Palm Sunday

Audio: click here

Just this Friday, Bishop Rhoades recounted to the SJHS students the martyrdom of the four nuns of Mother Teresa's Sisters of Charity in Yemen, who were killed exactly two weeks earlier.

This story of Jesus' Passion is not just His story, it is our story. This story is still happening. When the Resurrected Jesus confronted to Saul, he said “why are you persecuting me?” not “my followers.” That is the mystery of Baptism, and that is why the story we read today is the greatest story ever. But we need to make it our own. We are not spectators.

Bishop St. Gregory Nazianzus puts it this way:

Let us sacrifice ourselves to God; or rather let us go on sacrificing throughout every day and at every moment. Let us accept anything for the Word's sake. By sufferings let us imitate His Passion: by our blood let us reverence His Blood: let us gladly mount upon the Cross. Sweet are the nails, though they be very painful. For to suffer with Christ and for Christ is better than a life of ease with others. If you are a Simon of Cyrene, take up the Cross and follow. If you are crucified with Him as a robber, acknowledge God as a penitent robber. If even He was numbered among the transgressors for you and your sin, do you become law-abiding for His sake. Worship Him Who was hanged for you, even if you yourself are hanging; make some gain even from your wickedness; purchase salvation by your death; enter with Jesus into Paradise, so that you may learn from what you have fallen. Contemplate the glories that are there; let the murderer die outside with his blasphemies; and if you be a Joseph of Arimathæa, beg the Body from him that crucified Him, make your own that which cleanses the world. If you be a Nicodemus, the worshiper of God by night, bury Him with spices.

Baptism has united us to this mystery, and we are called to live differently now.

Bishop St. Andrew of Crete says this: So let us spread before his feet, not garments or soulless olive branches, which delight the eye for a few hours and then wither, but ourselves, clothed in his grace, or rather, clothed completely in him. We who have been baptized into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before him. Now that the crimson stains of our sins have been washed away in the saving waters of baptism and we have become white as pure wool, let us present the conqueror of death, not with mere branches of palms but with the real rewards of his victory. Let our souls take the place of the welcoming branches as we join today in the children’s holy song: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the king of Israel.

These blessed palms are nice, but you are much more important for the Christian message. These branches by the way, can be a great evangelization tool. Give them away and tell people what they mean, what happened here this weekend. Explain to them that they are always welcome here to worship God. He is always waiting for them. That is your baptismal mission: to make this story our own, a living story that carries on today. Amen.

Bishop Rhoades' Statement: Concerning the decision of Notre Dame to honor Vice President Biden

Bishop Rhoades' Statements: Concerning the decision of Notre Dame: Bishop Rhoades here outlines his disagreement with Notre Dame's honoring of former Speaker of the House Boehner and Vice President Biden with their Laetare Medal.  ND has argued that these two politicians are a sign of "civility" and exemplary public service in the midst of a turbulent political realm.  Although Bsp. Rhoades does not argue that point, he disagrees with this specific award, which is meant to honor their Catholic witness to the world - something that, particularly for the Vice President, has been far from perfect.  This reminds me of the disagreement at the end of Bishop D'Arcy's episcopacy, when president Obama was invited as graduation commencement speaker and given an honorary degree.  That same year, Mary Ann Glendon refused to accept the ND Laetare medal.  Please read.

5th Sunday (Cycle C readings)

Audio recording of 11am Mass: click here

St. Paul focuses on what lies ahead and forgets what lies behind.

-- going for a run and paying attention to the cars on the road!

The Christian life is a marathon race.

Saint Paul considers himself an unfinished project.

How many times are you allowed to go to Confession? When does the Church say "not anymore, you're out of lives"?

Th devil is the author of shame and the author of discouragement. The Lord is God of hope, even at the same time being the God of the conviction of our conscience. 

THE ONE TRUE PHOBIA WE ALL HAVE - 5th Sunday RCIA (Cycle A readings)

Audio from Saturday Mass: Click here

Phobias.  There are so many different things that we can be afraid of in life, and psychology has outlined them quite well in the past decades.  Besides agoraphobia (fear of wide-open spaces) and social phobias (fear of difficult escape from social encounters), The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Medical Disorders (DSM V) has four main types of phobias: animal; nature; situational; and blood-injection-illness (B-I-I).  People are afraid of hundreds of things.  And it's not always fear for ourself, or so it would seem: I'm always afraid of hurting someone else.  But maybe that's more because of the akward situation it would put me in to know that I, a priest, hit someone with my car or ran into this or that on my bike or whatever else.  Our lives are lives of fear, but the fear ultimately boils down to one thing: we are afraid of dying.  We are afraid of losing something because that something is a part of a death.  I am really not happy about the fact that I pulled some weird muscle in my stomach and can't go out and run in this great weather.  It's a little death and it stinks.  But ultimately, it is death itself that we fear.  Let's face it: a great deal of the American lifestyle is all about ignoring death.

Christianity, on the contrary, looks right at death.  It looks at death and laughs at it.  The martyrs of the church, thousands of them over the centuries, have lived the words of Sacred Scripture: "Where O death is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?"

The fear of death is exactly what Jesus' entire mission on earth was addressing.  Death, since it is the result of sin, is why Jesus came. We began Lent with a showdown with the Devil, and now the tide is building once again.  Soon he will unleash all the evil that has been growing quietly in the hearts of men.  His pride ends up being his downfall in the cross.  Jesus conquers death by death itself.

Paul makes it clear for us today that for the Christian, life & death go hand-in-hand. We have the courage of the martyrs because we have already died in a certain way in baptism.  And here is how they go together: If we want to live in God, then we die to the world. 

LOTR Frodo's choice for a death mission. Sam is like Thomas "let's go to die with him". Love drives out fear. 

4th Sunday Homily

Apologies for the delay in posting this here!!!  Unfortunately it is audio only.  I preached with notes and not a full-text this week, which probably made it longer!

Saturday night (RCIA Mass - Year A Readings): listen here
Sunday (Year C Readings): listen here

God's True Name and True Face

Click here for Audio for Year C (full-text below)
Click here for Audio for Year A (Saturday night - RCIA - audio only)

Jesus' words are words of warning today, and Saint Paul gives the same.  They are words that are meant to humble us and remind us of the truth that we are indeed sinful like all of humanity, and therefore must work out our salvation through repentance.  When we confess our sins and cling to Christ Jesus, we can be made righteous in Him.  If we think ourselves already justified and without sin, we will find ourselves proven wrong on the last day.  Christ wants us to bear fruit, like the fig tree in today's parable.  The three years symbolize his own ministry, his message of conversion.  That is the main fruit God wants of us: a humble confession of our need for God.  God will provide the rest.
Moses today gives us a beautiful example of conversion and of humility.  He was prince of Egypt, but he was a Hebrew.  He was lost, searching for his identity, and he felt the suffering of his people. He tried to take matters into his own hands by killing a slave-driver.  Realizing they did not want yet to be freed, he had to run.  Now today, many years later, he learns to be humble and let God work.  He realizes he is not in control and cannot impose his will on others.
Ultimately, though, the Lord gives us in Moses a beautiful account of who God truly is, and who he is not.  In the burning bush, we only get a glimpse of God.  He is a God whose name is mysterious, beyond controlling.  But He also is a God who hears the cries of the poor, and a God who sends us on a mission.  God is not a tyrant.  Our image needs to change.

God of Mercy.  Year of Mercy.  Works of Mercy.

The Mountain of Prayer is where we can see God's Plans

Audio from 9:00am Mass: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx8IQkJZZ39KU0QtQnBMRUVPWTQ

Growing up in Indiana, I've always been fascinated with mountains. I've not been able to climb many mountains in my life, so when I have, the experiences aren't really forgotten. Three times (In 6^th grade and in high school and just a few years ago) I was able to be in the mountains of Colorado. I've been in the Italian Appenines visiting Assisi and the region around there. I've skied a few times in some good mountains with my friends. I think that's it. I love them. They are special places that will never get old for me. You know, Saint John Paul II loved the mountains, especially skiing. So did Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassatti, a remarkable saint who died at an early age.

But back to mountains. In Genesis Chapter 15, Abraham gets a glimpse of God's plans for him on top of a mountain. In Luke chapter 9, Peter, James & John encounter the same even as Jesus reveals a glimpse of His hidden glory to them. Mountains are special places for deeper vision. They are closer to heaven. We see earth from a totally different perspective: even though we can see much more, we also see less of the sharp, intense details of the small things. Our focus on the next five minutes switches to our ultimate goals. That change of focus is exactly what Abraham and the 3 disciples needed. They were too bogged down in the immediate concerns of their life to remember the big picture.

Abraham talks with God about his future. He doesn't see how God is planning to make good on the promise of numerous descendants since he has no son as of yet. So God take him outside and has him look at the stars. What's interesting in this passage, though, is that just a couple verses later (after preparing all the sacrificial animals and protecting them from carrion) then it becomes evening. Is God showing Abraham the stars in the middle of the day? Was Abraham keeping a night-vigil of prayer? Or was God reassuring Abraham by stressing that “Look, just because you can't see something doesn't mean that it isn't there.” We cannot tell for sure, but all three are good possibilities. I think the third does a great job of changing our perspective, reminding us that we creatures don't have it all figured out, and that God knows what He is about. It helps free Abraham from is imprisonment in the immediate things, and keeps him focused on the ultimate goal: God will fulfill His promises in His way.

Peter, James & John go up on the mountain one week after Jesus has just told them something heart-dropping: The Son of Man goes to Jerusalem to be rejected, crucified, and buried, but will rise on the third day. The disciples, naturally, cannot see past the first parts of this news to the last. They are stuck on the fact that their powerful, miracle-working teacher, who has shown no signs of weakness or defeat, whom they know to be the Messiah, will have to die such an ignoble death. So Jesus consoles them with this mountain-top experience to broaden their vision. He shows some of His glory, so that they might be able to “look past” the upcoming trauma of the crucifixion, and trust in the Lord's plans.

Lent is a time for us to receive the same gift as was given Abraham, Peter, James, & John. We have our own trials in life. We all have things that are sucking up our attention when they shouldn't be. We all need mountain-top experiences. And these events can only be found if we are people of deep prayer. If we are “with the Lord” and make sacrifices of our time and energy to be vulnerable to Him as Abraham was. Climbing a mountain is never easy, but it is always worth it. Prayer may be a sacrifice, but it is always worth it. When we are lost and cannot find our way, the best thing to do is get on high ground and see where we should go. This is what the Lord wants to do for us this Lent. Lord Jesus, give us the courage to climb after you and let you lead us to a deeper vision of our lives and futures. Amen.