6th Sunday of Easter - A Reason for Your Hope

Location: Basilica of Saint Francis Xavier (Dyersville, IA) – 5 p.m. Saturday & 8:30 a.m. Sunday

                Saint Boniface Catholic Church (New Vienna, IA) – 10 a.m. Sunday

Date: Sunday May 25^th (6^th Sunday of Easter, Year A)

READINGS:

1^st Reading: Acts 8:5-8, 14-17

Resp. Psalm: Ps. 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20

2^nd Reading: 1 Peter 3:15-18

Gospel: John 14:15-21

FOCUS: Following St. Peter’s command, we should be prepared to explain and defend our faith.

FUNCTION: Attend the Cluster CRHP retreat; take time to read your Bible; learn your faith.

            Every once in a while, I’ll watch a TV show like Law & Order, and it’s always very fascinating; it’s interesting to see how the law gets played out (often in a dramatic way, but, hey, that’s TV).  Someone’s accused of a crime; one attorney in the legal drama is the prosecutor, who’s trying to bring about a conviction for the person charged with a crime, who’s known as the defendant; and it’s then up to the defense attorney to come up with an argument, testimony, and evidence about why the defendant should not be charged with the alleged crime.  Then the jury takes the testimony, the evidence, and the arguments presented by the prosecutor and the defense attorney, deliberates on it, and returns with a verdict of either guilty or not guilty regarding the alleged crimes.

          It’s exciting stuff; the lawyers have to be ready to give some good arguments about why someone should either be convicted or acquitted.  In a similar way, this weekend’s second reading says we should always be ready to give a defense for what we believe and why we believe it.  Obviously our defense or explanation won’t be quite as dramatic as the presentation by the defense attorney in a TV show like Law & Order, but it what’s we’re called to do, regardless.  St. Peter says, “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence…” 

          This verse is often used as the basis for Catholic apologetics.  Now, the word “apologetics” doesn’t have anything to do with apologizing – we’re not called to go around saying, “Oh, I’m so sorry for being Catholic, this is just the way I was raised…..yeah, I’m sorry that we believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist…...yeah, I don’t know why we have a Pope, either…..you’re right, we do make too big a deal about Mary.”  No, no, no….nothing like that.  Apologetics is about offering up reasons – based on Scripture and Tradition – for why we believe what we believe.  This is something that we Catholics need to be able to do a much better job of.  Many of us don’t know our faith like we should.

          Yes, we believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, but we might not have any idea where to turn to in the Bible or the tradition of the Church for why we believe in the Real Presence; and to do that, we should be familiar with the Gospel of John, chapter 6, where Jesus speaks about Himself as the Bread of Life in His famous “Bread of Life discourse.”  And we should know about someone like St. Ignatius of Antioch (from the early 2^nd century), who frequently talked about the Church’s faith in the Eucharist in his letters. 

          Likewise, we give Mary the highest honor after God Himself, but perhaps we can’t adequately explain why; and to do that, we should be familiar with the text of the Annunciation to Mary in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 1, and how the Archangel Gabriel addresses her as “full of grace,” and how that means that she’s been specially chosen by God and set apart in a special way to be the mother of His only-begotten Son; and we should probably know a little bit about her title, “Mother of God,” and how that title came about because the early Church Fathers in the 3^rd and 4^th centuries were trying to defend the divinity of Christ from heretics who tried to say that Jesus wasn’t actually God.

          Furthermore, we all know that we have a Pope, but we might now know why we have a Pope, and how that position in the Church came about; and to do that, we should be familiar with the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 16, and St. Peter’s confession about the identity of Jesus, and how Jesus named Him Peter and said that He would build His Church upon Peter, whose name means “Rock,” and how Jesus gave Peter the keys of the kingdom, giving Him the power to bind and loose.   And we should know about how St. Peter became the Bishop of Rome, and how successors were chosen after He died, and how the Church in Rome developed a primacy among Christians because of Peter’s authority among the apostles.

          The Eucharist, Mary, the Pope – these are just a few of the many topics that we should be able to talk about intelligently as Catholics; we should know our faith and be ready to give an explanation for our hope to people who ask.  How do we do that?  I think we all have to spend a little more time learning about our faith.  Maybe we need to spend a little more time reading our Bible; or listening to a good CD from Lighthouse Catholic Media; or reading a good Catholic book by someone like Scott Hahn or Patrick Madrid or Edward Sri or Brant Pitre; or visit a website like catholic.com (the website for Catholic Answers) or cuf.org (the website for Catholics United for the Faith) and read some of the content they offer.  There are so many ways we can grow in our faith.

          We must not be accidentally Catholic; we have to be intentionally Catholic – because we believe that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God, that He founded the Church upon Peter, the first Pope, and that He died and rose from the dead, and sent His disciples out to preach to the whole world the truth of the Gospel and God’s plan of salvation.  That’s why we have to be intentionally Catholic; we have to know our own story; we should be familiar with our family history as Christians, as members of the Church, the family of God.  If we’re just going through the motions, then we’re missing the point.  Faith is something that either needs to be continually growing, or it will shrivel up; faith is like a plant – you have to water a plant in order to keep it alive; the point is, if our faith isn’t being nourished by continued learning, we shouldn’t be surprised if it feels kind of dead.

 

          One way to nourish your faith would be to get involved in the Cluster CHRP retreat – Christ Renews His Parish.  Many people have learned that when they started giving more to God, God gave them a lot more in return.  Is it a sacrifice?  Perhaps, because it means we’re not doing something else.  But could it be just what you need?  Absolutely.  Give God a little, and He can do great things. 

          I especially encourage our Catholic men to step up to the plate about attending the upcoming CHRP retreat, quit being afraid, and become the kind of spiritual leader that your wife and family and this community needs.  The point is this: if we know our faith, then we’ll always be ready to give a reason for the hope that we have in Christ.                    

The Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Model for Spiritual Growth

Homily for the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God (January 1st, 2012)

READINGS:
First Reading: Numbers 6:22-27
Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8
Second Reading: Galatians 4:4-7
Gospel: Luke 2:16-21

FOCUS: Mary teaches us about how to respond to God’s vocation in our lives. 
FUNCTION: Imitate Mary’s contemplative example of prayer to achieve spiritual growth.

The Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Model for Spiritual Growth

          Well, we’ve made it!  2011 is (nearly) over and we now stand on the threshold of 2012, a whole new calendar year: a year of new opportunities and possibilities, a year to make better choices than we did last year, a year to celebrate the hope that we have for the future.  For so many people (and for so many of us), a new year brings with it new hope.  Many people choose to make a “New Year’s Resolutions.”  Some might say, “This year, I’m going to eat more healthy food,” or “This year, I want to exercise more and stay in better shape,” or “This year, I want to devote more time to prayer and works of charity,” or “This year, I’m going to try harder to get along with the difficult people in my life.”  Certainly there are many more resolutions that people might make.  And some people might even make more than one if they’re feeling ambitious and motivated.    

          How about a simple show of hands?  Alright, raise your hand if you’ve already come up with a New Year’s Resolution.  OK, very nice.  Some of us have a New Year’s Resolution in mind, and some of us are still thinking.  It’s easy to find plenty of articles and stories and tips online about making New Year’s Resolutions.  But since we’re all here in Church on New Year’s Day, let’s consider what the Church proposes for how we should celebrate the New Year, because there’s a lot of wisdom to be gained from the Church’s perspective.     

          The first thing we should notice is that, every January 1^st, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God.  It’s the same every year: January 1^st will always be the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God.  In this way, the Church tells us at the beginning of every year, “Do you want to celebrate the New Year appropriately?  Look to Mary!  Do you want to make a change in your life this year?  Look to Mary!  Do you want to become a better, more virtuous person this year?  Look to Mary!” 

          But why do we or should we look to Mary so often?  Why does the Church celebrate so many Marian feast days over the course of the year?  Why does the Church always hold up Mary as the model for us to imitate?  It’s because she always…without fail…leads us to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior!  And since the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Christmas with an octave (a single celebration extended over a period of eight days), it’s only fitting that on the eighth day we should honor the Mother of Jesus our Savior: Mary, the Virgin of Nazareth, the “handmaid of the Lord” that God the Father chose and blessed, among all women, to be the mother of His only-begotten Son.

          And so here on the threshold of 2012, we look to Mary for our inspiration and our model as we move forward into the New Year.  Here’s one New Year’s Resolution we might consider making in regard to our faith: “This year, I will focus on how I can continue to grow in the spiritual life.”  And what a beautiful example and model of continual spiritual growth we have in Mary, the Mother of God!

          The Gospel for today gives us one simple sentence…one simple verse so worthy of our consideration and imitation: “And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.”  In this one simple verse, we gain a small glimpse into the interior, spiritual life of Mary, the Mother of God.  At her deepest core, Mary was a contemplative.  She wasn’t someone who just went through life without thinking and reflecting on things.  No, just the opposite: throughout her life, she constantly reflected on what God was doing both in and through her and in and through her only Son, Jesus of Nazareth, the One destined to be the world’s Savior and Redeemer.  Mary had a deep and rich interior prayer life.  It was there, in the inner recesses of her Immaculate Heart, that she treasured what God was doing in the world and reflected on how God was active in her life.

          We might call this kind of prayer “theological reflection,” a discipline that involves a concentrated examination of life, through prayer, to see and understand how God is at work.  God is living and moving and active in the world, and if our prayer is going to be fruitful and if we want to grow spiritually, we need to be able to see and understand how God is at work in our lives.  Theological reflection is really a matter of living our lives with eyes of faith. 

          So we might ask ourselves: do we make seeing and understanding how God is at work in our lives a priority?  Are we on the lookout for God’s activity?  Are we looking at our lives with eyes of faith?  How we answer those questions will determine to what extent our spiritual lives grow in 2012.  Mary’s example gives us a kind of “game plan” for spiritual growth in the New Year.

          Let me detail for you some elements of that game plan.  First, we have to be in relationship with God through prayer to see how God is at work in our lives.  Offering a brief prayer to God in the morning (or sometime near the beginning of our day) is a good practice: “God, please give me eyes to see You today.  Help me to be mindful of the ways in which You are at work in the midst of my daily life.”  Secondly, we have to go through our day believing and trusting that God is always present to us: while paying bills, while doing dishes, while taking care of kids, while working in the office, while working outside, while we eat, and so on.           

Third, we have to allow ourselves to be present to God.  This also involves prayer, and spending at least some time during the day for silence and reflection, allowing our hearts and minds to be present to God who is present to us.  And fourth, we might conclude with the “examen of consciousness,” a prayer developed by St. Ignatius of Loyola as a way to find God in all things and to cooperate more fully with His grace.  It’s a practical examination of the day where we prayerfully examine the ways in which we either responded or failed to respond to God’s grace in our lives.  A simple search online would allow you to find out more information about the “examen of consciousness” prayer. 

          Doing these very practical things could make a big difference for our spiritual growth in 2012.  Not only that, it could also help us live our vocation more fully or help us understand what vocation God is calling us to.  Mary, the Mother of God, gives us a beautiful example of responding graciously to the vocation that God has planned for us.  And since we’re beginning the Vocations Crucifix Program this weekend in the parishes of our Spires of Faith cluster, now is an excellent time to follow Mary’s example of prayer so that we, too, might respond more fully (or for the first time) to our God-given vocation.

          And so as we stand here on the threshold of 2012, let us pray to Holy Mary, the Mother of God, that she might help us grow in our spiritual lives, find God in the midst of daily life, and truly live our vocation, as together we pray:

          “Hail, Mary….”                          

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

READINGS:

First Reading: 2 Samuel 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16

Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 89:2-3, 4-5, 27 29

Second Reading: Romans 16:25-27

Gospel: Luke 1:26-38 

FOCUS: The event of the Annunciation is one of the world’s most important moments ever. 

FUNCTION: Prepare your hearts to receive Christ with joy when He comes.

          You probably wouldn’t think much of the place.  Nazareth didn’t have a great reputation.  In fact, many years later, before he met Him, one of Jesus’ followers would remark, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (see John 1:46).  At the time, no one knew the importance that place would hold for human history.  For it was there…in a little town of Galilee named Nazareth…that the most important meeting to ever happen on the face of the earth would transpire.

          Although we’ve all heard the story, it’s hard for us to really grasp the magnitude of the moment— that moment when the archangel Gabriel first appeared to the Virgin Mary, informing her that God wanted to bring about in her the conception and birth of His only-begotten Son.  It was the newsflash of history!  Imagine the possible headlines, in big, bold letters:

          “Angel Appears to Virgin Bearing Unbelievable News,”

          “Lowly Town Site of Major Message from Heavenly Being,”

          “Angel Promises Virginal Conception: Fact or Fiction?”

          “Lowly Virgin Chosen to be Mother of God’s Only Son.”     

          Suddenly, almost without warning—what had been promised by God to King David a thousand years before—what had been prophesied by so many of God’s prophets—what Moses had prophesied to the people he led out of Egypt— and what had been long-awaited by so many people throughout so many centuries—was finally going to be fulfilled in and through Mary, the lowly and humble Virgin of Nazareth.  Finally, salvation was about to spring forth.  Finally, a new day was dawning for humanity.  Finally, hope was on the horizon.  Finally, God’s promises were about to be fulfilled.   

          The Angel speaks, “Hail, Full of Grace!  The Lord is with you!”

          Mary is confused.  What kind of greeting could this be, she wonders?  Never before had she been addressed in such a grand and important way, and by such a magnificent and luminous being….and at such a young age! 

          The Angel speaks again, “Do not be afraid Mary, for you have found favor with God.”  Mary sighs with relief.  The angel’s words are good news: she has found favor with the God of the ancient covenant, with the Lord of her people.  That’s always been her desire: to be pleasing to God, to find favor with Him through prayer, and to do His will faithfully and without reservation.

          But those first words from the angel aren’t even half of the story.  The angel goes on, “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.  He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of David his father, and He will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

          Mary is awestruck and humbled in the sight of God.  Did she hear the angel correctly?  She’s been chosen by God to be the mother of WHO, exactly?  Ah, yes, God’s promised Messiah…the One who would liberate Israel and would one day bring peace to the whole world…the One that God promised to send into the world through the mouths of so many prophets.  God chose to give Mary the single greatest honor in the world….the honor of being the mother of the world’s one and only Savior: the Messiah, the Son of God. 

          But there’s a catch.  Mary speaks, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?”  Unlike so many of her contemporaries, Mary wanted to remain virginal in the Lord’s eyes, to be entirely consecrated to Him through her virginal purity.  How would it be possible for her to be both virgin and mother?  How would it be possible for her to offer her virginal purity to God and still be the mother of God’s promised Messiah? 

          The angel speaks, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.  Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.”  There is Mary’s answer.  The child would be conceived not through human means, but through supernatural means…through the Holy Spirit, the power of the Most High.  This Child would be no ordinary child.  This Child would truly be the Son of God, a human being who could call on God as His Father in a unique way, and later enable others to do the same.

          And in case there’s any doubt that God could accomplish this, the angel offers another newsflash: “And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.”  Amazing!  God helped the old woman Elizabeth conceive a son, even though she was formerly infertile and childless.  Mary thinks, if God could accomplish that, He can accomplish anything!  Indeed, God has demonstrated that nothing is impossible for Him!

          And after all that, there is a moment of silence.  It seems to go on forever.  While Mary only experiences the presence of this one angel, she doesn’t realize that there are countless others, practically holding their breath, waiting in silence, waiting to her the Virgin’s response.  The hosts of heaven know that God gave humanity the gift of free will for a reason, to choose to follow God freely, to say yes to His will not because they had to, but because they chose to.  It all came down to this.  Mary paused, drawing together all her courage and all her sincerity, and spoke the words that the whole universe waited to hear, “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to your word.”

          In His goodness and His graciousness, God willed to include humanity in His plan of salvation.  Our first parents, Adam and Eve, fell from God’s grace through a free choice.  And so God willed that humanity would not be saved, except through another human’s free choice.  And when God proposed His plan of salvation, Mary said yes.  Her reply was humanity’s “yes” from humanity’s best -- the lowly and humble Virgin of Nazareth.

          Mary’s yes made His conception and birth possible.  We know that He would later go on to preach and teach and heal, and eventually to suffer and die, and on the third day, be raised to new and eternal life.  And as the world’s one and only Savior, He must be received again and again, as Mary received Him. 

          Salvation is God’s free gift.  God forces His gift on no one.  No one is forced to be saved.  On Christmas day, God will invite us to receive the most beautiful gift ever: the gift of Jesus!  It is the gift of a poor Child lying in a manger, the gift of an itinerant preacher, teacher, and healer from Nazareth, the gift of a Savior.

          So as Christmas draws near, don’t neglect either to give to others or to receive from God the greatest gift of all— the gift of God’s love for the world— the gift of Jesus.        

                                           

Homily for the First Sunday of Advent

Homily for the First Sunday of Advent (Year B)

READINGS:

First Reading: Isaiah 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7
Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Gospel: Mark 13:33-37

FOCUS: The season of Advent invites to watch, to wait, and to pray as we prepare for Christ’s coming.

FUNCTION: Live this Advent in an intentional way, by focusing on works of charity and prayer.

          Welcome to Advent, the very beginning of the Church’s new liturgical year!  Last Sunday, we ended the Church’s previous liturgical year with the Solemnity of Christ the King, and now we begin the Church’s new year of grace with this holy season that invites us to prepare for the birth of Christ.  Several things have changed since last Sunday, as you’ve probably noticed: now we priests will be wearing purple (or “violet”) instead of green, we did not sing the Gloria, and we now prepare to celebrate one of the biggest feasts of the Church’s liturgical year: the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord— aka Christmas— on December 25^th.  Advent truly is a season of great joy and new beginnings!

          And as I’ve already mentioned, today also marks the implementation of the new Roman Missal.  Yes, it’s a change from what we’re used to, and we all know that change can often be hard to handle.  But this change also brings with it a wonderful and unique opportunity: the chance to allow what we say and do here at Mass to be something even more intentional, something even more purposeful, and something even more meaningful.  And we are blessed to be given that opportunity in the holy season of Advent, a sacred time during which the Church prepares to celebrate the birth of Christ.  And so let’s pray that we might truly receive the many blessings and graces that God would like to give us during this wonderful time of prayer and preparation.

          Advent invites us to watch, to wait, and to pray as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ.  But often our “spiritual A.D.D.” kicks in and we get distracted by other concerns and other expectations.  So maybe it’s helpful for us to think about Advent from the perspective of Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.  On March 25^th we celebrated the Solemnity of the Annunciation— the announcement by the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary that she would be the mother of God’s promised Messiah.  Thankfully, Mary said “Yes” to the Archangel’s announcement.  At the Annunciation, the Word of God— the second Person of the Most Holy Trinity and the only Son of God— was made flesh in her holy womb and would later be known to us as Jesus of Nazareth.

          As of right now, it has been 8 months since the Solemnity of the Annunciation.  Figuratively, then, with this Advent season, we are observing the final month of Mary’s pregnancy as preparation for the birth of her Son.  Now, if Our Lady had a Facebook or Twitter account, we could keep up with her pregnancy through her various “baby bump” photos or her “tweets.”  But, unfortunately for us, the Mother of God lived two thousand years before the invention of Facebook or Twitter.  And so we’ll just have to prepare for the birth of her only Son the old-fashioned way: by watching, waiting, and praying.

          While it’s obvious that Advent is about preparing to celebrate the birth of Christ, there’s also another equally important aspect of Advent that sometimes gets overlooked in the midst of the focus on Christmas: namely, the anticipation and preparation for the second coming of Christ at the end of time.  In the Universal Norms for the Liturgical Year and the General Roman Calendar, the Church says, “Advent has a twofold character, for it is a time of preparation for the solemnities of Christmas, in which the First Coming of the Son of God to humanity is remembered, and likewise a time when, by remembrance of this, minds and hearts are led to look forward to Christ’s Second Coming at the end of time.  For these two reasons, Advent is a period of devout and expectant delight.”

          Our readings for this First Sunday of Advent wonderfully blend together these two aspects.  In the first reading, we heard a prayer for God’s coming: “Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, with the mountains quaking before You, while You wrought awesome deeds we could not hope for, such as they had not heard of from of old.  No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but You doing such deeds for those who wait for Him.  Would that You might meet us doing right, that we were mindful of You in our ways!”  What a powerful and appropriate prayer for us to pray this Advent season!  --- Yes, Lord God, “rend the heavens and come down” to us!  ---

          The Gospel, likewise, calls us to watch, to wait, and to pray.   Jesus says, “Be watchful!  Be alert!”  Jesus’ coming is like a person who travels abroad and leaves his servants in charge and on the look-out for his return.  And so Jesus says, “Watch, therefore; you do not know when the Lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning.  May He not come suddenly and find you sleeping.  What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”  Jesus’ words could be our theme for Advent: be on the watch… remain vigilant… stay awake… don’t get lazy… remember to pray. 

          So what’s that look like in practice?  Well, for one, be intentional about observing Advent with a spirit of expectant faith.  It’s about more than just putting up Christmas lights.  This Advent, focus on works of charity: help out those who are less fortunate, make a special donation to the Church or to some other Catholic charitable organization, participate in a food drive to help out under-privileged and needy families, give away some of those clothes, toys, etc. that you no longer need, secretly pay for someone else’s meal when you go out to eat, or tell other people about the love of God and the hope you have as a Catholic.  And of course there are many more ways that you can be intentional about observing Advent this year. 

          But most especially, pray that Christ might be born not only in some lowly and far away manger, but pray that He might be born within your heart in an even greater and more profound way.  This Advent, let Christ live in and through you.  In short, let’s make this Advent an Advent to remember, because Jesus is the reason for the season! 

          Many blessings to all of you, and happy Advent!