Sunday, December 30, 2012

Homily for December 30, 2012 (Feast of the Holy Family)


May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

Almost a week ago, we celebrated the Nativity of the Lord Jesus Christ.  After four weeks of preparation in the season of Advent we were welcomed to the manger at Bethlehem.  Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth, and we are invited to the Temple in Jerusalem some twelve years after the birth of the Lord Jesus.

Perhaps right now your house looks a lot like my rectory.  There is stuff everywhere.  There are the remnants of Christmas celebrations: pieces of wrapping paper, several cards that were sent to me, several cards that I intended to send, and delicious and delectable deserts that I will promise never to eat again after the beginning of the New Year.

And yet, in the midst of all of the celebrations and the travelling we are invited to cast our gaze on the Holy Family and look to them as the model of family life.  Our readings today from the prophet Sirach and the Apostle Paul speak to us about the beauty of family life and the conduct of a household that lives by the law of love in Christ Jesus.  However these readings only apply to some of us.  The feast of the Holy Family is not a feast only for some of us.  The feast of the Holy Family is a feast for all of us.

The message of the feast of the Holy Family is that this is our feast day.  By the will of God our Loving Father and the power of the Holy Spirit, we have all been made members of the Holy Family in Christ Jesus.  Through his words and his glorious cross, the Lord Jesus extended the meaning of family beyond the bonds of blood.  For he himself has told us that everyone who hears the word of God and keeps it is his brother and sister and mother.  From the cross, the Lord Jesus entrusted his Blessed Mother to his beloved Apostle John with the words, “Son, Behold your mother.”  And after his glorious resurrection, he told Mary Magdalene to go and tell his brothers that he was going ahead of them to Galilee.  He had never called them his brothers before.  Jesus Christ, in whom all things are made new, has extended the meaning of family, and made us all members of the Holy Family in him.

 Because we have been united to one family through our baptism into Christ Jesus, the Holy Family extends beyond all distance as well.  Wherever the Eucharist is celebrated and wherever the Blessed Sacrament is reserved, wherever the members of the Holy Family gather in prayer, then the distance that separates us falls away in the unity that is ours in Christ Jesus.  Wherever we go, through the celebration of the sacred mysteries in the Church, we are always meeting more relatives in our family.

And we can be confident, dear brothers and sisters, that the Holy Family transcends not only blood and not only distance.  The Holy Family transcends even the bounds of death.  For Christ our Savior has conquered sin and death by the blood of his holy cross and he has promised eternal life to all those who are united to him.  But at this time of year, amid the joys and the celebrations, we often feel the pain of death and loss rather intensely.  As we gather for meals around the table, it is hard not to notice that there are chairs that are empty.  But my dear brothers and sisters, there are no empty chairs at the banquet of the Holy Family.  There are no empty chairs because the table extends beyond even death.  Here on earth we celebrate a foretaste of the feast to come.  Every day in the celebration of the Eucharist we are invited to be united more and more to Jesus Christ and the banquet of the Kingdom of Heaven.  We pray with our Holy Family on earth and with the members of the Holy Family that the Lord has called unto himself.

As we now enter into the mystery of the Lord’s love and the feast of the Kingdom, we celebrate our place in the Holy Family that extends beyond blood, and distance and even death.  On this feast of the Holy Family, on our feast day, we join with the choirs of angels and the citizens of heaven above, and proclaim: Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will.  Amen.

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Homily for December 23, 2012 (4th Advent C)


May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

Our time of preparation is almost over.  It can be measured in hours.  During these four weeks of the season of Advent we have been preparing to welcome Jesus Christ.  On the first Sunday, as we began our time of preparation, we pondered the mystery of Christ as the one who fulfills the promise of the prophets, as our model of holiness and as the one who teaches us to watch and to wait.  On the Second Sunday of Advent we received our guide for the Advent season in the person of John the Baptist.  John the Baptist invited us to prepare the way of the Lord and make straight his paths.  On the Third Sunday of Advent, as we were invited to rejoice at the nearness of the Lord, John the Baptist pointed us to one who is to come.  The task of John the Baptist, as our guide in this time of preparation to welcome Jesus Christ, was to prepare the way of the Lord, to proclaim his presence, and to adore him when the glory of the Lord appeared.

Our readings today surprise us with the very small places from which the plan of the Lord will unfold.  In our reading from the book of the prophet Micah we hear the announcement that a tiny city will again be the birthplace of a great king.  Bethlehem, whose name literally means “the house of bread”, is the city where David the King was born.  In a small and unexpected city, the glory of the Lord who is both King and Shepherd will soon appear.

In our reading from the gospel of Luke we do not hear the name of Jesus nor do we hear the name of John the Baptist, yet both of them are there.  Both of them too small to be seen, veiled in the sacred wombs of their mothers, the final prophet sent from God proclaims the presence of the Lord and adores him.  Today we hear the first part of the mystery of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Elizabeth.  Following her encounter with the Angel Gabriel, and her grace-filled word of acceptance of her place in the plan of the Father, the Blessed Virgin Mary traveled in haste to visit Elizabeth.  The humble virgin of Nazareth is now the mother of the Lord, and when her greeting reached the ears of the mother of the prophet of the Most High God, the unborn John the Baptist leaped for joy.  It is an unborn child who is the first to offer worship to Jesus Christ.  Though he is a child too small to be seen, John the Baptist guides us to adore the presence of Jesus Christ.

Elizabeth and John the Baptist rejoice because the Mother of the Lord had come to them.  During our time of preparation in the season of Advent, we too have been privileged to welcome the Mother of the Lord, who is our mother as well.  On the eighth of December we celebrated the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrating the first moment of the life of Mary and the triumph of the grace of God.  On the twelfth of December, we celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe and we rejoiced that the Mother of our Lord had appeared on our continent. 

John the Baptist has guided us during the weeks of Advent as we prepare to welcome Jesus Christ.  For the final hours of our time of preparation, our guide has brought us to Mary, and he adores the Lord present in her womb.  Let us now turn to Mary and journey with her to Bethlehem.  Let us accompany her who will bring forth her firstborn son, who is both Christ and Lord.  And with the anticipation and joyful hope of this holy Mother, let us enter into the mystery of this Eucharist and complete our preparation to welcome Jesus Christ.     

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Homily for December 16, 2012 (3rd Advent C)


May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

It is difficult to rejoice when we encounter tragedy.  It is difficult to speak of hope when we are confronted with violence, hatred and evil.  The events of Friday at an elementary school in Connecticut draw our focus from a time of rejoicing to a time of sorrow.  It is difficult, dear brothers and sisters, to rejoice and to preach about hope.

And yet, the days of the prophets of Israel and the days of John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul were no less violent or troubling.  In fact, the passage that we read this Sunday from the prophet Zephaniah is the only hopeful passage in that entire book that bears his name.  The Apostle Paul, who invites us to rejoice always, lived and died amid great persecution.  The preacher of grace and truth was executed outside the walls of the city of Rome because of the great hatred for his faith in the Prince of Peace.  And John the Baptist, our guide for the season of Advent, was killed not because he was a political revolutionary, but because he defended the dignity and the sanctity of marriage.  All three of them, Zephaniah, Paul and John the Baptist could speak to us about violence, hatred and revenge, but they call us to rejoice and they speak to us of hope.

In this season of Advent as we prepare to welcome Jesus Christ, we are given this third Sunday as a day to rejoice in the midst of our preparation.  The purple vestments that signify a time of conversion and preparation are set aside in favor of the color rose that signifies a moment of subdued joy.  The joy that we celebrate on this third Sunday is the announcement that the Lord is near, that he will rejoice over us, that he will renew us with his love, and that the Lord will sing joyfully because of us.  Even in the midst of sorrow, and even, dear brothers and sisters, as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, the Lord is near.  In every circumstance and in every vocation, the Lord is near, and he calls us to conversion, and he calls us to rejoice.

In our reading from the Gospel today, the crowds approach John the Baptist and ask, “What should we do?”  The crowds are asking how they should conduct their lives now that they had embraced repentance and accepted the baptism of John for the forgiveness of their sins.  The message of John is simple.  The people are called to live in a spirit of justice and a spirit of generosity.  This was the message to every group and every vocation.  But more than advice about ethical conduct, today John the Baptist gives us a direction.  John the Baptist points, not to himself, even though the crowd would have eagerly followed him.  John the Baptist points to the one who is to come.  He points to the one who will baptize with the Spirit and with fire.  John the Baptist, exercising his role as the last of the prophets, directs our attention to the Lord Jesus, the one in whom all creation will be renewed, all suffering will be sanctified, and all sorrow will be overcome by the power of his cradle, his cross and his empty tomb.  John the Baptist, who guides us as we prepare to welcome Jesus Christ, does not give to us the answer to the deepest questions and longings of our hearts.  John the Baptist points us to the one who is the answer.

With our hearts pierced by sorrow and tragedy, and yet comforted by the call to rejoice in the message of hope, we enter into this celebration of the Lord’s victory and his love.  We rejoice in the promise that the Lord is near and that he will renew us with his love.  And we ask for the grace to follow the direction of John the Baptist, and hear the good news that we are soon to welcome Jesus Christ.

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC      

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Homily for Our Lady of Guadalupe (December 12, 2012)


May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

I saw her, and I wept.  In the summer of 2006, while I was studying the Spanish language in the city of Guanajuato, I traveled to Mexico City, and there, in the Shrine dedicated to her, I saw her, and I wept.  I wept because when I gazed at her miraculous image, I knew that the mother of my Lord had come to me.  In her and through her, we rejoice, dear brothers and sisters, because in her and through her, we have come to know him in whom we find salvation.  It is through the Virgin Mary that we have been able to receive the Lord Jesus Christ.  Tonight we are gathered together to honor the Virgin of Guadalupe because she has given to us the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father, and because she has called us her children.

When the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Juan Diego, Our Lady gave him three things.  Saint Juan Diego was given a message, he was given beautiful flowers, and he was given her image.  The message was for the bishop and it was a request that a chapel be built on that site.  The beautiful flowers were the miraculous proof that Our Lady provided with her request.  And the image, her beautiful image, was imprinted forever on the cloak that he wore.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, we have come here to this Church and to this celebration because we recognize that the Virgin of Guadalupe is the Mother of the Lord.  The Virgin of Guadalupe is our Mother.  The Holy Catholic Church is our Mother, and we should never look anywhere else for such a loving mother.  The message that we receive from Our Lady is that she wants a chapel built.  Our Lady wants a chapel built in our hearts, in our homes and in our lives, for the honor and glory of her Son.  She wants us to build this chapel with the food that we receive when we assist every Sunday at the celebration of the Holy Mass.  She wants us to build this chapel in your homes through the Sacrament of Marriage and through the constant and consistent education of your children in our Holy Catholic Faith.  She wants to build this chapel in our lives as we imitate the love and the compassion of her Son who is Christ and Lord.

Today we bring her flowers, and we gently place them before her.  Today, the Blessed Virgin Mary gives to us the prayers of her holy rosary.  In our meditation on the mysteries of the life, ministry, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, in the company of the Blessed Virgin, we speak to her, and we come to know him. 

Today, we receive the gift of her image.  The image of Our Lady is given to us so that we may remember her love for us, and so that the image of the Lord Jesus may be seen in us.  Our Lady of Guadalupe invites each of us to live our lives as reminders of her love for all people.  When we reflect the love of Our Lady of Guadalupe, then we share the love of Jesus Christ.

As we now celebrate the mystery of the Lord’s love present to us in the Eucharist, let us commit ourselves to the Virgin of Guadalupe and to our holy Catholic Faith.  Let us receive the request of Our Lady and build the Chapel that she desires in our hearts, our homes and our lives.  And let us ask for the grace to carry her image within us, so that we may reveal the image of the Lord Jesus.

Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe!  Viva Cristo Rey!  Amen!

Preached in Spanish at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Homily for December 9, 2012 (2nd Advent C)


May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

Last Sunday we began the season of Advent.  We heard that the purpose of the Advent season is to prepare to welcome Jesus Christ.  Today we hear that message again as we are invited to prepare the way of the Lord.  Today we also receive a guide for our time of preparation.

In our reading from the book of the Prophet Baruch, we hear that the city of Jerusalem and the chosen people of the Lord are told to take off the robe of mourning and misery.  They are told to prepare to receive the glory of the Lord, for the mountains will be made low, and the age old depths and gorges will be filled to level ground.  In those days the Lord will lead Israel by the light of his glory, and when everything is prepared, the people will see the glory of the Lord.

We hear in our reading from the letter of Saint Paul to the Philippians that God is at work and preparing us to complete the good work that he has begun in us.  We are being prepared so that our love may increase and we may be pure and blameless for the day of Jesus Christ.

And today in our reading from the Gospel, we hear the announcement that the salvation of God is near.  Today in our gospel, we receive our guide for this time of preparation.  For the next three Sundays, we will encounter John the Baptist, and he will guide us as we prepare to welcome Jesus Christ.  Today we are introduced to John and hear about the times in which he lived.  We hear about the kings and the rulers of earth, and the High Priests of the temple that will pass away, as we hear the cry of the final prophet who will announce the coming of the Messiah.  It is the task of John the Baptist to prepare the way of the Lord, to proclaim his presence, and to adore him when the glory of the Lord appears.

Today, John the Baptist invites us to prepare the way of the Lord.  Echoing the voice and the words of the prophet Isaiah, John invites us to make straight the paths of the Lord, for every valley shall be filled in and every mountain and hill shall be made low.  John proclaims that the winding roads will be made straight and the rough ways will be made smooth.  And finally he announces that all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, on this second Sunday of Advent, the Lord invites us through the preaching of John the Baptist to examine the paths of the Lord in our own lives.  We are invited to look into our own souls and carefully reflect on the valleys that need to be filled in and the on mountains that need to be made low.  In other words, dear brothers and sisters, we must look at those things which prevent us from welcoming Jesus Christ.  

This is a difficult time of year for many of us.  Perhaps this year you mourned the loss of a loved one, or perhaps at this time of year you mourn the passing of a loved one long in the Kingdom of God.  We cannot deny our sadness and our grief because to do so would be to deny our humanity.  But we can ask the Lord to receive our sadness from the valley of our hearts as an offering unto him.  Whatever our sadness or whatever our difficulty, or even whatever our sins, John the Baptist guides us to make them an offering to the Lord, so that the Lord himself will make straight his paths.

As we now enter into the mystery of the Lord’s love made present to us in the Eucharist, let us joyfully receive the guidance of John the Baptist.  Let us welcome the work of the Lord within as he accomplishes his good work through us.  And let us ask for the grace to offer our whole lives as an offering to Lord that we may live in the light of his glory.

Come Lord Jesus. Amen.

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Homily for Immaculate Conception (December 8, 2012)


May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

The season of Advent is a time of preparation and a time of anticipation.  We are preparing to welcome Jesus Christ and we celebrate this season in anticipation of his birth.  Today, we celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  It is a feast of preparation and a feast of anticipation.

The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary celebrates the day that Mary was conceived in the womb of St. Ann.  Today is not a celebration of the day when the Blessed Virgin Mary conceived the Lord Jesus.  We celebrate that event on the feast of the Annunciation on the 25th of March, some nine months before Christmas Day.  The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary celebrates that Mary was conceived without original sin.  From the first moment of her conception, from the moment when her life began, the Blessed Virgin Mary belonged entirely to God.

The grace of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a grace of preparation.  From the first moment of her life, when she can do nothing for herself, it is the grace of God that saves her.  The work of salvation and the work of sanctification always begin with the action of God.  In the Immaculate Conception, the Blessed Virgin Mary is prepared to be the mother of the messiah.  She is given the grace to be able to give herself completely to the will of the Lord.  It is the grace of her Immaculate Conception the enables her to respond to the words of the Archangel Gabriel: “Let it be done unto me according to your word.”  The Blessed Virgin Mary is prepared by her Immaculate Conception to be the first tabernacle of the Lord Jesus.

The grace of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a grace given in anticipation.  This special grace is given to Mary in anticipation of the redemptive work of her Son, in whom alone and through whom alone is the salvation of the world.  The Blessed Virgin Mary is the first to receive the grace that will be won on the cross of Calvary.  Mary receives this grace in anticipation of the glory that will be revealed.

We celebrate the mighty work of Almighty God in this time of preparation and this time of anticipation.  We join with all creation and with every generation and name Mary as one who is blessed.  As we celebrate the Eucharist today, we give praise to the God of Heaven above who claimed Blessed Mary at her conception, for He claimed us in our baptism.  We ask the Lord for the grace to prepare, with Mary, to receive the gift of the Lord Jesus, at Christmas.  And we await, in joyful anticipation, for the glory that will be revealed.

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Homily for December 2, 2012 (1st Advent C)


May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

Today we begin the season of Advent, and we begin a new liturgical year.  The year of grace, 2012, and all of its joys and sorrows are now commended to the mercy of God, and today we begin again.  The liturgical year begins with the season of Advent, which is a season of preparation.  The vestments of the priest and the deacon are purple showing us that this is a time both for preparation and a time for conversion.  In the Christmas season, we will see the white vestments signaling the joyful celebration of the birth of Christ.  During the season of Lent we will again see the purple of penance and conversion.  The Easter season is celebrated in the brilliant gold and white fitting for the celebration that Christ Jesus is raised from the dead and lives forever.  In Ordinary Time we see the green that signals for us a time of growth as we hear the teaching of Christ and come to know the heart of Christ.  In every season we are invited to a deeper relationship with Christ.  In this Advent season, we are invited to prepare to welcome Jesus Christ.

In our readings today we are called to prepare to welcome Jesus Christ as the one who fulfills the promise made long ago.  Our reading from the prophet Jeremiah calls us to recognize Jesus Christ as the Son of David.  The Lord who is to come will bring justice and peace.  In him we will recognize both a king and a good shepherd.  In this Advent season, we are called to prepare to welcome Jesus Christ as the gift promised to us at the dawn of creation.

Our reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Thessalonians calls us to prepare to welcome Jesus Christ as the model of holiness.  We see in Christ Jesus the one who loves without measure.  The life of Christ is life that is lived as a total gift to the Father.  It is also a life that is lived as a total gift to his people.  Christ Jesus lives forever giving himself completely to us so that through him, and with him and in him, we can be given completely to the Father.  In this Advent season, we are called to prepare to welcome Jesus Christ as the one who will teach us how to love.

In our reading from the Gospel of Luke we are called to prepare to welcome Jesus Christ who teaches us how to watch and to wait.  During the Advent season our readings invite us to prepare to welcome the return of Christ in glory and to welcome his birth at Bethlehem.  During the first half of the season of Advent we are called to watch and to wait for the day of redemption.  Our reading from the gospel of Luke warns us of the signs and wonders that will accompany the return of the Lord. We are called to be vigilant in our prayers and vigilant in our anticipation of the glory of the Lord.  Attentive as we must be to the needs of each day, we are invited to keep our focus on the unending day of eternal life.  In this Advent season, we are called to prepare to welcome Jesus Christ who calls us to wait in joyful hope.

My dear brothers and sisters, we begin our new year of grace with a time of preparation and conversion.  We are called to prepare to welcome Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the promise of the Father, as the model of perfect love and perfect holiness for us, and as the one who calls us to await his coming in joyful hope.  As we now celebrate the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise in the mystery of the Eucharist, we celebrate the new beginning that the Lord offers to us today.  We ask for the grace to recognize the gifts of the Lord as he reveals them to us.  And we ask for the gift of joyful hope as we prepare to welcome Jesus Christ.

Come Lord Jesus.  Amen.

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Homily for Sunday November 25, 2012 (Christ the King B)


May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

Today we celebrate the feast of Christ the King.  This is the last Sunday of the liturgical year.  Next week we will begin the season of Advent, the four weeks of anticipation and preparation for the great feast of our Lord’s birth.  We are only about five weeks from the celebration of the New Born King.

Today, however, our readings and the prayers of this Mass draw our focus to Jesus Christ who is the glorious and reigning king of the universe.  He is the one through whom the power of evil is broken and all things are made new.  Christ is the king, who as our reading from the prophet Daniel declares, receives everlasting dominion, glory and kingship.  His is a dominion that cannot be taken away and a kingship that shall never be destroyed.  It is Christ the King who is the faithful witness and the first born of the dead.  He is the one who loves us and who has freed us from our sins.  Christ is the King who has made us part of his kingdom and who will return in glory as we heard in the reading from Revelation.  We celebrate today that Christ our Lord has claimed dominion over all creation so that he might present to God our Father an eternal and universal kingdom, a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace.

And yet, dear brothers and sisters, our Gospel today does not show us an image of Christ as the triumphant ruler.  We do not see him today as the judge of the nations at the end of history or as the shepherd who protects his flock.  Today we encounter the Lord Jesus before Pontius Pilate.  We see Jesus as the one who is to be scourged and crowned with thorns, nailed to a cross and buried in a borrowed tomb.  We see our King as one who suffers for and suffers with his people.  Asked by Pilate about his identity as a king and about his kingdom, the Lord Jesus responded, my kingdom does not belong to this world.  Pilate did not recognize the kingdom and the world did not recognize the kingdom, because they didn’t recognize the king.

At the time of Jesus there was great expectation about the coming of the messiah.  They sought a ruler who would restore the house of David, overthrow political systems, and with military might establish his reign.  They expected a conquering hero who would bring about his kingdom by violence, restore the greatness of the City of Jerusalem and make his power felt throughout the world.  And what they expected was not what they saw.  They sought a ruler and found a shepherd and a suffering servant.

Having preached the message of the love of God, declared the poor and the peacemakers blessed, fed the thousands upon thousands, and now before Pilate declares that he had come to testify to the truth, the Lord Jesus reveals what appears as the greatest contradiction in his kingdom.  The King reigns from a cross, and in suffering is found the redemption of the world.  As we, dear brothers and sisters, share in Christ’s kingdom, we also have a share in his suffering.

When we were baptized into Christ, we were baptized into his suffering and death.  What that means is that every event of suffering in our lives, by our union with Christ, becomes our own privileged share in his sufferings.  When we encounter the suffering of illness, we know the pain of the nails in his hands and his feet.  In each and every emotional suffering, we know the experience and the isolation of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane.  And we know the suffering in the Heart of Mary, as we accompany those who are dear to us on their own Way of the Cross.

Yet Christ is King of the Suffering.  He is not some far off ruler apart from his people.  He is with us and we are with him.  That is the good news of this feast day.  In the events and the difficulties, in the triumphs and the tragedies, in the sorrows and in the sufferings, the Kingdom of God is at hand.  Christ our King desires to reign in us and to accomplish his will through us.  As we now enter into the mystery of the Holy Eucharist, we present our sufferings to the Lord and we pray that his Kingdom come and his will be done, in us as it is in heaven.

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Homily for Thanksgiving Day (November 22,2012)


May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

When I was a child my family spent Thanksgiving Day with my maternal grandparents.  I think it was the year before my grandfather passed away when we had two additional guests for Thanksgiving dinner: a couple from Italy that my grandfather knew from his business.  As we sat down to dinner, my grandfather either asked or informed me that I was to explain the reason for this particular holiday and recount the blessings for which we were thankful.  So after obediently recalling our history and numbering the blessings of the year, I looked to my grandfather so that the meal could begin.  And then he said to me, “Now you say the prayer.”  And the twelve year old future priest of God Most High responded, “I really don’t like to pray in front of other people.”  My grandfather, not to be outdone, responded, “I will give you 50 cents if you say the prayer.”  I have always thought of that as my first Mass stipend.

Today we gather and we recount our sacred history.  We remember the blessings that God has bestowed upon his people.  We recall the blessing of the Chosen People and their deliverance from the bondage of Pharaoh.  We remember the pilgrims who fled Europe seeking to worship according to the dictates of their conscience.  We recall the blessings that God in his goodness has bestowed upon each of us.  But chiefly, dear brothers and sisters, we remember that the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father made the pilgrimage from heaven and has dwelt among us.  The Lord Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, invites us to join in his Great Thanksgiving to the Father.

We have recalled our history.  We have recounted our blessings.  And now, dear brothers and sisters, we offer the prayer.

Happy Thanksgiving.  Amen.

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Homily for Sunday November 18, 2012 (33rd Sunday B)


May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

Our readings from the Sacred Scriptures provide two messages for us today.  One is a message of warning.  The other is a message of hope.

In our reading from the book of the prophet Daniel, we hear about a time of great distress for the chosen people of the Lord.  In our reading from the Gospel we hear about a time of great tribulation when everything that brings light will be banished from the skies.  It will be a time of great darkness.  Our readings today provide for us a warning that distress and tribulation and persecution will be part of the experience of the people of God.  This was the experience of the chosen people of the Lord in the time of the prophet Daniel.  This was the experience of the early Church.  And, dear brothers and sisters, this is and it will be our experience as well.

In nearly every corner of the world the precious and fundamental right of religious freedom is under attack.  The government of this country has been consistent in the last few years in its unwavering assault on the dignity of human life, on the dignity and nature of marriage, and on the freedom of conscience.  In many other parts of the world Christians are being killed every day by those who hate our faith.  Christians are being killed every day throughout this world because they are seeking to live the virtues of the Gospel.  It is a time of distress, tribulation, and persecution.

And yet, my dear brothers and sisters, it is a time for holiness and a time for hope.  Every government that has persecuted the Church has eventually fallen.  The Church and her people, and her unwavering faith, remain.  Holiness and hope will always triumph over persecution and distress.

Our task is to listen attentively to the voice of the Lord.  The scriptures promise us that everything else will pass away.  Heaven and earth will pass away.  Persecution and distress and tribulation will pass away.  The governments that persecute the Church and her people will pass away. But the word of the Lord will remain forever.

The message of hope that we hear today is that the Lord is present among his people in the midst of distress, tribulation and persecution.  In the time of the prophet Daniel, the Archangel Michael was given as a protector for the people.  In the gospel, the Lord Jesus promised to be present to his people through his word until he returns with great power and glory.  The Lord Jesus has promised to gather us from the ends of the earth.  He has called us, as his own beloved children, to shine in this world like the stars of the sky.  No matter the darkness of this world, the Lord Jesus calls each of us to reflect his light and his love.

In order to reflect his light and his love, we must live in his light and in his love.  In the Letter to the Hebrews, we hear that Christ our High Priest has offered the perfect and acceptable sacrifice and that he has taken his seat at the right hand of God.  When we gather for the celebration of the Eucharist, the word of the Lord that endures forever is proclaimed to us.  When we celebrate the Eucharist, we are joining in the one offering of Christ.  We were united to him in our baptism on earth and so we are also united to him in the temple of heaven.  When we respond to the invitation of the Lord and join in the celebration of his triumph over sin and death, we encounter the light of his glory.  And when, dear brothers and sisters, we encounter the light of his glory, we are transformed and we reflect the light of his glory.

As we now enter into the mystery of the suffering, death and resurrection of the Lord, let us remember our brothers and sisters who are suffering persecution throughout the world.  Let us listen attentively to the enduring word of the Lord and his message of hope.  And let us be transformed by the light of the Lord’s teaching so that we can reflect the light of his glory.

Preached (in Spanish) at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Homily for Sunday November 11, 2012 (32nd Sunday B)

May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

In the early days of the month of November we celebrate the feast of All Saints and the feast of All Souls.  Throughout this month we pray in a particular way for the faithful departed.  We also recall on the 11th of November the celebration of Veteran’s Day.  Veteran’s Day began as the anniversary of the end of, what was called, the war to end all wars.  It is a day that we, as a nation, set aside to remember all those who have served this country in the armed forces.  We remember those brave souls who have served in peacetime and in time of war, both at home and abroad.  We honor their service and we honor their sacrifice.  And when we ask these men and women about their time in the service, when we ask them about their units and about those with whom they served, they will often tell us about those who did not make it home.  They will tell us that all gave some, but that some gave all.

We have in our readings today two widows who gave all.  In our first reading from the book of Kings we encounter the widow who was gathering sticks to build a fire so that she might prepare the last meal that she and her son would be able to eat.  And yet at the request of the prophet Elijah, forgetting herself, she took some of her remaining flour and some of her remaining oil, and prepared something for him to eat.  The jar of flour and the jug of oil which contained only enough for one small meal did not go empty and it provided for them for the whole year.

In the Gospel we encounter the poor widow who made her small offering to the treasury of the temple.  With so many people coming through and with so many offerings being made, it was the widow offering her two small coins that caught the attention of the Lord Jesus.  The two small coins, the offering of the poor, which were offered by the poor widow, would certainly have caught the attention of the Lord Jesus because it was the offering of the poor, two small turtledoves, that were the offering made when the child Jesus was presented in the temple.  But more than the coins and more than the amount of the offering, the Lord Jesus praised the generosity of the widow.  The Lord Jesus praised the attitude that accompanied the offering.  You see, dear brothers and sisters, the widow did not give from what she had left over.  She gave from all that she had.  All who were coming into the temple that day gave some, but she gave all.

These two widows challenge us to consider how we think about giving to the Lord.  They challenge us and they inspire us because they gave unto the Lord holding nothing back for themselves.  Relying on the providence of Almighty God and placing their security in the hands of the Lord of heaven and earth, these two widows call us to consider not only the gifts that our lives and all that we have are.  These two widows call us to consider the gifts that our lives and all that we have are called to be.  They are to be a total offering.

The offering of Christ the High Priest, who enters the sanctuary not made by human hands, is a total offering.  Christ Jesus holds nothing back in his complete self offering to the Father.  Bearing the wounds of his passion and death, Jesus reconciles us to the Father by the blood of his holy cross.  Bearing the glorious sign of his victory over sin and death, Christ Jesus holds nothing back when he offers himself to us in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.  Jesus Christ offers himself completely to the Father and completely to his Church, and Jesus Christ invites each of us to do the same.  His invites us to a life of giving all.

As we enter into the mystery of the total offering of the Lord made present to us on the Altar, let us follow the example of the holy widows and hold nothing back.  Let us remember that Christ our High Priest has invited us to join in his perfect and acceptable offering.  And let us ask for the grace to live a life, not of giving some, but of giving all.

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Homily for Sunday November 4, 2012 (31st Sunday B)


May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

Today the command of the Lord Jesus in the reading from the Gospel is quite simple.  The many and varied commandments of the law that were given in the Old Testament are summarized by the Lord Jesus into only two commandments.  They are quite simple, and yet they are very, very difficult.

It was a common practice in the time of Jesus for scholars of the law to discuss the most important commandments, and then to propose a brief summary for those who followed them.  There are, in the Old Testament, six hundred and thirteen commandments, not only ten, so such a summary was very useful.  When one of the scribes approached the Lord Jesus he was seeking the opinion of the Lord about the most important commandment.  From six hundred and thirteen commandments, the Lord Jesus proclaims only two.  And from the many words contained in those two commandments, one word summarizes them both: love.

The command of the Lord Jesus is simple.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.  The whole message of the Sacred Scriptures and the message of our faith focus on these two relationships.  We are invited to respond to the love that God has shown to us with every part of our being.  We give to God the gift of our hearts and we offer all of our affections.  We give to God the gift of our souls and we offer our present and our future.  We give to God the gift of our minds and we offer every thought and ability for his glory.  We give to God the gift of our strength and we offer every work of our hands to build up his kingdom.  Our response to the invitation of the Lord is to be complete.   The invitation of the Lord is quite simple, the Lord has asked for everything.

When we consider the love of our neighbor, there is something more challenging to consider.  It is not the question about the identity of our neighbor.  It is not even the question about what we owe to our neighbors.  What we must consider when we ponder the commandment of the Lord to love our neighbors as ourselves, is whether or not we indeed actually love ourselves. 

The commandment to love God and love our neighbor presumes that we love ourselves.  It is not the kind of love of self that is self-centered, egotistical and exclusive. Those kinds of love are spiritual weeds that we do well to root from the garden of our souls.  That would be love turned inward.  We love ourselves not because we are captivated by our goodness and virtues, but because God Almighty loves us as the pinnacle of creation, his very own image and likeness.  This is not a love that we earned.  It is not a love that we could earn.  And it’s not a love that we can lose.  God will not stop loving us.  It is a love, however, that we can reject.  We can by our choices and responses choose to live outside of love.  We can choose to reject the gift of love that the Father has offered to us.  But God, for his part, has chosen to love us, and created in freedom and love, we can choose to accept the gift of his love. 
It is, dear brothers and sisters, a most difficult gift for us to accept.  It is a gift too great and too good for us to imagine.  In the eternal love of the Eternal Father, we have been created in love and declared worthy of being loved.  The love that God has for us and the love that God shows to us come before any commandment that God gives to us.  Let us live in his love, and respond to his love, and share in his love.  It really is quite simple.  Amen.   

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Homily for All Saints Day (November 1, 2012)


May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

Today is one of my favorite feast days.  Today we celebrate the feast of All Saints.  It is one of my favorite feast days because I hope that someday, this will be my feast day and your feast day as well.

All of us were created to be saints and all of us are called to be saints.  What does it mean to be a saint?  It is quite simple, dear brothers and sisters.  A saint is a person who is in love with God, and who has passed beyond the veil of death.  A saint is a person who was in love with God in this life and now is radiant in the love of God in eternal life.  For us, the saints show us how to fall in love with God, and they pray for us so that we will fall in love with God.

When we celebrate the feast day of a particular saint, we celebrate the way in which that particular saint fell in love with God and teaches us to do the same.  When we celebrate the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, we celebrate the great mind that God gave to him, which he, in turn, gave back to God.  When we celebrate St. Therese we celebrate the childlike confidence that she had.  When we celebrate saints like St. Maximilian Kolbe or St. Toribio Romo, we celebrate the great apostolic courage of these men.  But when we celebrate the feast of All Saints, we celebrate and we honor all of the various ways that God has called each of his people to fall in love with him.  Today, we celebrate the ways that God is calling each of us, to fall in love with Him.

A saint is a person who is in love with God and has passed beyond the veil of death.  We ask the intercession of all of the Saints today, so that however God calls us, we will fall in love with Him, and someday, this will be our feast day too. 

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Homily for Sunday October 28, 2012 (30th Sunday B)


May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

Today in the Gospel we hear some of the most comforting words ever spoken: Take courage, get up, Jesus is calling you.  What comfort these words must have brought to the blind Bartimaeus; Take courage, get up Jesus is calling you.  Having lived for years in physical darkness, living his life on the side of the road and separated from society, Bartimaeus was personally called by Jesus.  These were indeed words of comfort.

This was the same consolation and compassion that the Lord promised to the Israelites during their exile in Babylon.  Today in the reading from the prophet Jeremiah we hear of the promise of the Lord to bring his people back from exile to the Promised Land.  Behold I will bring them back from the land of the north; I will gather them from the ends of the earth.  This promise of the Lord, however, was not made only to the powerful and the strong.   The Lord promised that his chosen people would return with the blind and the lame, with mothers and those with child.  The return from exile would not leave anyone behind, because the love and compassion of God extends beyond the lines of society and beyond the edges of the road.

It is the same compassion, recounted in the Letter to the Hebrews, which is to be exercised by the High Priest.  He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and the erring, for he himself is beset by weakness.  The High Priest exercises his ministry with a compassionate heart, always conscious of his own weakness and limitations.  Christ our High Priest, whose Sacred Heart burns with compassion, desires the same compassion from those who exercise his sacred priesthood and from his holy people.  The compassion that Christ our Savior commands us to show, the people of the world deserve to receive from us who bear the name of Christian.  The Lord Jesus calls us to share his compassion and to seek out those on the sides of the roads, the blind, the lame and the exiles, and proclaim to them: Take courage, get up, Jesus is calling you.

However, dear brothers and sisters, we cannot give what we have not first received.  And we will not be able to share the love and compassion of Christ if we have not first encountered them.  Each of us, in one way or another, is afflicted by blindness.  Each of us can find ourselves on the side of the road, calling for help and being pushed away by the crowd as we saw in the Gospel.

The people in the crowd rebuked Bartimaeus and told him to be silent.  They wanted Bartimaeus to leave them alone in their comfortable world where they would not have to see him.  The response of the Lord Jesus to the plea of Bartimaeus was different.  Jesus sent them to call him.  The response of Bartimaeus was immediate.  He throws aside his cloak, he leaps up, and he comes to Jesus.  This, my brothers and sisters, is no ordinary activity.  This is the pattern and the language of resurrection.  This is the calling to life in the kingdom.  Just as Bartimaeus would leave his cloak on the side of the road and be raised up by the call of Christ, so Christ Jesus would leave behind the shroud that covered his lifeless body in the tomb that could not hold him bound.  Bartimaeus left behind what made him comfortable on the margins so that he could embrace the call to life with Jesus.  And upon encountering the Lord, Bartimaeus heard those words: What do you want me to do for you?  Called from the side of the road by the same crowd that had pushed him away, now face to face with the Son of God, Bartimaeus replied, Master, I want to see.  The Lord Jesus, giving him sight, said, Go your way; your faith has saved you.  And Bartimaeus followed Jesus on the way.  Bartimaeus used his new gift of sight to keep his eyes fixed on following the Lord Jesus.  The Lord Jesus had called him to himself, healed him of his affliction, and sent him as a witness to the great things that the Lord had done.

For each of us, in the celebration of the Eucharist, the Lord does the same thing.  Called through our Baptism to participate in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, we come to the Altar of God.  Wherever we are, in the crowd or on the margins, the Lord Jesus is calling us closer to himself.  He is calling us to a fuller life in the Kingdom.  We proclaim as the Host and Chalice are raised: Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.  There we respond in faith to the Lord’s question: What do you want me to do for you?   Invited by the Lord we reveal our afflictions to the Lord for his healing touch.  And strengthened by the Lord’s Precious Body and Blood, and seeing the world with the eyes of faith, we can say to those we encounter as we journey on the road, Take courage, get up, Jesus is calling you.

Preached at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC
     

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Homily for Sunday October 21, 2012 (29th Sunday B)


May Jesus Christ be praised and may his holy Mother pray for us.

Today we celebrate World Mission Sunday.  It is a day when the whole Church prays for all of her members who are involved in the works of the missions.  Often when we think about the activity of the missionaries, we think of those brave apostolic souls who leave the comfort of their homelands to proclaim the Gospel to a culture and a people who have yet to hear the name of Jesus.  We think of those men and women who leave everything and serve as witnesses of the compassion of Christ announcing the kingdom of God by their words and by their lives.  In our own parish community, we are privileged with the presence of the Missionaries of the Poor, who by their vows of poverty, chastity and obedience and through their apostolic service witness to the kingdom of God.  We are blessed, brothers and sisters, that these signs of the kingdom live among us.

And yet, these Missionaries of the Poor are not the only ones that Christ has sent to proclaim his gospel and witness to his kingdom.  In the waters of baptism each of us was called to be a child of God and each of us was sent to be a sign of his love.  When we pray for the missionaries, we pray for the whole community of the baptized, and we pray for ourselves as well.

Today in the Gospel we hear about the disposition of discipleship and the ambition that the missionary must leave behind to follow the Lord Jesus.  James and John, the Sons of Thunder, made a request of Jesus.  They asked for a seat at the right and the left of the Lord Jesus when he entered into his glory.  The Lord responded with a question: “Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”  When James and John agree, the Lord Jesus assures them that they will share the cup and the baptism, but not the places at his right and his left.  The Lord Jesus then addresses all of the disciples and reminds them that being the greatest among the servants of Jesus means being the servant of all.

It would be easy, dear brothers and sisters, to speak about the virtue of humility and how we must be humble in our life of faith and in our witness of faith.  It is true that humility is necessary for the disciple and the missionary; but the Lord Jesus invites us to something more.  The Lord Jesus invites us to something more difficult today.

When the Lord asked James and John about sharing in his cup and his baptism, the Lord was inviting them to join in his suffering.  Union with Christ means sharing not only in his teaching, in his miracles, in his prayer, it means also sharing in the glory of his cross.  The disciples and the missionaries will suffer for their faith and suffer for their witness to the faith.  The father and the mother will suffer in body and soul for the mission field of their family that God has entrusted to their care.  The student and the teacher will suffer for their faith in the most difficult mission field of the classroom.  Wherever we work, we will suffer for our faith and for our witness to faith as we seek to speak words of charity in good times and in bad.  Christ Jesus has invited us to join him at his cross.

James and John asked for a place at his right and his left when the Lord entered into his glory.  It would not be two disciples or two missionaries, but two robbers on a lonely hill that would be at his right and his left when the Lord Jesus entered into his glory. 

Today as we renew our baptismal commitment as missionaries of the Kingdom of heaven, we set aside our request for a special seat, and make our prayer with the good thief, “Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom.”  

 Preached at Our lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Monroe, NC