------------------ 2024.10.27 When confronted with the miracles we see in the scriptures, it is important to remember that for every Bartimaeus, there are many, many more, who remained blind. / There is a case in my own life, where God has seemingly refused to act. A friend of mine, raised Catholic, who is an atheist at this point. He went through a time of severe depression, and there were quite a few nights he'd call me at midnight, and I'd stay on the phone with him until he fell asleep. The whole time I was terrified I'd hear a gun go off on the other end of the line. He got the anointing of the sick multiple times. On some of those phone calls I heard him pray, crying to God to help Him. And all he ever got, was silence. / He eventually left God behind, and I don't blame him. He cried out like Batrimaeus, but Jesus did not turn back for him. //// God's ways are not our ways. Out of the millions today suffering from blindness, physical illness, depression, and chronic diseases, very few will be miraculously cured. And it is okay for us to be frustrated and hurt by that fact. / It is something we must learn as we follow Jesus, that He is alien, something completely different from us. We are made in the image of God, but God is so much more than we can ever be, or ever comprehend. ------------------ 2024.10.06 Amma Syncletica, one of the early Church desert Mothers, uses this Gospel passage in explaining the process of perfecting Christian discipline. When the rich young man comes to Jesus asking what he must do to get to Heaven, Jesus first quizes him about the commandments. The purpose of the commandments is to help us live a virtuous life. / The young man says he follows the commandments, and then Jesus gives him the final step: complete poverty. The rich young man should have seen this coming. It's the same path Jesus followed, when he began his ministry, he left everything behind, and lived on the charity of others all the way to calvary. But it blindsided him, perhaps he had not yet fully learned the disciple of the virtuous life, perhaps it was simply attachment to wealth, only God knows. //// Amma Syncletica, in her exposition of this Gospel, was writing about directing women who approached her about beginning a life in the desert. Following this example of Christ, they needed to perfect the prerequisits before embracing the ultimate perfection of poverty. These prerequisits were things such as fasting, sleeping on the ground, and other bodily hardships. Once these practices were mastered, the final perfection of poverty could begin. //// For us, this is a potent reminder that our end goal in this life, should be poverty. Those panhandling on street corners have more in common with Jesus than we do. And as Amma Syncletica points out, we have many steps to accomplish before we get there. During the rest of mass, consider what tiny step you can take in that direction, so that some day, you will be ready to follow Christ into poverty. ------------------ 2024.09.22 “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.” / To understand the weight of this action, we need to understand the ancient world. //// In the time of Jesus, children were property, that is all. The parents had a societal obligation to kill babies who were deformed. To let them live, was seen as emotional weakness and placing an undue burden on society. Parents can and did sell their children into slavery for monetary gain. Parents could punish their child with death if they saw fit. Children were disposable. //// This is the pagan approach to children. Jesus shows another way. Recieve this child, as my ambassador. / It's both a blessing and a threat. Treat children as if they were sent by God, and you will be blessed. Treat them any other way, and you will be doing so against God. //// It is easy to see how this has changed the world. A perfect example is the Roman laws about the family, if you want to do your own research, the key word will be paterfamilias: before Jesus and the spread of Christianity, all the terrible things I highlighted already were allowed and encouraged. As the influence of Christianity began to spread, these laws were weakened. / This Christian approach to children has so infused the world, most of the aspects of the pagan approach have faded away. Children are typically protected, cared for, educated, and helped through many institutions. This is the power of God at work in the world. //// But paganism dies a slow death. Abortion in particular, the sacrifice of children on the altar of convenience, rears it's ugly head often in our culture. // But I think the thing to focus on, is that God is winning. We don't have nearly as much killing of deformed children, selling of children into slavery, and all those other terrible things as we did before the Incarnation. God's power in the world, is easy to see, when we look at all of history. ------------------ 2024.05.05 1. Scandals Today is DDF Sunday. A day I dread every year. Because it forces me to confront the question, of how I can justify giving giving money to an instiutional Church that is riddled with scandals. Starting all the way at the top with Pope Francis, with his shielding of Fr Marko Rupnik from sexual abuse alligations, inventing a new Vatican job for his friend Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta after he was forced to resign as bishop due to sexual assault and financial corruption charges, his promotion of Cardinal Victor Fernandez - who's publication history is littered with theological embarasments, his protection of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, and various other attempts to protect his friends who have committed evil actions. All the way down to our own diocese, where bishops have moved priests around when they were accused of abusive behavior, bishops bullying priests, bishops making the Catholic Center a toxic work environment, priests misusing parish funds, or even downright embezzelment and money laundering. And parish bookkeepers and secretaries giving themselves raises and buying themselves things with the parish accounts. And all of that is just since my family moved to the diocese in 2005, I'm sure there's more from before then that I don't know about. There is no easy answer. This is the Church that Christ himself established, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. But do I need to financially support it? 2. Conform I remember conversations with my grandfather years ago, back when I was in seminary. He'd complain about DDF being used to fund the bishop's golfing trips, but he'd end up giving every year. At that point I felt like I was an apologist for DDF. I would talk about all the good it did, and just leave the bad parts out. Just ignore them. It's kind of the expected thing to do amongst priests. Talk about tithing, talk about the people that get helped by the money that is given, and just gloss over the bad. But that's not the honest and brutal truth. 3. Love The truth is in the Gospel reading today: "This I command you: love one another." We can talk about the command to tithe given in the Old Testament, the 10% of your income going to the temple and all that stuff. But Jesus goes a step further: love. Once your basic needs are met, love with everything you have left. Without counting the cost, without holding back out of fear for tomorrow. And maybe you look at all the abuse and coverups and scandals in the institutional Church, and decide to only give directly to people, and you're ready to do that work. Go with God, it's a wonderful and difficult way to love, but God will be with you every step of the way. Or maybe you're with my grandpa on this: you know things are going to be messed up in the Church, because it's made up of sinful people, and you don't have the time or capability to give directly to people in need, so you give to the Church. Go with God, it's a wonderful and difficult way to love, but God will be with you every step of the way. The command of Christ is to love one another, and we do this best when we live simple lives, and give the rest away with a joyful abandon, following the example of our God, who gives everything to us sinners, without counting the cost. ------------------ 2024.01.14 1. "John was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, "Behold, the Lamb of God." The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus." This is the work of a prophet, to show people who Jesus is. 2. I was in Chubby's BBQ about a week ago. One of the waitresses seemed to be home on Christmas break from college. I overheard her talking with two other customers, it seemed she knew them fairly well. / She was relating a story, of why she avoided a certain part of campus. Apparently, there was a wild looking man, with a boombox blaring scripture passages, calling people sinners and chasing them down, telling them they need to repent. So she avoided that place, and eventually campus security banned him from campus. If only she knew, that she was in the presence of a prophet. 3. John the Baptist went to join many of the other prophets: in being murdered because he told people the truth when they didn't want to hear it. In particular, he told highly influential people, people with power and authority, that they were sinners, and they should repent. God asks us to be prophets, knowing full well that our fallen world kills prophets. He sends us on a mission he has already undertaken, we follow in the footsteps of God. We are not called to be popular, but faithful. ------------------ 2023.11.19 Our first reading, in praise of the worthy wife, and our Gospel, the parable of the talents, do not immediatly seem to be connected. Until you realize the good servants, who increased their talents, were doing exactly the same thing the worthy wife was doing: being fruitful with the gifts they had. The wife turning raw fibers into fabric, and giving generously to the poor. The two good servants, engaging in trade, to increase the gift that had been given to them. Living a fruitful life has many aspects. We are given the example of industry and generosity in the first reading, and the example of trade in the Gospel. The virtue at work which allows us to live a fruitful life, is fortitude. Someone has perfected the virtue of fortitude, when they are able to overcome obsticals that get in the way of doing good. When they are able to overcome laziness, indifference, fear, and great difficulties, in order to do something good. The bad servent admits, that he hid the talent out of fear. Perhaps he also hid it out of laziness, successful trading takes effort, even taking it to a bank takes effort. He might have even hidden it out of indifference, we can't know for certain. What we do know, is the punishment for that sin of giving in to laziness, indifference, fear, or great difficulties, is Hell. We were not created to be cowards. I have a small exercise you can do to aid in your journey towards fortitude. Fear is very often what holds people back from doing what is good. Make a list, identifying a few of your own fears. Share that list with God in prayer, and ask His help and direction, in overcoming those fears. ------------------ 2023.10.01 The second reading this weekend, is very significant to me. I memorized the second half of it years ago, and I pray it fairly often. Listen to the words again: Have in you the same attitude that is also in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. A hymn to humility. A canticle in praise of Jesus: our Lord and Savior. It is so beautiful. Do you have some verses like this, that you have memorized and are able to pray whenever? If you do, approach it with new eyes every once in a while, share it with a friend or a loved one. And if you do not, that is your homework for this week. Find some passage from scripture that is meaningful to you. Memorize it and pray with it often. The Bible is an inexhaustible treasure, return to it often, pray with it every day. ------------------ 2023.09.24 Our first reading offers some clarification on our Gospel: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD." So if we find ourselves sympathizing with those who worked all day, we are just thinking our human thoughts. Because on a human level, it makes no sense to pay someone the same whether they worked one hour, or a full day. But let's stretch our minds to think a little more like God. We have some vague understanding of what God wants, we can see it in His actions: Again and again, God stretches toward us, trying to get rid of anything that stands between us. Making covenants in the Old Testament, dying to destroy the barrier of sin, and rising to give us new life. God wants something like a relationship, this much we can discern from His actions. And if the pay that He is offering is eternal life with Him: there is no way to give any more, or any less. If we convert on our deathbed, or serve faithfully from our birth like the Blessed Mother, there is no greater or lesser reward. We are all equal when it comes to heaven. And this helps us understand where those who worked all day went wrong in grumbling about their pay. If God desires relationship with us, following His example, we should be desirous of relationship with each other. And once we do, we will rejoice when anyone is added to the Body of Christ through Baptism. Even, and maybe even especially, if it is just moments before their death. May we leave behind our human thoughts and ways, and adopt the thoughts and ways of God. ------------------ 2023.07.16 When I was in seminary, we had many classes on scripture. And in one of those classes, we had an assignment to write a short paper on a passage where Jesus was preaching to the people, much like today's Gospel passage. I liked writing provocative titles for my papers, so I entitled that one "The Failure of Christ." And my thesis was that, Jesus being God, his conversion rate of people who heard him preach, to people who started following him, was pretty darn low. The rest of the paper went in a more conventional direction. God does not force anyone to believe in the truth: He offers it, he pushes and prods, but He gives us freedom. In His preaching, Jesus will have the same conversion rate as any other preacher, not because He fails, but just because that's the way He created us. And with that introduction, I direct the rest of this homily to those parents who have adult children. Especially those who suffer the pain of having children they've raised in the faith, who abandoned it after they left home. It's a deep wound, it can bring about all sorts of doubts and fears: was it my fault? Was there something else we should have done? What willhappen to them when they die? What will happen to my grandchildren? This parable is for you. No matter how well you prepared your children to receive the Word of God, it is still their soul, and their life. The freedom is theirs. We must learn to be like God, to follow this example of Jesus: God Himself did His best, and yet not all believed. But to close, our tradition gives us another example to follow in these cases: St Monica. Who through tears and prayers over seventeen years besought God for the conversion of her son. And he finally did convert, after those seventeen years of pain and sorrow and hope for his mother. We must hold in tension, the fact that everyone is free, and there is nothing we can do to force people to live the faith. But also, that we should never give up hope, and that through our pain offered up, and ceaseless prayer, we give our children, family, friends, and even enemies, the greatest chance to turn back to God. ------------------ 2023.01.29 I want to begin with something I've never mentioned in a homily before: video games. I grew up playing video games, and I still play a few from time to time. One of the games I played a lot, especially in college, was Team Fortress 2, a multiplayer first person shooter. Basically you get assigned to a team with a bunch of other players, pick your character, and fight against another team to accomplish an objective. Picking your character was important, each one had certain strengths and weaknesses, and a team needed the right mix to be successful. There where 9 different characters: the Scout, the Soldier, the Pyro | the Demoman, Heavy Weapons Guy, the Engineer | the Medic, the Sniper, and the Spy. You'd start a match, and whenever a player would die, they could choose a new character before they came back, so the mix would constantly change over the course of match, each team trying to adapt to the strategy of the other. This is called a "class system" and it's popular in many first person shooters. It adds another layer of complexity to a game, another level of strategy to have to balance your team against the other. In a way, Jesus in the Gospel is offering us a chance to choose our character: The Poor in Spirit, the Mourner, the Meek | Hungry and Thirsty for Righteousness, the Merciful, the Clean of Heart | the Peacemaker, the Persecuted, the Insulted. A chance to choose the blessedness we desire: the Kingdom, Comfort, Inheritance | Satisfaction, Mercy, the Vision of God | the Child of God, Heaven, the Great Reward. If we strive for holiness, we will cycle through all these characters at some point or other. We will mourn over our sins. We will show mercy to our fellow sinners. We will make peace between brothers and sisters. We will be persecuted and insulted. We need to cycle through them all to become saints. God needs them all to build the Kingdom, they each have their part to play to balance out the Church. I'm going to give some homework today: go through this list of Beatitudes. Find one in particular you want to follow. And seek, for that blessedness. ------------------ 2023.01.22 I wonder, if when Jesus heard that John was arrested, he thought about his own future arrest and murder. The news seems to have catapulted him into action. He had been baptized by John, tempted in the desert, and now, he begins his ministry in a whirlwind of activity, calling his followers, preaching and healing and casting out demons. St Peter Damian, a Doctor of the Church, has this to say on the subject: "Nobody can fight properly and boldly for the Faith is he clings to a fear of being stripped of earthly possessions." Peter and Andrew, James and John, they apparently did not have that fear, they left it all. Jesus himself did not have that fear, he had already left everything, and would live on charity throughout his earthly ministry. The whirlwind could not begin, the triumph of the Faith, could not even take it's first few steps, until the "fear of being stripped of earthly possessions" had been overcomed. That is the lesson of John the Baptist: preach the truth, and you're likely to end up in jail, and be murdered by a tyrant. The exact same thing happens to Jesus. The exact same things happens to the Apostles. The whirlwind could not begin, the triumph of the Faith, could not even take it's first few steps, until the "fear of being stripped of earthly possessions" had been overcomed. That is the lesson of John the Baptist: preach the truth, and you're likely to end up in jail, and be murdered by a tyrant. The exact same thing happens to Jesus. The exact same things happens to the Apostles. ------------------ 2023.09.24 Three Things. For the first, we read in the book of Exodus: "The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: This month will stand at the head of your calendar; you will reckon it the first month of the year. Tell the whole community of Israel: On the tenth of this month every family must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household. If a household is too small for a lamb, it along with its nearest neighbor will procure one, and apportion the lamb's cost in proportion to the number of persons, according to what each household consumes. Your lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish. You may take it from either the sheep or the goats. You will keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then, with the whole community of Israel assembled, it will be slaughtered during the evening twilight. They will take some of its blood and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They will consume its meat that same night, eating it roasted with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or even boiled in water, but roasted, with its head and shanks and inner organs. You must not keep any of it beyond the morning; whatever is left over in the morning must be burned up. This is how you are to eat it: with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand, you will eat it in a hurry. It is the LORD's Passover." The second thing, is the barn in which Jesus was born in Bethlehem. There is a theory, that he was born in the temple barns in Bethlehem: the place where the lambs were raised for sacrifice. Specially trained shepherds watched over flocks of sheep bred to produce offspring without blemish. When the lambs were born, they were inspected, and if they were fit for sacrifice, they were wrapped in swaddling clothes, and raised with the utmost care. And that is the clue that Jesus was born there. These swaddling clothes would not be in other barns, for Jesus to be wrapped in them, means he was born in this special barn, where the lambs for sacrifice were also born. So for the third thing, we return to the Gospel: "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." In birth, marked for death. By his stripes, we are healed. By his death, we are reborn. Our sins forgiven, in the slaughter of one lamb. ------------------ 2023.01.08 The magi followed a star. And this should give us pause. After all, how many of us look at the stars regularly enough to notice a new star appearing. Really, it was the same then as it is today. At that point in time they had scholars who paid attention to the stars, just as we have astronomers who do the same thing. Keeping track of patterns, noticing new arrivals, or even when stars fade away for various reasons. These magi were those type of scholars; the stars were what they studied, and they had seen something out of the ordinary. There are many options of what they might have seen: a planet rising in a particular part of the zodiac, the appearance of a comet, a star going supernova. Whatever they saw, they determined it corresponded with a prophecy about the arrival of the King of the Jews. And they began a journey to bring him homage. Standing on the outside and looking in, this process can seem kind of ridiculous. Seeing a sign in the stars, and leaving for a distant land, hoping to find a newborn king. They were stepping out in faith. Whatever they saw, must have been compelling. Where do we look for signs? If we are not looking to the stars, then where? It is a question we must ponder. God wants to speak with all of us, but if we do not listen and look, His words and signs, will go unnoticed. ------------------ 2023.01.01 We need to have a little history lesson to understand the meaning for today's feast of Mary, the Mother of God. And this complicated lessons starts in the middle of the third century AD, when the Greek term for Mother of God: Theotokos, starts to appear. Mary is Theotokos, the Mother of God, because her son Jesus is one person who is both God and man, divine and human. This did not become formally defined by the Church until the Council of Ephesus in the year 431, but the term was in use at least one hundred years earlier. One thing to know about Church history, is we usually don't formally define things, unless a heresy comes around first and makes it necessary. In this case, the heresy was Nestorianism, started by the archbishop of Constatintinople: Nestorius. He denied Mary the title of Theotokos, and to do so, had to split apart the divinity and humanity of Jesus, so that Mary was only the mother of the humanity of Jesus, the Christotokos. This direct attack upon the hypostatic union, which holds that Jesus is fully divine and fully human, was the main problem, but out of it grew the problem of seeing Mary as just the mother of a part of Jesus. Which is another thing to note: get one things wrong in Christianity, and other things will go wrong as well. Error begets more error. To wrap up the history lesson: Nestorianism was growing in popularity, it was easier for people to grasp than the intricacies of the hypostatic union, and so the Council of Ephesus was convened. Nestorius was declared a heretic, removed from being archbishop of Constatinople, the hypostatic union of Christ was reaffirmed, and Mary was declared Theotokos. Now, what to do with all this information? As our Gospel says: Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. It is an act of humility, to accept that some aspects of our faith, are difficult to comprehend and understand. But then it is an act of courage, to at least attempt to understand them. To do the research, to learn, and to keep all those things, reflecting on them in our hearts. ------------------ 2022.12.25 There are two lessons that Christmas teaches us. The first, is pay attention to the small things. / We have a tiny newborn, born to insignificant parents, in a backwater town, on an ordinary day. But that tiny newborn, was the King of the Universe. / His first visitors where shepherds, a class of men ignored and avoided. And he led a life so ordinary, that besides an inscedent at the temple, nothing more is said about it until Jesus began his public ministry. // When we look for God, we do well to look to the small things. The cry of a child. The plea of a beggar. The streets of a small town. The tiny whispering voice. //// But then comes the second lesson: be on the lookout for angels! For God comes to us as an infant, but that arrival, was announced by heavenly messangers. Terrifying supernatural beings of light. Appearing to Mary and Joseph. Appearing to those shepherds. // God breaks into our world in tiny and seemingly insignificant ways. But the spiritual significance of those little actions, is invaluable. That is why the angels show up: to give some indication that what is happening, is beyond our comprehension. //// May we take with us these Christmas lessons: To look for God in the tiny and insignificant events of daily life. And prepare yourselves, to see angels!