2nd Sunday of Easter - God's Great Love and Mercy

 It's quite late, but here's my homily for Divine Mercy Sunday.  Comments are always welcome.  God bless you!

Location: Basilica of Saint Francis Xavier (Dyersville, IA) – 5 p.m. Sat., 8:30 & 10:30 a.m. Sun.

Date: Sunday April 27^th, 2014 (2^nd Sunday of Easter, Year A – aka Divine Mercy Sunday)

READINGS:

1^st Reading: Acts 2:42-47

Resp. Psalm: Ps. 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24

2^nd Reading: 1 Peter 1:3-9

Gospel: John 20:19-31

FOCUS: God’s great love and mercy makes everything we’re celebrating this weekend possible. 

FUNCTION: Have recourse to the sacrament of mercy when you fall into sin. 

          There is a lot happening today – we observe today as Divine Mercy Sunday; Beckman has prom (tonight); we are celebrating First Holy Communion for our 2^nd graders; and this weekend Pope Francis will also canonize two modern popes: Blessed John Paul II and Blessed John XXIII.  We have a lot to celebrate.

          But how do they all connect?  It’s all about God’s great love and mercy.  That’s why a school like Beckman Catholic exists which enables students to go to Prom; that’s why Jesus gave Himself to us as the Bread of Life and the Chalice of salvation in Holy Communion at the Last Supper; that’s why we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday and the revelation of merciful love by Jesus to St. Faustina; and that’s why two Popes were inspired to live a life of heroic virtue and holiness.  God’s great love and mercy is the reason we’re here today.

          First of all, God’s great love – it was love that led God to create humanity; and after humanity’s fall from grace, it was love that led God to give humanity a Savior in the person of His only Son, Jesus our Lord; it was love that led Jesus to suffer and die on the cross and be raised to life again on the third day; and it was love that led Jesus to form the Church and send that Church forth to proclaim the good news of the Gospel and the promise of new life in Christ.  Love created us, Love redeems us, and Love sustains us. 

          Secondly, God’s great mercy – because God knew that we could not repay the debt that we would accrue because of our sin, God had mercy on us.  God instructed the Jews in the beginning to offer various sacrifices in atonement for sin; but knowing that the blood of bulls and lambs could never take away sin, God offered a sacrifice that only He could provide – the sacrifice of His only Son.  Jesus suffered and died and rose again so that we might experience the forgiveness of sins and the joy of eternal life; His death on the cross paid the price of our sin.  While He was on earth, He exercised a ministry of mercy; and before He ascended to the Father, He entrusted to His disciples the new ministry of mercy – they were given authority, by the Holy Spirit, to forgive sins and to reconcile people to God and to each other. 

          We see Jesus doing that very thing in today’s Gospel – “…he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.  Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.’”  Jesus gives the authority to forgive sins to His disciples; He Himself had and exercised that authority during His earthly ministry; and after His resurrection, He entrusted His disciples to do the same; this is the biblical origin of the sacrament of reconciliation.  We confess our sins to a priest because Jesus gave the authority to forgive sins to His disciples, who transmitted that same authority to their successors, the Bishops, who likewise shared that authority with their co-workers, the priests.  It all goes back to the words and actions of Jesus Himself. 

          The sacrament of reconciliation is vitally important in today’s world as a source of grace and healing for God’s people; our 2^nd graders celebrated their first reconciliation last year in preparation for receiving their First Holy Communion today; our students at Beckman (and our other area Catholic schools) go to confession at least twice a year in Advent and Lent in order to be prepared to celebrate the solemnities of Christmas and Easter.  The sacrament of penance and reconciliation cleanses us of our sins and helps us experience the grace of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross; it is the sacrament of conversion by which we try to turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel. 

          Jesus entrusted that great sacrament to the Church so that we might become saints by experiencing spiritual conversion and growth in grace.  Ss. John Paul II and John XXIII weren’t born Saints; they were made Saints by their cooperation with God’s grace; they sought to live a life focused on God, because they knew that only God would satisfy them; and so they continually turned from the many false pleasures and dark allurements of the world and, with God’s help, worked hard to be faithful to the message of the Gospel.  They are Saints because they were faithful, and because they knew Jesus. 

          Today’s Gospel also gives us the story of “doubting Thomas,” who also proved to be an incredible man of faith; after He experienced the risen Lord, He said one of the most remarkable acclamations of faith in the whole New Testament – “My Lord and my God!” 

          And we can have that kind of faith, too, but we have to allow ourselves to believe in more than what we can see and touch.  We believe that Jesus is really and truly present in the sacrament of the Eucharist; but we can only know that by the gift of faith.  To our eyes, it looks like bread and wine.  But when we look at the Eucharist with eyes of faith, we see that it is so much more – it is the very Body and Blood of Jesus, who seeks to reconcile us with God and with each other.  After St. Thomas’ incredible acclamation of faith, Jesus says to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

          That can be us!  But it all starts with recognizing God’s great love and mercy.  God wants to make us Saints.  He wants us to become men and women of heroic virtue and authentic holiness.  How does that happen?

          Jesus shows us – we should live as His disciples and follow where He leads; we should practice what He taught; we should love God with our whole being and love our neighbors as ourselves; we should approach the sacrament of penance and reconciliation whenever we fall into sin; and we should look to the example of the Saints who have gone before us and imitate their faith. 

          May we be strengthened by the intercession of the Church’s new Saints, John Paul II and John XXIII, to live as disciples of Jesus, the Risen Lord.                                    

Easter Sunday - The Light Conquers the Darkness

May each of you who read these words have a blessed Easter!  

Location: Saint Paul Catholic Church (Worthington, IA) – 8 p.m. Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday

                Basilica of Saint Francis Xavier (Dyersville, IA) – 7 a.m. & 8:30 a.m. Easter Sunday

Date: Sunday April 20^th, 2014 (Holy Saturday – Easter Vigil, Year A; Easter Sunday, Years ABC)

READINGS:

Vigil 1^st Reading (#1): Genesis 1:1-2:2/ DAY: Acts 10:34a, 37-43

Vigil Resp. Psalm: Ps. 104:1-2, 5-6, 10, 12, 13-14, 24, 35/ DAY: Ps. 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23

Vigil 2^nd Reading (#3): Exodus 14:15-15:1/ DAY: Colossians 3:1-4 (OR 1 Corinthians 5:6b-8)

Vigil Resp. Psalm: Exodus 15:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 17-18

Vigil 3^rd Reading (#7): Ezekiel 36:16-17a, 18-28

Vigil Resp. Psalm: Isaiah 12:2-3, 4bcd, 5-6 (OR Ps. 51:12-13, 14-15, 18-19)

Vigil Epistle: Romans 6:3-11/

Vigil Resp. Psalm: Ps. 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23/ DAY: Easter Sequence

Vigil Gospel: Matthew 28:1-10/ DAY: John 20:1-9

FOCUS: Jesus is the light of the world that scatters the darkness. 

FUNCTION: Work on growing in your relationship with God through prayer and worship. 

            As we heard tonight (OR last night at the Easter Vigil) from the Book of Genesis, “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters.  Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  God saw how good the light was.  God then separated the light from the darkness.”  God has created a marvelous light, and He has brought light forth out of darkness.  On Holy Thursday, we celebrated the Lord’s institution of two great sacraments – the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Priesthood – as well as how He got up from the Last Supper and washed the feet of His disciples, giving them an example to follow.  On Good Friday, we celebrated the Lord’s passion and death, and how He submitted to the suffering of the cross because of His love for sinful humanity.  During the day on Holy Saturday, we waited in silence – to human eyes, it would seem that He who called Himself “the light of the world” had been conquered by the darkness.  But on this holy night (OR on this holy day), we know that the light has conquered the darkness instead.

          Death could not hold Him.  The grave could not contain Him.  The darkness could not suppress the light.  The Lord rose from the dead.  The world was reborn, and we are made new in the light of the risen Lord of life.  Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is our great hope.  We can live for more than the fallen, sinful, and broken world we see around us.  We can live for something greater, something glorious, something so profound it defies adequate description: Jesus’ resurrection gives us the freedom to live for the kingdom of God, so that we can rise from our sinfulness and inherit the new life He has promised.

          Because of Jesus’ resurrection, we don’t have to be the people we’ve been: we don’t have to get stuck in sin, or be conquered by darkness, or be consumed by the fear of death.  Jesus rose from the dead to give us hope, and to show us that He is exactly who He claimed to be: the Son of God and Savior of the world.  Now He invites us into a relationship with Him, in and through His Church.  He suffered and died for us – to save us and bring us back to God. 

          Sometimes we forget what this salvation cost – it cost the Lord His very life; He purchased our salvation at the cost of His Body and Blood, given for us first in an un-bloody way in the Holy Eucharist on Holy Thursday and then in a truly sacrificial way on the cross on Good Friday.  How many of you would be willing to lay down your life for people who might end up rejecting you?  And yet that is exactly what the Lord has done for us. 

          How might we give something back to the Lord for what He did for us?  Trying to grow in our relationship with God through regular prayer and worship is probably a good place to start.  We worship together on Sundays because Sunday is the day of the Lord’s resurrection; it is the new Sabbath day for Christians.  The early Christians called the original Easter Sunday the “eighth day” or the day of the new creation.  On the first day of the week (Sunday) in the Book of Genesis, God created the light.  Jesus shows us that light by His resurrection, His triumph over the power of sin, darkness, and death.  The first Easter Sunday marked the re-creation of the world.  We worship on Sundays because we’re thankful for what God did for us in and through Christ.

          We celebrate another 40 days now in the Easter season, commemorating the time the risen Lord spent with His disciples after His resurrection and before His ascension; and after His ascension, we conclude 9 days later on the Solemnity of Pentecost, marking the coming of the Holy Spirit, making 50 days of Easter.  During these days, and beyond, let’s continue to participate in the unfolding of the Easter mystery by coming here to worship and taking time to pray and read the daily Mass readings, or spend some time with the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.  Let’s try to give something back to God, who gave so much for us.

          May this holy night (OR this holy day) be an occasion of joy for you and your loved ones.  May our Easter celebrations strengthen your faith in the Lord and help you find your hope in God.  And may God fill you with His light and peace in this joyful season.  God bless you, and happy Easter!                       

Good Friday - The Cross = True Love

Location: Saint Joseph Catholic Church (Earlville, IA) – 3 p.m. Good Friday Liturgy

Date: Friday April 18^th, 2014 (Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion)

READINGS:

1^st Reading: Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Resp. Psalm: Ps. 31:2, 6, 12-13, 15-16, 17, 25

2^nd Reading: Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9

Gospel: John 18:1-19:42

FOCUS: Jesus loved us so much that He was willing to suffer to save us and bring us back to God. 

FUNCTION: Be willing to suffer for the sake of Christ; remain always steadfast in your faith. 

          Let’s face it: it’s not popular to be a Catholic.  We’re living in a day and age that is “spiritual, but not religious.”  The wider culture is more open to New Age spirituality than Christianity; any mention of God is stifled in the midst of public discourse; certain groups of people attempted to have the phrase, “under God,” removed from the Pledge of Allegiance; the religious meanings behind the celebrations of Easter, Halloween, and Christmas, for instance, have all been replaced by secular meanings (or no meaning at all); it’s popular to portray Christians in TV, film, and the wider media as insensitive and intolerant; and we’ve all experienced the pressure to conform more to the message of the world rather than the message of the Gospel. 

          Good Friday reminds us that it’s not popular to be Catholic, to be one of the Lord’s disciples.  But we’re not Catholic because we’re trying to be popular; we’re Catholic because of what Christ accomplished for us.  Good Friday reminds us that Christ suffered in order to save us and bring us back to God.

          I’m struck every year by the words of the “Song of the Suffering Servant” from the first reading:  “He was spurned and avoided by people,/ a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity,/ one of those from whom people hide their faces,/ spurned, and we held him in no esteem./  Yet it was our infirmities that he bore,/ our sufferings that he endured,/ while we thought of him as stricken,/ as one smitten by God and afflicted./  But he was pierced for our offenses,/ crushed for our sins;/ upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole,/ by his stripes we were healed./  We had all gone astray like sheep,/ each following his own way;/ but the LORD laid upon him/ the guilt of us all.”

          Sometimes we take the cross and Jesus’ passion for granted.  Sometimes we think of Jesus as so divine that we forget about His true humanity – how He felt every one of the lashes when He was scourged; how He felt the pain of the crown of thorns as the thorns pierced His flesh and were pushed into His skull; how the rocks along the way of the cross felt under His feet; how it felt to have large nails driven into His hands and feet.  Sometimes we forget these things.  Sometimes we forget that our salvation came with a price – the sacrifice of the Lord’s Body and Blood, offered up for us first in the institution of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday and then on the cross on Good Friday.

          Good Friday is supposed to inspire us to love the Lord with our whole heart, mind, and soul, and to love our neighbor as ourselves; the Lord willingly gave up His life for each of us.  Each of us is known and loved by God.  Jesus was willing to submit to the suffering of the cross for the sake of our salvation, because He loved us with an undying love. 

          True love must always hurt, it must always cost something, and it must always push us outside ourselves.  The cross that we celebrate today is God’s most profound declaration of love.  He did no spare His only Son, but gave Him up to death for our sake.  So what can we do in response to so great a love?  We can live our faith; we can share our faith with those who do not yet know the Lord; and we can be willing to suffer for the sake of our faith when believing in Christ makes us unpopular.  May our celebration of Good Friday inspire us to love God and to love others more generously each day.                  

Holy Thursday - The Call to Serve

Here's the homily I preached for the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper.  Comments are always welcome.  God bless you!

Location: Saint Joseph Catholic Church (Earlville, IA) – 7 p.m. Mass of the Lord’s Supper

Date: Thursday April 17^th, 2014 (Holy Thursday of the Lord’s Supper)

READINGS:

1^st Reading: Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14

Resp. Psalm: Ps. 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18

2^nd Reading: 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Gospel: John 13:1-15

FOCUS: Our faith in Christ calls us imitate Him in a life of sacrificial service.

FUNCTION: Serve those around you, especially the poor and the marginalized. 

          To set the tone for what’s about to unfold tonight, I’d like to share with you a few thoughts; they are the thoughts of Fr. Robert Barron, the creative mind behind the Catholicism Series and the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries.  Fr. Barron says this about today’s celebration:

          “Christianity is a revolutionary religion.  It turns everything upside down, reversing the values and expectations of a sinful world.  Throughout his life and ministry, Jesus tried to inaugurate people into this new world that he called the Kingdom of God.  The nature of this Kingdom became especially apparent as Jesus gathered with his disciples in the upper room, a place of heightened awareness.  There he did something extraordinary.  Jesus took off his outer garments, tied a towel around his waist, poured water in a basin, and washed the feet of his disciples.  He performed an act that was so humble, so lowly, that it was considered beneath the dignity even of a slave. 

          We catch the novelty and shock of it in Peter's response: "Master, are you going to wash my feet?"  This is just too much for him; it is such a violation of the world that he had come to accept, a world in which masters were masters, slaves were slaves, where the dignified and important were waited upon while the lowly did the serving.  In that world there was a clear demarcation between up and down, worthy and unworthy, clean and unclean.  Jesus is putting his followers through a sort of initiation rite.  Unless they pass this test, unless they begin to see the world in a new way, they will not get into the Kingdom. 

          And this is why Jesus says to Peter, "Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me."  In the vision of the old world, one's life comes to its high point at a moment of honor, praise, glory, or recognition, at a moment when one's distinction and superiority over others is most evident.  The old world is predicated on the great divisions between master and slave, superior and subordinate, rich and poor, powerful and powerless, included and excluded.  Most of our energy goes into maintaining these distinctions, or trying to get from one side to the other, or keeping certain people on the far side of the divide. 

          But in the vision of the Kingdom of God, the climactic moment comes when one is the lowliest servant of the other: yes, even despised, reviled, spat upon, and handed over to death.  It is only when we have passed through this startling initiation that we are ready for the full manifestation of the Kingdom.”

          Now for my own thoughts.  It’s humbling for me, as a priest, to wash people’s feet on Holy Thursday, in imitation of what Jesus did for His disciples approximately two thousand years ago.  It’s humbling for me to stand at the altar and repeat – almost verbatim – the words that Jesus said at the Last Supper when He instituted the sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist and told His disciples to celebrate that same sacrifice in remembrance of Him.  It’s a reminder for me that to lead means to serve; it’s a reminder that all true authority is oriented toward serving others.  I have been ordained to serve, to preach, to teach the Catholic and apostolic faith, to pastor God’s flock, and to help sanctify His people through the celebration of the Lord’s sacraments.  My life as a priest is at the service of the priesthood of the baptized.

          That is simply what my vocation is all about; but it’s not just my vocation – service is the vocation of all the baptized.  We are all called to serve.  When Jesus spoke to His disciples at the Last Supper in the Gospel of Luke, “He said to them, ‘The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them and those in authority over them are addressed as ‘Benefactors’; but among you it shall not be so.  Rather, let the greatest among you be as the youngest, and the leader as the servant.  For who is greater: the one seated at table or the one who serves?  Is it not the one seated at table? I am among you as the one who serves,’” (Luke 22:25-27).

          Jesus offers each of us a model to follow and imitate.  How well do we serve our spouses, children, extended family members, brothers and sisters, neighbors, co-workers, and even strangers?  If we were brought before a court for having been accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict us?  I sure hope so!  It is not enough for us to be Christians in name only; we must also be Christians by practice.  Our faith must always lead to action.  How do we tend to deal with people who annoy us, or who tend to frustrate us and make us angry, or who like to push our buttons?  How do we tend to respond to people around us after we’ve had a bad day? 

          It’s when “push comes to shove” that our true character is revealed – we are who we are on our worst day.  It’s easy to be a Christian by name and by practice when things are going well; it’s often a little harder when nothing seems to be going right.  Could it be, that on our worst days, the Lord is offering us a little test to see how well we live up to the name, “Christian”?  Probably all of us have some work to do if we want to live up to our vocation to be disciples of Christ the Lord.

          How does that happen?  We have to live up to the call to serve.  We have to do it every day.  We have to do it not only in exceptional circumstances, but in the ordinary context of day-to-day living.  When you’ve had a bad day, don’t make it all about you – think about others; maybe they’ve had a bad day, too, and your bad attitude is only making things worse!  When your children or grandchildren or your spouse or other family members of co-workers or neighbors or even strangers ask for your help, try not to be grumpy; offer a helpful hand with a smile on your face.  Let your actions speak louder than your words.  Don’t tell people you love them; show them you love them. 

          Let your life look less like your own and more like the life of Our Lord – He was willing to roll His sleeves up, so to speak, and get messy helping others.  This isn’t something extraordinary; this is the ordinary call of what it means to be and to live as a Christian.  To be a Christian means to serve, to imitate Jesus, to practice what He taught, to follow where He leads. 

          May our celebration of the Holy Eucharist and our remembrance of how the Lord washed the feet of His disciples inspire us to serve others, and through serving them, to serve Him.  And may He draw each of us closer to new life in the kingdom of God.