Easter: The Head and the Body - Homily for May 13

Readings for May 13 / Ascension of Our Lord:  Acts 1:1-11  |  Psalm 47  |  Ephesians 1:17-23  |  Mark 16:15-20

The feast of the Ascension of Our Lord tells us much about Christ the Head and about our mission as the Body. Let's get to work!

Life! - Homilies for the Sacred Paschal Triduum

Readings for Thursday, March 29 / Holy Thursday: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14  |  Psalm 116  |  1 Corinthians 11:23-26  |  John 13:1-15


Readings for Friday, March 30 / Good Friday: Isaiah 52:13-53:12  |  Psalm 31  |  Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9  |  John 18:1-19:42


Readings for Sunday, April 1 / Easter Sunday: Acts 10:34, 37-43  |  Pslam 118  |  Colossians 3:1-4  |  John 20:1-9

Seeds and Hope - Homily for July 16

Readings for Sunday, July 16 / 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time:  Isaiah 55:10-11  |  Psalm 65  |  

Romans 8:18-23  |  Matthew 13:1-23

Trying to live the Christian life can be difficult when we don't see fruits from our labors, whether in our own soul or in the world around us. Today the Lord encourages us not to lose hope. 

Everything is Meaningless! Praying with the 'vanity of vanities'

Readings for Sunday, July 31/ 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time:
Ecclesiastes 1:2; 2:21-23
Psalm 90
Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11
Luke 12:13-21

This week the Holy Father has been in Poland for the celebration of World Youth Day. 2 Million youth and young adults from around the world have gathered for Mass, prayer, catechesis, and to share in the joy of being a universal Church. What intrigued me in watching the various celebrations was the face of Pope Francis. In the majority of the encounters with people he was his usual jovial self - smiles illuminating his eyes and the joy of the Gospel written on his face. When he went to the concentration camp at Auschwitz it was different though. His face as he walked around the grounds and prayed at the various sites was one of a solemn and somber nature. You could see in his face and body posture the weight of a profound mystery, the great sufferings endured by so many people.

Some of the survivors of the Holocaust have written and spoken of the horrors that took place within those gates. Many recall how some of the most faithful people among them lost all faith as they endured and witnessed the suffering and death of their friends, families, neighbors, and their own selves. Many, it is said, were the ones who cried out in search of the meaning of it all – What is the point of this?! Why is this happening?! What is the meaning of it all?!

Viktor Frankl was a man who himself endured great suffering in Auschwitz. He lost most of his family there and was subjected to the inhumane conditions that claimed the lives of so many. But as he endured it all, he also reflected on it. Victor Frankl was a psychologist and he continued his labor as such even in the camp. He tells of how the Nazi guards would intentionally starve the prisoners for long periods of time and then throw a small bit of bread into the middle of the yard so they could watch the prisoners tear at each other in hopes of getting a few scraps. Many did so, seeking to feed themselves before others who were more in need. But Frankl also noticed that in the face of these attempts at dehumanization, there were many who kept their dignity and some who were able to attain a piece of bread that immediately brought it to others more in need of it than themselves. This made him think about the differences between people in the camp, particularly in how they viewed their future. He came to realize that if one had lost hope and had nothing to look forward to, they often died in the camp. On the opposite end, many who were subjected to great trials endured them on account of their desire to fulfill some hope they still clung to. Ultimately Frankl survived his time in Auschwitz and was freed, after which he wrote a book called “Man’s Search for Meaning” in which he provided an axiom that described his experience: if we have a why to live, we can endure almost any how. Or in Christian terms, if we have hope, we can carry any cross.

The readings this weekend help us to grapple with this mystery a bit too, particularly in regards to the reading from Ecclesiastes, which is rather jolting. This is the one and only time we hear from Ecclesiastes in the three-year Sunday readings, so I encourage you to go read through it yourself. What you will likely experience as you start to read through it is a sense that it is quite different than the rest of the books of the Bible. While many have historical or a more positive theological tone, Ecclesiastes is the gut-wrenching cry of an anguished heart: Vanity of vanities! Everything is vanity! The Hebrew word for ‘vanity’ is ‘hevel’ and is also translated as a waste, a breath, vapor, useless, meaningless, and the like. Qoheleth cried out in frustration as he sees that he works and labors with skill and all he works to attain will be left behind to another person who has done nothing to deserve it. He goes through an contemplates how he can have all wealth, power, honor, health, and worldly wisdom, and in the end he will die the same as someone who has none of it. What is the point of this life? he challenges the invisible God. Vanity of vanities! Like chasing after the wind. This litany of frustrations is not the end of the book, however. In response to all of these things and the vanity of being consumed with the things of the world, the writer concludes that we ought simply to enjoy the things that come our way and to follow the way of the Lord. So if you have wealth, health, wisdom, power, honor, and the like, enjoy it and use it well. But don’t make that your goal. These are not what matters to God and this is what he New Testament passages clearly remind us.

St. Paul tells the Colossians to set their eyes on the things that are above, not the things that are on earth, and the same applies to use. Do you not know, brothers and sisters, that you have died in Christ? Then think of heavenly things – the Blessed Trinity, the glory of the saints, the joy of the angels, the beauty of heaven. Set your hearts there and store up those riches. The earthly riches are nothing in comparison. The wealthy man in the Gospel who stores up great quantities to permit himself years of rest and relaxation is met with the voice of the Lord telling him he won’t even survive the night. Be rich, then, in the things that actually matter to God. And what is it that matters to God? What’s most important to God? You might rephrase it with that of another Gospel narrative: What is the greatest commandment? You know the answer. Love God, love neighbor. So what is it that matters to God? Love God, love neighbor.

St. Maximilian Kolbe was a Franciscan priest who himself endured suffering and death within the gates of Auschwitz. One of the norms at the camp was that if someone tried to escape or actually escaped, 10 or so men would be killed as a sort of penalty. The purpose was to dissuade trying to get out of the camp, using the possible death of family and friends as a deterrent. One day someone did escape and so a group of men were chosen to be killed. One of them began to weep and cry ‘My wife! My children!’ He had a ‘why’ to endure the ‘how’ of life there. Hearing this plea, Maximilian stepped forward and volunteered himself to take that man’s place. The guards, unconcerned about who was killed, agreed and Maximilian went to his death and the martyrs crown. Love God, love neighbor. The man survived and was later reunited with his family because St. Maximilian had a purpose and it ended in a heavenly union.

Viktor Frankl himself chose on many occasions to love God and love neighbor instead of caving to his own desires and giving up hope. When he could have tried to rest and care for himself, he instead spent many nights talking to the men who surrounded him in the bunks. As they would begin to despair he would simply begin asking questions to them one by one. Do you have an family left? And if they said yes, he would encourage them to think about being reunited. Do you have friends somewhere? Again, wouldn’t it be great to be reunited. Is there some place you’d love to travel to or some activity you’d love to do? What joy to be able to do so! Over and over and over again, by loving God and his neighbor Frankl gave hope to countless men in the camp and encouraged them to find meaning in the life they lived. As those men began to love God and love neighbor – whether outside or inside the camp – they grew in the health, wealth and wisdom that matters to God: love.

All of those is simply a shadow and reminder of the great love shown to humanity in the person of Jesus Christ, who loved God and neighbor even unto His death on the Cross.

So the end point is this: if you have worldly riches and blessings, enjoy them. But remember that out goal is not earthly pleasure but heavenly joy. Every human heart must face that reality at some point. Whether in the past, present, or future. Whether it is us personally or someone we know or even someone we don’t know. All of us are faced with those questions at times that make us want to cry out Vanity of Vanities! What is the meaning of all of this?! In those moments, when hope seems to be waning and despair increasing, when confusion seems to triumph over reason, remember your purpose. Remember the ‘why’ of life that can help you get through any ‘how’. Love God, love neighbor.

Update and Homily Audio

As regular readers have likely noticed, I have not posted any of my homilies since late January. That was partly due to a few weeks when I had no Sunday Mass homily to preach, and then it became a bit of an act of charity toward myself with a little blog sabbatical. But in that time I have been working on another project that I've wanted to do for a while but never made the time to investigate: homily audio. Beginning this past weekend, I will (attempt to) record one of my Sunday homilies and post them online for other to be able not only to read, but also to listen to the homilies. I am still working on some of the details, but at the moment you can follow any posts here on the blog or directly on the page that will host them: https://soundcloud.com/padrepbm

This week's homily audio can be found here: https://soundcloud.com/padrepbm/05-22-16-trinity-sunday

The text follows more or less below:

Patience. We all need it. Some of us have more of it than others. Some of us require it from others more often. Patience has been a recurring idea lately in my ministry and personal prayer. To my brother priests who are about to become pastors I gave the first and most important piece of advice: pray! And the second shortly followed, be patient. In counseling and spiritual direction the message has been continuous: be patient. And to myself, as I continue to grow as a priest and pastor, the same message: be patient.

 This weekend we celebrate Trinity Sunday, honoring the central mystery of our faith: the reality that the One God is Three Persons. Much has been said about God through the centuries and much more remains to be said in the fullness of time. In ages past there were many struggles in the life of the Church to understand this God who is Trinity and Unity. In the Early Church there were numerous struggles over the person of Jesus and how exactly He fit into the picture; whether He was fully God, fully man, a hybrid. How each person of the Trinity was God was a reality that had to be prayed and understood over time and through the Councils of the Church. In later centuries philosophers began to wrestle not so much with the things of the Early Church, but with more philosophical understandings of God. They used terms like ‘transcendentals’, referring to God as ‘The Good, True, and Beautiful’ and as ‘that than which nothing greater can be thought’, and ‘the unmoved mover’. These and many other descriptions helped to make sense of God from a philosophical perspective. But while both of these are still important and discussed in certain circles, it seems to me that the larger issue that the members of the Church struggle with in reference to God today is what we would understand as His patience.

According to modern scientific theory, the universe is somewhere around 14 billion years old. The human person, the crown of creation, seems to have existed only around a million years or so. That is a LONG time to wait to place the final piece of the puzzle. When God made Adam and Eve, they fell to sin and in the second chapter of Genesis the Christ was prophesied. And it was many thousands of years before He actually came. The people of Israel were chosen by God to be His own people and a light to the nations and yet right from the start they spent 400 years in slavery in Egypt and, when they finally knew freedom, they spent another 40 years in the desert. The Christ was prophesied and another 1000 years passed before His birth. He came among us and from a human perspective we would expect to have great fanfare, the blaring of trumpets, beating of drums, and confetti tossed into the air, but He spent 30 years working in a carpenter shop before beginning His public ministry. Before His Ascension into Heaven, He told the disciples He would come back again and for 2000 years we’ve been waiting. This great mystery, God who is Trinity, is incredibly patient.

The culture in which we live does not lend itself to the use of patience. We are a culture of quick – quick food, quick communication, quick travel, quick everything. But God works in exactly the opposite manner, seeing things from a very different view. And it is that view that we’re invited to adopt for ourselves – patience.

The Letter to the Romans speaks to us and says that we ought to boast in our afflications – our trials, crosses, struggles, whatever you call them – because they produce endurance. The Traditional Latin Mass readings for Saturday included this same reading and the translation then actually said ‘patience’, afflictions produce patience. And patience, or endurance, produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. And hope does not disappoint. The thing is that patience is hope in action. The thing is that God is not limited by time and space, so in a sense that we can’t understand all of history and all things that exist are, to God, ‘here and now’. God sees the full picture and works on a scale the likes of which we cannot even begun to understand and for this reason we become impatient. We are limited by our time, location, personal experience, and more. So we are invited to remember the bigger picture, even if we can’t see it, and to be patient in the midst of it unfolding. A patience that leads to hope; hope in action. Hope is the assurance of thing yet unseen, so to be patient is to have hope in that which is to come and to be patient here and now, confident that God will help us, that God will strengthen us, that God will accomplish that which we await. So we look there (heaven) and gain strength to be patient here (earth).

How many times have I heard and said, “It’s frustrating to go to confession because it seems like I say the same thing every time and it never changes!” I want grow, to change, to be better and yet nothing is happening! To this the Lord responds: patience. How many times I’ve prayed and longed for a resolution to a particular trial that was going on in my life or the life of another person and after countless prayers it seems like nothing has changed, where is the Lord here? And to this, too, the Lord responds: patience. In so many ways, over and over again, He invites us to patience, to see the bigger picture and to be filled with hope that God will hear our cry.

As we enter into the summer, the liturgical year becomes a bit quieter and the major feasts fade into a quieter routine, so I want to invite you to have a patient little walk with me and the parish - a 92-day journey (the months of June, July, and August) with a focus on one particular thing. I say one particular thing because the temptation in the spiritual life, as in everything else in our life, is to try to do a whole bunch at once. So, fight that temptation and be patient with one thing. Here is a list of 10 possibilities, though there are certainly others the Lord may be inviting you to consider.

1) For one day a week, do everything at half the speed you normally would. Not twice the speed. Half the speed. The only exception is driving; please don’t drive half your normal speed because you will certainly cause a wreck! But everything else, half the speed and give yourself the time to enjoy those things that ‘have to be done’.

2) If you’re not already doing it, maybe consider simply coming to Mass every weekend for those 92 days, being patient with your own struggles and the struggle that coming to Mass brings with it.

3) It wouldn’t a list from Father Brent without mentioning confession! So maybe to resolve to go to confession once a month from those three months and encounter the patient God Himself and receive grace.

4) Consider bringing a notebook to Sunday Mass during those 92 days and writing down one thing from Mass that ‘spoke to you’ and praying with it through the rest of the week.

5) Read the Bible for 10-15 minutes a day and learn about the other ways that God has been patient with His people through the years.

6) Make Sunday a day of rest, set aside solely for family and faith. Often we can become busy with so many things that the Commandment to ‘Keep holy the sabbath’ gets lost in the mix. Make a point to revive it.

7) Share a meal as a family a certain number of times each week and talk with each other. Share in each other’s joys and struggles and help others to be patient by your encouragement.

8) Find a good Catholic book and read through it slowly and reflectively, allowing it sink deeply into your heart.

9) Make a point to visit the Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament for an hour each week. St. Ann is open during the days and St. Mary’s has the Adoration Chapel, so plan for one hour each week to simply sit with the Lord in the quiet and talk with Him.

10) Pray together as a family. Pick one night each week (or multiple nights!) to pray the rosary together or do scripture sharing together.

These and many other things are ways in which we can learn to become more patient by encountering the infinitely patient God we love and serve. And so pick one and patiently walk with it. If you see some fruits from it, great! If you see nothing from it and feel no warm fuzzies, cool. Be patient. There is nothing that we do that goes unnoticed by the Lord and He will not let us go astray. So let us pray the Lord to teach us to be patient, that we might be patient with Him, patient with each other, and patient with ourselves.

Papal Intentions for November 2015

Papal Intentions for November 2015

Universal Intention: That we may be open to personal encounter and dialogue with all, even those whose convictions differ from our own.

Mission Intention: That pastors of the Church, with profound love for their flocks, may accompany them and enliven their hope.

Prayer for the Pope

V. Let us pray for Francis, our Pope.

R. May the Lord preserve him, give him life, 

and make him blessed upon the earth, 

and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.

Our Father... Hail Mary...

O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look mercifully upon Thy servant Francis, whom Thou hast chosen as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the flock committed to him, may he attain everlasting life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Be Good and Be Blessed?

Readings for Sunday, September 20/ 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Wisdom 2:12, 17-20
Psalm 54
James 3:16-4:3
Mark 9:30-37

As the day nears for Pope Francis to arrive here in the U.S. I see more and more speculation about what he will say while he is here. While I don’t have mystical gift to see the future, I am willing to bet that while he will say many things that are encouraging and uplifting to us as a nation, but he’ll also say some things that upset people. This shouldn’t surprise us, though, since it seems his entire mission as Holy Father is to shake things up a bit. If he doesn’t ruffle our feathers a bit, it means we’re not listening to him enough! It’s striking if you think about it; the Vicar of Christ on Earth, the head of the Holy Catholic Church is a man that is loved by many but who also is the target of numerous slanderous words, hateful remarks, and violent intentions. It flies directly in the face of an idea that is not Christian but that has made its way into the mind of many Christians these days and it is the idea that if we are ‘good people’ or ‘good Christians’ that everything is going to be okay for us, that we’ll be ‘blessed’ in some concrete way.

The Jewish people had a clear nation that being good meant one would be blessed. We see it most clearly in Job, who is contrary to that idea. Job lost his wealth, his cattle, his children, and his wife all in a short period of time. His friends come to him and ask what he had done wrong. When he says he had done nothing wrong they are shocked because they thought ‘if you’re not blessed, you’re not in God’s good graces’. In like manner, there are numerous Christian sects that have trumpeted a ‘Gospel of prosperity’ that says if you live a good life God will bless you. That if you go to church on Sunday and put money in the collection plate that God will bless you. If you are kind to others, God will be kind to you. If you post a picture of Jesus on your Facebook wall, you will be blessed. All of these implicitly  treat the relationship with God as a contract – I do X and deserve Y in return and if I don’t receive Y then God has let me down.

The readings this weekend paint for us a different story. The Book of Wisdom clearly shows us that the wicked see the good as obnoxious and seek to bring them to a wicked end, to tear them down as much as possible and put them to a shameful death, all the while saying, “oh, but I thought your God was going to save you!” We see it fulfilled in its cruelest form with the Lord Jesus on the Cross as the passers-by shouted ‘He claimed to save us, let him save himself!’ and the like. Here the good person enjoys anything but worldly blessing. Instead, for his goodness he becomes a target of hatred, envy, and wrath. Quite a blessing there!

St. James takes things a step further for us and reminds us that it is not just a group of ‘wicked people’ who do wicked things. It can easily become the just who allow their passions to well up within them and issue forth in wrath, hatred, and harmful words. These two ideas came together for me quite clearly in the form of one of my brother seminarians. My friends and I were pretty comfortable in our spirituality and faith at the seminary; we did the things expected of us to grow in holiness – daily Mass & prayer, the rosary, joining in community prayer, retreats, and on. Then along came a new seminarian who was more pious than any of us. He would be found kneeling in the hallway staring out the window at the image of Mary in our courtyard and we’d remark ‘Doesn’t he know the hallway is for walking, not a chapel?’ or we’d see him arrive early for Mass and stay late afterward and remark ‘He’s always in the chapel, I wonder if he has time to shower.’ How quickly my heart turned from good to wicked when faced with someone that rubbed me the wrong way, that upset my norm, and challenged me to do more than what I was currently doing in the way of faith. My brother was obnoxious to me and I tried to kill him with my words.

This all comes together in the Gospel as we see the Lord give the clearest explanation of the Passion to that point – ‘We’re going to Jerusalem, I’ll be handed over, they’re going to kill me, and three days later I will rise from the dead.’ Seems pretty clear and yet the disciples don’t understand His words. Why? Because they were too busy focusing on themselves and their own blessings to be received shortly. Jockeying for first, you can imagine how they easily sought to increase their own value and decrease that of the others. How on may have said to Peter, ‘You can’t be #1 because you tried to walk on water and fell because of your lack of faith.’ And Peter responding, ‘Well, I didn’t see you get out of the boat in the first place, did I?’ and so on. So consumed are they with the blessings they’d get for being good disciples that they miss the message of their leader.

Pulling a child into the scene, Jesus illustrates to the crowd that true blessing consists in one not seeking oneself but rather in receiving others in the name of the Lord. It is a holy indifference about ourselves that desires rather to look to the other for love of Jesus. The end point is this: the Lord Jesus calls us to an ever-deepening relationship with Himself without seeking what we get out of the deal. If through the course of this life we are blessed to have good health, wealth, the joy of family and friends, and all goes well for us, God be praised! But if through the course of this life we must daily take up a cross of poverty, poor health, loneliness, and countless crosses til the day of our death, God be praised! More clearly put, this life can bring many things to us but ultimately we are simply passing through this life. Heavenly life awaits the faithful and there will be such joy there that the worst day of our life on this earth will seem as nothing at all, and the best day of our life on this earth will be the same. In that sense it is absolutely true that if we are good Christians we will be blessed, but simply being blessed with Heavenly joy isn't our goal since that's still self-centered. If we do our best to live each day in union with God in this life - whether it be full of blessings, crosses or both – we will know the joy of beholding our God, seeing Him face to face, and enjoying His embrace as the child enjoyed the embrace of Jesus for those few moments. But let us not go there alone, seeking only our salvation! Rather, let us make it our goal to suffer well the things of this life so as to bring many souls along with us, that all of us might together reign with our God, whose love is shown in such mysterious ways.

The Response

Readings for Sunday, June 28/ 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time:
Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24
Psalm 30
2 Corinthians 8:7,9,13-15
Mark 5:21-43

In his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis spoke to us these words: “The family is experiencing a profound cultural crisis, as are all communities and social bonds. In the case of the family, the weakening of these beonds is particularly serious because the family is the fundamental cell of society, where we learn to live with tohers depite our differences and to belong to one another; it is alos the place where parents pass on the faith to their children. Marriage no tends to be viewed as a form of mere emotional satisfaction that can be constructed in any way or modified at will. But the indispensable contribution of marriage to society transcends the feelings and momentary needs of the couple. As the French bishops have taught, it is not born ‘of loving sentiment, ephemeral by definition, but form the depth of the obligation assumed by spouses who accept to enter a total communion of life.’”

As you all presumably know, the Supreme Court of the United States announced their opinion Friday, decided by a 5-4 vote, to reject the traditional view of marriage in light of a new definition that permits ‘same-sex marriage’ in all 50 states. While this may upset us, it should surprise us because traditional marriage has been under attack for a long while and this is just one more step. Catholic theology on marriage notes that marriage has two ‘ends’ or ‘goals’, namely procreation and the good of the spouses, which basically means the union is emotionally, spiritually, psychologically, & physically beneficial. We can see that attacks on procreation began decades ago with the introduction and encouragement of contraceptives. This fundamentally separates marriage and its first end. Following behind it is the continued attack on children. Abortion necessarily follows because when contraception fails there has to be a means to be rid of the child one sought first to avoid. From there society made ‘advances’ in being able to choose certain attributes of their children and ‘get rid of’ children who had undesirable attributes. In vitro fertilization and other unethical means of creating life only further the chasm between marriage and the gift of children. The good of the spouses came under attack with the introduction of no-fault divorce, which necessarily makes marriage less binding and thus less valued. To this we can add the devaluing of women in general. It’s interesting to me that in an age when feminism fights so strongly for the rights of women to equal pay, equal job opportunity, etc. (rightly so!) that the culture continues to treat women worse and worse. Women are generally not valued in themselves for the gift that they are, but rather are used for their bodies and their ability to increase sales. This is only encouraged by the acceptance of pornography and pornographic films and books, which only seek to make people objects to be used instead of persons to be loved. With all that has happened to the two ends of marriage, it is no surprise then that the very definition of marriage itself should be free from attack.

The question is this: how do we respond?

I’ve seen responses ranging from fear, anger and despair to excitement, relief, and celebration. As Catholic we ought to stand on neither end of that spectrum but rather firmly planted in the middle full of faith, hope, and love. We are called to have faith that God is in control of this country and this world, regardless of what happens around us. We are called to have hope that Marriage would shine brightly in our culture and remind us of the love of God for us and our call to heavenly life. And we’re called to love. Love of every single person who stands in front of us, regardless of their age, sex, race, social status, sexual orientation, or any other personal attribute, because they are a person. Because they are created in the image and likeness of God. Because they were made to love and be loved.

A lot of times the Catholic Church is painted as this hate-filled body that spews its hatred and condemnation at people who identify as gay, lesbian, transgender, bi-sexual, queer, etc. But did you know the Church says the stands for the exact opposite? The Catechism says unambiguously that we are called to show them ‘respect, compassion, and sensitivity’ and that we are to avoid any sign of unjust discrimination toward them. Holy Mother Church loves all of her children and wants to have all of humanity rest in her loving arms. Sadly, we Catholics and fellow-Christians often failed to convey this truth, but the call still stands for us to be images of God’s love ourselves. This doesn’t mean that we condone or celebrate ‘same-sex marriage’ or relationships that lead to such, but it does mean continuing to love the other by showing respect, compassion, sensitivity, and honoring the dignity of others.

So our response needs to be one of faith, hope, and love, which is exactly the same at it has always been. The Supreme Court can say whatever it wants, but the ultimate reality is that the true King of this world is Jesus Christ. I love my country deeply, but we all have to remember that we’re Catholic first and American second. And that means that our Catholic faith informs everything we do. And what is our mission as Catholics? To shine with the light of Christ.

Did you hear the Collect at the beginning of Mass today? It’s easy to miss but it was beautiful: “O God, who through the grace of adoption chose us to be children of light, grant, we pray, that we may not be wrapped in the darkness of error but always be seen to stand in the bright light of truth.” I love that last line ‘be seen to stand in the bright light of truth’; not just to stand there, but to be seen standing there. We are called to be witnesses that reflect the Light of Christ as the moon reflects that of the sun.

As I noted last weekend, Holy Matrimony and Holy Orders both are sacraments of service. The entire goal of the individual is to get the other person to heaven. I’m a priest. I’m obligated to be a holy priest, a saintly priest. The Catechism tells me that my life as a priest is to be entirely consecrated to service of the others. Every moment of my day is to be dedicated to getting every single one of you and many others to walk through the pearly gates of heaven and sing the Gloria along with the angels and saints. And if I get there too, good! My call is to shine with the Light of Christ in holiness and priestly ministry.

Single people, your call is much the same. To consecrate your days to loving whoever stands before you. Love them as if it were Jesus Himself and seek to recognize in them the Christ who seeks to love you as well. Be holy and happy Catholics, radiating the joy of the Gospel in your eyes as well as on your lips. Seek the Lord at all times and trust in His guidance of you through all that life brings.

Married people, your call is the same, but even more important. When marriage is under attack, the need is for good, holy marriages to be even more visible and even more effective in their outpouring of love and witness of the goodness of the sacraments. You are called to be icons of the Most Blessed Trinity! The love of husbands for their wives and wives for their husbands is a powerful sign of the love of God for us, and the love of both for their children speaks even more fully of the life and love of God in Himself – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Husbands and wives, remember that your goal is not to get to Heaven and hopefully to drag your spouse along with you. The goal is to get your spouse to Heaven and for them to drag you! When this mutual selfless love is present then it produces saints, both in the parents and the children. The parents of St. Therese of Lisieux, Bl. Louis & Bl. Zelie Martin, will soon be canonized and only for the fact that they were a holy family. Be models for your children and for all the world of the gift of God’s grace, and the joy of selfless giving. It can seem that you have little effect on the world, ‘what good can I do in such a big world?’ you might be tempted to think. But remember that Pope St. John Paul II called the family the basic cell of society and a blessing to the world. Strong words. St. John Chrysostom has some strong words too in a homily on marriage as he reminds each and all of us that “The love of a husband and wife are the force that welds society together.”

Be the force and the weld. Be the blessing and the light. Be saints.

Birds, Beads and Hope

Readings for Sunday, May 17/ Ascension Sunday:
Acts 1:1-11
Psalm 47
Ephesians 1:17-23
Mark 16:15-20

A couple of years ago it became clear to me that I needed to get in a shape other than round and so I decided to get on a health and wellness plan. I was suggested one by a brother priest, who had found it to be effective and spiritually enriching, and decided to go with it. It even came with a couple of books, which made me excited, of course. As I read through the first book the doctor who devised the system encouraged that the motivation for weight loss and optimal health be not a negative one but rather positive, as the negatives tend to lead us to a cycle of ups and downs as the fear and negative feelings fade over time. He suggested that I begin with a list of positive motivating factors to keep me going. So I started my list with serious things: want to see my nieces, nephews, and godchildren grow up, wanting to outlive my parents, wanting to serve God as a priest as long as He desires. Then I added in some that were less noble: wanting to wear my awesome t-shirts that didn’t look so awesome with me in them, wanting to get rid of my ‘bishop belly’ (the bishops photos as the seminary all featured a prominent stomach on which to rest their hands), and that my vestments would fit like they’re supposed to. These and others gave me a positive motivation to work toward my goal of good health. In short, they encompassed what the Scriptures speak to us: perfect love casts out fear.

The martyrs of the faith, following Jesus’ lead, certainly experienced some fear at their trials and during their sufferings and death – but their love for God was even stronger than their fears and made them willing to continue the course.

This weekend we celebrate the feast of the Ascension, marking that glorious day when the Lord Jesus ascended into Heaven to claim His throne at the right hand of the Father and to prepare the way for us to follow. While seeing Jesus ascend must surely have been a bit of a saddening experience, the reality is that this feast is one meant to increase in our hearts the theological virtue of hope. There is much darkness in the world with wars, violence, illness, death, and numerous others sufferings mixed in, but the reality is that there is something greater that awaits the righteous. The prayers of the Mass this weekend beautifully remind us that Christ ascended to Heaven not to separate Himself from us, but to prepare the way for us to join Him forever in Heaven: where the Head has gone, the Body is called to follow! He does not abandon us, but is a sign of hope to remind us that we are not to dwell forever in the valley of tears but are called to the place where every tear will be wiped away. What’s more, the Good Lord even gives us the Eucharist to sustain us with His Presence until we are able to be joined forever in the next life.

To aid us in this increase of the virtue of hope, I invite you to join with me in offering a decade of the rosary, meditating on the mystery of the Ascension. Growing in God’s grace need not be accompanied by great acts of piety – the little one done with love are quite effective! Walking to church to hear confessions this weekend I saw a big crow in the yard steadily hoping along the walkway as a little mocking bird swooped down over and over trying to scare him off. And slowly but surely the crow was moving where the mocking bird wanted. Then came a couple more little birds and pretty soon there were three or four little ones and the crow took off. The devil, sin, and despair is much the same. It looks big and difficult to get rid of, but we have a mighty little mocking bird in the Hail Mary and as we string a few of them together incredible things can happen right before our eyes. So let us pray…