two. First, God unbottles Himself within Himself. If God is love, He would not make sense if He were alone, so to speak. So He isn’t alone. God is such a perfection of unbottled, unbridled love that He isn’t just one Person, He’s three: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is a communion of persons. A communion of love. God shares Himself, He gives of Himself, and He loves Himself within Himself; among the three Persons of the Trinity.

St. Augustine said that whenever you have love, there’s a lover, there’s the one who is loved, and there’s the love that exists between them. He’s talking about the Trinity. First there’s the lover: God the Father. Then there’s the one who is loved: God the Son. Then there’s the love between them: God the Holy Spirit.

Second, God unbottles Himself with us. God is perfect. There is nothing you can add to God to make Him a better God. Yet, in his infinite wisdom and love, having no need for us, God created us out of love and shares His love with us.

God shares this love with us most perfectly by making a gift of Himself to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. Our Gospel today says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son.” And God continues to show us His love through the gift of the Holy Spirit.

And not only does God reveal Himself to us as love through His being a communion of persons – a Holy Trinity; He inscribes His divine nature into us. For we are created in His image and likeness. We’re not just created in the image and likeness of God the Father. We’re created in the image and likeness of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We’re created in the image and likeness of the Holy Trinity – a communion of persons. And so we’re created to be a communion of persons ourselves – with one another and with God. We’re created for love.

That’s the greatest desire of the human heart isn’t it? We all desire to be loved. And we equally, if not more so, desire to give love. Of course! It’s how God made us. He made us for entering into communion with one another and with Him.

This, of course, is realized so profoundly in marriage. When husbands and wives enter into communion with one another. You have the lover and the one who is loved. And the love between them, by nature, becomes “unbottled” and literally becomes a third person, a child conceived in love. You could say that the family is an icon, an image of the Holy Trinity.

On this Father’s Day, I want to exhort the father’s among us to follow our Heavenly Father’s lead and seize the opportunity to be the initiator of love within your family. I’m sure you’re well aware that the divorce rate in our country is 50%. There’s a cure to such a disease and it’s found in the communion of persons. When couples choose to enter into communion with the Holy Trinity and with one another, their chances of having a lifelong marriage skyrocket.

There have been numerous studies that show that families that pray together stay together. Yes, the national divorce rate is 50%. But, when couples are married in the Church or another place of worship (and return there weekly) to enter into communion with God, the divorce rate is 1 out of 100. And, when couples pray together in their home, for just a few minutes everyday, the divorce rate is 1 out of 1,000.

A priest once told me that when couples come into his office and their marriage is on the rocks, he tells them they need to get Jesus at the center of their marriage. So he tells them that he wants them to hold each other’s hands for just a few minutes a day and they are to pray together. And they're not allowed to say Our Father’s, Hail Mary’s and Glory Be’s. He’ll ask them if they can do this. Of course, they say “yes.” Then he’ll say, “OK, do it now.” And their shocked right? They’ve been put on the spot. And he says to them, “I didn’t just ask you to walk 100 miles. Pray together.”

Because one of the biggest obstacles to prayer is simply getting over the awkwardness of prayer. The thing is – you just have to get over it.

So dad’s here’s what I want you to do. Tonight, I want you to take your bride’s hands into yours and I want the two of you to pray together. I want the two of you to enter into communion with one another and with God. When a woman who loves God sees that kind of love and vulnerability in her husband – look out! Wow, will she fall in love with him! And if things are kind of rocky between you (or really rocky between you) then you know how much you need Jesus there with the two of you.

“Unbottle” your love for one another and for God.

The Ascension: the Meeting of Heaven and Earth

2011-06-05T13:44:00.000-07:00

Homily from the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord - Year A

For the last seven months, we’ve heard about the many mysteries of the life of Jesus. In December, we celebrated his birth. In February, we observed his presentation in the temple. In March, we began the 40 day journey of Lent in preparation for his passion, death, and resurrection in April. Throughout May we observed with great joy the presence of the risen Lord as he made himself known to his disciples. And today, with the advent of June, we observe Jesus’ last day on earth as we celebrate his ascension into Heaven

The way Jesus leaves is kind of strange. His body is lifted up off the ground and a cloud takes him up into Heaven. It almost sounds mythological. But it shows us an important truth. The journey of Jesus from earth to Heaven shows us that there is a connection between these two places.

Sometimes we look at Heaven and earth as something of opposites. That Heaven is the good place and earth is a bad place. But that’s simply not the case. After all, God made the Heavens and the earth and when He did so, He saw that it was all good. Heaven is the place where God dwells. earth is the place where we pray and work for the will of God to be done. The central theme of Jesus’ preaching is the coming together of Heaven and Earth. And this is what the Church is for, it’s where Heaven and Earth meet.

This Church is a great example of the meeting of Heaven and Earth. The architecture itself suggests it. We gather in a space built on the solid foundation of the Earth which reaches up high into the Heavens with this magnificent dome.

In some churches their ceilings will be painted with images of God and Jesus, the angels and the stars of the sky. And as you descend, you’ll see images of the Saints, until you reach us who are still here on Earth.

I told Monsignor we should do that here with our cupola. An image of Christ right in the center. And, coincidentally, there are 12 panels of the cupola. A really fitting place for images of the 12 Apostles!

Our music is a meeting of Heaven and Earth. Our voices are raised up to the heavens. When we sing the “Holy, Holy” we say, “And so, with all the choirs of angels in Heaven we proclaim your glory and join in their unending hymn of praise.” Those aren’t just poetic words, it’s a reality. Here in this Church our voices of song become one with the angelic choirs of Heaven. “Heaven and Earth are full of [His] glory.”

We use incense to symbolize our prayers rising up to Heaven.

The host and the chalice are elevated as we join our liturgy here on Earth to the eternal liturgy in Heaven.

But the Ascension of Jesus isn’t just about our looking up to Heaven. It’s also about bringing Heaven down to earth.

Consider the Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father. Jesus said, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.” It is a prayer that Heaven and Earth may come together; that God may reign here on Earth as He does in Heaven . Not just waiting for things to get better once we get to Heaven. It’s about doing the will of God here, today. It’s about feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and giving shelter to the homeless. It’s about restoring order and justice here on earth.

The Mass gives us one hour a day (or one hour a week) to look up to Heaven. But then we’ve got to spend the rest of our hours bringing Heaven to earth.

When the disciples stood there on the mountain, looking up into the sky after the ascension, a couple of angels appear and ask them, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking up at the sky?” It’s as if they’re saying, “Quit gawking and get moving. Jesus just told you to be his witnesses in the world. Do what he said. Go make disciples of all nations. Baptize them. You have work to do.”

Jesus ascends from Earth to Heaven, and departs this world and leaves our sight because we now have work to do: His work; the building up of God’s Kingdom “on Earth as it is in Heaven.”

Jesus Hands Us the Holy Spirit

2011-05-29T14:22:00.000-07:00

Homily from the 6th Sunday of Easter - Year A

Many years ago, a mother, wanting to encourage her young son’s interest in the piano, took her boy to a concert by the great Polish pianist, Padarewski. After they were seated, the mother spotted a friend a few rows away and walked down the aisle to say hello. While she was gone, the son noticed a door with a sign on it that read "No Admittance." Imagine the mother's horror, when she returned to her seat to find her young boy missing. Imagine her further horror when the theater lights dimmed, and the curtain opened, and the spotlight focused on the grand Steinway piano, where there sat her little boy who began to play “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” As you can imagine, she, and in fact the whole audience reacted with surprise. The little boy, noticing he was somewhere he probably shouldn’t be started to panic. It was just then that the great Padarewski came on stage, walked up behind the boy and whispered in his ear, “Don’t stop. Keep going.” Then, leaning over, Padarewski reached down with his left hand and began playing a bass part. Then his right arm reached around to the other side of the boy and he added a running arpeggio. Together, the great Padarewski and this little boy, turned a very simple tune (and a very frightening situation) into a brilliant masterpiece to which the audience roared in applause.

That’s the way the Holy Spirit works. He is our great helper, our counselor. In the Gospel today, Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the “advocate.” The word “advocate” is a legal term that means “one who pleads the cause of another.” The Holy Spirit pleads our cause to God the Father.

You might wonder, “Why do we need our cause pleaded? Why do we need an advocate?” The reason why we need an advocate is because we have an accuser. In the book of Revelation, we hear about our accuser: “the accuser of our brothers is cast out, who accuses them before our God day and night.”

Who is the accuser? The Jews of Christ’s time had a word for accuser – Satan. Satan is the accuser who tries to tell us that our sins make us incapable of going to the Father for forgiveness. The Holy Spirit is the advocate who tells us that our sins make it absolutely necessary to go to the Father for forgiveness and that the Father will indeed forgive us.

Now the Holy Spirit is not going to say, “You’re perfect. You’ve done nothing wrong.” The Spirit of Truth cannot perjure Himself before God. The Holy Spirit is not going to say, “There’s no need to feel sorry for your sins. God loves you no matter what.” God does love us no matter what. He also loves us too much to let us remain in sin. So the Father gives us the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth to be our advocate.

And the Spirit of Truth might point out our sins to us. But He does so in a way that leads us into light, unlike Satan the accuser who points out our sins to lead us into darkness.

It’s kind of like this: have you ever heard your mother or father or spouse say the following: “Come on, you’re better than that”? That’s how the Advocate speaks to us – pointing us towards our better selves, our true selves.

The accuser on the other hand says, “You’re worthless. There’s nothing good about you. The Father doesn’t want to have anything to do with you. Just run and hide.”

You’re not worthless. God doesn’t make junk.

You want to know how much you are worth. Look at the Cross. That’s the price God paid for you.

The Advocate, the Spirit of Truth is with us always. And He comes to us sort of how like Padarewski came to the little boy. Padarewski put his hands over the boy and began to play a masterpiece. The Holy Spirit comes to us through the laying on of hands as well.

At the baptism of infants, the Holy Spirit is called down upon the child as the priest lays hands on the baby’s head. And he does this immediately after saying the prayer of exorcism in which he casts out the accuser and prays for the washing away of Original Sin.

The Holy Spirit is called down during the Eucharistic Prayer as the priest lays his hands down over gifts of bread and wine.

The Holy Spirit is called down to bring spiritual healing to the sick when a priest lays his hands upon an ill person in the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.

The Holy Spirit who was sent for the forgiveness of sins is called down upon the penitent in confession when the priest extends his hands over them.

And of course, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit is given in the Sacrament of Confirmation, when the bishop marks our foreheads with Sacred Chrism and places his hands on our heads saying, “Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

This is what we just heard about in the first reading. When Peter and John visit the newly baptized in Samaria, “they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.”

Think about this, that same Holy Spirit, that Peter and John handed on to the Samarians has come to you through the laying on of hands. Peter and John and the other Apostles laid hands on their successors, and those men laid hands on their successors, and so on and so on, to the present day, to the present bishops of the world, who lay hands on the present priests of the world, who lay hands on you.

The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth has traveled over 2,000 years through time and halfway around the globe; to be your Advocate, to plead your cause before God the Father, to cast out Satan the accuser, and to remain with you forever.

The Familiar Voice of the Good Shepherd

2011-05-15T12:46:00.000-07:00

Homily from the 4th Sunday of Easter - World Day of Prayer for Vocations - Year A

Deacon Ben Muhlenkamp

Our diocese has great reason to celebrate today. This weekend at St. Matthew Cathedral in South Bend, two men from our diocese were ordained transitional deacons. And in one year, they will be ordained priests.

Some of you might know one in particular, Ben Muhlenkamp. Ben was assigned to St. Vincent’s last summer. And he spent many years involved in our LifeTeen program as a teen and serving on the Core Team.
Ben, and our other brand new deacon, Jacob Meyer, discovered God’s will for their lives, their vocation, by listening to the familiar voice of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd.

Deacon Jacob Meyer

Deacons Ben and Jacob, as well as Deacons Matt and Tink Coonan, who will be ordained priests on June 11th, and Mr. Jim Fitzpatrick and Mr. Jerry Kohrman, two men from our parish who will be ordained permanent deacons, listened carefully to the familiar voice of Jesus.

They heard the familiar voice of Jesus here in the Church. They heard his voice by receiving the Sacrament of the Eucharist and Reconciliation. They heard his voice through prayer and the reading of Sacred Scripture. They heard his voice in the time they spent in youth groups such as LifeTeen.

And these men also heard the familiar voice of Jesus in their homes during times of family prayer. And through the Christian example of their parents.

More men from our parish continue to listen to the familiar voice of Christ the Shepherd. Next year, God willing, Chris Lapp will be ordained a deacon. And we continue to pray for the other men from our parish who are discerning the priesthood: Matt Soberalski, Joe Trout, Spenser St. Louis and David Huenick.

We must continue to pray for them every day. And we must pray for more men to follow in their footsteps. And, we need to pray that the young women from our parish will consider becoming a religious sister.

Today, the Church throughout the world is celebrating the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. And I would encourage all of you to make a visit to our Blessed Sacrament Chapel tomorrow/today to pray for vocations. The Blessed Sacrament will be exposed until 6PM Sunday.

And I would especially encourage young people who think God may be calling them to a vocation to the priesthood or religious life to make a visit. If you don’t have a driver’s license yet, tell mom and dad you’d like to visit the chapel to pray for your vocation. Better yet, parents, ask your children if they’ve ever thought about becoming a priest or sister, and then you bring them here to pray for their vocation.

I will often ask your sons and daughters if they are going to be a priest or a sister. I’ll say, “Joe, are you going to be a priest?’ You know what answer they give most often? “I don’t know.” And I say, “Perfect answer.”

They don’t know… yet. And the beauty of their answer is that it reveals that they’re not closed to the vocation of being a priest or a sister.

I remember one year at the Youth Mass and Rally at the March for Life in Washington D.C., Cardinal Wuerl asked if there were any young men our there who have ever considered the priesthood to please stand. Likewise, he asked if there were any young ladies who were thinking about becoming a sister to please stand. And when these dozens and dozens of young, high school men and women stood, the place went nuts with applause.

We need to encourage very strongly our sons and daughters who are thinking about being priests and sisters. We should support them with so much love and encouragement that they would feel no shame to tell someone they are thinking about being a priest or a sister.

We need to get priesthood and the religious life on the radar of our young people. Because the familiar voice of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, is trying to speak to them.

However, we know all too well that there is a lot of noise in the world that is trying to drown out the voice of Christ. In the Gospel today, Jesus speaks about the voices of strangers who try to lead us away from him.

What are these strange voices? I think the loudest voice out there that is drowning out the voice of Christ is the super-abundant excess of media and entertainment. Our ears are filled with iPod buds, our eyes are glued to Facebook and our fingers and constantly twitching out text after text after text.

Now I’m not saying these things are all bad. I have an iPod and I text.

And the Pope himself said we should use social networking sites like Facebook to evangelize and connect with one another. But internet connections can never replace the face to face connection of another human being. And iPods can never substitute for the still, small voice of Jesus who is calling out to you in moments of silent prayer.

There is no sweeter sound on this earth than the familiar voice of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who calls out to us, His sheep, by name, and leads us where He wishes us to go. If you don’t know what His voice sounds like, turn everything else down and listen. He speaks to us in the silence of prayer. He speaks to us in the sublimity of the Sacraments. He speaks to us through priests and sisters. And he speaks to us through parents and friends.

Remember that. He speaks to us through parents and friends. And consider this: you might be the very instrument Jesus is trying to use to call one of his future priests or sisters. Talk to your sons and daughters about the priesthood and religious life. Because they need to hear the familiar voice of the Good Shepherd.

In the Breaking of the Bread

2011-05-15T12:10:00.000-07:00

Homily from the 3rd Sunday in Easter - Year A

First of all, let me say congratulations to our First Holy Communicants gathered here today. It is a tremendous joy to have you join us at the altar for the very first time to share in the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist. I congratulate all of you and your parents, teachers, family and friends who have given so much time and prayer to help you prepare for this blessed day. Welcome!

If you lost something; for example, if you lost your favorite book, if your favorite book suddenly disappeared, and mom and dad were there, what do you think you might say? What question might you ask mom and dad? You’d probably ask them, “Where did my book go?”

In today’s Gospel, two of Jesus’ disciples are walking along the road to Emmaus. And they are very sad because they’ve lost something. They lost Jesus.

Just 3 days earlier, Jesus was crucified, hung upon the cross, died and was buried. And so the disciples think Jesus was gone forever. They are so sad at the loss of Jesus that they do not recognize him when he appears to them on the road to Emmaus on Easter Sunday.

However, Jesus slowly begins to reveal Himself to the disciples.

The first way Jesus reveals Himself to the disciples is by telling them about how the Sacred Scriptures talk about Jesus. In the Gospel today, Jesus interprets the sayings of Moses and the prophets, showing the two disciples that Moses and the prophets were speaking about Jesus. Jesus shares the Word of God with the disciples.

Have you ever noticed how the Mass, what we are celebrating right now is divided into two halves?Right now, we just finished the first half? What was the main thing we did in the second half of the Mass? That’s right we listened to the Word of God.

Like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, we listened to the Word of God. We hear about God’s plan for our lives. And we hear about Jesus too. Jesus reveals Himself to us at every Mass through the Liturgy of the Word.

In a few moments, we will begin the second half of the Mass? What is the main thing we get ready for and do in the second half of the Mass? That’s right, we get ready for Holy Communion.

That’s what Jesus does for the two disciples too. In the Gospel, the sun is starting to go down, it’s close to dinner time, so the disciples ask Jesus to stay and eat with them. And Jesus does some amazing things during the dinner. The Gospel says, “while He was with them at table, He took bread, said the blessing, broke it and gave it to them.”

When was another time we heard about Jesus taking bread, saying the blessing, breaking the bread and giving it to people?” The Last Supper with the Apostles on Holy Thursday. The multiplication of the loaves and fishes. And at this Mass!

In the second half of the Mass, Jesus will reveal Himself to us in the breaking of the bread, just like he did for the two disciples in the Gospel. In just a few moments, Jesus will take bread, say the blessing, break the bread, and give it to all of you for the first time. He does this through the priest.

Now, in the Gospel today, when Jesus took the bread, said the blessing, broke the bread and gave it to the disciples, something really amazing happened to Jesus.

Do you remember what happened to Jesus? That’s right, he disappeared. Doesn’t that sound strange?Why do you think Jesus would disappear like that?

How about this: maybe Jesus disappeared because He was still there in the bread! The host you are about to receive isn’t bread – it’s the Body of Christ. And what you are about to drink from the chalice isn’t wine – it’s the Blood of Christ.

When Jesus disappeared from the disciple’s sight, they don’t say, “Where did He go?” They say (in a manner) of speaking, “Wow! That was awesome!” They say, “Were not our hearts burning within us when while he spoke to us… and opened the Scriptures to us?”

The disciples are no longer sad. Instead, they are the happiest they’ve ever been in their life. Because they realize they didn’t lose Jesus. Jesus remains with them in the Eucharist. Jesus remains with them in the breaking of the bread. And it wasn’t until Jesus broke the bread that they finally saw Jesus and recognized Him. When Jesus breaks the bread, they see Jesus, they recognize Him, they know Him better than they’ve ever known Him before. And in just a few moments, you will know Jesus better than you’ve ever known Him before.

The person you want to know better than anyone else in your life is Jesus. And you will get to know Jesus the best through the Eucharist. Like the disciples, you will come to know Jesus through the breaking of the bread. Get to know Jesus more and more every single Sunday of your lives!

Touch Jesus' Divine Mercy

2011-05-15T12:00:00.000-07:00

Homily from the 2nd Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday) - Year A

We have a great deal to celebrate this weekend, both in our parish, and in the Catholic Church throughout the world. This weekend (and next) over 140 of our young men and women will receive the Body and Blood of Jesus in the Eucharist as they make their First Holy Communion.

This weekend, we also celebrate the beatification of Blessed Pope John Paul II.
And this Sunday we celebrate a day institutued by Blessed Pope John Paul II, Divine Mercy Sunday, a day in which we give thanks to Christ for the mercy He pours out upon us. In the 1930’s, a Polish nun, Saint Faustina Kowalska, received visions of Jesus in which he asked St. Kowalska to spread the message of His mercy. She did so by writing about her visions in a diary. And she also had a painting made of her vision of Christ, the Divine Mercy image.

When you look upon an image of the Divine Mercy, (and we have one in the gathering space as well as one in the alcove of the Sacred Heart of Jesus) you’ll notice two rays emanating from the heart of Jesus: one white and the other red. These two rays represent the water and Blood which flowed from the pierced side of Christ. And of course, the water and Blood which flowed from the side of Christ represent the waters of Baptism and the Precious Blood of the Eucharist.

Today, the Divine Mercy of Jesus, the water and Blood from his pierced side fall upon us and touch us.

Our Mass today began with a sort of “baptism” as we were touched with Holy Water from the Baptismal Font.

And the Mass today will end with another Sacrament: the Holy Eucharist as we are touched with the Blood of Christ.

And the message I want to pass along to you is really quite simple. Jesus wants us to stay in touch with Him. Jesus wants intimacy with us. Again and again and again.

Every time we walk into the church, we bless ourselves with Holy Water, making the Sign of the Cross, in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This isn’t just an empty ritual gesture. Every time we touch those Baptismal waters, we are renewing the promises we made at our Baptism: to reject Satan, and all his works, and all his empty promises; and that we believe in God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit and the instrument for doing His Divine Will here on earth: the Holy Catholic Church. Through this simple action, we are saying “Lord, You are on my side and I am on Yours; and I will follow You and You alone and I will faithfully follow all that You teach through Your Church.”

Every time we walk up to this sanctuary to receive the Eucharist, we are entering into Divine Intimacy with Jesus in which He hands over to us His very own Body and Blood. Jesus’ love and mercy for us is so great and so intense, that He desires that we not just know Him, not just admire Him, not even to just follow Him, but to truly become one with Him. And today, a number of our children will enter into this kind of union with Him for the very first time as they make their First Holy Communion.

As I began this homily with an image, the image of the Divine Mercy, I’d like to conclude with another; the episode we just heard in today’s Gospel: the image of the Apostle Thomas touching the pierced side of Jesus.

In his doubt, in his disbelief, in his despair; in his refusal to accept that Jesus had indeed risen from the dead, and was indeed still with us; Thomas said, “I will not believe unless I touch Jesus.”

One week later, Jesus answered Thomas’ prayer. Jesus said, (in a manner of speaking) “If seeing is believing, then here am I. If touching is believing then touch my pierced side.”

I want to urge our children making their First Holy Communion today, as well as their parents, and really all of us gathered here today to stay in touch with Jesus and His Divine Mercy. Make that blessing with the Holy Water and receive His Precious Blood again and again and again each and every Sunday. Grow in intimacy with Jesus.

Do not let doubt, or grief, or temptation, or unbelief, or uncertainty about your future, or what seem to be unanswered prayers trick you into thinking that Jesus isn’t real or that Jesus doesn’t care about you or isn’t listening to you. Jesus is real, He does care about you and He is always listening to you. Do not be like Thomas: do not doubt.

And at the same time, be like Thomas and touch the pierced side of Jesus. Touch His Divine Mercy. And receive His Divine Mercy.

The Empty Tomb - Call and Response

2011-04-30T11:33:00.000-07:00

Homily from Easter Sunday: The Resurrection of the Lord - Year A

If you were a movie director, and had to set the scene we just read in the Gospel to music, you’d probably select something very magnificent and triumphant. In fact, I’d bet that if we took a poll of our congregation here as to what piece of music we’d choose, the overwhelming winner would be the classic Alleluiah chorus from Handel’s Messiah. You hear that chorus and you automatically think: “The tomb is empty, Jesus is risen.”

However, I’d like to suggest that perhaps there’s another genre of music that would be equally fitting to serve as the soundtrack to today’s Gospel. A music genre that captures the joy, the excitement, the elation of the Resurrection of the Risen Savior, Jesus the Christ. The music I’m thinking of… is jazz.
I know, it sounds crazy. But jazz kind of works for today’s gospel for a couple of reasons.

You see, there are two key elements that make jazz, jazz. First, jazz has distinctive voices. You’ve got all sorts of different instruments playing in very different ways. Miles Davis’ trumpet sings with a soft, muted whisper. Benny Goodman’s clarinet swings with joyful glee. And Dave Brubeck’s piano flies at a frenetic pace up and down the scale. A bunch of different instruments, different voices, speaking in varied ways.

And the second element that makes jazz what it is, is that jazz is improvised music. There really isn’t any sheet music. The various musicians jump in and play their notes by a method called “call and response.” One musician will begin playing a melody that will call out to another bandmember, and that bandmember will pick up the melody, adding his own voice and variation on the theme keeping the same melody, but adding nuance and style that brings out a fuller expression of the song.

A really good jazz band can continue improvising seemingly forever, literally creating music on the spot. For you younger music fans out there who may not be familiar with jazz, a great example of a current band who does this in concert would be the Dave Matthews Band who will improvise one of their songs for 15, 20 or 30 minutes or more.

Today, we hear of three very different people coming to the empty tomb on Easter morning. Like jazz musicians, they all have very different voices and very different life experiences.

Mary Magdalene is the first called to the empty tomb. Scripture tells us that she had many demons in her past. But she was profoundly changed by her encounter with Jesus who drove those demons from her. She was the first called to the tomb to see the stone rolled away And she responded by running to tell Peter and John.

John, was the beloved disciple; the one who was always by the Lord’s side. As he and Jesus reclined at the table of the Last Supper, he leaned against Jesus’ chest to ask him secretly who the Lord’s betrayer would be. It was John who stood by Jesus at the Cross on Calvary. And it was John who took Mary into his home after the death of Jesus. John responded to the call of the empty tomb by running there as fast as he could but paused for a moment to let Peter enter first.

Then there’s Peter. The chief of the Apostles The first one to confess Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God. The Rock upon which Christ builds His Church. The one to whom Jesus gave the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. It was also Peter, of course, who denied even knowing Jesus when the Lord was in his most desperate hour. Yet, he was called to the empty tomb as well. And this time, he responds without fear.

All of us at one time or another in our lives can identify with one of these three from the Gospel. Perhaps we’re like Mary Magdalene, and we’ve had to overcome demons from our past or perhaps we continue to wrestle with demons today. Like Mary, we are called to the empty tomb of Jesus regardless of our past. And today, it’s our time to respond by encountering the risen Lord and receive new life from Him.

Perhaps we’re like John, and we’ve more or less been more or less quite faithful to the Lord all our lives. We’ve stayed by the side of the Lord, never drifting too far. Like John, we are called to the empty tomb. And today it’s our time to respond as he does. Perhaps we have to pause for a moment, to let a friend enter the tomb ahead of us. This weekend we're actually minus one Mass since we won't have the LifeTeen Mass this evening. So, we're packed in here this morning a little tighter than usual. Perhaps, we weren't able to sit in our usual seat today, but like John, we gladly defer to others to go ahead of us.
Perhaps we’re like Peter, and maybe for a time, we’ve denied Christ and set ourselves apart from Him. But like Peter, Jesus calls us to the empty tomb as well. And today it’s our time to respond by entering the tomb without hesitation or fear.

To walk into the place of new life in Christ. This Church, the place of new beginnings. To see here with our very own eyes as Peter did, the evidence of Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. To look upon Him in His glory in His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity, in the Eucharist about to made present on this very altar.

And to recognize and accept and embrace the fact, that Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, our Brother and Best Friend rose from the dead precisely for you, precisely for me, precisely for all of us. And now it’s our time to respond just like Peter, who returned to the temple again and again to celebrate the resurrection of Christ as we heard in our first reading.

Like Mary Magdalene, John and Peter (and like jazz musicians) we all have different experiences, different lives, different voices.

But we all receive the same call - the one call from none other than Jesus Himself to the empty tomb and to new life and new beginnings in His Church.

And we all must give the same response. We must run to the empty tomb, the sign of new life. And to this Church the dwelling place of new life. Today, and every day of his Resurrection, every Sunday.

Because this house is our truest home on earth. And Jesus wants all of us to keep responding to His call; and to keep playing this song for as long as we live.

Good Friday

2011-04-22T19:13:00.000-07:00

Homily from the Celebration of the Lord's Passion - Year A

Today we observe Good Friday. It’s an ironic title for today. I remember as a kid thinking, “What is good about today?” It seems as though everything that happens today is the opposite of good. Jesus is put on trial, convicted, tortured, crucified, dies and is buried.

Of course we know that Christ’s suffering and death saved us. But do we understand how even the ugliness of His suffering and death was good? Do we see Good Friday with eyes of faith?

Throughout the Gospel we just heard, we hear time and time again, various people making true, yet ironic, statements about Jesus. But they fail to see the real truth of their statements because they do not see with eyes of faith.

Caiaphas, the high priest who leads the Sanhedrin’s trial against Jesus says that, “It was better that one man should die rather than the people.” How ironic this statement is. It is true and good that one man, Jesus, the Lamb of God, should offer His life in sacrifice rather than leaving the entire world to condemnation. But Caiaphas cannot see the Lamb of God because he does not see with eyes of faith.

When Jesus tells Pontius Pilate that His mission is to testify to the truth, Pilate asks Him, “What is truth?’ How ironic this question is. Because Pilate is looking Truth right in the face. He is staring at the one who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. But Pilate cannot see the Truth because he does not see with eyes of faith.

Last Sunday, we heard the people say, as they were crying out for Jesus to be crucified, “His blood be upon us and on our children.” How ironic this statement is. Because the Blood of Jesus does fall upon the people and their children.

However, as Pope Benedict points out in his new book Jesus of Nazareth – Part Two, the Blood of Christ “does not cry out for vengeance and punishment on the people; it brings reconciliation. It is not poured out against anyone; it is poured out for many, for all.” His Blood is upon us and our children; and it brings our salvation. But the people do not see with eyes of faith. They think as men think, not as God thinks.

When Jesus triumphantly entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, it was the time when families would procure for themselves a lamb that they would eat on the Passover that Friday. And the days between Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and his crucifixion were the same days when the families would inspect their lambs to make sure it was a lamb without blemish. If the lamb was found without blemish, it would be slaughtered at twilight on Friday.

When Jesus, the Lamb of God is brought before Pontius Pilate, he is inspected by the Roman governor. And Pilate, seeing no blemish in Jesus, makes the ironic declaration, “I find no guilt in him.” And then, Jesus is slaughtered at the same moment the Passover lambs are being slaughtered in the temple. But Pilate and the chief priests and the people cannot see the unblemished Lamb because they do not see with the eyes of faith.
In our own lives, we experience hardship and suffering and death. And as difficult as it so often is, we must look upon suffering with eyes of faith. If we believe in what the Cross of Jesus did for us, then we must also accept that taking up our own crosses means the same thing.

For the Cross of Christ and our daily crosses that follow His are redemptive – they offer salvation. Suffering as grave as the terrible events in Japan is redemptive when it moves the entire world to compassion. And suffering as common as cleaning up the house is redemptive when it is done with love.

Suffering can strengthen us, which is ironic, because often in our suffering we feel weak. Suffering can draw us closer to God, which is ironic, because often in our suffering we feel far from God. And suffering can be redemptive, which is ironic, because often in our suffering we feel condemned.

Suffering is redemptive when it is joined to the suffering of Christ and offered up to the Father. Then, we can see even the ugliness of suffering with eyes of faith. Then, suffering can take on new, even ironic, meaning. Then, the “Fridays” of our suffering can become good.

He Loves His Own to the End

2011-04-22T18:45:00.000-07:00

Homily from Holy Thursday - Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper - Year A

In the seminary, we began preaching classes right away in our first year of theology studies. A priest preaches nearly every day at every Mass so they wanted to give us as much practice, teaching and correction as they could in the four years of theology studies.

The faculty priests teach these classes. And they teach us a number of techniques such as how to use illustrations to paint a picture for your imagination, how to interpret the scriptures in the light of your lives, how to preach without depending too much on notes, how to make eye contact, how to project well enough to be understood and so on.

However, the most important instruction I received for preaching came not from one of the priests but rather from a lay faculty member: Dr. Perry Cahall, who you may remember gave a talk here a few months ago on the Theology of the Body.

I asked Dr. Cahall, “What do you want to hear in a homily.” Dr. Cahall thought for just a moment and said, “I want you to lead me to Jesus. And I want to hear your love for Jesus and I want you to tell me about Jesus’ love for me.”

Today, of all days, demands such a message. At the beginning of today’s Gospel we hear these wonderful words about Jesus: “He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.”

Jesus loves us. Jesus doesn’t just save us. Jesus doesn’t just feed us. He doesn’t just work miracles for us or just teach us how to pray. Of course He does indeed do all these things. But He does them, first and foremost, because He loves us.

He loves us because we are His own. We belong to Him. Through Him we were created. In Him we have life. And He draws us constantly through His Holy Spirit into union with Him and His Father because we are His own.

And He loves us to the end. He loves us to the end of His life. He is denied, betrayed, arrested, falsely accused, scourged, mocked, spit upon, crowned with thorns, made to carry the cross, is crucified, died and buried… because He loves us to the end.

He also loves us to that end which is our destiny. Our lives are not to end in suffering and death just as His life does not end in suffering and death. It is His love which raises us up from death and into union with His Father in Heaven.

And lastly, He loves us to the end of time. So He gives Himself to the Apostles in such a way that He may be given to all people forever.

On this night, on Holy Thursday in the Upper Room, Jesus shows the depths of His love for His Apostles by giving them Himself. He gives them His very own Body and Blood. On this night, Holy Thursday, Jesus gives the Apostles the Sacrament of the Eucharist.

And in order that He might love you and I in exactly the same way that He loved His Apostles, He commands them: “Do this in memory of me.” In saying these words, Jesus tells the Apostles, “Now, you give Me to the world in the exact same way. You give them My Body and Blood.” On this night, Holy Thursday, Jesus gives the Apostles the Sacrament of Holy Orders, the ministerial priesthood.

He did this so that He could love you and I no less than He loved those who walked with Him and talked with Him 2,000 years ago.

He gives us the Eucharist, so that we can eat, in fact, His very Body and Blood just as the Apostles did.

He gives us the Sacrament of Reconciliation so that we can hear, in fact, the very voice of Jesus say to us, “I absolve you from your sins” just as the woman caught in adultery heard his voice.

He gives us the Sacrament of Confirmation so that we can receive, in fact, the gifts of the Holy Spirit just as the Apostles did on Pentecost.

He gives us the Sacrament of Baptism so that just as He died and entered the silence and darkness of the tomb, we can die to sin and enter the silence and darkness of the water, so that, like Him, we too can rise, in fact, into new life just as He did at the Resurrection.

He gives us the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick so that we can receive, in fact, spiritual healing, just as he gave to so many of his day who were spiritually dead.

He gives us the Sacrament of Matrimony so that he can be, in fact, present at your marriage just as he was at the wedding feast in Cana.

And he gives us the Sacrament of Holy Orders so that he can be, in fact, present to you through the priest whom he has chosen and commanded, “Do this in remembrance of me.” And, “As I have done for you, you should also do.”

Jesus gives us the Sacraments so that he can love us, his own in the world, and continue loving us to the end. Through the Sacraments we experience and receive, in fact, Jesus’ love, in ways that cannot be experienced or received anywhere else. Because in the Sacraments it is truly Jesus who is present. And the Sacraments are where Jesus loves us most passionately.

And to our elect, those who will be received in the Church in just a couple of days at the Easter Vigil, I hope you feel like brides and grooms waiting excitedly for your wedding day. Because at the Easter Vigil, you are going to experience the love of Jesus as you never have before.

I know I speak for Monsignor John when I say it is the joy of our lives, as priests of Jesus Christ, to be Him for you. To be an “alter Christus,” another Christ to you. To be chosen by Him to love you as He loves you. To be able to say those words: “I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” “I absolve you from your sins in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” “Take this all of you and eat it. This is my Body which will be given up for you.”

The priest is given the privileged and undeserved blessing of being put in the ecstatic position of being the point of contact of the love between Jesus and you!

You know how we all say, right before receiving the Eucharist, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you.” Trust me when I say, that what’s going through my mind at that moment is, “Lord, I am not worthy to give you.”

But Jesus does it anyway. He allows Himself to be given and received by us, unworthy as we are. And He does this for one reason and one reason only: He loves us.

He loves His own in the world and He loves them to the end.

See How You Are Loved

2011-04-22T09:33:00.000-07:00

Homily from Passion Sunday (Palm Sunday) - Year A

Today, on Palm Sunday, we celebrate Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem and the beginning of Holy Week. It was Holy Week that ultimately led me to decide to enter the seminary.

A handful of years ago, I simply decided I wanted Jesus more a part of my life. And I decided to get to know Jesus better by attending all of the Holy Week liturgies. I went to Mass on Palm Sunday, the Chrism Mass at the Cathedral on Tuesday, the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Thursday, the Good Friday Service, And the greatest liturgical celebration of the whole year in the Church: the epic Great Easter Vigil on Saturday night.

It was during baptisms at the Easter Vigil that I decided to apply for the seminary.

This particular year, I was a parishoner at St. Pius X in Granger. The pastor there is Monsignor Bill Schooler. And for the baptisms, Monsignor Bill took off his chasuble, his shoes and his socks and walked into the knee deep water of the baptismal fount. He called each of the people to be baptized into the water. And as the elect entered, they got down on their knees so that the water was up to their chest. Then Monsignor Bill took a pitcher, lowered it into the baptismal waters, filling it to the brim and poured it completely over their heads three times saying, "I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

As each person rose from the waters, reborn into the Body of Christ, the choir sang the "A word" which we're not allowed to say for a few more days so I'll let you figure that one out for yourselves. Each baptism was triumphant and beautiful.

Then Monsignor Bill got to the last person to be baptized. And it was a young boy who had trouble walking. And it was very clear that this young man would not be able to walk down the steps of the baptismal font on his own, with the water swirling and so forth, without difficulty.

So, seeing this, Monsignor Bill reached over, picked the boy up in his arms, and lowered him three times into the water saying, "I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

The boy let out a joyful "Whoooaaahhhh!" as he was swept through the waters. The choir started singing, trumpets were blaring, people were crying everywhere.

And I said to myself, "That's it. That's what I want to do." That's what a priest does. That's what Jesus does. Jesus takes His creation into His arms, claims us for Himself, and gives us new life.

Now, I know I don’t have to tell you that Holy Week can be useful for discovering God’s will for all of our lives, not just those discerning priesthood or religious life. By entering into the Passion of Christ, we discover who Jesus really is.

We just heard in the Gospel that it was when the centurion saw the death of Jesus and the immediate effects of that death (the veil of the sanctuary torn from top to bottom, earthquakes, tombs opening up, the dead rising from the grave) then, the centurion saw who this was and said, “Truly, this was the Son of God!”

And when we discover who Jesus really is, we discover who we are.

This Holy Week, we see the depths of Jesus’ love for us.

On Holy Thursday, we see Jesus the Priest offer Himself to us under the form of bread and wine at the Last Supper and we see Jesus the Servant wash the feet of His Apostles.

On Good Friday, we see Jesus the Lamb of God, offer Himself in sacrifice on the wood of the cross, to take away the sins of the world.

And at the great Easter Vigil on Saturday evening and Easter Sunday morning, we see Jesus the King, rise triumphantly from the grave, victorious over sin and death.

Come… see Jesus each of these days. See how loved you are by Him.

We are not despicable creatures. We are loved by God. And you will know who you truly are when you know you are loved by God.

Take Away the Stone

2011-04-14T11:24:00.000-07:00

Homily from the 5th Sunday in Lent - Year A

When I was a little kid, one of the things I hated doing more than anything was cleaning under my bed. I had tons of toys as a kid, mostly Star Wars stuff. And I’d sit on the floor and play with the action figures, the vehicles, etc. Toys would be strewn all over the place.

I had the big Darth Vader helmet action figure carrying case. But, when I was done playing, I wouldn’t put everything back in it’s proper place, I’d just shove everything under the bed. Paper airplanes wouldn’t go in the trash – they’d get shoved under the bed. Juice boxes, apple cores, half eaten pizza bagels – all under the bed. I was a slob as a kid.

And, I was really good at making my bed in those days. I’d get that comforter coming off the side of the bed just perfectly so the edge was resting just perfectly along the floor. Why? Because mom would be walking by and I didn’t want her to see the mess under my bed. But mom knew her son well. And every few weeks she’d peek under the bed.

One time I saw her lift up the comforter and her head snapped back like she had just walked into a brick wall. "Get this cleaned up right now!” she’d bellow. Then I’d retort with the time-honored protest of every 7 year old in the history of western civilization: “But mooooooom!!!”

Because I knew what torture it would be. To have to dig everything out. It acted like it was an impossible task. I hated it so much, I would hem and haw and shuffle my feet and it would take me hours (it seemed) to clean up a mess that had only taken moments to create.

In the gospel today, Jesus stands in front of Lazarus’ tomb and says, “Take away the stone.” And Martha retorts with her version of “But mooooooom!!!” Martha says, “Lord, by now there will be a stench; he has been dead for four days.”

In those days, Jews believed that the soul of a dead person would hover around the body for three days. But on the fourth day, the soul would take off, bodily deomposition would set in, and there was no hope of resuscitation of the dead person.

Martha, sees no hope for her brother Lazarus. And when she hears Jesus say, “Take away the stone” she says, “No way, I don’t wan’t to go there.” She’s like me at 7. “Please mom don’t make me clean out from under my bed. Don’t make me go under there.”

What is under your bed? What have you shoved under there, year after year after year? What have you concealed with the perfectly laid comforter that sits neatly against the floor so no one can see? What dead things do we have hidden inside our tombs?

Jesus is saying something to us today. He says to you and I, “Take away the stone.” And perhaps our reaction is, “No Lord please. Don’t make me go there. By now there will be a stench. It’s been way too long. There’s no hope for me. It’s been four days. My spirit is gone.”

Jesus says something else to us. The same thing he said to Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live.”

Jesus isn’t just talking about life after death. He’s talking about new life right now. Today.

Take away the stone and let Jesus shout to you: “Come out!” Don’t say, “No Lord, there will be a stench.” Let him say “Come out” to you in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

When Lazarus came out of the tomb, he was bound with burial bands and his face wrapped in cloth. and Jesus said, “Untie him and let him go.”

Jesus gives the same command to every priest who hears your confession: “Untie him. Untie her from her sin… and let her go.”

You are not a hopeless situation, whether its been four days, four years or forty years.

Take away the stone.

Dress Rehearsal

2011-03-22T17:32:00.000-07:00

Homily from the 2nd Sunday of Lent - Year A

On Friday afternoon, I stopped by the Parish Hall to watch our parish grade school students rehearse for their production of "The Wizard of Oz." It was the last rehearsal before the shows on Saturday; a sneak peek, or preview, of the show to come.

You could say that in the Gospel today, Jesus gives the Apostles a preview of what is about to happen. The Transfiguration is a sneak peek, if you will, of the Resurrection. We hear in Sacred Scripture: “He was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.” The Apostles see Jesus in his glory.

We might ask ourselves, why does Jesus reveal himself in this way? Why does Jesus become transfigured and why does he allow the Apostles to see this sight? He does this because things are about to get very bad. Very soon, the Apostles are going to see a very different Jesus. They will soon see the tortured face of the crucified Christ on Calvary.

Not long before this episode, Jesus predicts his passion for the very first time. He tells the Apostles, in very explicit terms “that he must go to Jerusalem and be killed.” And he tells the Apostles, they’re going to have to follow in his footsteps: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”

So he wants to show the Apostles, through his Transfiguration, that his death is not the end of the story. When they see him go up the mountain of Calvary, he wants them to have the hope of the mountain of the Transfiguration.

When they see him hang upon his Cross with a thief on his right and a thief on his left, he wants them to remember that there was one on his right and one on his left, Moses and Elijah, on the mountain of the Transfiguration.

When they see the darkness of the hour of his death, he wants them to be mindful of the glory and brightness of his face. He wants them, in the midst of the horror of the crucifixion, to remember, if they can, the Transfiguration and look forward with hope to the Resurrection.

The Apostles are about to see real horror in the Crucifixion. We see real horror too. All you have to do is look at the news over the last couple of weeks. The people of Japan will continue to suffer for a very long time from the effects of the earthquake and tsunam; there is violence and war throughout the world; domestic abuse in the family; and so on. These are all modern day crucifixions.

I’m sure you can look at your own life and point to an episode present or past and say with certainty, “This is how I am being crucified.” Perhaps you want to cry out like Jesus and ask your Father, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.”

Jesus reveals to us in his Transfiguration that our Father is always present. Like the Apostles, we follow Jesus up the mountain; the mountain of our struggles and crucifixions. A cloud overshadows us. And from that cloud, we hear the voice of our Father say, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

And we’re afraid to listen to him. Because he’s telling us to take up our cross and follow him and we don’t want to face that kind of trial. And like the disciples, we fall face down and are very much afraid.

But look at what Jesus does next: the Gospel tells us, “But Jesus came… and touched them… saying, “Rise, and do not be afraid.”

You will frequently hear Jesus say, “rise" to people. It means a lot more than just "get up." When Jesus says "rise," he's alluding to the Resurrection. For example, when he tells Martha, "Your brother Lazarus will rise." Or, when he says to the little girl "talitha koum" which means, "little girl arise." Other times, he's speaking about a spiritual resurrection like when he tells the lame man at the pool of Bethesda, "Rise and take up your mat."

In our lives, we do see and experience horrific things. We feel like we’re being crucified. And sometimes it’s going to get worse before it gets better. It did for Jesus.

How are you going to let Jesus touch you and say "rise" to you this Lent? Perhaps you need to let him do this in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Perhaps you teens need to let him do this at the LifeTeen retreat next weekend.

Yes, we do have to go through the Cross. But death and crucifixion and the pain you’re going through is not the end. Let Jesus touch you; hear him say “rise.” Let him lead you to the glory of his Resurrection. And let him lead you to your glory of new life in him.

Fundamentals, Not Slam Dunks

2011-03-06T09:19:00.000-08:00

Homily from the 9th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A

Click here to see Blake Griffin's dunk.

Did any of you see the Slam Dunk contest at the NBA All-Star Game a couple of weeks ago? The winner was Blake Griffin of the LA Clippers. It all started with a gospel choir coming onto the court and singing "I Believe I Can Fly." Then, a car was parked in front of the hoop. Griffin sprints toward the car. A friend of his was inside the car, standing through the sunroof and he alley-oops the ball to Griffin. Griffin jumps over the car, grabs the ball in mid-air, and slams it home.
A very impressive slam dunk.

However, Blake Griffin’s free throw percentage is 63%.

Out of 130 qualified players ranked in the NBA, Blake Griffin is 127th in free throw percentage.

Now don't get me wrong, Blake Griffin is not a lousy player. He was the #1 pick in the draft last year. He’s one of the top scorers and rebounders in the league. He’s #2 in double-doubles. And he’s obviously really good at delivering a very flashy slam dunk.

But his Achilles Heel is standing perfectly still, 15 feet in front of the basket, and making a free shot, with no one guarding or blocking him.

I like to pretend to golf every now and then. Sometimes, I can be really good off the tee. When I make good contact, I can drive it over 200 yards – but rarely. Most of the time, I’m slicing it off into the woods, hitting into water, or hitting it off the toe or heel.

But why not every time? Because I don’t practice... I don’t have good fundamentals. I don’t have a good swing drilled into my head. I just walk up there and clobber the ball. And 1 out of every 50 shots or so are great. But the other 49 stink.

Anyone can make the flashy play every now and then. But only those who practice the basic fundamentals over and over and over again will become real players of the game.

In our first reading, Moses tells the people, “Take these words of mine into your heart and soul. Bind them at your wrist as a sign, and let them be a pendant on your forehead.” Today, Orthodox Jews still wear a Shel Rosh – little black box which contains a verse of the Torah on their foreheads. They take Moses' words: drill these words into you, have them before you all the time, very literally. Moses is saying, make them second nature to you; don’t forget the fundamentals.

What are the fundamentals? Obey the commandments of the LORD, your God and turn away from following other Gods. This is, of course, the first commandment: “I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me.” We are to worship God alone.

And there are consequences to worshipping God as we ought or failing to do so. Moses says we will receive a blessing for obeying and a curse for not obeying.

We should remember that God's commandment to obey is not some power play on His part. When a coach is trying to teach an athelete, he's not being arbitrary and tyrannical. There is a right way to hit a golf ball and there are many wrong ways. There is a right way to make a lay up and there are many wrong ways. There is a right way to enter the Kingdom of God. And that's by following God and His commands alone.

In the Gospel, Jesus says that the one who listens on his words and acts on them will be like a house built on rock. In other words, you will be someone who practices the fundamentals and basics.
Whoever listens to his words and does not act on them however, will be like a house built on sand. Like I said, everyone every now and then can accidentally hit a good drive. But when the pressures come; when you're facing a water hazard or a sandtrap or the trees along the fairway, will you have practiced the fundamentals well enough to hit it down the fairway without fear or anxiety?

When the rains fall and the flood waters come and the winds buffet your house, will you be swept away? Or will you stand strong with the grace of God?

And the Lord has something to say about our "slam dunks," our flashy play, our false piety. He says that not everyone who says "Lord, Lord" will enter the Kingdom of God. But only the one who does the will of the Father. Doing the flashy things won't get you into Heaven.

We don't want to reach the end of our lives and say to the Lord, "Did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not cast out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name? Did we not perform awesome "slam dunks" in your name?" Jesus is not interested in the flash. He wants you to practice your free throws in the quiet solitude of the gym called Lent.

Perfect Holiness

2011-02-25T10:25:00.000-08:00

Homily From the 7th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A

On Wednesdays I often have lunch with Fr. Drew Curry, the associate pastor from St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. We’re good friends. We attended seminary together and we both grew up in the same parish: Holy Family in South Bend. Over these Wednesday lunches, we exchange ideas for our upcoming Sunday homilies.

Fr. Drew asked what I was going to preach on and I said, “holiness.” In the first reading, God says to His people, “Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy.” In the second reading, Paul tells the Corinthians, “the temple of God, which you are, is holy.” And in the Gospel, Jesus implores us to ultimate holiness when he urges us to “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Fr. Drew then told me that when he asked Bishop D’Arcy a couple years ago if the seminarians could go on a walking pilgrimage from South Bend to Fort Wayne, Bishop D’Arcy asked him why we wanted to do that. Fr. Drew told the Bishop, “To grow in holiness and pray for the holiness of the people of our diocese.” To which, Bishop D’Arcy asked, “And what is holiness?” And it made Fr. Drew think a bit. What is holiness?

Click here to order this book.

So we finished our lunch and then we went to All Saints Catholic bookstore to look at some books. And I spotted this book on the shelf, “The Fulfillment of All Desire" by Ralph Martin. For about the last year and a half, I’ve seen this book again and again. It was on the desk of my spiritual director in seminary. I’d spot it in the offices of priests. Recently, I’d see it on the desk of Dorothy Schuerman, our pastoral associate. So, I decided to buy the book. I didn’t read the summary on the back cover; didn’t look at the table of contents; didn’t even open the front cover. I just pulled it off the shelf and bought it.

So, this past Wednesday night, I began reading it. And the very first sentence of the very first chapter of the book says this: “Jesus summed up His teaching in a startling and unambiguous call to His followers: ‘You therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.’”

And the title of the first chapter is “Called to Holiness.”

So thank you Holy Spirit for dropping this book in my lap. So let's talk about holiness. Let's talk about perfection.

Click here to order this book.

Bishop Rhoades gave us copies of Matthew Kelly’s book “Rediscovering Catholicism." In it, Kelly says that holiness is surrendering to the will of God. It is the desire to do His will. Allowing God to fill every corner of your being. It’s being set apart for God

“In any moment”, Kelly says, “when you surrender to the will of God and choose to be the-best-version-of-yourself, you are holy.” “Striving for holiness, is to be continually answering God’s invitation to grasp the moments of our lives and allow God to use them to transform us into all he has created us to be.”

“The surest signs of holiness are not how often a person goes to Church, how many hours he spends in prayer, what good spiritual books he has read or even the number of good works he performs.

“The surest signs of holiness are an insatiable desire to become all God created us to be, an unwavering commitment to the will of God, and an unquenchable concern for unholy people.”

Perhaps you’re thinking, “That’s not for me. I’m not capable of that kind of holiness. I can’t surrender my will to God in that way. That’s only for people like priests, or nuns, or the Saints.” Well, that’s not true. Jesus addresses these words to all of his disciples. All of us are called to holiness. And Jesus calls all of us to be Saints. It is God’s greatest desire for us to be in union with him in Heaven. And that is the definition of Sainthood

As Ralph Martin points out, “if we want to enter heaven we must be made ready for the sight of God. Holiness isn’t an “option.” There are only Saints in heaven.

How do we become holy? How do we become perfect? By cooperating with God’s will in the everyday encounters of our lives.

How many of you have seen the movie “Remember the Titans”? It’s a great movie; a true story about a high school football team that has tremendous success. Denzel Washington plays the head coach, Hermann Boone, and all season long, he demands perfection from the team. So they win every game leading up to the state championship.

Well, in the championship, they get beat up pretty bad by their opponent throughout the first half and they go into the locker room at half time bruised and trailing. Coach Boone then speaks to his team and tells them: “You boys are doing all you can do, everyone can see that. Win or lose, we’re going to walk out of this stadium tonight with our heads held high. Do your best, that’s all anybody can ask for.”

Then one of the players speaks up: “No it ain’t coach. With all due respect, you demanded more of us. You demanded perfection.”

“Now I ain’t sayin’ I’m perfect,” the player goes on, “cause I’m not. And I ain’t never gonna be, none of us are. But we have won every single game we have played, ‘til now. So this team is perfect. We stepped out on that field that way tonight, and if it’s all the same to you Coach Boone, that’s how we want to leave it.”

Just like Coach Boone, Jesus demands perfection from us. And he demands perfection from us because perfection is possible.

Ralph Martin says in his book that “when we hear these words we can be understandably tempted to discouragement, thinking that perfection for us is impossible. And indeed, left to our own resources, it certainly is. But with God, all things are possible.”

Just like the football player said, “I’m not perfect. I ain’t never gonna be, none of us are.” But, “this team is perfect. Alone, we are imperfect. But, with God; with our team of the Holy Trinity, we can be made perfect. We can be transformed. That’s what holiness is. Cooperating with God working in us. Working as a team with God.

Raising the Bar

2011-02-13T14:06:00.000-08:00

Homily from the 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A

Every time a track and field athlete clears the bar in the high jump, he pushes the bar up another notch and strives to make a higher jump. This, of course, is where we get the phrase “raising the bar.”

You could say that Jesus is “raising the bar” for us in today’s Gospel. We continue to hear the greatest speech of all time: the Sermon on the Mount. And our reading today is the beginning of what scholars call “The Antitheses.” So-called because Jesus cites a number of laws from the OT as theses statements that begin, “You have heard it said…” and immediately responds to each with his own antitheses that begin, “But I say to you…” each time, raising the bar.

You have heard it said you shall not kill. But I say to you, do not even get angry with one another

You have heard it said you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, do not even look with lust at one another.

I have heard people ask, “Didn’t Jesus do away with the old law and make life easier?” The answer is no. The old law said, do not kill. Jesus said do not even get angry. Which law is more demanding? The old law said, do not commit adultery. Jesus said do not lust. Is Jesus requiring more or less of us?

You might ask, “Why does Jesus demand more of us? Shouldn’t he make it easier?” But it’s no different than graduating from one grade to the next. The more knowledge we acquire, the more we’re expected to know.

The old law was given to us so we could first learn the difference between good and evil. Now we are given a savior so we can learn to truly love one another.

Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish but to fulfill.” Jesus brings the old law to fulfillment by digging deep within our hearts and getting to the root of our sins. He raises the bar and takes us to the next level; to the ultimate goal, to perfection.

The law and the prophets and the law of Jesus do not conflict with one another. But they definitely differ in terms of quality.

Laws always deal in terms of limits. Don’t drive over the speed limit. Be home by 11. Never wear white before Memorial Day.

Jesus however does not want us to be motivated by the limits of law. Rather, he wants us to be motivated by love which has no limits. Avoiding anger and lust require us not just to stay within certain boundaries. They require us to let Jesus into our hearts and to love with his love.

Sometimes I’m asked, “Father, how far is too far?” But this isn’t really the right question is it? It’s a question that asks, “How much can I get away with before I really get into trouble?” Rather, we should ask, “How do I grow in intimacy with someone and remain pure every step of the way?”

Many people use the Ten Commandments as a guide for their examination of conscience before going to confession. And most people will consider the 5th commandment: “Thou shall not kill” and say, “I haven’t killed anyone. Haven’t broken that one.” But today, Jesus tells us that when we use bitter speech towards one another, when we say “Raqa” which means “you idiot” to one another we tear at the fabric of that person. When we gossip, do we not kill someone’s reputation?

People will consider the 6th commandment “Thou shall not commit adultery and say, “I haven’t broken that one.” But Jesus tells us that to even look with lust at another is a failure to love as we should. Maybe you’ve heard someone say, “It’s OK to look, but not touch.” Well, if we believe Jesus, we know this is a huge lie.

Now there’s nothing wrong with normal, healthy human desire. It’s a gift from God and how we bring new life into the world. But let’s be honest about what lust is. Lust is when we use another person for our own satisfaction. It’s when we objectify another person for our own pleasure. And love is always and forever about giving, not getting.

If lust is a struggle, one thing you can remind yourself of when you feel that temptation is to remember that that is someone’s daughter... that is someone’s son.

Yes, Jesus is challenging us. He’s rooting out our root sins. He’s placing greater demands on us. And this process is not without its growing pains. That’s because Jesus is dwelling within our hearts and he’s stretching our hearts, so that we will follow his law of love which knows no limits He’s raising the bar. Because with his grace we will clear the hurdles of our sins.

High Praise - High Expectations

2011-02-06T11:42:00.000-08:00

Homily from the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A

This past week, was fantastic. School was out Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday; we had a 2 hour delay on Friday. Monsignor’s gone and I have my run of the rectory. As he was walking out the door, I told him, “You know I’m going to trash the place while you’re gone.” “Please do!” he replied.

But the best thing that happened this week: the Notre Dame football team signed a top-10 class of incoming freshmen for next year, including St. Vincent’s own Tony Springman. In fact, one of the recruiting sites (and clearly, the best one of them all) MaxPreps.com says that Notre Dame’s recruiting class is the best in the nation. That’s pretty high praise for the Irish. And of course that brings along pretty high expectations.

Jesus does the same thing in today’s Gospel. Jesus heaps some pretty high praise on us, calling us “salt of the earth” and “light of the world.” Likewise, such praise means Jesus has high expectations for us.

Salt is a sign of purity. Romans said salt was the purest of all things, because it came from the purest of all things: the sun and the sea. Salt was also added to Jewish sacrifices to make them pure.

Jesus praises us by saying, “You are pure.” Therefore, Jesus has high expectations for us to become and remain pure. Our language must be pure – especially around the home and our families. That which we look upon must be pure. We must look upon each other with pure eyes.

Salt is also a preservative. It’s the primary ingredient in meat curing. When it’s applied to meats and fish, it prevents the growth of bacteria and keeps food from going rancid.

Jesus praises us by calling us the “preservative of the earth." Likewise, Jesus has high expectations for us to have an antiseptic influence on life. We have to be agents of preservation of the moral standards and values given to us by God. We must defend truths of the faith and human condition – the dignity of the human person, the meaning of marriage, justice for all.

Salt also brings out the flavor of foods. You just can’t have popcorn without salt. I’ve even see people salt their watermelon.

Jesus praises us by calling us the “flavor enhancers of the world." Likewise, Jesus has high expectations for us to bring out that which is good in the world and make it better.

And Jesus calls us the “light of the world.” Light is first and foremost something to be seen. In a dark room, a lit candle is unmistakable and unavoidable.

Jesus praises us by saying “you are the very thing I want people to see in the world.” Likewise, Jesus has high expectations for our Christianity to be visible to others. We cannot be secret disciples. We have to be out there what we are in here. Jesus doesn’t call us the light of the Church, he calls us “the light of the world.” “So, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”

Light is also something that serves as a guide. Light makes clear the way ahead. Can you imagine driving at night without headlights?

Jesus praises us by calling us the example he wants others to follow. Likewise, Jesus has high expectations for us to be good examples. When people hear us speak and see us act, they should say to themselves either implicitly or explicitly, “Here is a person who listens to, and follows, Christ.”

And lastly, light serves as a warning; ;ike a lighthouse on a dark and rocky storm-swept shore that the ships at sea of the rocks and shoals.

Jesus praises us by calling us "lifeguards of the world." Likewise, Jesus has high expectations for us to have the courage to offer fraternal correction to our brothers and sisters when they stray

You are salt and light. You are God’s chosen instruments of good. You are agents of purity and preservation. You are the solicitors of righteousness and the illuminators of truth. You are the voices of reason and warning.

And like salt and light, you cannot be contained. The light of the earth must not put under a bushel basket. Likewise, the salt of the earth cannot stay safe inside the salt shaker. We must get out there into the world. Like salt and light, we must penetrate every crevasse and corner of the world with the Gospel of Christ.

The Greatest Speech of All Time

2011-01-30T10:05:00.000-08:00

Homily from the 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A

A couple of weeks ago, our nation had the occasion to take note of two of the most memorable speeches in 20th century American history. As our nation observed Martin Luther King Jr. day January 17th, we recalled, of course, Dr. King’s moving “I Have a Dream” speech, in which he cried out for racial equality and an end to discrimination. Three days later, was the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address in which he uttered those unforgettable words, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

And as powerful and moving and memorable as these two speeches may be, neither they, nor such speeches as Winston Churchill’s “We Will Fight on the Beaches,” Abraham Lincoln’s immortal “Gettysburg Address," or, dare I say it, Knute Rockne's "Win one for the Gipper" can begin to approach the beauty, the importance, the magnitude, the influence or the effect of the speech whose opening words we hear in today’s Gospel.

Today, we hear the beginning of the greatest speech in the history of mankind: Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. No speech has been more pondered, more influential or more quoted. And no speech has ever been more revolutionary.

Here, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus completely turns upside down our previous ways of dealing with one another. Gone are the days of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” Here are the days of “turning the other cheek.” Gone are the days of “love your neighbor and hate your enemy." Now are the days of “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

Here, in the Sermon on the Mount, we hear the Golden Rule: “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you.”

Here, in the Sermon on the Mount, we are given what are quite possibly the most frequently recited words in the history of human speech, the Lord’s Prayer, the “Our Father.”

And here, in the Sermon on the Mount, we hear its beautiful preamble: today’s Gospel the Beatitudes. And as Jesus talks about the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers, he’s not just talking about us and who he wishes us to be; he’s talking about himself.

The poor in spirit are those who are detached from the things of this world and attached only to God. Who is more attached to God than the one who is “one in being with the Father”?

Those who mourn are those who show sorrow in the face of sin and compassion in the face of injustice. Who is more mournful than Jesus in his agony in the garden or he who wept at the death of Lazarus?

The meek are the humble and the selfless. Who is more meek than he who opened not his mouth but was led like a lamb to the slaughter and gave his life for us?

The merciful are not just those who show pity, but those who show true empathy for another and step into the shoes of another and see with their eyes. Who is more empathetic to you and I than the one who stepped into our shoes by becoming a man and truly entered the human condition?

The peacemakers are not just those who love peace talk about it, but those who do something about it. And who in the whole history of the world has done more to make peace than the one who offered his life on the Cross in order to make peace between an all-loving God and a people who rejected that love through sin?

In the beatitudes we hear who we are called to be: poor in spirit, merciful, meek, peacemakers. And we are shown how to be who we are called to be by looking at the one who is perfectly poor spirit, perfectly merciful, perfectly meek: Jesus Christ.

We become like him because he became like us. We come to share in his divinity because he humbled himself to share in our humanity. And we will have the grace and the courage to be insulted and persecuted and have every kind of evil uttered against us for his sake, because he was insulted and persecuted and had every kind of evil uttered against him for our sake.

Indeed, the Sermon on the Mount is the greatest speech of all time. But to be quite honest, to qualify it as a speech, does not do it justice and is, quite frankly, a rather trite categorization.

The Sermon on the Mount is so much more than just a speech because of who speaks it. Not a political leader or a great sports figure. These are the words of Jesus Christ, the Son of God

It is so much more than a speech because of who it is spoken to. Not just a nation or a people living in a particular century. These are words spoken to every single human being in every nation in the whole history of the world.

And it is so much more than a speech because of what it does. Not just inspiring people of one color to live in harmony with people of another color or asking us to ask what we can do for our country. These are the words that tell us how to get to Heaven. Here, Jesus tells us to “enter through the narrow gate”, to “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect”, to “ask… seek… and knock.”

These are words that do so much more than amuse or inspire. These are words that change our very lives.

For the next 6 weeks, from now until Lent, all of our Gospel readings are going to march us through a good portion of the Sermon on the Mount, chapters 5, 6 and 7 of the Gospel of Matthew. Let us be like the disciples who climb up the mountain with him. Let us sit as his feet and be taught by him. Make the Sermon on the Mount, your own daily spiritual reading for the next 6 weeks and pray with the greatest speech of all time.

Fishers of the Fishers of Men

2011-01-23T10:15:00.000-08:00

Homily from the 3rd Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year A

Click here to watch "Fishers of Men."
Video will take a couple minutes to download.

One day, very shortly after I arrived here at St. Vincent’s, one of our pastoral associates, Dorothy Schuerman, stopped by my office and said, “Father, we need to schedule a vocations committee meeting.” “Great,” I said, “when do you want to have it?” Dorothy responded, “When do you want to have it? You’re the chairman of the vocations committee.”

So we scheduled and convened a meeting and had some good discussion and planned a few things. One of the things the vocations committee has done, through the help of the Knights of Columbus, is supply me with a few hundred bookmarks to hand out to young men who express interest in the priesthood.

On the back of the bookmark are the words of Jesus that we hear in today’s Gospel, “Come after me and I will make you fishers of men.”

On the front of the bookmark is nothing. It’s completely blank. It’s just a plain, white bookmark.

That’s because the bookmark is my clerical collar. When a young man tells me he’s thought about or is thinking about the priesthood, I pull this tab from my collar and hand it to him. “Here,” I say, “this is a bookmark for you. And if God is indeed calling you to the priesthood, this can stop being a bookmark and can be your clerical collar.”

Their eyes light up when they get the collar. Some will press it up under their own collar to see what they would look like as a priest.

All of us need to help the young men in our parish see what they would look like as a priest. Helping a young man consider and discern the priesthood is not just the job of your parish priest. And it isn’t the job of a few people on the Vocations Committee. It’s the job of all of us. All of us are on our parish’s Vocations Committee.

The first seminary is your own home and parents are the first seminary professors and spiritual directors. Vocations are born in the homes of faithful Catholics. Now, this doesn’t mean parents have to have doctoral degrees in theology or be great spiritual masters in order for their sons to hear the call to priesthood. However, you do in fact teach the most fundamental building blocks of theology everyday.

The three most important theology lessons you teach your sons are the same first three lessons you taught them when they were babies: how to talk, how to eat, and how to clean up after themselves.

When they were babies, you looked your sons in the eyes and repeated again and again, “Mama… mama… Dada… dada.” You wanted them to know you; to say your name out loud. And what a joy it was when they said it for the very first time, right? You taught them how to talk to their mother and father. Teach them how to talk to their Father in Heaven. Give thanks to God before meals. Say prayers before going to bed. Bless them as they leave the house for the day.

When they were babies, you sat your sons in their high chairs and spooned pureed peas and carrots into their mouths. You wanted them to grow up and grow strong. You taught them how to eat. Teach them to eat the Eucharist. Without Jesus, the Bread of Life, we cannot grow up or grow strong. Make sure they are going to Mass each and every Sunday.

And as they grew a little bit older, you taught your sons how to clean up, how to brush their hair and teeth; how to put away their toys and make their beds. You taught them how to clean up after themselves. Teach them to clean up after themselves by bringing them to Confession. And, when you are there to pick them up and brush them off after they’ve fallen down; when you bandage scrapes and bumps and bruises, and when you show forgiveness for hearts that are sorry, they will know more readily the importance of going to see Jesus in the confessional when the soul is in need of repair.

These are the three most important things a man needs to know in order to discern a vocation to the priesthood: how to talk, how to eat, how to clean up – prayer, the Eucharist and frequent Confession. You see… you parents are the first seminary professors and spiritual directors.

But this is not the task of parents alone. As I said, every single one of us is on the Vocations Committee. Today’s Gospel is not just for those who are being called by Jesus, it’s also for all of us who help young men hear the voice of Jesus. You and I repeat Jesus’ words, “Come after me and I will make you fishers of men” when we say to a young man, “Have you ever thought about being a priest?”

Think about this for a moment… and let this idea burn itself into your mind… you might be the very instrument Jesus is trying to use to call a young man to the priesthood. You are the fishers of the fishers of men.

A couple of years ago, the US Bishops put together a very powerful video about priestly vocations called “Fishers of Men.” This video will be shown in our gathering space immediately following this Mass and I strongly encourage you, our parish Vocations Committee, to watch it. You will enjoy this video and you will be touched by it. And it will help you in your vocation as a fisher of the fishers of men.

Vocations - God is Calling

2011-01-09T13:24:00.000-08:00

Homily from the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord - Year A

When I was 7, our family took a vacation to Washington D.C. We drove 12 hours from South Bend to D.C. These were the days before DVD players in the cars so my family kept me occupied with activity books for those 12 hours.

However, these weren't your regular, run of the mill activity books where you do word searches or crossword puzzles. These activity books had puzzles and games with invisible answers and you had to use a special invisible ink pen to reveal the right answer.

You'd be going through a maze and you'd scribble your invisible ink pen over the path you wanted to take and if you went the wrong direction you'd reveal a picture of an angry dog that wanted to bite you. If you went in the right direction, you would unveil a pot of gold. Stuff like that.

Our lives are kind of like those activity books. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. We don't know the answers to all our questions. We discover God’s will for our lives each and every day. And we do this by using the metaphorical "invisible ink pen" God has given us: the Sacraments, prayer, and being a disciple of Christ.

Now, I could have used a Sharpie and written down whatever I wanted. But then I’d never know the answers that were hidden on the page waiting for me to discover.

Likewise the authentic life is not so much what we choose as it is following what God calls us to.

On this Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, in which we celebrate the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, we also begin National Vocations Awareness Week.

Click here to visit ForYourVocation.org.

The word "vocation" comes from the Latin word "vocare" which means "to call." And that's what a vocation is: not something I choose per se, but rather the life God is calling me to live.

We often ask children, "What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you want to do with your life?" It's a fair question. But the real questions we should be asking is "What does God want you to be when you grow up? What does God want to do with your life?"

For many, it’s a call to the vocation of marriage. For some, it’s a call to the priesthood or religious life. For those who are still awaiting the answer, know this: God is calling you each and every day. You may not know it, but He is preparing you.

I wanted to be an actor. So I took part in every play and musical my school offered. I got very comfortable standing in large groups of people.

I wanted to be the Leprechaun. I got very comfortable at getting people excited about something we had in common: Notre Dame football.

I wanted to be a disc jockey. Got very comfortable listening to the sound of my own voice.

I wanted to be in sales. I got very comfortable discerning the needs of people and offering solutions.

It wasn’t until after all this that I started to grow in my faith and started to pray more, read about my faith, go to confession more regularly and Mass more often than just on Sundays. It wasn’t until long after all this that I realized God had put me in those positions to train me for a particular kind of work in his vineyard.

God will use the good events (as well as the bad), your good qualities (as well as the bad) to shape you in formation for your vocation. You might look at some of the bad events of your life or some of your sinful tendencies and say, "I could never be a priest. I’m too much of a sinner. I’m not worthy."

No one is worthy! I am not worthy to be up here and do what I do. But I'll never forget something Monsignor Bernie Galic our diocesan vocations director said to me when I told him the idea of being a priest was attractive to me but I didn't think I was worthy. "Andrew," he said. "Jesus doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called."

God didn’t call one single saint to be a priest or religious. He called and continues to call sinners to be priests and religious. Just as he calls sinners to the vocation of marriage or the dedicated single life. Then, God makes you a Saint.

The reason why Jesus was born in Bethlehem and was baptized was so that he could stand on the shore with sinners. Jesus didn’t need baptism. But he did it to show us the way to salvation which is through baptism and his cross.

Jesus stands on our shore today, right in our midst. And he calls us sinners to follow him, to discern our vocation, and to begin to uncover his plan for our lives.

I suspect very strongly, that some of you, are being called, right this very moment, by none other than God Himself to the priesthood or religious life. Maybe he wants you to talk to a priest or a sister in the next few weeks. Maybe He’s still preparing you and will urge you to talk to a priest or sister in a year, or 5 years, or 10. Pick up your invisible ink pen – the Sacraments and prayer – and start uncovering God’s vocation for your life.

For more information about discerning a priestly vocation, visit the vocations page for the Dioces of Fort Wayne - South Bend or check out ForYourVocation.org. You can also call Monsignor Bernard Galic, Vocations Director for the Diocese of Fort Wayne - South Bend at 260-622-4491 or Father Andrew at 260-489-3537.

The Door of Humility

2011-01-03T09:01:00.000-08:00

Homily from the Solemnity of the Epiphany - Year A

There is a Church in Bethlehem, built over the site, where tradition holds, is the spot where Jesus was born: the Church of the Nativity. If you wish to visit the spot of Christ’s birth, you must first walk through the main entrance. Unlike the doors of the main entrance of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome which are 25 feet tall, the door of the main entrance of the Church of the Nativity is only about 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide. It was built as a very small entrance in ancient times to keep people from driving their carts or riding their horses into the Church.

These days, the caretakers of the Church of the Nativity don’t really have to worry about people trying to drive carts or ride horses into the Church. However, the tiny doors still help to keep something else from entering the spot where Jesus was born: our own pride and egos. Today, the main entrance to the Church is called “The Door of Humility” because when you pass through it, you must bow down to enter.

And when you walk through the Church and approach the main altar, you find beneath the altar a cave. You descend a flight of steps to enter the cave and on the floor, you see a silver star with an inscription around it which reads: “Here Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary.” Everyday, pilgrims visiting this site will get down on all fours and kiss the spot where Jesus was born.

Whenever we approach Jesus, we must do so with great humility. This is what the Magi do in today’s Gospel. The very reason why the Magi travel from the far East to see Jesus, is so they can bow down in humility before him. The Magi came to King Herod and asked, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.”

When we think of the Magi, we often think of the gifts they bring of gold, frankincense and myrrh. But we often forget about their humility. Before the Magi offer Jesus their gifts, they offer him their humility. The Gospel states, “On entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.”

We must approach Jesus with humility because he is, as St. Thomas stated, “Our Lord and our God.” Jesus is our friend, but he is our Lord and God first. Before we can approach Jesus as a friend, we must first approach him as our Lord and God.

We approach Jesus in humility because he is our King. And he is a benevolent King, not a ruthless tyrant. He, who asks for our humility, is himself a humble king. In fact, Jesus is humble before we are. Before the Magi humbled themselves before Jesus, Jesus, who is God, humbled himself by being born as a man. Born in a cave, into a poor family. Having as his bed the manger, a feeding trough for animals.

There was a British admiral during the Revolutionary War named Lord Nelson, who was well known for treating his vanquished opponents with the greatest kindness and courtesy. One time, after one of his great victories, a defeated opponent was brought aboard the deck of Lord Nelson’s flagship. Knowing Nelson’s reputation for courtesy, the defeated opponent walked briskly across the deck towards Nelson with his hand outstretched to shake hands in friendship. Nelson’s hand remained at his side and he said, “Your sword first, then your hand.”

Jesus wants us to embrace the virtue of humility so that he can take away our aggression. And while we may not carry a sword at our side, ready to use against God and neighbor, we do carry a weapon of another sort: our sin. By humbling ourselves before Jesus, we allow him to disarm us of our sin.

Of course, the ordinary way Jesus disarms us of our sin is through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. But in a few moments we will demonstrate our humility in another way. As we approach Jesus in the Eucharist, immediately before stretching out our hands or our tongue to receive Jesus, we offer him a simple bow of the head. Before I receive Jesus in the Eucharist, I must genuflect before him. In this simple, yet sincere gesture, we acknowledge that Jesus is our Lord and God. And in giving himself to us, Jesus welcomes us as his friend.

So, as we approach Jesus in this Eucharist, let us bow down and enter through a door of humility. With a simple bow of our heads, let us offer Jesus our sword first, then our hand.

House of Bread - House of Flesh

2010-12-26T08:25:00.000-08:00

Homily from the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord - Year A

I’ve lived in Fort Wayne for only six months now and I’m starting to get to know my way around the city. It wasn’t always like that though. On one of my first days in Fort Wayne, I was downtown at the Cathedral and I started driving back to St. Vincent’s when I suddenly realized, I didn’t remember how to get back.

Luckily, I had a GPS. So I typed in 1502 East Wallen Road and added St. Vincent’s to my “favorites” list. And my handy little friend told me how to get back home.

A few weeks ago I changed St. Vincent’s from being a “favorite” to being “home.” Home used to be 5028 Greenleaf Lane in South Bend. But my home is St. Vincent’s now.

We all know that Christmas Carol, “There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays.” And it’s so true. No doubt, most of us have traveled or will travel to be with family on the holidays. We get the word “holiday” from “Holy Day.” So, you could say that “There’s No Place Like Home for the Holy Days.”

1502 East Wallen Road isn’t just a “favorite” place for us. It’s our home. It’s a house. The house of God.

Today, Jesus calls us home to his house. And on Christmas, he calls us to his first home, Bethlehem.

The name of that little town, “Bethlehem”, is so significant, that one can’t help but recognize the obvious fact that Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem is the work of God the Father.

In Hebrew, “Bethlehem” means “House of Bread.” The little town of Bethlehem is the house where we find Jesus, the Bread of Life. It is where God becomes food for mankind.

And in Aramaic, “Bethlehem” means “House of Flesh.” The little town of Bethlehem is the house where the Incarnation, the Word of God becoming flesh, takes place. It is where God becomes man.

God becomes bread… God becomes man. Why?

Why did God choose to become a man like us? God became a man like us so we could become like Him. One of the greatest things I ever read in six years of seminary studies was a line from “Gaudium et Spes” a document from the Second Vatican Council. It says, “The truth is that only in the mystery of the Incarnate Word [Jesus Christ], does the mystery of man take on light… Christ… fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear.”

How many times do we attribute our mistakes and failings to our so-called “human nature”? Quite the contrary. Jesus became a human being so he could show us the true meaning of “human nature.” By himself being born into poverty, Jesus shows us that true human nature is not full of pride, but full of humility. By his own obedience to His Father in Heaven and his service to mankind, Jesus shows us that true human nature is not full of envy, but fully of love of God and neighbor. And by taking up his cross, Jesus shows us that true human nature is not full of selfishness, but full of sacrifice.

And in Bethlehem, God becomes bread? Why?

Why did Jesus become food for mankind? We cannot live without food. Without food we die. We cannot live without Jesus either. Jesus says, “I am the living bread that comes down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world… Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will have eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.” (Jn 6:51,54).
Ordinarily, when we eat food, it becomes part of us. We ingest it and assimilate it and it becomes part of our bodies and helps us grow. However, when we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, we become part of him. He assimilates us into his body and helps us grow in holiness.

In Bethlehem, the “House of Bread” and the “House of Flesh” Jesus became man and food. He did so by allowing himself to be placed in a manger – a feeding trough for animals. The word “manger” comes from the French word “manger” (“mohn-zhay”) which means, “to eat.” In Bethlehem, Jesus transforms the feeding trough for animals into the place where human beings come to feed on the Bread from Heaven, the Bread of Life.

This first happened over 2,000 years ago and over 6,000 miles away. As another Christmas Carol states, “Away, in a Manger.” But the truth is, the manger is not “away.” It’s not some past event in history. It’s not halfway around the world. The manger is right here and right now. This is Bethlehem. This is the “House of Bread” and the “House of Flesh” where Jesus becomes man and food. This is the place where Heaven comes down and touches Earth. So that for one hour every week, we can leave Earth behind for a moment and come to this Church; and in Jesus, see who we are truly called to be and received eternal life, and enter into our true home.

Men Like Joseph

2010-12-19T19:00:00.000-08:00

Homily from the 4th Sunday of Advent – Year A

Every year, our Sunday Gospel readings focus on a different Evangelist’s writings. This year, beginning with the First Sunday of Advent, the vast majority of our Sunday Gospels will come from the Gospel of Matthew. We’re now in what’s called “Year A” of a three-cycle. The cycles are actually easy to memorize. Years A, B and C focus on the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.

Two of the Gospels, Matthew and Luke, have what are called infancy narratives or, the stories of Jesus’ birth. And each of these infancy narratives gives special attention to one of Jesus’ parents. The Gospel according to Luke focuses largely on Mary, whereas the Gospel according to Matthew focuses largely on Joseph.

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve had the opportunity to reflect a lot on Mary. We celebrated the Solemnity of Mary’s Immaculate Conception on December 8th, And last Sunday, was the feast of Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe.

This week, we hear the beginning of the infancy narrative from the Gospel of Matthew. So, this gives us the opportunity to consider St. Joseph’s role in the birth of Christ.

In today’s Gospel, St. Joseph stands as a model of virtue worthy of our admiration and imitation. And St. Joseph is a role model in a particular way to men. So, if you’ll permit me ladies, I beg your patience for just a few moments, because I would like to take this opportunity to preach in particular, to my fellow men gathered here today. I think you’ll be pleased that I did.

Men, St. Joseph is for us, a true model of manhood. You and I must become men like Joseph He bears a number of manly qualities for us to imitate. Allow me to mention but a few

Joseph is a man of integrity. He was betrothed to Mary. She was to be his wife. In our Gospel reading today, he and Mary did not yet live together. But one day, Mary said to Joseph, “I’m with child.” And Joseph knew the child was not his.

According to the law of Moses, it was Joseph’s legal right to have Mary stoned. But Joseph was not a vengeful man. Joseph did not care about being right. He did not care about winning the argument. He cared about the welfare of Mary. The Gospel tells us, Joseph “was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame.” Joseph is a man of integrity.

Joseph is a man of God. Joseph listens to God. Three times, God spoke to Joseph through an angel. In today’s Gospel, we hear of the first message. In a dream, the angel tells Joseph to not be afraid to take Mary into his home. Later, the angel will warn Joseph to take Mary and Jesus out of Bethlehem because Herod seeks to kill the child. Later again, the angel tells Joseph to return to Israel. Joseph listens to God and he trusts God. Joseph is a man of God. And by being a man of God, Joseph is empowered with another heroic virtue.

Joseph is a man of action. Immediately after receiving instruction from God through the angel. Joseph rises from his sleep and does exactly as God commands. He doesn’t doubt or question. He doesn’t whine or complain. He doesn’t wimp out. He takes action.

He takes Mary into his home and raises the child as his own. When in danger, he leads Mary and Jesus to safety in Egypt. When the time to return home has come, he brings his wife and his child under his roof. Joseph is a man of action.

Joseph is a man of humility. It could be said that Joseph was a soft spoken man. If you want proof of Joseph’s humility, try finding in the Bible anything he said. In all of the Gospels, you will find not one single word spoken by Joseph. We know nothing of what Joseph said. And there’s no need to. Because, as I said before, Joseph let his actions speak for themselves. He did not need to hear himself talk. Joseph is a man of humility.

And lastly, Joseph is a man of responsibility. As I mentioned before, it was Joseph’s responsibility to guard and protect Mary and Jesus. It was Joseph’s responsibility to make a home for his wife and child. It was his responsibility to earn a living and provide food and clothing for his family.

And if you want to see a great example of Joseph as a man of responsibility, take a look at the beautiful statue of the Holy Family over to the left as you leave through our gathering space. In this statue, we see a truly amazing image. In this statue, we see Joseph, leaning over Jesus and teaching him the Torah, the Sacred Jewish Scriptures.

Think about that for a moment. Joseph is a mere creature, created by the Word of God, teaching the Word of God to the one who is the Word of God. Despite his own limitations and despite his own shortcomings, Joseph did not shirk his responsibility; which was, despite his own sinfulness, he was responsible for protecting the only sinless woman who ever lived and for teaching and raising the only sinless man who ever lived.

So, my fellow men; past, present and future husbands and spouses, let us ask Jesus and Mary for help to become men like this.

Men who listen to God and are obedient to Him.

Men who guard, protect, and provide for our spouses and children.

Men who put aside our own ego for the sake of others.

Men who would rather suffer our own embarrassment than expose another to shame.

Let us be men like Joseph.

Right Before the Son Appears

2010-12-12T18:33:00.000-08:00

Homily from the 3rd Sunday in Advent (Gaudete Sunday) - Year A

One weekday morning, a couple of weeks ago I was greeting our students as they arrived for school. And on this particular morning, the sky was filled with brilliant colors as the sun was about to rise. On the western horizon the sky was still pitch black. But as you looked across the sky and moved your eyes to the east, the blackness of night gave way to a deep violet.

And with every passing minute, the heavens turned brighter and more brilliant; richer and richer in vivid shades of purple. Huge, white, puffy clouds accented the sky and drew out more and more shades of that wonderful pre-dawn color.

And as the students were walking into school, I’d pull one or two aside and say “Look at that beautiful sunrise. Tell me there isn't a God!” It was wonderful to watch them just enjoy the sunrise for a moment. A few of them said their parents pointed it out to them as well.

And right before the sun peaked over the horizon, everything turned a beautiful rose color. And it was one of those moments you wish would last forever.

Today, we celebrate the third week of Advent also known as Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete means “rejoice.” We rejoice because we know our Advent is halfway over and Jesus is coming.

The black night of our sin gives way to the beautiful violet of our Advent waiting and preparation. And as we get closer and closer to Christmas in which we celebrate Christ’s coming in history, we also get closer and closer to the end of time when Christ will come in majesty.

And right before the Son (S-O-N) appears, everything turns a beautiful rose color . We light the rose-colored candle on our advent wreath and wear rose-colored vestments.

Ordinarily, we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12th. But Sundays always trump feast days so the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe was moved to yesterday. However, I think it would be OK to talk about Our Lady of Guadalupe a little bit.

I’m sure many of you know the story. In 1531, Mary appeared four times to a poor farmer named Juan Diego. And she asked Juan Diego to go ask the bishop to build a church on the mountain where she appeared. Juan Diego said the bishop would not listen to a simple man like him, so Mary told Juan Diego to go pick some Castilian roses which were growing on the mountain. These roses would be a miraculous sign to the bishop because they were native to his birthplace in Spain, but not in Mexico, and also because they never bloom in December.

So Juan Diego found the roses as Mary promised and began picking them, placing them in the fold of his cloak which is called a tilma. And when Juan Diego went before the bishop and opened his tilma to show him the roses, the roses fell out and revealed the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe which remains to this day.

Our beautiful mosaic of Mary is a reproduction of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. In that image, Mary wears a sash around her waist. This is no ordinary sash, but specifically, a sash that, in Mexican culture, expectant mothers wear.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is with child. So as we look at her, we see not only Mary, but also Jesus who is present in the image as well. A baby, hidden in the womb, not yet seen by our eyes, but just around the corner, just over the horizon.

And this infant Jesus, who is present within Mary’s womb, who is, in a sense, already here, but not quite yet, rests, hidden beneath Mary’s rose-colored inner garment, which breaks through the violet of her outer garment.

On that violet outer garment are displayed the stars of night. The forthcoming birth of the Messiah pierces the dark of night. And behind Our Lady of Guadalupe we see the rays of the sun. A sun which is not yet fully revealed, but we know is there. Just as the Son within her womb, is not yet fully revealed, but we know is there and is on the way.

This connection between Our Lady of Guadalupe and Gaudete Sunday is not designed, or given to us, by the Church. They don’t always fall on the same day. Plus, the sun Mary is standing in front of represents Mary blocking out the sun which was an object of pagan worship at the time; instead Mary shows us the real Son to worship, her Son Jesus.

But nevertheless, both Gaudete Sunday and Our Lady of Guadalupe reveal to us today that Jesus is indeed on his way. Not just at Christmas, but also at the end of our time here on this earth, which is sooner than we think.

The day of our departing and the Lord’s coming is unknown to us; not yet seen with our eyes, but it is just around the corner... just over the horizon.

Let us not fear or dread that day. But prepare and rejoice!

Again With Eyelashes

2010-12-12T08:32:00.000-08:00

Homily from the 2nd Sunday of Advent - Year A

One of my former professors from the seminary, Monsignor Bill Cleves, is a language wizard. He knows a handful of different languages, many of them, he taught himself. And he spent a number of years working at the Vatican, translating documents.

He would often reveal to us the fuller meaning of a word by breaking a word down into parts, then translating those parts from their original source language. One word that he broke down for us was “reconciliation.”

Reconciliation has three main parts: “re”, “con”, and “cilia." Most of you probably know that “re” means “again”. For example “reread” means “read again.” “Con” means “with” as in “chili con queso” which means “chili with cheese.”

Then there’s the last part: “cilia.” You may remember the word “cilia” from your high school biology class, when you were studying about cells such as protozoa. Cilia are tiny hair-like structures that protrude from tiny cells and help them move around. “Cilia” is the Latin word for “eyelash.”

You may be wondering what eyelashes have to do with reconciliation. Well, when you put the translations of these three parts together, “re”, “con”, and “cilia”, you literally get: “again with eyelashes.” Or, we would say, “to see eye to eye again with”

Jesus has given us the Sacrament of Reconciliation because he wants us to see eye to eye again with God. In today’s Gospel, St. Matthew reports that the very first word out of John the Baptists’ mouth is “Repent.” “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

St. Matthew also tells us a few chapters later in his Gospel that the very first word out of Jesus’ mouth when he begins his public ministry is “Repent.” In fact, he repeats the cry of John the Baptist word for word: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

If the first word out of John the Baptist and Jesus’ mouths is “repent”, it’s probably a very important word worth listening to and heeding.

John the Baptist cries out, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” He’s telling the people to remove the obstacles that stand in the way of seeing eye to eye with God. And so the people come to John the Baptist and, the Gospel tells us “they acknowledged their sins.”

This season of Advent is a season of preparation for welcoming Jesus into our hearts. We would do well to prepare ourselves by following the command of John the Baptist and Jesus: to repent, to be reconciled with God.

I’m well aware that there are a great many people who do not feel the need for confession. Some might say, “I don’t need to go to a priest. I can just pray to God and express sorrow for my sins that way.” Well, we certainly should express sorrow for our sins in our personal prayer with God. In fact, we should do it everyday.

However, to refuse to confess one’s sins to a priest is to refuse the will of Jesus. Jesus said to St. Peter, our first Pope, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Mt 18:18)

Jesus gave St. Peter and the Apostles, and their successors the bishops, and their assistants the priests, the same authority he had to forgive sins

One of those Apostles recorded this sharing of authority in his Gospel. St. John wrote that on the day of his resurrection, Jesus appeared to the Apostles and said “‘As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven and whose sins you retain are retained.” (Jn 20:21-23)

The denial of the need for a priest for sacramental reconciliation is not the only obstacle that can get in the way of our seeking God’s forgiveness. There are other fears about the sacrament that keep the way between us and God crooked; that keep us from seeing eye to eye with Him

John the Baptist told the Pharisees and Sadduccees, “Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’” Don’t presume to say to yourself, “God and I love one another. I don’t need to go to confession.” Of course God loves us. But he’s not going to let us rest in our sin. When you’re children break the rules, you don’t stop loving them. But they don’t get away with it either. You lovingly offer them correction that is for their well being.

You might say, “I don’t want the priest to know what I’ve done.” Well, you can go behind the screen. And trust me, being a priest in a parish of 10,000 people is a blessing, because you can’t tell one voice from another. And you can go to a priest other than Monsignor John or myself – Advent Penance Service – December 20th, 7PM.

Perhaps you’re worried the priest might tell someone what he heard in confession. This will not happen. First of all, it’s a very serious mortal sin and I don’t want to put my soul in jeopardy. Second of all, it’s an excommunicable offense and I don’t want to put my vocation in jeopardy. The priest can never repeat what he’s heard in confession. Not even to another priest. In fact, not even to the person who’s confession he just heard.

Perhaps you don’t remember how to make an examination of conscience. We have printed copies right outside the confessional door.

Perhaps you don’t remember how to say the Act of Contrition. We’ve got it written down on cards in the confessional. I need stuff written down for me. That’s why I use that big red book on the altar.

Perhaps you’re not sure what to say. Just say your sins and say you’re sorry. If you get stuck, the priest will walk you through it.

Perhaps you’re thinking you’ve committed a sin so horrible it can’t be forgiven. To think that is to pretend that God is not all-powerful. God is more powerful than sin. And He graciously and abundantly pours out His mercy on every heart that asks for His forgiveness.

Perhaps, you’re just afraid. Perhaps you’re thinking it will be painful. I won’t insult you by pretending that confessions aren’t a little scary and a little painful sometimes. But I guarantee you, you will feel much, much better afterwards.

Conversion can hurt. John the Baptists tells us today, Jesus “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Fire is scary and sometimes painful. But Jesus is not unleashing the “unquenchable fire” on you in the confessional. It’s a controlled burn that scorches off the bad stuff. A refining fire that purifies you the way fire purifies precious metal. A transforming fire that recreates you into your authentic self.

Remember, you’re meeting two men in the confessional who love you: Jesus and the priest.

Perhaps, you’re saying to yourself, “But I can’t stop sinning.” Welcome to the human race. None of us can completely stop sinning in this life. It’s called concupiscence, our inclination to sin due to the fall of the human race in Adam.

But we try. And we can stop sinning less. And with frequent, regular confession, you will notice yourself sinning less and less over the years.

When we commit venial sins we take our eyes off God. And when we commit mortal sins we turn completely away from Him. God wants to see eye to eye again with us. Reconciliation helps us see eye to eye again with God and with one another.

Through Confession, Jesus brings us back into harmony and balance. As St. Paul says in our second reading, “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to think in harmony with one another.” Through Confession, Jesus restores creation to the way he intends it to be

And as the prophet Isaiah says in our first reading, “The wolf shall be the guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; the calf and the young lion shall browse together, with a little child to guide them.”

That little child is the child Jesus. Let him guide you to himself in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. And let him guide you to the Father so you can see eye to eye again with Him.

Don't Snooze Through Advent

2010-11-28T11:55:00.000-08:00

Homily from the 1st Sunday of Advent - Year A

Before entering seminary, I worked in advertising. One of my clients was a home security system company and one of the employees told me an interesting fact: over 90% of alarm systems are installed after a house’s 1st break-in. Most people don't think about security until after their security is violated.

If you’ve ever had your house broken into, you know how sickening a feeling it is. A few years ago, my dad asked me to check on his house and bring in the mail while he was on vacation. One day I drove up and saw that the front door was busted open. The lock had been broken, pieces of the door were splintered off and laying on the floor. Then I went upstairs and one of my dad’s file cabinets was pulled open and documents were thrown everywhere.

A burglary like that can leave you with a very foolish feeling and you find yourself making "If only" statements: “If I had only picked up the mail everyday.” “If I had only gotten an alarm system.” “If I had only deadbolted the door.”

Today we are cautioned to be awake and alert for Jesus’ coming. Don’t be caught off guard. Jesus likens the surprise of his arrival to the unexpectedness of a burglary. If the master of the house had known when the burglar was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into.

Every Advent when we think of the coming of Jesus, we tend to think of his coming at Christmas But this is only his 1st coming. Today’s Gospel warns us to be prepared for the 2nd coming of Jesus at the end of time.

We should be prepared to meet the Lord as though he could come at any moment. Because that’s precisely how he will come – at any moment. He could walk through that door right now. Are we ready to meet him?

One way we can be prepared to meet the Lord at any given moment is to begin the day with a spirit and attitude of readiness for the Lord. One of my favorite Saints is St. JoseMaria Escriva who espoused something called the heroic minute. The heroic minute is that moment you wake up in the morning. And instead of hitting the snooze button, you wake up and get out of bed immediately, ready to serve the Lord and dedicate the day to him.

St. JoseMaria Escriva says, as soon as we wake up we should say the word, “Serviam” which is Latin for “I will serve!” Now, I have to admit, when I woke up this morning, I didn't shout "Serviam!" with glee. It was more of a mumble. One of my spiritual directors once told me that there are two kinds of people in this world: those who say, "Good morning Lord!" And those who say, "Oh God, it's morning!" I'm definitely in the latter category.

Does the heroic minute sound too simple? Try doing it for all of Advent. Begin each day, ready to serve the Lord. St. JoseMaria Escriva says of failing to get up right away and hitting the snooze button: “Why allow the first challenge you face to be a defeat!” The heroic minute is a simple, yet tough, discipline in which we make ourselves ready for Christ at the beginning of each day can imbue in us a spirit of being ready for him in every moment.

Another way we should prepare ourselves for the coming of Jesus is the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Miss Wolf, our 7th and 8th grade teacher put it perfectly in religion class this past week. She asked her students if there were having any family and friends over for the holidays. They all said yes. Then she asked them what they do to get ready. They said they needed to clean and decorate the house.

We need to do the same thing too. Because Jesus is coming.
And lastly, if we desire to be judged well by Jesus – if we wish to enter into his kingdom, then perhaps we would do well to follow the path of one who is already there: the Saints. Read what they’ve written, get to know them. Jesus has friends – and he wants us to be friends with his friends. Jesus’ friends are the Saints. We should be friends with them today by reading their works.

Just a few suggestions: “The Interior Castle” by St. Theresa of Avila. “The Autobiography of St. Therese of Liseux.” “Introduction to the Devout Life” by St. Francis de Sales. “The Way” by St. JoseMaria Escriva.

Let this Advent be a time of real renewal - real preparation for meeting the Lord - both this Christmas and at the end of time. Don’t let this Advent pass you by. Don’t hit the snooze button and sleep through it. Let us heed the words of St. Paul from our second reading: “You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. The night is advanced, the day is at hand. Let us throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.”

You Will be Hated... and Loved

2010-11-15T07:08:00.000-08:00

Homily from the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

Every summer, the seminarians get together for a week of rest and relaxation at Lake Wawasee before heading back to the seminary. And one of my friends Drew Curry (who is now Father Drew, associate pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish in Fort Wayne) and I were sitting on the patio, enjoying the sun, looking at the lake; and Fr. Drew came up with a crazy idea.

“We should go on a pilgrimage,” he said.

“Sure,” I said. “Where would you like to go?”
“We should go on pilgrimage right here in our diocese,” he said.

I was confused. “A pilgrimage to our own diocese? Can't we go to Rome instead? They have spaghetti in Rome! Spaghetti is good."

“Well,” he said. “People go on pilgrimages all the time to holy sites. Our diocese is a holy site.” Plus, that year was the 150th anniversary of our diocese.

I was still confused. “How do you propose we go on pilgrimage to the place we already are?” I asked.

Then Fr. Drew dropped the bomb: “We should walk from St. Matthew Cathedral in South Bend to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Fort Wayne.”

And that’s what we did. About 20 seminarians and other men from the diocese walked from South Bend to Fort Wayne. We left in shorts, t-shirts, our best walking shoes, a hat to protect us from the summer heat and canteens to quench our thirst.

Some nights we slept in church basements. Other nights, parishoners from the churches we visited that day would take us in and let us use their shower, fix us dinner and give us a bed to sleep in. We started each day with Mass, we prayed the Liturgy of the Hours and a Rosary along the way, and we set aside an hour each day for sacred silence.

We even had a minibus travel along with us that carried a few provisions as well as a trailer that carried the most important necessity of our trip: the Port-a-Potty.

And as we walked for nine days from South Bend to Fort Wayne, we all took turns carrying a processional cross and a banner of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It was Jesus who lead us on our journey and we, along with Mary our Mother, followed.

Something interesting happened on that first day.

We were walking through Mishawaka, making our way to the day’s destination: the convent of the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration where we would have dinner with the sisters and stay for the night. And as we were walking down a street in Mishawaka, a car drove past us coming from the opposite direction. And when the driver caught sight of us, he slowed down and stared. Then, after he had passed us, he made a U-turn and pulled up alongside us.

He asked me, “What are you guys doing?”

I answered, “We’re seminarians for the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend and we’re on a pilgrimage to our Cathedral in Fort Wayne.”

“Why are you doing that?” he asked.

“Well,” I said, “It’s the 150th anniversary of our diocese and we’re praying for all the people of our diocese and for vocations too.”

He stared for a moment. Then he said, “Well, that’s a lot of hatred you’re spreading around.”

I was stunned. I certainly didn’t see this coming.

Then he said, “Don’t you know the Catholic Church is responsible for pretty much all the evil in the world?”

It was at that point that I realized this was going to be a quick conversation that wasn’t going to go very far.

“Well sir,” I said. “I disagree with you. You’re wrong. God bless you and I have to go.” Then I continued with the group.

Now, my walking away wasn’t exactly the most impressive defense of the Catholic Church.

As I thought about it as the day went on, I thought maybe I should have engaged the guy in a little debate and stood up for the Church. But to be quite honest, I was a little concerned for my safety. This guy was clearly angry and looked a little disturbed. I doubt there was much I could have said to change his mind.

Then it occurred to me... this guy stopped to confront us for one reason and one reason only: because we were following Jesus. Had we not had the crucifix leading us, we would have looked like any other group of guys walking down the street.

But we were following Jesus. And this guy hated us because we were witnesses to our Catholic faith.

There are people in this world who hate you because you are Catholic. And sadly, there are people in this world who hate Jesus and his Church.

We shouldn’t be the least bit surprised because Jesus warned us that this would be the case. Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel, that before the end times come, we will be hated. “They will seize you and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name. You will even be handed over,” Jesus says, “by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name.”

The persecution of Christians isn’t something that went out of style with the closing of the Coliseum. Recently, a group linked to al-Qaida stormed the Catholic cathedral in Baghdad, Iraq and gunned down 58 Catholics including 2 priests This happened just 2 weeks ago.

Here in America, the persecution of Catholics may not be as dramatic as in Iraq, but it still happens. It's much more sublte and sneakier. We are persecuted in the political arena for our beliefs. We are mocked on late-night television shows. And, unfortunately, we sometimes attack ourselves through indifference to our faith and its teachings

But persecution is fertile ground for courageous witness Do you remember how patriotic the country was after 9/11? Every house on the block was flying the American flag

As disciples of Christ, when the Body of Christ comes under attack, we must respond with courageous witness. And the end result of persecution is not destruction and death. It is, as Jesus tells us, an opportunity for witness. "It will lead us to giving witness... but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives."

Something interesting happened on the last day of our pilgrimage too.

As we were taking our final steps towards Fort Wayne, a car drove past us coming from the opposite direction. And when the driver caught sight of us, she slowed down and stared. Then, after she had passed us, she made a U-turn and pulled up alongside us. Without saying a word, the driver handed us grocery bags filled with Gatorade, fruit and sandwiches.

And as this kind woman drove away, it occurred to me, in the same way it had occurred to me on that first day of the pilgrimage: this woman showed charity to us for one reason and one reason only...because we were following Jesus.

Had we not had the crucifix leading us, we would have looked like any other group of guys walking down the street.

But we were following Jesus.

And this woman loved us because we were witnesses to our Catholic faith.

In Order to Form a More Perfect Union

2010-11-07T12:13:00.000-08:00

Homily from the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time - Year C

Our readings today correspond with the fact that we’re coming to the end of the liturgical year. In just a couple of weeks, we’ll begin a new liturgical year with the First Sunday of Advent. And as we come to the end of this year, we hear about the last things: such as death, the resurrection and life in the Kingdom of Heaven. In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us some very interesting things about the life we have to look forward to in the Kingdom.

The Sadducees were a group of people who did not believe in the resurrection. They thought Jesus’ preaching about the resurrection was ridiculous. So, they wanted to prove him wrong with a logical argument. They asked, if a woman marries 7 different brothers, whose wife will she be? You’ll remember that the Gospel pointed out that according to the law of Moses, if a husband dies, leaving a wife childless, the brother of that husband would take the woman as his wife and raise up children for his brother.

Jesus tells the Sadducees, you’ve got it all wrong. “The children of this age marry and remarry…” But for those who are resurrected, “they neither marry nor are given in marriage.”

So Jesus is telling us, there is no marriage between husbands and wives in Heaven. Why? Why would such a beautiful union not exist in the Kingdom of God? The reason is this: We have marriage, here on earth, “in order to form a more perfect union” if you will, in Heaven.

Our destiny, if and when we reach the Kingdom of Heaven, is perfect union with God, and all the Saints, and one another. So, God has given us the institution and Sacrament of Marriage, to get us ready for that union. It’s God saying to husbands and wives, “I want you to get ready for union with me, by entering into union with one another as husband and wife.”

The vocation of marriage, the union of man and woman, is a sign that points to our union with God. It’s like a sign we see on the side of the road as we’re driving to our vacation destination that reads “Florida – 500 Miles.” We’re not there yet, but we’re on our way.

Now there’s another vocation that points to the union that awaits us in Heaven: the vocation of celibacy; the vocation of priesthood and the religious life and the dedicated single life. Those who are called by God, and voluntarily choose, to forego marriage as a sign of their dedication to God.

Jesus talked about this vocation too. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says there are those who voluntarily forego marriage, “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.” And since, as Jesus says, there is no marriage in Heaven, these celibate people, reveal what life will be like in Heaven.

Marriage is a life of exclusive love: between one man and one woman as husband and wife.

Celibacy is a life of inclusive love in which the priest, the sister or the brother imitates the life of Christ who gave his entire life and love, not just to one, but to all.

The celibate man or woman lives today, here on Earth, how we will all live one day in Heaven. And, to continue my analogy from earlier: if the vocation of marriage is a sign of our future union in Heaven, like a sign that says “Florida – 500 miles”, then celibacy is like a Floridian who is living right here in Indiana. The celibate man or woman: the priest, sister, brother or dedicated single person, says, “I want to be a living example right now, here on Earth, of what citizenship in Heaven will be like.” A life and a love given to all.

Tonight, our teens will get to meet a number of these “Floridians living in Indiana.” The Franciscan Brothers Minor and Franciscan Sisters Minor of Fort Wayne and the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration of Mishawaka will be here to talk about their vocations as celibates for the kingdom of heaven. And I encourage every one of our teens to come back to St. Vincent’s tonight at 5, to learn about their lives.

If these two vocations, the vocation of marriage and the celibate vocation, are preparations for our life in Heaven, we, who have discerned our vocations, have to ask ourselves: what is the “state of our unions”? How do my spouse and I prepare each other for union with God?

And if you are still discerning which of these two vocations God is calling you to, you have to ask yourself: how am I living today in preparation for my future spouse?

If these questions stir you to move in the faith, then I encourage you to attend "Catholicism Revealed" here at St. Vincent de Paul where, for the next three Monday evenings, November 8th, 15th, and 22nd, at 6:30PM, we will explore Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body. Our first speaker is Dr. Perry Cahall, professor of Theology of the Body at the Pontifical College Josephinum, where many of our seminarians currently study for the priesthood.