Homily for Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

The readings for Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time may be found at:  

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072422.cfm

When we want to learn something, where do we go?  

Do we ask Siri, Google, Alexa or our friends?

Do we learn it on TikTok, like I keep hearing everywhere?

Do we read a book? I see some eyes rolling, you know who you are.

Imagine we want to learn how to pray.  Where would we go?

In this passage from Saint Luke, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray. 

Now these 12 disciples had already been with Jesus for about 2 years.  

And in that time, they had seen Jesus bring a dead person back to life, they saw Him calm a huge storm using only words and they even saw Him feed over 5,000 people with 5 regular loaves of bread and 2 fish. 

Try learning how to do that on TikTok.

And as far as we know, the disciples never came asking, “Lord, the way you calmed that storm was awesome, teach us how to do that.”  

We never heard them say, “Feeding 5,000 people could come in pretty handy in a pinch, can you show us how to do that?” 

No.  Of all the important things they had seen Jesus do, the disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray.  

Now Jesus prayed all the time.  Maybe they noticed that if Jesus needed to pray so regularly, how much more did they need to pray?

The good news is that prayer is a discipline that can be learned. 

So we pray because Jesus prayed. 

And Jesus gives us a model prayer and expects that we will pray.

We pray because we need to know God. 

Jesus wants to show us who God is and what God is like. 

Jesus also makes prayer intimate.  We call God, Father because Jesus did. 

We pray because Jesus wants us to be close to Him and oriented towards heaven.

Given how hot it is today, I’m sure few of us could tolerate Hell very well.

We pray to focus on God and what He calls us to. 

We pray because we trust God to provide what we need. 

We pray because we need to forgive and be forgiven.  

This also means we need to be honest about our sin and to repent regularly with a sacramental confession.

We pray because we need help dealing with temptations and testing.  

Every day we need God’s help to live the way He wants us to.

But we all pray, right?  

I mean, we say The Our Father, The Hail Mary, The Glory Be.  

We say them the same way we have since we were eight years old.

But imagine how our relationships in life would be if we treated them the same way we did when we were eight years old or all we said and did were the same rushed words over and over again for the rest of our lives.

We’d probably end up alone.

So we need to pray more, but also be more intentional in our prayer.

Does this mean that we are all praying rosaries every day and the Liturgy of The Hours and the Angelus?

Maybe.  But what are some simple ways we can pray more in our daily lives?

Try throwing in an “Amen” into conversation every once in a while.

Try saying “Thank you, Jesus” whenever something good happens.  

Pray before and after meals, especially in public - maybe it’ll show someone else that it’s ok to do it too.  

Maybe it’s making the Sign of the Cross whenever you pass by a Catholic Church because you know Jesus is present in the tabernacle.  

Meet a friend for a prayer date and pray with one another.  

Scroll through the contacts on your phone and pray for each name you come across, especially the ones you may feel the urge to scroll past.

When you’re bored, rather than looking for a distraction, find a quiet place, sit in silence and listen for the voice of God. 

Offer your day for a specific intention, for a loved one, friend, or stranger.  

There are lots of ways to pray.   

And each one of them brings us closer to God.

What makes prayer good is not using this method or that, but praying in a way that expresses our faith, humble hope and real desire for closeness with God.

This week, let us ask Jesus to be better followers of Him and to join Him in more intentionally making our lives, lives filled with prayer.

Homily for Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year C

The readings for Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time may be found at:  

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062622.cfm

It’s the first weekend of Summer.

School’s out, the weather is good and lots of people get out, travel and go somewhere for a while.  

In today’s gospel, Jesus and his disciples are traveling at the front end of Luke’s ten chapter long “journey narrative”.

This journey and where it ends, in Jerusalem at the cross is about what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

What it means to follow Jesus.

As I reflected on this gospel this week, it’s probably no coincidence that I was also listening to songs from the Christian music group, Casting Crowns.  

Many of their songs are about what it means to follow Jesus.

And they boil it down to two things.

“To know Him and to make Him known”

Simple, but not easy.

Simple because “To Know Him” means we have the answers to the test. 

We already know how the journey ends - with vindication and glory in eternal life.

But not easy - because “To make Him known” often means misunderstanding, suffering and death to our own selfish desires.  

Following Jesus is hopefully why we are here in church today. 

But in each of our lives there will come moments, when Jesus calls us to follow Him more deeply, when He calls us to make Him known. 

Jesus meets three such people as he is traveling today.

Will we respond like the first person who at first says “I will follow you wherever you go” dreaming of the future, until Jesus reminds him of the true costs of discipleship.

We want a strong and vibrant parish community, but don’t always want to make the time to get involved or make the first move.  

We want events and outreach, but don’t want to give time to volunteer.

Following Jesus means a concrete commitment and Jesus asks this first person and us “What sacrifice are we willing to make to follow Him?

He then comes upon a second person who has things to take care of before he’s ready to follow Jesus.  

“Let me bury my father first”.

In other words, I’ll follow you when it’s more convenient for me, I’ll do that tomorrow, when I have more money, more time, more whatever, when things settle down a bit.

But, let’s be honest - to follow Jesus sometime in the future is to not follow Him at all.  

The world will never be perfect.  Things will never be exactly right. 

Jesus responds to the second person by telling Him to follow Him right now.

The third person Jesus meets is the one he tells not to “set a hand on the plow and look to what is left behind”.

He is saying that when we look back and not towards Him we are not fully invested.  We are not “all in”.  

When we don’t follow the Lord more faithfully because of something that happened years ago we only hurt ourselves.

None of us had a perfect childhood, perfect schooling or perfect families. 

Whatever our past, the Lord calls us to follow Him now and as we are. 

Jesus’ answer to this third person is to focus on what is ahead, not what is behind. 

Now what does this have to do with us?

In the life of every disciple, there is a critical moment when the Lord speaks to us personally and individually. 

What we do when that call comes is everything.

If we don’t act upon it when it comes, the less likely we are to act on it at all. 

It’s like receiving a gift and not writing a thank you note right away - it probably never gets written. 

The same thing happens with moments of special grace. 

This week, let us reflect on these moments.

When they come, do we recognize them?

Do we dismiss them because we are dreaming of a future that may never happen? 

Do we shrug them off because the timing is not quite right?

Do we use our troubled past as an excuse not to answer?

We are called to be disciples.

Let us ask Jesus to give each of us what He knows we need to better “Know Him and to make Him known”.

Homily for Seventh Sunday of Easter - Year C

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

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/052922-sunday.cfm

We live in a very divided world, don’t we? 

Them, those, they, me, I, you.

Guns, politics, systemic racism, the causes of inflation and gas prices, whether we should do more in Ukraine, who can love who, who gets to decide when life begins and when it ends, among other things.

You name it - we disagree on it.

So much emotion, opinion, hatred, exclusion, indifference, sin, tragedy and pain.

I’m sure the devil loves it.  

It’s exactly what he wants.  

Because if we are busy focusing on ourselves, our selfish wants and on tearing each other down, we are working 100% against what Jesus prays for in today’s Gospel from Saint John.

Today, we hear what is known as the third part of Jesus’ Farewell Discourse, also called the High Priestly Prayer.

Jesus prayed it at the Last Supper.

And it must be important.  

Not just because it comes from Jesus, but because with all three parts combined, it is the longest prayer appearing in any of the gospels.

And for Jesus to take that kind of time - to pray such a long prayer on the night before he was brutally tortured and murdered the next day - speaks to how important this it is.

The third part of his prayer is all about unity of the universal church.

In it, Jesus reminds us of the complete union between himself and the Father and asks that their unity be extended to all who believe in him. 

He prays that we be one with each other, with him, and with the Father. 

But how do we become one, exactly?

It’s not that we share the same interests or have the same opinions or feel the same emotions about the same things. 

It’s that we are one in Jesus and discover, despite our obvious differences, that we are one in God.

Let me try to explain.

We know there is one God. 

Our God consists of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.   

The Trinity always reminds me of a cartoon I love. 

It shows Jesus walking into a coffee shop, and a sign hanging at the register that reads “Free coffee - one per person” - and Jesus holds up three fingers and says, “I guess I’ll take three, then.”

I love that.

Our God is made up of three persons in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.   

And we are united to Jesus, the Son.

And with Jesus we are formed into the one Body of Christ by the will of God and by the work of the Holy Spirit. 

And we believe. 

And we meet and worship our God in the sacraments, especially in confession and the Eucharist.

And we show our love for one another in service as disciples of Christ.

And through that worship and service we strengthen our belief even more.

And the cycle repeats itself.

Belief.  Worship.  Service.  Rinse.  Repeat.

Our prayer should be the same as Jesus’ - that we might all be one. 

That we widen our community beyond this building, beyond our comfort level. 

As disciples, we can’t insulate ourselves from the rest of the world.  

We can’t be one by excluding people and leaving them out.

Because Jesus and the Father want our oneness, we should want it too - for as many people as possible.

This week, let us pray for each other - for greater unity and for the world to better know God and the saving power of Jesus - 

Let us pray for oneness, just as Jesus prays the same for us.

Thankfully, we all are alive and have air in our lungs, where we can still feel, think, believe, worship, serve and pray.

Especially this Memorial Day weekend, let us take time to pray for those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, for the souls of the faithful departed and especially those souls in purgatory.

Sometimes, we try to soften our own grief when someone dear to us passes away by speaking about them as though they are in heaven.  Maybe they are.

Jesus knows if they are.

But we don’t.

Let us pray for the souls in purgatory.

That they may soon become one with the Father and share in his everlasting glory in heaven.

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.