Homily for May 26, 2013 (Trinity Sunday C)

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

It is a love story.  The entire message of the Sacred Scriptures and the entire message of our Holy Catholic faith is a love story.  It is the story of the love that God the Father has for God the Son, a love that is so powerful and so real that it is the person of the Holy Spirit.  This is the mystery of the Holy Trinity.  The Holy Trinity is the relationship of perfect love. 

Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Trinity.  Eight weeks ago we celebrated the glorious resurrection of the Lord Jesus.  Last week we celebrated the feast of Pentecost and the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Next week we will celebrate the great feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, and meditate upon the gift of the Eucharist.  Today our focus is drawn to the central mystery of our faith: our God is a gift of love.  We believe in one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  We believed in a God who is a relationship of perfect love.   This great mystery of the Holy Trinity surrounds our whole life.  We were created by the God of perfect love.  We were baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  We receive absolution in the Sacrament of Reconciliation in the name of the Trinity.  The bride and the groom exchange rings with each other in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  As we go forth from this life we are commended to the Father who created us, the Son who redeems us, and the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us.  All of our prayers begin with the sign of the cross and the confession of the Triune God.  In the celebration of the Holy Mass, we pray to God the Father through Jesus Christ his Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Our God is a relationship of love, and the greatest gift that God has given to us is a share in that relationship.

From all eternity, God has desired to share his love.  God has desired to share his love with you and with me.  In the Trinity there is perfect love.  There is no need for anything else or anyone else to make the Trinity of love complete.  God does not need us.  God wants us.  We exist because God wants us, and God desires to share his love with us.

In the fullness of time, the Father sent the Son so that we might share in their love and have eternal life.  The great gift of God is that we share in the Son’s own relationship with the Father.  In baptism we were united with Christ to share in his life.  We have all been adopted as beloved children of the Loving Father.  This great feast of the Holy Trinity reminds us that we have been drawn into the loving relationship of Almighty God.  We have been invited by the love of God.  We have been filled with the love of God.

The love of God was shared with us in the sacrament of Baptism.  The love of God and the power of the Holy Spirit were bestowed upon us in the sacrament of Confirmation.  The love of God and the power of God, and the forgiveness of God and the compassion of God are given to us as food for the journey in the Holy Eucharist.  When we gather in this place and we go to the Altar of God, the mystery of love that is Jesus Christ is made present among us.  The perfect gift of love in Christ Jesus invites us to become a gift of love for our heavenly Father.  In the celebration of the Eucharist, and through power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus makes us a gift for the Father.

As we now draw close to the mystery of the Lord’s love let us profess our faith in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Let us embrace the love that the Lord offers to us.  And let us accept the invitation of the Lord and take our place in the relationship of perfect love.  Amen.

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

Homily for May 19, 2013 (Pentecost C)

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

The feast of Pentecost is a day of celebration.  It is the birthday of the Church.  Fifty days after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and nine days after his ascension, the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles.  With a mighty wind and with tongues of fire, the Spirit of the Father and the Son was given to the Church and to the world.  It is the birthday of the Church.

The disciples of the Lord Jesus, and the mother of the Lord Jesus, had been gathered together in prayer for several days.  For three years the disciples had gathered with the Lord Jesus during his earthly ministry.  For three years the disciples had been gathered to the Lord Jesus as the first fruits of the harvest of the Church of God.  And now, with the descent of the Holy Spirit, they would be sent out.  They would plant the seeds of the Kingdom and they would gather the harvest.  Endowed with tongues of fire over their heads and voices on fire with the message of salvation, the disciples proclaimed the mighty acts of God in Jesus Christ.  In the words of every language and people, to every land and every nation, the invitation to life in the kingdom was sent.  The Spirit was sent and the disciples were sent.  The Spirit transformed the disciples and the disciples with the Spirit transformed the world.  The disciples were changed by the power of the Spirit.  The fear and doubt of the Last Supper was gone.  The uncertainty of Holy Saturday was gone forever.  The disciples of the Lord Jesus, now empowered by the gift of the Holy Spirit, are convinced of who they are and what they have been called to do.  They know their identity and they know their mission.

In nearly every passage of the Scripture that is proclaimed in the Sacred Liturgy, we learn these two things about ourselves.  We learn of our identity, meaning who we are and more importantly whose we are.  And we learn of our mission.  We learn what it is that we, as followers of the Lord Jesus and witnesses to his resurrection, are called to do.

The identity of the Christian is the identity of the Lord Jesus.  He is the beloved Son of the Eternal Father.  In him, we are the beloved children of the Eternal Father.  The mission of the Christian is a share in the mission of Jesus Christ.  We have our role in the redemption of the world.  We have our time to proclaim the good news with our words and with our lives.  We have our daily opportunities to walk as the Lord Jesus walked and love as he loved.  We have our time to be rejected, to be persecuted, and to suffer for the sake of the Gospel.  And we have our time to gather with the other disciples, in the presence of the Mother of God, and receive the consolation of the Lord.

The Holy Spirit, sent from the Father and the Son, reminds us of our identity and strengthens us for our mission.  The Holy Spirit empowers us to call upon God as our Loving Father and enables us to know the Son more profoundly.  In the power of the Holy Spirit, our own witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is strengthened and our ability to share in the cross of Christ is deepened. 

On this feast of Pentecost, we ask the Father for a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit that we might be sent out to live and proclaim the message of salvation.  We ask for the power of the Holy Spirit to cast all fear and all doubt from our hearts that we may rejoice in our identity and embrace our mission.  And we ask for the Holy Spirit to transform us, so that with the Holy Spirit, we will transform the world.  Amen.   

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

Homily for May 18, 2013 (Vigil of Pentecost)

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

In the celebration of the vigil for Pentecost, we await the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The desire of our hearts is to experience the presence and power of the Spirit of the Living God.

Like the people of Babel we desire to be united and to see heaven.  Unlike the people of Babel, we know that we are not the ones who build the city of God.  God will build his city and God will pour out the Spirit of unity.

Like the Israelites we desire to listen to the voice of the Lord and keep his covenant.  We rejoice in the presence of God among his people.

With the prophet Ezekiel we desire to receive the Spirit of the Lord that will bring us to life.  We desire to hear the word of the Lord that will give us hope.  We desire to hear the voice of the Lord that will call those who are dead in sin to life in Christ Jesus.

With the prophet Joel, we desire to receive the Spirit of the Lord.  We desire to have a vision of the Kingdom and experience the wonders of the power of God.

With Saint Paul, we beg the Holy Spirit to intercede for us.  We beg the Holy Spirit to pray within us.  We beg the Holy Spirit to make each of us a temple for the glory of the Father.  We desire to receive the Holy Spirit who is the river of life-giving water.

As the Spirit descended upon the apostles, we invite the Spirit to descend upon us.  May the Holy Spirit transform us and fill us, so that we can live in the power and presence of God.  Amen.

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

Homily for May 12, 2013 (Ascension of the Lord C)

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

More than fifty years ago, my grandparents moved from Wisconsin to North Carolina.  Before the family moved, my grandparents made the long drive and searched for a house.  Since they did not find one to their liking, they made the long drive back to Wisconsin, and they agreed that my grandfather would find a house while he was working in North Carolina.  My grandmother, however, gave one very clear instruction about the house.  She said to my grandfather, “I do not care what the house looks like, just get me a nice kitchen.”  That was the end of the discussion.  The next time my grandmother came to North Carolina, she and my mother and my uncles, moved into the house where my grandmother would spend forty-one of the happiest years of her life.  She had never seen the house before, but she was happy, because her home had been prepared by one who loved her.

Today we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Forty days after his resurrection, the Lord Jesus returns to the glory of the Father.  Entering the temple of the heavenly glory, the Lord Jesus continues to bear the marks of his passion, but now his wounds are trophies of victory.  Every wound and every suffering is now radiant in the splendor of the Kingdom. Sin and death have been conquered by the blood of his cross, and now the Lord Jesus returns to the Father.  He goes to prepare a place for us.  And though he has returned to the glory of the Father, he has promised to remain with us always.  The Lord Jesus has promised to be present to us until the end of the world.

With the ascension of the Lord Jesus, the power and presence of Christ’s earthly ministry passes into the sacraments.  The promise of the Lord Jesus to remain with his disciples always is fulfilled through his presence in the sacraments of the Church.  What that means, dear brothers and sisters, is that in every sacramental celebration, we are offered a personal encounter with the Risen Lord.  Like Saint Paul on the road to Damascus, like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and like Mary Magdalene at the tomb, each of us is offered an encounter with the Risen Lord.  Our encounter with the Risen Lord is no less real than the encounter of those who walked with him in Jerusalem.  The way that we experience the encounter is different, but the One whom we encounter is the same.  We meet the Lord Jesus in the sacraments, and the Lord Jesus meets us in the sacraments of his Church.

Though each of the sacraments is celebrated in the context of a public liturgical celebration, each of us receives the sacraments individually.  These moments of grace, where God in his love and mercy has promised to act in a particular way, are personal.  One by one we were baptized and one by one we were confirmed.  One by one we are absolved in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and one by one we receive the holy anointing.  One by one we receive the precious body and blood of the Lord in Holy Communion.  The promise of the Lord Jesus which is offered to all of us, is received by each of us.

And the promise of the Lord Jesus which is offered to us in the Sacraments, prepares us for eternal life.  We receive the very life of God as a gift of God in each sacrament.  The life of God dwelling within us during our life on earth prepares us to dwell forever in the life of God in heaven.

My grandfather found a nice kitchen, and my grandmother was happy for many years.  The Lord Jesus Christ has gone to prepare a place for us, and through his sacraments, the Lord Jesus prepares us for his place.  As we now enter into the worship of heaven, let us welcome the Lord into our souls so that one day he will welcome us into his Kingdom.  Amen. 

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

Homily for May 5, 2013 (6th Easter C)

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

The Easter season is a time of grace and peace.  We have received the good news of the empty tomb and the promise of the mercy of God.  We have meditated on the consequences of our love for the Lord and the consequences of the love that the Lord has for us.  We have rejoiced in being part of the flock of the Good Shepherd and we have embraced our place as beloved children in the kingdom of the Father.  Today our readings draw our focus to the gift of the peace that the Lord offers to us.  The gift of peace, dear brothers and sisters, comes through sacrifice.

In our reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we hear of one of the major controversies in the early Christian community.  In the earliest days of the Church, we had a mixture of two very different cultures.  There were the Jewish people who knew the law and the prophets, and lived by a strict legal code that included many laws regarding food and eating.  The Gentiles, on the other hand, may have had a background in a pagan religion or a philosophy, but they did not have many laws regarding food or eating.  From time immemorial, Jews and Gentiles did not eat together.  As history has shown us, it is very difficult to form a Christian community when they cannot eat together in friendship.  The solution, prayerfully determined by the apostles and elders, was a compromise.  It was not, however, a compromise of a doctrine, but of a discipline.  Each community would sacrifice something so that the whole body could be at peace.  Peace comes only through sacrifice.

In our reading from the Book of Revelation, we are given a vision of the heavenly city of God.  The holy city of the New Jerusalem is the city of peace.  It gleams with the splendor of God and radiates with the brilliance of precious jewels.  Its walls are built on the heritage of the twelve tribes and its gates are protected by angels.  The foundation stones of the city of God are twelve apostles, and the temple of the city is the Lord God and the Lamb.  The peace of the city of God has come through the sacrifice of the Lamb who lives forever.

In our Gospel reading today we hear from the words of the Lord Jesus at the Last Supper.  Last week we received our new title as children of God and the new commandment to love one another as Christ has loved us.  This week, we hear the promise of the Lord Jesus that when we respond in love to his love, and keep his commandments of love, then the Father and the Son will dwell within us.  Having received the Lord’s love and responded in love, our souls become a fitting dwelling for the Most High God.  Heaven will not only be up, but within.  And the peace of the Kingdom of God, present in the soul of the baptized child of God, comes only from sacrifice.  It is the sacrifice of the Son of God who offers himself on the altar of the Cross.  It is the sacrifice of the disciples of the Lamb of God, who renounce the reign of sin and offer the sacrifice of their worship to God alone.  The gift of the peace of the Lord is given only through sacrifice.  The gift of the peace of the Lord must be received before the community of believers can truly join the holy city.  This is among the reasons why we exchange the sign of peace in the Sacred Liturgy after the sacrifice at the consecration, and before we receive Holy Communion.  Christ alone, through the gift of his sacrifice and through the gift of his apostles, brings us peace.

As we now enter into the mystery of the sacrifice of the Lamb, let us pray for the grace of prayerful discernment as our two cultures grow together in friendship and charity.  Let us place upon the altar our sacrifices so that they will be united to the one sacrifice of the Lamb.  And let us rejoice in the love of the Father and the Son, and share in the gift of peace.  Amen.

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