Homily 3/16/14 Get your head in the clouds!

Sometimes in life, you need to get your head in the clouds! I know that so often we hear the contrary, (that we need to get our head out of the clouds), but if we do it all the time, we are also really missing something.

This past summer I was able to visit Colorado with my family. I was so glad that many of us were able to climb a high mountain together. It was one of the few times in my life I was that high up, and the view is spectacular, and there was even a couple small lakes up there - things you would never know existed if you didn't get yourself up that high. The other really cool experience I've had with views is flying. Wow. Getting above the clouds is absolutely amazing. Up there, you can really understand what the words dazzling white mean in today's account of the Transfiguration!

Moses and Elijah didn't see or hear God's plan until they journeyed up a mountain.  Abram, who heard God's voice today, sees later in life a foreshadowing of the cross when he takes his son Isaac up the mountain.
The point of all of this is that up high, you see things differently. It's worth it.

In the spiritual sense, all of us need to get our head in the clouds, often!  Every day you should get your head in the clouds.
Today, we get a glimpse of the future, of the goal of our lives, of heaven.  Peter, James, & John are able to see beyond the day-to-day to remember why they are following this teacher who they call "the Messiah" or "Christ."  In fact, just before this passage, they were taught by Jesus that "the Son of Man must be rejected, suffer greatly, and be killed, and then raised on the third day." Peter was not happy to hear this; the disciples must have been shocked, terrified, and dumbfounded that this was what the Messiah thinks His mission to be.  That's why, after stressing the point very clearly that you must take up your cross and follow, Jesus gives them a glimpse of His true Glory which the Father has given Him.  They need to see this in order to withstand the scandal of the Cross (scandal meaning stumbling block).  The Transfiguration is a support.
We need that kind of support and consolation, too.  As long as there is sin in the world, there will be stumbling blocks, things that scandalize our faith.  So we put our heads in the clouds, so to speak, through our daily prayer.  We climb the mountain when we come to this house of prayer and see Calvary presented sacramentally from this altar.  That's whey we remember the Transfiguration here in Lent, so that it's clear we aren't doing all this suffering for nothing: we get our eyes and ears out of the day-to-day for a bit so we can see the big picture!

Just as Jesus shows the disciples where their goal is (the glorified life of heaven), we also must do the same in prayer.  If I do not ever imagine what Saint Father Terry looks like I will never try to become that. If I don't see what my transfigured self could be in Christ, I will have difficulty making steps toward it.

Does the caterpillars lose itself when it becomes a butterfly? No! It is lifted up to a higher level.  But it does sacrifice itself - it has to give everything in order to get it. Does the seed lose itself when it is planted and begins to grow?  Yeah, perhaps kind of... but only to make a reality of what it already contains as a possibility: the full tree that God intended it to be.  In this Eucharist, let us ask our Transfigured and Risen Lord to help us keep our minds fixed on what we were truly made to be, so that we can make the daily steps to get there during this Lent.

Homily 3-9-2014 1st Sunday of Lent – Detoxing from the world, flesh, devil.

Today we run into a bit of providence again where the readings relate so well. Last week, in Ordinary Time, my homily was on trust. Today, the readings show us the same theme from a new angle.

Do we trust today? In many ways, that is what Lent does. Just as detox programs for people with serious addictions take a little time of pain and difficulty, so does Lent, and then you feel a little better, a little stronger, a little healthier each day.

Today our Lord Jesus goes out for something much more important than a detox program, more important than getting any physical gunk out of our systems. He goes out as an example for us. He goes to show us what our priorities are really supposed to be: to discover the Father's plan for His life in a way deeper than ever before, because that vision is the foundation for everything that occurs over the next 3 years of His public ministry. He also shows us how to overcome temptations.

In Lent we are all called to go to the deserted wilderness. We are called to a spiritual purification, to detox from the corruption that we experience in our souls thanks to the Fall of Adam & Eve. And eventually, after that time of being renewed, strengthened, and focused, we are called to face our temptations with a strength that is not our own, but comes from above and from within (from the same Holy Spirit that drove Christ to the desert).

According to the 1^st Letter of St. John, there are three sources of temptation in our lives: the world, the flesh, and the devil. The beautiful stuff, the “mammon” of the world, grabs our attention and ultimately can grab our hearts, if we aren't serving God with our whole heart. The body (or as St. Francis called it, “brother donkey” - to use the family friendly version) can draw us to be self-absorbed, whether it is food, exercise, laziness, or (once again, to be family-friendly) other physical pleasures. The devil works in other ways: the desire for power, to be at the top and in control and not have to share power.

All three of these ultimately tempt us to the same thing: pride and selfishness. We heard again today how, when it all started, the snake sowed the first slanderous rumor of them all: “God cannot be trusted. He is holding something back.” Then he expands on those seeds of doubt by enticing their selfishness: you will be like gods, knowing good and evil. Knowing good and evil, for sure; being like God, not so much. And that's what makes a lie really dangerous: it is a twisting of a half truth. The better the lie is, the harder for us to see where the truth ends and the lies begin, or even tell it is a lie at all.

Original Sin, and God's response in redemption, is one of the best themes of Catholic Literature. If you want to get a glimpse of the horror that one person's malice can sow in the lives of others, I recommend the reading either J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion (especially Chapters 6 and 7), or if you like plays, Shakespeare's Othello. There are no characters I could think of that are more vile at a deep level - that is, without losing my family-friendly rating! There's so much good Catholic literature (and movies) out there that are great to read but also great for strengthening your faith. I recommend giving some of it a try!

These forty days, we are sent to the desert wilderness to detox from these deeply sown lies, these twisted half-truths, and the doubts that grow from them. Because of the sin of Adam, which we all re-echo in our own lives, we are messed up, but not to the core, and not beyond restoration. Lent reminds us of that, it gives us hope, and it keeps us moving forward. So don't be afraid of the desert.  Don't lose trust even when you can't see the road ahead, even when this "detoxing" from our concupiscence hurts.  The effort and perseverance will be worth it when on Easter Sunday, with pure hearts and minds, we can rejoice fully in our Lord's Resurrection and know the meaning of the A-word that we give up for Lent (the family-friendly one!)  God bless you!

Homily Ash Wednesday 3/5/2014

Today all Catholics throughout the world will have a grumble in their stomach. That means more than 1 billion people world-wide and around 75 million here in the US, except for those who are too young or too old , who will feel light-headed or weak. Today, Catholics fast, a traditional sign of grieving.

Why do we fast? I think for two reasons: both because when people are distraught, they don't even think about food, and because it kind of hurts.

We are distraught. We are in a harsh, sad, scary situation because our lives are riddled with sinfulness. We realize that something is really not right in our lives without God.

Secondly, we fast because it hurts. In a world that constantly runs away from pain, we spiritualize it and take it upon ourselves. We give pain a deeper meaning so that it is no longer oppressive, but somehow liberating. Today our pain doesn't conquer us, we conquer it. Why? How?

Because of the Cross and the Resurrection.

Today's readings tell us there is a bad way to fast, and a good way. There's a bad way to celebrate Lent, and there's a good way.

Today we get that in just a few words from the prophet Joel: Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return (Hebrew shoov, “repent”) to the Lord your God. “Get everyone together and ask for God's mercy.” Yes, but there is more to it than that. Jesus explains further: “Don't do all this for show; don't do it to look good. If you do it for that, then that's all you will get. God won't reward show-offs. He rewards what is done in secret.” The prophet Isaiah in Ch. 58:1-12, gives a more detailed explanation: Don't sit around with ashes,

See, on your fast day you carry out your own pursuits, and drive all your laborers.b 4See, you fast only to quarrel and fight and to strike with a wicked fist! Is this the manner of fasting I would choose, a day to afflict oneself?...Is this what you call a fast? ...Is this not, rather, the fast that I choose: releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke; Setting free the oppressed, breaking off every yoke?7Is it not sharing your bread with the hungry, bringing the afflicted and the homeless into your house; Clothing the naked when you see them, and not turning your back on your own flesh?

Abraham Joshua Heschel was a devout Jewish scholar who recently died. When we studied him in Prophets class I was really amazed at the way he expressed what Isaiah and Joel are talking about here: all those sacrifices you do, all that ritual, is just a pathetic empty show in the face of God if you just go out and do exactly the opposite of what He really wants. Heschel says: “Deeds of injustice vitiate both sacrifice and prayer. Men may not drown the cries of the oppressed with the noise of hymns, nor buy off the Lord with increased offerings. The prophets disparaged the cult when it became a substitute for righteousness...Righteousness is not just a value; it is God's part of human life, God's stake in human history. Perhaps it is because the suffering of man is a blot upon God's conscience; because it is in relations between man and man that God is at stake. Or is it simply because the infamy of a wicked act is infinitely greater than we are able to imagine? People act as they please, doing what is vile, abusing the weak, not realizing that they are fighting God, affronting the divine, or that the oppression of man is a humiliation of God.”

So, let's start Lent off right: with a fasting pleasing to God. Let's spend today not on our own pursuits, but upon God's. In class, in our homework, in whatever else we do today, we don't do it for ourselves, for show. We do it for God. And during our free time, we look for what good we can do, for how we can “free the oppressed” so that our sacrifice is not a mockery of God to His face.

As we begin this season, we get two homilies in one Mass. The first you just heard. The second is the liturgy's: ashes and a command. I am kind of jealous, but not really, because I know these ashes are going to do much more for you than my homily; for while the latter might go in one ear and out the other, these ashes will remain with you all day. You will feel them again and again, and you will recall the words spoken to you.

There are two options for what you are told: Repent and believe in the Gospel. And: Remember, man, that you are dust and to dust you shall return.

God calls you to reflect on this command he gives you: Repent and believe! Remember! This is your second homily today.

Let us live this Lent so as to be worthy of Easter.

Homily - Sunday March 2, 2014 - - - Trusting God in the Deep End

Today we are reminded about trust. Trust in general in the first reading; trust that God's judgment is more accurate than others' in the second reading, and trust in God's providence for our needs in the Gospel. Trust is the foundation of healthy relationships. This goes for marriages, for parenting, for friendships,...even for the workplace. If we are afraid or unsure of another person, we cannot have a good relationship because we will never be honest about ourselves with them.

Adam and Eve lost their trust in God and that is why they sinned: Catechism #397 "Man, tempted by the devil, let his trust in his creator die in his heart and, abusing his freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of. Also sequence and would-be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in his goodness."

(Confirmation: as you guys grow up and prepared to become adults, you need to remember that there are some things about which you must always be childlike, some lessons that need to remain with you forever.)

A great image of trust is a child jumping into his or her father's arms. When I was growing up we would always have a summer visit to a lake or two. The youngest kids in their floatation devices or the ones learning to swim would sometimes be nervous about jumping to dad, mom, or an older sibling. Their level of trust was written all over them. You can just see the difference in their eyes, in their body language, in their voices, and you knew which ones were having a really hard time with it because they were scared, even big-time scared. The funny thing is, did that make the situation more or less objectively dangerous? No! My mom or my dad had just as much love for one of them as for the other, and there would be no problems, but they couldn't see it, they couldn't feel that love at that moment. All they saw was the dark water, not the loving parent within the water, in a sense conquering it.

Adults live in fear a lot, too. Fr. Barron's podcast for this weekend said that the 3 largest buildings in Chicago are owned by life insurance companies. That's fear. And how do we work against that fear of the dark water of unknown tragedy? We give money in the promise of receiving more. Because those green bills that say “In God We Trust” are somehow going to be the things that save us from pain, from death, from sin, and from loneliness. No one can serve two masters – stewardship in any form (but especially in this campaign we are embarking on) is essential for us. If we trust God, we will show it in our actions. We have to activate our faith.
My grandma is dying happy, at peace, with full trust in God. She has been making acts of faith all her life, so now she is ready and happy to go to the God she knows and loves. Grandma is not afraid of the deep end of life. She knows who is there in that water, conquering it: it's the Lord Jesus Christ whose image she moved to right in front of her death bed. “It gives me so much peace,” she said on Friday.
I am more and more convinced that the deepest wound of our world, especially of our youth who so easily and seemingly unexpectedly can slide into despair, is the lack of awareness that they are so deeply and irrevocably loved by God. They don't know that God loves them, that he's here in their life, that he cares about them and provides for them. They don't know how to see it; they don't feel it; they have forgotten how to experience it. They need to be shown it! Who is failing to teach them, remind them, help them! Perhaps we need to start here in our work as missionary disciples: tell them directly and clearly: "I know that God loves you, and that cross is proof!"

In a sense, I as a priest have given my whole life for this very purpose. But all of us, no matter what state in life we are, no matter our age or our knowledge of the faith, can manifest and show this love of Christ from his Sacred Heart through our own to those who are hurting.  May that Sacred Heart fill us with His love, help us to have trust (have faith), and share that love with one wounded soul this week.

Homily 2-16-2014 "Forever" and Marriage

 Sirach tells us today: If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live. This is a good summary of the call to conversion that we hear every Sunday in one way or another. In our hearts we hear God wake us up and show us what we were made to be.

Do not murder, nor adulterate, nor divorce, nor lie. These commandments in today's Gospel are good starting points, and if you keep them (which means to let them thrive in your heart and in your actions), then you will live. Jesus takes that foundation and ups the ante today, when he demands a righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees (those most upright people of His time). He shows us what we are truly called to.... and points out a funny thing about our fallen human nature: if we don't try for the best, we don't get very far. We have to go for it all as Christ calls us to, or we won't even make the minimum that the commandments demand of us.

It's National Marriage week, and the Holy Father met on Friday with 10,000 of engaged couples for a special audience in honor of the love celebrated on Valentine's Day. He was asked many questions, and one that was most important to me was about the fear of “forever.” This to me is a foundational crisis we all go through: how can someone be certain and make a perpetual commitment that steers their entire life? Fear of “forever” is the start of our vocation crisis, whether it be marriage, priesthood, or a life of faith in general – if we live in fear, we will never go “all in.” Pope Francis' answer was “forever” is built day-by-day, and is built up like a house, stone upon stone, board upon board.

My grandma is slowly passing from this earth, resigning herself to the cancer that has ravaged her energy and her appetite (but Thanks be to God, no pain). I went home and on Thursday I celebrated Mass at her bedside with grandpa, just the three of us on a makeshift altar. Right behind grandma hangs the photograph of them leaving Church on their wedding day. Afterwards, we talked for five minutes and she was thinking back to times when she was a child, showing me the miraculous medal she has worn since she was about 15. I squeezed her hand a little and she squeezed back, saying, “how did you know that? Who told you that?” I said, “Told me what?” “Me and your grandpa have been doing that for years.” And squeezing my hand three times she said, “I...Love...You.” and then four times for “I Love You, Too.” Then her exhaustion forced her to rest again. Little things, that's what builds up to “forever.” So don't be afraid of forever, just build it up day-by-day.

Say “yes” for today. Let our yes be yes and our no be no. Jesus is all yes. The cross shows us that God is not afraid of loving us forever. The Eucharist is the source of our strength to make that same commitment to our world and to each other. In our marriages we make a forever “yes” to another. In my priesthood I made a forever “yes” to Jesus and to you, His Bride, the Church. And this month, the Lord is calling our parish to make a kind of “yes” also to this campaign for our future, a “yes” built up day-by-day and founded on the “yes” that Jesus is for us. I now invite parishioner Jack Ruhe to come to the cantor stand and share his experience of responding generously to Christ's “yes” through his life. Thank you, Jack.

Homily 2-2-2014 Light in the Darkness

Today I want to quickly give you something to reflect on.  One of the questions every person must answer is this: What is the point of pain and suffering?  Is life just hard sometimes?  Why do we have to endure such trials?
The Blessed Mother today is promised to undergo suffering.  Some promise, huh?  If someone came up to me and simply said, "You've got yourself a long and ugly road ahead," then my response would probably be "Wow, thanks a lot!"  But Mary doesn't flinch, she only treasures these words in her heart and looks to her Son.
That's the way we all should address that deep question we have to answer.  Let us look to Mary's Son, who Himself, infinitely more than Mary, didn't deserve to suffer.  But despite that, he freely chose it.  And for this we give thanks, because we know we do not suffer alone.
One year ago, my spiritual director, Bishop D'Arcy, who mentored me all my life and especially those first 1.5 years of priesthood, passed away.  I visited him on Feb. 1st, watched Him suffer on his death bed, celebrated Mass with him and my brother and Fr. Bill.  As he clung to a crucifix, we knew that he wasn't suffering for nothing.  He was being purified, as we all are in this life.  I thank God for the witness Bishop D'Arcy was all my life, especially in his last moments.
Today Mary and Joseph come to the Temple, bearing the Son, and giving thanks to the Father.  They thank God for the blessings, for how he works even in the midst of their difficulties.  They are truly a light for us also.
Both in Sacred Scripture and in Church liturgical life, The light of a candle is a very layered image, evoking a wide array of meanings and allusions.  It represents our faith when we are told to at baptism to keep the light burning until the day Christ Jesus' return in glory.  It represents Jesus Himself when at the Easter Vigil we remember that the resurrection is the light that shines in the darkness of human history.  It represents the soul infused by the Holy Spirit just as the tongues of flame hovered over the Apostles at Pentecost.  It represents the truth and goodness of the Christian who is called to be a lamp shining in the world.
As we at St. Pius Parish reflect on how to be a better light to the world with Christ in our hearts, please watch this video in preparation of our parish campaign.  It shows us some of what we are called to be at St. Pius, and what we hope to become more and more as a parish family shining light in the darkness.

Homily 1-26-2014 Incoming Call! Accept??

Gaudium et Spes, section 22, tells us that we get our identity from Christ: The truth is that only in the mystery of the incarnate Word does the mystery of man take on light. For Adam, the first man, was a figure of Him Who was to come,(20) namely Christ the Lord. Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear.

When Jesus looks at the Apostles today, he doesn't see what they are, He sees what they can be, what they should be, and what they will be if they respond fully to Him. But all He can say is “Repent and believe in the Gospel; the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand; Come and Follow me.” The rest is up to them: CCC 2002 - God's free initiative demands man's free response, for God has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the power to know him and love him. The soul only enters freely into the communion of love. God immediately touches and directly moves the heart of man. He has placed in man a longing for truth and goodness that only he can satisfy. The promises of "eternal life" respond, beyond all hope, to this desire...

Were Peter & Andrew, James and John, created to be fishermen? Were they created for more? You have to even wonder how they felt about their work (and how much they knew of Jesus) to just drop it all, leave it all behind and follow. Maybe it's normal for us to sort of hate work when we don't have a higher calling attached to it – Adam was told work would be hard, require sweat. But after following Christ, the work becomes lighter, easier, elevated to something higher.

We see in this Gospel that God calls us in our work. Priests of our own diocese were successful in the world in their own small ways: Dentist. Paintball factory. Businessman. Engineer from Purdue. Rocket Scientist. Notre Dame architecture student. Teacher.

God calls us them because of their heart: Chrys.: It is no small sign of goodness, to bear poverty easily, to live by honest labour, to be bound together by virtue of affection, to keep their poor father with them, and to toil in his service.

An interesting fact of today's calling is that that they were two sets of brothers. I wondered why this was so, particularly because it hits so close to home for me: Jesus called me, and my brother, at about the same time, to be fishers of men, priests. 2,000 years later, He still calls brothers!

Pseudo-Chrys.: He “called them” together, for by their abode they were fellow-townsmen, in affection attached, in profession agreed, and united by brotherly tenderness. He called them then at once, that united by so many common blessings they might not be separated by a separate call.

Brothers, when they get along, are a great sign of unity.  And this is exactly what Saint Paul is trying to stress today in the beginning of his First Letter to the Corinthians: they are breaking up into factions, and are filling up with pride and jealousy, claiming Apollos, or Paul etc. as their "leader."  Paul responds by using the name Jesus Christ ten times in the first ten verses.  We are united, Paul stresses, in Jesus Christ - no one else; nothing else.  Let us pray for that true unity among the entire Body of Christ, among all Christians.

And the way that Christ meets us to unite us is with today's call to conversion, to "repent". CCC 1989 - The first work of the grace of the Holy Spirit is conversion, effecting justification in accordance with Jesus' proclamation at the beginning of the Gospel: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."38 Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness from on high.

Only if we convert our hearts are we able to be united in Christ Jesus, because only then do we allow ourselves to be transformed into Him, to become what we were created for; what He truly sees we can be.

Every Ash Wednesday we hear these words: “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” Every Sunday in the scriptures, indeed every day of our lives, Jesus calls us again: “Follow me” a little closer, leave behind things a little more completely.

In today’s Eucharist, as we meet Christ, let us abandon our old selves and follow our True Self who unites us by giving His Body and Blood for us.