Memorial Day Homily

Homily for Memorial Day
Monday, 27 May 2013

        My brothers and sisters, we gather this morning in a somber and sacred time of remembrance for our men and women who have “given their all” in the service of their country. We thank God for these courageous defenders of freedom, and for the example each one, known or unknown, has left for us to follow. They were, and still are!, our brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, mothers and fathers, neighbors and friends, and we will never forget their sacrifice for the defense of our freedoms.

        Yet as we remember these heroes, we celebrate a Mass for peace and justice, asking the Lord that, in His divine mercy, the sacrifices made by men and women of any age may cease, and that humanity may truly live in the peace and freedom that is given to us by virtue of our human dignity. We pray these prayers for peace and justice because, just as we have heard in the Gospel, Jesus commands us to pray for those who wish us harm, and – even harder still – to pray for those who have committed acts of violence against us, especially when a loved one has perished because of those acts.

        My friends, we do continue to thank God for the sacrifice of those men and women have given their all for our freedom, and we continue to thank God for the men and women who continue to place themselves in harm’s way so that our way of life, our nation may be secure. Still, it is up to us to keep these heroic servants in prayer – both the living and the dead – so their sacrifice, both in the past as in the present, may never be in vain.

        These men and women of courage gave their lives not only to defend our freedoms, but, for the Christian, laid down his or her life for their neighbor, as Jesus reminds us is one of the greatest acts of love a person can do for another. And, yet, this is another reason we pray today for peace and justice, because, as a Christian, it is our duty to love each person as a reflection of how God loves us – including those who harm us and those we love.

Our patron, Saint Teresa of Avila, reminds us in her masterpiece, The Interior Castle, that “we will not reach perfection in the love of neighbor if that love doesn’t rise from love of God as its root.” How are we able to pray for our deceased brothers and sisters, how are we able to pray for our men and women in the armed forces, how are we able to pray for one another when there is something that is hindering us from loving God completely? When hatred, jealousy, discord, and darkness cloud our mind – even just a little bit! – we hinder the prospect of peace, which comes from the very heart of God, and we halt any endeavor of that peace truly being present in our lives.

And so, my brothers and sisters, we place before the eternal memory of God those of our country who have fallen in the line of duty to protect us, and we thank God, once again, for their sacrifice to our nation. We place before God those who continue to serve our country to protect her from all who do us harm. We place before our God our own service of prayer for all Americans, that, through the practice of love and God and love of neighbor, we will seek out that true peace which God alone can give and that we, as His children, earnestly desire.

The first bishop of our country, John Carroll, composed a prayer for our nation, which he wished to have prayed on our national holidays. I now ask you to join with me in that prayer:

We pray, Thee O Almighty and Eternal God! Who through Jesus Christ hast revealed Thy glory to all nations, to preserve the works of Thy mercy, that Thy Church, being spread through the whole world, may continue with unchanging faith in the confession of Thy Name.

We pray Thee, who alone art good and holy, to endow with heavenly knowledge, sincere zeal, and sanctity of life, our chief bishop, Pope N., the Vicar of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the government of his Church; our own bishop, N., all other bishops, prelates, and pastors of the Church; and especially those who are appointed to exercise amongst us the functions of the holy ministry, and conduct Thy people into the ways of salvation.

We pray Thee O God of might, wisdom, and justice! Through whom authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment decreed, assist with Thy Holy Spirit of counsel and fortitude the President of these United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness, and be eminently useful to Thy people over whom he presides; by encouraging due respect for virtue and religion; by a faithful execution of the laws in justice and mercy; and by restraining vice and immorality. Let the light of Thy divine wisdom direct the deliberations of Congress, and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws framed for our rule and government, so that they may tend to the preservation of peace, the promotion of national happiness, the increase of industry, sobriety, and useful knowledge; and may perpetuate to us the blessing of equal liberty.

We pray for his excellency, the governor of this state, for the members of the assembly, for all judges, magistrates, and other officers who are appointed to guard our political welfare, that they may be enabled, by Thy powerful protection, to discharge the duties of their respective stations with honesty and ability.

We recommend likewise, to Thy unbounded mercy, all our brethren and fellow citizens throughout the United States, that they may be blessed in the knowledge and sanctified in the observance of Thy most holy law; that they may be preserved in union, and in that peace which the world cannot give; and after enjoying the blessings of this life, be admitted to those which are eternal.

Finally, we pray to Thee, O Lord of mercy, to remember the souls of Thy servants departed who are gone before us with the sign of faith and repose in the sleep of peace; the souls of our parents, relatives, and friends; of those who, when living, were members of this congregation, and particularly of such as are lately deceased; of all benefactors who, by their donations or legacies to this Church, witnessed their zeal for the decency of divine worship and proved their claim to our grateful and charitable remembrance. To these, O Lord, and to all that rest in Christ, grant, we beseech Thee, a place of refreshment, light, and everlasting peace, through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior. Amen.

And since the patroness of our country is Our Lady in her title of the Immaculate Conception, we ask for her intercession on all citizens of the United States of America, living and deceased, as we pray:

Hail Mary . . .

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Enjoy the journey . . .

Avoid Becoming a "Spiritual Germophobe"

Homily for the Solemnity of Pentecost
Sunday, 19 May 2013

        My friends, have you ever noticed now germophobic we are as a society? We want life to be clean, to be sterilized. Hundreds, even thousands of years has taught us as a society – as a species – that the cleaner something is, the better something is.

        Think about where you live and where you work. How upset do we become when we run out of paper towels in the restroom, when the hand sanitizer in our purse or pocket runs dry, when someone coughs, sneezes or yawns without covering their mouth? We – and I include myself in this – become hesitant in our interpersonal interactions, almost withdrawn from dealing with others. Not being germophobic has become, in some ways, socially unacceptable.

        Now, let’s go back two thousand years to that first Easter Sunday. Jesus appears to Mary and the Apostles, greets them, and then HE BREATHES ON THEM! Their response wasn’t, “What the heck, Jesus? You know I’m getting over a cold!” No! They waited to see what Jesus was doing, always learning from the Master.

        Fast-forward fifty days, and the fullness of the Holy Spirit is given to Mary and the Apostles. Again, the “breath of the Lord” enlivened the hearts, minds and souls of His creation, His people. My brothers and sisters, we need to continue to allow the Spirit of God to breathe in us!

        We, as a society, cannot stand when we are breathed upon by others, especially when someone else is “in my personal space”. We have sanitized and, in some ways, quarantined our lives so much that we no longer allow others, including God, to be a part of our life story. We wash away, both figuratively and literally, everything that allows us to get dirty in life, to walk through the muck of life.

        But we have to be careful. There are two ways that this can play out:

1.We enter into the dirtiness of life on our own, soon and too quickly becoming swallowed up by our pride, our ego, our selfishness. To get dirty in life in this way is walking along the path of sin, because we fail to allow God’s Spirit to work in and through us.

2. We enter into the muck of life with the realization and goal that, with the Lord’s help, we will get through it. And in the moments that life seems to throw one clod of dirt after another, we come to recognize how the dirt, through the action of the Holy Spirit, is helping to make us clean.

        In our first option, we believe that our own actions of sanitation will save us, will keep us healthy. What we fail to realize in this option is that, as much as we believe that we can do it on our own, the muck of the world overwhelms us, and we quarantine ourselves from those relationships which will help us – including our relationship with God. Our self-sanitation becomes that which serves as the doom of humanity. We only need to look at the so-called “sexual revolution” of the 1960s to see how we have isolated ourselves from all intimate relationships, again including our relationship with God.

        When we look at our second option, we come to realize that life will throw clod after clod of dirt, mud and muck at us, and it’s something that we can’t always avoid. But we know that we can overcome these things when we rise above our “spiritual germophobia”, and allow the Holy Spirit to be breathed upon us once again. It is giving into a relationship with the Holy Spirit with a sense of reckless abandon that we will come to know fully the life that God intended us to live.

        This doesn’t mean we won’t get dirty in life. It does mean that we know the best way to become clean and to stay as clean as possible is through a life lived in the Holy Spirit – through the Church and her Sacraments. This is the way God continues to breathe on us – His Church – and gives us life.

        My brothers and sisters, we must avoid becoming “spiritual germophobes”. We must allow our God to breathe His life-giving Spirit upon us. We must not be afraid to get dirty by the muck of life, nor must we be afraid to be cleansed by the Spirit and the Sacraments.

        The best way to rally against this “spiritual germophobia” is to pray to the Holy Spirit and submit to His will. When we give ourselves over to the life of the Spirit with reckless abandon, we open ourselves to the reality of joy found in living the Christian life, even when the dirt and the mud are being thrown at us.

        And, so, confident that our God will breathe into us His Spirit, and trusting that the Holy Spirit guides us in all things, we pray:

Come, O Holy Spirit, beloved of my soul, I adore You. Enlighten me, guide me, strengthen me, and console me. Tell me what I must do. Inspire me with what I must say. Give me Your orders. I promise to submit myself to You in all that You ask of me and to accept all that You permit to happen to me. Let me only know Your will, and do Your will. Amen.

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Enjoy the journey . . .  

Reconstructing Babel

Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter
Sunday, 5 May 2013

        My brothers and sisters, what a wonderful image our readings give to us today: the gathering of the nations through the Holy Spirit. While Paul, Barnabas, Silas and Barsabbas are working to bring the Gentiles into the Faith, we have the vision of the Beloved Disciple – Saint John – showing us the descent of the Heavenly Jerusalem, built out of us, the living stones of the Church of Jesus Christ. Both of these readings are summed up in our Responsorial Psalm, “Let all the earth cry out with joy to the Lord!” It’s just not this world that is to cry with joy, but, more importantly, the world that is to come – that vision of John.

        Yet, turning our eyes to the Gospel, we come to see the dynamic promise that is given to us by Jesus: Those who are united to Him, and allow the work of the Spirit to guide them, will be led to the fullness of the Kingdom of God. The key is – and always is! – the Holy Spirit. As we prepare for the great moments of the Ascension and Decent of the Spirit at Pentecost, we come to welcome and to realize the role we play in the workings of God.

        A train of thought came to me in reflecting on our Scripture for this weekend: Reconstructing Babel. If we remember the story of Babel from the Book of Genesis, we know that humanity got full of itself and tried to become equal with God through the creation of a tower that would reach God in the heavens. The Lord knew that, ultimately, this would not end well for us, so He confused the people by dis-unification of their language, and not being able to understand each other, the project was abandoned.

        But now enter in Jesus Christ, God-made-man, many years later, and through the power of the Spirit, gave to His Church, His Body, the ability to reconstruct Babel. The key difference is that when the Lord stopped the building of Babel in the Old Testament, humanity was building the tower for the glory of itself. When Jesus, through the power of the Spirit, begins the reconstruction of Babel, He does so knowing that those who are rebuilding the tower do so not for their own glory, but the ultimate glory of God.

        The Holy Spirit gathers us together when we work together for the glory of God. This is seen in John’s vision of the New Jerusalem. Being gathered together as the City of God, we come to realize that it is not Babel that we are reconstructing, but truly the New Jerusalem that is being constructed through us, by us, and with us when we cooperate with the Holy Spirit.

        What Paul, Silas, Barnabas, Barsabbas, and John all remind us of today is rooted in the Gospel: When we cooperate with the Holy Spirit, when we fulfill our mission in the Body of Christ, we are gathered into right-worship of God. And when we are gathered for that right-worship, we enter into the peace which Christ promises us. Our worship of God and our living out the covenant with Him and with our neighbor should be the entryway by which we receive the peace of the Lord, and thereby bring others to know Christ and to know His peace.

        But if we want to reconstruct Babel, if we want to build the New Jerusalem, then we will work for this peace. Of course, this peace is not the hippy peace of the 1960s and 1970s, but rather is the recognized internal dwelling of the Triune God within the temples of our bodies, of our lives. An unknown author fittingly puts it this way:

Peace: It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.

        THIS is the peace of Christ: To see the insanity of humanity in the world, and to know that it’s still all alright. The peace of Christ is that which truly gathers us together as one; it is the glue, the mortar which holds together those living stones in the New Jerusalem. It is that gift from God which allows us to give back to Him the praise through the living out of our lives to the honor and glory of His Name.

        When we allow ourselves to come together to build the New Jerusalem, to reconstruct Babel, then we have the opportunity to enter into the place in which we will come to dwell; we will enter into the Divine Mystery of life – not just here, but the here-after. When we come together in the peace of Christ, we recognize what it says at the entrance of our church, that “this is none other than the house of God and the gate of Heaven.” And we come to live out a unity founded upon the peace of Christ that was lost when Babel was abandoned – a unity not based in our humanity alone, but based in the knowledge that we are, first and foremost, the children of God, and He wishes for us to be gathered together.

        This is why the Church celebrates the Mass! We come to gather with all the people of our Faith – present or not, alive or dead, we all gather around the table unified in our belief in the promises of Christ, given to us in the Sacraments, and lived out through the actions of the Holy Spirit. And, again, the Holy Spirit is the key to it all. If we’re not open to the Spirit, if we’re not open to receiving the ultimate gift of peace that He gives, then we are not ready to be builders of the Kingdom of God.

        Monday evening / Tomorrow evening, our eighth-grade students will be receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation. While becoming fully initiated into the life of the Church, they will also have the opportunity, for the first time, to live out the fullness of Christ’s peace in their lives while making the conscious decision to keep Christ as the center of their lives; discovering in their own way, through the power of the Holy Spirit, how they are to help in the reconstruction of Babel, the building of the New Jerusalem. And as we pray for these students and celebrate this milestone in their life of faith, we should pause and ask ourselves: How is the Lord continuing to call me as a builder in and for His Kingdom? How do I live out His gift of peace?

        Last month, we celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the promulgation of Pacem in Terris, “Peace on Earth”, given to us by our late Holy Father, Blessed Pope John XXIII. In this encyclical, he spells out what the Gospel vision of peace is, and what in our modern world – yes!, even the modern world of 2013 – is endangering that peace. Blessed John reminds us that when humanity takes the issue of peace into its own hands, that peace will never be secure, because it is fleeting, not based on something or someone who is greater than us. Yet he reminds us that peace rooted in Christ is the one thing that will unite humanity, because we see peace not only as something that is worth striving for, but, ultimately, as something that is freely given to us by God, a gift that is ours for the taking when we just ask for it. He concludes the encyclical with these words:

Let us, then, pray with all fervor for this peace which our divine Redeemer came to bring us. May He banish from the souls of men whatever might endanger peace. May He transform all men into witnesses of truth, justice and brotherly love. May He illumine with His light the minds of rulers, so that, besides caring for the proper material welfare of their peoples, they may also guarantee them the fairest gift of peace.

Finally, may Christ inflame the desires of all men to break through the barriers which divide them, to strengthen the bonds of mutual love, to learn to understand one another, and to pardon those who have done them wrong. Through His power and inspiration may all peoples welcome each other to their hearts as brothers, and may the peace they long for ever flower and ever reign among them. 

         If we want to reconstruct Babel, if we want to enjoy the promises found in the New Jerusalem, then we must urge one another to gather in the peace which only Christ can give. It is then and there, through the power of the Holy Spirit, that we will give God the glory and honor that is rightly His. It is there that the work accomplished by Paul, Silas, Barnabas, Barsabbas, John, you, me, and all the saints of heaven will be recognized. It is there that we proudly acclaim, “Let all the earth cry out with joy to the Lord! Alleluia!”

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Enjoy the journey . . .

Let's Be Honest

Today is "National Honesty Day". So, to tell you the truth, I've never heard of this day until it was mentioned on two of my calendars. And so I posted on Facebook that this is, on the whole, a noble idea, but in the end, could have a lot of people distraught because of all the honesty out there.

A second mention that I made about this was on Twitter. Although on this posting, I recognized that whether it be for good or for bad, we must first be honest with ourselves. (Following with: #truth #knowthyself .) And, honestly, this is the greatest of life's challenges.

If we cannot be honest with ourselves, if we cannot look at who we are in the metaphorical mirror, then there is no way in which we can ever be honest and transparent in our relationships - including our relationship with God. This is why the great line from Shakespeare is often quoted: "To thine own self be true." We must really be honest with ourselves first in life if we want to not only find but truly secure true peace, total happiness, and genuine love.

The Gospel for today - Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Easter - is John 14.27-31a. This is the Gospel passage in which we hear Jesus promising to give us His gift of peace - true peace, the peace which the world cannot give. If we truly desire this peace, the first step is to stop lying to ourselves, and to graciously see ourselves for who we are. This includes all of our good points as well as all of our bad points.

And while honesty (total honesty) often hurts us like a third-degree burn, it's through the care of the Divine Physician that do we fully understand not only how healthy honesty can be, but also how healing it can be to one's soul when we are able to be truthful with ourselves. Of course, this is best accomplished when we come to know Truth Himself.

Before I entered seminary, a friend gave me a present: a rock. But she took the time to decorate this rock, and left a little reminder/quote/thought on said rock: "Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier." If I want others' encounters with me to be an encounter with Christ, in Whose Image I have been ordained, I must at all times be honest with myself first. This becomes the action of "owning" - my words, my thoughts, my actions, my attitude, my emotions, my reactions, etc. are known to me and accepted by me before, during and after any encounter with another - and, especially, my encounter with the Other.

The encounter that we have with the Truth enables us to know how we are seen by God. And in knowing this, we are able to have more honest and genuine encounters between each other. And in having more honest and genuine - and, dare I say, authentic! - encounters with one another (and the Other), the more the peace of Christ, that peace which the world cannot give, will dwell simply not just within me, but also with all those whom I encounter. This is how anyone who comes to me will leave better and happier: Honesty with myself, anchored in Truth Himself, and relying on that peace which comes from Christ alone will allow me to encounter my brothers and sisters in a genuine and authentic way.

"To thine own self be true." That's where it all begins. Yet the best way to be true to ourselves is to be anchored in Truth Himself. In the beginning, we may be overwhelmed and very disappointed in the lie that we've been living. But the more that we rely upon and live in the peace of Christ, the more of the truth we can bear, which, in turn, allows us to truly be more honest with ourselves and others.

Happy National Honesty Day!




Enjoy the journey . . .

For the World, Peace

Goodness is stronger than evil; love is stronger than hate; light is stronger than darkness; life is stronger than death. Victory is ours, through him who loves us.

These words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu have been rushing through my head for the last hours as we continue to unfold the senseless acts of violence that occurred in Boston yesterday. Though it's true that I, like many, want to see justice prevail, healing occur and freedom secured, I also pray for the opportunities for peace to prevail.

The peace that I wish to see fill our nation, our world is not a daisy-pushing, "everything's fine"-type of peace. Rather, the peace I pray for is the peace which comes from Jesus Christ; a peace that the world cannot give.

This is the peace that comes to us in the midst of strife. It's a peace to assure us that while we must undergo suffering in this life (as much as we do try to avoid it), that our Lord is there to walk us through it, to guide us along the path which truly leads us - as individuals and as a collective whole - to that which is greater than we are. Blessed Pope John XXIII laid out an excellent explanation and vision in his encyclical, Pacem in Terris, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of its promulgation on the 11th of April.

If we are truly searching out for this peace which the world cannot give, we come to understand not only the depth of God's love for us, but, in turn, how much we as God's children are yearning and longing for that gift of peace. This peace of Jesus Christ is best summed up in this thought by an unknown author:

Peace: It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.

 When we finally allow the peace of Christ to reign in our hearts, our homes and our lives, then we give ourselves the opportunity to stand in the midst of the confusion and hatred of this world and know, deep down in our souls, that "all will be well" (to use the words of Julian of Norwich). 

This is not the zen peace of counting to ten when we're frustrated, hoping that we'll be a little more calm to deal with the world. This is also not the emotional peace that comes with being happy, or even "happy-go-lucky". The peace we need to seek, the peace which comes from Christ alone is a peace that recognizes suffering and pain, the existence of hatred and evil in the world. Yet it is also a peace that allows us to not become freaked out in any type of hyper sense because of one senseless act of violence or the continuation of hatred presenting itself to certain people in our world due to the lack of charity towards others.

The peace of Christ is one that allows us to look at suffering, pain, violence and hate in the face and laugh at it, because it ultimately holds no power over us. This peace is one that allows you and me to know that there is something greater than anything in this world, and that He alone continues to dwell with us through the gift of His Holy Spirit, Who gives us the peace we seek.

I guess that, in the end, if this is the peace we're seeking, the best words to seek assurance from are from our Lord, Himself. Jesus reminds us (John 14.27):

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

 
 "Be not afraid!" - Blessed John Paul II


Let us, then, pray with all fervor for this peace which our divine Redeemer came to bring us. May He banish from the souls of men whatever might endanger peace. May He transform all men into witnesses of truth, justice and brotherly love. May He illumine with His light the minds of rulers, so that, besides caring for the proper material welfare of their peoples, they may also guarantee them the fairest gift of peace.

Finally, may Christ inflame the desires of all men to break through the barriers which divide them, to strengthen the bonds of mutual love, to learn to understand one another, and to pardon those who have done them wrong. Through His power and inspiration may all peoples welcome each other to their hearts as brothers, and may the peace they long for ever flower and ever reign among them. 

Blessed John XXIII - "Pacem in Terris", 171



 Enjoy the journey . . . 

For You, a Walking Stick

A parishioner called me up a few weeks ago and told me she had something for me. Thinking it was something like a religious medal or prayer card, I said "Okay", and really didn't think anything more of it. (It was right before the insanity of Holy Week, Triduum, Easter and such.)

Last night following the 6:00 PM Mass, she was waiting for me outside of the church as I was greeting people, and she handed me this home-made walking stick, which was crafted by her husband. I NEVER expected that! I finished greeting the people with walking stick in hand, with a number of people commenting on how striking it was. Some people asked if I was waiting to lead my sheep.

Another surprise gift. I know that this will come in handy at some point. Thanks to KT and her husband for the awesome present!

 

 

 

Enjoy the journey . . .