Homily for Third Sunday of Easter - Year C

The readings for Third Sunday of Easter may be found at:  

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/050122.cfm

Today’s Gospel May seem like it’s all about Peter.  But, it’s all about us. 

Now, you might be thinking, hold on…I don’t get that at all.

Today’s story is about recognizing Jesus and jumping in and following Him wherever He may lead us, even when His presence is not clear.

Now, our lives can be rough.  For many, even just the past few weeks May have been hard.

Just like Peter.

The accusing voices in the courtyard.  The three denials.  The cock crowing.

The horrible death of the one he promised never ever to deny or desert.  

The empty tomb and all the worry and uncertainty it brought.

Peter must have been tired.

You can almost hear Peter breathe a deep sigh of relief when he tells the other disciples, “I am going fishing.”

And fish he did.  All night. In the dark.  Even though he caught nothing, he was returning to his “normal”.  

Maybe that helped him calm his fears, his doubts, the voices in his head.

Peter was going back to what was familiar.

We do the same.  Just like Peter.

After the activity and emotion of Holy Week, we’re probably all a bit tired.  

So, we turn back to normal things. 

Do we see Jesus in our lives, just like Peter saw that strange figure in the early morning haze? 

In our heads, we know that Jesus is in every moment of our lives, but we don’t always see Him do we?

He’s often most difficult to see in people that make us feel a little  uncomfortable - the poor, the homeless, the sick, the lonely, the aged, the forgotten, the marginalized. 

What would the world be like if Peter had chosen to stay in the boat and not go to Jesus?   Would Jesus have been lost to history?  Would we even have a Church?

Thankfully, Peter didn’t stay in the boat.  He jumped in and our world was forever changed. 

But what made him jump? 

I think it was Love.  Love got Peter out of the boat that morning. 

Love in the heart of Jesus calling out to Love in the heart of Peter. 

That same love calls out to each one of us. 

And day after day we have a choice.  To stay on our boat or jump off to Jesus. 

And if we jump - the world is different for it. 

Just like Peter.

Love calls to Love in our daily lives. 

Love calls to us at work - Follow me in everything you do at work today; be patient with that irritating employee; reach out to someone who is struggling. 

Love calls to us around town - Lead with love.  Heal the wounds of division and prejudice. Go out of your way to help those who need a hand.

Love calls out to us in our parish - Join a ministry, get to know someone new, gripe a little less and love a little more. 

Love also tests us. 

And so our Lord looks at the other disciples, the boat, the nets, the 153 fish and Peter’s former way of life and asks him,  “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” 

Just like Peter - Jesus first met us when we were much younger. 

Now Peter had reached the stage of his life where he was ready to give up some of his youthful freedom and exchange it for a greater freedom that comes with following Christ. 

When we are young we think that our freedom is endless and that our life will never end. 

But as we get older we learn - that is not true and hopefully, we choose Christ’s love.

Love demands us to do what we don’t necessarily want to do at times.

Just like Peter, life may force us to stretch out our hands and be led where we may not want to go.  

But, love makes it possible for us to go there.   

And the source of that love is always standing on the shore of our lives. 

(Pause) In a few minutes, Jesus will again be at the shoreline that is this altar with food prepared—his body and blood. 

Love calling to Love. 

I invite you to leave your boat.  Jump in. 

Jump into the love and freedom that only God offers you. 

Jump in.  Just like Peter.

Homily for Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion

The readings for Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion may be found at:  

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041522.cfm

What is truth?

The truth is that five days ago, Jesus was celebrated, honored and praised with joyful anticipation by adoring crowds who waved palms to welcome a messiah they had waited centuries for.  

Today, this same man is handed over by his own people - by us really - to Pontius Pilate, a weary, middle manager of the Roman Empire trapped in a dusty, remote outpost, longing to be anywhere else - looking very much like a man in a no-win scenario.

Standing in front of this tired man, Jesus says, “For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”  

To which Pilate responds, “What is truth?”  

I bet most of us can’t imagine what it was like to be Pilate and not see the truth standing literally right in front of him.

But nearly two thousand years later, we have to ask ourselves…would we know the truth if it bit us on the nose?

Every day we are exposed to so many different versions of reality all presented to us as the truth.  

Truth in morality, politics, cases going up or down, things getting better or worse, what is gender and biology, when does life begin or end, who can love who, who can compete with who and even the questioning of God, Jesus, religion and the church.

Every day we hear different versions of the truth.  Are we really so different from Pilate, not being able to recognize the truth right in front of us?

Today, truth stands before us as the crucified Christ, who testifies to the truth that God still loves and saves His people and still blesses the whole of creation - regardless of the mess we are.  

Christ stands before us today battered by betrayal, jealousy, evil and our sins.  

He stands before us bloodied for preaching forgiveness, mercy and love in a world that prefers violence, pain and revenge.

Faced by these evils, Jesus didn’t retaliate in kind.  

Instead, he absorbed the abuse and sins of the world and retaliated with unrelenting love and mercy and in the process, transformed us and the world.

The truth is he asks us to do the same. 

To transform ourselves and this world we live in with unrelenting love and mercy.

Today, let us fully appreciate the truth of a Lord who endured the most brutal punishment, torture and death so that we might have eternal life.

And let us embrace the truth of what he expects from us in return.

“We adore you O Christ and we praise You, because by your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.”

Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent - Year C

The readings for the Fifth Sunday of Lent - Year C may be found at:  

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040322-YearC.cfm

Lent is flying by.  

This week we celebrate the last Sunday of Lent as Palm Sunday is one week away.

That makes today a good time to pause, take a breath and reflect on our preparation for Easter.  

It’s also a good time to be a little uncomfortable.   

I know I am.

Which brings us to the story of the adulterous woman.

As we heard in the gospel, this woman is brought before a mob with stones in their hands, ready to deliver swift justice.  

We see the Pharisees trying to trap Jesus by forcing Him to decide whether to condemn this woman to death or to publicly dismiss The Law that considered adultery a capital crime.  Very dramatic.  

Literally, a life and death situation.

As I reflected on this story this week, for some reason, I kept hearing the opening to the television show “Law and Order” - “the people are represented by two separate and distinct groups…the police who investigate crime and the district attorney who prosecute the offenses….these are their stories.”  

Except, in this story, the investigation and prosecution were being handled by one stone-wielding mob.

When the Pharisees ask Jesus to weigh in, He does something odd.  He writes on the ground.  He pauses.  He looks almost disinterested in what’s going on around Him.  

We don’t know what He wrote on the ground, but it disconnected Him from the drama.  He dismisses the drama, choosing not to escalate further.  

How often do we dismiss drama instead of being dragged into an emotional situation in our life?  Probably not often enough. 

And how often, instead of de-escalating, do we become judge, jury and executioner just like that mob?

Especially on social media or when talking with friends.  

Do we dismiss the drama, accusations and gossip or do we weigh in, showing how good we are in the process?

In the midst of this dramatic scene, Jesus rises and says “Let the one among you who is without sin, be the first to throw a stone at her.”  

While awesome, there may be no more misused line in all of scripture.  

How often do we take these beautiful words of Jesus to justify our own sinfulness?  

We can also take those words to mean that none of us have any right to speak to anyone about their transgressions because not a single one of us is without sin.  

And if that’s what we take out of Jesus’ words, we all lose.  

We are all in this together.  

We have a responsibility as Christians to love and forgive each other.  That’s the legacy that our Lord has given us.

What we don’t have the right to do is to water down the expectations God has for us and to minimize when we fall short because “people in glass houses, don’t throw stones”.

As Christians we should be forgiving not judging each other.  But we shouldn’t ignore when we see each other going astray, no matter how uncomfortable it is to do so.

And when we come upon these uncomfortable situations, we need to approach them, not with stones, but with open arms, with caring, love, mercy and self-reflection.  

The uncomfortable message I want all of us to take away today is about mercy and judgement.  It’s not an either or situation.  

Every single one of us will be judged.

Every single one of us needs mercy.

That’s why our Lord has given us the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  

We need to encourage each other to go - regularly.

We need to go to confession for the grace of forgiveness, but also to keep our own sinfulness fresh in our minds. 

People who go to confession regularly are frequently more compassionate.  That’s probably because it’s easier to be merciful how we have fallen short is fresh in our minds.

When we see sinfulness, that is not the time to pick up a stone and condemn, but instead to remember how we have sinned and been forgiven. 

Confession makes us more merciful, quicker to forgive and less self-righteous.  

And our sins can’t be forgiven if we don’t confess them in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, period.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation gives us the opportunity to bring our sins to Jesus through a priest to receive our Lord’s mercy and absolution.

And we all need that.

Just like the woman in today’s gospel, there will come a time when we will face God.  

Standing before God, vulnerable, with our sins exposed. 

We will all crave mercy and not the judgement we deserve.

Like Lent, our lives are flying by.  

Let’s get comfortable with being uncomfortable.   

There is still time to make a good examination of conscience and sacramental confession….but the close is ticking.