Homily for the First Sunday of Advent, 2021

Jeremiah 33:14-16

1 Thessalonians 3:12-13, 4:1-2

Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

If you are one of those who take the time to follow the daily readings of the Church each day (and I sincerely hope that you do) or you attend or watch daily Mass each day, you know that the readings this past week have taken on what can best be described as a kind of apocalyptic theme. We've been hearing the discourse of Jesus as described in the 21st chapter of St Luke's Gospel, which is Luke's account of Jesus' discourse to the disciples on the times of trouble that they would experience in their journey to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to the ends of the Earth, and that the whole world would experience before the Lord's final return at the end of time as we know it. It's easy to see why the Church would direct us to those kinds of readings at the end of the liturgical year, because it's the end of the cycle that we use to mark sacred time, so at the close of the year the Church wants to draw our attention to the reality that the day will come when Jesus returns in glory and this world as we know it will also come to a close. 

When we hear the more apocalyptic passages in the Gospels at the end of the liturgical year, they also serve as a personal reminder to each of us that even if we don't live to see the end of days and the final return of Christ in our lifetime, it is a sure and certain reality that we will personally meet the Lord and stand before him, and we should always be ready for that moment, it could come any day, we do not know when, where, or how.

We've come now to the first Sunday of Advent, it's an entirely new Liturgical Year, and yet here we are on the first Sunday of Advent and the Church has us in Luke 21 again, with Jesus speaking near the end of that discourse reminding his hearers to pray for the perseverance to see their way through the various tribulations that they will have to undergo as his followers, and prepare to meet Him at any time.

We've just celebrated Thanksgiving (I'm still full!), and the secular world is already ramping up for Christmas. We can find twenty-four hours a day and 7 days a week Christmas music on our radios or our favorite music streaming app. We are currently living through one of the worst inflationary cycles I can remember in my lifetime, but that doesn't seem to stop the pursuit of holiday profit, or the obsession with many to make sure they have the right number of gifts or that everything is perfect for Christmas, and yet the Church is reminding us in our readings today that these worldly things with which we are concerned - things which are not sinful in and of themselves - can be made sinful when we make those things the purpose of this season or the purpose of our lives. Jesus is reminding us that as surely as we celebrate the first Advent and we begin to focus our minds on the reality of the Incarnation of the Son of God, that there is and will be a Second Advent, and that Advent will be the one when the Son of God returns in glory. The reason that Advent is a wonderful time to reflect on that reality is precisely because we need the reminder every year (and certainly this year) that the things of this world are passing things, we cannot take them with us at the end of this Life or at the end of all things.

It is easy for us to forget in our everyday world the reality of the end of life and of the end of things. We don't often tend to dwell on this because Jesus himself told us we did not know the day or the hour that he would return, and we are repeatedly warned in the New Testament for us to carry on our lives. Before the Ascension, when the Apostles asked the Lord if he was going to restore the Kingdom, the Lord's response was that it was not for us to "know the times and the seasons which the Father has under his own power." (cf. Acts 1:7)

It bears remembering, however, that at every Mass we proclaim the mystery of faith, and we say just as St. Paul did that when we partake of the Eucharist, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes again. You might even recall that some years back before our current Roman Missal came into use, we often proclaimed at the Mystery of faith the words "Christ has died, Christ is Risen, Christ will come again."

We don't know when that will be, but that is really the point. Whether it is our own death or the Final Consummation of things at the end of the age, all of us will someday meet the Lord face to face. In the end, at the Last Judgement, He will either tell us "well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Master's house," (cf. Matthew 25:21) or he will say "depart from me you worker of iniquity, I never knew you." (cf. Matthew 7:21-23) 

Advent provides for us a very wonderful and special opportunity to truly deepen our relationship with Jesus who is God become Man. This truly wonderful season allows us to enter more deeply into the mystery not only of the Incarnation and the First Advent of Our Lord, but also the reality that he will return in glory, there will be a Second Advent of Christ, and even now the holy spirit is trying to prepare our hearts for that reality.

We can be open to that preparation, both to celebrate the Incarnation at Christmas and anticipate the Lord's return by looking for Christ amongst our neighbors. We know that this time of year there is need and want all around us, but especially this year when so many people are experiencing the effects of some very hard times in our country. Jesus asked his disciples "when the son of man comes, will he find faith on Earth?" We might also ask ourselves that if he came today, would Jesus find that we are spending our time going about the Lord's work, of spreading the Gospel, and loving and caring for our neighbor?

It's a wonderful time of year to renew our commitment to doing exactly that.

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.

Have You No Fear of God?

Because of the nature of the material in this particular post, it is likely that I need to begin the post by reminding my readers and what is posted on this blog is my view on what is happening in the Church today, although this opinion is firmly rooted in the established teaching of the Catholic Church, and I'm about to restate that teaching as part of this post.

This past Thursday, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops voted by an overwhelming margin to draft a document on what is called Eucharistic cohesion, basically it will be a document reminding Catholics about the Church's teaching on what is required in order to receive the Holy Eucharist. It is widely expected that as part of that document there will be a reminder that public figures who openly support and promote abortion should not receive the Eucharist, since the Church teaches very clearly that abortion is murder, and that if a public figure is going to openly promote abortion and pass laws which not only keep it legal, but actually encourage the practice, to receive the Eucharist under the circumstances is to endanger their soul.

In response, more than sixty Democrats who also claim to be practicing Catholics signed a letter demanding that the Bishops not interfere with their "right" to receive Holy Communion, and they said that the Bishops should not "weaponize the Eucharist." Every one of these people are also public supporters of abortion on demand. In drafting such a letter, these individuals have shown us that no one is threatening to weaponize the Eucharist but them. 

Among the many responsibilities of Bishops, the most important is to be a teacher of the Catholic faith and to hand on the deposit of faith as it was handed on to them. The bishops are the successors of the apostles, and thus have a duty to uphold Catholic teaching. Furthermore, a bishop is the Supreme liturgist in his diocese, and he is ultimately the one in charge of the conferral of the sacraments. He determines who receives the sacraments and who does not. Signing a letter to bishops attempting to tell them not to deny you the sacraments while you tell them that you are going to obstinately remain in opposition to Church teaching in a public way is not a good idea. It is, in fact, an invitation to be denied the Sacraments. 

These people believe that they should be able to receive the Eucharist while acting in public opposition to the Church on a moral issue of such gravity that if a Catholic woman receives an abortion with full knowledge and consent of the will, she is excommunicated laetae sententiae, that is by the very commission of the act. (CIC 1398) Now yes, if the same woman comes to the Church repentant, and, as are many women are in that situation, confused and frightened, the Church has made a way to easily lift that penalty for the good of souls, because the mercy of Christ is truly boundless. Nevertheless, excommunication is still the highest penalty that the Church can levy on any Catholic, and that is the penalty for knowingly procuring an abortion or assisting in one. Yet the "Catholics" who signed this letter somehow believe that they are above that, that those who procure or assist in abortions can be excommunicated while they ought to be able to receive the Eucharist with impunity while they not only tolerate legal abortion, many of them are promoting legislation, funding schemes, and organizations which promote and even encourage abortion. The executive actions of our current President have done more to promote abortion than any President in my lifetime (even the one under which he served as Vice President, and Obama's promotion of abortion was bad enough), but he can go to Mass next weekend and receive the Eucharist and not face any ecclesiastical sanction, while the young woman who takes advantage of the abortion funding that Mr Biden has promoted could face laetae sententiae excommunication if she willingly receives an abortion.

It is not weaponizing the Eucharist to demand accountability in one's faith and sacramental life. If you are a public figure, you cannot promote the taking of the most innocent human life as a matter of public policy and not expect to be called on the carpet by your co-religionists, and ideally by your religious leaders. 

Since the First Century the Church has condemned abortion. The Didache, which is the earliest manual of Church order that we know of, gives the instruction to the earliest Christians (Didache Chapter 2):

"[Y]ou shall not murder a child by abortion, nor kill that which is begotten."

The Church's teaching is clear, yet these public officials persist in their opposition to that teaching and at the same time believe that despite their public promotion of abortion, they should simply be able to receive the Eucharist as if they've done nothing wrong.

Then there is this piece of work from California Congressman Ted Lieu:

Congressman Lieu appears to be in dire need of a corrective session on Catholic teaching from his bishop, who just happens to be the current President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles. Obviously, I can't make Archbishop Gomez have a little teaching conference with Congressman Lieu, that's up to the Archbishop to do... However, I am in a perfectly good position to explain to the Congressman that it is possible that he could be denied Communion, and because of the posture he is taking, Archbishop Gomez would be perfectly justified in denying it to him. He is not merely engaging in personal sin, he has chosen with his statement to publicly engage in obstinate defiance of Church teaching and authority. That is perfectly good justification to deny someone the Eucharist unless and until they repent of such obstinate defiance.

Sanctioning Congressman Lieu for this behavior is entirely up to his bishop, that would be the case even if the USCCB drafted a very specific document on the subject that was extremely clear about this problem... It is still a matter for the local bishop to handle. However, it is most important to be reminded of just why many of our bishops feel the need to have a discussion about this issue and draft a document about it that explains the circumstances under which a person should and should not receive Holy Communion, and which could make it clear that those who publicly promote abortion should not receive Holy Communion.

We have come to this discussion and this place because these supposedly "good Catholics" are refusing to be honest with us or with themselves. If you proclaim yourself a Catholic, one of the things you are supposed to profess as a matter of dogmatic Truth is that the Eucharist (Holy Communion) continues to have the outward appearance of bread and wine, but that when the elements are consecrated they become the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. The Lord gives us His flesh to eat (cf. John 6:32-58). Secondly, to receive Holy Communion is both Communion with God and with the Body of Christ, the Church. In addition to receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, Holy Communion is an outward and visible sign not only of that belief, but of unity of faith. If you receive Holy Communion you are saying with your amen that you believe what the Church teaches, that you are in Communion with the Church. If you are not in a state of grace, you should not receive Holy Communion. If you are persistently, publicly, and obstinately opposed to a fundamental aspect of the Church's teaching such as the sanctity of human life at all stages, you most definitely should not be receiving Holy Communion, because in the most literal sense of the word you are not in communion with the Church or what she fundamentally holds to be true. If you are receiving Holy Communion under those circumstances, you are not being honest with yourself and you're certainly not being honest with those around you. When you receive Holy Communion, with your "Amen" you are saying "so be it," or "I believe," while you are literally telling the world in public statements that you don't believe.

This is not a partisan critique. I can think of two cases, one Republican (former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge) and one Democrat (former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius) who each got "the talk" from their local bishop about this issue during their political careers. To my knowledge, both of them respected the bishop's judgment that they should not receive Holy Communion until they had reconciled with the Church on this issue of abortion.

Of course that would be the right thing to do, to be honest with yourselves, with your fellow Catholics, and with your constituents. If you are so persistently and obstinately opposed to the Church on an issue upon which the Church has not changed since the first century, why on Earth would you receive Holy Communion if you really believe what we are supposed to believe about what- about Who - the Eucharist actually is? Respect for your own beliefs would demand that you did not receive Holy Communion, unless you are using that belief system or the Eucharist (or both) as a political prop, and if that is the case, may God have mercy on your souls...

Considering the poor state of catechesis in many places in our country today, it is always possible that some of the people on that list of signatories to the "letter to the bishops" were not aware of the Church's teaching regarding the Eucharist, or what constitutes worthy reception of Our Lord in the Eucharist. Let us all be reminded of the words of St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:23-29:

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.

It should be noted here that the majority of the 11th chapter of 1st Corinthians is devoted to correcting those who have disrespected the Eucharist.

Holy Communion is not a right, it is a gift. Specifically, it is a gift from Christ to the Church, not from the Church to individual members. If you are doing things which willfully promote grave or mortal sin (and certainly something which can excommunicate your brothers and sisters in the faith), this is also grave, and that would include not merely upholding existing law, but promulgating new laws which encourage, fund, and even promote abortion and other manifest public and apparent sin. 

If you publicly and willfully believe in things which are utterly contrary to the most basic teachings of the Catholic faith, the best thing you can do for yourself and the good of your own soul, as well as the good of your brothers and sisters in the faith, is to abstain from receiving Holy Communion unless and until you can reconcile your beliefs with what the Church teaches. 

Note that I am not telling you that you aren't Catholic or that you should not come to Mass and worship with us. I am saying that if you are not in Communion with the Church, you should not receive Holy Communion.

If someone knows that their beliefs are not in Communion with the Church, and they persist in receiving the Eucharist anyway under those circumstances, then it is fair to ask: Have you no fear of God? Do you have no belief in the Judgment of God? Do you have no respect for Jesus who died for you? This debate persists in the Church because some people persist in this public display of dishonesty about what they believe.

It doesn't have to be that way. As an act of love and charity, I beg of those who persist in these public errors: If you don't believe, don't receive.

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 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 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.

What To Do in a Time of Sacramental Dearth

We are living in a time of pandemic, and as a result of that pandemic, we are living in a time of sacramental privation, when the public celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass has literally been cancelled throughout this diocese, and in the entire Union for fear that the COVID-19 coronavirus may spread at the public gatherings that are the ordinary Sunday Mass throughout the Catholic world.

Of course, Mass is still being celebrated in our parishes, but if we may borrow a term from the Extraordinary Form, these are private Masses. In the Diocese of Knoxville, Bishop Stika has requested that the doors of churches be locked if private Mass is taking place in the church in order to prevent people from gathering in an environment where contagion might spread, even though he is allowing for churches to be opened at other times for Eucharistic adoration or private prayer.

Some Holy Trinity parishioners, as well as many other people, have expressed frustration to me that not only is public Mass suspended, they can't receive the Eucharist at all. People are frustrated, and it's easy to understand why. Even though we have been presented with many opportunities to join in Holy Mass via the Internet or television and make a Spiritual Communion, this is still not the same as being at Mass, and the Church doesn't pretend that it is. 

The contagion that is the COVID-19 coronavirus is a real threat and a real concern, however, (especially to those of us in an immunocompromised or vulnerable group to whom the disease can easily spread and place in grave danger) and so many of us will celebrate Holy Week from a distance, and it seems that this state of affairs could remain in place for some time. Many people are asking if there is anything that they can do to join in the prayer of the Church in a deeper way during this time since they cannot be at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass...

I want to commend to those laity who have not committed to praying part or all of the Liturgy of the Hours, also called the Divine Office every day that now, in this time when we do not have the ability to attend Holy Mass, is a great time to begin doing so. Priests, deacons, and religious all over the world are required to pray the Liturgy of the Hours every day, but there are many lay people who do so as well and it is highly encouraged by the Church.

In a time when we cannot attend Holy Mass because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Liturgy of the Hours provides us with a way to unite ourselves with the prayer of the Church in a daily way. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the Church's highest and most important prayer. Next to it in importance is not the Holy Rosary, as valuable as that is, and it is not Eucharistic adoration, as important as Eucharistic adoration is to our love of Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist. The Church's second highest and second most important prayer is the Liturgy of the Hours, or the Divine Office. If you cannot be at Mass, praying the Divine Office might be the next best thing. Why? When we pray the Liturgy of the Hours, we are praying and participating in a liturgical act. In normal times, the Liturgy of the Hours could even be celebrated in front of a congregation with a deacon or priest celebrating, and even potentially delivering a short homily!  So if you pray the Liturgy of the Hours, you are praying liturgically, and you are praying the Church's official daily liturgical prayer.

Someone might legitimately ask: "But deacon, doesn't praying the Liturgy of the Hours require me to obtain expensive liturgical books, and manuals to learn how to navigate them? I've heard that this is difficult?" If you have the resources to obtain the books, either the four volume Liturgy of the Hours or the Christian Prayer volume, along with an Ordo or guide to the Liturgy of the Hours, that's wonderful. It's always great to use liturgical books when doing liturgical things, and we should always do that in the case of the Mass itself. Using the books is something I would definitely recommend if you can afford it, but what if you can't? It can be an expense, I know because my set was expensive.

Fortunately, through the blessing of the internet, reliable sites such as IBreviary provide an app for you to use to pray the daily Liturgy of the Hours, and you don't even need a guide or an Ordo, they do all the work of laying out the daily Liturgy of the Hours for you, it can be right there at your fingertips. 

As a deacon, I made a promise to my Bishop when I was ordained that I would pray the Liturgy of the Hours every day, but I was praying it for years before I was ever ordained a deacon as a layman. To be honest, over the years, the Divine Office has become something of a habit, I've grown to take it for granted, just as I and many others have grown to take the Holy Mass too much for granted.

However, I have found that because of this pseudo-quarantine in which we find ourselves, I have come to value praying my daily office perhaps more than I ever have before. Many of you know that I don't drive so I rely on my wife or on others to ensure that I can get to Mass or to the Church for any other functions that I have to engage in. Even though Bishop Stika is allowind his deacons to participate in private masses during this time, it's not something I've had the opportunity to do, it would require me to ask someone to take me to the church who could not participate in what we were doing, and I don't feel that is right. As a result, I not only feel isolated from my fellow parishioners and our brothers and sisters, but from my brother clergy as well. I thank the Lord for social media because Father Patrick and I can at least talk regularly there!

However, through the Liturgy of the Hours I am not isolated from anyone. I am connected with my brother deacons and priests who are also praying it all over the world. I am connected with the religious and the lay people who are praying it every day. Through the Liturgy of the Hours, even though we cannot be together in worship, we are worshiping together.

I commend the Liturgy of the Hours to you, and I call upon our parishioners at Holy Trinity and everywhere to avail themselves during this time of the daily Office. I firmly believe that anyone who does this won't regret it, and I think that this holy prayer habit will last you far beyond our current pandemic crisis.