Homily - Bartimaeus and Us

Homily & Campaign Proposal: Click here to listen

Jesus healed many people in the Gospels, and a lot of the times we don’t hear the details of it.  Sometime there are individual encounters, but almost never are they named.  Today’s encounter is remembered because it is special, and it is told in such a way that it outlines what the every Christian life is meant to be – in one way or another.  The blind man from today, Bartimaeus, must have been known to the early Christian communities.  This is the best explanation for why his name is remembered.  It says he got up and followed after Jesus, which is not just a fact, but is also symbolic language for becoming a disciple.  The same goes for Jesus’ call.  He indeed calls the man to come to him (notice that the community of faith brings this man to Christ, kind of like the man who is lowered through the roof on a stretcher – a great lesson of intercessory prayer), but that calling is a symbol for the invitation to the church, to be invited into the faith community.

2. I want to see.  – How rarely do we truly express our need.

Symbolic for the light of faith.

3. Jesus heals.  The doctor needs to know our needs.  Do we trust him?

4. With transformation comes the demand for response – DISCIPLESHIP.  Will we follow?

Trust God.  Draw close to him (through church).  Express your needs.  Walk behind him in faith.

Campaign Presentation #1

I am very excited to announce that we have launched the 3-year (36-month) pledge drive titled “Small Things with Great Love” to raise $1.3 million dollars for the benefit of our parish facilities. In fact, the past week or two we began with some individual visits and two small-group information nights. As of today, a number of us who were asked to pledge ahead of time have already committed to a total of ~200,000 dollars (15% of goal), showing that we are on track for success if we have a similar amount of commitment and support from all of us. Although this will require all of us to make significant sacrifices, it will be a great blessing to the parish.

This is an exciting opportunity for our parish, so please allow me to explain to you as I have with the initial pledge-group some of the main projects that we are looking at. The largest portion of the funds raised will be toward something many of you are aware of: our church boiler which has been faithful for over six decades, decided to take a couple weekends off last winter. Judging by the coats I saw everyone wearing those days (not to mention the hats and gloves) I am sure this is something that everyone can be supportive of. We also will need to change our air-conditioning units, as these machines use a cooling technology that is not very environmentally friendly and the government is phasing it out. The initial quote I received for this was $450,000. This is the main reason I stand before you today, but I would like to share all the others as well.

The finance council recommended that we do a campaign once and do it right, so we looked at other items of deferred maintenance or general upkeep that could be part of a capital campaign.

First off, the Annual Bishop’s Appeal is still a need that we as a parish must contribute to for our wider church, and this year’s parish contribution will be included in the pledge drive so that we are not sending confusing and mixed signals by two campaigns at once. Next year, we will do the ABA as a separate commitment.

As we looked at parish needs, the focus was directed to the church interior which has not had a widespread project since the renovation of 1987. One of the things that came up was these lights, which are original like the boiler, and the wiring is very dried up and rotted off in places so that it is truly a hazard to our church. Our parish maintenance man has cut back the wiring multiple times. Instead of rewiring, I had the lighting specialists from Notre Dame come over when they were working on the basilica last winter/spring, and they gave us a proposal for lights that will be brighter, be dimmable, and shine light more generously than just down, allowing the church’s beautiful ceiling and stations of the cross to be more visible in these winter months. It would also make the sanctuary brighter, which is important for the lectors to read well at the ambo. I recently heard that the lights were going to be replaced decades ago but a leaky roof diverted funds to that more important project. I think it will be great to finally see this old dream brought to completion.

The carpet also needs replaced as it has served well these 31 years. But for the area where Communion is distributed (and the sanctuary) I would like to return to a hard surface similar to the church’s original set-up. This is so that the Most Precious Blood of Christ can be easily cleaned and properly cared for in the instance of a spill.

Something else I think we all could appreciate is new kneeler pads in our pews. The pews themselves, which were used when we purchased them, are in pretty good shape, but we have received some donations in the past for their refurbishing and I think it would look great to have them stained to match the beams and ceiling of our church.

Other ideas are not focused as much on current needs but are meant for the enhancing of our Eucharistic worship. Along lines with Fr. Tom’s revised proposals just over two years ago, the tabernacle will have a more substantial base for it, often nowadays called an altar of repose, allowing for a cleaner look in our sanctuary. The back wall will not be touched, and I have a drawing of what the altar potentially would look like (at least size-wise).

The choir will move about ten feet and trade places with the statue of Mary so that we have the devotional space in the front of church. This also allows the choir to be more connected with the congregation, facing more toward the altar, the focal point of our prayer. We could also consider moving the statue of Therese up here somewhere, since right now she is not so visible to us while we are at prayer.
In order to allow for easier access to the church from the chapel during the liturgy, we would install a permanent glass division as well as a door at the back of the chapel area. This also allows the area to be a temporary calming area when parents feel they need to use the space for a short time before returning to their pews. It could still also be used for our large Masses twice a year at Christmas and Easter.
Beneath the pews, under the carpet, we have hopes to install a relatively inexpensive audio-loop technology that works with hearing aids to allow for much clearer audio of the readings and music at Mass.

In the back of church, an info kiosk (probably movable) would be very helpful for both parishioners and visitors alike to have a central and conspicuous location to go for answers to any questions or concerns they have about involvement in the life of our parish, to pick up flyers, etc.

The last idea for the church is to create a priest vesting room in our current decoration storage area that can also serve as a second Confessional when needed.
Not too many years down the road, we can foresee two other significant expenses that will be essential: the roof of the parish center, which is now 18 years old, and the parking lot, which will need re-grading at parts, and a new surface after some more winter seasons.

I’m sure that was a lot to take in, and you may have only heard about some of these things in the past. Don’t worry, all this is going to be on the parish website for access anytime, anywhere. You can also see the table in the back of church.
Although we have asked several parishioners to come forward with their pledges beforehand (with some still discerning their finances to make an accurate pledge, we are not asking for pledges today from the rest of the parish. We want two weeks of information to help guide and direct your pledge process, and to give us time to think about how we can be a part of this important time in our parish.

This is an exciting opportunity for our parish to prepare itself for the decades to come, so that our worship space looks a little fresher and can continue to speak clearly about the vibrant life we have in the parish, making it an inviting space for guests who can more easily be brought into the community of faith and encounter Jesus here, like Bartimaeus in today’s Gospel.  May we be driven by this initiative to continue our work of building God’s kingdom through small things with great love.

Power-trip

Audio: Click Here

Power corrupts.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
This formula works only with humans who have a tendency toward sin and have not yet overcome it by grace.  Well I guess fallen angels too.  Those who have abused their freedom will abuse any power they have as well.
James and John come before Jesus today walking on seriously thin ice: they know that Jesus has given Simon Peter a special role in the kingdom because he gave him a new name and the keys.  They want some of that power for themselves.  They got nicknames too, it says in Mark's gospel, boanarges, the Sons of Thunder (doesn't that sound like a rock band?) and they are wondering if some power can come along with that name.  But they are blind to all Jesus has been trying to say again and again.  Talk about selective hearing.  The only thing that stays in their head is the glory part and not the suffering part, which goes in one ear and out the other.  Jesus might have felt like he was dealing with teenagers - no offense to teenagers, because we all act this way at our worst.

What we see is the potential for a power-trip.

This is indeed a reality that hits close to home, for we are seeing nowadays the exposure of ways leaders in the church have abused their power in horrific, sinful ways.  Just this past week, Archbishop Vigano issued a third testimony letter in response to the problem of human weakness within the leaders of the church which has lately centered around the U.S. ex-Cardinal McCarick.  And unfortunately, this isn't new, for the saying that "power corrupts" can be traced back thousands of years.

Jesus shows us how authority is meant to be used.  To love is to spend yourself for others.  "Can you drink the cup?" James and John don't know what Jesus really means here, but are more than happy to say yes.  Indeed, they will drink the cup of martyrdom someday, but only after their delusions of grandeur are shattered by the crucified Lord, between two other criminals bleeding and suffocating to death at Jesus' right and his left, ironically in the exact places James and John are just asking to be seated.  Jesus' lesson is a wake up call for not only the twelve apostles, but for all of us:  "great ones make their authority over them felt. But it shall not be so among you. Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

The temptation to abuse power is always there for us fallen creatures.  It is the same temptation that the devil offered Adam and Eve "you may become like gods."  This is a spiritual battle we continue in, and so Bishop Rhoades (and Pope Francis) want us to remember to call upon divine assistance.  This is why we now have prayer cards to Saint Michael the Archangel.  Please leave them in the pews to be prayed after every Mass for the months ahead.

The final question for us is: how will I serve today?  Who will I serve today?  For if I do not serve someone, then I am only serving myself.

Saying No to Jesus - A recipe for disappointment

Audio: click here!

Texts for reflection on today's Gospel reading (the primary sources of my homily!)
From JPII's Homily in Boston on 1 Oct 1979:

6. And now coming back to the story of the young man in the Gospels, we see that he heard the call—"Follow me"—but that he "went away sad, for he had many possessions".
The sadness of the young man makes us reflect. We could be tempted to think that many possessions, many of the goods of this world, can bring happiness. We see instead in the case of the young man in the Gospel that his many possessions had become an obstacle to accepting the call of Jesus to follow him. He was not ready to say yes to Jesus, and no to self, to say yes to love and no to escape.
Real love is demanding. I would fail in my mission if I did not clearly tell you so. For it was Jesus—our Jesus himself—who said : "You are my friends if you do what I command you" (Jn 15 :14). Love demands effort and a personal commitment to the will of God. It means discipline and sacrifice, but it also means joy and human fulfillment.
Dear young people : do not be afraid of honest effort and honest work; do not be afraid of the truth. With Christ's help, and through prayer, you can answer his call, resisting temptations and fads, and every form of mass manipulation. Open your hearts to the Christ of the Gospels—to his love and his truth and his joy. Do not go away sad!
And, as a last word to all of you who listen to me tonight, I would say this : the reason for my mission, for my journey, through the United States is to tell you, to tell everyone—young and old alike—to say to everyone in the name of Christ: "Come and follow me !"
Follow Christ! You who are married: share your love and your burdens with each other; respect the human dignity of your spouse; accept joyfully the life that God gives through you; make your marriage stable and secure for your children's sake.
Follow Christ! You who are single or who are preparing for marriage. Follow Christ! You who are young or old. Follow Christ ! You who are sick or aging ; who are suffering or in pain. You who feel the need for healing, the need for love, the need for a friend—follow Christ!
To all of you I extend—in the name of Christ—the call, the invitation, the plea : "Come and follow me". This is why I have come to America, and why I have come to Boston tonight: to call you to Christ—to call all of you and each of you to live in his love, today and forever. Amen !



from Pope John Paul II's Veritatis Splendor

“Teacher, what good must I do to have eternal life?” (Mt 19:16)

8. The question which the rich young man puts to Jesus of Nazareth is one which rises from the depths of his heart. It is an essential and unavoidable question for the life of every man, for it is about the moral good which must be done, and about eternal life. The young man senses that there is a connection between moral good and the fulfilment of his own destiny. He is a devout Israelite, raised as it were in the shadow of the Law of the Lord. If he asks Jesus this question, we can presume that it is not because he is ignorant of the answer contained in the Law. It is more likely that the attractiveness of the person of Jesus had prompted within him new questions about moral good. He feels the need to draw near to the One who had begun his preaching with this new and decisive proclamation: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15).

People today need to turn to Christ once again in order to receive from him the answer to their questions about what is good and what is evil. Christ is the Teacher, the Risen One who has life in himself and who is always present in his Church and in the world. It is he who opens up to the faithful the book of the Scriptures and, by fully revealing the Father’s will, teaches the truth about moral action. At the source and summit of the economy of salvation, as the Alpha and the Omega of human history (cf. Rev 1:8; 21:6; 22:13), Christ sheds light on man’s condition and his integral vocation. Consequently, “the man who wishes to understand himself thoroughly — and not just in accordance with immediate, partial, often superficial, and even illusory standards and measures of his being — must with his unrest, uncertainty and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so to speak, enter him with all his own self; he must ‘appropriate’ and assimilate the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself. If this profound process takes place within him, he then bears fruit not only of adoration of God but also of deeper wonder at himself”.(16)

If we therefore wish to go to the heart of the Gospel’s moral teaching and grasp its profound and unchanging content, we must carefully inquire into the meaning of the question asked by the rich young man in the Gospel and, even more, the meaning of Jesus’ reply, allowing ourselves to be guided by him. Jesus, as a patient and sensitive teacher, answers the young man by taking him, as it were, by the hand, and leading him step by step to the full truth.

“There is only one who is good” (Mt 19:17)

9. Jesus says: “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Mt 19:17). In the versions of the Evangelists Mark and Luke the question is phrased in this way: “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone” (Mk 10:18; cf. Lk 18:19).

Before answering the question, Jesus wishes the young man to have a clear idea of why he asked his question. The “Good Teacher” points out to him — and to all of us — that the answer to the question, “What good must I do to have eternal life?” can only be found by turning one’s mind and heart to the “One” who is good: “No one is good but God alone” (Mk 10:18; cf. Lk 18:19). Only God can answer the question about what is good, because he is the Good itself.

To ask about the good, in fact, ultimately means to turn towards God, the fullness of goodness. Jesus shows that the young man’s question is really a religious question, and that the goodness that attracts and at the same time obliges man has its source in God, and indeed is God himself. God alone is worthy of being loved “with all one’s heart, and with all one’s soul, and with all one’s mind” (Mt 22:37). He is the source of man’s happiness. Jesus brings the question about morally good action back to its religious foundations, to the acknowledgment of God, who alone is goodness, fullness of life, the final end of human activity, and perfect happiness.

10. The Church, instructed by the Teacher’s words, believes that man, made in the image of the Creator, redeemed by the Blood of Christ and made holy by the presence of the Holy Spirit, has as the ultimate purpose of his life to live “for the praise of God’s glory” (cf. Eph 1:12), striving to make each of his actions reflect the splendour of that glory. “Know, then, O beautiful soul, that you are the image of God”, writes Saint Ambrose. “Know that you are the glory of God (1 Cor 11:7). Hear how you are his glory. The Prophet says: Your knowledge has become too wonderful for me (cf. Ps. 138:6, Vulg.). That is to say, in my work your majesty has become more wonderful; in the counsels of men your wisdom is exalted. When I consider myself, such as I am known to you in my secret thoughts and deepest emotions, the mysteries of your knowledge are disclosed to me. Know then, O man, your greatness, and be vigilant”.(17)

What man is and what he must do becomes clear as soon as God reveals himself. The Decalogue is based on these words: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage” (Ex 20:2-3). In the “ten words” of the Covenant with Israel, and in the whole Law, God makes himself known and acknowledged as the One who “alone is good”; the One who despite man’s sin remains the “model” for moral action, in accordance with his command, “You shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy” (Lev 19:2); as the One who, faithful to his love for man, gives him his Law (cf. Ex 19:9-24 and 20:18-21) in order to restore man’s original and peaceful harmony with the Creator and with all creation, and, what is more, to draw him into his divine love: “I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people” (Lev 26:12).

The moral life presents itself as the response due to the many gratuitous initiatives taken by God out of love for man. It is a response of love, according to the statement made in Deuteronomy about the fundamental commandment: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children” (Dt 6:4-7). Thus the moral life, caught up in the gratuitousness of God’s love, is called to reflect his glory: “For the one who loves God it is enough to be pleasing to the One whom he loves: for no greater reward should be sought than that love itself; charity in fact is of God in such a way that God himself is charity”.(18)

11. The statement that “There is only one who is good” thus brings us back to the “first tablet” of the commandments, which calls us to acknowledge God as the one Lord of all and to worship him alone for his infinite holiness (cf. Ex 20:2-11). The good is belonging to God, obeying him, walking humbly with him in doing justice and in loving kindness (cf.Mic 6:8). Acknowledging the Lord as God is the very core, the heart of the Law, from which the particular precepts flow and towards which they are ordered. In the morality of the commandments the fact that the people of Israel belongs to the Lord is made evident, because God alone is the One who is good. Such is the witness of Sacred Scripture, imbued in every one of its pages with a lively perception of God’s absolute holiness: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” (Is 6:3).

But if God alone is the Good, no human effort, not even the most rigorous observance of the commandments, succeeds in “fulfilling” the Law, that is, acknowledging the Lord as God and rendering him the worship due to him alone (cf. Mt 4:10). This “fulfilment” can come only from a gift of God: the offer of a share in the divine Goodness revealed and communicated in Jesus, the one whom the rich young man addresses with the words “Good Teacher” (Mk 10:17; Lk 18:18). What the young man now perhaps only dimly perceives will in the end be fully revealed by Jesus himself in the invitation: “Come, follow me” (Mt 19:21).

One Marriage in France 150yrs ago

Audio from 9:30am: Click Here!

I watched a French movie (the exchange of the princesses) which recounts a double-arranged marriage between the kings of France and Spain as they tried to end a bitter war of twelve years.  It poignantly shows how even in the midst of the royal court and tense political situations, marriages still have the same fundamental problems and challenges.  Indeed, with all the problems and attacks to marriage that come from outside the couple, the most important problems and challenges are within the individual.  For marriage is founded on love - the highest calling of the human person and thus of marriage.  And we cannot truly and fully give ourselves to our neighbor (love) until we have true and full possession of ourselves.  Selfishness is poison to marriage, as it is poison to love.

Last week I went on pilgrimage to France, to see many holy shrines but most importantly for me, to see our patroness, whose relics were on display for over a week in the basilica made in her honor in the early 20th century.  The only book I read while I was away was this: Therese by Dorothy Day.  In her own assessment, she says with regret that this project revealed to her that she only has the ability to write about herself.  However, I am truly enjoying it, and at times the beauty of Therese’s family life, which truly shines through, has brought me to tears.  This girl could not have become a saint without her family.

          Louis and Zelie Martin - Zelie died when Therese was 4-½.

Marriage is the most important thing in the world.  Little Flowers grow in the garden of the family, which is founded on marriages that are healthy and holy.  Virtue is grown where there is love and faith.  The world ends this more than all the other causes that draw our attention because they seem more urgent but are truly less important and less impactful.  The future of society rises and falls with the family.

All married couples must continue to grow and allow God to work in their marriages, and we all have the duty to support them.  The Perfect must not be made the enemy of the Good.  Sure, there are failures.  Sure, things aren’t exactly as they should be and definitely not always suitable to our desires or tastes.  Don’t let past imperfections impede you from doing as much good as you can now.

1 - Marriage in Christ Seminar.

2 - Five Love Languages.

3 - Date night - spend time together.  Marriage is work, certainly, but if it is only work there can be little enjoyment. Children want (and really need) to know and see how much mom and dad love each other.  That stable foundation of knowing that mom and dad are all in, no matter what, is the fence around the garden that allows little flowers to flourish.  May the Lord Jesus, truly present in the Eucharist, help us all, especially marriages, grow more and more in living a lives for each other and thus giving new life to our world.