We need the Holy Family's help!

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the Feast of the Holy Family, Year A

The great and central mystery of Christmas, and the entire Christmas season, is the Incarnation: God taking on flesh and dwelling among us. Jesus is fully God and fully man, both the Second Person of the Trinity, AND like us in all things but sin. We refer to this as a mystery for very good reason… we can bring one aspect of that into focus, into view, at a time, but trying to see both at once blurs our vision. God reveals Himself, but since He is infinite, we can never quite grasp all th

at He is and all that He does.

The Christmas season gives us a series of vivid images that point toward this mystery… we have Mary and Joseph making their way to Bethlehem, Mary great with child, Joseph attentive and worried. We have the manger scene, where the Christ Child is both terribly vulnerable, and also aglow with glory and beauty. The wise and learned Magi kneel before Him, as do the smelly poor shepherds. Angel choirs sing Gloria, and the animals also look on.

This Sunday between Christmas and the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God is dedicated then to the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, and here too we have a vivid image that speaks to us of the mystery of who Jesus is… He not only takes on human flesh, but He is born, and raised, and lives in the natural human context, the family. Blessed John Paul II constantly insisted that the family is the basic unit of society, not the individual: no one of us here created ourselves or cared for ourselves. Our families are the soil in which we grew, the soil without which we could not be here. And when God came among us, He came into this part of our human experience as well.

It might surprise you that our feast today only goes back about 90 years as a universal celebration, although devotion to the Holy Family is much older. Pope Leo XIII got the ball rolling in 1892 by declaring the feast, and it became universal in 1921. I think you can see God’s hand very much at work here, because the last century has been particularly challenging for families.

Notice, too, that even though Mary and Jesus were both without sin, and Joseph was a very good man, that didn’t mean their family life was easy! In our Gospel we hear of their precipitous departure from Bethlehem, as Joseph is prompted to rescue his family from King Herod’s brutal slaughter of the Holy Innocents. Can you imagine what Mary must have been thinking? She’s bearing the Son of God, but that’s not enough… first she has to give birth in a strange place, in a stable, and then suddenly they have to head for a foreign country! Jesus experienced the blessing of family life from the beginning, but also many of the hardships.

I think we can all relate to that! As I’ve made reference to several times recently, even our joyful family gatherings during this Christmas season can be fraught with tension… we don’t get to choose our families, and so our ability to love is truly tested and deepened. Not only does our Feast of the Holy Family remind us of the fullness of Jesus’ humanity and human experience, but it also offers the Holy Family to us as a source of inspiration and intercession in our own family journey.

First, Sirach expands on the 4th Commandment, “Honor your father and your mother.” Notice how it isn’t conditional, “Honor your parents when they’re right or when they’re reasonable, or when you agree with them!” We’re not called to love and honor and be patient with our parents because they’ve earned it, but because it’s the right thing to do. Even if our relationship with our parents involves deep wounds, God still calls us to offer respect and love. We can’t do this on our own, but we can do it with God’s help!

St. Paul highlights the virtues we need to ask for:

Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body. And be thankful.

St. Paul knows what we’re up against, that’s why he names these virtues so specifically! His final paragraph sometimes raises concern that he’s endorsing chauvinism, but if we read it in context of his other passages on this topic, we know that St. Paul is talking about mutual self-giving, mutual dying to self, in Christ. In fact, if anyone is given stricter instructions, it’s the husbands! In Ephesians 5 he echoes this passage, and adds, “Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church.” Men.. how did Christ love His Church? By going to the Cross for her, for us! Jesus gives us the example in all walks of life, but perhaps especially in marriage… and that example is the example of deep self-sacrifice, deep dying to self and deep giving of self, and that rule holds for parents, children, husbands, and wives, for every Christian.

Finally, I’d just like to say a word about a family topic that I know is on many of our hearts… the sadness we often feel as we see our family members drifting away from the Faith, or abandoning it outright. Once or twice I’ve had someone come up to me and say, “Father, you’ve got to get my son back to church!” I appreciate the vote of confidence, but this isn’t a contract service that you can outsource to me! In fact, it’s a basic duty that flows directly from our baptism for EVERY one of us here. How does God intend to draw our spouses or children or parents or grandchildren or cousins back to our parish and back to Himself? I am certain that you and I are right at the heart of that plan. Every one of you here probably knows at least 5 people LOCALLY who could and should be with us at this Mass… and there’s no better way for God to reach out to them than through you!

How are we to bring them back, to draw them back to the fire? Listen once more to St. Paul’s instructions:

Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.

Our invitation and desire becomes fruitful when it is rooted in our own struggle for conversion and holiness, when daily prayer and Sunday Eucharist and regular confession are at the heart of our lives. May the Holy Family intercede for us and inspire us as we approach this altar now, and may we bring everyone we love to this altar in our hearts!

+ A. M. D. G. +

God has been at work... Now He Comes!

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for Christmas Mass at Dawn

It is a joy and a privilege to be with you on this Holy Day, and to proclaim this beautiful gospel to you! Merry Christmas! Christ is born in Bethlehem!

Our celebration this morning has been a long time in coming, and it has involved a lot of preparation: we’ve been in the midst of the Advent Season for almost a whole month, abstaining from the Gloria so it could burst forth this morning! Many of us have made a good Advent confession to prepare for today. Our choir has practiced, our decorations have been hung, and many of us have completed our Christmas shopping! I am proud to say that I have at least begun! Our readings today, though, indicate that the preparation for this feast goes back much farther than the beginning of Advent…Our first reading from the Prophet Isaiah foretold the joy of this dawn many long centuries before Jesus was born, words much needed by a people weighed down by failure and sin and exile:

See, the LORD proclaims to the ends of the earth: say to daughter Zion, your savior comes! Here is his reward with him, his recompense before him. They shall be called the holy people, the redeemed of the LORD, and you shall be called “Frequented,” a city that is not forsaken!

God promises His people that He will bring them unity and peace, mercy and justice, and He brought this about through Jesus Christ. God was preparing His people all through those long centuries for this most precious and unexpected gift. In our 2nd reading St. Paul speaks of this fulfillment and grace bursting into the world:

When the kindness and generous love of God our savior appeared, not because of any righteous deeds we had done but because of his mercy, He saved us through the bath of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he richly poured out on us through Jesus Christ our savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.

This, then, is what is happening in all the time of waiting: God has been persistently calling us even though we so often turn away. That was true for the Tribe of Israel, in their sin and in their exile, it was true during Jesus’ life on earth, and it has been true of us, the Church, down through ages. God calls, persistently calls, and sometimes we respond!

Having prepared His people, having sent John the Baptist as the last of the prophets and the forerunner of Christ, in the fullness of time, some 2000 years ago, God came Himself. He invited a young and obscure woman from a backwards hilltown to be His Vessel, and Mary said yes. Her fiancé, who must have felt all his plans crash down around him when he discovered his bride to be was pregnant, Joseph also decides to cooperate. And the Lord took on flesh and dwelt among us, God came among us as a tiny baby child.

During this Christmas season, so many of us gather with family, or we think of them if they are far away… and our families are like the families in Scripture, like our ancestors in the faith… it’s messy! Some of our ancestors we’d rather not remember at times! But God has been at work in our families, too. God has been preparing us for His coming, during this Advent, and during our whole lives. He has brought us to this Mass, to this moment, to this Christmas Eve, desiring to fill us with joy and peace, desiring to fill us with Himself. Perhaps we have wandered, perhaps we have been far away, whether visibly and publicly or in the silence of our hearts… in all those times and in all those places, God has been at work.

God was at work when he sent the glad tidings of Jesus’ birth not to Caesar Augustus, nor to any of the rich and powerful, but first to the shepherds. These lonely smelly men were out by themselves in the fields trying to make a living the only way they knew how, and God’s joy and truth burst in amongst them. They were first afraid, both because of the angels’ glory, but also probably because of their own brokenness, but the angels told them not to be afraid, and told them of their joyful and glorious news! And the shepherds responded, made an act of faith, and said, “Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” Then they went in haste! And those same glad tidings given to the shepherds come to us this morning!

And so, we come to this Christmas Morning, and we proclaim Christ born once again! We come to this manger scene and gaze upon it with awe and wonder and nostalgia and memory. Some of those memories are joy-filled, and perhaps many of them are difficult… but God has been at work, and He continues to work among us, in our midst, in and through us.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem… perhaps you’ve heard it said before, but Bethlehem was not only the city of David, but it’s name means something special in Hebrew… “House of Bread.” And in that town, in that stable, Jesus was laid in a manger, where the food of animals was typically stored. God came in humility, and God still comes to us in humility, to feed us, to nurture us, to draw us to Himself. God comes to us now on this altar, just as surely as He lay before Mary and Joseph, and before the shepherds! May we receive Him with faith and joy, confident that He has been at work in our past, that He is at work in our present, and that He will lead us to eternal life. May we receive the Lord Jesus today with great joy and go forth from here like the shepherds, glorifying and praising God!

+ A. M. D. G. +

The Source of True Giving, or, "How I bought the same gift twice!"

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year A

Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase, “Christmas is a season of giving.” Unlike a lot of catch phrases, I think that’s actually right on target, but I also think we can deepen what we understand and mean by it. Many of us are in the midst of getting gifts to give, but it doesn't always go as planned!  4 or 5 years ago I was trying to decide what to get my brother-in-law, John. My dad had introduced him to hunting as soon as he met him, so I decided to get John a classic hunting book that I had read growing up, “The Old Man and the Boy.” I was able to find a used copy online of the very same edition I had read. I thought to myself, “Aha, this is the perfect gift!!!” I ordered it and had it sent to him, content that I had done my Christmas duty. Some weeks later, I was talking to my sister Becky, and she said, “Ben, do you realize that’s exactly the same gift you got John last year?” I was flabbergasted, but then I remembered! I had very carefully selected the same gift two years in a row… completely oblivious!

Some of you, like me, may have most of your Christmas shopping still to do! Yikes! Obviously it’s possible to go overboard and to allow Christmas to become all about the gifts, but the thing itself, gift-giving, is good. Why do we give gifts on Christmas? Part of it is the echo of the Three Kings, who we’ll hear about in a couple weeks when we celebrate Epiphany, but I would propose to you that there’s an even deeper motive. We give gifts at Christmas to imitate the one who gave us the most perfect gift, His only Son! It is God’s gift that came first, and makes possible all the celebration, all the cookies, praise God!, and all the gifts!

In our Gospel today we hear of what led up to Christmas from the Gospel of Matthew. This Gospel focuses on St. Joseph. We barely hear about the Annunciation, but we do hear in more detail about what Joseph had to navigate… suddenly his betrothed and beloved Mary is with child, and it’s not his! She has received a precious gift, but it looks to Joseph, in all good will, like he has been sadly betrayed.

God’s gifts are deeper, purer, but also more complicated than the gifts we often give each other. Receiving God’s gifts often involves being stretched and moved in directions and in ways we would never have imagined on our own. It seems clear that Joseph desired the great and God-given blessing of marriage and family. It seems likely that he eagerly anticipated sharing a life and a home and a bed and a family with Mary. Those hopes seemed to be crashing down around him. We could empathize with him if he had been filled with bitter anger and despair… maybe he did struggle with those destructive urges in his heart. And, yet, Joseph is open to God’s justice and mercy, and he decides not to harm Mary, even though she has apparently harmed him. He decides not to throw the book at her, not to open her up to public abuse and shame and judgment. Just think for a moment… what would you encourage your son or friend to do if their fiancé was suddenly pregnant by someone else? How would you feel in such a situation?

This struggle, this choice not to respond to apparent betrayal with violence, opens the door in Joseph’s heart, and the angel comes to him in a dream, and reveals God’s VERY surprising work… the child has been conceived through the Holy Spirit, the child is the fulfillment of God’s promise, a promise Joseph would have been familiar with. Unlike Ahaz, who we heard reject God’s promise in our first reading, Joseph doesn’t turn away from God’s surprising initiative, but he acts on God’s instructions. A simple sentence, but so much is packed in there: “When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home.”

God gives us life, and breath, and every good thing, and astonishingly, He offers us even Himself. In response to our betrayal and self-destruction, our confusion and wandering, God comes Himself in infinite humility and vulnerability, as a tiny baby child. That child comes into the world through two people who allow God’s gift into their lives, even though it means reconfiguring everything they had hoped for and planned for.

So… here’s the challenge for you and me. First… can we receive the Gift God offers us this Christmas? No one can give what they have not received… we cannot give of ourselves, we cannot give love or mercy, unless we have first received all that we are, all that we have, as the gift that it is. Are we filled with profound and heart-overflowing gratitude for life and faith and family, however difficult each of those may be for us right now? St. Paul describes the gift of being called and set apart for God, and he speaks of us as those “called to belong to Jesus Christ.” God gives us everything, and dealing with reality involves acknowledging that.

And if we will receive -- if like Mary and Joseph we will say yes to God’s plan, even as it restructures everything we had thought or planned -- if we will receive, then we can give truly and authentically. Some of us priests were able to meet with our new bishop-elect, Fr. John Doerfler, this past Tuesday. My impression is that he is a very good, a faithful, a prayerful man, and I could see in his face and hear in his voice that he is still very much coming to grips with leaving his very busy vocation as vicar general of Green Bay and coming to a new place, to take on a yet deeper responsibility. His call didn’t come in a dream, but as a phone call from the Apostolic Nuncio! Pray for him… he is in the midst of imitating Mary and Joseph.

Physical gifts are fine, often good… we should give money and time to those in need, we should give good gifts to our children and friends… but these are not the gifts that matter, unless they serve as symbols and tokens of what does matter… do we give of ourselves? Can we call someone we need to be reconciled with, or who needs a word of encouragement from us? Can we spend time with the family members and friends that we struggle to like even as we choose to love? Can we give the gift of patience, presence, kindness, and encouragement? Can we make the sacrifice and take the risk of reaching out to those who are lonely, or afraid, or sick, or hurting during these festive days?

God’s gift comes first, and it empowers us to give in return. This is infinitely present and true now as we turn to this altar where God will transform the simple bread and wine into Jesus own Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. May we receive this gift and be transformed. May we receive God, and then give from all that we have received.

+ A. M. D. G. +

Wake up to... JOY! GROWTH! CHRIST!

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 1st Sunday of Advent, Year A

We begin today this precious season of Advent, a time of preparation and making ready, not yet a time of celebration, but the time of excitement that comes before the celebration!  The world around us is already celebrating Christmas, and then on the 26th will forget about it... as Catholics we are called to a different rhythm... now is the time to make ready!  The very word “Advent” means coming, arrival. And who is coming? Who is about to arrive? It is the Lord Jesus! You heard that very beautifully in the collect, that is, the opening prayer, perhaps one of the most beautiful prayers in the Missal:

Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God, the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ with righteous deeds at his coming, so that gathered at his right hand, they may be worthy to possess the heavenly Kingdom....

That is such a beautiful prayer… it captures our eager waiting, our desire for Christ’s coming… we want to run out and meet Him! And when we meet Him, we want to be able to offer Him our lives lived according to Him, so that we can be gathered in as a fruitful harvest, gathered into the joy of His Kingdom!

Did you notice that neither this prayer nor any of our readings today make any particular reference to the Nativity? Advent is truly a time of preparation for the Christmas feast, but first it continues the theme we have been seeing as this past liturgical year ended… the theme of Christ’s coming at the end of time! Christ’s second coming, is the time of harvest, the time of being gathered in, the time when the wheat is separated from the tares, the weeds. We continue to anticipate and prepare for God’s coming into His world in glory for judgment and restoration and full joy.

Maybe it's corny, but I find this moment in the film, when Gandalf arrives at dawn, as a powerful image of Christ's coming!

In light of that coming, then, the Church calls us above all to BE AWAKE, to be ready, indeed, to be already seeking the Lord and moving forward to meet Him, to be ready to welcome and receive Him. We are pilgrims on a journey, and the sense of brokenness and sadness we often experience in our very beautiful world is a constant reminder that this is not our lasting home, that our citizenship is in heaven. We are wayfarers on a journey, pilgrims seeking our destination. In our first reading we heard, “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!” In our psalm, “We will go up to the house of the Lord.” In our 2nd reading, “...it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. For our salvation is nearer now that when we first believed…” And in our Gospel, “Stay awake!

This wakefulness and preparation and journeying is not easy! As Jesus loves us perfectly at this moment, He loves us too much to leave us where we are, wherever that may be… He loves us to much to leave us mired in sin and sadness and bitterness. It's true that Jesus loves us unconditionally, but not if by that we mean that He leaves us where we are... He loves us too much, out of that love He calls us always to deeper conversion.  We are called to once again wake up, look around, and notice that we are not yet in the promised land, and thus to go up, to climb, to make ready. Paul says it dramatically to the Romans:

Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

As Christians we are called to freedom in Christ, rather than being ruled by the urges and passions of the flesh. Being awake and being prepared means evaluating where we are at, recognizing it is not yet heaven, and then setting out towards Christ.



I have begun reading Pope Francis’ new Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, which means, “The Joy of the Gospel.” There is a lot there, and I hope to be thinking and praying and unpacking it myself and with you for weeks and months to come. One thing I would heartily encourage you to do is to read it for yourself, because just as with Jesus Himself, the crowds, and especially the media, are reporting a lot of hogwash! Several times a week people tell me they are excited about Pope Francis, but then as I listen to why, I discover not infrequently it is because they imagine he is going to make the Gospel easy and comfortable to live, especially by changing Jesus’ own moral teachings! It is hard to imagine a perception less connected to reality, although it certainly represents a great deal of the reporting on Pope Francis, and perhaps he himself has left himself open to this perception.  Pope Francis is not calling us to Catholic Lite, he is calling us to deeper conversion, calling us first of all who are trying to practice our faith, you and me!

What is his authentic message, then?  One piece of it, is not unlike the theme of this Sunday… Be Awake! Wake up from the slumber of apathy and routine and vice and consumption! Wake up to Jesus who always calls us forward, deeper, into conversion! Wake up to the beauty and joy of the Gospel!  Listen to his words from the third paragraph:

I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord”. The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms.

Every single one of us is called to this ongoing and constantly renewed and deepened encounter with our Lord Jesus.  There is a risk involved, there is a price, but it is worth it... the Lord is waiting for us!

Again, a little further on, (paragraph #12) the Holy Father again deepens the call:

The life of the Church should always reveal clearly that God takes the initiative, that “he has loved us first” (1 Jn 4:19) and that he alone “gives the growth” (1 Cor 3:7). This conviction enables us to maintain a spirit of joy in the midst of a task so demanding and challenging that it engages our entire life. God asks everything of us, yet at the same time he offers everything to us.

To follow Christ, the embrace the Joy of the Gospel is "so demanding and challenging that it engages our entire life" !  If we are awake, we can attend to the Lord's voice, the Lord's initiative, calling us deeper.

How can you live this concretely during this Advent we begin together today?  Go back to the basics... seek the Lord in prayer each day. I think this is the place where most of us who try to practice our faith can grow the most.  I encourage you and call you to prayer, even as I struggle myself, even though I'm "paid to pray!"  If you pray some days, make time for God every day, however simple that prayer may be.  If by God's grace you pray every day, open up some more time for Him, read one of the daily Mass readings, or pray a decade of the rosary... give God a little more space! You won't outdo Him in generosity!

Along with prayer... keep seeking the Eucharist.  Up the ante... if you make it to Mass some Sundays, make it every Sunday. If you make it every Sunday, consider coming to a daily Mass from time to time, or stopping by the church to make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament.

Make a good confession this Advent... there is not better way to wake up, wipe the slate clean, and make a new start with God's healing and help!

We prepare now to receive our Lord Jesus on this altar, where He offers us Himself once again, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, hidden under the appearance of bread and wine.  Jesus not only challenges and calls us, He offers us the power and grace we need in the Eucharist.  Let us receive Him now with deep JOY!

+ A. M. D. G. +

Is Jesus Lord of your Life? Do you imitate Blessed Miguel Pro?

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Year C

This Sunday, we enter into the final week of the liturgical year! Beginning with Advent, we prepare for the birth of Christ, and then during the Christmas season we celebrate that birth. With Lent and Easter, we first prepare for and then celebrate the mystery of the Easter Triduum, the Paschal Mystery, the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of our Lord and Savior. The other weeks of the year are numbered in succession, and we call them Ordinary Time, during which we hear proclaimed Jesus preaching and His miracles, while we also celebrate the beautiful feasts of the Saints. It is the bulk of the year, a time for ongoing growth and conversion. At the very end of that process each year, before we begin the cycle once again, the Church places before us this beautiful and daunting image of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Jesus is Lord and King of all created reality, King of Heaven and Earth, King of all Humanity, King of the Physical and Spiritual Realms.

Jesus’ Kingship has its roots deep in Salvation History. The people of Israel clamored to God for a king, wanting to be like the other nations, and God gave them first Saul, who turned mad, and then David. Our first reading comes from the moment when David is establishing and consolidating his political and military power, as the tribes descended from Jacob, also known as Israel, submit themselves to him. They anoint him king. This is strange, perhaps for us… we don’t anoint our presidents or governors, and rightly so, for they are not religious, but political leaders. However, the People of Israel accept David as king because God has chosen him, not only because they have chosen him. As they anoint David, they acknowledge and respond to God’s blessing, the blessed oil a symbol of God’s strength and protection and healing. The one who is anointed, in Hebrew, is the Meshiach, the Messiah, and in Greek, the Christos, the Christ. God’s promise to David and David’s anointing indeed foreshadow and prepare the way for another king who would come.

In our second reading, St. Paul lays out for us boldly who Jesus is: not merely a man, not merely a teacher, nor even simply another prophet. Rather, Jesus, standing at the end of the long Davidic line, is more than a man called by God to rule and teach. Listen again to Paul’s mystical words:

He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
all things were created through him and for him.
He is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
He is the head of the body, the church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he himself might be preeminent.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and Son of Man, like us in all things but sin, a man who walked among us and taught and healed, is also Himself God. We sang the Creed today to mark the end of this Year of Faith, as we prepare now to carry the healing truth of the Creed with us out into the world once again, and we proclaimed together that Jesus is, “God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father.” Jesus is King, Messiah, Lord, Jesus is God! This is the very core of our belief and identity as Catholics. Jesus is God, He is King of the Universe, King of all Creation.

Our Gospel, however, reminds us that Jesus’ Kingship is far more than pomp and majesty. Jesus conquered the powers of darkness, the brokenness and lies of sin, precisely by taking all the deceit of the Enemy to the Cross. Jesus reigns and rules and is lifted up especially on the Cross, which is why we keep the crucifix always before our eyes.

One powerful and blunt question is placed before each one of us by this great feast of Christ the King. As we gather here to celebrate and pray, is it the case, is it true, that Jesus is the Lord of our lives? Is Jesus King and Ruler of our daily words, choices, and behavior? Do we allow Jesus to be Lord in our struggles and sorrows and failures and also in success and thanksgiving? Do we acknowledge Jesus as King and pay Him homage in both joy and sorrow? The man who mocked Jesus turned his back on Jesus’ kingship because it wasn’t according to his taste, while the other man asked for mercy and opened the door. If we choose Jesus, we see clearly that it will not make life easy, nor will it eliminate suffering, but it will lead to eternal joy.

In the Church’s wisdom, Saturday, Nov. 23rd is also the feast of a recently beatified saint, Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, a Jesuit priest who was executed by firing squad on Nov. 23, 1927 in Mexico. In the midst of persecution and government oppression, he chose to study for the priesthood, and once ordained, he freely chose to go back to Mexico, despite the danger. He used great courage, resourcefulness, and ingenuity to escape the police and detectives sent after him as he visited the sick and dying, and celebrated Mass covertly in people’s homes. As they were about to shoot him, he asked for permission to kneel and pray first. The Mexican ruler at the time, President Calles, thought to use the incident as a PR stunt, but it backfired, for the journalists invited to the execution shared the pictures of Fr. Pro’s calm courage and piety with the whole world, bringing discredit and shame on the government that brutally framed and murdered him. Blessed Miguel Pro’s dying words were “Viva Cristo Rey,” that is, “Long live Christ the King.” Jesus was Lord of His life, and Fr. Pro followed Him without counting the cost.

Perhaps this is an extreme and unusual case, but the same invitation comes to us… in difficulty, in struggle, in joy and success, in all moments, will we turn to the Lord, will we call upon His name? Will we imitate Miguel Pro? Will we imitate the good thief who knew of his need for God’s mercy? As we celebrate today with joy Jesus’ Kingship over Heaven and Earth, we ask that this may go deeper than the words on our lips, that we may acknowledge Jesus beyond the walls of this church in our homes, in our schools, in our workplaces, wherever we are. In His infinite power, Jesus is also perfectly humble, and He comes to us now with tender humility, offering us Himself, hidden under the appearance of bread and wine.

+ A. M. D. G. +

Our Patronal Feast of St. Albert the Great - Living Faith and Reason in Light of Eternity

+ J. M. J.+

Homily Outline for the Patronal Feast of St. Albert the Great
(Readings from the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C)

Did you notice all the talk of doom and destruction… the “blazing oven,” and “earthquakes and famine?” We are coming to the end of the liturgical year and next Sunday we go out with a bang, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. The following Sunday the new liturgical year begins with the 1st Sunday of Advent. Now, during these final waning weeks of the liturgical year, the days are getting shorter and shorter, and the winter is settling in upon us. The Church wants to make use of this vivid annual experience, this natural symbol, to invite us to reflect, first, upon death. In early November, we who are engaged in the daily battle, the Church Militant, we celebrate All Saints’ Day, remembering the Church Glorious, asking the saints to pray for us, and then on All Souls’ Day we remember the Church Suffering, praying for those in the purification of Purgatory. We meditate upon the death of our loved ones, our own death, and the ties that extend beyond death.

As November ends, now, we meditate upon the End of Time and Jesus’ 2nd Coming. Jesus rose from the tomb, He walked among His disciples and Apostles, and then He ascended into Heaven. He has promised that He will come again in glory and power at the end of all created things. He came first, in Bethlehem, in hiddenness, in silence, quietly, leaving each person free to choose faith and belief in Him. When He comes again there will be no doubt, no question, for He will come to judge the living and the dead, and the fire of His love will burn away all falsehood and confusion and doubt.

We live in this gap between the Lord’s First Coming and His Return in Glory. We live in this gap of faith, hope, and love, where we are offered grace and truth from God, but where we must always make the choice to receive it. God never forces Himself, His Love, His Mercy, His Truth, upon us. God doesn’t work like a SWAT team, breaking down the door, and handcuffing us to His Body, the Church! As a priest, I’m not the trooper whose job is to bundle you into the caged back of my squad car! Rather, serving as the Lord’s minister, as an Alter Christus, another Christ, radically configured to Jesus Christ by the undeserved gift of ordination, head and chaste spouse of the Church, I am to serve you, to teach you, to be in your midst speaking and living God’s word. St. Paul speaks of this in our 2nd Reading, describing his desire to be one among them who gives a good example of hard work and virtue.

And so, in God’s Living Word, and through me, a priest of Jesus Christ, the Church is inviting us to reflect upon Christ’s coming at the end of time. This will be glorious, but it will also follow great struggle and suffering. Following Jesus Christ, far from guaranteeing an easy and comfortable life, will necessarily involve us in His Cross. Jesus says, “Take up your cross and follow me. “ Jesus says, “The will seize and persecute you… because of my name.” But He also says, “It will lead you giving testimony.” If we are to navigate the storms of life, whether the ordinary burdens of each day or more surprising burdens, sufferings, or attacks, we must have our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, and we must be grounded in the truth of things. Jesus is coming again, He will judge and restore all things, but as we await that day, life will be a battle, and it will involve great suffering even as it involves great beauty and deep joy. In the midst of those joys and sorrows, we are invited to give witness, to show by our words and lives that we are followers of Christ. In fact, Jesus assures us that if we will trust in Him, if we will wait upon the Lord, if we will listen for His Voice, then, He will give us the words! As He tells us of the battle, He also tells us of His presence with us:

Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute…. not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives.

God’s word is not chained, Christ’s grace is not wiped away by difficulty and struggle, not even by sin and failure. If we will keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the defender and perfecter of our faith, He will give us grace and bring us safely to His kingdom. We may suffer, we may die, we may be mocked, we may be ignored or dismissed but if we are faithful to Him, He will be faithful to us!

Today we celebrate our Patronal Feast of St. Albert the Great! St. Albert’s day falls on November 15th, often celebrated for another reason, but the Church allows a parish’s patronal feast to be transferred to the nearest Sunday so it can be more easily celebrated. It is a joy for me to be with you for the first time as we celebrate this feast!

St. Albert was born in what is now Germany around 1205, and after studying at the University of Padua in Italy, he joined the newly founded Dominican Order. He turned his active and agile mind to the study of many different things, and he also became the mentor and teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas. He is renowned above all for the breadth of his learning… he was deeply engaged in philosophy and theology, but also the natural sciences. He made very effective use of the rediscovered philosophical tools of the Ancient Greek Philosopher Aristotle, which, among other things, helped him to make increasingly effective use of empirical observation and the very beginnings of the scientific method.

I hope you can see that when St. Albert was chosen as the patron for this parish, it was very apt! So many of you are engaged, whether as students or professionals or professors, in the work of studying the natural world, in all its beauty and complexity. For at least 200 years there has been a widespread prejudice that an intelligent person must choose either faith or reason, that the two are mutually exclusive. The birth of experimental sciences in the very bosom of the Church implies that this is not the case, and St. Albert is a particularly bright example of a man who loved God with all his heart, mind, and strength, and gave glory to God by applying his mind to understanding the created world. Precisely because we know God created the world in love, as Catholics we are confident that the world is intelligible. This is in fact the baseline axiom or assumption of any scientist… if the world is not intelligible, if it does not contain structure and order, however complex, then there is no point in studying it, and there is nothing that could be learned of its structure and function. As we study God’s creation, whether it is a forest, or a cell, or a molecule or a galaxy, we may very well marvel at the beauty and goodness of these things! Their very structure and order tell us of God’s goodness and beauty, and of His love for us.

We know that when Jesus comes again in glory, He will restore and redeem all things, and that there will be a new heaven and a new earth. What we see and observe and measure now is only a hint of the beauty that we are called to by God. By living and loving and exploring created things in light of eternity, we put them in their truest and fullest perspective, in relation to God, and in relation to eternal life. As we celebrate with great joy our patronal feast, we call upon St. Albert for his prayers and intercession, and we seek to follow his example by placing all our gifts at the service of truth and the service of God. As we prepare to receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ, we ask God to fill us with grace, strength, and wisdom, that as we love and explore His creation, we may not forget our Creator!

+ A. M. D. G. +

 

Three Tools for Glory - 33rd Sunday, OT Year C

   + J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

The Word of God served up for us by the Church this Sunday is rather daunting, to say the least! We hear from the Prophet Malachi that:

Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving them neither root nor branch…

Lest we think it’s just the angry Old Testament, our Lord Jesus speaks to us in a similar vein in the Gospel:

All that you see here-- the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down …. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky….You will even be handed over 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…

What’s going on here! Why all the talk of doom and destruction? We are coming to the end of the liturgical year… next Sunday we go out with a bang, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.  The following Sunday the new liturgical year begins with the 1st Sunday of Advent. During these final waning weeks of the liturgical year, we are also in that phase of the natural cycle where the days are getting shorter and shorter, and the winter is settling in upon us. The Church wants to make use of this vivid annual experience, this natural symbol, to invite us to reflect, first, upon death. We who are engaged in the daily battle, the Church Militant, we celebrate All Saints’ Day, remembering the Church Glorious, asking the saints to pray for us, and then on All Souls’ Day we remember the Church Suffering, praying for those in the purification of Purgatory. After that we shift from meditating upon death, both the death of our loved ones, and our own personal deaths, and we pray with the great mystery of the Lord’s 2nd Coming at the End of Time.

Jesus rose from the tomb, He walked among His disciples and Apostles, and then He ascended into Heaven. He has promised that He will come again in glory and power at the end of all created things. He came first, in Bethlehem, in hiddenness, in silence, quietly, leaving each person free to choose faith and belief in Him. When He comes again there will be no doubt, no question, for He will come to judge the living and the dead, and the fire of His love will burn away all falsehood and confusion and doubt.

  We live in this gap between the Lord’s First Coming and His Return in Glory. We live in this gap of faith, hope, and love, where we are offered grace and truth from God, but where we must always make the choice to receive it. God never forces Himself, His Love, His Mercy, His Truth, upon us. God doesn’t work like a SWAT team, breaking down the door, and handcuffing us to His Body, the Church! As a priest, I’m not the trooper whose job is to bundle you into the caged back of my squad car! Rather, serving as the Lord’s minister, as an Alter Christus, another Christ, radically configured to Jesus Christ by the undeserved gift of ordination, head and chaste spouse of the Church, I am to serve you, to teach you, to be in your midst speaking and living God’s word. St. Paul speaks of this in our 2nd Reading, describing his desire to be one among them who gives a good example of hard work and virtue.

And so, in God’s Living Word, and through me, a priest of Jesus Christ, the Church is inviting us to reflect upon Christ’s coming at the end of time. This will be glorious, but it will also follow great struggle and suffering. Following Jesus Christ, far from guaranteeing an easy and comfortable life, will necessarily involve us in His Cross. Jesus says, “Take up your cross and follow me. “ Jesus says, “The will seize and persecute you… because of my name.” But He also says, “It will lead you giving testimony.” If we are to navigate the storms of life, whether the ordinary burdens of each day or more surprising burdens, sufferings, or attacks, we must have our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, and we must be grounded in the truth of things… Jesus is coming again, He will judge and restore all things, but in the interim, as we await that day, life will be a battle and a struggle, and it will involve great suffering even as it involves great beauty and deep joy. In the midst of those joys and sorrows, we are invited to give witness, to show by our words and lives that we are followers of Christ. In fact, Jesus assures us that if we will trust in Him, if we will wait upon the Lord, if we will listen for His Voice, then, He will give us the words! As He tells us of the battle, He also tells us of His presence with us:

Remember, you are not to prepare your defense beforehand, for I myself shall give you a wisdom in speaking that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute…. not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives.

God’s word is not chained, Christ’s grace is not wiped away by difficulty and struggle, not even by sin and failure. If we will keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the defender and perfecter of our faith, He will give us grace and bring us safely to His kingdom. We may suffer, we may die, we may be mocked, we may be ignored or dismissed but if we are faithful to Him, He will be faithful to us!

OK… so that’s pretty big picture, a bird’s-eye view of our lives. Concretely, practically, how do we fix our eyes on the Lord, how do we open ourselves up to His instruction and guidance and grace? There are many good ways to answer that question, and the Church offers us a rich tradition beyond our full comprehension. Let me, however, propose to you three non-negotiables. If we are to follow Christ as He intends, if we are to avail ourselves of the help He offers we must build our lives on: 1) The Eucharist 2) Regular Confession 3) Daily Prayer! No surprises there… if you’re sitting here in Mass today I’m pretty sure those three are on your radar screen! If you want to rise above the battles you face, if you want to endure unto eternal life, go deeper with one of those, or even all three. Make Sunday Eucharist non-negotiable as the Lord intends… if you can physically get to Mass, you should be here Saturday evening or Sunday every week. The Church requires you to go to confession at least once a year during the Easter Season if you are aware of mortal sin… but the Church encourages and invites you to go to confession regularly, availing yourself of the healing and strength offered there. Every month or two is probably a good goal for most people. I need more help, so I try to get to confession every couple weeks myself. Finally… how much space do you give the Lord in prayer each day? You won’t outdo Him in generosity!

In moments, the same Lord born in Bethlehem, the same Lord who will come in glory, will come down upon this altar and offer us His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. May we prepare our hearts now to receive Him with JOY!

   + A. M. D. G. +

In Heaven's Light

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C

This Sunday we get just a little glimpse a page in Salvation History that isn’t widely familiar, the story of the Maccabees. The 2 Books of Maccabees together tell how the Greek Empire attempted to impose paganism on the people of Israel, and of the resistance led by the family of Mattathias, a Jewish priest. In the background of the passage we hear today is the dramatic moment when Mattathias publicly refused to perform a pagan sacrifice in the city of Modein, thus leading his family and many of the faithful Jews into open rebellion against the Greek tyranny. Mattathias’ son, Judas, gives his name to the whole saga, for Judas’ nickname was “Maccabaeus,” which may have meant “The Hammer.” His stunning military leadership and many victories over the much larger Greek armies certainly bear out the nickname.


The passage we heard, from the 2nd Book of Maccabees, tells of the martyrdom of seven un-named brothers. All seven were savagely tortured and killed in front of their mother for refusing to obey the king’s order to eat pork. Two truths stand out from their statements in the face of terrible torture and death: First of all, this whole family clearly recognizes that we must obey God before man. It is easy enough for us to acknowledge this theoretically, or when we feel that we are already keeping God’s law, but when the chips are down, when God’s law calls us to conversion or to resist the path of the majority, then it becomes very difficult. It tests our faith. And this leads to the second truth… with faith in eternal life, knowing God’s promises to us, we can face any sort of difficulty in light of heaven. The third brother is about to have his tongues, arms, and legs cut off by the torturers, and he says:

It was from Heaven that I received these; for the sake of [God’s] laws I disdain them; from him I hope to receive them again.

Moments later, the fourth brother also points to the same hope:

It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope God gives of being raised up by him; but for you, there will be no resurrection to life.

In light of Jesus’ later teaching about amazing depth of God’s mercy, we don’t fully embrace this man’s certainty that his torturers are condemned to hell, but we are absolutely invited to share his great hope in heaven, in being raised up by God.


If we live only in light of this mortal world, we will not live as Jesus invites us to live. If the physical life we see around us is the whole story, the only rational path is that of hedonism, “eat, drink, be merry, for tomorrow we die.” More and more people live this way around us, and each of us is tempted to seek pleasure at all costs. This hedonistic path doesn’t even lead to happiness here in this world. Eternity is built right into our hearts.


If we seek real joy, we must live in the light of heaven, with an eternal perspective, with our eyes and lives fixed on the goal and promise God gives us. This is implied in the final words of our psalm, “I in justice shall behold your face; on waking I shall be content in your presence.” We hope and pray and strive to live in such a way, sustained and lifted up by God’s grace, that we may be able to receive the gift of eternal life. When we pass through the veil of death, we hope to wake and rise to God’s presence in heaven.


St. Paul speaks to this same hope and perspective in our 2nd reading:

…the Lord is faithful; He will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. We are confident of you in the Lord that what we instruct you, you are doing and will continue to do. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the endurance of Christ.

God is faithful to us through every trial, He promises to strengthen and guard us. He longs to direct our hearts to His love and to the very endurance demonstrated by Christ.


When we face tough decisions, may we not forget that Jesus has been there ahead of us. Jesus knew what was coming, and in Gethsemane He prayed, “Lord, may this cup pass from me, but not my will but your will be done.” When Jesus stood before Pilate, He almost certainly could have worked out some compromise by denying His own mission and identity. When we face temptation and struggle, we can sidestep it too, if we deny our baptismal mission and identity. Jesus was scourged, crowned with thorns, mocked and spat upon; He struggled up the hill bearing the Cross He would be nailed to, He died for us. He rose victorious from the grave, overwhelming not only all that suffering, but even death itself. We are promised a share in His victory… but we can reject that gift and turn away. If we forget the promise of heaven, we are very likely to turn away.


In our Gospel, the Sadducees were trying once again to trap Jesus with a spurious question, designed to make a mockery of belief in eternal life. We know what it is like to live in a world where eternal life is often mocked, even more frequently ignored, and sadly, simply unknown to many of our peers. Jesus cuts through the shuffle and goes to the heart of the matter… those who are deemed worthy enter into the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead, they are children of God and will rise, for our God is a God of the living, not the dead.


The Church, then, invites us to embrace the truth of eternal life today. This perspective gives us hope for our loved ones who have died, as we continue to remember them during this month of November. We are not finally cut off from those who have died, whether that is a child lost in miscarriage, a young person who dies tragically, or an elder person who dies at the end of a long battle with sickness. We can help them with our prayers, we can love them in light of heaven.

Keeping our eyes fixed on heaven does mean we disdain or disregard this world, rather it means we can authentically love this world while recognizing that it is not the whole story. In heaven’s light we can persevere through temptation, failure, and sorrow. In heaven’s light we can love in truth, we can give of ourselves without counting the cost. Only in heaven’s light can we authentically love both God and neighbor. Like Jesus we can knife through the shuffle of lies and malice and confusion and ignorance, and live grounded in the truth… we are the beloved adopted sons and daughters of God, and He calls us to eternity. At this Mass, now, He gives us Himself, to strengthen us on this journey.




A beautiful example of Heaven's Light shining through song:

+ A. M. D. G. +

The Little Big Man in the Tree

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C


Perhaps some of you saw the recent film, Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. There are many striking and beautiful shots of the earth from space, as the two characters try to survive in their spacesuits. Even from the low orbit where the international space station works, whole continents are visible at a glance. I didn’t see the film in 3D, Fr. Robb and I couldn’t go at that time, but even then there was a sense of vertigo, of being about to fall towards the earth!

Since humans have entered space in the last 50 years, we have been able to see our planet all at once, seemingly adrift in the endless sea of space. As we have looked beyond our solar system, and even beyond our galaxy, we have learned how unfathomably enormous the universe is. Our scientific discoveries have opened up this new perspective, and we have become aware of our littleness.

Surprisingly, though, our littleness was understood by the People of Israel even before the time of Christ! In our first reading, from the Book of Wisdom, composed some 50 years before the Lord was born in a manger, the author says:

Before the LORD the whole universe is as a grain from a balance or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth.

Perhaps you’ve seen the images that seem to show the whole earth in a drop of dew… and yet the author here speaks not just of the earth, but the whole universe! As we have gained a physical knowledge of the immense scale of creation, it seems to me that at times we have allowed this to obscure the yet greater scale of God! However many millions of light years away the other side of the universe may be, it is all held in being by God’s never-failing love, as little drop of water cradled lovingly in His hand. God’s act of creation is ongoing, sustaining, necessary for the existence of all things. The Book of Wisdom continues:

…how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you?

How indeed could any of us remain, or continue in being, were it not for God’s love? In the face of death or sickness, in the face of sin and failure, we become intensely aware of our inadequacy, our contingency. We rely upon help, support, resources, and even being that is not our own! We do not sustain ourselves, we do not bring ourselves into existence… were God to cease to love us for but an instant, we would cease to exist!

And, yet, He does love us, as surprising as that may seem at times. He is truly a “lover of souls,” a God whose love is perfectly faithful and steadfast, who loves us and sustains us in being even as we so often turn away. To use St. Paul’s words to the Thessalonians, God desires that we would become “worthy of his calling,” that the “name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified” in us. “The Lord is good to all and compassionate towards all his works,” in the words of the psalm.

Not only is this true on the level of philosophy and theology, it is true on the level of personal and daily experiences… we do not explain ourselves, or give ourselves being. But what neither the psalmist nor the writer of the Book of Wisdom could imagine was what God was going to do next… He came Himself! The infinite Lord of the Universe, Creator of All, Sustainer of All, He who holds the whole universe in His hands, much less the world or you or me, God came Himself. Our smallness, our pettiness, our resistance to His love doesn’t keep Him from mounting a search and rescue mission for each one of us, and we see this at work in our Gospel.

 Zacchaeus is a wealthy man, a powerful man… no mere tax collector, he is a chief, organizing other Jews like himself against his own people in support of the Roman tyrant. In the eyes of the world, a big man, even to those who hated him. And yet, he’s a little man, certainly in stature, but there also remains a certain holy littleness, and in his zeal to see Jesus, he’s not afraid to climb a tree to see over the crowd! Now I hope it’s not too hard to picture me climbing a tree… but imagine being at a parade and seeing our mayor, or a wealthy local businessman, or Bill Gates, climb a tree to see the Goldenaires going by at a parade! Zacchaeus forgot his wealth, his power, his political stature, this fell by the wayside, in his longing to gaze upon the Lord Jesus’ face.

Thus far, we see human longing for God. What happens next, though, is all the more surprising and paradoxical. Jesus notices the little big man up in the tree, He looks up, sees him, and calls out to him, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.” Zacchaeus could only climb, gaze, hope to see the Lord… but God-Incarnate looked up to him, looked him in the eyes, called him by name, and went to his home. The Son of Man “has come to seek and to save what was lost.”

God holds us in existence in love, He created us for Himself, and we daily experience the longing for truth, for love, for peace, for joy. All too easily we allow our own weakness, and the challenges we face, to mount up and obscure our vision. But, if like Zacchaeus we will forget ourselves, our pretensions, our problems, and hurry to a vantage point, to the Word of God, to the Sacraments, to prayer, hoping to gaze upon the Lord, we can be confident, that God will close the gap, that He calls us by name, that He desires to dwell not only in our homes, but in us, in our hearts, in our daily words, in our daily deeds.

In this context, the vision of our little planet from space can be helpful… we are small, we are vulnerable, we do not sustain ourselves. However, although we are small, we are not adrift in a faceless and impersonal universe, we are cradled lovingly in the hand of our Maker, and He is always attentive to us, always sustaining us. Can we become attentive to Him? Will we seek Him who has already found us? Will we open our homes to His grace? Will we repent of our sins and generously respond to God’s forgiveness? Zacchaeus gives us the model, as he swallows his pride and scurries up the tree. Jesus is coming to our homes today, to our hands, on our lips… will we receive Him with joy?

+ A. M. D. G. +

Miserando atque Eligendo... the Lord, looking upon us with mercy, calls us!

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

I hope some of you may have had a chance to read the big interview with Pope Francis that I distributed after Masses some weeks ago, there are still copies by the doors if you didn’t get one yet. The very first question that the Fr. Spadaro, asked the pope was a deceptively simple one, “Who is Jorge Mario Bergoglio?” Having used the pope’s baptismal name, he describes Pope Francis pausing, thinking, and saying, “I do not know what might be the most fitting description…I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner.” “I am a sinner whom the Lord has looked upon…I am one who is looked upon by the Lord.” Then the Pope referred to his papal motto, Miserando atque Eligendo. This Latin phrase is taken from a commentary written by St. Bede the Venerable in the early 700’s, where St. Bede says, “Jesus saw Matthew, and since he looked at him with feelings of love and chose him, he said to him, ‘Follow me.’” Miserando atque Eligendo refers to Jesus looking upon Pope Francis with mercy, aware of the pope’s need for love and mercy, and choosing him, calling him, even as Jesus offers him mercy. In mercy the Lord called the Pope, offering him healing grace in the midst of his call to serve. In mercy the Lord looks upon you and me, offering us healing mercy, in the midst of His call to us, a call to serve. Pope Francis with great humility and great clarity pierces through the murk that often surround our identities: we focus on our weakness, and end up discouraged. We focus on our strengths and accomplishments, and we get puffed with false pride. Like St. Matthew whom Jesus called from the midst of his sinful life as a dishonest tax collector, Pope Francis is able to see his need for God’s mercy while also seeing God’s loving call.

As the days shorten, and the temperature plummets, as snow piles up and green plants wither, we too might be tempted to discouragement in the face of nature’s death. On the other hand, we might look at our nicely stacked woodpile, or our full freezer, or our savings account, and count ourselves well prepared for whatever storms may come. We might be afraid, or complacent, and in either case we would be noticing only part of the truth. At this season of the year that the Church calls our attention to the last things: Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell. The two beautiful and compelling feasts this coming week draw these to our attention. This coming Friday, we celebrate All Souls’ Day, and we praise and thank God for the shining example of His many saints, both the formally canonized and the anonymous. The veil is pulled back a little between heaven and earth. Halloween may have become commercialized in recent decades, but the feast itself, the Eve of the celebration of all the Hallowed, all the Saints, has deep Christian roots. Even the ghosts and the ghouls point to the closeness of death and judgment as nature dies the death of fall. Ghosts and ghouls are scary, and should be scary… they remind us not to toy with sin, not to toy with the Enemy, whose true face is hideous and fearsome.

Having joyfully thanked God for holiness, the holy lives of the saints that show us the way, on Saturday we remember All the Faithful Departed, All Soul’s Day. Traditionally we think of the Church in three parts: The Church Militant, the Church Suffering, and the Church Triumphant. We are the Church Militant: those alive upon this green earth who are engaged in the daily battle to choose good and reject evil, the daily struggle to Love God and Neighbor, the daily choice to follow Christ or to turn away. We, the Church Militant, celebrate our deep connection in faith and love to the Church Triumphant on All Saints’ Day, asking for the saints’ intercession. Then on All Souls’ Day we in turn intercede for the Church Suffering, all those who are in the midst of the loving and yet painful purification of Purgatory. Every soul in Purgatory is going to heaven, and knows it. The suffering of Purgatory is filled with hope and gratitude, and yet its not fun! Because we are connected in faith and in hope to every member of the Church, living and dead, we can assist those in Purgatory with our prayers, and so we pray for all the dead.

As the natural world grows cold and brown, the Church wants us to honestly and hopefully remember the truth of death, the passingness of this mortal world, and the great promise of eternal life that we are offered by Jesus Christ. Our two feasts, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, help us to remember.

In our Gospel, Jesus commends not the apparently virtuous Pharisee who is consumed with his own virtue and accomplishment, but rather the despised tax collector who knows both essential facts: his own sinfulness, and God’s mercy. The tax collector pierces through the murk of both despair and arrogance, and chooses contrition and hope. As he is living in touch with reality, he is able to touch and taste the most fundamental reality, God’s love.

Are we living in reality? Are we able to look in the mirror, to look within, and be honestly aware of our own sinfulness and weakness? As we see our great need for help, perhaps we taste the temptation to despair. Are we able to look within, and to look up, and to gaze upon the beauty of God’s face, His perfect and steadfast love for us, the mercy He is always ready to give us if we will but ask for that gift? God through His Church invites us to pull back the veil, to pierce the murk of confusion, and to see ourselves and Him, embracing contrition and hope, rejecting arrogance and despair.

We see this very clearly modeled for us by St. Paul in our 2nd reading. He knows that he is being marched towards his own martyrdom and death, using a vivid image from the pagan world, “I am already being poured out like a libation, and the time of my departure is at hand.” The pagans poured part of their wine on the ground as a sacrifice to the capricious gods, and Paul purifies this image… he has freely chosen to pour out his own life, offering it to God and man for the spread of the Gospel, whatever the cost. In his trial Paul knows where strength comes from, “The Lord stood by me and gave me strength.” In God’s strength he is able face martyrdom and death with calm hope.

This world is passing, even as it is full of beauty, and all that we have is a gift from God. At my retreat this past week, one of the priests gave a very beautiful homily. He told us of visiting his sister’s house, and seeing her confront her little adopted son who had been selfishly clinging to a toy. She bent down and looked into little Peter’s eyes and said, “Oh, Peter, you must have forgot, you don’t own anything.”  Can we hear God speaking those words to us today, with gentle love? We are not to despair because of our sins, nor be complacent because of our possessions, but rather to hope in God who has given us all as a gift.

+ A. M. D. G. +

St. Paul’s trustworthy saying and Winston Churchill… huh?

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Our 2nd reading concludes with these pithy words:

This saying is trustworthy: If we have died with him we shall also live with him; if we persevere we shall also reign with him. But if we deny him he will deny us. If we are unfaithful he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

There is a great deal offered to us here, a great deal to think about, a great deal to put into practice!

First… “if we have died with him, we shall also live with him.” This is the Paschal Mystery at the heart of Christian Faith: Jesus Christ died and rose, He conquered death by death. Normally a hero succeeds by avoiding death and defeat, but Jesus definitively emptied death and defeat of their power over us by walking straight into the bloody maw of death and conquering it from within. We are invited to follow in His footsteps. Indeed, unless we follow in His footsteps, we are not able to enter into His victory. We must die with Christ so as to live with Him now and in eternity. For this reason we keep the Crucifix always before our eyes, reminding us that in all distress and pain, Jesus is at our side!

This mystery is present in God’s healing in our 1st reading and Gospel. Naaman the Syrian had been suddenly afflicted with leprosy just as he had risen to worldly power, but one of his servants was an Israelite, and she suggested he seek out the Prophet Elisha. At first Naaman had resisted Elisha’s instructions out of arrogance, but persuaded by his servants, he finally agreed to follow the prophet’s instruction, to bathe in the waters of the Jordan. He was instantly healed of his leprosy, that dread disease. It seems that he was also healed of a far more dangerous illness, arrogance and pride, because he admits his folly to Elisha, and he makes an act of faith in God, who Elisha serves. In sickness and folly, God offered Naaman healing and faith. He worked through the lowly, and yet offered Himself even to the rich and haughty!

Similarly, in our Gospel, we have this healing of the ten lepers. Like Naaman, but perhaps with greater humility, they seek Jesus out, and following the law that prevented them from approaching anyone healthy, they cried out from a distance, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” They do not have to be cajoled or convinced, they immediately follow Jesus’ instructions, going off to show themselves to the priests who by law must declare them clean and healed, free of leprosy, before they can enter back into the life of the community. That act of obedience opens them up to God’s blessing, and while they are en route, they are healed!

Naaman had to die to himself, swallow his pride, and follow the advice of a foreign prophet. In that act of humility, he was opened up to God’s healing. The ten lepers cried out in their need, much more open to God than the wealthy and powerful Naaman, and when Jesus gave them instructions, they immediately carried them out. By this obedience, they were opened up to God’s healing. God does not save and heal us without our choice, without our consent, without our response. If we will choose to die with him, we will live.

In our daily lives the choice to follow Christ, to obey Him, to imitate Him, often involves many daily choices, rather than one dramatic moment. St. Paul’s saying continues, “if we persevere we shall also reign with him.” An authentic following of Christ, an authentic Catholic life, will necessarily involve a great deal of perseverance. We keep going to Mass, even if the priest or the choir or our fellow parishioners aren’t always at the top of their game! We keep praying, even as we struggle with distraction or experience a time of dryness. We keep going to confession and receiving God’s mercy even though we often continue to struggle with the same sins. We keep responding to those around us with patience and generosity, with kindness, even if they don’t always, or perhaps often, respond in kind. We keep choosing to forgive, even as we are close to drowning under waves of bitterness, anger, hatred, or numbness. Jesus fell three times, and he kept getting up. The saints are men, women, and children like us, weak, sinful, and yet they kept getting up, they kept crying out for healing, they kept trusting God’s mercy.

I’ve been reading a biography about Winston Churchill, and the part I’m reading now describes the long political exile he experienced during the most of the years between WWI and WWII. He was on the outs for years, unable to exercise the high office he had reached as a very young man. He was blamed as incompetent for decisions that history has shown were right on target. As the Nazi menace grew from the early 1930’s on, he kept crying out in the wilderness that the world and Great Britain must be willing to stop Hitler. Almost nobody listened, and Churchill was often dismissed, ignored, ridiculed or insulted in the House of Parliament and in the press. Hitler gobbled up the Rhineland, and no one did anything; Hitler gobbled up Austria, and no one did anything; Hitler gobbled up Czechoslovakia, and no one did anything. Churchill was in the midst of despair and sadness as no one in power was willing to respond to the rapidly growing danger. In 1939 Hitler invaded Poland, and finally, as if waking up out of a drugged stupor, the world realized it was in big trouble, and suddenly England turned to Churchill. In short order he was Prime Minister, fighting for survival in terrible circumstances that he had tried to address constantly for 10 years prior. What would have happened if he had given up? What would have happened if he had simply backed away from the struggle, from the battle, and devoted himself to writing and painting? It is not easy to imagine someone else leading England through the bitter years that followed, and we might well be speaking German here if Churchill hadn’t stayed the course!




The principal applies to our daily lives! “If we persevere with him, we shall also reign with him.” Is it a persistent sin or vice that causes you discouragement or shame? Keep seeking God’s mercy in confession! Is it a wound or sin from the past that keeps dragging you down? Keep renewing your trust and faith in God! Is it the need to forgive some hurt that seems beyond your strength to forgive? Keep surrendering it to the Lord! Does God seem far away, does your life seem disconnected from God and His Church? Keep opening the door, keep crying out, keep seeking the Lord? Do some of the people you love seem to be far from God and running farther away as fast as they can? Keep praying for them, loving them, and seeking to be more converted to the Lord yourself! Only by refusing to seek the Lord, only by refusing to ask for His mercy, only by denying Him do we shut the door. And yet, even then, as St. Paul tells us, “If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.” Jesus is for us, and when we seek God’s mercy, His answer is always, “Yes!”

St. Paul’s words are short and to the point, let’s listen to them once more as we prepare to approach this altar, where we will receive Jesus Christ, who is always faithful to us:

If we have died with him we shall also live with him;
if we persevere we shall also reign with him.
But if we deny him he will deny us.
If we are unfaithful he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

Asking God for the gift of faith, the gift of perseverance, the gift of hope, we prepare our hearts, we open the door, to God who gives us Himself.

+ A. M. D. G. +