Category Archives: Homily

Homily for the Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Last week, I spoke about the necessity for us as Christians to regularly spend time before the Blessed Sacrament, before Our Lord Jesus Christ present in the most unique and powerful way that He is present to us. This week, we are shown why we need to persist in praying before Our Lord and entering into prayer on a regular basis.

To truly be a follower of Christ, which is what it means to be a Christian, we need to emulate Our Lord and follow His command. Today’s Gospel reading opens with Jesus engaged in prayer, an action we see Our Lord performing repeatedly throughout the Gospels. Prayer is so important to Our Lord that He would regularly involve His disciples and even taught them how to pray.

If prayer is that important to Our Lord, it must be that important to us who claim to follow Him. Not only should we listen to what Jesus taught His disciples to say, but we should also look at how He prayed. In many places throughout the Gospels, Jesus would go to a secluded place and devote His whole attention to prayer. Note that no where does it say that he did some other activity, like fishing, while he prayed. Prayer was His sole focus at those times.

There must be times in our lives in which we focus only on praying to God. Prayer is an activity that must involve our whole attention to be effective. Now, it is very important and laudable to “pray always” by saying short exclamations of praise and thanksgiving to God throughout the day, but that must not be our only form of prayer. We must take time everyday to set aside everything in our lives for prayer.

To truly enter into prayer, there must be silence in our part. This silence is not merely a lack of speech, but also an active listening. Prayer is a conversation with God, not a monologue from us to Him, and requires listening on our part. If we want to have a good conversation with someone, we need to listen to them and focus our attention on what they have to say. Likewise, we have to focus our attention on God and listen to what He has to say if we want our prayer to be effective.

As I said last week, if we truly desire to get to know Our Lord, we need to spend time in His presence here in front of the tabernacle. By regularly and persistently coming before Him in prayer, focusing on Him, we will develop an openness: and openness to the Gifts of the Holy Spirit; an openness to the will of God; an openness to the salvation promised by Christ. It is this openness that will bring us into eternal life in Heaven. Just being a good person is not enough. We need to fully and consciously enter into prayer daily, and persist in prayer, now. Not next week, next month, or next year; now.

As Christians, we need to devote ourselves to prayer and follow Jesus’ example. Through dedication and persistence in prayer, we will be opened by God to His salvation.

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Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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  • We live in a busy world
    • Mary set aside the busyness of the world to sit Jesus’ feet.
      • Are we willing to do the same?
      • Are we like Martha, “anxious and worried about many things”?
  • If you want to get to know someone, you spend time with them. If we want to get to know Our Lord in this life so we can know Him for all eternity, we need to spend time with Him now.
    • We believe that Jesus is truly here present in the tabernacle.
      • Not just bread that we’ve stored in a box
      • Our Lord and Savior really present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity.
    • How often do you come to visit Him?
      • Daily?
      • Once a week?
      • When is the last time you came to the Church to adore Him, even if just for a minute or two?
  • We cannot fulfill our call to proclaim Christ unless we know Him personally.
    • “It is He whom we proclaim, admonishing everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.”

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Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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  • Moses is Lawgiver
    • Through whom the Mosaic Law was revealed
      • Commandments of God for the Israelite/Jewish people
    • Moses said the Law “is something very near to you, already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out.”
  • We learn what is right or wrong from the Law of God written on our hearts
    • Law is the desire for unity with God and follow His commands
      • Natural Law
    • Children have a sense of right or wrong
      • Don’t always follow it
    • Even those who don’t believe in God know this law
  • Good Samaritan is the example of living according to God’s Law
    • Knew that the right thing was to help
    • Priest, Levite possibly wanted to maintain ritual purity
      • Contact with blood required ritual cleansing before performing religious rites
      • May have had other good reasons similar to our own
        • In a hurry
        • Didn’t know what to do
    • Good Samaritan may or may not known Mosaic Law
      • Followed the law in his heart to love one another
  • Christ teaches us His law through His body, the Church
    • Sin has corrupted our ability to listen and understand this law
    • Office of the Magisterium
      • Pope
      • Bishops in union with him
      • NOT individual priests, theologians
    • Gives us the tools to understand and follow God’s Law
      • CCC
      • Documents and letters of Pope, bishops
      • Preaching and exhortation of Pope, bishops, priests in union

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Homily for the Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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This is my first Sunday homily at St. Mary’s Parish in Malta, MT.

  • Isaiah promises great prosperity for Jerusalem
    • Not merely earthly Jerusalem
    • Jerusalem symbolic of God’s Kingdom (see Revelation)
      • Prosperity and wealth symbols of the glory and joy of the Heavenly Kingdom of God
  • Everything in our daily lives should be oriented to the Kingdom of God
    • It has come with the Death and Resurrection of Christ
    • It is not fully here
      • Will manifest at His second coming
      • We need to prepare ourselves for that day
    • Every Christian is called in his or her daily life to emulate St. Paul by “never boast[ing] except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ”
      • Need to allow how we live as Christians to show our faith in Christ and love for Him
      • Christianity is not a “one hour a week” religion, but must influence every aspect of our lives
      • People are hungering for God
        • See in popularity of
          • New-age spiritualities
          • Cults
          • Seekers of paranormal
  • Jesus says: “The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few”
    • Commonly used for priestly vocations
      • We need to pray for and encourage vocations to the priesthood and religious life
    • Also need to “ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for His harvest” among those who proclaim the Gospel by how they live their daily lives
      • Will include each individual
      • We can’t bring people to Christ by preaching at them or condemning them

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Homily for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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  • Why don’t people follow Christ?
    • Many reasons
    • Big reason – they see Christian life as restricting freedom
      • Conversely, St. Paul says Christ came to free us
  • Definition of freedom
    • Secular definition
      • “Ability to do what I want, when I want to, and how I want to.”
    • Christian definition
      • “Able to do what we ought to do”
        • Ability to do that which is right
      • First definition is not freedom, but license
        • Abuse of freedom
  • Difference in definitions
    • First sees laws as restrictions on freedom
    • Second sees legitimate laws as enhancing freedom
      • Analogy is out-of-bounds rules in football or soccer
        • Limit area of play != restriction of freedom in play
    • St. Paul encourages us to follow the second definition
      • Not first
  • Hear first understanding of freedom when someone “doesn’t need dogmas”
    • Sees doctrines, dogmas, etc. as rules which restrict
    • Christian view of freedom
      • Dogmas, doctrines, etc. set out-of-bounds for following Christ
        • So long as we’re in the field, we’re in good standing
        • Rather than restrict, limits free us
          • Don’t have to worry about being in right relationship
      • It’s not hard to know if we’re in right relationship w/ Christ
        • Seek to know and understand the rules and live them in love for Christ and our neighbor
          • Not selfishly
  • True freedom brings a joy we will never find if we live merely for ourselves

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Homily for the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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How often do we pray? Do we pray just once a week at Sunday Mass? Do we enter into prayer once or twice a day when blessing our meals? How about several times throughout the day with devotions and short prayers? Is prayer something we just fit into our schedules whenever we can?

Yet, we should follow the example of Our Lord who sought to pray always. The Gospels show us Our Lord frequently at prayer before He made any major decision or undertook a journey. Throughout the Gospel of Luke, we see Our Lord at prayer; today’s reading is no exception to the rule. Before speaking to His disciples, Our Lord is praying in solitude. Jesus sought to be always at prayer, to be always in union with Our Heavenly Father. This should be our desire as well. We should also desire to be in union with Our Lord, in union with God our Father.

We might ask: Why do we need to pray? Isn’t it good enough to come to Mass? As Christians, we know that following Our Lord is not easy. In fact, Our Lord tells us that we need to “deny ourselves and take up our cross daily and follow him.” To truly follow Our Lord is not a simple thing, and we need help. We need to seek help from Our Lord, we need His assistance to follow Him.

We have a promise which has been given to us from the Prophet Zechariah that God our Heavenly Father will “pour out […] a spirit of grace and petition.” As Christians, we received that spirit when we were baptized, the fulfillment of the other promise God made through Zechariah, that God will “open […] a fountain to purify from sin and uncleanness.”

Through our baptism, our sins were cleansed, and we received the grace of the Holy Spirit poured down upon us, which allows us to pray to God. St. Paul tells us that we “who were baptized unto Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” By doing this, we became “children of God in Christ Jesus.” As children of God, we need to be emulating Jesus during His life on earth when he regularly spent time in prayer.

Through prayer, we gain the assistance from God we need, so I ask you again, how often do you pray? Do we take time throughout the day to pray a Rosary or Divine Mercy Chaplet? Do we take time throughout our day, doesn’t have to be much more than a few seconds, to say a brief prayer of praise and thanksgiving for the gift of life and everything God gives us throughout our lives? When we reach a moment of difficulty in our lives, do we turn it over to Our Lord, or do we first become angry, frustrated or annoyed?

Some may find prayer difficult, but we been given the tools to pray. We have the devotions, like the Rosary or Divine Mercy Chaplet, the Litanies, or one of the thousands of prayers which have given to us throughout the history of the Church. The greatest devotion is daily adoration of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, spending even just a few minutes before Our Lord in the tabernacle here within the church. Even better is daily Mass, being able to receive Our Lord daily in Holy Communion, but if that’s not possible, we do well to spend some time in adoration.

Do we take advantage of sacramentals, those objects which have been given to us by the Church to aid us in prayer, draw us closer to Our Lord and the Sacraments He gave us? We have Holy Water, which reminds us of our baptism, medals of the saints to remind us of their lives and place us under their intercession, scapulars of Our Lady that place us under her protection, and so many more. Do we take advantage of these tools to help us grow in grace and draw closer to Our Lord?

We are daily called to pick up our cross and follow Jesus. Though following Him will be difficult, we have been given the tools to undertake the journey. May we this day and every day for the rest of our lives use these tools to draw closer to Him.

Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

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When we attend Mass, we gather to witness and partake in a great mystery. With just a few words spoken by priests, simple bread and wine become a gift far beyond anything ever imagined. The simplest of foods become the Son of God Himself. Just as He broke the five loaves and two fish to feed five thousand, He feeds us with the spiritual food and drink of His Body and Blood shed on the Cross. Through reverent reception of Our Lord’s Body and Blood, our spiritual lives are given in this world what is needed to prepare for entry into eternal life in the next world.

At every Mass, priests speak the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ which St. Paul repeats in his first Letter to the Corinthians, and a miracle occurs in the gifts of bread and wine placed before him. St. Ambrose, a Father and Doctor of the Church who lived in the 4th Century AD, described this miracle: “Before it is consecrated, it is bread; but when Christ’s words have been added, it is the body of Christ. . . . And before the words of Christ, the chalice is full of wine and water. When the words of Christ have been added, then blood is effected which redeemed the people.” They are no longer bread and wine, simple foods made from wheat and grapes, but by speaking the words of Our Lord at the Last Supper before His Passion and Death, they become the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ which was offered on the Cross. His Body, pierced by nails and lance on the Cross for our sins, is now offered to us to eat. His Blood, poured out of his hands, feet, and side for our salvation, is now poured out for us to drink. He comes to us, in the appearance of bread and wine, so that we might be joined with Him and enter into His salvation.

This miraculous transformation is so important that the Second Vatican Council called the celebration of the Holy Mass, “the summit which the activity of the Church is directed” and “the font from which all Her power flows.” As Christians, the most important thing in our lives must be regular Sunday attendance at Mass and reception of the Body and Blood of Christ. Nothing in our lives is more important, and everything in our lives should flow from it. Through reverent reception of Holy Communion, receiving Our Lord’s Body and Blood, we are given as a gift the strength needed to face the struggles that confront us in this life. Regular reception of Holy Communion also prepares us for our eternal life in Heaven. We would never think of going a week, much less months, without eating and drinking food to nourish our bodies. It should be just as unthinkable to go months, if not years, without the Body and Blood of Christ.

Note carefully that I said “reverent reception” of Holy Communion. Before we approach Our Lord to receive His Body and Blood, we need to prepare ourselves for this great gift. Few, if any, of us would think of sitting down to dinner with greasy and dirt-covered hands, yet how often do we approach the Table of the Lord with souls stained by sin? Due to the fallen nature of humanity, we all commit sins on a daily basis, and we are all in need of God’s forgiveness. We need to seek out the Sacrament of Confession on a regular basis, once a year at a minimum, once a month is better, in order to keep our souls clean and ready to receive Our Lord.

We also need to prepare ourselves before Mass to receive the Body and Blood of Christ by taking time for prayer and reflection. Someone playing a sport would never think of just hopping out of the car, running on to the field, and entering the game without any preparation. Instead, this player, after putting on the appropriate uniform and gear, would spend some time warming up and stretching to get ready for the game.

Likewise, we need to spend a little time before Mass “stretching” ourselves so that we will be open to receiving Our Lord, both in the Scriptures proclaimed and in Holy Communion. I know this can be extremely difficult for parents, especially when your children seem to have an almost allergic reaction to being early and sitting still for anything they don’t like, but this is vitally important for your souls, as well as providing the example for your children. If we don’t prepare before Mass, we can and will take the Body and Blood of Our Lord for granted.

Today, on this Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, may we receive Our Lord with reverence and great joy.

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Homily for Trinity Sunday

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When we do something week after week, month after month, year after year, it becomes easy to do it automatically. For much of what we do in our daily lives, this is good. None of us would become a good driver if we had to constantly think about every little thing we do, just as we did when we first learned how to drive. Likewise, our jobs would take much longer, if not become impossible to complete, if we had to think in detail about every little task that we perform on a daily basis.

There are areas in which this tendency can be a problem, such as our participation in the Mass. How often do we really pay close attention to what we’re saying and doing on any given Sunday? For many of us, if not most of us, our words and actions are done automatically, with out much thought given to what we’re saying and doing, and why we do them. Today, on this Trinity Sunday, we need to take a couple minutes to look at that part of the Mass when we profess our faith in the God Who is one God, three divine persons: the Nicene Creed.

Every Sunday, following the homily, we are asked by the Church to state publicly what we believe as Catholics to have been revealed by God about Himself. We call this statement of faith a “creed” from the first word in Latin: credo, which translates as “I believe”. The Creed we recite every Sunday, the Nicene Creed, was first formulated by the Council of Nicea in 325 to combat a heresy that denied the divinity and eternal nature of Christ. It was later added to by the councils of Constantinople and Chalcedon in order to clarify what has been revealed about Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

We need to realize that when we recite this Creed which has been passed down to us from the earliest centuries of the Church, we take on for ourselves as our belief what the Church declares regarding God and our relationship to Him. This may not be clear due to the current translation of the Mass starting the Nicene Creed with “We believe”, but the upcoming revised translation will correctly use “I believe”. By using “I believe”, it becomes clear that each of us as individuals join together as members of the Body of Christ to proclaim and accept the teachings of the Church. It also becomes clear that we individually accept and vow to live by these beliefs. This is not something we should take lightly, but should seriously consider the words of the Creed and what it declares. What we believe about God affects how we relate to Him, and His importance in how we live our daily lives.

With the new translation of the Mass coming out in November of 2011, we will have the opportunity to once again pay close attention to the meaning behind what we say in the celebration of Holy Mass. Of course, we don’t need to wait until then to pull ourselves out of auto-pilot, but can focus on the words of the Creed now. The new translation will not change the meaning of what we’re saying, but it will use far more clear and specific language to help us understand the deeper meaning behind our words.

The challenge for us this Sunday, and every Sunday, is to take seriously the Nicene Creed. Each of us individually needs to make these more than just words we recite every Sunday. Instead, we need to reflect on them, pray about them, dig deeper into them, and make them words that will influence how we live our lives. If we truly believe what we profess every Sunday, it would be impossible for them not to have an effect on us.

Now, as we recite the Nicene Creed and profess our faith in the Trinity which we celebrate this Sunday, may the “we believe” we profess be echoed within our hearts as “I believe”.

Homily for Pentecost

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The Apostles received the fulfillment of a promise when the Holy Spirit descended upon them and enabled them to speak in many foreign languages, praising Our Lord and proclaiming His Gospel. This Holy Spirit, which appeared to the Apostles as tongues of fire, is still at work within the Church, as well as the individual lives of Christians today.

Throughout the history of humanity, the Holy Spirit has been steadily guiding us towards our final end of eternal life in Heaven. From the beginning of Creation, He guided the people of God, the Israelites and their Jewish descendents, towards the coming of Our Lord as man. Through the words and actions of Our Lord and His Apostles, the Holy Spirit led the early Christians through the creation of Jesus’ Church here on Earth.

Now, as members of that Church, the Holy Spirit is leading and guiding us to draw closer to Our Lord, teaching and sanctifying us so that we may assume our places within the Body of Christ in preparation for our final union with Him in Heaven. As St. Paul points out his first letter to the Corinthians, “As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ.” Just as our bodies are made up of parts that have different roles, each individual Christian has a role within the Church. Our hands cannot take the place of our feet, though some may have a far better sense of balance and be able to walk short distances with their hands, just as our eyes cannot be used for hearing and our ears for seeing. As Christians, we need to discover our roles within the Church and fulfill them for our good and the good of our fellow Christians.

We find and act in these roles through the Holy Spirit working within us, as these roles are given to us as gifts by the Holy Spirit. As St. Paul again says, “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.” We each bring different gifts, abilities, and even challenges to the Body of Christ. We need to discover, through the Holy Spirit, how we can use these gifts and abilities for the benefit of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

As we use these gifts and abilities, we will find ourselves being drawn closer to Christ. Jesus exhorted His disciples, and us by extension, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” The eventual end of our lives, the reason why we were created by God, was for unity with God, to share in the love that exists between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We have been promised that following Our Lord’s commandments will lead us to that unity, as the Triune God will come to us and dwell within us.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit with us today, to unite us with God and one another. Sadly, there is much division in the world today, just as there has always been since sin entered into the world. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to work through us to end the disunity within the world: divisions between individuals, factions within the Church, divisions between denominations, or between Christians and non-Christians. We need to seek ways to bring unity to the world, uniting all people as sons and daughters of Christ and following His commandments.

It won’t be easy, and we may never see an end to strife before the second coming of Our Lord, but we know that we have the Holy Spirit on our side. As St. Paul reminds us, ‘No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.‘ The fact that we believe in Our Lord Jesus Christ and profess Him as Lord of Heaven and Earth should be enough to reassure us that the Holy Spirit does dwell within us as baptized Christians and wants to work through us. We just need to seek ways to do so. May we allow the Holy Spirit to use our gifts and abilities to bring about that unity in the world.

Homily for Ascension Sunday

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In discussions about the importance of liturgy, an ancient principle frequently comes up: lex orandi, lex credendi. This Latin phrase translates loosely as “the law of prayer is the law of belief.” To put this principle more simply, our prayer life influences how we believe. How we approach the worship of God in the Mass, the Sacraments, and devotional life has an influence on our belief in the promises of salvation by Our Lord Jesus Christ and how strongly we desire to enter into that salvation.

In the second reading, St. Paul starts his letter to the Ephesians praying, “May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of Him.” As Christians, we should be willing to join St. Paul in this prayer, seeking always to receive the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, all the while desiring to know and love Our Heavenly Father, and His Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Reflecting on this passage, an early Church writer named Ambrosiaster stated, “The hope of their faith lies in a heavenly reward. When they truly know what the fruit of believing is, they will become more eager in acts of worship.”

On this Feast of the Ascension of the Lord, we see the fulfillment of the hope of our faith, the heavenly reward promised us by Christ, when Our Lord ascends into Heaven to take the seat at God’s right hand. St. Paul prayed for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we “may know what is the hope that belongs to His call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe.” As baptized Christians, we have entered into that inheritance as adopted sons and daughters of God the Father. This is the hope for those of us who have entered into His call to follow Him and be faithful to His commandments in this life. Just as children receive an earthly inheritance from their parents, we hope as adopted children of God our Father to receive a heavenly inheritance far beyond anything we can imagine here on Earth.

Now, it’s easy for us to talk about a promised heavenly inheritance, saying that we’re Christians hoping for eternal life in Heaven. It’s something completely different to truly believe in the teachings of Our Lord, and to allow that belief to influence our lives. This is where the second part of the quote from Abrosiaster becomes important: “When they truly know what the fruit of believing is, they will become more eager in acts of worship.” When we truly understand that the heavenly reward promised by Christ is far beyond any joy we will ever experience here on Earth, we will desire to spend time in worship of God over anything else the world can provide. We will seek to know Him in this life so that we will know Him more fully in the next.

This is why we need to pray, as St. Paul did, for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. To truly believe that Jesus’ promised salvation will be fulfilled, we need to know the Triune God and desire to follow Him. When we are unwilling to pray for this Spirit, it shows by how we approach worship. We may attend Mass infrequently, possibly attending most Sundays throughout the year but skipping some. When we do attend Mass, we may seek to do as little as possible by not concentrating on the prayers and readings while just following the crowd’s postures. We may avoid reception of the Sacraments, such as Confession, for many years, and any devotional life is nonexistent.

For Christians, this is a dangerous spiritual state to be in. How we relate to God in this life does have consequences in the next. Those who desire to spend eternity in Heaven should seek to spend time here on Earth with God. We should desire to worship God, receiving the Sacraments and finding opportunities to set aside time for prayer. We should seek out devotions, such as the Rosary, that feed us and draw us closer to God. We should allow ourselves to become “more eager in acts of worship”.

How we enter into relationship with God in this life will influence our relationship with Him in the next. May we be able to pray with St. Paul for “a Spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of Him.”