21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C–Share Your Faith, Broaden the Narrow Gate

Before I entered seminary in 2005 I was a software developer for an investment firm in Louisville. I was on a team that made in-house software that our portfolio managers used to track their performance. I did that for about 2.5-3 years and it was during that period that I discerned the priesthood. I felt like God had led me to Louisville via that job so I decided to study for the Archdiocese of Louisville rather than the Diocese of Owensboro where I was born and raised.

Toward the end of that job, I decided to send an email out, not only to my software development team but to the whole company, all the traders, portfolio managers, finance folks, etc. to tell them how happy I was to work with them and to explain that I was resigning in order to study to be a Catholic priest. After I sent that email, I got replies from many people who I had interacted with off and on over those three years but who I had no idea were Catholic. They would say, “Hey, I think its great what you’re doing… I’m Catholic too!” As I thought back on that later I realized that there was a piece missing from that whole experience. Why did I not recognize so many of my coworkers as Catholic? Why did they not express their Catholicism to me until that email at the very end? I think our readings this weekend provide several phrases we can use to piece together an answer to this type of problem: rubbing shoulders with people day-in and day-out without our Catholic faith being known.

“I come to gather nations of every language… that have never heard of my fame or seen my glory… to Jerusalem, my holy mountain, says the Lord” to the prophet Isaiah. On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus walks with a crowd of disciples and followers. One shouts out a question, “Lord will only a few people be saved?” Jesus doesn’t answer them directly. He answers the question they should have asked. They should have asked how to be saved, not how many. He said, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.” By this our Lord implies that it is not easy to be Christian or to be saved. It is difficult. It is a “narrow” gate.

It is not enough simply to belong to the Church, to the new covenant People of God. We should not have false confidence. In our Lord’s parable, when the people knock on the door of the kingdom, they say, “We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.” How else do we eat and drink in his company than by the Eucharist? How else does he teach in our streets than by the proclaiming of the Gospel and of our faith? But, it is not enough to simply be passive receivers of these. For our Lord replies, “I do not know where you are from… you evil-doers!” It is not enough to simply belong and receive, we have to DO well. We have to DO good, animated by our Catholic faith.

God desires all to be saved. In order to bring that about, he commands each one of us here today, in the Responsorial Psalm to “Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.” “So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees,” the second reading said, “Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be disjointed, but healed.” We have an image of someone bowed low by the difficulties of this life. Nevertheless, our Lord wants us to go out to all the world, with our heads held high, with confidence and with zeal to work with him for the salvation of souls. It is a call to be exemplary, to encourage those who are wavering or have less strength of faith. When someone who has great suffering can still be a joyful witness, that makes a profound impact on people.

I will send fugitives – a better translation is “survivors” – I will send survivors; survivors of the difficulties of this life “to the nations and they shall proclaim my glory among the nations”… and from the Gospel we heard that “people will come from the east and the west, and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the kingdom of God.” This has been fulfilled; the Church proclaims the Gospel in all four corners of the globe, but it is not yet complete. There are still so many who do not know Jesus. We must say with John the Baptist to those around us, “Among you stands one who you do not know.” Among you stands one whom you do not know.

We must play a part in the Church’s evangelizing mission. We each have a responsibility to help others to find the narrow gate that leads to heaven. A document from Vatican II, on the apostolate or the active ministry of the laity explains, “Inserted as they are in the Mystical Body of Christ by Baptism and strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation, it is by the Lord himself that they are assigned to the apostolate… to bear witness to Christ all the world over” (Apostolicam actuositatem 3).

It is not about doing something odd or peculiar or neglecting our family or work to do it. Since I had been such a lukewarm Catholic for most of my life, when I had this life-changing conversion upon researching answers to my girlfriend’s questions about Catholicism in my senior year of college, my mom was rightly concerned that I would be this obnoxious Bible-thumper, all up in everyone’s face! But that’s not what this is about. It is precisely in the midst of our family and work, where we already are, that we find the place for this mission. It may even be a silent witness. Often it is simply the peace and joy with which we live our lives that has a more profound effect on others than any argument or statement we put together.

We can bring Christ to where God has placed us in several ways: By our example, the way we live our lives; by putting our faith into practice; by being cheerful, being someone people can easily approach; by refusing to be perturbed by the difficulties that are the common lot of all mankind; by encouraging others with the joy that comes from following Christ; by giving new hope to those near despair, fighting the temptation to always just mind our own business; and by helping others go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. With this last one I have in mind many of our elderly who have an acute desire for this sacrament but have no one who is willing to take them.

These last few weekends we have found much fruit in these readings for our nightly examination of conscience. Some questions this weekend that we can ask ourselves are: Do those who know us recognize us as disciples of Christ? Do we rub shoulders day-in and day-out with people who have no idea that we are Catholic, like I did at my old job? How many have we helped take a decisive step toward heaven? How many have we spoken to about God? How many have we recommended a good book too, that may provide that extra encouragement someone needs? How many have we explained the Church’s teaching to on marriage and family? How many have we shown the joy that comes from giving of ourselves?

And again I think about confession – and this is going to take me away from my outline but I don’t care – How many have we helped to go to confession? This time I refer to our children and youth. You all are going to get tired of me preaching about this, but it is too important for me to ignore. I have heard the confessions of very few children and young adults since I’ve been here. This worries me because I love you all and I know that we cannot grow in holiness on our own strength; our souls are fragile, we need the help of that sacrament. I know that our children who go to Catholic schools go to confession once or twice a semester but that is not enough. We need to be helping them find the narrow gate by bringing them to confession.

I have heard the horror stories, about being forced to go to confession when you were young, every Saturday, whether you had something to confess or not. I have heard how you had to just make something up to get through the confession only to have the priest be mean to you or rush you along. These stories weigh heavily on my heart. It doesn’t have to be this way, once a month is a healthy practice. And I promise to all of you that I will never be mean to you. I will never yell at you. I will never rush you to get you outta there… though I may ask you to be succinct if Mass time is approaching. I will be serious, but I will always be merciful with you. I am nothing to be afraid of. This sacrament is too important for some jerk priest to turn you away from it forever.

Back to my outline, my final point is that what the soul is to the body, the Christian is to the world. Is that said of us in our family, at work, at school, or at a football game? Are you the soul of wherever you happen to be? No one is excused from this type of mission and no one is excluded from receiving it from us. Every generation needs to redeem and sanctify its own time. True, we are faced with ideologies which use powerful means of communicating a contrary message. Just think about those closest to you and start with them. Don’t worry about feeling like you can’t share your faith very well or you are too few to make a difference. Our Lord will multiply our strength and the Queen of Apostles will assist us. If we cooperate with them they will make the narrow gate broad for us.

20th Sunday Ordinary Time Year C–On Fire but Not Consumed

It is startling hearing Jesus use all of this fiery language today; language about the earth being ablaze and division among families. This goes against the vision we sometimes have of Jesus as a meek and mild character. But, language of fire is something we’re all familiar with, we use it often in reference to our spiritual and emotional lives. Spiritually, there are Catholics who are “On fire” for their faith – they are bold and courageous, they have zeal and excitement for their faith, they want to share it and participate in it to the full. There are also Catholics who are “lukewarm.” This perhaps is the worst kind of Catholic – The Book of Revelation describes how the Lord “spits out” the lukewarm, like water that is distasteful to him (Rev 3:16). Lukewarm-ness is that wishy-washy, uncommitted middle ground wherein a Catholic is not “on fire” for his faith, but hasn’t necessarily “gone cold” to it either – he just doesn’t really think about it, going through the motions every week. Moving further away, some Catholics have “gone cold” toward God, maybe due to an illness, or death in the family, or other difficulty that tempts them to reject him or be angry toward Him.

We also use language of fire in our emotional lives. We speak of “burning with passion” or lust – a temptation comes and it overcomes like a fire. There is also “burning with anger” – someone cuts you off in traffic, says an insulting remark, or makes your job at work more difficult and you can feel the anger boiling inside you. Or the “fire of resentment” – where just the sight of someone who slighted you in the past burns you up inside. Or the “fire of jealousy” that burns every time you see the person that got something you’ve been eyeballing all year. If it’s not fire in our emotions, sometimes it is Lukewarm-ness, which is experienced as a sort of malaise, or complacency, or indifferentism – just coasting through life, day to day. And coldness comes when we feel alone, isolated, alienated from family and friends, or self-centered.

I think Jesus uses language of fire to redeem our experience of the degrees of fire in our spiritual and emotional lives. Jesus burns with a fire too! He burns with a holy impatience to bring to fulfillment his baptism, to accomplish the Father’s Will, to suffer, die, and rise again for us to save us from our sins. “How great is my anguish until it is accomplished!” we hear him exclaim in our Gospel today. But, the difference between his fire and ours is that he burns with love, a fire that burns continuously but does not consume or destroy. On the other hand, the fires we experience in our emotions – lust, anger, resentment, and jealousy – DO consume us as they burn; they burn us out, they burn us up. And the fire in our spiritual lives is quick to die down. Our Lord today wants to transform these fires into fires of love that burn continuously but do not destroy us – like the fire in the burning bush from which God revealed Himself to Moses – “although the bush was on fire, it was not being consumed” (Exodus 3:1-4). The first reading illustrated this transformation. The fires of anger that caused the king’s princes to throw Jeremiah into the cistern to die, are later in the story transformed into fires of mercy that cause the king to send his court official and three men to save him.

Our Lord burns for each one of us personally, to save us from the pits that our sins cast us into. But do we burn for Him in return? Last week I talked about how a nightly examination of conscience can reveal the small signposts that tell us we are on The Way or have gone astray. Part of that examination could be to ask ourselves how we burn for God. Does our faith stoke the fire when our feelings don’t? This is a very important question! Often we let our subjective feelings dictate the objective truth. Sometimes when we do not feel the warmth of God’s love or the warmth of his closeness to us then we conclude that He must not be real or must be distant from us. But if the truth was based on our feelings, which often come and go, then we would never know the truth. On the other hand, the fires of faith tell us that God is Love and He is close to us, even if we do not feel it. You could ask yourself, “Do I have a faith that fuels perseverance, or do I ‘go cold’ toward God at the slightest difficulty?” “Let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us,” the second reading said, “and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith.” Two very powerful ways for stoking the furnace of faith, perseverance, and love are the sacrament of confession and Eucharistic Adoration.

In Dante’s narrative poem Divine Comedy, he describes an epic journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. In the first part, Dante’s “Inferno,” it is interesting to note how he describes the ninth circle, the deepest level of Hell. It is not like a lake of fire and brimstone with huge blazing flames like we usually imagine. Rather, it is a frozen lake of ice, with Satan trapped in the ice and gusts of icy wind blowing all around him.

Dante probably describes it as ice rather than fire because fire has connotations of warmth and comfort. Sure, Satan loves to stoke destructive fires of lust, anger, resentment, and jealousy within us. But, if it has been a while since you have been to confession, it can also feel like he has been packing ice onto your faith and love. Every time we sin, Satan packs more and more ice onto our hearts. Sometimes you can even feel the chill. But, remember what the prophet Isaiah foretold about our Lord: “A bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not quench” (Isaiah 42:3; Matthew 12:20). If we carefully carry the small ember still burning within us to the confessional, our Lord in his gentleness and mercy takes it carefully to Himself. Then, through the confession of our sins, the counsel of the priest, absolution, and forgiveness he adds more brush and twigs to the ember until it is built back up into a bonfire. Here, the lukewarm are emboldened and those cold to God are warmed up to Him.

If you have not been to confession in a while, let Jesus’ fire of love purify you and reignite you. “Then flew one of the seraphim to me,” Isaiah also foretold, “having in his hand a burning coal which he has taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth, and said, ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin is forgiven’” (Is 6:5-7, RSV). Rekindled, we can return to our duty of enkindling the world with true fires of love as Jesus desired, in such a way that no one who comes in contact with us will walk away empty. Either through a smile, an act of deference, a kind word, a supportive arm, a prayer, or an outstretched hand, everyone we meet will be touched by the fire of love in us. It only takes a spark to ignite a blazing fire.

Finally, Eucharistic Adoration also keeps the fire going. Of course, as you know, when a host is consecrated at Mass it becomes the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. What looks like bread, tastes like bread, feels like bread, and smells like bread, after the consecration, is not bread, but the living Presence of God with us. And on Monday morning after the 10am daily Mass, I take one of those hosts and display it on the altar in a beautiful structure called a monstrance. This display has a beautiful gold base and stem and a window surrounded with gold beams like the rays of the sun. There lies our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament waiting for us to visit Him throughout the day and to talk with him as with a friend.

Come… listen to his voice in your heart… tell him about your children, your siblings, your parents, your neighbors, your friends… tell him about your joys, your sorrows, the raise you got, the demotion you got, the “A” you got, the “F” you got. Tell him about your birthday, your healing, your progress… tell him about your illness, your disappointments, your failures. Let him love you and give you his light and his strength. Learn from Him how to set a fire of love to the world. Let him transform the destructive fires that burn within you. Let him embolden you to withstand any hardship. The fire is set, but it is not yet blazing. Will you be a part of the flame or a part of its extinguishing? Let Jesus, through confession and adoration, set you on a blazing path that burns its way to everlasting life.

Solemnity of the Assumption– At the Mass during the Day

I fondly remember an inscription on the baldachino standing over the altar at the seminary I went to, St. Mary’s, in Baltimore, MD.  A baldachino is an architectural element, a canopy structure on four pillars.  It is the first phrase of Mary’s canticle of praise to God that we heard in our Gospel- Magnificat anima mea Dominum – My soul magnifies the Lord.  At every daily Mass at the seminary, going back to when I first entered seminary in August of 2005, I read that phrase and pondered its meaning.  What does it mean?  I think this is both a statement of humility and a statement of victory.  Mary does not magnify herself by her virtues.  She sings, “my soul magnifies the Lord.”  And her entire soul, her entire life joyfully proclaims to all generations our Lord’s conclusive victory over sin and death.

Due to the fall of our first parents, sin took hold over the beginning and the end of human life.  At his conception, man inherits original sin and what we call concupiscence or the tendency toward sin.  And at his very end he must suffer the wages of sin which are death and the decomposition of his body.  But, the Blessed Virgin Mary shines forth as a beacon from God’s heavenly kingdom, showing us even now, before Christ’s second coming, that he is completely victorious over sin and death.  The Lord, by Mary’s Immaculate Conception, saved her from original sin before she could be sullied by it, thus showing his victory over the beginning of life.  By freeing her from the snares of concupiscence, he prepared her to live a life free from actual committed sin.  And by assuming her body and soul into heaven he showed his victory over the end of life.  Mary was saved completely from the dominion and the bonds of sin and death.

When Pope Pius XII defined the dogma of the Assumption in 1950 he defined it this way: “The Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death” (Munificentissimus Deus).  This is what Catholics must believe.  But what does this have to do with us?

Mary’s Assumption is the guarantee that those who share in the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, will share in his victory.  Some of the early Church Fathers differ on this point, but many taught that Mary did die.  But, the key difference between her death and ours is that our death will happen by necessity because we are fallen and sinful.  On the other hand, Mary’s death was not by necessity because she had no sin, whether that be original sin or committed sin.  Her death was a grace from God so that she might be conformed to her Son even in his death.  And her death lasted only an instant, in order to serve this purpose and in order that she might continue to be conformed to him in eternal life.  Her body was joined to her soul in heaven at the moment of her death, so that it would not know decay, and so that she would not have to wait for her Son’s second coming, wherein all of our bodies will be joined to our souls in heaven, hell, or purgatory.  Her body and soul were immediately assumed into heaven.

By sharing in Christ’s sufferings at the foot of the cross, and by sharing in his death, she proved to us that Jesus keeps his promises: she shares in his heavenly glory.  If we humble ourselves, we too will be exalted.  If we offer up our sufferings, great and small, to the Father and die to ourselves, our passions, and our own will, each and every day, we too will share in Christ’s victory and glory alongside our Blessed Mother who reflects the glory of her Son every time we look to her.  Today we can say with St. Paul, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us” (Romans 8:18).

That inscription in the seminary chapel helps us reflect on Mary's humility and victory.  One final reflection today that may be easily overlooked, is what the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary also teaches us about the honor due to our father and mother.  Jesus followed the fourth commandment - Honor Thy Father and Mother -  to its ultimate degree by bringing his mother, body and soul, quickly to his side at the moment of her death.  He crowned her Queen of heaven and earth.  As Mary described in her canticle of praise from our Gospel, “The Almighty has done great things for me; … [he] has lifted up the lowly.”  How do we honor our father and mother, especially as they approach old age or death?  Do we place them in nursing homes and then forget them or abandon them?  Do we “honor” them by squabbling over money or inheritance?  Jesus Christ is calling us today to follow his example, to honor our father and mother as he did at the Assumption and Crowning of His Blessed Mother.

Let us pray that through the intercession of our Blessed Mother, Queen of Heaven and Earth, we will not magnify ourselves by our faith and works, but instead always magnify our Lord.  Let us pray that through her intercession we will share in his suffering and death and so share in his glory.  That through her intercession we will honor our father and mother and give them the crown that they deserve.  Finally, let us pray, that through her intercession we too will be brought swiftly to the side of our Lord when we die.

Vigil of the Assumption

Celebrate Mary as the New Ark, as a Victor, and as the Perfect Disciple.

Interesting to have a first reading on the ark of the covenant.  What does it have to do with Mary’s Assumption?

David commanded the chiefs of the Levites
to appoint their kinsmen as chanters,
to play on musical instruments, harps, lyres, and cymbals,
to make a loud sound of rejoicing.

We too rejoice in the presence of an ark, the ark of the new covenant.

In the Old Testament the Ark is described as being about 2.5ft square and about 4.5ft long.  It was made of special acacia wood which was incorruptible, was covered inside and out with the purest, finest gold, and had a ring of gold on top. On each of the two sides were two gold rings that two wooden poles went through to allow the Ark to be carried. Even these poles were sheathed in gold. Over the Ark, at the two ends, were two cherubim, with their faces turned toward one another. Their outspread wings over the top of the Ark formed the throne of God, while the Ark itself was his footstool.

The Ark of the Covenant was built so magnificently because it stood for God’s very presence among the Hebrews. The Book of Lamentations called it “the beauty of Israel.”  It was pure, incorruptible, and of the highest beauty. It also held inside three items that were crucial to their faith and identity: the tablets of the 10 commandments of God’s Law; a golden vase containing the manna from heaven that fed them in the desert; and the rod of the high priest, Aaron, that bloomed in affirmation of his priesthood. But the beauty of the ark was not only due to what it symbolized or what it contained but what it prefigured, what it pointed to in the future: The beauty and purity of the Ark of the New Covenant: The Blessed Virgin Mary.  We celebrate today a New Ark of a New Covenant with a beauty the Old Ark only aspired to have.

This point is packed with meaning! First the gold lining and covering of the old Ark pointed to the Immaculate purity of the Virgin Mary, the New Ark. And the three things the old Ark contained – The tablets of the Law, the golden vase of manna, and the rod of Aaron – are also in the New Ark, in the person of Jesus Christ, when Mary carried Him in her womb. He is the author of the Law, He is the Bread from Heaven, and He is the eternal High Priest.

In Israel’s history the Old Ark traveled often with them, finally resting in the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem where scholars believe it was lost when the temple was destroyed in 587 B.C.  This too prefigured something greater. Today we celebrate Mary’s entrance, body and soul, into heaven as the entrance of the new ark into the heavenly temple of Jerusalem.  Immaculate in soul and virginal in body she is without corruption and found worthy to enter immediately into glory.

In celebrating the Assumption we also celebrate the victory of Christ, as our second reading suggests:

When that which is mortal clothes itself with immortality,
then the word that is written shall come about:
Death is swallowed up in victory.
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?

Due to the fall of our first parents, sin took hold over the beginning and the end of human life.  At his conception, man inherits original sin and what we call concupiscence or the tendency toward sin.  And at his very end he must suffer the wages of sin which are death and the decomposition of his body.  But, the Blessed Virgin Mary escaped both.  She shines forth as a beacon from God’s heavenly kingdom, showing us even now, before Christ’s second coming, that he is completely victorious over sin and death.

The Lord, by Mary’s Immaculate Conception, saved her from original sin before she could be sullied by it, thus showing his victory over the beginning of life.  By freeing her from the snares of concupiscence, he prepared her to live a life free from actual committed sin, thus showing his victory over the course of life.  And by assuming her body and soul into heaven he showed his victory over the end of life.  Mary was saved completely from the dominion and the bonds of sin and death.

When Pope Pius XII defined the dogma of the Assumption in 1950 he defined it this way: “The Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul  into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death” (Munificentissimus Deus).  This is what Catholics must believe.  But what does this have to do with us?

Mary’s Assumption is the guarantee that those who share in the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, will share in his victory and glory.  By sharing in Christ’s suffering and death at the foot of the cross, Mary proved to us that Jesus keeps his promises: she shares in his heavenly glory.  If we offer up our sufferings, great and small, to the Father and die to ourselves, our passions, and our own will, each and every day, we too will share in Christ’s victory and glory alongside our Blessed Mother.

Finally, in the Gospel we celebrate her as the perfect disciple.  She traveled a rough road to the glory she now enjoys.  She was active and cooperative.  She said Yes throughout her life.  She had faith, she trusted God without knowing the future.  She surrendered completely to his will even to the death of Jesus on the cross.  She is the mother of Jesus, but also his disciple.

To be a disciple of Christ is more blessed than to be his mother.  The woman in the crowd praised Mary for being Jesus’s Mother.  But when Jesus replied, “Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it” he was making a point that Spiritual relationship is more important than blood relationship.  Of course, She was blessed on both accounts.  St. Augustine said, “Indeed the blessed Mary certainly did the Father’s will, and so it was to her a greater thing to have been Christ’s disciple than to have been his mother, and she was more blessed in her discipleship than in her motherhood.  Hers was the happiness of first bearing in her womb him whom she would obey as her master.”

She is taken up into heaven not only as his mother but as the perfect disciple.  She heard the word of God and kept it.  We are invited to follow her.  How is God calling you to follow Him in your particular state in life?  To know, we need to be open to the Word and respond with our own Yes.  If we respond like this, like Mary, we too will be glorified.

19th Sunday Ordinary Time Year C: Await the Blessed Hope

When we think of our family history we tend to think back a couple of generations to our grandparents or great-grandparents and the memories of where have lived and grown up and where we have come from. There is more interest now than ever-before in genealogy and family trees. People love to know where their roots are. In fact I had a family come in this past week who were not Catholic but were interested in finding a record of their great-great-great grandfather. And we saw a couple weekends ago at the Manton Music Jam how many people from all over the region came to listen to some good bluegrass music and recall their roots at Holy Rosary.

Sometimes we hear people say, “I come from a long line of…” any given profession. For example, “I come from a long line of farmers… or soldiers… or doctors.” Children look back to their fathers and grandfathers to find direction for their own lives in the present. Our readings helps us to see that we have a spiritual family that goes back much more than 2 or 3 generations. In fact, we have a family history that goes all the way back to Abraham and the Israelites of the Exodus. We are as much a part of that spiritual family line as we are of the family of our last names. And we can look back to our fathers in faith for spiritual direction in our lives today.

The second reading described the calling of Abraham, his summoning into the desert. God gave him no direction, no destination, no departure time; He just said “Go” and promised that he would make Abraham’s descendants as numerous as the stars. Abraham loved and trusted the Lord so much that he did go; he just started walking. The first reading described the summoning of God’s people out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. God promised he would free them. He gave Moses very specific instructions regarding a Passover meal. The people were to consume an unblemished lamb and sprinkle its blood on their doorposts. When the angel of death swept through to punish the Egyptians for enslaving God’s people, he saw the blood as a sign, and passed-over their houses. The Israelites ate the Passover meal in haste, ready and eager to follow Moses and God’s call to the Promised Land.

Our fathers in faith trusted the Word of God, put their faith in his oaths, and were convinced that what He promised, He would do. They did not live to see these promises fulfilled. Abraham’s descendants didn’t truly become as numerous as the stars until Christ and His Church appeared. The Passover that freed God’s people from slavery to Egypt to pursue a territorial Promised Land wasn’t truly fulfilled until the Last Supper and the Eucharist which frees God’s people from slavery to sin to pursue the Promised Land of Heaven. But, we too still wait for a fulfillment, the final fulfillment that will come with Christ’s Coming – either at our death or at the end of time – whenever that will be. Will we be as watchful, trusting, and vigilant as our fathers in faith were? Will we follow their direction?

To be vigilant in our faith doesn’t mean scrupulosity. But it does mean being attentive to the small victories in our day-to-day spiritual lives. We do not know the hour when Christ will come for us. Vigilance through the small victories will ensure that we are ready and will make Christ’s coming a joyful one. But, if we are lukewarm in our faith, not trying to learn more about it or grow in it, or if we have turned away from the Lord, then his coming will not be joyful, but will be like a thief in the night.

A daily examination of our conscience and of the day, at the end of each day, is a helpful tool for discerning how vigilant we really are. When we prayerfully think back over each day, we can notice the small signals, the little red flags that show us that we followed The Way or had gone astray. A daily examination helps us to become more astute observers of all of the little temptations of each day that can in turn become many occasions for compiling victories.

St. Francis de Sales has a wonderful reflection on this approach in his great work, The Introduction to the Devout Life, which I highly recommend to you. It is very accessible and readable. There he emphasizes that many small victories are better than a single great victory in the spiritual life (In Conversation with God, 57.3). When an enemy force is attacking a castle, they focus all of their strength on the front gate so that a clever spy can go unnoticed to the back of the castle and infiltrate it through a small crack or crevice. It is the many small temptations and victories that we should not lose sight of. Little things are a prelude to greater things. Small daily victories strengthen the interior life and mold it to be more sensitive and receptive of divine things.

St. Francis de Sales also gives some very helpful examples of these many opportunities. One, he calls the “heroic minut:” that minute when you first wake up or when your alarm first goes off. Heroically getting up in that first minute – I’m so terrible at this! – is a small but very good victory! Another example is overcoming, when you first sit down to perform a particular duty or responsibility, that first temptation of curiosity that leads to a waste of time. Overcoming the first temptation to see if your favorite blog has been updated, or to check your email, or to check for facebook comments is a wonderful small victory! Other examples are offering a self-denial at meals – overcoming the temptation for second or third helpings or the desert you know you don’t need; living sobriety at social engagements – stopping at 2 or 3 beers at the family cookout or wedding reception; or offering pleasant conversation to others – injecting a kind word when your friends begin to gossip about a neighbor. These temptations come many times each day. It can be inspiring to consider, St. Francis de Sales says, that “For all the battles we win against the small enemies there will be a precious stone placed in the crown of glory that God prepares for us in his holy kingdom.”

One final bit of advice he gives is to make each small temptation an occasion for payer or an act of love. The devil tries to infiltrate our lives, to pick away at us little by little with all of these small temptations in the hopes that the more they are indulged, they more he can lead us to even greater transgressions. But if every temptation brings a prayer to God then he will cease to tempt us. The last thing he wants us to do is pray! Men… every time you see a young lady immodestly dressed say a prayer for her in that instant rather than staring at her, then the devil will cease his efforts at driving you to lustful thoughts or actions.

As these little victories compound, we will find ourselves growing in peace, serenity, and joy “as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.” We will find ourselves vigilant and ready for the final fulfillment of God’s promise to us of true freedom in heaven. Living this way, when the Lord comes, he will find us not only ready, but joyfully awaiting him as servants who await a master to prepare a feast for them; as a bride who waits for her groom to take her to the wedding feast; as a young mother who waits for her husband to return home from battle. This isn’t a gloomy waiting or a gloomy readiness, this is a joyful readiness! This is how the Lord wishes to find us when he comes again.

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C: Rich in What Matters to God

As Christians, when we think about avoiding materialism, we focus on trying not to accumulate things just for the sake of accumulating them, like clothes, shoes, DVD’s, whatever it may be. But it seems like the accumulation of books is an acceptable form of materialism. The guys who helped me move into the rectory will tell you that much! I have four bookshelves over there filled with books on philosophy, theology, the spiritual life, the sacraments, etc. They go on and on. And I tell myself that I need them, or that someday I will refer to them. Many of them are in fact very useful, but most have only been read in bits here and there.

The guys who helped me carry in box after box of books may not believe this, but I actually gave away many books as I packed up to move here. That was a very liberating exercise. It not only helped me have less to pack, but it also relieved a bit of that spiritual and psychological burden that escalates as we – as I – accumulate more and more books and things. I felt like a 50 pound weight has been lifted off of my shoulders as I gave those books away. My dad says for every one book I buy I should take two off of the shelf. Well, then they would just pile on the floor!

I pray that I can retain an impulse to periodically pare things down, to unload a bit, and to free myself of so many things that distract me from what is most important. We see this impulse especially in the elderly and most especially in those who are preparing for death. Facing death causes one to look back at how well he has lived his life. “Did I live well? Did I do the right thing? Was I a good husband and father? How well did my children turn out? Will my family be OK?” All of these are questions that I have heard elderly people ask as I have visited them at home or at the hospital. And the point that many make is that the things they thought were most valuable, really aren’t that valuable anymore in the grand scheme of things. Many feel a certain disappointment or embarrassment.

They fought and worked so hard for so many decades in order to have a wealthy retirement or to finally enjoy all of the things they felt cheated out of as they concentrated on raising their family. Now all they want to do is be free of it all, to have peace and quiet, to see virtuous living among their children, to give and to receive love, to share the stories and the lessons they have learned. And the wisest of the elderly want to die well, detached from all of the things and all of the plans that now have little value before the eternal value of their own soul and their preparedness for eternal life.

In one of the most important encyclicals of our Catholic Social Teaching, Populorum Progressio, On the Development of Peoples, Pope Paul VI wrote, “Increased possession is not the ultimate goal of nations nor of individuals. All growth is ambivalent. It is essential if man is to develop as a man, but in a way it imprisons man if he considers it the supreme good, and it restricts his vision.” Our first reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes began by exclaiming “Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!” The Hebrew word, translated here as “vanity” really means “a breath” or “a vapor”; “vanity of vanities” is the Hebrew way of saying, “the merest breath.” The author isn’t talking about being “vain”, he is emphasizing that the things we work so hard for in life, what Pope Paul VI called our “increased possession,” are like “a breath”, like “a vapor”, they pass away with the wind. Those who are approaching death from sickness or old age readily see how their things will pass away like “a breath”, like “a vapor” and the wisest among them are liberated, not embittered by this fact. Why can’t most of us, who cannot see our death approaching, have the same liberation and experience the same freedom of detachment?

The fact is, God put into man an insatiable desire for the infinite, but we try to fulfill that desire with finite things. Because we do this, we live in constant frustration, going from one thing to the next, never satisfied. But, our satisfaction will only come, even in this life, when we satisfy our infinite desire with things that have eternal significance. Perhaps we need a healthy reminder that death could come for any of us at any minute. This might cause us to be a little nervous or anxious; maybe it should. The better reaction though is to live each day valuing what is most important, what does not simply pass away on its own, for example, the share in God’s own divine Life in the grace of the sacraments; the gifts of Faith, Hope, and Love; the spiritual growth of our children and grandchildren; the peace and fulfillment that comes from working with “wisdom and knowledge and skill,” as the First Reading put it; or the freedom that comes from interior detachment from the things that we own.

It is not a sin to be rich or to own many things. We have many saints in our tradition who were kings or queens. But it is a sin to value finite things over eternal things. Our things should be instrumental toward our salvation; they find their value in the way they help us toward it. They should not amount to our salvation or be the source that we look to for a sense of salvation here on earth. When you and I die, what will people say? Will they say: “Yes, he lived a life accumulating, day after day, year upon year… grace, prayer, charity toward his family and neighbors, parishioner after parishioner who decided to be a more faithful Catholic because of his example. He thought ‘of what is above, not of what is on earth,’ as St. Paul wrote to the Colossions. He accumulated rosaries prayed, confessions humbly given, novenas offered, hours spent before the Blessed Sacrament. And he accumulate these not so he could provide a final tally to God, but because they brought him true fulfillment and happiness. They brought others relief from their burdens. They were pleasing to God.” Or… instead… will God say to you and me what he said to the foolish rich man in today’s Gospel: “‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.”

17th Sunday Ordinary Time Year C: Prayer and Persistence

Why is it that… of all the things that are the most life-giving in our faith, prayer can be the most confounding? The questions that we have when we first learn to pray continue to pop-up when we are most advanced in prayer: When should I pray? How should I pray? What should I say? Why should I even try? The good news is we are not left on our own to find the answers to these questions. And we are not alone in asking them. Jesus’ disciples, even after his preaching, teaching, and parables; even after his miraculous cures and his miraculous feats; even after he calmed the storm at sea, cast out demons, and multiplied the loaves and fishes; even after the Transfiguration, they still felt the need to ask him how to pray.

And this we should pay close attention too. This is Jesus Christ, fully divine and fully human. The Father cannot resist the prayers of His Son. The very words of the “Our Father” that Jesus gave his disciples were given to Jesus by the Father as he prayed in silence. At the same time, Jesus knows the human heart perfectly. He knows how to put into words exactly what we need. The “Our Father” is the perfect prayer. No matter your experience of prayer it is the surest way to our Father’s heart. It should always be a staple of our personal prayer.

The words of the “Our Father” in St. Matthew’s Gospel are the words we are most familiar with. In St. Luke’s Gospel today, the “Our Father” is a little more succinct. He starts out with, “Father, hallowed be your name.” He doesn’t say “who art in heaven.” St. Luke does this because he doesn’t want us to think that God is somehow confined in heaven and distant from us. He leaves this out in order to draw us up to heaven, close to the Father, and to draw us away from earthly things (Theophylus, Catena Aurea, Luke 11). This closeness to him is the reason that we are able to call him “Father.” We truly are his children and we should feel like his children. We should feel like we can come to him with whatever needs we may have. And if we pattern our prayer after the “Our Father”, he is sure to answer us, even if not how we expect.

Believe it or not, there is a right and a wrong way to pray. The Letter of St. James, chapter 4, verse 3 says, “You ask, but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” Sometimes children pray for silly things, like when a girl prays for God to make her brother mute so he’ll stop picking on her! This is OK because it cultivates a familiarity with God and an impulse to turn to Him regularly. When we become adults we should have a child-like faith, but not a child-ish faith. We shouldn’t pray to win the lottery or for our favorite team to win. Like the “Our Father,” we should praise God first – “hallowed by Thy Name” – ask for his will to be ours – “Thy Will be done” – then pray for only those things which are objectively good for us. We should examine our motives and ask God to purify them.

Even a seemingly good prayer, like “God, grant me a deeper understanding of your Church’s teaching,” could be tinged with the desire for others to praise us for this understanding. And God, who knows our hearts perfectly, will not answer us right away because he does not give what is not good for us now. Like the gospel said, he will not “hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish” or “hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg.” This is because no matter how good the fish or the egg might sound, if in his will they are not good for us now, then they will be harmful. But, when we pray the “Our Father” or pattern our own prayer after it, asking for good things with pure motives, our Father will surely answer us, even unexpectedly. He would not encourage us to ask, seek, & knock if he was not willing to give and give abundantly.

Our ancestral father in faith, Abraham, gives us another sure and certain way to our Father’s heart: persistence. The Lord in the form of an angel was determined to go to the wicked towns of Sodom and Gomorrah to see if the outrage expressed against them was really true. Abraham knew what the verdict would be if it was: The Lord’s justice would prevail over those cities. Moved with hope he concluded that surely there are innocents among them. Then out of love for these unknown innocents he implored the Lord repeatedly to make concession for them. He was humble, he expressed all along his desire not to pester the Lord. But with courage he continued to intercede for the innocent residents of Sodom and Gomorrah. And with patience and generosity the Lord progressively tempered his justice with his mercy at each of Abraham’s requests. It was Abraham’s persistence that elicited the most generosity from the Lord.

We should never be afraid to be persistent in prayer. Jesus Christ himself taught us to pray “Give us this day our daily bread”. This daily bread is both our temporal, physical, or emotional needs for that day and especially our spiritual need for the Eucharist. These we should pray for every day. But, when we think of praying to God about the same thing over and over we imagine a little child in line at the grocery store who begs and begs for candy until his mother finally buys it. The mother in that case isn’t teaching the child about the nobility of persistence or rewarding him for his perseverance. She buys the candy because she can’t bear the whining any longer! This is not how God operates and it is not how he sees our relationship with him. From God’s point of view, He is unwearied in his love for us. From our point of view, we pray repeatedly for something not because we want to pester God into submission but because we believe that he can provide what we want. It’s actually a sign of great faith. If you are one who prays repeatedly, you should know that God has given you a great faith

Repetitious prayer also develops our reliance on Him rather than on ourselves. It helps us to give the proper value to God’s gifts and not to take them for granted. One who toils for years for something keeps it safe and secure, he doesn’t leave it unguarded to be lost or stolen or forgotten. God’s gifts, his graces, virtues, assistance and healing are more precious than gold. He doesn’t wish for these things to be taken so trivially. But this doesn’t mean that he is stingy in his giving. In fact, He gives much more than we are willing to receive.

God sometimes delays in answering our prayer because he knows that this delay will serve us better in the end. If the man in the parable today had opened the door on the first knock for his friend who needed bread for his guest, then the friend in his hurry would have taken the bread and ran home immediately to his guest. Instead, the man inside delayed, forcing his friend to consider not only his immediate need, but also the late hour of his request and the courtesy due to the family inside who were asleep. The man caused his friend to think more deeply about their friendship, to honor it more, and to think outside of himself toward others. God’s delay in answering our prayer should cause us to consider the same things.

When we pray the “Our Father” in a little while say each phrase carefully and think about each phrase as you say it. When we sing “Holy, Holy, Holy” and “Hosanna in the Highest!” praise God from the depths of your heart. Before you receive Communion, ask the Father, through Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit to unite your will to his. Then spend some quiet time in prayer after Communion, the most fitting time to pray, and ask for what you need. When you praise him, seek his will, and ask for good things with good intentions at this time – right after receiving Communion – you will not only be praying like Jesus and with Jesus, but you will be praying as Jesus, because the Father will look upon you and see the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of His Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, living in you. When He sees His Son in you, He will not fail to answer.

16th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C: In Contemplation, We Love the Lord with Our Whole Heart, Being, Strength, and Mind.

Do you remember last week’s Gospel? A scholar of the law asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, but Jesus asked him for his own take on the answer. The scholar replied, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, …being, …strength, …and mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Then Jesus vividly illustrated the second half of his answer by telling him the parable of the Good Samaritan. St. Luke, today, follows up this parable by illustrating the first part of the scholar’s answer, how we are to love God with all our heart, being, strength, and mind.

Last week we went deeper into the parable because it is too easy to just dismiss the priest and the Levite who passed by, praise the Good Samaritan for his good deed, say, “Just love everybody,” and end it at that. In this account of Martha and Mary we must also go deeper in order to see how it really illustrates loving God with one’s whole heart, being, strength, and mind. Again, it is too easy to just dismiss Martha for her busywork, praise Mary for her listening, say, “Just listen to God more” and end it at that. We need to appreciate the work Martha was doing. In the first reading, Abraham busily tended to his three guests. He saw the Lord in them, he ran to greet them, ran into his home to have Sarah prepare a meal, then ran to his servant who quickly prepared the meat, and finally he waited on them while they ate. With eagerness and haste he waited on the Lord.

This sounds a lot like the hospitality that Martha gave our Lord. She too “welcomed him” and was “burdened with much serving.” We see in her the same sense of eagerness and haste in serving the Lord that Abraham had. In fact, Abraham’s scenario – which occurred “by the terebinth of Mamre” – and Martha &Mary’s scenario – which occurred in a “village”, probably Bethany – both happened in the same area, just south of Jerusalem. These parallels help us to see that Martha’s “anxious and worried” hospitality should not be simply dismissed. Jesus would never rebuke such hospitality outright. We can imagine that Jesus had his disciples with him and Martha wanted to honor them by being a good hostess. The Lord’s reply to Abraham, “Very well, do as you have said” should comfort Martha too.

But, at the end of the day, very little was needed physically or temporally. After all, in serving the Lord, Abraham only brought his guests “a little food”, just enough to “refresh” them. Jesus himself says to Martha, “There is need of only one thing.” His physical needs will come and go, but his Word endures forever. Mary preferred to sit at his feet, as a disciple does before a master, and listen carefully to his teaching, tending to the Word of God. Were these words to be lost on Martha? Her work for Jesus was good and will continue to be good but only after she spends some quiet time with him listening to his voice, and receiving it deeply into her heart. This is how we are to love God, by allowing our whole heart, being, strength, and mind to be filled with and permeated by the Word of God.

How can we, like Martha’s sister Mary, choose “the better part” each day, if we do not love the Lord enough to let Him speak to us? Ignoring or not giving enough attention to his voice is tantamount to not loving him. How many wives would insist that their husbands loved them if their husbands never communicated with them on a deep level? How many children would insist that their parents loved them if their parents completely ignored them? Loving God involves much more than just hearing the readings on Sunday. It means much more than fitting some quiet time for Jesus into our busy day. Loving the Lord means fitting our day into Him! Setting aside time for quiet prayer is certainly very good. But the other parts of the day that do not give us silence can still be lived in dialogue and union with God who is always speaking to us, always calling us to be with Him.

Fr. Jean Corbon, a Dominican theologian, wrote a book that I read a few summers ago called, The Wellspring of Worship, about how we can constantly live in the grace of the liturgy. In that book is a quote that always comes to mind whenever my conscience tells me to pray but the evil one makes me feel guilty for not being busy. It’s a simple quote that just says, “Contemplation is the most fruitful human activity.” This is because contemplation involves our whole heart, being, strength, and mind.

Contemplation can happen in silence or in activity. In silence, we love God with our whole heart when we give him all our inclinations and passions and ask him to make our heart like his Sacred Heart which beats with purity, sacrifice, and perfect love. In silence, we give our whole being to him when we surrender to him as his faithful disciple and he fills us with his own being by making us holy through grace. In silence, we give all our strength to him when we focus all of our attention on him despite how tired, or bored, or distracted, or rebellious we may be and he gives us strength to persevere in prayer when it is dry or to be consoled when it is fruitful. Finally, in silence we give our whole mind to God when we give him all our thoughts, feelings, and desires and he in turn gives us what he gave St. Paul: the completion of the word of God, “the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past”, and “the riches of the glory of this mystery”, indeed, “all wisdom.”

Contemplation can also extend to the activity of our day. We can and we must extend the dialogue of our quiet time in prayer throughout the rest of our day. I really like how you all spend some time in prayer before Mass in order to gather your heart, being, strength, and mind to be filled by God. Many parishes have fallen out of this practice. I also encourage you to spend time in prayer after Mass to thank him for making you holy and to draw the rest of the day’s plans into his presence. We must continue to do this.

Then when we get up Monday morning for work we can say to God that we will work this day not for some superficial goal but in order to glorify him. And during the day we could say: “Lord, let me approach this customer as if it were you.” Or, “Lord help me to offer up the pain I feel from my illness for the salvation of my family, just as you saved all mankind through your crucifixion.” Or, “Lord I invite you to be a part of even the smallest steps of this project.” Now, work is not prayer, it must have its own time. But our work can be done prayerfully when we contemplate the presence of God in everything we do and in everyone we encounter.

This is the “better part,” when we fit our entire lives and our entire day into him, rather than fitting him only into some small part of our life or our day. When we pray at night, at the end of a day of both quiet and active contemplation, we will not feel as if we are finally speaking to our long-lost friend again. We will be speaking to the Lord who all the while was “standing nearby” us, was running to “the entrance” of each day to greet us, who has brought us the “little food” of the Eucharist for our eternal refreshment, who hastens and runs to bring us his graces, and who “sets these before” us always. We will discover that He was the one “burdened with much serving” so that even through a busy day, he “will not be taken” from us. Through contemplation, the most fruitful human activity, we shall “love the Lord, our God, with all our heart, …being, …strength, …and mind.” We “will live in the presence of the Lord” and “shall never be disturbed.”

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Good Samaritan and The Courage to Love and be Loved

This parable today, of the Good Samaritan, is one of the most memorial parables in Scripture; like the Parable of the Prodigal Son, where the son squanders his inheritance and comes back for forgiveness; or the Parable of the Good Shepherd, where the shepherd leaves the 99 in search of the one lost sheep. These parables are so memorable, we could easily think, “Oh, I’ve heard that one before, I know what it means” and tune them out. But, any time we think we already have a parable or a passage figured out, that should be a sign to go even deeper. I typically don’t like to just retell the readings in a homily, because you all just listened to them! But this parable warrants a re-telling so that we can uncover its deeper meaning.

A scholar of the Old Testament law approaches Jesus and asks him what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus essentially answers, “You tell me!” The first part of the scholar’s answer is a no-brainer for any Jew: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, …soul,…strength,…and mind.” A faithful Jew prayed these very words from the Book of Deuteronomy twice every day. But this scholar, a pious Jew, who understood the true spirit of the law, added onto the end something unexpected, a reference to the Book of Leviticus: “and [you shall love] your neighbor as yourself.” It would have been very unexpected for a Jew to make this connection. In fact none of the writings of the rabbis from this period connect loving God with loving our neighbor. The scholar is on to something here: To love God is to love our neighbor.

But who is my neighbor? For the Jews, one’s neighbor was a fellow countryman or a pilgrim in his country. It did not include those outside of Israel, or those who were non-Jews, or those who were sinners. Their whole concept of holiness involved being faithful to God by avoiding contact with those who could lead them away from Him or who could make them ritually impure, unfit to participate in public worship. And this wasn’t necessarily a bad approach because the Jews were influenced so greatly by the pagan worship of those who conquered them or surrounded them. So, in our Gospel’s parable of the Good Samaritan, we shouldn’t be quick to judge the priest and the Levite for passing by the man who had been robbed, stripped, beaten, and left half dead. The law dictated that they should only have contact with the corpses of their immediate family or else they would be impure for worship. But Jesus teaches the scholar and us that the bar for maintaining holiness has been raised. Holiness was once found adequately in acts of strict obedience to the law. Now it must be found in acts of mercy for all people, especially those in need, whether they are a part of the same community or not. And Jesus used the example of a Samaritan, a nationality hated by the Jews, to make this very point.

To see how much the Jews hated the Samaritans, you only have to look in the Book of Sirach, chapter 50. There, the author asks God to bless all of mankind, except for certain groups of people who had led the Jews astray. He says, “My whole being loathes two nations, the third is not even a people: Those who live in Seir and Philistia, and the degenerate folk who dwell in Shechem.” Those “degenerate folk who dwell in Shechem” who are “not even a people” are the Samaritans. We would understand then if the Good Samaritan ran right past the fallen Jew just like the priest and Levite did, in order not to be seen or persecuted. But, moved with great pity and mercy at the sight of the Jewish man’s suffering, the Samaritan dresses his wounds with oil and wine, takes him to an inn, and gives the innkeeper two whole days wages, enough to pay for several days lodging. He even offers to pay more if needed. He did not simply bandage the man and move on, he made sure he would be increased to full vigor. The scholar conversing with Jesus, humbled by this parable, answers correctly that it was the Samaritan who was the victim’s true neighbor, not the victim’s fellow countrymen, the priest and the Levite who passed by him.

Now, again, just a surface reading of this parable could lead us to resent the priest and the Levite and to simply admire the Samaritan for his good deed and close the book at that. But we must also appreciate the need for ritual purity at that time, the courage that it took for the Samaritan to act, and what neighborliness and holiness truly are: Love and Mercy toward all in need. But, we can go even deeper still because the early Church Fathers, like St. Augustine, saw this not only as a parable, but as an allegory: the characters and the objects in the story represent spiritual meanings. By looking at the spiritual meaning we are taught not only how to love and who to love. We are taught also that we should receive love.

For St. Augustine, the man robbed, beaten, and left half dead represents Adam the first man who, through his Original Sin, is beaten by Satan, robbed of immortality, and left half dead to sin. The priest and the Levite who pass by represent the Old Testament laws and regulations which were unable to heal man’s soul and raise him to new life. But, the Good Samaritan is Jesus Christ, who comes to man’s side as his neighbor in order to rescue him from death. He doesn’t simply restore mankind to level zero, he increases him by taking him to the inn, which is the Church. There we are healed by the oil, wine, and refreshment of the seven sacraments. And for such gratuitous gifts he paid not two silver coins, or two days wages, but the infinite price of his Precious Blood. And he promised to continue to nourish us, whenever we need it, through the innkeeper, the ordained priesthood, which continues his ministry until the end of time.

The Parable of the Good Samaritan is much more than a generic command to just “love everyone.” Each of us, personally, is offered love in a concrete way through the sacramental life of the Church. The Church and the sacraments are God’s great and superabundant gifts of love and mercy for each of us. Do we let Jesus heal us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation or are we content with our sins and the havoc they cause, telling Jesus to just move on down the road – “No help needed here.” Do we allow Jesus to heal us of our venial or “minor” sins by worthily receiving Holy Communion, or do we persist in serious sins which close us off from being able to receive Him? We are given so many graces through the sacraments and all of the prayers, devotions, and blessings of the Church’s Tradition that there is no reason why we can’t live life not only restored, but increased and strengthened by God’s own Divine life.

Do we help others to receive this new life? Do we take our children or grandchildren to confession monthly? Do we take them to daily Mass when they are home from school? Do we pray with them at home or at Church or encourage them to receive the sacraments often and worthily? Our Lord wants to be the Good Samaritan to us who are wounded by our sins and weaknesses. Let him take you to the inn, to the Church, which is not a haven for saints, but a hospital for sinners.

Homily for 14th Sun in O.T.: Vocations–Lieutenants in the Church Militant

As Catholics, we believe that the Church is not only made up of Catholics in this world, but also those who are being purified in purgatory and those who have inherited eternal life in heaven. The Church in heaven, the communion of saints, is called the “Church Triumphant.” The Church in purgatory is called the “Church Suffering”. And the Church here on earth, which is composed of all of us here today, is the “Church Militant.” Together they make up One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

Why are we called the “Church Militant”? This is our title because, since the moment of our Baptism and with the strength of our Confirmation, we have been sent out into the world with a mission, to tell the whole world, especially our families, friends, and coworkers, the message of Jesus Christ and His Church, and to make the world around us holy, acceptable, and pleasing to God, our Heavenly Father. We have been sent out as soldiers for Christ, into a very real spiritual warfare, to combat and subdue the devil and all that is evil in our society. To this battle we take the weapons of virtue and truth, the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the graces of the seven sacraments. Against these weapons and the Word of God, no evil can stand. This very Mass is the front line of the battle where Satan is defeated and he gets a taste of what is coming to him at the conclusive victory of Jesus’ Second Coming. The readings are our orders and the Eucharist is our nourishment for the battle.

But, our calling goes all the way back to the first one Jesus gave his apostles and disciples. Ours is the same one. Luke’s Gospel describes how Jesus appointed seventy disciples to prepare his way in “every town and place.” This was a universal mission. He sent them out to all the world. And the mission was urgent. God’s people are referred to as a “harvest”, ready to be gathered into his kingdom. But the harvest is abundant, and laborers are few. They must get to work, there is no time to waste, “the kingdom of God is at hand.”

They are to take no money bag, no sack, no sandals; they are armed only with their mandate from Jesus and the power of His Name. And indeed, they were the first wave of the Church Militant, sent like lambs among the wolves. But, as the prophet Isaiah foretold, “the Lord’s power shall be known to his servants.” As Jesus’ disciples went from town to town, two by two, spreading the “Peace” of Christ, healing the sick, and casting out demons, Satan fell… “like lightning from the sky.” The disciples came upon “the full force of the enemy” and in Jesus’ Name they were victorious. This fight is real.. this isn’t mere hyperbole. Will we be victorious in our own time? In our own hearts and souls? Peace will never reign in our world if it does not reign in our hearts.

A mother and father is absolutely, understandably, proud when they have a son or daughter join our nation’s military. But what about the Church Militant? How many are willing to let their son join the priesthood or their daughter, consecrated religious life? To most of our children, this is never even presented as an option. It is never even considered. But what was true in the early Church is still true today: “The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few.”

There are about 200,000 Catholics in the Archdiocese of Louisville but only about 200 priests. One do have one man from our parish preparing for the Permanent Diaconate, but, since Fr. Mark Spalding was ordained, I don’t think we’ve had a son from our parishes enter seminary for this archdiocese. When was the last time a daughter from our parish took final vows as a religious sister or nun? We are blessed to have many good priests and deacons in this region. We must encourage our children and our grandchildren to follow their good example. They, too, can lay down their lives in sacrifice and service in a vocation of great joy and fulfillment for a Church against which the powers of hell shall not prevail.

Perhaps there are young men here today who are called to be priests or religious brothers. Perhaps there are young ladies here today who are called to be religious sisters or nuns. Who from Holy Trinity/Holy Rosary will take our place when we are re-assigned or have run out of strength? Who from Holy Trinity/Holy Rosary will take up the banner and continue the fight? Who from Holy Trinity/Holy Rosary will ensure that Christ sits enthroned over a culture of life, and not a culture of death? Let us not fall into the trap of caring more about continuing our own name, legacy, or inheritance than we do about continuing the Name of Jesus Christ and his holy family, the Church.

Sometimes we hear people talk about a lack of vocations or a “vocations crisis.” There is not a lack of vocations, there is a lack of discernment. But we are seeing that the tide is turning! The Holy Spirit is moving in this archdiocese and there is much cause for hope and excitement! When I entered seminary in 2005 I was one of three men studying to be a priest for the Archdiocese of Louisville. Now we have almost 20 seminarians and more on the way! Allowing your sons and grandsons to join this faithful band of brothers will not be a losing battle! Since 2005, I have watched their company grow to include good and prayerful men from all sorts of backgrounds. They love God and they love the Church. They love our Holy Father, the Mass, and all that the Church teaches. They are intelligent and they know their faith. They can explain it well and are easy to relate too. They love the people of God and are eager to serve them. It’s the sacrifice and the challenge that entices them the most. They want to be a part of something greater than themselves. They want to be a part of something that has eternal significance, something with meaning and purpose. They want more than ever to take up the banner of Jesus Christ and continue the fight until the victory is won! Your sons or grandsons can be part of that victory too!

The women’s religious orders are seeing tremendous growth as well. The orders that have retained their habit, have held onto their founding principles, that have renewed their lives with prayer and sacrifice are seeing young ladies join today at a rate unseen before. For example, the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia, in Nashville, TN celebrated their 150^th anniversary a few years ago. They had to completely expand and renovate their convent because they were receiving so many vocations! Their order and so many others like them are converting the world to holiness through their many diverse missions and through their constant prayer in the inner life of the Church.

There is no better time than now to encourage your sons and daughters to consider a religious vocation. If your child or grandchild is considering it, have them email me or call me and I will help to point them in the right direction. As we engage the front line of battle today at this Mass, perhaps we can spend some time after Communion or quietly after Mass to “ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest”… to ask the Head of the Church Militant to call forth men and women from Holy Trinity/HolyRosary who can help him to win this most winnable battle.

Homily 13 Sun OT C–Only the Truth Makes Us Free to Follow Jesus with Resolve.

Last weekend when I introduced myself, there was one part of my story that I didn’t tell: How I came to discern that God was calling me to be a priest. I grew up Catholic, our family went to Mass every Sunday, and I knew what Catholics believe but I didn’t know why we believe it and it really didn’t dawn on me to care. But, then came my senior year in college when a girl I was dating asked me questions about Catholicism that I had no clue how to answer: Why do you go to Mass? Why do you go to confession to a priest? Why do you have statues in Church, etc. All I could say was “Ugh… I dunno… that’s just what we do…” But, I felt lame that I couldn’t give her better answers to her questions, so I did some research. When I discovered Why we believe what we believe, my eyes were opened. By the grace of God what I discovered changed my life and I began to take my faith more seriously.

Before that point I just wanted to be like any other college student: stay out late, mess around, be irresponsible, do whatever… but after my “reversion” I wanted to be a better man, a more honorable man. Obviously, my relationship with that girl didn’t work out. And the more I learned about the sacraments, especially Reconciliation and the Eucharist, the more I fell in love with them and imagined what it would be like if I was celebrating them. I made new friends who drew me closer to Christ and helped me to hear God’s call for me to be a priest.

I must say though that in that initial period of change, it was hard not to look back on my former way of life and think, “Man, it was fun hanging out with that crowd and doing this or that…” or be tempted to get back into my old ways. But I knew the Lord wanted me to be resolute in following him, in heading down the Way. Our Lord was resolute and he expects his messengers, his disciples, to be the same. The Gospel said that he “resolutely determined” to journey to Jerusalem and just outside its gates, the site of the Crucifixion and our salvation.

Elijah in the first reading allowed his disciple, Elisha, to kiss his parents goodbye before he followed him. But we follow a greater prophet than Elijah, our Lord Jesus Christ, who has a higher standard. When those he called wanted to tend to their families first before they followed Jesus, our Lord insisted that they follow him first. Of course our Lord was not intending for them to dishonor their parents; of course Jesus keeps the Fourth Commandments to Honor Thy Father and Mother. The point he is trying to make is that he should come first in our priorities, even before our families and even before ourselves.

When Elijah called his disciple he signaled the call by throwing his cloak around him, showing Elisha that he wanted him to share in his identity and mission. We too have been “cloaked,” so to speak – we have “put on” Christ at our Baptism. In the ritual the priest says to the child, “You have become a new creation, and have clothed yourself in Christ. See in this white garment the outward sign of your Christian dignity. With your family and friends to help you by word and example, bring that dignity unstained into the everlasting life of heaven.” With that white garment we “put on” Christ and became his disciples. Thank God for the Eucharist and Confession which re-creates this garment whenever we fall away.

But, we can’t afford to fall away. We must be resolute in our call. It may seem at first that marching forward with determination, not looking back on our former way of life is too harsh or restrictive. This is because we often misunderstand what freedom truly is. We tend to confuse freedom for license. Freedom is the ability to do what we ought, whereas license is the ability to do whatever we want. For Paul in the 2^nd reading, freedom is not license. Christian freedom is not a license to indulge in sin and selfishness. We are free, rather, to mature in grace and become the saints we are called to be.

If freedom is not license then the commitment to protecting freedom does not mean protecting license. So many in our society today are grasping at more and more liberties and demanding they be protected as God-given freedoms. They claim, “If I want to do it, I should be able to do it, and no one should say I can’t.” We have seen this especially in recent news concerning the Supreme Court’s decisions regarding so-called gay “marriage.” In their decision on Proposition 8 – the Constitutional amendment the people of California voted for to protect the traditional definition of marriage as a lifetime commitment between one man and one woman – the Court did not strike it down but it did miss the opportunity to uphold it.

More worrisome is the Court’s decision on the Defense of Marriage Act. There, the Court undercut true freedom and true equality. What the federal government and the Court failed to realize is that it is OK to treat different things differently. So-called “gay marriage” is not the same as traditional marriage. Marriage, by definition, brings a man and a woman together for life and ensures that children who are a gift and the fruit of their love are raised by their own mother and father together. Gay “marriage” is simply a different thing and should be treated differently – that doesn’t imply that an injustice or hatred is being done.

Given these types of challenges to true freedom, again, we must be resolute. The Gospel says our Lord “sent messengers ahead of him” to prepare for his arrival. We are those messengers, sent to proclaim the Truth and to ready men’s hearts to receive It, especially when we experience setbacks or when times are tough. What we must Not do is react to these setbacks with violence or anger or pessimism or cynicism. We must not seek vengeance in any way. When the town our Lord’s disciples went to “would not welcome him,” James and John asked him, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?” This is something that Elijah did! But, again, we follow a higher prophet than he. Our Lord “turned and rebuked them” for suggesting such a thing.

St. Ambrose explains that Jesus reproves his disciples’ desire for revenge because it is out of keeping with his mission as Messiah; he has come to save people, not destroy them. This helps them to see that zeal for the things of God should never be bitter or violent: “The Lord does everything in an admirable way… He acts in this way to teach us that perfect virtue retains no desire for vengeance, and that where there is true charity there is no room for anger – in other words, that weakness should not be treated with harshness, but should be helped.” When Christians advocate for the truth regarding marriage, for example, we do not do so because we hate persons with same sex attraction; we do so because we love them! We do so, not to be harsh to them but to help them to know the truth, for it is the truth that makes us free.

We must re-double our efforts to be disciples and messengers of the Truth. We must have courage to proclaim the Truth even when… especially when it is hard. To give in to falsifications of the truth serve no one. We must re-commit with resolve to the truth, knowing that only a determined commitment to God makes us fit for the kingdom of God, glorifies him, and serves the common good.

Letter on Changes and Needs

To the Faithful of Holy Trinity and Holy Rosary,

By now you have probably noticed a few small changes around the Church at Holy Trinity. They always used to tell us in seminary, “Don’t change anything in your first year!” But, as I said in my homily my first weekend, liturgy is my highest priority. The more beauty and excellence we give to liturgy and worship, the more glory we give to God. Everything else we do will flow out of that. Therefore, I hope that these will not be too disturbing to you.

I have moved the presider’s chair from the right side facing the altar (the “Epistle side” as they used to say) to the left side (the “Gospel side”) and scooted the credence table beside the side altar. It seemed a little awkward to have the servers crossing the sanctuary each time to hold the Missal (even though I have been impressed with how they bow to the altar each time they pass). Being on the Gospel side with the servers puts us closer together and makes it easier for them to bring the Missal. I have also moved out their kneeler (or “prie-dieu” – French for “pray to God”) so that they can now kneel on the step of the altar on the Gospel side, facing the action of the liturgy head-on, with their bells still close at hand. Bringing them closer to the altar will bring them nearer to the sacred mysteries and help them learn the Mass. I would like to lead a server training workshop soon to brush up on some things, teach them about the items used at Mass, and build up their number. With the chair moved over to the Gospel side, I will not be using the mic stand. I will try the clip-on wireless mic for a while to see how that works. Hopefully you will still be able to hear the prayers well.

On the high altar, I have moved the two gold candles that burned before the tabernacle to the back and moved the flowers and adoring angels up a level. I am thankful for those who have donated money in the past to replenish these candles. I believe that was not done this year though. The two gold candles, while beautiful, had broken vases and were unnecessary given the presence of the red tabernacle lamp (that signifies Christ’s Presence in the tabernacle) and the candles that burn for Mass on the freestanding altar. I moved the flowers and adoring angels up a level to highlight the fact that while the high altar may not be used, it is still an altar (it still has its relic) and so should be prepared as if it is still used. If you would like to donate money toward new altar linens for the high altar and the freestanding altar – that will have lace in the color of the liturgical season, but will not cover the beautiful engraving – please let me know.

A couple other things we need are a new funeral pall and a thurible stand. I want to thank whoever made the funeral pall now used – please introduce yourself! It’s vibrant colors remind one of the happiness of the eternal life we hope for and it has seen many years of faithful use. But it has gotten stained over the years and is fraying in places so it is time for a new one. I would like to get a purple one in beautiful purple damask material with a large cross in the center. I tend to wear purple vestments for funerals rather than white because purple is the color of mourning and its use shows us that suffering is not taboo, that the Church suffers too and wishes to walk through suffering with the family of the deceased. Eventually I would like to bring back the use of black vestments for funerals and All Soul’s day but that’s a reflection for another letter! The aforementioned “thurible” is the metal object that holds incense burned during Mass. We need a stand for it so that the servers can use the thurible during Mass and have somewhere to hang it near the sanctuary when it is not in use. If you would like to donate toward a purple pall, black vestments, or a thurible stand, please let me know this as well.

Another small change regards the baptismal font. Fr. Chris acquired the modern fount a few years ago and it sits with the paschal candle at the back of the Church to symbolize one’s entry into the Church through Baptism. I have put the brass lid onto the fount to highlight its purpose for baptism rather than as a Holy Water receptacle. The receptacles near the doors are still present, filled, and refreshed periodically. The lid also keeps dust and germs out of the fount and the water used for baptisms.

Finally, I have moved the tables and chairs that were stored in the confessional into the space next to it. This helps to preserve the primary purpose of the confessional and gives priority to the celebration of the sacrament of Reconciliation. Toward that end, beginning the First Saturday of July, namely July 6, 2013, I am expanding the times for confession. Right now, confession is heard for 15 minutes, starting 30 minutes before each daily and weekend Mass. So, for example, from 9:30-9:45am before the 10am Mass on Monday and Wednesday; from 4:30-4:45pm before the 5pm Mass on Saturday, etc. Fr. Chris was very generous in offering to hear confessions every day, before every Mass. But I think expanding the time offered will make the sacrament more accessible and available to you. So, like most parishes in the Archdiocese, I will be offering a confession time from 3-4pm on Saturday afternoons. To give both parishes equal access, on the 1^st and 3^rd Saturday of every month I will be at Holy Rosary in Manton and on the 2^nd and 4^th (and 5^th) Saturday I will be at Holy Trinity in Fredericktown. I will be keeping the 15 minute confession times before each daily Mass but discontinuing the times before each of the weekend Masses. 6:30am on Sunday is too early (!), 8am at Holy Rosary is impossible to make, and 10:30am at Holy Trinity is not enough time.

At the end of the day, these are small changes, but I know that change can sometimes still be tough. And it does seem early for changes to be made. Please know that these are being made not to suit my own preferences. Rather, they are being made out of my devotion to God and to this parish, my love for you, and my desire to do what’s best for the liturgy and for our spiritual lives together. I thank you for your understanding and patience and hope that you will lend a hand on some of the items we still need. I am open to your constructive criticism and feedback.

In Jesus and Mary,

Fr. Hardesty
Pastoral Administrator
Holy Trinity, Fredericktown
Holy Rosary, Manton

Yearbook slogans from 1960

While going through the dressers in the rectory to begin to unpack (!) I came across Fr. Chris Allegra’s old 1960 yearbook from the Boston Latin School.  God rest his soul.  Boy, they don’t write yearbook slogans like they used too!  Now it is a very rare young man who can write anything intelligent or meaningful for his fellow chaps, something more than the common cliché’s (Carpe diem!) or stupid jokes (Get ‘er done!).  Granted many of these sound like re-hashes from their Latin homework, but I think they have a nice ring to them.

Here’s a sampling of the young men’s slogans, starting of course with Fr. Chris’s

He steered the barque of the Burg with great love and affection.

Some others:

“He who has been on both sides of the street has truly had the course.”

“When could they say till now, that talked of Rome, that her wide walls encompassed but one man?”

“One cannot always be a hero, but one can always be a man.”

“So mixed in him all the elements, that nature might say to all the world: ‘This was a man.’”

“I do all that may become a man.”

“Who dares nothing, need hope for nothing.”

“Conscience is what hurts when everything else feels so good.”

“In God we trust; all others must pay cash”

“Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.”

“The Mighty Casey… out!”

“It’s not the hours we put in, but what we put into the hours that really counts.”

“Keep trying, its only from the valley that the mountains see high.”

“Deliberate in judgment and moderate in action”

“The universe, next to Ireland, is the most important.”

“Give every man thine ear, but few they voice.”

“Discretion in speech is more than eloquence.”

“Men of few words are the best men”

“The world will little note nor long remember what we say here”

“Reading maketh a full man”

“The best laid plans of mice and men oft go ka-put”

“Genius does what it must; talent does what it can”

“A little learning is not a dangerous thing to one who does not mistake it for a great deal”

“Intelligence and character need no trumpet”

“Wit is the salt of conversation, not the food”

“Get thee wisdom; but with all thine acquisition, get thee understanding”

“Lincoln was a great man, not because he lived in a log cabin, but because he got out of it”

“I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue than why I have one”

…And last but not least…

“And I did it without learning Latin!”

Introduction Homily at Holy Trinity & Holy Rosary–12 Sun OT C

Hello, my name is Fr. Matthew Hardesty, I go by “Fr. Hardesty,” and I’ve been assigned by Archbishop Kurtz as the Pastoral Administrator of Holy Trinity and Holy Rosary.  I cannot find the right words to express how blessed I am to be assigned to these two parishes.

I’m also very glad that Deacon Joe Dant has been able to be with me at all of the Masses so that I can thank him publicly for all his good work and leadership.  He had led you well during the difficult time following Fr. Chris’s death and he has been a great friend and help to me in transitioning to take his place.  There will be more words of thanks after Communion.

Let me explain briefly what a “Pastoral Administrator” is.  A Pastoral Administrator has all of the rights and duties and privileges of a pastor but without the title “Pastor.”  It is a policy of the Archdiocese to assign all first-time pastors as Administrators first so that if the guy has a difficult time or needs more time as an Associate Pastor somewhere else, he can be more easily moved.  To move a pastor requires a whole canonical process through the Tribunal.  After the first year if all goes well, and I certainly suspect that it will, then the Archbishop will re-assign me here as pastor.

I would like to also tell you a little bit about myself.  I’m originally from Owensboro and went to Catholic schools there until I went to Lindsey Wilson College in Columbia, KY.  I was a Computer Science major and got a job in Louisville as a Software Developer for an investment firm.  I did that for three years and it was during that time that I discerned the priesthood and applied to the Archdiocese of Louisville rather than the Diocese of Owensboro.  I felt like God had led me to Louisville and to serve the people of the Archdiocese.  I entered seminary in 2005 at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore and was ordained in 2011 at the Cathedral in Louisville.  My first Priesthood assignment was as the Associate Pastor at St. James in E’town, St. Ambrose in Cecilia, and St. Ignatius in White Mills.  I was there for two years and was then assigned here.  So I’ve only been a priest for two years!  I ask for your patience as we learn and grow together!

I have actually been here before.  When I was a seminarian, Fr. Chris invited me to here to give a vocation talk and I remember thinking back then, “Man, it would be awesome to be assigned here some day…” and here I am!  Another interesting story concerns my chalice and paten.  Before my Priesthood Ordination I was chatting with Fr. Dale Cieslik who is the Archivist for the Archdiocese.  I asked him if there was a chalice and paten in the Archives that I could use rather than having to spend thousands (!) of dollars on a new one.  He investigated and ended up finding the chalice and paten of Fr. Larry Hardesty, one of your former pastors!  When I was ordained I was able to inherit it and it is a tremendous honor to be able to use it.  If you would like to see it, come on back to the sacristy any time and I would love to show it to you up close.

When I moved in a couple days ago, a group of guys graciously helped me unpack my boxes from the U-Haul trailer.  Once everything was in the rectory I sat down and thought, “Now what??”  Then I started thinking about what my goals and priorities are and how God is calling me to be your shepherd.  I would say that my top priority is the liturgy, the Mass, the Eucharist.  My deep conviction is that if we give all our energy and focus to excellence in the liturgy then many graces and blessings will follow.  Vatican II taught us that the Eucharist is the Source and Summit of the life of the Church.  Everything we do in the Church must flow from the Eucharist and lead back to, and be surmounted by, the Eucharist.

In focusing on the Mass, there are many symbols we could take as our launching point.  But the readings this weekend point us to the cross.  Remember from our first reading, the Prophet Zecharian foretold the way to identify the Messiah: “They shall look on him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and they shall grieve over him as one grieves over a firstborn.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church, number 1432, explains that “It is in discovering the greatness of God’s love that our heart is shaken by the horror and weight of sin…The human heart is converted by looking upon him whom our sins have pierced.” The cross, or to be precise, the crucifix, is the ultimate sign of love. This sign, so vivid and real, should motivate us, every time we look at it, to love God and each other with the same love that it shows, and to never want to offend that love. The cross is the standard for love and the standard for each of us today.

This is what our Lord meant when he said: “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” The Gospel mentions that he said this “to all.” The cross cannot be ignored by any of us, it is essential for continual conversion. If we never give the cross much thought, never contemplate sacrificial love, our hearts may be blinded to the day-to-day sacrifices that we need to make in order to increase and express our love for our family and friends. We may never be called to give our lives for our family. We may be simply called to put down the newspaper, turn off the TV, or step away from the computer. We are called to choose to love our family more than those things, so we take up that cross, and show them our love.

It is conversion brought about by these day-to-day crosses, or lack thereof, that either makes or breaks families in this country. Dr. Gregory Popcak, a Catholic marriage and family therapist, writes about how people often ask him what the greatest problem is in family life. They expect him to say alcoholism, or contraception, or pornography, or infidelity. To be sure, these are huge problems that should not be ignored. But he writes that in most families that are struggling, one member or another loves their comfort zone at particular moments more than the family.

Now, just because I have no natural wife or children does not mean that I am exempt from the need for continual conversion by taking up the daily cross – by choosing sacrifice out of love, over my comfort zone. How easy it is for me to have a full day – morning Mass, preaching, parish activities, taking Communion to the homebound, visiting patients in the hospital, celebrating a funeral, then attending an evening meeting – and finally coming home and plopping down in front of the T.V. But, if the Church is truly my bride, a bride I love and want to give my entire life and heart too, undivided, then I should never be eager to get away from her. You and I should identify ourselves not by our comfort zones, as if to say, “I am in this moment a guy sitting here watching T.V… or whatever.” We should identify ourselves by what we truly are: “I am a father and husband,” for example, or “I am a son of parents who love me.” We must let who we truly are at a deeper level be the lens through which we make choices and interact with each other.

I could choose to relax, that’s no problem; but relax with my bride who I love, the Church. I could spend some time in prayer, reflecting on the day. Or I could call a parishioner who I know is alone, or do some spiritual reading. This is what Jesus is talking about when he says, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” He is referring to our worldly life and our eternal life. If you or I wish to save our worldly life – the life of his our own choosing and pleasures, free from any sacrifices of love – then we will lose our spiritual lives and the spiritual lives of those God has given to us.  But, if you and I, with the help of grace, work through daily conversion, through daily taking up our cross, big or small, to lose our own life of choices and pleasures; to prefer God and our families over ourselves, then we will save our spiritual lives and the spiritual lives of our families.

Our families need to help each other out, to pray and study together, and support each other. If you have too often neglected the cross, today is the day to take it up. We are not alone in making sacrifices of love, we are not left to our own devices. The prophet Zechariah foretold that God would “pour out… a spirit of grace and petition and open… a fountain to purify from sin and uncleanness.” The Lord has sent us the Holy Spirit of grace and petition and he purifies us through His Precious Blood and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It is at the foot of the Cross that we learn what true love is and where we will be given the grace to embark on continual conversion. The cross must be the focal point of our parish and our families. The restoration of true authentic family life and the salvation of our families depends on it. It truly is a great joy for me to take up the cross with you; to serve you and give my heart undivided to you; to make sacrifices for you and to love you. Let us pray for and support each other as we grow in love and life together.