Catholic Faith and Reflections

Here is my farewell homily to the people of Crucifixion Parish. Thank you, and God bless each of you!

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

Farewell Homily

1Kings 19:16b, 19-21; Gal 5:1, 13-18; Luke 9:51-62

June 25/26, 2022

Taking leave, moving on, being guided by and following the Holy Spirit, loving your neighbor … these seem to be the themes in today’s scriptures. I don’t think there could be more fitting readings for me upon which to reflect today, as I take leave of all of you and move on to a new parish, new people, and new ministry.

I am “resolutely determined” as St Luke said (Luke 9:51) to journey on to proclaim as best I can the kingdom of God in Brownsville and Caledonia where my bishop has sent me.

I am struck today by our Lord’s words. He said we should look ahead to the future, and not to the past. There is a part of me that protests. I say, “Lord, let me take my leave of the parish I have served for 13 years.” Gratefully, He is giving me that opportunity today, but He reminds with insistence, “Go! Proclaim the Kingdom of God in Caledonia and Brownsville.”

Thirteen years ago, I stood here at this ambo for the first time to proclaim God’s Kingdom to you. I remember that day distinctly. Today, I am doing so for the final time. I truly hope that when I have stood here over the years I have indeed preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and not my own gospel. I pray that I have gotten out of the way of God doing His work through me. One of the worst things a preacher can do is proclaim himself, advance himself and his own agenda so as to make himself look good and likeable at the expense of the Truth Who is Jesus Christ Crucified. I pray I have not done such a thing, and ask forgiveness if I have. I hope I have been humble. I pray that in some way my presence and my preaching have given you a glimpse of Jesus Christ our Lord in your midst.

You have given me much. Standing at the foot of the altar on Good Fridays and holding the Cross for you to venerate, I have seen expressions of faith witnessed by me and unseen to you. I have given you the Body and Blood of Jesus and seen how you have yearned for Him. I have baptized your children, married some of you, and buried family members. I have shared your meals. I have been welcomed by you. In these ways, you have solidified my faith, renewed my hope, and given me examples of how to live in love. I thank you!

All the staff at Crucifixion has been a great support to me. The teachers at the school have been all smiles and welcoming. The musicians have inspired me. My brother Knights have become men of increasing importance, and I desire to remain active in the local Council.

I am especially appreciative of the two pastors with whom I have served. Fathers Havel and Evans are brothers to me. We share the same Sacrament of Holy Orders and we have together worked collaboratively. Both of them have supported my diaconal ministry. Thank you, Fathers!

Yes, I am leaving you now in order to follow the path God has marked out for me. I am moving on to be hopefully guided by the Holy Spirit and by a love for others.

As the Scriptures remind me:

I cannot put my hand to the plow without faith. I pray for such faith.

I cannot resolutely move forward in life without hope. I pray for such hope.

I cannot follow the Lord and be guided by the Holy Spirit without love. I pray for such love.

I ask for your prayers. Pray for me! I need your prayers.

I urge you to “stand firm in your faith!” (Gal 5:1) Do not go back to the slavery of sin and infidelity! Love one another! Live in unity by accepting the Holy Spirit!

Finally, I echo St. Paul’s words. “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Th 5: 16-18).

AMEN!

Here is my homily for the weekend. God bless you!

5th Sunday of Easter, Cycle C

May 14/15, 2022

Acts 14:21-27; Rev 21:1-5a; John 13:31-33a, 34-35

“It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” Acts 14:22

“Behold! I make all things new. The old order has passed away.” Rev 21:4-5

“I give you a new commandment: love one another.” John 13:34

How many of us have tried to make a change in our lives? Maybe it was to lose weight and take up regular exercise to improve our health. Maybe it was to become more patient with someone. Maybe, it was to try to root out of our lives a bad habit, or a particular sin. Have you ever tried to change a sinful lifestyle or relationship?

It is hard to change, especially if we have a lot invested in some old way of living. We know how hard it is to change who we are, whether it is to lose weight, change our lifestyle if we are caught up in a sinful life, to rid ourselves of our habits of sin, to become more loving and patient…. The examples are numerous. We come up with all sorts of rationalizations, all sorts of reasons not to change, and the devil loves it when we do. We all know how familiar the “old order” is and how hard it is to become a “new man or woman.” The old is familiar, the new is uncomfortable. On our own, we will end up choosing the familiar old ways, even if they are not good.

Only by God’s grace are we made into new creatures… only through the grace of our baptisms, and faith in that grace.

Yes, the enormity of our baptism! We forget its importance. We forget its implications. We forget how necessary it is that we be converted to God and live in freedom through the doors of hardship and struggle.

“It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.”

We are baptized! We are no longer who we once were! We are new creatures and this newness matures only after we undergo many hardships in life.

People of God, the fullness of the Gospel includes the Cross, the passage from death to life, the willingness to face hardships  and remain faithful, and to come out the other side of the struggle as a new man, a new woman. This is what the sacrament of baptism is all about, and this is what our lives must be about. For all of us!

No one who has ever embraced the Cross, who has embraced the hardships of life with faith, has ever remained the same person. No one. Such a person has always emerged as a new man, a new woman. The old man is gone.

“Behold, I make all things new!”

Of course, facing the Cross without faith only hardens us. It only embitters us. We all know this. We all have met such people. We all have met that person in ourselves sometimes. Faith in the midst of hardship is vital. It is what our world lacks today. Our world is filled with hardships and is weak in faith. We must be different.

I, and all other who have the burden of preaching the Gospel, must preach the whole Gospel, not just the parts that sound sweet and “tickles your ears.” It is too important to neglect the harder parts, and to settle for half-truths.

Should we be surprised at life’s hardships? Should we avoid them at all costs? Should we whimper and whine when our faith demands something difficult, when it demands a change of life, when it insists on a conversion and letting go of our favorite sins? When it tells us we must give up a sinful lifestyle? The answer must be “No!” to those questions.

We must see conversion as the road God lays out for us to arrive at glory. We must see the many hardships, the daily difficulties in living out our faith, the very difficult decisions to amend our ways and change basic things in our lives, as the way to newness of life, to glory, to fulfillment, to heaven itself.

For some of us this will require great sacrifices, big changes and giving up a lot. Accepting the truth and rejecting the lies that are circulating in our society today will be a struggle.

“I give you a new commandment: love one another.”

This is the great commandment to which we are bound. We must not reduce “love” to “being nice.” Being nice can be a part of love, but it doesn’t define it. To love is a decision to choose what is good for someone, i.e., to desire the good for a person. That which is good may not be easy for us to offer or for someone to accept, but we must want it for them anyway. We must tell them that we love them by showing them what is good, by speaking the truth, by never lying.

“Love, as I have loved you,” says Jesus. He loved us so much that he accepted the Cross. He loved us so much that he spoke the truth and told us we must change. He told us we must be converted, we must stop sinning, we must believe, and that we must come to experience his infinite mercy by changing our lives.

Love one another! We can and will do that if we have first loved God, and out of that love, love each other.

“Behold, I make all things new!”

Here is my homily for this weekend. God bless you!

 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

1 Sm 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23; 1 Cor 15:45-49; Lk 6:27-38

February 19/20, 2022

Jesus seems to be really trying to drive home some challenging demands today. Notice He doesn’t suggest, He is saying straight out what we are to do and not do.

Perhaps it is helpful to focus on the three summary statements He makes, the three sentences that pull it all together for us.

Do to others what you would have done to you.

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

There is something inside us that explains why we treat others in the ways we do. There is something within us that reflects how we treat each other.

If we struggle to show mercy to others, we usually first struggle to accept mercy in our lives.

If we struggle to forgive, we usually struggle to ask for and accept forgiveness for our sins.

If we struggle to be fair to others, we usually struggle to be fair to ourselves.

Look within for the answers! Don’t accuse and blame others and the world.

Look within! There you will find two things:

1. The presence of God (if you are in a state of grace) or a horrible darkness (if you have sinned seriously).
2. Places that need to be healed, forgiven, soothed with mercy, places to which God is reaching out.

Allow Jesus to heal you, to draw you close to Himself, to sustain you.

There is too much hurt out there and in here! Too many of us don’t appreciate just how much we have been wounded by life and others. All we have to do is look at our society, current events, and the impact all this technology are having on our hearts and our relationships with others. We minimize the impact. We pretend to be okay, and then wonder why we treat each other poorly, why we struggle to show mercy, why we hold grudges and feelings of anger and resentment.

There is too much of that out there and in here!

We must learn to pull back from always looking “out there” for the problems, and begin to look to God for the answers and ask Him to heal us.

Healed people heal others!

Wounded people wound others!

Jesus says give your cloak and your tunic if asked. We won’t do that if we have not been clothed in Christ.

Jesus says love those who hurt you. We will not do that if we have not let Jesus love us out of our sin.

Jesus says stop judging and condemning. We cannot do that if we don’t believe that we have a merciful judge in Christ.

Jesus says give abundantly. We cannot do that if we shut the door and not allow God’s grace to fill us.

Allow yourself forgiveness, mercy, and healing. Believe in the power of Jesus Christ and His grace. Come to the sources of forgiveness, mercy, and healing that Jesus gave us. I am referring to the sacraments of Baptism, Eucharist, Reconciliation, and Anointing of the Sick. These are powerful sources of healing. These are the sacraments that forgive sin, extend mercy, and can heal us.

Use them and be healed! You will be able to extend to others what you have received, what you have been given and accepted. You will begin to do what Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel.

Do to others what you would have done to you.

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

Here is  my homily for this weekend. God bless all of you!

6th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle C

Jer 17; 5-8; 1 Cor 15:12, 16-20; Lk 6:17, 20-26

February 12/13, 2022

Tap into your imagination for a few minutes. Imagine yourself being present that day in the Gospel.

Imagine Jesus walking onto a large flat area. (We all have an image of Jesus. Long brown hair parted down the middle; thin, narrow nose; sandals and brown tunic.) Now, imagine a great crowd of people who following him from Judea, Jerusalem, and the coastal regions of Tyre and Sidon.

See that large group. Eighty-five percent are ordinary people, the hoi polloi, people you can barely tell apart, the poor and oppressed, Jewish folk but also many foreigners from Tyre and Sidon, all people without any real social value. Imagine the other 15% who came from Jerusalem, the important people, those society valued, no doubt quite remarkable.

What do you hear Jesus say? He blesses the common ones and he woes the important.

Imagine the looks on the faces of the people when they heard this.

Imagine hearing Jesus telling the insignificant people they are blessed when hated, excluded, insulted, and denounced. He tells those who are thrown away by society that they are blessed. He tells them to “rejoice and leap for joy!” They are perplexed because people rejoice in things that have value; they dance for joy only in good times. They wonder to themselves, “Do we have value? Are we good?”

Now imagine hearing Jesus telling the important people they that they should beware. They are perplexed. Why should they be concerned? They have good fortune, security, and their satisfaction in life?

Okay, now you can stop imagining. With which group of people did you identify? Did you feel blessed or woed?

The Beatitudes are a basis for the moral life, that is, how we are to live. What do we learn today?

If Jesus blesses the insignificant, the poor, the foreigner, and the oppressed, then so must we. If that is true, then who are those people we are to bless? Let me offer suggestions.  

The unborn. Many of us who say we are pro-life but are we willing to take in an unwanted child?

The terminally ill. How many of us want to be around someone who is dying?

The handicapped. How many of us see them as people with dignity, or do we only see their handicap?

The homeless. How many of us ignore them and their existence in our neighborhoods?

The migrant. How many of us deny them their human dignity?

Those who have injured us. How many of us demand revenge and repayment?

The mentally ill. How many of us pity them, but not love them?

Radical stuff…. stuff upon which we will be judged someday.

Now, I ask you to look at the crucifix. It is the last part of this homily. Who do you see?  Jesus, yes. Look deeper. Who do you see in Him?

Jesus was a “questionable pregnancy.” His mother Mary, about 14 years old, was found pregnant and the father was not Joseph. Can you imagine the scuttlebutt that went around? Questions about Mary’s character; questions about paternity. People thinking it was an unwanted pregnancy. How quickly we judge the circumstances of pregnant women and their children.

Jesus was a “terminal case” as he hung on the cross. He was dying. In fact, people wanted to hurry his death along. Be done with it before sundown. Put him out of his misery. People fled the scene rather than be around a dying man… everyone except Mary, John, and a few faithful women.

Jesus was a homeless man. He had nowhere to lay his head.

Jesus was a migrant. He had been a foreigner. He fled to Egypt for a better life. Just like migrants in our day.

Jesus was someone the Pharisees thought harmed them. They demanded vengeance… “Crucify him!” they shouted. “Show no mercy!”

Jesus was considered mentally ill by many who knew him, especially those from his home town we are told.

Yes, the crucifix is an explanation and meditation on the Beatitudes. It is a guide for the moral life. Put a crucifix in your home and look at it.

Do you now see why Jesus blessed all those common, insignificant people?

Do you see now why he woed the 15% who were the uncommon ones, the ones of high value in society?

Blessed is this parish!  A common but blessed parish!  Blessed are we who are hungry for the Eucharist!  Blessed are we who weep for our losses!  Blessed are we when we are excluded because we believe! We are worth more than we can possibly imagine! Blessed are we indeed.

Here is my homily for the weekend. God bless you!

Baptism of the Lord 2022

Isaiah 42: 1-4, 6-7; Acts 10:34-38;Luke 3: 15-16, 21-22

January 8/9, 2022

In the early years of the Church, whenever they spoke about Epiphany they were referring to three great events in the life of Jesus, not just the coming of the Magi. Yes, the three Magi saw God in a poor baby in a manger in Bethlehem and it was a great Epiphany.  But the early Church also said that when the newlyweds and guests at the wedding feast of Cana saw the Son of God in Jesus when he turned water into wine, it too was a great Epiphany. They also said that today’s feast was a great Epiphany.

When the people in Judea saw both God and Man in Jesus as He was baptized by his cousin John the Baptist and the Father spoke out loud that day, “You are my beloved son!” It was a great Epiphany.

Epiphanies are eye-opening events, a “wow” moments, times of clarity and recognition of the Truth, times of “Now I see, even though it is a mystery!”

The wise men, the wedding feast at Cana, and today’s feast of the Baptism of the Lord are all epiphanies.

When Jesus was baptized, it was not to receive forgiveness for He was sinless. He was baptized to reveal to us who He is — God and man — and to show us how much God the Father loves us.

Yes, it was a great consolation that day when Jesus revealed to us who he is and who we are by God’s grace and will.

The Magi, the Baptism of the Lord, and the wedding feast of Cana, and even the Transfiguration were all great epiphanies major revelations and consolations to us because epiphanies are moments of consolation in knowing that God is with us!

The “great epiphanies” may be over, but we need our own “minor epiphanies.” God knows this and so He gives them to us.

Let me describe to you one epiphany that frequently happens in this church: baptisms of children. Baptisms are epiphanies, stunning revelations of God’s power, love, and presence. God says to each child baptized, “You are my beloved child! With you I am well-pleased.” The Holy Spirit descends that child and he or she is completely spiritually transformed into a pure, brilliant, holy light. Baptism is spiritually so stunningly beautiful that if we could see the beauty with our physical eyes, it would be like looking into the sun. The beauty would be so overwhelming that we couldn’t take it all in because it is the beauty of God Himself. In baptism God the Father makes each child an epiphany. He wants to reveal himself to the world in the child who bears his image and will grown into his likeness. God says to the child, “I give you new eyes — the eyes of faith — I give you new ears — ears open to my words —so you may see me in all things and hear me speak to you. I show myself to you! Now, go and reveal me to others.”

It is difficult to really understand and accept how loved you are by God. Words cannot fully describe it. It is easy to understand how much God loves an innocent child, but harder to understand the same for us as adults. So, sometimes God gives us a personal “epiphany” moment when we just know God loves us. We “feel” it in a sense. These are moments of consolation, of peace, of assurance. These are moments when we understand God is real and love. Invariably, moments of desolation follow, when we seem distant from God and all alone, but these moments of desolations happen so that we may better appreciate the consolations when they return.

Think of the people in your own lives that were epiphanies of God’s love. Think of the common man and woman who in some way reminded you that God exists, that God loves you, that God is around you and in you, that he never leaves you alone to face life by yourself. Think of someone that told you that God chose to get involved in your life to console and support you. Think of those people today who were epiphanies of God in times of desolation. Common men and women who were great lights. They may not have turned water into wine, or ever were visited by wise men from the East, and they didn’t hear a voice boom over them the day they were baptized, but they were people God chose to reveal to you that God among us!

Our world today is in great desolation. It seems left to its own devices and far from God’s ways. It is blind to the minor epiphanies of God. But after this time of worldly desolation there will come a time of great consolation, a time of awareness that God is among us. It will be God’s gift. It will come when He wishes to give it. We do not know the time or the hour. This is the hope all Christians have. We must tell others what we believe and hope.  We must take up the mission God gives us  in our own baptisms. God wants us to be an epiphany to someone someday. This is what our parish mission statement tells us: We are to be spirit-filled disciples bringing others to Christ through God’s love. Let is do so consoled always be the faith that God is with us!

Here is my homily for Thanksgiving Day. Blessed are you!

Here is my homily for the weekend. May God bless you!

The Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ the King

Daniel 7:13-14; Rev 1:5-8; John 18:33b-37

November20/21, 2021

The one to whom you listen is the one whom you will obey, and the one you obey becomes the one who is your king.

To whom do we listen? Who or what is our king?

I would like to strike a sharp contrast in the homily today. Please bear with me as I do so. The good piece is at the end; the difficult piece is the beginning.

The world almost demands we make it our king. It demands the we listen and obey. The world around us, it seems, instills fear within to get our attention and our obedience. It uses fear as a way to become our king.

The media, so prevalent in our lives, makes similar demands. It rules the lives of so many of us nowadays. We bury our heads in our iPhones. We listen to the podcasts. We obey the information given to us on the web. The media becomes our king.

We may hold up certain people or causes as our ultimate authority to whom we pledge our lives, people who like Pontius Pilate have civil authority but lack the truth. Yes, there are many Pontius Pilates in our world who do not know the truth. We too easily listen to them and they become our kings.

So many of us allow things within us to become our kings: pride, vainglory, addictions, sins we have committed, regrets over our failures, even our accomplishments.

Indeed, we have very fickle, fallible, and untrustworthy kings to whom we listen and obey.

Think of the ancient Hebrews. They were filled with fear because they were starving. So they turned to Egypt. They submitted to the king of Egypt and what happened? They became slaves for 400 years.

The Hebrews did it again after God had freed them from Egypt and brought them into the desert. They became frightened when Moses went up the mountain to be with God. They made a molten calf their king. What happened? None of them made it to the Promised Land. Only their children did.

The Israelites also made the same mistake when they saw the nations around them with an earthly king and all they had were judges. They demanded a king, Saul, and they forsook their true king, God. What happened? They ended up divided and conquered.

I can go on. Judas and the Jewish authorities did it. Judas wanted a king of his own making, not the king that was Jesus. He sold out Jesus, the King of Kings. So what happened?  Judas died in despair.

Part One of the contrast. Now Part Two, the good part.

Jesus Christ, the true King of the Universe, does not use fear to get us to listen and obey. No, He uses the truth. He uses men and women who speak the truth, who give witness to the truth, who do not shy away from the truth, who proclaim the truth to get us to listen and obey. Jesus uses human beings to tell all those looking for a real king about His kingdom, a kingdom of mercy, love, justice, forgiveness, and eternal life. Our true King wants to love us into obedience.

We have so many witnesses to the Kingship of Jesus Christ. Thousands of named and unnamed Christians in the Church who knew the truth, who listened to His voice and obeyed, even to the point of martyrdom. Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, Simon, Jude, Lucy, Agatha, Marcillinus, Perpetua, Cosmos, Damian, and in our time Maximilian Kolbe and hundreds of others in Germany, Iraq, and Afghanistan who gave their lives because they knew the truth and their King, Jesus Christ.

We here in this parish must never tire of speaking the name of our King. Jesus Christ is the King of the Universe. He is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, the all powerful Son of God and Son of Mary who is our spiritual mother. Through Him all things were created and are held in existence. He is a King that is also a brother, a friend, a companion, an advocates before the throne of grace. He is a man like us in all things but sin, yet He is our King. He is the one who makes us like Him in his divinity. Jesus is the name to which we must bow our heads and bend our knees. (Every time the name of Jesus is spoken we should bow our heads silently.) In our darkest hour, He rules. In our weakest moments, His strength sustains us. In our sinfulness, He guides us back safely into his Kingdom of mercy. Our King is meek, and He is strong. He often seems weak and powerless to our eyes, but He is in fact far stronger than anything we could imagine.  Jesus is the center point of all human history. His Kingship has changed everything in the past, now in the present, and in the future.

Yes, Jesus our King must be proclaimed to all men and women. We are the ones who must proclaim Him. No matter who you are or how far along you are in your faith life, you can and must proclaim the name of Jesus. Speak of him to your family. Speak of him to your neighbors. Speak of him before you leave today to the person next to you in this Church. Proclaim Jesus! He is your King! Say his name. Out loud, speak His name. Tell people He is alive and His Kingdom is with us.

My fellow Christians, when difficulties arise in your life, to whom will you listen? Who will you obey? Who will be your king? I have only one answer: Jesus Christ! Listen to him!

May God bless you all!

Here is my homily for the weekend.  God bless you!

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

October 24, 2021

Jeremiah 31:7-9; Hebrews 5:1-6; Mark 10:46-52

We all are Bartimaeus!  We all, in some way, can see ourselves in him for we too are blind to some degree to the stumbling blocks in our lives, blind to the obstacles, to the things that can trip us up, but we all have also experienced the touch of God in our lives.

Bartimaeus is a model for all Christians. In his life we hear how we too can respond when we find ourselves in need of vision, in need of sight, and after God heals us.

Bartimaeus knew that he would be able to see Jesus only by persisting in calling out in faith. Only by being healed of his blindness would he be able to follow Jesus without stumbling and hurting himself. He knew that his relationship with “the Master,” would cure his blindness and show him the way to follow.

Faith in God gives us vision, an ability to see. When we see, we then follow.

Terry Anderson was a journalist with the Associated Press. He was captured be Hezbollah militants in Lebanon in the 1980s and held captive for seven years. He was tortured and kept blindfolded, in the dark, and chained to his bed and the wall during that whole time. A Catholic priest, Father Lawrence Jenco, was also a hostage who spent much of his time in prayer, making a rosary out of threads from a sack, and celebrated clandestine Mass whenever he could. Mr. Anderson wrote after his release:

“Where is faith found? … There is no God, the cynics say; we made Him up out of our need and fear of death. And happily, they offer up their test-tube proofs. A mystery, the priests all say, and point to saints that prove their faith in acts of love and sacrifice. But what of us who are not saints, only common human sinners? And what of those who in their need and pain cry out to God and go on suffering? I do not know — I wish I did. Sometimes I feel all the world’s pain. I only say that once in my own need I felt a light and warm and loving touch that eased my soul and banished doubt and let me go on to the end. It is not proof — there can be none. Faith is what you find.”

After his release, Mr. Anderson went on to tell many people of his experience of faith, healing and freedom; so did Father Jenco.

Although I, too, hold up the saints as examples of faith, perhaps what is most convincing, most persuasive, is our own personal faith experiences. Perhaps what is most convincing to most people is our sharing our personal faith experiences with each other, like Mr. Anderson and Father Jenco did.

Are we as a parish willing to tell each other about our own experiences of faith and God? Yes, we all are Bartimaeus, suffering from blindness, but we all also are like Terry Anderson and Father Jenco; we have experienced in some way the touch of God. If we are to be a “welcoming community of faith filled disciples” as our parish vision statement states, we can and must share with each other our experiences of blindness and being set free by the touch of God.

Think about your own life. Where are the blind spots? Where is the darkness? In what areas is your faith shaky? We all have them. We all are blind in some ways. We all are Bartimaeus. Maybe our blindness is ignorance of the faith. We can learn. Maybe it is not knowing how to live out the faith. We can get involved in the various ministries in this parish to teach us. Maybe our blindness is because of our sins. We can be reconciled through the Sacrament of Penance. Like Bartimaeus, we can throw aside our old cloaks and put on a new one, live a different life in the freedom of God.

Now think when you know God touched your life, when things became clearer, when you began to see again, when you were healed. Will you tell others about those times? Will you let others know that God exists?

Like Bartimaeus, like Terry Anderson and Father Jenco, we need to continually call out to God and ask Him to help us see Him, who we are, and where we must go.

“Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me! I want to see!” can be our prayer also.

Our faith will show us the way. Our faith will be like a light. Our faith will heal us. Our faith in God is the road map for our lives.

Remember, Bartimaeus was not only healed of his blindness, but he followed after he was healed. We too must first cry out and be healed; then we must follow. One way for us to follow is to tell each other about how God, Jesus, has touched our lives, how we have known God, and in that way support each other in our lives of faith.

Finally, can you imagine the joy that must have been Bartimaeus’ when he regained his sight? When he began to follow? I have no doubt that he didn’t silently follow Jesus. Rather, he shouted out the great things God had done for him, just as loudly as he had shouted out to Jesus, “Son of David, have pity on me!” His joy is ours too, as we tell each other the wonderful things God has done for us.

Here is this week’s homily. God bless all!

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

September 4/5, 2020

Isaiah 35:4-7a; James 2:1-5; Mark 7:31-37

Jesus is the fulfillment of all our hopes. Jesus is the one whom Isaiah identified as our God who comes with vindication, who opens the eyes of the blind, clears the ears of the deaf, and makes the dumb speak. Isaiah prophesied that Jesus would make water run on parched land.

In the Gospel passage today, it is clear that Jesus is the long-awaited one.  He is the Messiah for whom the Jews longed. Jesus is the fulfillment all the prophecies for he healed the man of his blindness, and cured him of his deafness, when streams of water ran down from Calvary the day he died, for we know water flow like a stream upon the dry ground that day.

The Jewish people knew Isaiah’s prophecies and they saw them being fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Ephphatha! (Mark 7:34) Jesus exclaimed. Be opened! Be strong, fear not! (Is 35:4) Be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom (James 2:5) St. James exhorted. Jesus Christ is among us. Do not fear! He is everything for which we could possibly hope. He is more powerful, more faithful, more merciful, than anyone before him or after him. He is more than any other man or woman who may claim to fulfill you; more than any modern day author, actor, or actress, more than any political figure, or any popular celebrity. Jesus is the fulfillment of our lives and he restores all of creation in this goodness.

Proclaim Jesus! Tell the world that He is alive!

Are we convinced of these things? Are we convinced that Jesus is the one we all desperately want and need? Is Jesus the fulfillment of your lives? Do you love Him?

The early Church Fathers scoured the Old Testament and there they found Jesus proclaimed.They searched their own lives and found him there also.

What about us? Do we find him when we look for answers, or do we look to science or to philosophers or to Buddhism, paganism, or perhaps the most popular author on the New York Times best seller list?

Jesus is the answer. Jesus is the fullness of all that we also will become. Jesus is the God for whom we have been searching and hoping.

I cannot say it better than did Pope St. Paul VI in 1970. I quote him:

Convinced of Christ: yes, I feel the need to proclaim him, I cannot keep silent. «Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!» (1 Cor. 9:16). I am sent by him, by Christ himself, to do this. I am an apostle, I am a witness. The more distant the goal, the more difficult my mission the more pressing is the love that urges me to it (cf. 2 Cor. 5:13). I must bear witness to his name: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16). He reveals the invisible God, he is the firstborn of all creation, the foundation of everything created. He is the Teacher of mankind, and its Redeemer. He was born, he died and he rose again for us. He is the center of history and of the world; he is the one who knows us and who loves us; he is the companion and the friend of our lives. He is the man of sorrows and of hope. It is he who will come and who one day will be our judge and, we hope, the everlasting fullness of our existence, our happiness. I could never finish speaking about him: he is the light and the truth; indeed, he is «the way, the truth and the life» (John 14:6). He is the bread and the spring of living water to satisfy our hunger and our thirst. He is our shepherd, our guide, our model, our comfort, our brother. Like us, and more than us, he has been little, poor, humiliated; he has been a worker; he has known misfortune and been patient. For our sake he spoke, worked miracles and founded a new kingdom where the poor are happy, where peace is the principle for living together, where the pure of heart and those who mourn are raised up and comforted, where those who hunger and thirst after justice have their fill, where sinners can be forgiven, where all are brothers.

Jesus Christ: you have heard of him spoken; you are Christians. So, to you Christians I repeat his name, to everyone I proclaim him: Jesus Christ is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega; he is the king of the new world; he is the secret of history; he is the key to our destiny. He is the mediator, the bridge, between heaven and earth. He is more perfectly than anyone else the Son of Man, because he is the Son of God, eternal and infinite. He is the son of Mary, blessed among all women, his mother according to the flesh, and our mother through the sharing in the Spirit of his Mystical Body.

Jesus Christ is our constant preaching; it is his name that we proclaim to the ends of the earth (cf. Rom. 10:18) and throughout all ages. (Rom. 9:5)

Amen!

Here is my homily for this weekend. God bless you all!

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Dt 4:1-2. 6-8; James 1:17-18, 21b-22,27

August 28/29, 2021

Jesus is rather clear in the Gospel that we have to get this (the heart, the inside) right before we can expect to get the outside right. He tells us that all the outside stuff is only “human traditions” if the inside stuff is not in good order. What does this mean?

I have been thinking a lot about what is at the heart of being a real Christian, a real Catholic. What is it that makes men Catholic men, women Catholic women?

For some people, being a good Catholic means obeying the 10 Commandments and the Precepts of the Church. No doubt these are basic and necessary, and we cannot call ourselves good Catholic men or women if we do not obey them. But they seem to be the same kind of things that go into making us good American citizens. There must be something more to Christianity than that .

I have discovered there are three additional things that make a good Catholic, a good Christian. They are: Relationship, Identity, and Mission.

Relationship is the beginning and the end of a good Christian. If we don’t start with relationship, we get everything else messed up. When we draw our last breath on this earth, this will be the one thing that will take us to heaven, i.e., being in relationship with God and the Church. We Catholics call this being in a state of grace. Our evangelical brothers and sisters call it knowing Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. They stress the importance of a personal relationship with Jesus as the means of salvation. At face value, they are correct, although not complete. Yes, we must be in a good relationship with God if we expect to get to heaven and if we expect to have good lives here on earth.  We have to be in a state of grace, in a good relationship with God and the Church. Too many of us nowadays underestimate the importance of this and we live with a broken relationship with God, and estranged from the Church, and for some reason we still expect everything else to be right, and we assume we’ll get to heaven anyway. It simply doesn’t work that way. We have to get our relationship with God and the Church right. That happens when we pray, when we are baptized and keep our baptismal promises, when we keep returning to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and then worthily receive Holy Communion, and when we beg God to be with us in all things. Prayer and the sacraments of baptism, penance, and Eucharist, keep us in a good relationship with God and the Church and are the foundation of being a good Catholic man or woman.

Identity. Question: Who am you and how do you find out? Answer: God will tell you! We know who we are only through grace, and through our relationships with God and Church. God knows who we are and tells us through the Church. We don’t tell God who we are. God tells us and we must listen. We don’t define ourselves; God does and the Church confirms it. The only way we really know ourselves, our identity, is through our relationship with God and the Church. This is so hard for us Americans to understand because our culture tells us we should define ourselves however we want. This is not the Christian way. This is not the Catholic way. We are not God. We must be humble and accept who we are and what He wants us to do in life.

Mission. Mission has to do with the outside. If we are in a state of grace, in a good relationship with God and the Church, and are using the sacraments frequently, we will know who we are, and then we will know what we must do. It concerns me to see people out there doing a lot of Church or charitable work when they are not in a good relationship with God and the Church. It concerns me to see them confused about who they are, their state in life, their ethnicity, their gender, their age, or their God-given abilities. It concerns me to see people out there doing a lot of Church work who seem to not really accept that God loves them as a son or daughter. It scares me to see people doing a lot of “mission work” but not praying, or frequently using the sacraments, and avoiding taking time with God in silence. How can we know what to do if we don’t listen to God and accept His plan for us?

Jesus warns us against this. He tells us to get the inside right before doing a lot of outside things. He tells us that the inside must direct the outside. If it is the other side around, we end up doing a lot of things that are mere human traditions that do not come from God, and we heard today in the Gospel what Jesus thinks of that.

So what makes a good Catholic man or woman? I think it is someone who, yes, keeps the 10 Commandments and the Precepts of the Church, but also prays, and relies on the grace of the sacraments, and confesses his sins regularly and receives the Eucharist worthily, and knows himself through the eyes of God and not his own, and is humble in accepting and living out God’s plan and purpose for his life.

Never break relationship with God or the Church! Remain in grace! Accept yourself as God knows you! And then live as God tells you live!

Here is my homily for the weekend. God bless all!

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

July 25, 2021

2 Kings 4:42-44; Ephesians 4:1-6; John 6:1-15

I asked my wife what I should preach this weekend, given the readings we have. She said, “People are hungry. Feed them!” Interesting! It was the message of Elisha the prophet in the first reading when he said, “Give it to the people to eat.” It was the message of Jesus in the Gospel when he fed the five thousand that day.

Yes, people are hungry. Feed them!

Yes, we are hungry, hungry for food that will truly nourish not only our bodies in this world but also our souls in preparation for eternity.

Do we want a little or a lot of this food? Do we want a little or a lot of what is truly good for us, physically, and most especially spiritually?

The answer is: we want and need a lot.

“Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough” we heard Philip say to Jesus. A year’s worth of work on our part, in other words, would not suffice to satisfy our hunger, our spiritual hunger, for the food that brings eternal life. Our own efforts will never be enough, but united with the power of God, we will feed thousands.

Yes, 200 days wages … a year’s worth of work.  One of the lessons I learned easily from my father was the lesson of hard work. Dad worked very hard to feed our family. Dad taught me that if I were to have a family, I would need to work hard and long to feed them. He taught me this by example. My mom did the same, as did all my uncles, my grandmother, and all our neighbors. Hard work was an essential. It was a part of our culture. My brother and I would get up every morning before six o’clock to go outside to care for the 140 or so head of cattle that needed feed and water before we caught the bus at 7:10 for school, year around we did it before school and after school. Our summers were filled with farm work: Rock picking, baling hay, hoeing beans, tending the garden, trapping gophers. Dad’s advice was good advice. He taught us well, and he taught us young. Work hard to feed your family. As I said, it was a lesson I learned easily, and it has served me well. I have tried honoring him with my work for my family.

The more difficult lesson for me has always been what the readings today teach, namely, that hard work alone may be sufficient to feed my family’s bodies, but it is not sufficient to satisfy their spiritual hunger. To satisfy that hunger, I must rely on God’s benevolence, His abundance, His providence. I am so utterly dependent on God if I am to satisfy that kind of hunger in the people entrusted to me.

I can supply the five barley loaves and two fish, and I must, but God supplies the rest. I can give them a taste; God alone can fill their spiritual hunger.

It is hard to believe and trust that God will provide. We’d rather prove ourselves… or should I say approve of ourselves…. through hard work alone. The problem is, if we only rely on our own efforts, everyone only gets only a little, if any at all. There never seems to be enough to go around when we rely solely on our own hard work.

Yes, God’s grace is needed, and my cooperation with that grace is a necessity. We must work with God and not against him. He’s got the plan, and we must implement it. We must distribute the food — that is our job — and it is hard work, but God’s grace provides the food that we distribute. Both grace from God and hard work from us are needed. Feeding five thousand people is not easy.

Think of this so as not to become exhausted in the effort: It is in God’s very nature to give, and to give in abundance. He is the giver of all good gifts. He never takes back his gifts. He sustains and multiplies them. God is not stingy. He is lavish. He is not fickle. He is trustworthy. He doesn’t demand we pay him back, only that we are faithful and that the fragments be collected and not be wasted, so others also may be fed. God gives his gifts, his food, freely and abundantly. We distribute them.

Every moment he gives us life.

Every moment he sustains us.

Every moment he gives thought to us, knows us, and is aware of our needs.

Every moment he gives us what we need, even if we do not recognize it

The people are hungry. Feed them! Two hundred days’ wages of food will not be enough to satisfy them, but five barley loaves and two fish will. We are the loaves and fish to be given. This we can provide. God is the one who satisfies. God gives to us, and we are to give it to the people who are hungry for the bread that sustains them into life eternal.

May God be praised!

Here is my homily for last week. God bless each of you!

12th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Father’s Day

June 19/20, 2021

Job 1:1, 8-11; 2 Cor. 5:14-17; Mark 4:7-16

I don’t know how many men here today were in high school during the late 1960s and early 1970s. I was. There was a lot of turbulence in our country. Social unrest, race riots, a general loss of faith in government, in family and fatherhood, and social structures. Boys rebelled against their fathers. Fathers were frustrated with their sons.

What was on our minds during those high school years men? Well, there was always girls, and getting out of high school, and sports, and… yes, in the back of our minds the looming possibility of being drafted into and dying in a very unpopular war in Viet Nam.

It was a time that sorely tested our faith. It was a time of loss of authority.

Yes, when storms rage, we want and need someone in whom we can place our faith, someone who will come in and calm those storms and end those wars, someone with authority.

We want and need fathers. Trustworthy fathers. Admirable fathers. Fathers who lead, who step into the breach and defend their families.

We hear our own voices in our responsorial psalm: “They cried to the Lord in their distress; from their straits he rescued them.” (Psalm 107:28)

We hear the voice of the Father in the reading from Job: “Thus far you shall come but no farther; and here shall your proud waves be stilled.” (Job 38:11)

Sons cry out to their fathers in their distress and long to hear their dads say to the storm: Come no farther. Be still!

Sons long to admire their fathers like we heard in the Gospel: “They were filled great awe and said to one another: ‘Who is this whom even the wind and sea obey?’”

Fathers, we have a great responsibility — to wield authority for one main purpose: to protect and guide our families. That purpose does not include wielding authority for our personal gain. Fathers, we must be willing to sacrifice any plan we may have of self-promotion, and become servants of our families, leading and guiding and protecting our families.

Fathers we must be willing to say to anything or anyone who threatens our families: “Thus far shall you come and no farther.” We must be willing to say to the storm: “Quiet! Be still!”

Fathers, we know that violent storms are out there that can and will lead our children astray. It is too easy to say nothing. It is too easy to go along to get along. It is too easy for us to give up our authority, and leave our families unprotected.

Fathers, the authority that is ours come from God to be used to serve our families. We must not expect to be served. We must never expect our families to serve us. We must serve them. If we get that right, then our authority will be known and respected.

Remember, as St. Paul said in the second reading, it is the love of Christ that impels us — dare I say compels us? — to be good fathers. We wield our authority out of love!  Only out of love! Never to protect our own egos! Always for the good of our families!

Fathers, we are not kings. We are shepherds. Any good shepherd will fight fiercely at times to protect his flock. Kings have armies to fight for them. Shepherds fight their own battles. We must be shepherds, not kings! But we must be shepherds!

“Step into the breach!” as one bishop put it. Plug the gaps. Don’t let what is destructive  enter your homes. Reform your lines of defense. Do not cower! Do not withdraw! Be willing to stand shoulder to shoulder with other fathers. Waves are breaking over your boats and filling them. You do not want your children saying, like the apostles said, “Do you not care we are perishing?”

Finally, Fathers, I believe that the strength of our children’s faith in God and fidelity to the Church is grounded in the strength of their faith in their fathers. Many of us have experienced one of more of our children leave the practice of the faith, and it shakes us to the core. It hurts us deeply. If though, we renew our commitment to embrace our fatherly authority and live it out as best we can, the faith of our children in God and Church will rekindle. It is not the only thing that will bring them back, but it is an important piece, the part we can do.

Fathers, thank you for being good dads. Thank you for being men, men who teach their sons to be men, men who teach their daughters to be women, and men who love your wives.

May God bless you abundantly!