What Can I Do? - Homily for November 6

St. Jose Sanchez del Rio

Readings for Sunday, November 6/ 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time:
2 Maccebees 7:1-2, 9-14
Psalm 17
2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5
Luke 20:27-38

This weekend's set of readings begins with readings from the second book of Maccabees which is a
noteworthy book for us. It's one of the latest written, was only about 150 years before the life of Christ whereas some of the other books date back to more than 1000 years before the life of Christ. And so it shows to us how the Jewish faith had experienced some growth, change and development as well as cultural experiences. We see what was taking place was a persecution - the people were being persecuted on account of their faith. What the seven brothers show us today, in the abbreviated account of their martyrdom, is that if we hold to our faith, it will cost us something. These were the martyrs of the Old Testament, but the same is said of the martyrs of the New Testament - that if we hold fast to Jesus Christ, it will cost us. 

Jose was a young boy - you may have heard his story before as I have preached about it. He was one who wasn't really alive in his faith, just like most of the boys in his town. They had a town priest and from time to time they would pick on him, throw things at him, make jokes - wasn't very serious about it. Jose began to experience a conversion of his own heart and began to draw close to the priest as the priest began to take Jose under his wing to teach him the things of the faith. Jose was still a little far away from the Lord though, he didn't have that dramatic, living gift of faith, but he was getting there. The time began when the Church where Jose lived began to be persecuted. To be a priest in your clerics meant that you could be shot on the spot. If you celebrated Mass, you could be shot. If you attended Mass, you could be shot. There was no catechism, no sacraments, n -o faith in the public forum according to the law of the land. A number of people began to rebel against this, desiring to live, express and practice their faith. Jose was among their number. As he began to understand the importance of faith and what the lack of it meant for him and his people. He joined a group of "rebels" - Catholics who wanted to remain Catholic and live their faith, to have the freedom to practice it in the public square. Jose was ultimately captured and tortured. The soles of his feet were cut off, and he was marched across town ... to a grave that was dug. It had all the dirt and the hole ready to go, and at the head of the grave were his parents and his godfather. And they said, "Jose, all you have to do is deny Jesus. You don't even have to mean it, you just have to say it. Just deny Jesus and you can go home. This will end, the suffering will stop, you can go be with your parents, your godfather, your family and your friends again." And Jose looked at them, and then his executors, and said "Viva Cristo Rey! Long live Christ the King!" and he was killed on the spot. With his last bit of energy, in the dirt on the ground ahead of him, he drew a small cross as a testament to his faith. Jose was 14 years old when he died, and it was less than 100 years ago in Mexico. Not in a land far, far away in a time long, long ago. A lot of times we think that the martyrs of the Church were way back, but as Pope St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and now Pope Francis have also proclaimed and try to draw our attention to is that in the last 100 years, the Church has seen more people martyred for the faith the previous 1800 years combined. To be a Christian and cling to Jesus Christ is to know that it will cost us something. 

For many people today it costs blood. We pray not that it will be the same for us. But even if it doesn't cost us blood, it costs us something else. The story of Jose is one that I love, I'm fascinated by the gift of faith that was bestowed upon that man especially at such a tender age. but what strikes me even more is the reading from Maccabees this weekend. Jose had a dramatic experience; it was something that he had to deny Jesus, verbally at least. Even if he didn't believe it in his heart, he had to verbally say, "I renounce Jesus." That's a big thing for a Christian. What the Maccabee brothers experienced was something much smaller. It was the desire of God that the Jewish people not partake of pork, and the only thing that was asked of them, seven brother martyrs in front of their mother (whom they saved for last to watch them all die - shows you the wickedness of it all); all they had to do was eat a little pork. They didn't have to renounce their God. They didn't have to worship other gods. They just had to eat a little bit of pork. And it got me thinking as I was praying with that vision, that understanding of just how much they were willing to go just to uphold the smallest of laws of their faith. 

Who among us on a Good Friday - one of the two days of the year that the Church invites us to fast or abstain from meat - who of us when presented with a gun to our head and a steak in front of us would not take a bite. Think about it. Who among us? I'd be willing to pick up a fork and a knife and start cutting. There's always confession, right? But seriously. We laugh, but that's exactly what the Maccabean brothers did, and their mother .... We get the abbreviated form of the story. There was seven brothers and all seven of them all said something. And you would think the mother would say, "Just eat the pork!" But instead the mother said, "Honor us. Lay down your life." Imagine watching all seven of your children die, and you encouraging them on account of faith, for pork. How seriously do we take our faith these days? How quickly we are willing to fall away and abandon anything and everything that our faith teaches us to say a little hair on our hide. How quick we can be to cast off Jesus even in the small ways for the sake of a little comfort. 

I would like to think that whenever the big times come that I could persevere and follow Jesus - that if someone came to me, put that gun to my head and said choose Christ or Jesus, I would like to be able to say that I would choose Jesus. But I'm not really sure, and the reason I'm not sure is because in the last several months, I think I've made 7 a.m. Mass at the Church on time once. Once. Seven o'clock Mass. I prefer the comfort of my bed and a few more minutes of sleep than to get up for the love of Christ, for His people and be at Mass on time. And that's my job, it's my vocation ... I literally laid down on the cathedral floor for that - to offer Mass. I can sit in front of the TV and watch the World Series until midnight and be perfectly in tune, but you put me in front of the Blessed Sacrament after 9 p.m. and I'm gone in three minutes. Where is my love for Jesus? Am I willing to suffer for Him? Am I willing to be inconvenienced for Him? And are you? It's the simple things: to have another drinks or not, to have a little more food or not. Sunday Mass .. meh. Holy days of obligation ... the Lord understands, I'm busy. I have things going on. And those are big things. What about the little things? The course of prayer throughout our day, to be with Jesus Christ even for a few moments of prayer, and how often I, myself, am busy about the other things than about the things of the Lord. It's easier to play on the computer or play with a cat than it is to visit with Christ. 

There is a little sign above my desk that I put there on purpose that I try to remember, but too often I forget. It's a quote from Sirach that says, "When you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for trials." It's the reminder that when I come to serve Jesus, it's supposed to cost me something; it's supposed to be uncomfortable. It's supposed to be difficult sometimes; it's supposed to feel like a cross because it means we are in union with Jesus. Jesus taking on flesh wasn't a pleasant thing for Him - it was a cross, it was humiliation, suffering, sorrow, ultimately was pain, rejection and loneliness at the last hour, and He did it for love of us. The question is: What can I do for love for Him? And what can you?

God Speaks

Readings for Sunday, May 10/ 5th Sunday of Easter:
Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48
Psalm 98:1-4
1 John 4:7-10
John 15:9-17

How does God speak to you? How does He reveal Himself to you?

For myself, I have come to know God and hear His voice speaking powerfully through Sacred Scripture, in the liturgy, in creation, in theological writings, and many other ways. But if I’m honest with myself, the place that God has revealed Himself to me is through other people.

It was the words of a priest that helped me discern my call to the diocesan priesthood. It was the voice of my girlfriend breaking up with me to open my path to the seminary in the first place. It was the remarks of one of my youth group kids at my first parish that shaped the way that I’ve lived my priesthood in the parish. These are just a few of the many ways that God has shown Himself to me and spoken to me through others. But the love of God for me? That came through my parents.

For years the mother who gave me the gift of life and bore me in her womb for nine months was a subject not of my appreciate but of resentment. I couldn’t understand how she could ‘give me away’ and it was a source of much anger in my heart. But thankfully the Lord has shown me such was not the case. In a particular way this week I was struck by the intense realization that she laid down her life with me for me. When I hear “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” I often think of literally laying down one’s life, like Christ on the Cross or the many martyrs of the faith, but the Lord reminded me of the ‘white martyrs’ who die to themselves and their desires. It really hit me this week just how much my birth mother gave up of her own joys – first words, first steps, first day of school and many more events – in order for me to have an upbringing she couldn’t have otherwise provided for me.

And my adoptive mother, shows me another side of this Divine Love. The simple fact is that she had no obligation to me; I’m not her flesh and blood and she could just as easily have let me go elsewhere, and yet she didn’t. She welcome this infant child into her family and has never treated me differently than her other children. This, too, showed me something of the love of God for me in that God, Who has no obligation to me, gave His Son up to death in order that I might be able to be welcomed into the Most Blessed Trinity. In this is love!

Both of these show me in some way the Love of God for me because they, like every action of charity, are reflections of Divine Love itself. This is the beautiful thing: that charitable actions are simply the life and love of God being made manifest in and through people. And if God has shown Himself and His love to me so many times through other people, how much does He also want to do it through me? This is the point of the Gospel this weekend: “It was not you who chose me but I who chose you to go and bear fruit that will remain.” Fruit that will remain.

Those many times that people have spoken something, done something that was a reflection of the life and love of God for me are that fruits that remain. The words of a priest have had a lasting effect on me. The words of my youth have had a lasting effect. And surely the love of my parents has had a lasting effect on me. They are fruits that remain because they are points when the individuals have tried to ‘remain in God’. When we remain in the Lord and try to be people of faith, true disciples of Jesus Christ, the simple fact is that He will work in and through us to speak to other people and bear fruit in their lives that will remain as He has done the same in us.

So ultimately the question isn’t really ‘How does God speak to you?’ so much as it should be leaving from here today ‘How does God speak through you?’ May the Lord grant us the grace to remain in Him today and every day that indeed we might bear fruit that will remain.  

HWP: 40 Holy Martyrs

Yesterday was the feast of the 40 Holy Martyrs, sometimes knows as the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste. These martyrs numbered 40 Roman soldiers who converted to the Christian faith in the 4th Century when persecution of Christians was still widespread. In response, the 40 were exposed naked in the dead of winter and set on a frozen-over pond in the nearby town of Sebaste. One the shore was placed a warm bath for any who would renounce the faith. The 40 stood strong for hours until one the group and went for the warm water. Jumping in the warm water, his body went into shock and he died on the spot. This sight, coupled with a heavenly vision of the 39 being crowned with heavenly gifts brought one of the watchmen on the shore to immediate conversion and he stripped himself of his garments and joined the 39 on the ice, bringing the number back to 40. After many hours, the men were taken and burned, most of them still being alive, and their ashes tossed into a river. They have been honored since the late 4th Century and continue to be a witness to faith in the midst of so many trials, as well as the power that witnessing to faith has in bringing others to know Christ Jesus. With this in mind, we pray for our Half-Way Prayer this week the words spoken by the martyrs themselves:

The Prayer of the 40 Holy Martyrs

You can have our armor and even our bodies, 

but our hearts’ allegiance belongs to Jesus Christ.

Don't Be Nice

Gemma's 5 Months old today!

Readings for Sunday, September 7/ 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Ezekiel 33:7-9
Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9
Romans 13:8-10
Matthew 18:15-20

Well, as you all know, we got a couple of cats for the rectory a few weeks back and the good news is they’re getting along great, they’ve adjusted well, and they’re absolutely adorable still. The unfortunate news, though, is that they’ve both gotten a little illness. Earlier this week I was sitting with Gemma and noticed a spot on her leg that I knew needed a vet’s eyes to check over. So we went for our first official non-check up at the vet’s office and learned that Gemma seems to have ringworm. So that means I had the joy of trying to hold down a cat with 20 razor-sharp claws and administer a nice little cream to her leg and foot twice a day. Apparently Dominic was a bit jealous and developed something on his ear, so now I get to hold down TWO cats with 20 razor-sharp claws and administer medicine twice a day. If I didn’t have my long-sleeves on you’d think I’d been rolling in barbed wire as a new hobby because the simple reality is that while I’m trying to do something that expresses care for them, they are struggling to receive it well, and I’m suffering because I know that it is what is best for them. And that is what we hear in the Scriptures this weekend: that sometimes when we show love to someone, it hurts them and it can hurt us as well.

This message of love sometimes being a bit painful isn’t usually well received by the world around us because love is synonymous with ‘be nice.’ Love is not hurting feelings, not saying things that are hard to handle, and certainly not telling someone they’re wrong or they need to change something. Love is simply be nice and let them be. But the reailty is that not one time in the Gospel did Jesus say ‘Be nice’ - He said love others.

Today the Scriptures speak specifically to the aspect of love that is traditionally known as fraternal correction. It is the practice of pointing out to a brother or sister in the Lord that something they’re doing or not doing isn’t what God desires for them. Our culture says to avoid this at all cost and some of us struggle with conflict just because of our personality’s tendency to be peacemakers. But our faith demands it of us. Ezekiel shows us that it is the desire of the Lord that we speak to others when we see them in sin and that if we fail to do so we share the guilt of their fault. There’s a tendency to just let people be to themselves and think ‘they’re not hurting anyone but the truth is that all the members of the Church are part of the same body and we are all interconnected. If one part suffers, the whole body suffers. Just getting a sinus infection can knock my whole body to the couch for a day and the Church isn’t so different.

So it is clear that we should do some fraternal correction from time to time, but the important question is: How do I do that? First, we have to be people of prayer. That is always the basic starting point. We have to have a living relationship with God where we can speak and listen to Him, because He is the one who puts on our hearts the call to speak up. Once we are sure we are in a relationship of prayer, then we have to make sure we have the right person, place, and time.

It’s easy to critique others and bring it to the wrong people. How often are we tempted and sometimes fall into the trap of seeing a fault in someone and rather than addressing it with them we take it to a few other people who know that person and start to complain or gossip about them. It’s easy because it means we can address the fault but we don’t have to risk getting hurt by their response, but it is spiritually catastrophic for several reasons. 1- it leaves the person in the same path with nobody to help direct them out 2- it makes us puffed up in pride 3- it leads other people into sin with us, which only increases the pride of the individuals and malice of the group.

It’s also easy for critique someone at the wrong place and time. We were pros at this in seminary. Anytime a brother seminarian dropped a bowl in the refectory (cafeteria), there was almost always a round of applause to highlight the fault. Or even better those unfortunate days when you’d accidentally sleep through morning prayer and show up late for morning class looking and smelling like death and a brother greets you ‘Well, look who decided to come to class today!’ in front of everyone to emphasize what everyone already knew. This is certainly not Christian charity.

True Christian charity is what we see in the Gospel: pulling the person aside and speaking one on one, with humility, charity, and a spirit of perseverance.

Fraternal Correction: He's doing it wrong...

We have to begin with humility. Anytime we approach someone to speak to them of a fault of their own, what is the likely response? Lashing back. ‘Who are you to tell me my faults, with all of the faults that you have!?’ or some similar response. This is why when we enter into a conversation of fraternal correction we have to go into it not trying to make ourselves look better or to make the other look worse, but simply to speak out of love and concern for them. It’s saying, “Hey, I know I’m not perfect and I have my faults as well, but I noticed this about you and because I care for you, I wanted to bring it up to you and let you know that if you want to work on that I’m willing to help you.” Humility in recognizing we aren’t perfect, charity in emphasizing that it is out of concern for them, and perseverance in the willingness to help them. Sometimes this changes hearts right away. But, as the Lord shows us, sometimes it doesn't. If they refuse to hear it from you, take a couple of others who are close to them and have witness - something like a modern day intervention for an addict. And if they don't respond, bring it to the Church, which would still have been a smaller community, so that the community could support them and lift them up in prayer as the Lord encourages. And if they don't respond, then treat them as a Gentile or tax-collector. That seems harsh, like we just gave up the fight and cut the line and leave them to their own devices, but what does Jesus' example show us? He ate with them and spoke with them in hopes that they would one day be ready to receive the Gospel message. We never give up hope on people who may be straying from the Lord's path, but we keep showing love and keep welcoming them in hopes that one day the Spirit will finally be able to speak to them. In the end, it's about humility, charity, perseverance because while it seems the hard part is having the courage to speak fraternal correction, the truth is that it is even harder when it is spoken to us by someone else. And that day will come.

About 9 nine years ago, my first summer assignment as a seminarian was to a boys wilderness camp in North Carolina. I went there not knowing a single person and was petrified because I was MUCH more quiet and shy than I am now and it was a large group. I made it through orientation and then went to go for my caving instructor certification, since I was in charge of caving for the summer. I went with a co-counselor who would be helping from time to time and met a group of others from various local camps to go tours the caves on a three-day trip. At the end of the first day my co-counselor had to head back to the camp for another meeting, but right before he left he said, “Hey, Brent, can we talk for a minute?’ I said yes and we went off from the group. He paused then looked at me and said, “So, I know that I’ve only known you for like four days and you’re a seminarian, which means you’ll be a priest one day, and that’s awesome. But I feel like I have to tell you this. Brent, you are the most negative [person] I have ever met in my life.” I was stunned and this anger came up in my heart – who is he to say that? He’s known me for less than a week! All of this stuff came up but it didn’t come out of my mouth. I simply said, “Okay” and walked away. For a couple of days it stewed in my heart, those words that he spoke that pierced me like nothing ever had before. When I got back to camp a few days later I took him aside and thanked him. Those words hurt something fierce when he spoke them, but 9 years later he still stands for me as one of the greatest witnesses of Christian charity I’ve ever experienced and his words still rings in my heart and make me think even today about how I speak, how I respond, how I view the world around me. He helped me to see the course I was on and change course and I can’t be thankful enough for it.

Love isn’t being nice to people. Love is about willing what is best for them, and what is best for every person on this earth is getting to Heaven. It is our job to help other see the way when they are blinded to it, and sometimes to be directed ourselves. Humility, charity, perseverance. May God grant us these gifts today and ever-increase them, that we might enter into eternal glory accompanied by many brothers and sisters who have journeyed with us on the way.

Circumcision, Adoption, and Us

Readings for Sunday, January 1/ Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God:
Numbers 6:22-27
Psalm 67:2-3, 5-6, 8
Galatians 4:4-7
Luke 2:16-21

“When the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

All of us go through life and experience different things and those things – our baggage, in a sense – color the way we understand and interact with the situations, places, and people we encounter later in life. My own life experience greatly changes the way that I pray with the passage I just quoted from St. Paul because I was actually adopted shortly after my birth. To contemplate receiving ‘adoption as sons’ isn’t some lofty thought for me, but is strikingly concrete. I think of the decisions parents have to make about when, how, and if they should tell the child about their adoption. I think about the struggle to understand what it means to be adopted. I think about the occasional ‘out of place’ feeling that still makes it’s way into my heart and the frustration of having to say “I don’t know” to my family history on medical forms. That’s how I approach this simple sentence of the story of being brought into the family of God. It’s tough sometimes, it can be a bit messy, and it doesn’t happen without planning, preparation, and a price tag.

This past weekend I took a little road trip up to Ohio to visit my family up there and met up with my cousin Britt. He and his wife are working on adopting a child into their family and he was telling me all of the plans, preparation, and prices to make that a reality. It turns out that a family has to have $12,000 before they can even start the process because of legal fees and all sorts of hoops that one must jump through to be able to adopt. But the truth, my brothers and sisters, is that when Jesus Christ took on our flesh and came among us as a child, the price was much higher than $12,000.

God had the plan drawn up from all creation. He knew when He created Adam & Eve that they would fall and that they and their descendents would need a savior. He knew everything that would happen in all of time before time even began. He knew that you would be there tonight in the spot you are with the people you’re with and even the color of shirt you’d choose to wear. He’s God. He doesn’t predetermine things where we lose our freedom, but He does know all that will happen. And so He set out His plan and began to bring it to fulfillment. Those of you who attended the Vigil Mass on Christmas Eve heard the Gospel of Matthew wherein he gave the genealogy of Jesus… ‘Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Joseph, and so on down to Jesus’. Through the Old Testament we can look to the many ways that God was preparing His people for what was to come; how the crossing of the Red Sea prepared the way for baptism, how the Manna in the desert prepared the way for the Eucharist, and how the prophets all spoke of the Christ who was to come. All of those things God was preparing for our adoption. And then the day came to make it happen, to pay the price and make us adopted sons and daughters of a heavenly Father.

The Circumcision from the Workshop of Giovanni Bellini

This first day of the New Year, the Octave of Christmas, in the Ordinary Form of the Mass (the Mass of Vatican II) we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. This title of Our Lady emphasizes the fact that she indeed bore God in her own womb and gave birth to the Word Made Flesh. But in the Extraordinary Form Mass (the Mass prior to Vatican II/Traditional Latin Mass), this feast is that of the Circumcision of the Lord. This is so because in the Jewish tradition, on the eighth day after birth every male child would be circumcised and given their name as a sign of being brought into the family of God, the people of Israel. Interestingly enough, we Christians also have a circumcision that we must undergo to be brought into the family of God. But rather than a circumcision of the flesh, it is one of the heart. In baptism, we are brought before the Lord and by the blessed waters, original sin is cut from our hearts and we are joined to the Church, the Body of Christ, the family of God. And there, too, we are given our name in the Lord. That’s why the first line of the baptism ritual even today is ‘What name have you given your child?’ All of us have been circumcised in our hearts, brought into the family of God and made sons and daughters of the Father. But the truth is that we must continue to undergo a circumcision of our hearts to be able to rejoice in the riches of the kingdom. There are still sins that each of us cling to in this life, things that we have joined ourselves to that pull us away from God and try to take us out of the family. Things that the devil tries to use to make us think we don’t belong here. And the Lord invites us today to let Him come to us once again and cut those things away, to set aside the old and rejoice in the new. Christ paid a heavy price for our adoption as sons a daughters  - that of His own life and blood. Are we really willing to do the same for Him?

I realize I’m saying this and some of you are probably thinking, ‘Wow, Father, we were all joyful at the start of a New Year and came looking for a nice pick-me-up homily to cap off the Christmas octave but you’re being sort of a downer today.’ I recognize that. But think about this as well. When Jesus came among us He didn’t come in a nice little nativity scene like we have in the sanctuary. He was born in a cave, where the animals were kept, and He was laid in a manger, a feeding trough. I may be a city boy, but I have been to enough farms and barns to know that animals don’t smell nice and they aren’t neat freaks. They can be pretty disgusting at times, and yet that’s the place where Jesus comes. It’s not pretty, but it’s reality. Also, think about the fact that on December 25 we celebrate Christmas, the birthday of Jesus, the King of Peace! Then on the 26^th, St. Stephen the Martyr. On the 27^th, St. John the Apostle, the only one of the 12 Apostles not martyred. On the 28^th, the Holy Innocents, that army of youths slain in attempts to kill the Christ child. On the 29^th, St. Thomas Becket, who was martyred for the faith in England. Are you sensing a trend?! The King of Peace comes indeed, but the message is clear: the peace is not necessarily of this world but of the world to come. Should we strive to attain peace in this life? Absolutely! Should we be surprised if we don’t receive it like we want? No. That’s the journey of this life, the purifying fire, if you will. That’s one reason that I wear the particular vestments that I do. You have likely noticed that at almost every Mass I wear this extra vestment on my left arm. It’s called a maniple. It is a handkerchief and, since the priest’s hands were touching the Body of Christ, it was tied around the left arm so that when he needed to wipe off his face from the sweat of the work of celebrating Mass, he could do so without using his hands. After years it became an official vestment of the priest and the prayer that accompanies it when vesting speaks of it in reference to the ‘tears and sorrows’ of this life. Living the faith isn’t easily. But the word of consolation is this: Christ has taken on our flesh and was brought into the family of God on Earth so that we might be adopted into the family of God in Heaven. We are sons and daughters of a heavenly Father whose love knows no bounds, and that love promises that we his children are not just sons and daughters but also heirs of the Kingdom.

HWP: Saint Damasus

Today is the feast of St. Damasus, Pope from the 4th Century and a man of profound impact upon our faith, though he is seldom mentioned. St. Damasus had a great devotion to the saints of the Church, specifically the martyrs, and he made it a major part of his mission to ensure that their remains were well cared for, thus preserving their tombs and relics for us to continue to venerate some 1600+ years later. He also encouraged St. Jerome in his continued translation of the Scriptures into what is known as the Latin Vulgate, the official edition used by the Church for nearly a millennium and a half. Humble servant of God he was, he continues to serve as such before the Throne of God in Heaven. So let us pray...

A Prayer to Saint Damasus

Saint Damasus, instead of worrying about the short term of life on earth, you took God's view and looked to the things that last. Pray for me that I may be able to look beyond immediate popularity and fleeting favors, and choose to do the things that God wants me to do. Amen

Eyes On Heaven

'St. Philomena' by Mic Carlson

Readings for Sunday, August 11/ 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time:Wisdom 18:6-9
Psalm 33:1, 12, 18-22
Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19
Luke 12:32-48

Today, August 11, is the feast of St. Philomena, a virgin martyr from the third century. Second only to our Blessed Mother, she is my ‘go to gal’ for intercession with Our Lord Jesus, so it was with great joy that when I arrived in our community I was greeted by two images of St. Philomena at St. Michael’s in Convent and the story of the chapel of St. Philomena that once stood in Grand Point. Indeed she loves our community very much, so let us pray for her intercession especially in this sacred time.

Something that I have come to do in my personal prayers before images of Our Lord, Our Lady, and the angels and saints, is to situate myself before them in such a way that they are looking at me. To be able to look them in the eye and feel as if they are looking back at me helps me to remember that the image I’m praying before is representative of a person truly alive in Heaven. They’re real, they’re praying for us, and they’re hoping that we’ll one day enter into their joy. So it always does my heart good to be able to look upon them face to face. But one thing I’ve noticed with most of the images of St. Philomena is that she won’t look at me. I have a statue and framed image of her but as often as I’ve prayed before them I find she will not look at me, but instead looks through me. Those images in a very powerful way show the reality that she was not caught up in earthly things but set her eyes on heavenly things, on the world to come, on eternity.

This is what Our Lord invites us to do today, to store up treasure for ourselves in heaven, looking past all the temptations to store it up instead here on earth. St. Philomena was a young girl beautiful to behold. There was something in her that shined upon all whom she met – her name even means ‘daughter of light’. A Greek princess of royal blood on both parents’ sides, she had much in her favor for a life of riches. When she went with her parents to Rome she was noticed by the Emperor, who desired to take her as his wife. She declined, stating that she had consecrated her virginity to Christ and she was His alone – this all at thirteen years of age! In anger, the Emperor had her imprisoned, hoping to break her spirit. It did not work. She was scourged just like our Lord, but was miraculously healed the next day. Arrows were shot at her but to no avail. Even flaming arrows were shot, but they turned back and killed the archers themselves. An anchor was tied around her neck and she was to be tossed into the Tiber River in Rome, but as they tossed her in she anchor was mysteriously came away and she was found on the shore perfectly dry, said to have been brought there by angels. Finally she was struck with a sword and received the martyr’s palm. She could have had the whole world at her disposal and lived a life of luxury most of us can hardly even conceive of living. And yet her eyes were not here, but looking toward heaven. Her treasure and her heart were firmly placed within the heavenly gates.

This past week I went on a short retreat for a few days and enjoyed the gift that time, being able to sit in the silence and experience God in a powerful way in my prayers both alone and in the community where I was staying. I was on that spiritual high that often accompanies a retreat. And when I came home, I found as I always do that I hadn’t really changed that much. I still had to battle with the same sins, still had the same temptations to avoid this or that task, to exercise my vices rather than virtues. In short, I realized that my heart is not completely in heaven yet. I still try often to store up treasure here on earth for myself. And I don’t think I’m alone in that. I think most of us are in the same boat on that point – we all have at least one sin that we fight against, that one possession we cling to, that one thing, whatever it may be, that keeps us from really letting our hearts go up to heaven. We keep those little treasures here for ourselves just in case – just in case Christ doesn’t fulfill us, just in case we’re not happy like we want, just in case.

How do we get away from this? How can we work to set our eyes and our hearts on heaven? It’s quite simple – not easy, but simple. We need only look at four main areas in our lives. Back in Lent we had books free for the taking, one of which was Matthew Kelly’s book The Four Signs of a Dynamic Catholic (available HERE for only the cost of shipping). In that book he outlines those four ways which I remember by a nice little acronym – PEGS. Prayer, Evangelization, Generosity, Study. PEGS.

Prayer. Are we praying? I mean REALLY praying? Not just mindlessly saying words from a pray card or book, but speaking those or other words from our very heart. We have to pray regularly, telling God what is going on in our mind and heart, what is happening in our life, where we need His help, where we’ve seen His work, and how we experience and return His love. If we don’t know Christ personally and dialogue with Him we are far from heavenly joy. And at Mass, are we really praying there? I’ll be the first to admit that I struggle to pray every time I’m at Mass. It’s easy to just say the words without really meaning it, but we’re called to enter deeply into this celebration. Prayer.

Evangelization. We have to share the Good News! When I get on Facebook I see all the updates – people in new relationships, getting married, having babies, experiencing this or that activity – good things that they want to share. None of us ever experiences something that is incredible and fails to tell a soul about it. No, what do we do? We share it with everyone around us because we want them to know about it to. And if there is anything we should be excited about it is the salvation we have in Christ Jesus. When we truly encounter Christ in prayer – and only after that – we will be changed and want to tell others, to seek them out and say ‘let me tell you what Christ did in my life today, let me tell you what incredible things He has done.’ Evangelization.

Generosity. As I look out I see many faces who help in various ways and ministries in our community. It is a joy to see that. We must be generous with our gifts. Yes, we need to tithe, but we need even more to be people of service. People who are filled with the Gospel call to charity and seek to build up the Church and the Kingdom of God with our gifts, not keeping them for ourselves but sharing them generously. Generosity.

Study. We must grow in our knowledge of the faith. We have to read and know the Scriptures. We have to know our theology, our catechism lessons, the stories of our saints. It’s easy to study, we do it in so many other things. We know all the celebrity gossip, we know about our favorite TV shows, video games, internet sites, car parts, clothing stores, and the list goes on. We study the things of the world, but how willing are we to study the things of God? To spend a few minutes with the Bible everyday? To pick up a good book or cd on something of the faith and immerse ourselves in it? To set our hearts in heaven , this is an absolute must. St. Jerome once said that ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ Himself. And the same coule be said of His teachings given through the Church. If we don’t know our faith, we don’t know our God. Study.

PEGS. Prayer. Evangelization. Generosity. Study. If we want to go to Heaven, the path is a tough one but the method is simple. If we start with these four areas and try to live them each day and grow in them throughout our lives, we can be sure that there will be much heavenly treasure built up for us. And if we refuse to live these four things and grow in them throughout our lives, we can be sure of the opposite. The choice is ours and ours alone. Let us choose wisely and follow the path that St. Philomena has walked before us. Let us choose Christ. 

HWP: St. Thomas the Apostle

Today is the feast of the Glorious Apostle and Martyr of the faith, St. Thomas. Though he is often called 'Doubting Thomas' for his lack of belief in the words of his fellow Apostles, his faith led him to preach the Gospel in India, where he ultimately laid down his life for Christ. From his need to see the wounds of Jesus we too are permitted to express faith in the truth that the Crucified Lord was raised for our salvation. 

Prayer to St. Thomas the Apostle

O Glorious Saint Thomas, your grief for Jesus was such that it would not let you believe he had risen unless you actually saw him and touched his wounds. But your love for Jesus was equally great and it led you to give up your life for him. Pray for us that we may grieve for our sins which were the cause of Christ's sufferings. Help us to spend ourselves in his service and so earn the title of "blessed" which Jesus applied to those who would believe in him without seeing him. Amen.

HWP: Peter and Paul

This coming Saturday is the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul! Here are a couple of prayers to them for the HWP for today, which I've been slacking on big time!

 

O glorious Saint Peter, who, in return for thy strong and generous faith, thy profound and sincere humility, and they burning love, wast rewarded by Jesus Christ with singular privileges, and, in particular, with the leadership of the other Apostles and the primacy of the whole Church, of which thou wast made the foundation stone, do thou obtain for us the grace of a lively faith, that shall not fear to profess itself openly, in its entirety and in all of its manifestations, even to the shedding of blood, if occasion should demand it, and to sacrifice of life itself rather than surrender.

Obtain for us likewise, a sincere loyalty to our holy mother, the Church; grant that we may ever remain most closely and sincerely united to the Roman Pontiff, who is the heir of thy faith and of thy authority, the one, true, visible Head of the Catholic Church, that mystic ark outside of which there is no salvation. Grant, moreover, that we may follow, in all humility and meekness, her teaching and her advice, and may be obedient to all her precepts, in order to be able here on earth to enjoy a peace that is sure and undisturbed, and to attain one day in heaven to everlasting happiness.

V. Pray for us, Saint Peter the Apostle,
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Amen.

 

O glorious St. Paul, after persecuting the Church you became by God’s grace its most zealous Apostle. To carry the knowledge of Jesus, our Divine Savior, to the uttermost parts of the earth

You joyfully endured prison, scourgings, stonings, and shipwreck, as well as all manner of persecutions culminating in the shedding of the last drop of your blood for our Lord Jesus Christ.

Obtain for us the grace to labor strenuously to bring the faith to others and to accept any trials and tribulations that may come our way. Help us to be inspired by your Epistles and to partake of your indomitable love for Jesus, so that after we have finished our course we may join you in praising Him in heaven for all eternity.

V. Pray for us, Saint Paul the Apostle,
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
Amen.

Prayers taken from uCatholic.com, found HERE.

God Always Wins

Readings for Sunday, February 3/ 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19
Psalm 71:1-6, 15-17
1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13
Luke 4:21-30

As I was praying with the readings for this weekend and reflecting on the various feasts that we are celebrating in the coming weeks, one thought kept coming back over and over: God always wins. No matter how bad a situation might be, no matter where we find ourselves, God always wins. And He is inviting us to join in that victory.

We see it first in the prophet Jeremiah, whose calling is recounted in our first reading. Jeremiah who was formed in the womb of his mother by the Lord and destined to be a great prophet of the Lord is called forth by God to become that prophet he was created to be. He must certainly have had some reluctance in his heart because to be a prophet meant speaking the truth to a people who didn’t want to hear it, which often resulted in violence, as we see in the Gospel. But Jeremiah was given the great commission by the Lord to speak that truth and call the straying people back to the Lord. To encourage him in this, the Lord gives a most consoling message. “Be not crushed on their account,” says the Lord, “as though I would leave you crushed before them; for it is I this day who have made you a fortified city… They will fight against you but will not prevail over you, for I am with you to deliver you.” What a message of hope! The Lord tells Jeremiah that he will endure suffering and persecution – he will be crushed – but that he will not leave him in that state, but rather will raise him up to glory once more. The Lord will deliver him; the Lord will win the battle. He is always victorious.

The psalm today calls us, like Jeremiah, to turn to the Lord and make him truly our rock of refuge, our stronghold, our strength. If we remain in the Lord and His love, then we have much cause for hope and no reason to fear – the Lord will deliver us the same as He did with Jeremiah and the other prophets.

St. Paul in his poetic writing on that greatest of gifts, love, speaks of the many attributes of love – that it is patient, kind, not jealous, and so on. But most importantly, he notes that love bears all things, love endures all things, and love never ends. If we connect St. Paul with St. John, whose letter tells us that God is love, then we can also make the connect that God bears all things, God bears all things, and God never fails. He always reigns victorious.

Then we come to the highpoint of the readings in the Gospel. Today Jesus is seen in His own hometown, where one should expect Him to receive a warm welcome and indeed He does, at least to start with. The people are amazed at His gracious words and sit in awe of what He speaks, but not because they are filled with faith but rather because they are anticipating some great healings to come. They think, because they are Jesus’ hometown, that while other places had great miracles worked in them, they surely would receive an even great outpouring of healings. When they are informed of the opposite, when the Lord identifies their lack of faith and charity, they are led to fury and rage, whereupon they seek to cast the Lord off the cliff to His death. Here is where the Lord shows once again His power. This whole mob of people are entirely focused on the Lord, consumed with rage to the point of murder and yet somehow the Lord “passed through the midst of them and went away.” You would think with all of those people focusing only on Him that someone would have noticed and tried to stop Him, and maybe they did, but the end result is simply that the Lord passed through the midst and left. God won. Christ knew He was to die on a hill, but not on that one, so He pressed forward toward fulfillment of His mission. These are just a few of the many stories in the scriptures that show over and again the power of God and the fact that He is always victorious and will never be outdone. The beautiful thing is that as Catholics we not only have the scriptures to encourage us but we also have the lives of the saints, of those many men and women over the years whose lives have shown us the power of God and given us a blueprint to work from in shaping our own lives after the Gospel call.

One powerful example is that of St. Paul Miki and his companions, whose feast we will celebrate this coming Wednesday. St. Paul isn’t one of the more notable saints like St. Therese or St. Francis and the like, but his story is a helpful one for us today. In the 1500’s St. Ignatius of Loyola, one of the founders of the Jesuits, went to the Orient to spread the Gospel, making his way to the Philippines and Japan. The conversions were coming thousands at a time. The priests had almost no time to sleep, eat or pray for the number of baptism, weddings, and Masses they were celebrating for the people. This great increase in converts to the faith began to cause some tension and fears in the hearts of the Japanese leaders, who were still practicing their Buddhist faith. At one point, a man accused the missionaries of bringing artillery in to begin war against the Japanese government. The accusation was entirely false but it was enough to begin greater persecution of the Church. Twenty-six people, including several priests, religious brothers, lay men, and even children, were taken and marched a thousand miles across the country before being put to death. Along the journey the persecutors would stop in towns where the faith had spread and would torture the twenty-six by beating them, cutting off their ears, and various other manners of abuse as a sign that following the faith would earn them that fate. But at each town, St. Paul Miki, one of the twenty-six would pray for the people, forgive his persecutors, and unite himself to the Lord in his suffering. This went along for over a month before they arrived at their final destination, the hill at Nagasaki. There all of them were crucified and pierced with lances, the same as our Lord. St. Paul, himself a religious brother, with his last words forgave the Emperor who incited the persecution, forgave his torturers, and prayed that by his death they would experience conversion, seek baptism and find salvation through Jesus Christ. These men and children were not the only ones killed. As many as 50,000 others were killed during that time of persecution. Additionally, all foreign missionaries were sent back to their home countries. For nearly three hundred years this opposition to the Christian faith was present in Japan. So when in the 1800’s Catholic missionaries returned to Japan they expected to find nothing of the faith, having to start from scratch. But as they settled in the towns and cities and got to know the people, they came to find that the faith had survived three hundred years with no priests, catechists or the sacraments. Indeed, it survived and had continued to grow quietly by God’s grace and through the witness of so many Catholics since the days of St. Paul Miki and his companions’ deaths. The government leaders thought that they had won the battle in the hearts of the people, but it was God who had truly won.

Every single one of us has trials in this life. It might be something happening in our family. It could be a particular sin we are fighting against or a past that haunts us. It could be a situation in our community, state, country or the whole world that causes some unrest within us. The devil wants to use those things to sow in us seeds of doubt, fear, and despair. But the truth is that Christ has already won the battle and that while we might have to endure some suffering for a time, the Lord will deliver us if we but place ourselves in His loving care. So let us pray for that grace today, that by receiving the Sacrament of God’s Real Presence we might be emboldened with great hope in our God and continue to look forward to sharing in the spoils of our victory at the heavenly feast and in doing so give witness to the world around us that our God is faithful and will never fail us. 

A shrine to the 26 Martyrs of Japan on the Hill at Nagasaki

Servants for Many

Jesus Jokes!

Readings for Sunday, October 21/ 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time:
Isaiah 53:10-11
Psalm 33:4-5, 18-20, 22
Hebrews 4:14-16
Mark 10:35-45

Did Jesus give his life up for all people or for many people?

Back in Advent, when the new translation of the Mass began to be implemented, one of the significant changes was that of the consecration prayer for the wine, which was changed from Christ’s blood being shed “for you and for all” to it being poured out “for you and for many”. Many began to wonder at this point – had the Church’s theology changes? Were we becoming more exclusive? And most significantly, did Jesus only die for certain people while leaving the rest on their own? The answer to each of those is a resounding ‘No!’

The reason the reason the translation was changed to indicate ‘for many’ rather than ‘for all’ is because of the scripture passages this weekend. When the Lord spoke those blessed words over the chalice at the Last Supper with the disciples, he used the term meaning ‘for many’ so as to implicitly point to the fact that He Himself is the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. Jesus is the one the Isaiah prophesied would come to give His life for sin that others might find life, and to justify humanity through His suffering. Jesus is the one that would come to ‘justify many’. How then do we reconcile such statements with the words of St. Peter, whose First Letter tells us that, “Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit”?

Catholics believe and have always professed that Christ died not for a few people but for the whole of humanity. In taking on our flesh, we were all joined to Him in the justification that took place in His death. But the reality is that we each have free will and must choose to receive the gift of salvation that God offers to us. To say that Christ died ‘for many’ can in a sense be a positive statement indicating the large number of souls that have found eternal life through Him. But the flip side is the sad reality that not all are saved because not all desire to be saved and not all live according to the commandments of Christ and merit that salvation. Salvation is open to all, we just have to take the steps to open ourselves to receive it. And the Lord gives us a clue today on how that happens: by becoming servants.

When we think of becoming servants toward others we often think of doing acts of charity, like that done by Christ in the washing of the disciples’ feet. We think of the corporal works of mercy - feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, and so on. But with the context of these scripture passages today, we see that the greatest act of the servant is His death that brings life. And since we are supposed to be imitators of Christ Jesus, we are called in the same way to put ourselves to death that others might find life. For some in the history of the Church that meant a martyrdom of great physical suffering and death; for us it means a martyrdom of a different kind.

St. Jean Vianney once said, “What will convert [a soul] is the sanctity of your own life.” The service we are called to by Our Lord is that of dying to ourselves daily, a sort of bloodless martyrdom, so that we can be people of holiness and help bring others to the faith, Christ Jesus and salvation. This sounds like  a huge task, but it is surprisingly simple and we get a few pointers in the scriptures today.

First, we must have a relationship with Jesus Christ. When Our Lord asks James and John what they wanted from Him, He already knew the answer. He simply wanted them to speak with Him and say it themselves; He wanted the relationship aspect because He knew it was important for them. The same applies with us – He doesn’t need us to say anything to Him because He knows it already, but He desires it because we need that relationship to find life.

Second, we must go to the Sacrament of Confession or Reconciliation. To be free to walk the path of holiness we must let go of the burden of sin in our lives. The Letter to the Hebrews commands us to “confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.” The font of God’s Divine Mercy flows with abundant grace, but many unless we actually make use of it, it is there in vain.

And lastly is that more commonly understood sense of service. After we have come to know Christ and experienced the freedom from sin that He bought us at the price of His blood, we are called to go out and live the Gospel – to do the corporal works of mercy, to speak about Christ, to spread the Good News that we have been redeemed and that many will be saved if we but open ourselves to the gift held out to us. 

St. James the Greater

The Martyrdom of St James the Greater by Jean Fouquet

Today is the Feast of St. James, the Apostle. Last night I was reading through some of the readings in the Breviarium Romanum (pre-Vatican II breviary) and was struck by the 5th & 6th readings from the office of Matins:

After that Jesus Christ was ascended into heaven, James preached how that He was God, and led many in Judaea and Samaria to the Christian Faith. A while afterward, he went to Spain, and there he brought some to Christ, of whom seven were afterwards ordained Bishops by Blessed Peter, and were the first such sent into that country. From Spain James went back to Jerusalem, where he taught the Faith to diverse persons, and, among others, to the Magician Hermogenes. Thereupon Herod Agrippa, who had been raised to the kingdom under the Emperor Claudius, to curry favour with the Jews, condemned James to death for his firm confession that Jesus Christ is God. The officer who led James to the judgmentseat, at sight of the courage wherewith he was ready to offer up his testimony, declared himself also to be a Christian. As they were being hurried to execution, this man asked pardon of James, and the Apostle kissed him, saying, 'Peace be unto thee.' James healed a paralytic, and immediately afterwards both the prisoners were beheaded. The body of the Apostle was afterwards taken to Compostella, (in the province of Gallicia, in Spain,) where his grave is very famous. Multitudes of pilgrims from all parts of the earth betake themselves thither to pray, out of sheer piety or in fulfilment of vows. The Birthday of James is kept by the Church upon this day, which is that of the bringing of his body to Compostella. It was about Easter-time (Acts xii. 2-4) that he bore witness to Jesus Christ with his blood, at Jerusalem, being the first of the Apostles to do so.

St. James, Apostle of Our Lord, pray for us!