Homily for the 3rd Sunday of Easter

Acts 5:27-32;1:40-41

Revelation 5:11-14

John 21:1-19

Our readings today speak to us of the authority of Jesus Christ as Son of God and Risen Lord, and the authority he gave his apostles and His Church to teach in his name and pass down what He taught them. This authority, of course, is still with us in the Church today. While the Successor of Peter and the other Successors of the Apostles still have the authority given to them by Jesus Christ and they are the most obvious outward human expression of the Church's spiritual and temporal authority, these Scriptures have a message for every one of us about our duty to spread the Gospel. It isn't the duty of the clergy to spread the Gospel (the Good News of Jesus Christ), it is the duty of every believer.

In our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Peter and some of the other disciples were placed before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish temple Council that administered not only the Temple, but the Jewish law during that time period. Peter would have been well aware of the reality that sitting on that very Council would have been some of the men who took the decision to put Jesus himself to death. They didn't want to hear anything else about the Nazarene, and they certainly didn't want to hear that they were responsible for his death, let alone that he had risen from the dead. They tried telling the apostles not to teach in the name of Jesus, Acts tells us that they didn't arrest the apostles at first because they were afraid of the reaction of the people. The followers of Jesus were already growing in number, so it begs the question: Why were they growing in number when the persecution of believers was real? Because those early followers of Jesus were not afraid to spread the message, and it wasn't just Peter and the 12, it was the whole Christian community. Very early in the life of the Church, who's first believers understood exactly what the words of Jesus meant when he said go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, and they set about doing exactly that, and they weren't afraid to tell the world exactly who Jesus was. The world didn't always want to follow in return, in fact most of the time they didn't want to do that at all, just as they don't today. The world has other priorities that usually have little to do with the things of God, but in the early Church those first Christians made God the priority and they wanted to spread the Gospel everywhere, and they understood the risks they were taking to do it.

It wasn't just the Apostles or the notables among the early followers of The Way (that's what the very first Christians called themselves, followers of The Way) who concerned themselves with the responsibility of bringing the message of the good news of Jesus to the world, every believer concerned themselves with spreading the Good News, and indeed that is what the Church teaches us, spreading the Gospel doesn't just happen here in church, it happens every day when we are going about our lives, and it's our responsibility to spread the message, firstly and most importantly by the lives we lead.

Today's Gospel gives us one of the most important post Resurrection appearances of Jesus. Peter and some of the other disciples went fishing and Jesus was waiting for them on the shore, John tells Peter that it's the Lord after the man on the shore tells them to throw the net on the right side of the boat and they would find fish. Not only did they catch fish but Scripture gives us a number, it says that they caught 153 large fish. One commentary I've read about this passage said that during this time period, the known number of kinds or breeds of fish was 153. I've never been able to verify that, but if there is any truth to that, it tells us something remarkable about what Jesus is trying to illustrate in this whole incident. He's trying to show his fishers of men that the whole world is welcome to be a part of his body if they choose. The Gospel also tells us that this is the third time Jesus showed himself to the disciples after he had risen from the dead.

St. Peter, we know from the accounts of the Passion, three times denied Jesus on the night before He was crucified. Here, Jesus asked him three times "do you love me" and when Peter responds in the affirmative the first two times he says "feed my lambs,"and "tend my sheep," but the last time the response of the Lord was "feed my sheep." We often think of this passage as representative of the Lord's charge to Peter after he had risen from the dead, and that interpretation isn't wrong, but there's more to it than that. The question that Jesus asks Peter is one that he is asking all of us today. When Jesus asked Peter the question first, he asked him "Do you love me more than these?" What this means in the most literal and obvious sense is "do you love me more than you love the things of this world, or the esteem of others?" After Jesus died and rose, we can see in today's Gospel that initially Peter went back to his family business of running a fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, of course, followers of Christ have to find a way to support themselves like everyone else, indeed St. Paul chided some of the early believers for using their faith and their love of the spiritual life in Christ as an excuse not to work or go about the business of their daily living when he told the Thessalonians "if any will not work, neither let him eat," but Jesus was calling Peter to something more, to abandon attachment to the things of the world for the sake of spreading the Gospel. In the same Gospel passage Jesus is calling all of us, as disciples and followers of His, to abandon an unhealthy attachment to worldly things, because we are all supposed to be witnesses to the Gospel and spread the message, something that it's very hard to do if we're worried about the way the world looks at us. 

Jesus' request to Peter is "feed my sheep," and there is a very real way in which this request applies to us. One cannot help but be drawn to our First Communicants last week. They are early in their journey of Faith, but we hope that we will be able to be an encouragement to them, whether we are a deacon or priest, or a catechist or helper, or just a parishioner that encourages the children to pray. Jesus told us that if we harm the faith of his little ones, it would be better for us if a millstone were tied around our neck and we were thrown into the sea. Whether it's the children just beginning their journey of Faith, supporting a new Catholic or someone showing an interest in the faith, or simply encouraging a fellow parishioner or visiting or calling a fellow parishioner who perhaps we haven't heard from in a while… We are all called to play a role in feeding the Lord's sheep and keeping the pasture well kept. 

Jesus is asking us "do you love me more than these?" He is asking all of us if we love him unto death, just as he loved us so much that he gave his life for us. We are all faced with having to answer the Lord's question. What answer shall we give him?

Homily for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time - The Sacrament of Matrimony

Genesis 2:18-24

Hebrews 2:9-11

Mark 10:2-16

Those of you who have listened to my preaching for quite some time now know that it tends to providentially happen that I very often find myself preaching on some of the things in scripture which are known as the "hard sayings of Jesus," things which are very important parts of the Christian Life and which have always been very difficult to live out, but especially so in the world in which we find ourselves living in this hour of history.

Today's Old Testament reading and today's Gospel are meant as an illustration for us of God's plan for humanity and the human family. God made humanity male and female, and he did so for a reason. It has been the plan of God from the beginning of all time that the human race should be perpetuated in the family, and that families are themselves perpetuated when men and women come together as husband and wife and become one flesh. That plan is so important to humanity that Jesus reminds us that it has always been the intent of God that the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony is indissoluble, and that has always been and remains today the teaching of the Church.

The plan of God for the human race from the very beginning, as Jesus reminds us in the Gospel today, is that God made humanity male and female, and that God intended a man to leave his Father and Mother and cleave to his wife and with her to become one flesh. It was thus from the very beginning, and that is made clear to us both in Genesis and in more than one place in the Gospels. This was a difficult thing when Jesus said it over 2,000 years ago, it was difficult for the Pharisees that heard it, because they were used to the religious laws of that time which said that they could simply declare that they "put their wife away," that's what they called it "putting her away." I could only imagine how dehumanizing such a pseudo ritual must have been for the women who were on the other side of it in those days.

Yet in this day and age in which we live, not only has divorce become commonplace in society at large, but we see it and its effects in the very heart of the Church today. We understand that part of this is because of human sin and brokenness, that is true, but a huge part of the reason that we see the effects of divorce in the Church today is because so many people have forgotten what matrimony is and it is supposed to be. Pope Francis himself has warned that a big part of the reason why the number of declarations of nullity are so high is because so many young people enter into marriage with a false idea of what this institution is, and what it is about.

Jesus gives us a real lesson on what marriage is about because immediately after he tells his disciples not once, but twice about the permanence of Holy Matrimony, we then see in the same Gospel text that people brought children to Jesus for him to touch them and the disciples tried to rebuke the people who brought the children. Jesus rebuked the disciples instead, he reminded them and all of his listeners that we all have to receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, that is to have the faith of a child- or we can't enter into it. We are told that Jesus blessed the children who were brought to him. In doing this, and in placing the blessing of children in this context in the Word of God, Jesus is showing us one of the critical reasons why the institution of marriage was created and the Sacrament of Matrimony instituted, and that is for the well-being, and the safety, and the good upbringing of children, right along with the good and well-being of both spouses.

Holy Mother Church teaches us and has always taught us that a family with a mother and a father and siblings (if God gives children) is the normative means by which God gives humanity to bring up children and to advance society and human flourishing. In saying this and in being reminded of this today, we are not saying that good and holy young people cannot come from a single parent home, or from an alternative situation over which they had little control. No, what we are saying is what Jesus says, and that is that the plan of God is, and has always been, for children to be brought up in families made up of mothers and fathers, and both mothers and fathers are of equal importance, even though they have different and distinct roles. Even the raw statistics tell us that God set down his plan and his way for a reason, some of the best social scientists saw that many decades ago.

However, rather than acknowledge in humility that God's plan is really for the best and that humanity in our brokenness and sinfulness are the ones who screw that up, and seek repentance and healing and reconciliation, in our culture today we think we know better than Jesus Christ, and the culture seeks to redefine what marriage is, what family is, and even today what constitutes male and female, which is now a matter of choice rather than divine appointment according to some.

Holy Mother Church teaches us clearly that the Sacraments are the ordinary means by which our Lord confers Grace on humanity and that there are seven of these Sacraments. Three of the sacraments are Sacraments of Initiation or acceptance into God's family, the Church. (Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist), that two of the Sacraments are Sacraments that Jesus gives us for healing our bodies and our souls, (the Anointing of the Sick and the Sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession), but then we are given two Sacraments that are Sacraments of Service. The Sacraments of Service are Holy Orders, or ordination, and the Sacrament of Matrimony. Holy Matrimony is so important in the plan of God that the relationship between Christ and his Church in Sacred Scripture is described as the relationship between a Bride and a Bridegroom. In the parable of the ten virgins, Jesus reminds us to be watchful like a bride for the bridegroom because the bridegroom could return at any time.

St. Paul in Ephesians Chapter 5:22-32 lays out the way in which Christian married couples should behave, he reminds couples that Matrimony is a great Sacrament, and that it is a reflection in this world of the mystical bond between Christ and his Church. St John Paul II repeated the Church's traditional teaching that the family is a domestic Church.

Rather than accept God's definition of a family as a model for what his eternal family is like, the world redefines family to fit the definition that is convenient for the priorities of the world. The married relationship is often defined in today's culture by Hollywood. People's idea of married love comes from the movies, or television, or popular books, or the internet, rather than the timeless and correct definitions given to us by the Church from God's own Word. 

Those of us who have been married for any length of time know that real marriage and love within marriage is not Hollywood (where's my late Grandfather used to call it, Hollywierd!). We need to love and cherish our spouse, and doing that right means doing it when it is easy, and when it is hard. Loving our wife or our husband when it's hard, and loving our children when it's hard is what God asks from us, because loving us in that way is exactly what Jesus did for us. If you want to know how much Jesus loves us, all you need to do is look at the Cross behind me. That is how we are called to love our wives and our husbands, our families, our children. Permanent and lasting Love is how he loves us, and it is the way in which he expects us to love one another.

Personal God, Personal Relationship (Bulletin Column 7/4/2021)

 

As we celebrate the 245th birthday of our country this weekend, I also want to personally welcome Father Jim Harvey to our Holy Trinity family. I know that you will all join me in praying for a joyful and fruitful pastoral Ministry for Father Jim here with us. Be sure and take the time to make him feel welcome, and let him put some names with some faces as we walk together on this journey to the fullness of the Faith and the Kingdom of God.

One of the things we are often asked by many of our evangelical friends and neighbors is whether we have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This isn't necessarily the best theological language, and it's important to remember that the phrase doesn't appear anywhere in Sacred Scripture, yet it does convey an important truth. We believe in and serve a personal God, and that God sent his Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, into the world to really live among us and to give his life as a ransom for us, so that we might be forgiven of our sins. Jesus loves us so perfectly and so completely that there is no way that we will ever be able to describe how deeply that he loves us. The God who loves us so much that he sent his son- both God and Man - to die for us created us out of love and he wants for us to love him in return for the good of our own souls. Jesus Christ "emptied himself and took the form of a slave" (cf. Philippians 2:7), and that means that we can enter into a personal relationship with Him, a relationship that He wants for us to have.

Perhaps the most obvious and critical way to do this is through our prayer life. The Lord knows everything, so he understands how busy our schedules are. He knows that we won't always meet our personal prayer goals, but the purpose of prayer is to build our relationship with God in the most personal way we can, by talking to Him just as we would a friend. If you aren't coming to Eucharistic adoration or Benediction once a month, set aside an hour of your time on a Saturday for Jesus, or come to Mass a few minutes early for Benediction on the first Saturday of the month and share prayer with your fellow parishioners. 

Are you taking the time for a daily Rosary? There's no better way to get to know the Lord than through his Mother. If your daily grind makes it difficult for you to pray the Rosary in the ordinary way, Bishop Robert Barron has led a wonderful Rosary with meditations on the mysteries of the Lord's life, and you can find it on YouTube by simply searching "Bishop Barron Rosary." Perhaps you are ready to enhance your prayer life by including the Prayer of the Church, the Liturgy of the Hours, in your daily way of talking to Our Lord. If you'd like to learn more about the Liturgy of the Hours, feel free to email or call me or any of the other deacons (and Father Jim I'm sure), and we will be happy to get you started. The internet makes the process easier than it has ever been before. With Father's permission, I might even be willing to lead a public celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours in the parish again; we have done it a couple of times before. However you might be working to better your prayer life, know that the Lord loves you and He wants to hear from you, He looks forward to it every day.

Another way that we can deepen our relationship with Jesus Christ is by being Christ to others. A few weeks ago, I shared with you how wonderful it was to again see so many of your smiling faces. The pews are beginning to look full on Sundays, and things are slowly getting back to normal in our Parish life   Over the last several weeks, I think the hospitality for which our parish is well known has been on full display for everyone to see. Nevertheless, there are some parishioners who still have not felt comfortable rejoining us in community for the Eucharist. If you know of a parishioner who hasn't been with us for a good while, consider giving them a call. Invite them to return to Mass and to other Parish events. Consider offering a ride if one is needed, and don't be afraid to ask if there's anything you can do to help. Often, during the prayers of the faithful, many of you will note that I remember the sick and the homebound of our parish, but we should all do the same, remembering especially those who have been with us but haven't yet returned.

As we continue on our journey with the Lord in a time of change for our Parish, let us commit to ourselves and to one another to grow in our relationship with Christ, and in doing so, to be examples of Christ to one another.

Homily for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Wisdom 1:13-15, 2:23-24

2 Corinthians 8:7, 9, 13-15

Mark 5:21-43

Our readings today-most especially our Old Testament reading and our Gospel for today- speak to one of the most fundamental truths of the Christian faith, and that is that death was never originally in God's will. The passage from the book of Wisdom reminds us that God didn't create death for humanity, he made man to be imperishable, that is not to die. God made man in his own image, and originally this didn't include death. Death entered the world as a consequence of sin. Indeed, all evil entered the world as a consequence of sin and the fall of humanity. God warned Adam and Eve what the consequence would be if they disobeyed Him, not because God is cruel, but because God is Holy. Sin can't live in the presence of God. The very definition of sin is "the willful transgression or disobedience of God or His laws."

We are delivered from original sin by virtue of our baptism, but that doesn't mean we are free from the consequences of original sin, and that means that death is a reality for the human race until the Lord returns and history is brought to its consummation. However, in the Gospel we are given the ultimate antidote to the reality of death that we inherited from our First Parents. Jesus Christ came, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, to give us victory over sin and death. This was the reason Our Lord came, and it was the reason He died for us, and the reason that he rose again. He died in atonement for our sins, but he did so that we might have victory over our sins. He wants us to be in Heaven with Him, and in His death and Resurrection, He provides us with the means whereby we can restore a right relationship with God, and our sins be forgiven.

In the Gospel we see that Christ is the Lord of Life who has power over life and death. The woman afflicted with hemorrhages (or as some translations render it, the issue of blood- meaning that she had parts of her body or sores that had been constantly bleeding for years) believed in faith that Jesus could heal her, and she was so convinced that that she thought that all she needed to do was touch the hem of His garment, a small part of his clothes, and that would be enough. We hear all kinds of television preachers today preaching a "name it and claim it" false Gospel of prosperity. This woman was living the real "name it and claim it." She was healed because she believed that Jesus was who he said he was, and she trusted that he had the power to heal her. Jesus' very response tells us that this woman's faith is what has brought about her healing.

Our Lord has told us in Scripture that his power to heal is as much about forgiveness of our sins as it is about physical healing. Remember the paralytic man whose friends dropped him through the roof so that he could have an encounter with Jesus? (cf. Mark 2:1-12) What was Jesus' initial response? At first, it wasn't to heal the paralytic, it was to announce to him and to the people around him that his sins were forgiven. People then accused Jesus of blasphemy because only God had the power to forgive sins. Jesus shows us that the power of forgiveness was far more important than physical healing. But he knew that many of the people thought he was doing something that only God could do, and they were right, so he told the paralytic "so that you may believe that the Son of Man has power on Earth to forgive sins, rise, take up your bed, and walk." The healings of Our Lord were to show that he had the power to forgive and the power to make us whole and he has that power today, even if we don't always experience physical healing. The Lord wants to bring us spiritual healing through the Sacraments, and he wants us to be open to receive those Graces.

Then there was the daughter of Jairus, the synagogue official. Jairus believed that Jesus could heal his daughter, likely because he had seen or heard the evidence of Jesus' healings of others, but when Jesus learned that the little girl had died, he said "she isn't dead she's only sleeping," and he was roundly mocked. But he went in and he raised the little girl from the dead. Christ showed that he had power even over life and death, something that only God has. Because Our Lord rose from the Dead, he can give us victory over death. 

Unless we happen to live to see the Lord return, we all have an appointment with death, but it doesn't have to be the end for us. Just as the Church's funeral liturgy tells us, in death we know that "life is changed, not ended." Christ wishes to give us the rewards of Eternal Life, he wishes to restore God's plan for all of humanity that was taken from us because of Original Sin.

There is only one catch… we have to live a life for the Lord, we have to keep His commandments, because salvation and victory over death can be given to anyone, but ultimately it is given to those who choose it. The choice is a very clear and stark one… we can have "the pleasures of sin for a season," we can live consumed by worldliness and the things of this world which are passing away, and God will honor that choice, and it will be our Eternal choice… Or we can reject a life of sin and worldliness and the things which pass away and win victory over death and an Eternity with God. The choice is really up to us.

Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter

 

Acts 9:26-31

1 John 3:18-24

John 15:1-8

Jesus uses the analogy of grapes on a vine to describe the relationship between the believer and Christ, and indeed the believer and Christ's body. Anyone who may grow any kind of fruit on a vine knows that the branches or parts of the vine, if cut off from the vine, will not continue to bear fruit or be part of the vine. The vine may continue to be productive, it may grow new branches that produce new fruit to replace the branches that are cut off.

"A branch cannot bear fruit unless it remains on the vine," Jesus tells us, "neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me." Following Jesus Christ is, for each and every one of us, a choice. It is a choice that we make daily, but increasingly in our society following Jesus Christ is being openly rejected by people, including those who should know better. Several times in the New Testament Jesus uses the agricultural understanding that his listeners would have known in his own time, since he lived in an overwhelmingly agricultural society. Jesus uses this understanding as a way to explain to his listeners and to his followers and to his apostles the reality of Heaven and Hell.

This is the reality that Jesus deals with in the parable of the wheat and the tares (cf. Matthew 13:24-30) and we see it again here in the parable of the vine and the branches, the branches that are cut off from the vine will be thrown into a fire and burned, just as in the parable of the wheat and the tares, Jesus explains that the tares and the wheat grow together until the harvest when the tares are separated out and burned while the wheat is gathered in to the Master's barn.

The reality of Hell is not something that we often choose to talk about, but Jesus talked about it a whole lot. Considering how much Jesus discussed the matter, I have to admit that I don't quite understand why it is that some theologians come up with the notion that everyone is going to be saved (something that none of us can possibly know). Jesus made it pretty clear that few people would choose to follow him of their own accord. (cf. Matthew 7:13-14) The reason is because the way of Christ isn't always easy, and we know that it often isn't easy at all. The benefits, however, are truly out of this world.

We also learn something else that's key in this parable of the vine and the branches. The Father is the vine grower and he will take away every branch that does not bear fruit, and he will prune the branches that do bear fruit so that they bear more fruit. This can be particularly critical, because pruning sometimes involves cutting away a non-productive part of the vine, it might even mean that we have to cut off some part of a plant that we might otherwise choose not to, so that the rest of the plant might be productive and bear the best fruit. Pruning isn't always an easy process. But God's way of pruning the vine often means exposing what is wrong with the vine so that it can be cut away from the productive part of the vine of the Church.

In recent days, months, and years, we have seen a series of scandals involving the sinfulness of high ranking clergy and the abuse of children and young adults. This is an addition to other scandals which have often exposed the willingness of many in the clergy to tolerate and even promote social, political, and moral ideas which are completely contrary to the teachings of Holy Mother Church. Many of these public clergy who have promoted or continue to engage in promoting things which are contrary to what the Church teaches in matters of faith and morals have been allowed to continue to pedal their confusion to the masses in the Catholic press, in social media, and in society at large. These realities have led some people to judge that orthodoxy- that is Catholic belief that is right and correct- is often seen as outdated and old fashioned, while those who follow the latest modern ideas about what is morally acceptable are given pride of place in the public square, with some of these folks being promoted by the mainstream media as authentic Catholic voices.

Let us not be deceived. God is not mocked. (cf. Galatians 6:7) The moral teachings of the Church have not changed, and the seven deadly sins are still deadly. If something was wrong a hundred years ago or 70 years ago or 50 years ago, it is still wrong today, it will be wrong next week, next month, next year, and next century. Conversely, if something was good and holy 100 years ago or 70 years ago or 50 years ago, be assured that it remains good and holy today, it'll be good and holy tomorrow, good and holy next week, next month, next year, and next century. The Lord changes not… now there is a difference between dogma, doctrine and discipline. We don't have time to get into all of those differences this morning, but disciplines of the church can change because these disciplines are here to help us carry out the dogmas and the doctrines we believe in, they are not those dogmas and doctrines themselves.

These are important reminders because we are living in an age when many people look at our Church, and it appears that the bad parts of the branches and being allowed to run rampant and the plant has not been pruned. But I would humbly submit to anyone who feels discouraged about the state of the Church that when you hear things which are discouraging about the situation in the Catholic world today, know and understand that God is working his purpose out. So much of what we see and hear in our Church today is really a part of this pruning process which God has set forth to purify His people. As Saint Paul reminds us, the Lord seeks "a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing." (cf. Ephesians 5:25-27) We don't have the ability to make the Church that way, but the Lord does. We need to allow the Lord the opportunity to prune the branches so that we can all bear the very best fruit, and the Church can do what the Lord ordained her to do, preach the Gospel and work for the salvation of many souls.

Homily for the Third Sunday of Lent

Exodus 20:1-17

1 Corinthians 1:22-25

John 2:13-25

Our Gospel today comes very early in St. John's Gospel and shares with us John's account of something that the other Gospels tell us happened during (or very near to) Holy Week-Jesus' righteous anger at the money changers in the temple and his overturning of their tables of business. It is important to ask, then, what were the money changers doing at the Jerusalem Temple, the place where any observant first century Jew understood was the dwelling place of Almighty God on this Earth. The one place where legitimate sacrifices to the Lord could take place, and they did- on a daily basis.

Prayer and sacrifice took place in the Jerusalem Temple in those days every day. Just as in our day all clergy in the Church celebrate the Liturgy of the Hours and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass each day, public prayers, usually centered around the Psalms of David, occurred daily in the Temple. Daily sacrifices took place there too, of various kinds. The priests who had their rotation in the Temple had to offer sacrifices to God as part of their daily and Sabbath worship. And if anyone came to the Temple to offer a sacrifice, whether for the circumcision and dedication of a child, in prayer for or in Thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest, for one of the feast days, or simply as a grateful act of worship, the Law required that people should bring their best to God, sacrifices without blemish. There was also another kind of sacrifice that took place at the Temple, it was called the todah, or sacrifice of Thanksgiving. This sacrifice was an offering of special sacrificial bread, often called the showbread, and the very best wine from the vineyards of God's people.

Because the temple was the only place where the fullness of the worship of God could occur, when many people went there to worship, they came from a long way and often they couldn't carry their sacrifices with them, they had to find animals or other sacrificial materials the closer they got to Jerusalem. Eventually the scribes and major priests of the temple figured out that it might be a good idea to allow those selling such wares to do so right on the temple grounds, right outside the building. What this eventually became in the time of Jesus was a lucrative racket, people would have to pay a premium for the best sacrificial animals, that they were then going to buy with Temple coinage which they would get when they exchange their Roman currency on the temple grounds… because Caesar's money couldn't officially be used at the temple.

Jesus saw this currency racket and crony capitalism for what it was, and he saw that the Temple authorities were taking advantage of the people, or they were openly allowing others to do so right under their noses. In the very House of God, in the place where God dwelt in the world and where sacrifices to God were offered, the clergy who ministered in the Holy of Holies were filled with corruption, and what Jesus would call in his famous discourse in Matthew 23, "dead men's bones." He said that these people appeared outwardly to be Holy, but he saw that this wasn't Holiness at all, this wasn't fulfilling the law of God. Jesus, we read, turned over the tables of the money changers and the userers and those who were selling sacrifice to the Almighty. 

There is a great lesson to be learned by what Jesus did in the Gospel. We live in an age when the statistics tell us that many people right across the country and the world are leaving the Church, at least they are saying that they are. If you talk to anyone who has left the church, the most common complaint, other than the general hypocrisy of people, (which will always occur in any group of people because of our humanity), is the corruption and sin of so many of our clergy, and the apparent toleration of such corruption and sin by our leaders. There was all kinds of corruption going on, both spoken of in the scriptures and not spoken of, when Jesus showed up at the Temple in Jerusalem. The holy men of Israel had become corrupted to the point where they did not even recognize the Anointed of God. The Lord, in his righteous anger, had enough and turned over the tables, and reminded them that the House of God was to be a House of Prayer and not a den of thieves-or worse! (cf. Luke 19:46)

God sees our frustration and anger with the sins and evil and hypocrisy which occur in the church even in our own time. He sees these things to a degree which we cannot. He shares our frustration and our righteous anger at wrongdoing or wrong action, but he doesn't invite us to leave God's house. Jesus overturning the tables of the money changers is a reminder to all of us, and should especially serve as a warning to any of us who have received the gift of Holy Orders at any level, that wrongdoing may go unseen by others, but it does not go unseen by the Lord, and your sins will find you out. The Gospel serves as a reminder to anyone who might have been wronged, abused, or scandalized by someone using an office of the Church that the Lord sees the Injustice that was done to them, and that the wheels of God's justice may slowly turn, but they do turn and grind fine. The Lord sees injustice, and if no one in this world will remedy that injustice, the Lord is keeping a tally. And when it comes time for judgment of injustices and wrongs and evils, the Scriptures are clear that judgment begins at the House of the Lord.

If you're discouraged by things that you might see or hear about what's going on in the Church today, rest assured that God sees wrongs and injustices also, and the day will come when all is brought to light and the truth will set us free, just as the uncomfortable truth set a lot of people free the day Jesus turned over those tables. The Church needs people who will worship in spirit and in truth and believe in Jesus Christ and his Word today more than ever before, so stand fast in Jesus Christ and his Church and the day will come when he makes all things new.

And that Thanksgiving sacrifice, the todah… Some of the ancient rabbis just happened to predict that in the time of the Messiah, all sacrifices would cease… except for the todah, the sacrifice of Thanksgiving. It is said that this sacrifice will go on until the end of time.

Homily for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Leviticus 13:1-2

1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1

Mark 1:40-45

"If you wish, you can make me clean." That's what the leper said to Jesus at the beginning of the Gospel today. Some translations render it-I think more accurately- "if you will it, you can make me clean." In this singular moment the leper approached Jesus and completely submitted himself to the will of God, seeming to understand that Jesus could just as well have told him no. We can even see that Jesus had every reason to decide not to heal the man, after all he asked the fellow not to say anything to anyone about what Jesus had done but to show himself to the priest as Moses had prescribed. Of course this man didn't bother to listen to Jesus on that score, the Gospel tells us that he went out and publicized the whole matter.

It's important to remember that by the standards of that day, what Jesus did was remarkable, and not merely because he healed the leper. As we heard in the first reading today from the book of Leviticus, the law as given to Moses was very clear that any person who came down with leprosy-or what we might know today as Hansen's disease- was to be considered unclean, and separated out from the people of God as a whole. 

This seems like a punishment and it seems very harsh, but there was a reason for it. The biblical injunction to separate someone with leprosy away from the children of Israel was a kind of quarantine. In ancient times, they didn't have the more advanced knowledge of germ theory or how disease was transmitted, but they did figure out that it was possible for more people to get leprosy if there was a person with leprosy among them. They were not wrong, because leprosy is a bacterial infection and it can spread from person to person, although we know today that you're more likely to catch leprosy from another leper if you have extensive close contact with them. The ancients were simply aware that this could spread from person to person and they did understand how dangerous that it was. You might remember the story of Saint Damian of Molokai, who was called to care for the lepers in Hawaii and eventually caught the disease himself…

Jesus, however, let it be seen that he touched a leper and healed him. Jesus showed that it is his will to make people whole. Oftentimes this does not necessarily mean physical healing, although it can. More often than not, Jesus seeks to make our souls whole. Sin, along with the emotional scars and daily wear and tear of life in this world can cause our hearts- our souls- to be infected with a kind of spiritual leprosy. In the sight of God- and even sometimes in the sight of the people around us- we are unclean, and if no one else knows it, we do. Just like healing the leper in the Gospel, Jesus wills us to be made clean and he's willing to make it happen if we are willing to come to him.

These preceding months that we have all lived through have helped me understand this story in a way in which we might perhaps not otherwise be able to. We are living in a time when we are told that so many of our neighbors could be unclean and that we need to distance ourselves from them, just as lepers had to do in our Old Testament reading. We can better imagine how the leper who Jesus healed must have felt because now he was free and he was clean and he could be a part of the community again, and the community could embrace him. 

God gives us opportunity to be healed of our spiritual leprosy as well. The first way to do this is to present ourselves for the Sacrament of Confession or Reconciliation. The second way that we can do this is to begin to examine our lives and find out where our weaknesses are, what are the problems in our spiritual immune system that leave us weak and susceptible to the diseases that are sin and spiritual sloth? We can do a daily such examination, and we could commit ourselves to greater prayer, such as time for the Rosary, or the Angelus, or the Liturgy of the Hours. I can speak from both personal experience and the experience of working with others to help them in their faith… If we constantly commit ourselves to improving our prayer life and our personal devotion, these things are the ultimate weapons against sin and sloth, for idle time is the playhouse of the Devil. Rather than have idle time, give it to God. We can all stand to turn off the television or the smartphone and take time to call on the Lord.

Some of us have very busy daily schedules, sometimes things come up that we don't expect and weren't planning on. There are many days when we set aside time for prayer, but things don't work out the way we had planned, and we might think to ourselves "what am I supposed to do?" Even in the most dire and time squeezed-circumstances, most of us can usually make time for the Angelus (or the Regina Caeli in the Easter season), and if all else fails and we're so pressed for time that we can't even take 3 minutes for the Angelus, perhaps we can at least say that beautiful Jesus Prayer every day that is a part of Eastern tradition. "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

Father Patrick, Father Andres, and I and the other deacons are somewhat fortunate in that we are made to go on a retreat every year. This is often a time to rest, but it's also a time to take stock of where our relationship with Christ is in our life and how we can improve it. I know it is that way for me. Not everyone can afford to drop what they're doing and go on retreat, so every year the Church brings the retreat to us. The Holy Season of Lent begins this coming Wednesday. The principles of this great season are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Those three principles should apply to our lives all the time, not just for around 40 days every year. However, there is likely not a single one of us who is perfectly living out those pillars of Christian example, so each year the Church gives us an opportunity to step back and be reminded of how we are supposed to live, and ultimately that we are supposed to live for others. We will begin on Ash Wednesday and journey with the Lord to Calvary during that time. The discipline of Lent should be a reminder to us that there is no reward of Heaven without the Cross, and that our sufferings are a part of the life we live for God.

Lent is also an opportunity for us to do as the leper did in the Gospel today, it is a chance for us to stretch out our hands to the Lord Jesus and to request of him "Lord, if you will, make me clean." The difference is that now Jesus won't ask us to keep it a secret, he wants us to tell the whole world so that they will ask him to do the same for them.

Homily for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sirach 27:30-28:7

Romans 14:7-9

Matthew 18:21-35

There are great many truths taught by Our Lord or by the Holy Apostles which are difficult for the world to accept. We can sometimes tell which truths these are because they're the ones that people like to avoid discussing whenever the topic of Christianity or Jesus Christ happens to come up. There are a lot of people in this world who will more or less say that Jesus was a great moral teacher, but either in their words or their actions they will deny that Christ is who he claims to be. The world will make that denial because they do not wish to live in the way that we are called to live, because so much of what the world today calls good, God calls evil. So much of what the Lord God calls evil, the world says it's good, even praiseworthy. (cf. Isaiah 5:20, 2 Timothy 3:1-13)

There is perhaps no greater commandment of Christ that is more difficult to live out, however, than the one we find illustrated in the Gospel today, the command that we are to forgive in the same way that we are asking God to forgive us. We want God to forgive us our sins, to pardon our sins, to overlook our sins. In many, if not most cases, the sins we are asking forgiveness for are the sins that will send us straight to Hell because of the choices we have made. Yet Jesus repeatedly tells us that these sins will be forgiven, that we will be received by the Lord if we repent of our sins. The only catch is that we have to forgive others in the same way that we have been forgiven. We get a glimpse of just how unconditional God's love is for us, and we come to understand how difficult it is to give truly unconditional love to others, especially those who would wish us harm or do us harm.

When we think about how difficult that truly is, we realize that living the Christian Life isn't so easy, because we have to be like Christ, and that means to forgive others as we have been forgiven. Jesus's illustration of the servant who asked forgiveness of his master while refusing to extend forgiveness to a fellow servant who owed a much smaller amount shows us the reality that God is willing to forgive us the debt of our sins if we confess our sins, and the weight of our sins is far greater than any debt to be understood in this world. Therefore, Jesus is explaining to us that we should be ready and willing to forgive others, because their offenses to us are far less than anything we may have done in this life to offend God.

In living the life of a Christian we are called to be like Christ. Jesus Christ is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, He is God, and so his nature is the nature of God. What are we told is God's ultimate nature? When the Lord God made himself visible to Moses, telling him that he would pass by on Mount Sinai and allow Moses to see the back of Him and He would say His name. When the Lord did say his name to Moses, the name itself is not actually mentioned in most English translations (we say "the LORD"), but it is immediately followed by an important suffix. God makes Himself known to Moses in this way… "the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness."  (Exodus 34:5-6) Mercy and love and fidelity are so important to God's nature that He includes them in His very name. We hear these attributes of God in today's responsorial Psalm, which are verses from Psalm 103.

Our first reading from the book of Sirach invites us to do a very difficult thing for a lot of us (and any of us who have a real temper know how hard it is), and that is to let go of our anger, even forgiving the injustices our neighbor might commit upon us.

In the Gospel parable, the servant was not seen as wicked for asking his master to forgive his debt (something that we should be doing regularly when we ask for our sins to be forgiven in Reconciliation), but it was seen as most evil that he would not forgive a fellow servant a much smaller debt. The Master's reaction when he had heard what the servant had demanded of his fellow servant was to throw the wicked servant in prison until the debt was paid off.

Jesus tells his disciples that God the Father will treat all of us the same way if we do not learn to forgive our enemies from our heart. The big difference will be that if we die in our sins, it is our choice, not the larger society. We can ask forgiveness of God and our neighbor, but if we are not truly willing to forgive others, the faith is hollow within us.

Neither our Lord, nor any of the Apostles or the apostolic Fathers who have preached forgiveness have said that forgiving our neighbors who slight us, or do great injustice to us is easy. Jesus understands very well how very difficult and how very contrary it is to our human nature to extend the hand of forgiveness to those who have done us wrong, or even to those who wish us harm. That kind of forgiveness is completely contrary to our human nature, and God understands that. This is exactly why being able to extend forgiveness in the radical way that Jesus asks of us is something that takes great Grace, and is a sign before the world that the person who can forgive in the radical fashion which Christ asks of us manifests a sign of tremendous holiness of life, and they are showing that they can live out their Christian faith not only in word, but in action.

We are living in a time of tremendous upheaval in our nation. Not only have we been faced in recent months with a global pandemic which has seriously constricted our way of life and cost many their jobs or their livelihoods, but we have also recently seen protests, and in many places riots, over both the real and perceived abuses directed toward African Americans and other minorities by certain members of local police forces around the country. The resulting protests and riots have caused much disorder, they have also forced many Americans to take a hard look at our past as a nation.

One of the real difficulties, however, with the present moment in which we find ourselves is that the one thing you don't hear from all sides in these ongoing debates, discussions, and public disorder is the need for- and the willingness of-all sides to extend forgiveness to one another. Instead, because of the lack of an attitude of forgiveness, we see continuing disorder and riots in many cities, including the desecration of many public monuments. There is an utter unwillingness to forgive our neighbors.

We also would do well to remember that extending forgiveness does not mean forgetting injustices and wrongs done to us by others, forgiveness doesn't always equate to trust, and nowhere does Jesus ask that. But if we can truly learn to forgive, and leave the final judgment of others to God, our community, our country, our world would look a lot more like Jesus intended. As Christ forgives us, let us extend that forgiveness to one another. 

Homily for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Isaiah 55:1-3

Romans 8:35, 37-39

Matthew 14:13-21

In today's Gospel we hear Matthew's account of Jesus' miraculous feeding of the 5000. One of the things that we know from the Gospel account is that Jesus actually was able to feed far more than 5,000 people that day, because Scripture tells us that there were five thousand men there, but they did not count women and children, and there were certainly women and children present, we can only guess at the actual number of people who were there that day and who were fed by this very important miraculous moment in the Life and Ministry of Our Lord.

Often, people will read the story of the feeding of the 5000 and see it as another manifestation of the Divinity of Christ, which it certainly is. While the Divinity of Christ is reiterated by yet another miracle, that is not the most important message of this event. The first message was one to the people who were present there, and one that speaks to us through time in the pages of Sacred Scripture, that this miracle of love for people who were not only physically hungry, but (far more importantly) they were spiritually hungry was a prefigurement of the Holy Eucharist, the feast of Thanksgiving where Christ provides for our spiritual needs by giving us himself.

The second message which Jesus is sending to us through time in the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 is a message that we need to hear today in a very special way, perhaps more than we have ever needed to hear it in our lifetimes, (certainly I have needed reminding of the other message of this miracle in my life). 

We are living in a time that can only be described as one of blinding uncertainty. A worldwide pandemic, brought on by a disease which the supposed "experts" cannot even agree on how best to treat or prevent. In the last six months we have seen our society grind to a halt, and even as we begin some semblance of reopening, nothing is normal. All we have to do is look around this church to see that. Many of our family members, friends, and neighbors have lost their jobs, and many more people are still unsure if they will have a way to provide for themselves in the near future. Even for those of us who have been relatively well provided for during this time in which we are living find that nothing is normal. We have to keep a distance from our neighbors, we have to wear masks to church, and we know that many people are afraid of whether or not they will catch the disease, and how it might affect their lives. 

In today's readings, however, the Lord is giving us a message of Hope. Yes, so many of us find ourselves in a situation that is so unclear, and for many it seems hopeless. Jesus was teaching and ministering to a huge throng of people, and the disciples didn't know what to do with them, they were ready to send them away because they knew they couldn't feed them. Jesus, however, had other ideas.

The solution of Jesus to the problem at hand was to do what only God can do, and Jesus is God… Our Lord provided for the obvious need of the people who were assembled there, even though doing so appeared impossible, but as Jesus himself said "with God all things are possible."

We are living in and through an extremely uncertain time, and many of us can honestly say that we do not know what tomorrow will bring. The Lord wants to remind us in all of the readings today that we can rely on him to provide what we need. Just when the situation may seem beyond our control, if we are truly willing to put our lives into the hands of God, he will provide for us, just in the way that Jesus provided for the 5000 and the women and children.

I do not recall a time in my lifetime when people were so fearful of their neighbors, or so afraid for themselves. In our country, we see great levels of civil unrest, and so much lawlessness now in many of our cities that it can rightly be called an uprising against legitimately constituted authority. Good people who are just trying to get on with their lives are afraid of what might happen to them, and many people are afraid of a virus with a 98% survival rate.

But Our Lord is showing us that he will provide for us. He will provide for us spiritually, and he will provide for our physical needs, but we have to believe in and trust in him. Just as he provided for the 5,000, he's ready to provide for us. He wants us to have faith that he can. Even now, he's reminding us, just as Saint John Paul II did, of what he told the disciples when they were in fear of their lives. "Be not afraid!"

About a year-and-a-half ago I recall that I joined Father Patrick up at Cor Jesu Monastery and assisted with Mass for the sisters. We deacons get used to doing things a certain way, and when preparing for the consecration I always pour roughly the same amount of wine in the chalice. On that particular day, Father had told me to fill the chalice up, since all of the sisters received from the one chalice, so what did I do when the time came to prepare for the consecration? I poured in my usual amount, and Father consecrated it. It was my mistake and I began to think we wouldn't have enough… yet miraculously not only did we have enough, all of the sisters partook of the chalice that day as they normally would. The Lord provided because the people had faith.

Jesus is ready and willing to provide for us and for our needs, if we are willing to submit totally to faith in Him. "All who are thirsty, come to the water," Isaiah says, "you have no money, come and receive grain and eat, without paying and without cost drink wine and milk!" The prophet asks, "why spend your money for what is not bread, or your wages for what fails to satisfy?" Jesus already gives us the very best because he gives us himself in the Eucharist. 

He wants to provide for our every need, all we have to do is to have faith that he can and understand that he knows what we need far better than we do.

Homily for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sirach 15:15-20
1 Corinthians 2:6-10
Matthew 5:17-37

In today's Gospel, Jesus proceeds to remind us of what can only be described in today's culture and society as the hard teachings or the hard sayings of our faith. Many of us can define what mortal sin is because we were taught it in school or in Catechism, but a great many people don't understand where the definitions actually come from. The reality is that much of the definition of what constitutes mortal sin for the Christian-for the practicing Catholic-comes from today's Gospel.

In the first reading from the book of Sirach, we are reminded that we can keep the Commandments. Even though we have all sinned, Scripture repeatedly reminds us that we have the capability to keep God's Commandments in our lives if we are open to the Graces that we need in order to do so. The Bible tells us that the commands of God are not grievous. (cf. 1 John 5:3) It is important to remember that God understands our human weaknesses, He understands that we sin, but that doesn't mean that He's okay with it.

Jesus tells those who are listening to Him, both in His own time, as well as us hearing him two thousand years later through the words of the text, that he did not come to abolish the law, he came to fulfill it. In the Gospel, he doesn't do away with the Commandments of God and tell us we no longer have to obey them, as even some preachers today falsely teach. Instead, Jesus sets an even higher standard for what it means to obey God than many of His listeners had ever heard before. He tells them whoever fails to obey these Commandments, even the least of them-and teaches others to do so-will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven, but the person will be called greatest who observes the Commandments of God and teaches others to do the same.

Our righteousness, says Jesus, has to surpass that of the Scribes and Pharisees. What does He mean by that? The Scribes and Pharisees had the outward appearance of being followers of the Lord. They not only obeyed the law of Moses, but they obeyed a strict rabbinic code that was designed to help them maintain outward legal purity. What this meant in reality was that many of the Pharisees were following the law of God in an outward way, but within their hearts they were anything but pure.

Jesus tells us that not only are we to avoid murder, but we are even to avoid anger with our brother-our neighbor. What Jesus means by this is that we cannot hang on to our anger or sore feelings, as scripture tells us, "do not let the sun go down on your wrath." if we do hang on to our anger, Jesus says that we are liable to judgment in just the same way as if we had killed that person. If we call a brother a fool, discounting their value as a human being, we are liable to the fires of Hell, Jesus says. Do we have something against another person, do we have something we need to settle? Jesus says we shouldn't offer sacrifice to God until we settle our issues with those around us. As far as practical application, that ideally means that we should settle our grudges and our issues with others before we come to the house of God for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

When Jesus reminds us of the command of God not to commit adultery, he doesn't simply restate the law, and he certainly doesn't do away with it, as some misguided people would have us believe. Instead, Jesus tells us that we are guilty of adultery if we so much as lust after another person. We are guilty if we dwell on the sinful thought, not merely if we commit the act itself. Jesus raises the bar to a level that many in our society today might say that they find difficult to live out. The temptation to the sins of the flesh are everywhere to be found in our culture today, and because of the internet they are so easily accessible, when for centuries they were hidden from the view of the wider society. Yet Jesus asks us to live a life of chastity according to our state in life.

Jesus' repeated command in the Gospels against divorce and remarriage have been virtually overlooked by the entire Protestant world, and many Catholics only come in contact with this vital teaching about sacramental Matrimony when they come to the Church seeking to be reconciled and petitioning for a declaration of nullity. (Mind you, in no way am I saying that someone shouldn't do that if they have been in an invalid marital situation-that's why we have the annulment process-but it is terribly sad that for many people, the Church's teaching on the nature of marriage is not something they have been taught or fully confronted for one reason or another until they come to the Church needing to have the sacramental validity of a previous marital situation clarified). Jesus raises the bar of Holy Matrimony, telling us that Matrimony- sacred marriage- is between one man and one woman for life. Civil divorce does not bring an end to the Sacrament of Matrimony, and the Church clearly teaches us that civil divorce should only be used as a last resort or when it is the only option (cf. CCC 2382-2386), never as a solution to the problems that most married people confront in married life.

Considering all that Jesus tells us in the Gospel that is expected of those who follow him, and understanding the way that Jesus asks us to live in the world, there are many people who don't even try, they simply don't think it's possible to live in the way that Jesus tells us in the Gospel that we must live. Many people, and indeed many ecclesial communities, will tell us that they are all about living out the compassion of Christ, but the moral standards that he asks of us are another matter. Many people have come to believe a false theology that says that they can be saved regardless of what they do or how they act because at one time they made a sincere commitment to Jesus Christ. Those good people have it wrong… it is precisely because we make a commitment to Jesus Christ that we are expected to live the way that he has told us he wants his followers to live.

It is easy for any other member of the clergy to share the message of today's Gospel. It is quite another thing to live that Gospel out. How can we be expected to live in this way that Jesus describes here, in today's society and culture? there is only one way, and that is to allow ourselves to be open to God's grace in our lives to give us the help we need to live the life that Christ expects of us. We can be open to God's Grace by going to regular confession, and confessing our sins, we can live a fully sacramental life, we can be open to God's Grace by praying for strength to overcome our weaknesses and sins.

If we truly want a relationship with Jesus Christ, that involves accepting his Lordship over all things, including our life, and that means praying daily for God to give you the Graces you need through the sacraments. God's commands are not grievous, and he gives us the means before our very eyes in the Sacraments.

If we want to be as holy as Christ wishes us to be, we need to begin living a sacramental life, a life of prayer according to our station in life. If we are open to God's mercy and to his Grace, if we are willing to receive the gifts that he has for us, he can give us the grace to live exactly how he expects all of us to live, and to obey the moral law that he set down for all of us.

If we are truly open to a relationship with Jesus Christ, he will give us the strength we need to live the Gospel each and every day, in every aspect of our lives, including the strength to keep His Commandments.

Homily for the Presentation of the Lord

Malachi 3:1-4

Hebrews 2:14-18

Luke 2:22-40

The feast of the Presentation of the Lord commemorates the day that the infant Jesus was presented in the Temple in Jerusalem, and during these rites he would likely have received the ritual circumcision which the law required. Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple to dedicate him and his life to the God who sent him.

Very fittingly, on the old Roman calendar it was this feast day which concluded the Christmas season. For centuries, people would take their household candles to be blessed on this feast day, for not only is this a beautiful symbol of the light of Christ, but for much of the Church's existence, the humble candle was the primary means of light in anyone's home. Because candles were traditionally blessed today, this feast received the name by which it became known in the English-speaking world for many centuries: Candlemas. 

Mary and Joseph took Jesus up to the temple and offered a sacrifice in accordance with the Law of Moses, and they consecrated Jesus to the Lord, just as the law commanded. Once again we see the example set very early on in the Life of Christ that obedience is a critical part of the virtue of a life that is at one with God. In obedience to the commands of God, Mary and Joseph dedicated Jesus to God In His Holy house. 

When they arrive there, they are given yet another sign of just exactly who Jesus is, in an infancy that was full of signs and symbols which very much put into the reality that Jesus was and is the Messiah and the Son of God. Simeon, a man who scripture calls righteous (or just) and devout, believed God that he would not die until he had seen Christ, and he recognized Christ in this little baby which had been brought into the temple by his parents. He said that Jesus would be the "downfall and rise of many in Israel," but he also issued a prophetic warning to the Blessed Mother that a sword would pierce her heart, owing to the reality that the Messiah would die and that the Blessed Mother would be witness to this. 

We know that aside from our very redemption by the Lord, as well as the loving desire on the part of God to again be close to man who he created in his own image, another reason which Christ came into the world was to set the example for us of just how it is that God expects us to live. One of the most important virtues which Jesus teaches us, and which the actions of the Blessed Mother and St Joseph re-enforce, is the extremely important virtue of obedience.

Obedience is not a word that we, as a society and as a culture, like to hear much today, yet obedience is exactly what the Holy Spirit repeatedly calls us to in the pages of Sacred Scripture. The Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple, and the events which occur during this particular mystery of Our Lord's life, serve as an example and a testimony to us that from the very beginning of Jesus's life, He and His family on Earth practiced the virtue of obedience before God, and set the example for us, as we are called to imitate Christ.

Obedience is not something that is always easy, and let's face it, being obedient to God and to the Church is not always something that goes down well when we have to swallow some bitter spiritual or ecclesiastical medicine (I think that there are plenty of priests and not a few deacons who can verify that). However, no matter what our state is in life, or in the Church, we are called to a spirit of humility, and a spirit of what used to be bluntly called the fear of the Lord. We are all called to an obedient attitude toward what God asks of each of us, and what His Church asks of each of us.

Let us pray for the spirit of obedience and piety that Mary and Joseph had when they came to the Temple with the baby Jesus, and for the grace to be obedient to the Church's teachings, and through the witness of our faithfulness, we can help spread the good news of Jesus to the ends of the Earth.

Homily for the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Genesis 18:20-32
Colossians 2:12-14
Luke 11:1-13



Today the Lord gives us in these readings examples of the ultimate prayers of petition, and the Church is also showing us that God is both perfectly merciful and perfectly just. In the first reading we see Abraham petitioning the Lord shortly before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham does not tell the Lord that what he is about to do is wrong or unjust. Abraham knows better, he's aware of the wickedness of the cities of the plain. Instead he asks the Lord repeatedly if he would spare the city if righteous people could be found there.


First this petition begins with 50 righteous, then 45, then 40, and then 30, and then 20, and eventually Abraham whittles it down to 10 and the Lord agrees to spare the whole place for the sake of ten righteous people. We may get the impression here that Abraham had to somehow convince God to spare Sodom if he could find these righteous people, but the truth of the matter is that God is God, if he would spare the place for 50 righteous and agree to spare the place for 10, he would spare the place for 10 all along. As it was, he could only find the family of Lot to be righteous, and we know from Sacred Scripture that that wasn't quite good enough to save the cities of the plain.


I have always believed that if the Lord could find one righteous person within Sodom and Gomorrah other than the family of Lot, he may very well have spared the place for the sake of just one. The reality of this passage is that Abraham was willing to plead for the life of these evil places and the people within them, and God was listening. He was willing to spare the life of the cities of the plain. We don't often speak enough in our present culture of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and what led up to it. There is so much wickedness in the sight of God in Western society today-evils that are not only tolerated but praised-that it is easy to look at our culture and say that we deserve the same fate...


However, it's also easy to forget that before God put Sodom and Gomorrah literally upon the ash heap of history, he was willing to spare the whole place for the sake of ten righteous people. It gives me much hope for our country that this was the case. Will we be like Abraham was in pleading for the life of Sodom, and plead with God for the life of our country and our culture?


In the second reading from Colossians Saint Paul reminds us that we do not deserve God's mercy or his forgiveness but in baptism he freely gives it to us. St John the Apostle and Evangelist reminds us that when we do sin we have an advocate with the Father (cf. 1 John 2:1-3) and that is exactly why the Sacrament of Reconciliation is so important. God said to Abraham that he would spare Sodom for the sake of ten righteous people, he didn't say that he would spare Sodom for the sake of ten sinless people, that is impossible. One of the things that truly marks someone who is righteous before God is not that they are without sin, it's that they recognize sin when they commit it for what it is, and they sincerely beg God for forgiveness and promise to amend their life. There's no such thing as private sin, there's no such thing as sin that does not affect others in some way. The mark of the righteous person is the one who acknowledges that reality and who is willing to go and seek the forgiveness of God and the Church. (May the Lord give us all that Grace!) The very Grace of our baptism guarantees that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.


In the Gospel Jesus is reminding us not so much that our prayers will be answered if we annoy God, but really that he values and hears our prayers. He understands whether or not our prayers are truly sincere. As Jesus said, if the wicked are willing to give their children good things that they ask for, how much more is God willing to give to us, to his children who ask in sincerity and in truth. Jesus is reminding us of something that Scripture tells us in many different ways repeatedly, that "the effectual and fervent prayers of a righteous man availeth much." (cf. James 5:16) Scripture gives us many examples of this, but if we look hard enough most of us can see it in our own lives. God has not left us without, he does hear our prayers. He does answer them, perhaps not always in the way that we would want, but he understands the desires of our heart, and those desires which are holy and good, and he knows how best to achieve them.


Perhaps the holiest kind of prayer to God is the kind of prayer where we are pleading for the sake of others, not merely ourselves. It's why the prayer of the mother or the father who are praying for their children to come back to the faith is particularly precious to God. It's why the prayer of the brother or sister or husband or wife for their lost sibling or spouse who needs to come home to the Church is particularly precious to God. This is the reason that the sincere prayer, made in Love, by a sincere believer, for a lost world and for a nation gone astray is especially precious to God. Yes, God hears these prayers, and he answers them with compassion.


Abraham's pleading with God in the first reading is the classic example of that. God listened to Abraham, God heard him with compassion, and God was ready to grant his request. There is a very serious lesson here, however. God's answer to Abraham's prayer is not what Abraham wanted. Abraham wanted God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah, but God did not. God did not find the righteous people there that he told Abraham that he would look for. In the end, the cities of the plain were destroyed because of their sin.


Yet God was willing to spare this place in his Mercy, and he hears our prayers for our loved ones who have strayed from the practice of the faith, or perhaps haven't come to it yet. Almighty God is perfectly just, but he is perfectly merciful as well. We may not always get the answers we want, but if we ask God in sincerity and listen for His will, and not our own, the Lord will give us an answer to our prayers.