Holy Family

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The family structure is probably the most important element that upholds tradition in a society.  It keeps us from changing with the whims of a time and place, and allows us stability.  For this reason the family is always under attack, and in our society there unique elements of that attack.

Alexis de Tocqueville "I do not know of any country where, in general, less of independence mind and genuine freedom of discussion reign than in America."  We have a lot of groupthink.  Democracy in some ways shuns the people who have "out-of-bounds" ideas.  If it's not popular, it's considered illegitimate.

One of the deep-seated ideas in our culture that fights the family is American Individualism (often stretching to the point of "anything goes" libertarianism) causes an anti-family mentality, Anti-marriage mentality, anti-child mentality.  True Freedom requires maturity, and maturity, which is based on clear thinking and self-discipline, is not likely to happen where there is not a healthy foundation in family life.  We are created to always grow and develop, but we do that best when we have a sense of stability, of foundation, of roots.  You notice how people who know their culture (whether italian, irish, indian, filipino, mexican, or anything else) truly can thrive in the world because of that reference point.  That's what the family is meant to be.

We are fighting for family in our society.  Perhaps the best way to promote the family is to be like the Holy Family, to be a family ourselves.

For Abraham, for Mary & Joseph, for all holy families: God is the first priority.  Obedience to God's will is the main thing they want, no matter the sacrifices.

"I love you" needs to be lived and not just said every once in a while.  (but saying it is still important).

City on a Hill,  Light on a lampstand.  The world needs to see families committed to common living, sharing crosses, rejoicing together - witnesses of the Resurrection.

Christmas!

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Children: who made us? Why did He make us? Are we supposed to live on earth forever?
Then heaven is our home.
My aunt and uncle lost their home and all that they had, except one car, in the California wildfires.  I just talked with them on the phone on Christmas Eve.  They were told in the middle of the night to leave if they wanted to survive.  It reminds me of Joseph when He was told to flee to Egypt.  They are very fortunate.  No one died or got hurt.  They are also grateful for all the love and support from so many good people - their neighbors and family and friends.  They will be able to rebuild, and they are happy to have that opportunity.  
We lost our home.  We lost heaven and have been waiting for a way home.
What makes today special? God left His home to lead us to our home, which is with Him. To make a way for us to go back, He came down to earth and became one of us.

Not just for the homeless in California or the millions of refugees throughout the world.  None of us are “at home” on this earth, for we were made for heaven.

Jesus shows us the human face of God and the divine face of man.

This church is your home.  You know when I go to my parents house or visit with my friends or drive far away for some priestly duty, I always can find my way back with that GPS.  It's simple, I just tell it to take me home.  This church is not just my home, it's everyone's home.  It's yours.

The House of Christmas

G.K. Chesterton

By: G. K. Chesterton
There fared a mother driven forthOut of an inn to roam;In the place where she was homelessAll men are at home.The crazy stable close at hand,With shaking timber and shifting sand,Grew a stronger thing to abide and standThan the square stones of Rome.
For men are homesick in their homes,And strangers under the sun,And they lay on their heads in a foreign landWhenever the day is done.Here we have battle and blazing eyes,And chance and honour and high surprise,But our homes are under miraculous skiesWhere the yule tale was begun.
A Child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home;
We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost - how long ago!
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky's dome.
This world is wild as an old wives' tale,
And strange the plain things are,
The earth is enough and the air is enough
For our wonder and our war;
But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings
And our peace is put in impossible things
Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings
Round an incredible star.
To an open house in the evening
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home.
x

4th Sunday of Advent!

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1. Mary is the core of Christian life and discipleship. We all need to be like her. 

2. You can never get too close to Mary. 

3. Our yes to God effects so many others. Will I carry the cross of love as God requests? Or will I live life for my own desires, my own profit?

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While still in a time of preparation during Advent, this third Sunday anticipates the coming feast.  The readings every year (whether cycle A, B, or C of our 3 year Sunday cycle) always bear the theme of joy.  Today it is heard in the first reading from the prophet Isaiah and the second reading ("rejoice always!") as well as the responsorial verse today, Mary's Magnificat (not from the Old Testament book of Psalms as it almost always is).  The Gospel about John the Baptist doesn't focus so strictly on it, and the stories we hear about him might not seem to outward appearances to be very joyful, but the person of John the Baptist could be considered a man of joy even before his birth.
Remember that when Mary visited Elizabeth (just before Mary's words of the Magnificat) the infant John the Baptist leaps in Elizabeth's womb, which E. takes as a sign that the Lord is near - that Jesus has drawn close.
John is an example if the joy we are called to bear.  It is a joy that all of us are capable of, because Joy, brothers and sisters, is the response to God's presence.  It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit that we receive when we notice something amazing.
Abp. Chaput speaks about Pope Francis' emphasis on joy in the Christian life:
Joy is the exhilaration we find in being overcome by great beauty, or in the discovery of some great truth or gift, and the passion that drives us to share this exhilaration with others, even if we suffer in the process. In effect, we don’t possess joy; joy possesses us. - Archbishop Charles Chaput - Strangers in a Strange Land (about Catholics is the USA, - we indeed are kind of strangers who don't fit into this strange land, this sort of "foreign country" that is not our true homeland of heaven).  Indeed, we are called to be a little different.  
John the Baptist was a great example of being "possessed" by the joy of knowing that the Lord is near to his life.  All he did was very intentionally focused on that truth, and oriented toward it.  He was born and raised at the same time as Christ, and probably saw Jesus every once in a while growing up, but eventually the joy of Jesus' kingdom being so close at hand led him to the desert, to live differently, and to call people to something greater: to get ready for God's reign in our midst.
And so we as Christians need to be like John the Baptist: 1. we don't conform to the culture. 2. we intrigue, draw, and lead people to an encounter with Christ.
Have you ever noticed how joy drives us to share what we have discovered with others?  It's contagious: when we experience something amazingly beautiful, we wish to share it - whether food (you gotta try this), or a movie (you gotta watch this) or a book (you gotta read this) or a even a friend (you gotta meet this person).  We don't want to keep it for ourselves, except maybe when we selfishly want to horde things that we 

Our faith should be joyful.  Evangelii Gaudium.  Pope Francis makes it clear that joy is a sort of requirement for the Christian life, and a fruit of the relationship with God - knowing that He is near in our lives.
Maybe not in the flashy bubbly way we see in our world today.  Joy doesn't have to be that, but rather it could be more a quiet, peaceful delight in life even in the midst of suffering.
Christmas joy,  should build up others.
This brings us to next Sunday/Monday with Christmas Masses.  Many guest will be here, many people on the fringes of the faith, whose connection with God and the Church is real, but has lots of room for growth.  It is fragile.  And we need to strengthen that, and support each other in living the Christian life.
So when our routine is thrown off because we are at a different Mass time and we find a packed parking lot and we see someone in what we think is our seat, let us remember that it's God's house, not ours, and the new faces you see around you need this Christmas Mass as much if not more that you and I.  They need our witness that God wants them here and to draw closer to Him through the Church.  May this Eucharist help us to be like John the Baptist and create a space in our culture for an encounter with Jesus, especially around Christmas.

A Voice in My Desert

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The Gospel of Mark begins with these words we heard today.  In these first words, he makes it clear that Jesus is the Messiah, long-awaited (literally centuries, even since Adam & Eve).  1) "Christ." 2) "Son of God"  3) Isaiah's prophecy (messianic)  4) Elijah's "appearance" in John the Baptist

The Gospel starts for us in the scene of the desert.

The desert refers to the wilderness, the place that is uninhabited, "deserted," and thus is free from distraction.  In the spiritual life we all have deserted areas - places that we have not spent much time cultivating and creating God's kingdom there - areas where things are truly out of order and chaotic, fallen into disarray.  With the ministry of Saint John the Baptist, we are invited to enter into that desert and prepare a way for the Lord there.  For the people of Jerusalem and the countryside of Judea that were going to see John the Baptist, the journey could have taken anywhere from 1-3 days, perhaps even more from areas farther west.  Jerusalem was about 20 miles from the river.  That journey into the wilderness truly allowed one to disconnect from their daily life, to get quiet, to refocus.  They could leave their sins behind, and then "turn back to the Lord" (who dwelt in the Temple) and "return" to their daily lives with a new perspective and a lighter load.

The snow we see around us now gives us a chance, a sort of invitation, to enter into that desert.  The snow first quiets the world around us (a symbol of removing distractions), and it also makes us slower - we walk slower; we drive slower; things take longer.  Slow down! the world says, sending us God's message.  All of this is an invitation to enter into that desert where we can truly hear God's voice - to disconnect like the Jews did on their journey to the Jordan River.  And what is God saying to us if we allow our lives to enter into in that quiet space?  Prepare a way...  “Prepare a way for Christmas presents”?  “Prepare a way for Christmas dinner and Christmas parties"? No, that is the world's voice.  But God’s voice calls us to get ready Not for an event but for a person. “Prepare a way for the LORD.”

The Messiah, the Christ, is coming.  The Gospel is beginning again in our lives this Advent.  And it begins in the desert, with this call to repentance.  God, in His great love for us, isn't waiting for you or I to fix ourselves.  No, he is coming to meet us and heal us Himself.  But he needs us to cooperate with that healing process by confessing our need for a Savior, by admitting we need Jesus.

Baptism - 2nd Baptism that is Confession.

Conversion is a life-long journey for us as Christians.  We can always go deeper.  Let us journey into the quiet desert of our hearts, and through repentance, prepare a way for Christ to meet us once again.

Keeping things in order

Audio here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_KG09bYuFZfMerOF9zPtJaCkkawFgUXy

Being soft clay, capable of molding. After the fire, we can only be shattered.

Keeping my house "guest-ready".

Marana tha - Our Lord, come!

Maran atha - Our Lord has come! (And is here!)

Three comings of Christ - Christmas, End-times, and Eucharist. How do I prepare for His coming in these ways? Am I allowing myself to be soft clay that can make necessary changes? Or am I so firmly set in my ways that the Lord cannot work with me any more?

Good stewards

Audio here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1mmCIxgItviPTvWBgTHDp4UUiz0VyBP6T

In today’s readings, we are presented with the hard work of a good wife and of two “good and faithful” servants who made productive use of their time and talents for those they loved.  Their rewards are abundantly clear in both passages.  Equally apparent for us is the punishment of the servant whom the master calls “wicked”: he has failed to deal properly with the huge sum of money given to him (equivalent to perhaps 15-20 years wages).  He was afraid, and didn’t want to fall short, but apparently the master is not compassionate at all in this circumstance.

How will it be for us when our Master, the Lord Jesus, returns to demand an account of what He has blessed us with?  We have been given much more than money, but do we not recognize the urgency of what we do with our own “talents”: whether finances, skills, opportunities, wisdom, or God’s divine Grace placed in our hearts.  None of these things are given for us to keep for ourselves.  All of it - money, time, opportunities, wisdom, gifts, skills, Grace, love, forgiveness - everything we are given is really for giving away.

Look at Jesus’ own life.  It tells us plain and simple, that love isn’t love until you give it away.  God is love, and he gave Himself away, He laid down His life, for you and me.

If you want to discover who God is - you have to give yourself away.  Now this doesn’t mean you need to empty your houses and your bank accounts.  If it did, then 99% of Christians over the last 2,00 years have done a terrible job.  No we don’t need to abandon all our stuff to the Lord.  But we do need to constantly place it in His hands in prayer, and be ready to do with it as He wills.  That is true discipleship.  That is a true response to the demands of Divine Love showed to us in the Cross and in the Eucharist.  Whenever we don’t give away our “talents” (in every sense of the word) for the good of others, then we are burying them for ourselves, trying to protect ourselves, and in fact actually condemning ourselves because we are refusing to be like God, eternal self-giving Love.

Sometimes we may be tempted to think that being a Christian is simply a one-time conversion or act of faith, and then we get to live some sort of spiritual retirement in our hot-tub of Grace just relishing the easy life.  To be a christian and follow Jesus is not something simple or easy, nor is it brief.  Last week’s parable of the wise and foolish virgins reminds us that we must always be alert and ready, constantly of service to our Lord.  We can’t simply make a decision to follow Jesus and then be done with it.  No, that decision ends up leading to new decisions every day that change how we view the world and how we live.The Christian life is not some short sprint, but a marathon race that lasts our entire life.  Do we have what it takes to finish the race?  For the truth is that Christianity is not a soft bed, but rather a Cross that brings us challenges and consolations every step of the way.  Let us thank God for the daily opportunities we are given to discover the beauty of the Cross, which is love in its true form.

And let us pray for the grace to risk ourselves - to lose ourselves - by giving away ourselves to God and to each other.  This is the true act of faith we make in the Lord’s Paschal Mystery, and it is here in the Eucharist where we are promised to truly find ourselves in Christ Jesus once again.

The Oil of Love - Waiting in Hope

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Baby box save. How hard it must have been to make that decision but a blessing.  Cutting off a relationship so that the child might have a safe and profitable future.
"I do not know you" - how much harder it would be to hear those words directed to us from the Lord.  To avoid this eternal heartbreak, we need to do what is required: we need to be like the wise virgins in today’s Gospel.
This parable, like all parables, offers us an analogy of the spiritual life.  It is a truth wrapped in a story, and the story isn’t about oil.  It’s about “Staying awake!”, Christ tells us.  But what does that mean?  Well, staying awake ultimately means living our baptism day by day, moment by moment –living in continual relationship with the Lord Jesus, our heavenly Father, and the Holy Spirit.  If we are doing this, then we are keeping the fire burning – and that fire is love, and unlike oil, love cannot be bought or sold.  You either have it or you don’t – and that is why the five wise virgins cannot share their oil.  Their love is their own.  Our love for Jesus is either there or it isn’t.  When I get to heaven I cannot say: “I know I never really prayed but, hey, my mom went to daily Mass!”  Saint Peter will not be amused or deceived.  Do you love Jesus?  Do you seek Christ tirelessly?
Pray. Hope. Don't worry.
Being on retreat last week was such a great gift.  I feel refreshed by the time I was able to give solely to God. The world would say it was wasted if it wasn't for personal benefit, but even if I got nothing out of it (and there were certainly times of waiting), it was worth it. Why did Jesus die on the Cross and rise from the dead? To give us heaven - who is a relationship with God, something we already experience in prayer. If we don't pray, we are ultimately saying we don't care about heaven. 
Another message from this parable is that we do have to wait. We can't force God. Must wait patiently. Even when on retreat.
Indeed, the Thessalonians were waiting for Jesus to return, and they like Saint Paul thought that the Lord's return was to be very soon, which is why they worried for those who died before the Second Coming.  Indeed waiting is necessary for us all in the spiritual life. We live in a beautiful mess of "already" mixed with a healthy dose of "not yet."
We already have a relationship with the Lord, but we don't yet see Him face to face. We already are God's children, but we do not yet always live as such. We already see the beginning of the kingdom of God, but we know that it is not fully realized.
Ultimately the message of these readings is the same one Padre Pio often gave: Pray. Hope. Don't worry. (Padre Pio’s relics visited SJHS just over a week ago on the 3rd, a total surprise to me, and I received a special blessing from the priest guardian who was holding P. Pio’s gloves over my head.  What a gift!)  …  But anyways: Pray. Hope. Don't worry. We pray to experience the "already”.  We hope joyfully for the “not yet” to be realized and completed.  And we don’t worry about the rest, because God has us in His gaze, and His love is proven to us by the Cross and by this Eucharist.  Lord, help us to pray, hope, and not worry.

"Father's" Day - The Priestly Ministry - prayers needed

Audio from 9:30am Mass - click here 

 
This upcoming week is National Vocations Awareness week in the USA, so it is very fitting to talk about the priesthood, especially when the Gospel includes Jesus saying to us: "call no man father..." I'm sure you all can guess that I've been hearing people call me Father every day for the past 6.5 years, and we of course mean the same even when we call our fathers "dad" or "papa" or whatever.  So this teaching of Jesus must not be taken literally.  It needs to be seen in context with the rest of the passage ("master" and "teacher") as well as the context of the whole bible. In fact, Saturday morning we heard the same closing phrase in a different passage where Luke speaks of taking seats of honor at banquets: "whoever exalts himself will be humbles, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." So Luke 14 has something to say about Matthew 23, and the important part - the overlap and the echo - is about how we deal with authority, fame, influence.  So this fits not only the priesthood and teachers and parents, but all types of worldly authority and influence.  More on that in a bit, but first I would like to talk a bit about the priesthood.

The priesthood of Jesus Christ which I share in by ordination is the reason for many of the most difficult as well as the most amazing moments in my life.  A priest will never forget the joy of walking with someone who joins the Church as an adult and receives Communion for the first time from his hands; just as he never forgets blessing a man or woman who just died or grieving with their loved ones.  The priest weeps when he sees a soul running from the Lord unaware of His Mercy, and rejoices in giving absolution to one who returns after many years.

          I'm sure the same could be said about any role of leadership and authority, especially parents, teachers, coaches, and civil authorities.  It is difficult and rewarding.  

We aren't to reject these leadership roles, but we cannot let them feed our age-old weakness of pride.  Authority is ultimately an opportunity for humble service. 

Yesterday there was a great example of this for the priesthood, and I wish you to think about how this applies to yourself in your various roles of leadership, authority, and influence.

          Saint Charles Borromeo -  November 4th.  Actually my first summer parish assignment - my childhood rivals.  Msgr. John vs. Msgr. John (best friends)  "that other parish" "de-program him"

Saint Charles really helped complete the reform of the Catholic church at the Council of Trent and afterwards, making the church work to finish the response that was essential for the Church after the spark of Martin Luther ignited revolution and rupture from the Catholic Church precisely 500 years ago, 1517.  He is the patron saint of seminarians, because he really started seminaries.  He said more or less that the university system should be adapted to train men to be priests in an organized way with more direct supervision, instead of the bishop placing someone in an "apprenticeship" under a good priest-mentor-guide.  More was needed, because priesthood is important - very important.  The fact is, priests can really help people and can really hurt people.  Just like a good coach can build someone up, and a bad coach can crush someone's spirit.  Of course, the same goes for a teacher, parent, etc.  If the priest is not holy, why would the congregation be holy?  He is meant to be an example, like Saint Paul says.

          St. Paul in the 2nd reading: Brothers and sisters: We were gentle among you, as a nursing mother cares for her children. With such affection for you, we were determined to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our very selves as well, so dearly beloved had you become to us. You recall, brothers and sisters, our toil and drudgery. Working night and day in order not to burden any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.

Every year, the priest reads great advice from Saint Charles in the office of Readings.

          From a sermon given during the last synod he attended, by Saint Charles, bishop

(Acta Ecclesiae Mediolanensis 1599, 1177-1178) Practice what you preach

I admit that we are all weak, but if we want help, the Lord God has given us the means to find it easily. One priest may wish to lead a good, holy life, as he knows he should. He may wish to be chaste and to reflect heavenly virtues in the way he lives. Yet he does not resolve to use suitable means, such as penance, prayer, the avoidance of evil discussions and harmful and dangerous friendships. Another priest complains that as soon as he comes into church to pray the office or to celebrate Mass, a thousand thoughts fill his mind and distract him from God. But what was he doing in the sacristy before he came out for the office or for Mass? How did he prepare? What means did he use to collect his thoughts and to remain recollected?

Would you like me to teach you how to grow from virtue to virtue and how, if you are already recollected at prayer, you can be even more attentive next time, and so give God more pleasing worship? Listen, and I will tell you. If a tiny spark of God’s love already burns within you, do not expose it to the wind, for it may get blown out. Keep the stove tightly shut so that it will not lose its heat and grow cold. In other words, avoid distractions as well as you can. Stay quiet with God. Do not spend your time in useless chatter.

If teaching and preaching is your job, then study diligently and apply yourself to whatever is necessary for doing the job well. Be sure that you first preach by the way you live. If you do not, people will notice that you say one thing, but live otherwise, and your words will bring only cynical laughter and a derisive shake of the head.

Are you in charge of a parish? If so, do not neglect the parish of your own soul, do not give yourself to others so completely that you have nothing left for yourself. You have to be mindful of your people without becoming forgetful of yourself.

My brothers, you must realize that for us churchmen nothing is more necessary than meditation. We must meditate before, during and after everything we do. The prophet says: I will pray, and then I will understand. When you administer the sacraments, meditate on what you are doing. When you celebrate Mass, reflect on the sacrifice you are offering. When you pray the office, think about the words you are saying and the Lord to whom you are speaking. When you take care of your people, meditate on how the Lord’s blood that has washed them clean so that all that you do becomes a work of love.

This is the way we can easily overcome the countless difficulties we have to face day after day, which, after all, are part of our work: in meditation we find the strength to bring Christ to birth in ourselves and in other men.

          For this reason, I will be gone on my retreat this week.  To enter more deeply into meditation and prayer and my priesthood.  So I can hopefully improve my example of the faith, so I can give myself in service to you more perfectly.  Please pray for me.

          Pray also for all our seminarians.  I would encourage you to pick one and pray for him daily.  Or pray for one every day of the month.  Today, I wish to end by lifting up in prayer these men discerning the priesthood.  Please respond: Lord, watch over him.

                   Seminarians 2017-18

Deacon Patrick Hake

Deacon Jay Horning

Deacon David Huneck

Deacon Nathan Maskal

Deacon Thomas Zehr

Jose Arroyo

Daniel Niezer

Spenser St. Louis

Stephen Felicichia

Daniel Koehl

Michael Ammer

Jonathan Evangelista

Benjamin Landrigan

Keeton Lockwood

Logan Parrish

Brian Isenbarger

Joe Knepper

Augustine Onuoha

Samuel Anderson

Vincent Faurote

Brian Florin

Brian Kempiak

Bobby Krisch

Zane Langenbrunner

Jacob Schneider

Jonathan Alvarez

Dominic Garrett

Mark Hellinger

Caleb Kruse

David Langford

Nicholas Monnin

All Saints' Day - big siblings and mountain climbing

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Three Steps to Love - Three Loves to happiness

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Love of God – Love of Neighbor -  Love of Self

Nowadays we would like to make Christianity exclusively a matter of head knowledge.  But a Christianity that is merely discussion, organization, and a bit of morality does not support us; we cannot grow fond of it; it does not provide joy and strength for our life.  IN order for the faith to support us and not to be a burden, it has to touch the heart, we must be able to grow fond of God.  And so [today] we want to call the Lord Jesus by his name, ask him to make us grow fond of this name again, so that by our fondness for this name we might again sense his own closeness and so that this might bring joy to our heart, the joy of not being alone, which remains and guides us even in the hours of darkness.  – A Homily from Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) in year 1998.

Sr.Eop  Elizabeth McDonough – Dominican nun. 80lbs. scared us all.

SELF-KNOWLEDGE   à  SELF-POSSESSION à SELF-GIFT

1.    Know who you are.  Strengths.  Weaknesses.  Gifts.  Wounds.  (HUMILITY)

2.    Mortification.  Interior battle of will.  Ideals.  “Brother ‘donkey’” (Francis)

3.    Choose love.

Then you find who you truly are, since “man does not discover himself except in a sincere gift of self.” (GS 24)

Love of self leads us to love of God.  And thus we have come full-circle, and Christianity is freed from being simply head-knowledge – it is what it was always meant to be: a path by God leading us back to God, through the journey of love.  May the Eucharist take us one step further along that journey.

"Whose Image and Whose Inscription?" In a society of BRANDing

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The main message of today, brothers and sisters, is very simply put: our entire life is God's, and everything else needs to fit into that truth.

CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

450 From the beginning of Christian history, the assertion of Christ's lordship over the world and over history has implicitly recognized that man should not submit his personal freedom in an absolute manner to any earthly power, but only to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Caesar is not "the Lord".⁶⁷ "The Church. . . believes that the key, the center and the purpose of the whole of man's history is to be found in its Lord and Master."⁶⁸

2113 Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money, etc. Jesus says, "You cannot serve God and mammon."⁴⁴ Many martyrs died for not adoring "the Beast"⁴⁵ refusing even to simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God.

We in our society have our own strange gods, our false idols, but I do not think we are temped to worship our government.  But that wasn’t really the point of today’s public showdown anyway, for indeed the Pharisees and Herodians were interested in something that is much closer to our hearts: control, power, popularity, reputation.  What is interesting is the malice of these two groups.  The Pharisees were deeply religious, whereas the Herodians were indeed lovers of Rome and of Herod.  Almost the only thing they could agree on was their dislike for Jesus and the need to bring him down.  Evil always make a mockery of true goodness, just as their collaboration for evil is a perversion of true friendship which is rooted in the good.

But Jesus deftly walks right through their snares with his pithy response to the challenge.

Jesus says: who the image and the inscription? ... what belongs to Caesar... The implicit message is that the image and inscription makes it Caesar's - he made it, or his authority did so.

And you: who made you? You may remember the Baltimore Catechism began with this question. Who made me? God made me.

And that is the main point, clear and simple: God made you. You should give him your entire self, your whole life. And the coin is really quite trivial. It doesn't have the importance we often think. Rather, when we see that our entire life is God's, it is put in the proper perspective.

In our hyper consumerist culture, there is something pretty ironic that we all take for granted: BRAND names are all over us and around us. That word itself, brand, is a good indication of the problem. Branding is what was / is done to animals to claim them as one's property. It was done to slaves when we used to treat human beings as property (and sadly still do). Now we run around with brand names all over us and don't seem to think too much about it. Or perhaps we do when we realize what type of watch or shoes or dress or car this or that person has.

Now this isn't a problem if we remember that it is only the thing that is branded and not ourselves. That we take all that off and strip it away and we still are the same persons with the same dignity, created by a loving God.

The problem is that we often blur those lines: we are tempted to let the brand become an idol.  We are tempted to let Caesar's coin, and all the stuff it can buy, become the defining image of our lives and the source of our dignity.

In our consumerist society, we often give more to Caesar and to the coin than we do to God.  We give lots of time to that coin.  We give lots of worry to that coin.  We pursue that coin in so many ways.  Some of this is necessary: we have an obligation to make good use of our talents, to provide for ourselves and those entrusted to our case, especially the needy.  Thus, the coin is not evil, just as Jesus himself doesn’t shy away from touching it.  We just need to never forget, God has given us everything, as we see in the Eucharist which is His Son, and so we owe Him the same.  Our entire life is God's, and everything else needs to fit into that truth.

Invitation Accepted!

Audio: click here! (9:30am Mass)

Before we get into today’s readings, I think it will be helpful if we recall last week’s parable, which leads right into today’s section from Matthew’s Gospel.  Last we heard Jesus speak of a vineyard prepared for tenants who were not very obedient.  When the master sent servants to collect produce, they were beaten and even killed!  Finally, the Son was sent, and he too was murdered so they could “acquire his inheritance.”  Through this parable, Jesus is interpreting the history of Israel: God has done everything to provide for them; they reject the prophets; they reject the Son; the Gospel goes to the Gentiles.  Remember the closing phrase: “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you
and given to a people that will produce its fruit."

Very similar to this parable is today’s passage.  It is another reinterpretation of the Bible.  Everything is an invitation to the wedding feast of the King’s Son.  This is easily seen as an image of the offer of the gospel: God wants a relationship with you and invites you into this celebration.  How do they respond?  Many don’t care.  Others get hostile and even kill the messengers! So the King takes vengeance and then invites everyone else (this would be the Gentiles), and the house is filled.  Then, the parable ends with another encounter of the upset king with a man who does not have a wedding garment, which would have been like a ticket or invitation, but symbolically means much more.  The man is thrown out.

So “many are invited, but few are chosen.”  Many are invited, but few cherish the value of the invitation.

The wedding garment has two symbolic meanings.  First, it is a clear symbol for baptism, where the new Christians bear on their bodies a sign of their entrance into the life of Christ – an outward sign of their acceptance of the invitation to the King’s feast.  But secondly, like in last week’s parable, it represents the “good fruit” we are to produce.  When our lives as disciples are not showing any fruits of the Holy Spirit, when we are not living the moral life in a manner worthy of God’s children, when we do not put on love over all things, then we are not wearing our wedding garment as we should.  If we need to, we should get to Confession and get our souls clean before we return to Communion.

But most importantly, friends, all of today’s readings are a reminder to us of the beauty and the privilege we have of attending Mass.  Just as it is nothing but a direct insult to reject the invitation of the king to his son’s wedding, so too it is an affront to God for us to tell Him by our actions that other things are more important than Sunday Mass.  Here God provides us with the best food possible in the best place possible for the best reason possible – not by worldly standards but from the perspective of eternity.  Nothing can replace this offer, so let us not allow the world to steal the gift of Sunday from us.  Let us help and encourage each other to this gift.


OTHER NOTES: (I decided to go a different direction with the above homily)
Deitrich Bonhoffer - The Cost of Discipleship

"Many are called, few are chosen" So many people think God's grace costs us nothing.  As if the Gospel only brings us prosperity.


Run around and tell people you don't agree with abortion, that you don't agree with human trafficking nor the horrible slaveries to sensuality that create the demand for it, that you don't agree with same sex marriage or the exploitation of the environment at the cost of future generations.  If you do that, then I'm sure you will learn that discipleship costs you something.  When you have an enemy truly harm you or your reputation and you try to follow Christ's command to "pray for those who persecute you," then it is obvious that grace is not cheap.  When we begin to realize that "you cannot serve God and mammon" is directed at us in a world that's full of mammon being thrown to us, we then start to notice the price of following Jesus.  That is the Cross.

Bearing Fruit

Audio: click here!

This may be a hard truth, but I think it could be safely said that you and I are at times ungrateful. Here in the USA in the now 21st century, we have so much already given to us that we tend to take it for granted. We assume that what we have as gifts from God and from those who have gone before us are actually things that are our own and that we earned them. Like the tenants in the vineyard, we can get trapped into a way of thinking that ends up placing ourselves as the center of things, as the ones in charge, and even trample upon others as we seek for power and for stuff.  Whereas we recently heard of the parable of the vineyard workers who wanted more pay, now we have ones who want it all - the whole vineyard.

The church is the new vineyard. And you could say each on of us is a branch in a vine in that vineyard.

Each of us are expected to bear good fruit.

12 fruits of the Holy Spirit, expanded from Saint Paul's letter to the Galatians, ch. 5:

Love joy peace patience kindness gentleness goodness generosity faithfulness modesty chastity self-control

Poisoning the ground, disease of the vine so we cannot bear fruit: 7 deadly sins: Pride, Envy, Lust, Greed/Avarice, Sloth/laziness, Wrath/Anger, Gluttony.  If we let any of these grow in our hearts, we will not bear fruit.  These need to be rooted out – that is what Cnofession is for.

Rain and sunshine is ultimately God’s grace, but we can open our hearts to it through the 3 eminent (always at-hand) good works: prayer, fasting, charity.

Choose a fruit of the Spirit you want to grow in this week, and pray for it during this Mass.

PARISH FEAST DAY!

Audio: Click here!

Fraternal correction - how we reach out in love to help our brothers and sisters to grow in love together - is never easy.  Through the prophet Ezekiel today God calls us to this high demand of speaking the truth in charity to each other.  We are demanded by God to help each other grow, to point out each other's faults.  Marriages who have worked through difficult times know that this is never easy but truly always worth it.  For the false sense of "keeping the peace" is nothing in comparison with true peace.  Whenever I do marriage preparation with an engaged couple we always use a tool for discussion known as the FOCCUS Inventory.  One of the fun questions to discuss is "I prefer 'keeping the peace' at all costs."  I think this is fun because it can really spur true discussion: is "keeping the peace" really worth it no matter what?  Is it better to be open about things that really are robbing us of peace and communion and could ultimately sow seeds of resentment?  Indeed, there needs to be a balance between patiently enduring one another's shortcomings, and truly working for a peaceful communion that works together for a better way.  It may not always be easy to discern, but let us allow the prophet today to remind us of that need to work for building up the kingdom of God in each other's hearts and souls.  This goes for engaged couples, marriages, sibling relationships,, workplaces, and religious communities.  If we are going to do this well, we need humility, love, and justice in a radical way, after the heart of Jesus.

          In her own self-titled little way, Therese herself discovered how to help others to grow in their love.  Knowing that Jesus did not call her to be a leader as a superior to the order of Carmel in Lisieux, and one of the youngest and newest members of her community, Therese tried to quietly infuse love into her daily encounters with people.  "Jesus is my only love" she carved onto the wooden doorpost of her cell, or living quarters.

          She spread her love over the halls of the convent and into the hearts of her sisters in community.  God even gave her a couple special relationships with seminarians and eventually priests whom she took under her wing as pen pals and special recipients of her prayer.  But for Jesus, and for Therese, that was not enough.

          Marie-Francois-Therese (our patroness’ birth name, Mary-Francis-Theresa) fell ill April 1897 at the age of 24 coughing up blood for the first time, a tell-tale sign of tuberculosis.  As a sickly infant whose lungs showed early signs of illness, this was the worst that the family could have expected.  Her older sister, who at the time was abbess of the convent, asked Therese to keep writing more of her spiritual memoirs like she had ordered her (under holy obedience) a couple years ago to write childhood memories.  Without much grumbling, Therese began the work that would be published a year after her death as "the Story of a Soul" and take France and the world by fire, the fire of God's love.

          Her religious name was actually Therese of the Child Jesus of the Holy Face.  She wished to be humble and little like the infant king we adore at Christmas.  But She also honored the holy face of Jesus that was modeled from the shroud of Turin and the ancient descriptions of Jesus.  The Lord, whose face was disfigured by the fullness of love displayed in His Passion, was in these last months bringing to completion the plans He had for Therese: an invitation into the depths of self-emptying love.

          Therese lived the humility of the child Jesus in her little way every day.  And in the last six months of her life more than never, she experienced the love and justice of Jesus' Holy Face.

Saint Paul calls this love a 'Kenosis' - self-emptying.  Jesus "emptied" himself, taking the form of a slave and then being obedient unto the point of death on a cross.  If you look at the blood poured out, you could truly say Jesus emptied himself for us.  Spiritually, the Holy Spirit  is poured out from his open side into our souls.  Therese embraced this self-emptying freely in her own Passion, her own suffering.  And this was, in a mysterious way, how Jesus invited her to change the world.  As Therese wrote her story of a sould and finished her carrying of the cross until September 30th, 1897 at around 7:20pm, just over 7 years into her religious life, she never would have imagined that her words would be read around the world still over a century later and touching the hearts of so many to grow in the love of God.

And that lesson of the fruitfulness of self-emptying and obediently accepting the will of God for her life is the greatest lesson the little flower gave us.  Let us thank God for her birthday into heaven this day and ask her to continue to shower down roses upon us as we grow from her spiritual guidance.  Saint Therese, little flower, pray for us!

Oooops! The last two weeks finally arrive...

All: My apologies for being late in posting the last two weeks audio homilies.  They are found below.

I hope you enjoy them. =)

9-17 Romans Finale! - Click here!

9-24 "Common Goal" (Annual Bishop's Appeal - so a short homily!)  Click here!

Owing Only God

AUDIO (9:30am Mass): CLICK HERE

“Love is the fulfillment of the law.”

Remember, this section of Saint Paul's letter is his general instruction of moral norms: that is, how does my faith affect every aspect of my life - how do I live as a Christian and not as a pagan worshipper of idols or of myself.  "Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice...your spiritual worship" effects everything: your calendar, your check book, your social life, your family life, your sex life, your recreation, your work.  If I keep first things first (meaning God is on the throne of my heart and not myself or anyone or anything else), then my life will look radically different than what is the norm in our society.

Today's first piece of advice, "owe no one anything" could easily be translated into the American culture in financial terms: "Have no debt."  I wonder how many fewer lives would be lost each year, how many relationships would still be intact, how many fights we would avoid with other people if we would simply fulfill this one sense of Saint Paul's words.  If you haven't heard of it, Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University is a wonderful program offered in church communities around the U.S. that really allows us to put God at the center of our finances.  I highly recommend this Christian-based approach to escaping the traps of our consumerist culture which you can find at his website (daveramsey.com), which also has many other helpful resources resources for various ages, including books and online tools.  If you feel like your finances are choking your ability to grow spiritually because you are constantly worrying and trying to stay afloat, this could be the way to learn the wisdom behind the advice of Saint Paul "owe no one anything."  And when we do that, then we can truly put into practice the rest of the verse, "except to love on another."  The word love is that same root as our english word "charity."  When we aren't slaves to our consumerist culture, we can finally practice generosity and allow our treasures to build up others.  A great gift.

            But the truth is Paul isn't referring merely to finances in this passage.  In some ways he is talking about where our allegiances lie, and the intangible kinds of "debt" we can find ourselves caught in.

            One way to discover some of our allegiances, or what we might call our "ties" to things in this world, is to simply review how we spend our so-called "free time."  For the Christian, of course, there is no such thing: our time, like our lives, like our gifts, like our breath, is not our own.  I didn't earn even one hour of life on this earth.  It's a gift from God.  My time is His - or it should be.  But still, the term can refer to those periods of time when we are able to choose more how it is ordered.  So what do we do?  What do I think about?  What do I read about or watch or play when I am "free"?  For me it is usually pretty boring: exercise, sleep, read a book, play music, listen to religious podcasts, visit with my family.  But I gotta be honest, sometimes I don't use that time as well as I should.  Sometimes that free time is spent more on me than on God, and at my worst, I can end up skimping on my prayer (doing only the "minimum" for a priest).  It is in those times I can see that I still have some serious allegiances, serious "ties" to selfish things that do not build up others.

            A saint owes no one and no thing, "except to love on another."  If "love is the fulfillment of the law," then the saint is the one who loves perfectly.

Romans Series #9 - - 12:1-2 Spiritual Worship - The Christian Challeng

Audio - Click here!

G.K. Chesterton did a great job expressing to our world the reality of so-called Christianized areas of Europe and the Americas when he said: “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”  And the fact of our culture is that many people leave it at that.  We often don’t try, since there’s more than enough interesting things out there to keep our attention and distract us from the fact that our lives are really not satisfying and fulfilling without God.  Most of our culture only knows that Christianity, especially Catholics, simply have some very firm stances on things like human life (abortion, euthanasia, etc), sexuality, marriage, and poor, and just about no one outside the Church agrees with these teachings as a whole.  But they are truly a part of who we are, and we can’t sidestep them.

In chapters 12-15 we have the final section of Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans, and it is focused on moral exhortation.  This is not some last chance to squeeze things in and take care of business, but rather Paul is keeping things in proper order: the Gospel first, and the moral life second.  Relationship to Jesus always has a priority to Christian morality, even though the two can never be totally separated.  Thus Jesus tells us today: Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. In other words, we cannot truly love God without trying to follow his commands and live as Christ lived (take up our cross), and as we learn to follow the moral demands of Christianity we grow in our love of God (and neighbor). 

All of Chapter 12 is worth reading and re-reading, but I would encourage you to begin memorizing today’s two verses, which are a short summary of vocation of the Christian life.  When Paul tells us to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.  Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind – he is contrasting Christian worship against not only the pagan sacrifices of the day, but also the Jewish rituals of the Old Covenant that have been fulfilled in the work of Christ Jesus.  Hebrews 10:5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: "Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You prepared for me.

Our entire Christian life is summarized here.  Worship is the center of religion, and thus is the sort of pinnacle of religious practice.  But you see here that Paul makes it impossible for us to compartmentalize our religious practice from the rest of our lives.  Because we cannot simply go buy a goat and roast it (which might take a few hours) and leave it at that, and move on with life.  No, Paul makes it clear that it is we ourselves that our being sacrificed. 

And he also makes it clear that it isn’t just external or physical requirements that God is looking for – that was already included in the Old Covenant of Judaism.  Rather, God wants spiritual worship, and a renewal of our minds.  This is the whole person: body and soul.  Our entire person is what we are to offer.  Wow, that’s not easy. 

You know, the real problem with a “living sacrifice” (thanks especially our fallen human nature) is that a living sacrifice is able to get up and walk off the altar.  If the goat had known ahead of time, I’m sure it would passionately object to the proposal of sacrifice, and this is why Christianity is so challenging!  We, like Saint Peter, would rather things be quite different: God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen! But that living sacrifice is exactly what makes us Christians. 

When we offer the bread and wine, as well as the collection basket and our gifts for the food pantry, we are offering symbolically our entire selves.  This is an outward sign of our spiritual worship.  Let us pray that every day we truly allow this Eucharist to transform and renew our minds, so we can carry our crosses behind the Lord.