Homily for April 27, 2014 (Divine Mercy Sunday)

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

Last Sunday we found an empty tomb.  This Sunday, we find mercy.  Perhaps, dear brothers and sisters, it is better to say that this Sunday, mercy finds us.

In our reading from the gospel today the disciples were not looking for mercy.  They were not looking for anything.  They were locked in a room, trapped by fear and trapped by guilt because they had abandoned their master in the hour of his suffering.  They had betrayed him.  They had broken the promises that they had made to him.  But Jesus Christ keeps his promises.  He had promised that he would rise from the dead.  He had promised that he would reconcile the world to the Father.  He had promised that he would see his disciples again.  The Risen Christ came through the door that was locked.  He broke through their fear and their guilt.  He found them and he showed them mercy.  After his glorious resurrection the disciples are the first to become sharers in the mercy of God.  On the day that they encountered the mercy of the Risen Jesus, he made his disciples the first to become sharers of the mercy of God.  He had shown them mercy.  By his power, his authority, and his command, they would show and extend his mercy.  The gift of mercy that they had received, they would now reveal.

During the weeks of the Easter season, we will hear the stories of the early Christian community as recounted in the book of Acts.  It was a community of one faith, but two cultures.  It was a community much like our own.  They had their troubles, their trials and their triumphs, and so do we.  The unity of that early Christian community was found in their life of prayer together, in their sharing of life together, and in the breaking of the bread.  Their unity was in the celebration of the Eucharist and under the leadership of the apostles.  Every celebration of the Eucharist is a celebration of unity.  Every celebration of the Eucharist is a celebration of the mercy of God.  The community of disciples reflected the mercy of God.  The Risen Lord Jesus, in his great mercy, in the preaching of his apostles and by his sacramental presence, had broken through their divisions and difficulties just as he had broken through the fear and guilt of his apostles.  The apostles had received the mercy of God.  The apostles had revealed the mercy of God.  The apostolic community received and revealed and reflected the mercy of God.

We are a community drawn together by the mercy of God.  For most of us, the mercy of God found us and claimed us when we were children, through the waters of baptism.  Saint Peter reminds us that we were given a new birth to a living hope through the mercy of God.  We gather each Sunday for the celebration of the Eucharist, hearing the teachings of the apostles and under the leadership of one sent by apostolic authority.  We are gathered as a people who stand in need of the mercy of God.  We admit this publicly at the beginning of every Mass.  We admit this privately and powerfully and humbly in the sacrament of reconciliation.  We are gathered as a people who have received the mercy of God.  We are called to become a people who reveal the mercy of God and who by our life together reflect the great mercy of God.  In the joy of the resurrection and the glory of Easter day, with one voice we acclaim that we have been found by mercy.  Amen.

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

Homily for Easter Sunday (April 20, 2014)

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

Mary Magdalene walked to the tomb in darkness.  She ran from the tomb in fear.  Two disciples ran to the tomb in confusion.  And then everything changed.

The body had not been stolen.  Thieves would have taken the burial clothes as well.  The burial clothes remained.  In fact, they were very carefully arranged.

There could really only be one answer.  There could really only be one thing that was true.  The Lord Jesus had risen as he promised.  He is risen for me and for you.

Alleluia!  Alleluia! Alleluia!

Amen.

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

Homily for the Easter Vigil (April 19, 2014)

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

Tonight we tell our story.  It is the story of light overcoming the darkness, the story of faith overcoming doubt, the story of freedom overcoming slavery, and the story of life overcoming death.  Tonight we tell the story of the love that the Almighty God has for his people.  Tonight we tell the story of the life to which God invites his people.

On this most holy night, we begin again to tell the story that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.  Suffering and death do not have the final word.  Sin and disobedience do not have the final word.  This is the story that sin, suffering and death have been conquered by the blood of his holy cross.  The Eternal Word has been spoken and the Word is Life.

Tonight we tell our story.  And tonight, my dear catechumens, our story becomes your story too.  The Lord God who created the world in love, and who created you in love, tonight invites your profession of faith.  The Lord God who led the people of Israel out of Egypt and through the waters of the Red Sea leads you from slavery in the world to the waters of the baptismal font and to the freedom of the children of God.  As he once promised through the prophet Ezekiel, tonight through the holy anointing the Lord God places his Spirit within you.  Tonight, he welcomes you to his table.  Tonight you take your place at the wedding feast of the Son of God.

This is the night which sees Christ rise from the dead.  This is the night we tell our story. Amen.

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

Homily for Good Friday (April 18,2014)

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

In the passion of Jesus Christ we encounter the horror of sin, the price of our salvation, and the depths of the love of God.

The Lord Jesus is scourged, beaten and crowned with thorns.  He is tortured.  The seamless garment is taken from him.  His appearance is changed so much by his wounds that it is difficult to recognize him.  This is the horror of the sufferings of Jesus Christ.  This, my brothers and sisters, is the horror of sin.  We stain and remove our baptismal garment.  Our soul surrenders to temptation and surrenders the appearance of divine life. What the soldiers inflicted on the body of the Lord Jesus, sin inflicts on our souls. 

Yet, by his wounds we are healed.  In his suffering is our salvation.  In him the penalty for sin is paid.  Through the passion of Jesus Christ, we receive the restoration of our relationship with God.  In his pierced side the gates of paradise are opened once again.

He loves us to the end.  There is no greater expression of love.  He dies for you and for me.  He invites us to die to ourselves so that we can be raised in him.  Let us now join him at the cross.  Amen.

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

Homily for Holy Thursday (April 17, 2014)

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

I will see you in the Eucharist.

Normally, I preach.  However when a new priest celebrates his first Mass, the new priest usually invites another priest to preach.  The homily at the first Mass of a newly ordained priest is not usually preached to the congregation.  The homily is preached directly to the new priest.  It is a conversation between brothers and the congregation is invited to listen as well.  I invited Father Jim Erving of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate to preach at my first Mass.  I met Father Jim a few months before I entered seminary.  He was only a few years older than me, but I knew when I met him that I would invite him one day to preach to me.  Throughout my time in seminary, whenever I would speak with Father Jim, he would always remind me, “I will see you in the Eucharist.”  It was a promise of his prayers, but more than that it was the recognition that when we celebrate the Eucharist, we are mystically united with all of the baptized.  When we come to adore the Savior in the Blessed Sacrament, we are united with all of those who keep watch before his holy presence.  There is no distance between us when we are gathered around the Altar of the Lord and the tabernacle in the Church.  We will see each other in the Eucharist, even though many miles separate us.

On this most holy night, the Lord Jesus gave us the gift of the Eucharist and the gift of the priesthood.  Christ Jesus, who is the eternal High Priest, shared his priesthood with his apostles so that they would be an extension of his priesthood.  From generation to generation the priesthood of Christ has been handed on so that the words that Christ spoke on this night could be powerfully spoken in every place and time.  The Lord Jesus consecrated bread and wine, and he consecrated his apostles, and all who share in their ministry, so that they would consecrate bread and wine.  The words that he spoke, they would speak.  The bread that he broke, they would break.  The body and blood that he gave, they would give.   When we gather to celebrate the Eucharist, we join in the eternity of heaven.  All time passes away and we are present in the upper room in Jerusalem.  We are present with the Lord and with all of those of every time and place who have looked to him in hope.  In the celebration of the Eucharist and before the tabernacle of the Lord we are united with our Great High Priest who lives forever to make intercession for us.  We will see each other in the Eucharist, though hours and days and generations are between us.

I will see you in the Eucharist.  I thought of that often last October when I received the news that Father Jim had a brain tumor.  I sent him a simple message.  I will see you in the Eucharist.  When he called me on Christmas Eve, we spoke some about his illness.  We spoke more about faith, about our unity in the Eucharist, and about the privilege of being priests.  I asked for his blessing.  I gave him mine.  And we promised to see each other in the Eucharist.

One month ago tonight, I was praying and hearing confessions in the Church where I celebrated my first Mass.  I was praying and encouraging others to pray for Father Jim, because it seemed that his hour had come.  When I received the news the next morning that Father Jim had been called to house of the Eternal Father, I thought, I will pray for him at the Eucharist today. 

My dear brothers and sisters, distance and time are not the only things that fall away when we celebrate the Eucharist and adore our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.  When we celebrate the Eucharist and when we kneel before the tabernacle, we are in the presence of the one who has conquered death forever.  The power of the Eucharist is stronger than death.  When the Eucharist is celebrated the demons cry out in terror and death falls silent before the Word of eternal life.  We see each other in the Eucharist, because Christ has conquered sin and death.

This is the gift that the Lord Jesus gives to us on this most holy night.  The Lord Jesus gives us himself in the Eucharist.  He gives us a share in his sacrifice so that we can receive his sacrament of unity.  He invites us to the banquet where distance and time and even death pass away.  The Lord Jesus invites us to see him, and each other, in the Eucharist.  Amen.   

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

Homily for April 6, 2014 (5th Lent A)

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

It is the promise of new life and the promise of the resurrection to eternal life.  During these weeks of Lent we have seen the Lord Jesus conquer temptation in the desert.  We have seen him conquer the fears and worries of the disciples on the mountain of the Transfiguration.  We have seen him conquer the chains of sin at the well and conquer the darkness of the man born blind.  Today he conquers the power of death with the promise of the resurrection.

In our reading today from the book of the prophet Ezekiel the Lord God announces that he will open the graves of the dead.  He promises that he will raise his people up and bring them back to the Promised Land.  The Lord God promises that he will place his own spirit within each person.  He will give to each of his people the spirit of life.

In the Letter of the Apostle Paul to the Romans, we hear that we dwell in the spirit because the Spirit of God dwells within us.  When the Spirit of Christ dwells within us we are truly alive for the very life of God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit lives within our souls.  When the Spirit of Christ dwells within us our body becomes a temple of his glory.

In our reading today from the Gospel of Saint John we hear of the raising of Lazarus from the dead.  Mary, Martha and Lazarus were friends of the Lord Jesus and they lived in Bethany.  When the Lord Jesus received the news that Lazarus was ill, he said that the illness of Lazarus was not to end in death but was for the glory of God.  The illness of Lazarus was to be an opportunity for the Lord Jesus to show his healing power.  The illness of Lazarus was an opportunity for the Lord Jesus to announce the promise of the resurrection to eternal life.

When the Lord Jesus arrived at the tomb of Lazarus, Lazarus had already been dead for four days.  The Lord Jesus told the people to roll the large stone away from the tomb.  The Lord Jesus called to Lazarus.  The voice of the conqueror spoke before the silence of death, and Lazarus was restored to life.    When Lazarus came out of the tomb, the Lord Jesus instructed the people to remove the burial bands which bound Lazarus.  The Lord Jesus instructed them, “Untie him and let him go.”

Each of us, my brothers and sisters, was born in original sin.  We were born separated from God.  We were born in a spiritual death.  In the waters of the sacrament of baptism, we were called to new life.  In fulfillment of the words of the prophet Ezekiel we were brought out of our graves and the spirit of life was placed within us.  In fulfillment of the words of the Apostle Paul, the very life of God began to dwell within our souls.  The Lord Jesus himself called us to new and eternal life in the waters of baptism.  The Lord Jesus has entrusted his Church with the mission of untying the burial bands and empowering each of the baptized to live in the freedom of the children of God.

We have received new life in baptism, dear brothers and sisters.  We have received the promise of eternal life in Christ Jesus.  May we listen to his voice, follow in his steps, and live in the power of his Spirit.  Amen.

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