Lenten Liturgy Lesson 2

And with your spirit; Five times during the celebration of the Mass, the people of God respond this way.  Five times the beautiful and glorious bride of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb responds: And with your spirit.

This is not an ordinary response.  It is not an exchange like an ordinary greeting, such as “Good Morning.”  The liturgy contains a particular kind of greeting, a particular way that we address each other.  You are greeted by the priest a number of times during the Mass, and once by the deacon at the proclamation of the gospel, with the phrase The Lord be with you.  This is the greeting of the bridegroom and the friend of the bridegroom given to the bride.  Only those who have been ordained address you with The Lord be with you.    Only those upon whom the bishop has laid hands speak to you in this way.  Your response, and with your spirit, is your prayer, for the priest or the deacon.  It is your word of encouragement that he would follow the advice of St. Paul to Timothy, and fan into flame the spirit that is within him by the laying on of hands.  The beautiful and precious response, and with your spirit is your prayer and your word of encouragement for our ministry. 

The simple response, and with your spirit, signifies several things.  At the beginning of Mass, with the response, and with your spirit, you are asking the priest to gather you all together as a community united in the Lord Jesus so that we may offer an acceptable sacrifice.  At the reading of the Gospel, your response and with your spirit, is your request that the deacon tell you the Good News.  At the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer, with your response, and with your spirit, you implore the priest to take you with him to the Last Supper, to Calvary, to the Tomb and to the Resurrection as he offers the sacrifice.  At the sign of peace, your response, and with your spirit, encourages the priest to enter into the joy of the Lord and the joy of his people.  At the conclusion of the Mass, as you respond, and with your spirit, you invite me and you implore me to bless the flock of God that has been entrusted to my unworthy care.  You seek to be blessed and to be sent forth so that you may walk in love as Christ loved us.

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

Homily for February 24, 2013 (2nd Lent C)

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

Today we are continuing our Lenten journey as we join the Lord Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem.  About ten days ago we received the invitation of the Lord to repent and believe in the Gospel.  Last Sunday we were invited to make our confession of faith in the goodness of God and our confession of confidence in divine power.  Today, our prayers and our readings draw our focus to the divine promise.

In our reading from the book of Genesis, we hear of the covenant that God made with Abram.  To an old man who had no children, the Lord promised to make his descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.  To Abram, who at the invitation of God had left his homeland in the Ur of the Chaldeans, the Lord promised a new and fertile land as his inheritance.  In response to the promises of God, Abram offered sacrifice.  Confirming his promises to Abram with a covenant, the Lord God received the sacrifice unto himself.

In our reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Philippians, we hear the divine promise of our heavenly citizenship and of our transformation in Christ Jesus.  We hear the invitation to imitate the apostolic way of life and rely in every moment on the promises of God, as St. Paul has shown us.  We are invited to embrace the cross as our glory, believing that the edge of the land of promise is a place on Calvary hill.  As believers in the divine promise, we claim our place as citizens of heaven which was promised to us in our baptism and in our profession of faith.  Offering the sacrifice of our daily crosses, we await the day of our transformation in Christ and the full revelation of the glory of God.

In our reading from the Gospel today, we join with Peter, John and James on a holy mountain.  Invited to the mountaintop by the Lord Jesus, these three chosen apostles are present for the miracle of the Transfiguration of the Lord.  As Moses had once gone up the mountain to receive the law of God, the Lord Jesus goes up the mountain to pray.  In prayer to his Father, the glory that is his as the Eternal Son was revealed in the presence of these disciples.  And in the light of glory, both Moses, the giver of the law, and Elijah, the prophet of the Lord, appear with the Lord Jesus.  The promise, however, that Moses and Elijah bring, is that the Christ will suffer in Jerusalem.  Moses and Elijah, speaking of the exodus that he would accomplish in Jerusalem, promise that the Lord Jesus will lead his people to the land that was promised long ago.  They, who are the representatives of the law and the prophets, are the receivers of the promises made by the Lord God to the people of Israel.  With the law and prophets, the apostles Peter, John and James, are witnesses to the declaration of the Father that Jesus is the beloved Son of God. 

What was promised to Abram as countless descendants and a land of promise is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus and in the members of his body, the Church.  Conformed to Christ in sacrifice and in sacrament, it is the footsteps of the baptized children of God that make all of creation holy ground and the land of promise.

And dear brothers and sisters, all that the law and all that the prophets foretold, the apostles beheld, on that holy mountain.  And what the law and prophets foretold, and the apostles beheld, by the grace of God, we receive.  On this holy altar, veiled in the simple gifts of the earth, the promised revelation and participation in the glory of the Lord is offered to us.

As we now approach the holy altar of God, let us claim our citizenship in heaven as we imitate Christ on earth.  Let us embrace our own cross as a promise of the glory that will be revealed.  And let us profess, with St. Peter, “Master, it is good that we are here.”  Amen.     

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

Lenten Liturgy Lesson 1

On most of the Sundays of the season of Lent, I am going to give a brief catechesis on some aspect of the Sacred Liturgy at the end of Mass.  Since we do not sing the Gloria at the Mass during Lent, my brief catechesis will not add to the normal time expected for the celebration of the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Mass is God’s celebration, and we have been invited.  This is not our celebration to which we have invited God. When we gather to celebrate the Sacred Liturgy and to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we are joining in the Wedding Feast of the Lamb of God.  Our worship on earth is a participation in the worship of heaven.  The altar servers carry out the ministry of the angels.  They bring the gifts to the table of the wedding feast.  The deacon is the friend of the bridegroom.  He is the best man.  He prepares the table of the feast, and stands at the side of the bridegroom.  The priest sacramentally re-presents Christ, who is the bridegroom of the Church.  And the beautiful and glorious bride is the assembly of the baptized.  Again and again the scriptures speak of the wedding banquet.  The Lord Jesus inaugurates his ministry and performs his first miracle at the wedding at Cana.  The entire book of Revelation depicts the wedding feast of the Lamb.  When we gather as a body for worship, we are taking part in the wedding feast.   And that means that the words that we speak to each other in the Liturgy, our prayers and responses, are wedding vows.  The words that we speak are filled with power, with history, and with promise.  They are not ordinary words, and they do not speak of ordinary things.  At the invitation of God, we are invited to add our voices to the words of love and promise that Christ professes to the Church and the Church professes to Christ her Lord.

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

Homily for Ash Wednesday (February 13, 2013)

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

The Holy Father will change during this Lenten season -- but will I?  Will you?  The Gospel will not change.  The faith once delivered unto the saints will not change.  The confession of the faith of Peter and the office of Peter will not change.  The man who holds this office, however, will change during this particular season of Lent.  But, dear brothers and sisters, will I change, will you change, during this particular Lenten season?

This Lent, when I encounter Christ hungry in the desert from his days of fasting, will I eat only what I need, and some days a little less, so that I will hunger more for the bread of life and for every word that comes from the mouth of God?

This Lent, when I read and speak of Christ praying in the garden of Gethsemane, will I embrace that one important thing, and rather than being busy about many things, will I be at the feet of the Savior?

This Lent, when I am confronted with the abundant generosity of Christ, particularly as he bestows his mercy without measure and freely offers his precious life to redeem and sanctify my life, will I respond with generosity in almsgiving to the poor and compassion to the suffering?

Will I be changed?  Will you?  Will I let God be God and Christ be Lord, just a little more this Lenten season?  Will I offer to God completely the territory of my body and soul that He conquered by the blood of His cross and claimed for himself in the waters of my baptism?

Will I be changed?  Will you?  We come today to be marked with ashes as a sign of repentance.  We come to be marked as a people who seek to be changed.  By God’s grace, and my cooperation with that grace, I will be changed this Lenten season.  By God’s grace, and your cooperation with that grace, so will you.  From sinner to saint, and from glory to glory, we will be changed by the unchanging love of Christ.  Amen.

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

Homily for February 10, 2013 (Our Lady of Lourdes)

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

Today we celebrate the feast day of our parish.  The feast of the Holy Family which we celebrated on the Sunday after Christmas was the feast day for all of the people of God.  The feast of All Saints that we celebrate at the beginning of November is the day that we hope will be our feast day when we have passed beyond the bounds of death into the Kingdom of God.  Today, however, is the feast day of our particular parish.  This weekend we remember the first apparition of Our Lady in the grotto of Lourdes, France on February 11, 1858.  We also celebrate that on the 10^th of May, 1942 this parish was established under the patronage and protection of Our Lady of Lourdes.  On our feast day we give thanks to Almighty God for his goodness and for the mighty works that he has done in our parish.  We renew our commitment to proclaiming the Gospel and being the sign of the Kingdom of God in our community.  And today, rejoicing in the protection and prayers of Our Lady of Lourdes, with Saint Elizabeth we ask, “How is it that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?”

Our Lady comes to the humble; that has always been her way.  Beginning with her visitation to the humble Elizabeth, and in her appearances to Juan Diego, to the children at Fatima, to Catherine Labouré, it is to those who are meek and humble of heart that Our Lady appears.  To the humble Bernadette, the Blessed Virgin Mary entrusted her message at Lourdes.  Calling the people that humble village, and all of the people of the world, to pray for the conversion of sinners and to do penance for them, Our Lady calls us to recognize our own need for conversion.  Mary calls us to humbly seek the grace of her Son in the Sacrament of his mercy.

Our Lady comes to those in need of healing.  Following her invitation to penance and prayer, Our Lady revealed to Bernadette a spring of water that brings the gift of healing.  Many miracles of physical healing have occurred at the Shrine at Lourdes.  Many more people have received the healing of peaceful acceptance in the midst of suffering, and have been prepared with confident faith and certain hope for the healing of the resurrection.  When the sick come to Lourdes, they do not hide their illness, they do not hide their weakness, and they do not hide their need for healing, from the Mother of God.  With that same confidence, we approach the Blessed Virgin Mary, as children under her special protection, and reveal our illness, our weakness, and our need for healing.

She comes to the humble. She comes to the suffering, and Our Lady brings us the Lord Jesus.  When the Blessed Virgin Mary traveled to the hill country of Judea to visit Elizabeth, the Lord Jesus dwelt in her womb.  When she remained at the foot of the cross, the Lord Jesus dwelt in her arms, as his mission was accomplished and his suffering was ended.  Through Mary, she who is the Immaculate Conception, the one in whom the grace of God has fully triumphed, the Lord Jesus came into the world.  Our Lady, in her great humility, invites us to encounter her Son.  She brings us the Lord Jesus, and she brings us to the Lord Jesus.  As we approach her with our humble veneration, Mary directs us to her Son in humble adoration.

As we now enter into the mystery of the death and resurrection of the Savior, we give thanks that the Mother of Our Lord has come to us.  We rejoice in her prayers and protection, and bring before her our need for conversion and our need for healing.  And we ask her to teach us to be meek and humble of heart so that we can proclaim the good news of the Lord Jesus and share in the glory of her Son.  Amen.

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

Homily for February 3, 2013 (4th Sunday C)

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

Saint Paul writes that in the end, there are three things that remain: faith hope and love.  Of these three things, St. Paul writes, the greatest is love.  Today in the midst of the prophetic call of the prophet Jeremiah and the prophetic rejection of the Lord Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth, the Apostle Paul teaches us about love.  In teaching us about love, we learn about faith and hope as well.

When we speak of faith, hope and love we are speaking about the three theological virtues.  This means that they are given by God and through them we are drawn closer to God.  Faith is that virtue by which we believe in God and in all that God has revealed to us through creation, through the prophets, in the Lord Jesus, and through his Church.  Our response of faith is given in response to the invitation of God.  When we speak of the virtue of hope, we mean that virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our true happiness, relying on the promises of Christ.  St. Peter reminds us in his first letter that we must always be prepared to give a defense for our hope.  We must always place our true hope in the promises of the Lord Jesus who is the divine physician and the conqueror of sin and death.  Love, dear brothers and sisters, is the virtue by which we love God above all things, and love God for his own sake, and we love our neighbors as ourselves out of love for God.  Love is the greatest virtue, because only love is an eternal virtue.

Only love, dear brothers and sisters, will endure when this world passes away.  There will only be love in the kingdom of the Father.  Faith will have passed away, because we will see with unveiled faces the glory of the one in whom we have believed.  We will see him face to face, and there will be no need for faith, because we will know as we have been known.  There will be no hope in the kingdom, because the promises of Christ in which we have placed our hope will have been fulfilled.  The one in whom all hope is placed will grant us a place in his presence.  Only love will endure.  Only the love that is patient and kind, only the love that is not jealous or inflated or rude or selfish will find a place in the kingdom.  Only the love shown to us in the Lord Jesus, who offered himself in suffering and sacrifice, will endure to eternal life.  Everything else will pass away.  Prophecy and tongues and knowledge and all other spiritual gifts will all fall away before the love that conquers all things. 

And this, dear brothers and sisters, is the love that God has for us.  This eternal love has been offered to us and shared with us from the foundation of the world.  Like the prophet Jeremiah, who was called and loved by God before he was formed in the womb, we were loved by God and called to love by God even before our grandparents met each other.  The eternal love that God has for us, and the eternal love that God has shared with us, is the eternal love that is given to us so that we can give it away.  God has shared his love so that we can share his love.  There is no greater gift that God has entrusted to our care than the gift of his own love.  When we love as God loves, when we love as Christ has shown us to love, then eternal life has begun in our souls.

As we now enter into the mystery of love and share in the total offering of the love of the Lord Jesus, let us renew our faith in all that God has revealed to us.  Let us acclaim our hope in the promises of Christ.  And let us love Christ, as Christ has loved us, and embrace the eternal love of the Father.  Amen.

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