Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter

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As Christians, I think we look at the second reading from the Book of Revelation, and realize deep down that we want to enter into the promised new Jerusalem. We want to live where there will be no more tears, no more weeping and wailing, no more death and mourning. The thought of such a place is powerful that we can’t imagine anyone not wanting to be there, but do we live up to that desire by following the commands Christ has given us?

The entire second reading is a beautiful image of a new Heaven and a new earth. The old earth, stained and disfigured by sin, has passed away and is replaced by a renewed heaven and earth. Just as God dwelt with the Israelites in the earthly Jerusalem, a new Jerusalem descends from Heaven as God’s dwelling among us. We are also renewed, with sin and its effects wiped away, and our souls are filled with joy and everlasting peace.

All of this renewal has already been prepared for us through the death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one on the throne who says, “Behold, I make all things new.” Our Lord’s sacrifice has fulfilled God’s promise of salvation to humanity, and we are given a foretaste of what it will look like to enter into that salvation.

On our own, we do not know how to enter into this heavenly Kingdom of God, but Jesus has shown us the way. In our Gospel, Jesus gives us what might appear to be a simple commandment: “As I have loved you, so you should also love one another.” This love, however, is not a simple tolerance of our neighbor or a polite greeting one in a while. As Our Lord modeled for us in His death, this love is a total self-giving love. To truly love as Christ has loved us, we must be willing to give everything, even our vey lives, in love of our neighbor.

Suddenly, this is not such an easy commandment, is it? The disciples in the first reading realized the difficulties that come with following the commandments of Jesus. As Paul and Barnabas said, “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” Truly loving our neighbor won’t come without cost, both interiorly and exteriorly. We may have to give up much in this life for the sake of the next. We may be insulted, persecuted, and derided for our belief in Christ. We may find our love for our neighbor being used against us.

What if we decide not to follow Christ’s commands, and live this life for ourselves? There are many in the world today who think that life is all about getting what they want. These people, many claiming to be Christians, are focused on themselves to the exclusion of those around them. It’s their enjoyment and their desire to get the most out of their lives that is their main, if not only, concern.

I think it’s fair to describe this attitude as selfish, and those who claim to follow Christ but live a selfish life are living a lie. By the example of His own life, Our Lord is very clear that following Him means putting others over ourselves, not the other way around. For those who refuse to follow Christ in this life, what makes them think they’ll be willing to follow Him in the next?

How we live our lives here on Earth, in the relatively short span we have, influences how we’ll live in the next. If we dedicate this life to following Jesus, we’ll spend the next life with Him. If we spend this life thinking only of ourselves and not following Jesus, we’ll spend the next life apart from Him. In other words, we will choose our eternal destination based on how we live our lives now.

If you think about it, this is a scary idea. Whether we have eternal joy in Heaven or eternal sorrow in Hell is our choice. Our Heavenly Father does not want to sound eternity apart from Him, but He respects our free will and allows us to choose whether or not to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. He also allows us to refuse His graces and turn away from Him for all eternity. God allows us to choose by how we act in this life.

The image of the Heavenly Jerusalem is a very powerful, beautiful image. May we all choose in this life to follow Jesus’ command to love our neighbor so that we will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

“If it comes from God…”

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Notice how relevant to the Church today is the speech by Gamaliel in today’s first reading:

“For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin,
it will destroy itself.
But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them;
you may even find yourselves fighting against God.”

When we look at the history of the Church, there have been more scandals than we can ever imagine. Heresies, murders, political intrigue, illicit children by popes, you name it. For 2000 years, we fallen humans have done our best to destroy the Church from within. Never mind the attacks from the media, we have done enough by permitting the abuse of children by those who have promised celibacy should be enough to destroy the Church.

Even with all the scandals, and no period in the Church’s history is free from them, the Church still exists, spreading the Gospel of Christ to the whole world. As Gamaliel said, “if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself.” If the Church were merely a human organization, such as the Masons or the governments of the world, the massive weight of hypocrisy and scandal would have destroyed it years ago.

We can be assured that the Church was established by Jesus and is supported to this day by the Holy Spirit through the rest of Gamaliel’s statement: “But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God.” The Church is a divine institution, made up of imperfect humans, and is sustained by God through the authority of the Pope and faithful bishops in union with him. God will not allow the Church to disappear from the earth until that day when Our Lord Jesus Christ returns from the dead. The Church and Her members will undergo periods of cleansing and persecution, as I believe we are now entering, but will be all the stronger for it.

Today, please take time to pray for those who have been hurt by sexual abuse by priests and bishops, especially those children who have seriously harmed. Also, on this birthday of our Holy Father Benedict XVI, let us pray for him, that he may have the courage and guidance by the Holy Spirit to lead the Church out of this horrific scandal.

Creative Commons Licensing

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Just to clear up any confusion regarding licensing of the posts, I’ve added the Creative Commons – Attribution licensing terms to the footer of the blog. In short, I want my posts to be freely shared, if someone actually thinks they’re worth sharing, and spread to the widest audience, but I want to receive full attribution for that post.

I believe that copyrights are a good thing to protect an author, but I also believe that the Church’s teachings should be shared widely. Please feel free to repost anything I put up here, making sure to give credit where credit is due.

Homily for Good Friday

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It’s so easy to think of Jesus’ death as something that is irrelevant to us today. When we look at a Crucifix, we might remark about how elaborate or plain it is. We might listen to a recitation of the Passion of Our Lord with more concern about getting our parts in instead of meditating on the actual events being recounted. As 21st Century Americans, the Crucifixion that happened nearly 2000 years ago in another part of the world may as well have occurred in another galaxy for all the importance on our day-to-day lives.

Yet, the prophet Isaiah points out that the Passion and Death of Our Lord is more relevant to us today than any other event in our lives. Isaiah said, “Yet it was our infirmities that He bore, our sufferings that He endured, [ . . . ] He was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins; upon Him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by His stripes we were healed. We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; but the Lord laid upon Him the guilt of us all.”

Jesus did not die for His own sins, because he was “without sin”, as the second reading reminds us, but for our sins. He died to atone for humanity going astray and failing to follow God. He died in reparation for all those times we do not choose to love God and our neighbor, but instead to love ourselves in spite of God and neighbor. He died for all those sins we have committed and will commit so that we might receive God’s forgiveness whenever we ask. Jesus died so that we might “confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help,” as the Letter to the Hebrews says.

As sinners, the Passion and Death of Our Lord, which we just recited, should be a moment of great joy, hence today being called Good Friday. Jesus died so that we no longer have to fear death. If we follow God’s commandments and trust in His mercy and love, we will receive the reward of eternal life with Him in Heaven. This is why Jesus died, and this is why the Passion of the Lord is not just something that happened 2000 years ago in another region of the world, but lives in us throughout our daily lives. As we venerate the Cross, may we do so with joy and gratitude. As we will say together, “Come, let us worship.”

Homily for Holy Thursday

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When we read the Scriptures as Christians, it’s easy to see striking parallels between the events described in the Old Testament and what we believe to have been revealed by Jesus in the establishment of the New Covenant. In fact, we believe that the Old Covenant was a preparation for the coming of Our Lord and points to Him, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that there is a direct parallel between the Passover in Egypt and the Eucharist which Jesus established before His death on the Cross.

For the Jewish people, the celebration of the Passover is the high point of the year, so much so that, as we see in the first reading, the month in which the Passover occurs is the first month in the traditional Jewish calendar. For those who are Jewish, Passover is not merely a time for celebrating something that happened thousands of years ago, but is renewed year after year. Through the blood of the sacrificed lamb smeared on the doorposts, the Israelite people were spared from the slavery of Egypt and the death which was brought down upon the Egyptian firstborn. To this day, the Passover represents the unique relationship that the Jewish people have with God in being the people He chose as His own.

As Christians, we also have a Passover celebration, but instead of partaking in a sacrificed lamb once a year, we partake in the Sacrifice of the Lamb of God through our celebration of the Eucharist. Every time the Sacrifice of the Mass is offered, we are not merely remembering Our Lord’s death on the Cross, but are once again a part of that Sacrifice, united with all those in the past, present, and future who participate in this Sacrifice. By the Blood of Our Lord, we are spared from the slavery to sin and death that all humanity suffers under, and unite ourselves to the New Passover by receiving the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord in the form of bread and wine.

Just as the Passover from Egypt marked the Israelites as God’s Chosen People, our participation in the Eucharist also makes us part of the Chosen People of God. As members of God’s Chosen People, we follow Our Lord’s commandments, but also are called to follow His example. Before sacrificing Himself on the Cross, Jesus humbled Himself to serve His disciples by the most menial of tasks: washing their feet. We may not be comfortable with foot washing today, but it would have been worse in Jesus’ time. Most people wore very basic sandals and walked along dusty roads which had also been used by animals. Foot washing would have been essential upon arriving at a destination, but was reserved for lower servants, if the household had any.

By Our Lord washing the feet of the disciples, he showed that he was not only their master, but also came to serve. He challenged them to serve others as He served them; He also challenges us to do the same. Washing others’ feet may not have as much importance today, but it shows us that we need to be aware of opportunities to humbly enter into service of others, especially those we may consider less than ourselves. Our participation in the Eucharist should lead us to emulate Our Lord without concern for ourselves, and bring us to a greater concern for those who are less fortunate than we are.

Bishop’s Letter on the Media Attacks Against the Pope

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Today, Bishop Michael Warfel, bishop of the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings, sent a letter to parishes for inclusion in this weekend’s bulletins. In this letter, Bishop Warfel responds to the media attacks against the Holy Father’s handing of the sexual abuse scandal. One of my confreres posted the letter on his blog. Instead of reposting it here, I encourage you to visit Fr. Leo’s blog and read the letter there.

Pray for the Pope

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If you’ve been following the Catholic blogosphere, you likely know all about the New York Times accusations against Pope Benedict and the responses from many quarters of the Church. Instead of rehashing all that, I want to encourage all Catholics to join in praying this prayer for the Pope originally posted by Fr. Z at his What Does the Prayer Really Say blog:

V. Oremus pro Pontifice nostro Benedicto.

R. Dominus conservet eum, et vivificet eum, et beatum faciat
eum in terra, et non tradat eum in animam inimicorum eius.
[Ps 40:3]

Pater Noster…,  Ave Maria….

Deus, omnium fidelium pastor et rector, famulum tuum
Benedictum, quem pastorem Ecclesiae tuae praeesse voluisti,
propitius respice: da ei, quaesumus, verbo et exemplo,
quibus praeest, proficere: ut ad vitam, una cum grege sibi
credito, perveniat sempiternam. Per Christum, Dominum
nostrum. Amen.

V. Let us pray for Benedict, our Pope.

R. May the Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make
him blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the
will of his enemies. [Ps 40:3]

Our Father,  Hail Mary.

O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look
mercifully upon Thy servant Benedict, whom Thou hast chosen
as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we
beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify
those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the
flock committed to him, may he attain everlasting life.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Right now our Holy Father is under serious attack. The attacks will likely get worse, so I highly entreat you to pray this prayer daily, in front of the Blessed Sacrament if possible.

Homily for Passion (Palm) Sunday

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This Sunday is obviously a rare exception to the usual Sunday Mass routine, as we have heard from two Gospel passages: one before the procession with palm branches, and the second with the proclamation of the Passion of Our Lord. Between the two, we can see a great contrast between the Earthly honor which was given to Jesus as He processed into Jerusalem, and the Heavenly honor given by God when Our Lord hung on the Cross.

When looking at these two Gospels, people who are steeped in the mindset of the world would say Our Lord came into Jerusalem heralded as a king and died as a humiliated and despised criminal. He was raised high by the shouts of the people, and he was shamed by the shouts of the people. He traded the power and prestige of earthly rule for the rough wood of a Cross.

To Our Heavenly Father, the earthly honor that Jesus received upon entering Jerusalem is nothing compared to the Heavenly honor He received upon His death on the Cross. Instead of being seated upon an earthly throne made of wood, stone, and precious materials, Our Lord was seated on the Heavenly throne more precious than any material on Earth. Instead of relishing the earthly honor, as St. Paul points out, Our Lord “humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a Cross.” Our salvation, and the salvation of Israel did not come through earthly power, but through His humiliating act on the Cross.

Not only did Our Lord humble Himself by taking on the Cross, but His very presence on Earth was the greatest act of humility. St. Paul reminds us that Jesus “was in the form of God”. As the Second Person of the Trinity, Our Lord is far greater than anything in all creation, yet He humbled Himself to become part of creation.

The humility of Our Lord shows us that humility here on Earth will lead us to our Heavenly reward. As a result of Jesus’ humility on Earth, St. Paul says that “God greatly exalted [Jesus], and bestowed on him the name which is above every other name.” While we will not be exalted as highly as Our Lord, for we are mere creatures, we as Christians are called to follow His example of servant leadership. We are not called to lead others for our honor, as politicians seem to do, but for the honor of God and for the good of those we serve.

Going forward, whenever we look upon the palms we’ve received today, may we be challenged to humble ourselves, as Jesus did, and humbly serve those around us for God’s glory and their good.

The Irony of Timing

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I have to wonder if I’m the only one who sees the irony behind the health care bill, which most major pro-life groups and the USCCB view as dramatically expanding abortion coverage, being passed the Sunday before what is arguably the most pro-life feast of the liturgical year? In this Solemnity of the Annunciation, we celebrate that moment when Our Lord became incarnate in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Note that we don’t celebrate the first trimester of His Incarnation, or the point of viability of His Incarnation, but we celebrate His Incarnation at the very moment of His conception by the power of the Holy Spirit. This feast, which has been celebrated since at least the 5th Century AD, points to an indisputable biological fact: at the moment of conception (AKA fertilization by those supporting birth control), the embryo is a unique human child with a distinct DNA pattern.

Sadly, the laws in the United States and many other developed nations throughout the world fail to recognize this scientific fact, instead choosing to treat the developing child as a “clump of cells” no different from a cancerous tumor. These laws promote the view that abortion is just a routine surgery, like removing a questionable tumor from your arm, with no moral consequences. As a result of laws permitting abortion, a child in the womb has zero human rights until it is “wanted” by the mother.

Today, on this Solemnity of the Annunciation, dedicated as the International Day of the Unborn Child by a number of pro-life groups, let us continue to pray that these unjust and inhumane laws may be overturned and viewed for the abominations that they are. Let us also pray for those who have been hurt by abortion: the children killed directly, and those who were harmed physically and psychologically by abortion.

Edit: this evening, after posting this entry, I saw a post by Twitter user Luke_181 which linked to a website called The Great Prayer Project – End Abortion. If you want a concrete way to pray for the end of abortion, this is it. Pick a couple 20-hour time slots a week and spend that time in prayer. I’m not going to say “Please consider”. Instead, to quote the old Nike slogan: “Just do it!”, and join me in praying for the end of abortion.

“We are Church”? No!

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I’m just going to say it: we are not “the Church” (often said without the article in order to torture English grammar). The Church is the Body of Christ, and we are but members. To say “We are the Church” is to say that we are the completion of the Church, which we most definitely are not. We can say “We are part of the Church” and be accurate, as this allows for there to be more to the Church than just us. This distinction might not seem very important, even petty or clericalistic, but it does have real effects on how we worship God and how we view our relationship to Him.

Because of the distances involved in our diocese, we have three Chrism Masses in various locations. The Mass for this vicariate was yesterday evening, so I joined my brother priests and members of parishes from throughout this part of Montana for this holy and powerful liturgy. Or, at least it would have been powerful if the music wasn’t so poorly chosen.

In liturgy, Christ is the primary focus. This isn’t to say that the congregation is unimportant, far from it (“For where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.“), but liturgy is about Jesus first and foremost. Sadly, the music last night didn’t focus on Christ, but on “we”. Just a couple of examples:

  • The opening hymn was “We are the Church” by Christopher Walker and Paule Freeburg. The refrain goes: “We are the Church, the Body of Christ. We are the Church,a people redeemed. We are the Church, anointed to serve God’s Holy People, the People of God.” The verses are all Jesus speaking to His “chosen people.”
  • The Song of Thanksgiving was “We Are Sent into the World” by Ricky Manalo, CSP. Once again the refrain is about us: “We are sent into the world to proclaim the reign of God. We give glory to the risen Christ among us. Though our eyes have not seen his face, we believe and we spread the story of our faith.” The verses continue the navel-gazing by talking about how we have been sent.

After repeated discussions on music in the liturgy, I’ve come up with a theory that if the the first person (I, we, us, etc.) shows up more in songs than titles for God, the saints or the angels, it’s a song that should not be sung during Mass. Look at the two hymns I mentioned above, and I hope you can see why these are not appropriate for the Sacrifice of the Mass: they focus on us, what we do and who we are. The Song of Thanksgiving is especially poorly chosen, (yes, the Song of Thanksgiving is a valid option following reception of the Eucharist). Instead of choosing a hymn that expresses our gratitude for receiving the Blessed Sacrament, which is the greatest gift that humanity has ever and will ever receive, we sing a song about how we’ve been “sent”. Yes, it’s important to realize that we are sent from every Mass to proclaim the Gospel message to the whole world, but do we really need a self-centered song to tell us that?

Another concern with the music chosen is that these so-called contemporary “hymns” are imposed on the Mass. The liturgy has a style of singing that was developed especially for it: Gregorian Chant. With the reforms of the liturgy and the institution of the vernacular at Mass, chant has all but been lost. Some of the Ordinary of the Mass is regularly chanted, as the bishop did this evening, but chanting any of the antiphons and psalms from the Graduale Romanum is nonexistent.

The use of hymns instead of chant was especially jarring this evening because of the parts that the bishop chanted. How we sing a metrical hymn is different than non-metrical chant. Typical hymns are in a 3/4 or 4/4 beat, meaning three or four beats to a measure at a steady beat; each beat is the same length of time. Think of a waltz where you can hear a definite 1-2-3-1-2-3 pattern.

In chant, the words flow more like our natural speech patterns. We don’t use the same length of time for each word, but speed up and slow down to show importance, anticipation or relaxation, and so on. Chant does not have a structured beat, but flows much more naturally.

When metrical hymns and non-metrical chant are combined, they clash. You can see this very commonly at the doxology that ends the Eucharist Prayer (“Through Him, with Him, in Him”). When the priest chants the doxology and it followed by a metrical “Amen” from one of the popular Mass settings that have been written since the 70’s, it’s almost like shifting gears on a manual transmission, especially when the accompanist plays the introduction to the Amen.

Chant works best when one chant flows into the next. The transition is smooth when both the doxology and the Amen is chanted. Same thing happens at the Mysterium Fidei (The Mystery of Faith) and the Pater Noster (Our Father). In fact, there are chants for nearly the entire Mass, including daily Introit (Entrance), Offertory, and Communion antiphons.

To bring this back to my original point, using the chants of the Mass instead of metrical hymns avoids the “we” syndrome. The chants of the Mass, which are just as much a part of the Mass as the Collect (Opening Prayer) or Post-Communion Prayer, were developed by some of the greatest minds and spiritual masters over the course of the Church’s 2000 year history. These chants do not focus on us, but lead us to focus on the Holy Trinity.

When we do place our focus on ourselves, the most important thing about the Mass becomes what I “get out of it”. If I’m not affirmed, uplifted, interested, etc., then something needs to change in order to fulfill me. This is why there’s so much concern about making the Mass “relevant”. Priests change the words and actions of the Mass to what they feel makes it more “relevant” to the people. Music is written in popular styles so that it will be “relevant” to youth. The Mass becomes religious entertainment seeking to help people find something that they will “get out of it”.

Conversely, when the focus is on Christ, the Mass becomes more about each one of us individually, and the congregation as a whole, gathering to worship and adore God, and what we “get out of it” is receiving Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. A properly celebrated Mass with chant will lift our minds and hearts to God, helping us to worship our Creator and Father who loves us and gave His Son so that we might love Him in return.

(N.B.: This is why I will never ad-lib the Mass. The role of the priest is to lead the congregation to Christ, not himself.)

To solve this problem, both priests and laity need to actively work at redirecting our focus back on Our Lord and off of ourselves. If chant is not an option due to lack of training or materials, hymns need to be chosen carefully that center on God. Priests need to stop making up their own words and actions, and start following the principle “Say the Black, Do the Red“. All of us who gather for the celebration of the Mass need to remember that the honor and glory needs to go to Christ, not to ourselves.