Category: Homilies

Recordings of Recent Sunday Homilies

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Thy Kingdom Come – The Solemnity of Christ the King

Greetings, Superfriends! This week we celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. That’s a pretty exalted title, but one that is well deserved. What does it mean to acknowledge that Christ has dominion over us, and especially our hearts? How does the Church show us that the Kingdom of God is quintessentially different from any earthly kingdom or authority? Each homily was a bit different this week, but the essentials are below. The video is from the 5:00 Vigil Mass.

Thy Kingdom Come – Vid from the 5:00 Vigil Mass

[The King Spud Joke.]     

     It is a very perplexing sort of juxtaposition. On the one hand we are celebrating the Solemnity of Our Lord Christ the King of the Universe. On the other hand, we have this gospel reading from Luke 23:35-43, where Jesus is hanging on the Cross and the good thief asks him to remember him when he comes into his kingdom. Jesus’ answer is “This day you will be with me in paradise.” 

       There’s a lot to unpack here.

       First of all, what does it mean to acknowledge Christ as King? This is difficult for us Americans because we got rid of our monarchy 246 years ago.  It helps to remember that a monarch had dominion. This means he had authority over the land and everything and everyone on it.  But he did not own it.  It was given to him by God to be placed under his care.  At his death a king would be judged on how the land and the people prospered materially, culturally and morally under his care.  He was a steward, not an owner. 

This feast was established relatively recently by Pope Pius XI in 1925. He did so to emphasize that, in the face of the rising secularism of our day, it is Christ who is sovereign over all creation, including every human person. The feast also has an eschatological dimension. At the end of the age, the Kingdom will be established in fullness and Christ shall reign supreme. This is why it is celebrated on the last day of Ordinary Time, on the threshold of Advent, when we contemplate the second coming of Christ in glory.

       Second, dying a brutal death by an incredibly cruel method of execution does not seem to be the way to establish the Kingdom. As we will see in May when Charles III is crowned King of England, it is usually done with great pomp and circumstance and lots of fancy clothes and shiny things. What was it about Jesus that allowed the thief on his right to see who Jesus really was, even in the midst of his own suffering? That is a faith that looks into eternity.  THAT’S the kind of faith that I want! 

       Third, Jesus’ answer to the thief lets us know that the Kingdom is not just some distant, future reality. It is something that we can experience “today.” This is cause for reflection. There is an immediacy to the Kingdom, its benefits, its responsibilities, and our role in helping it unfold in the present day.

       One thing is obvious. The Kingdom of God is very different from any kingdom on this earth. It bears none of the trappings of this world and thus transcends the vagaries of this world. So much so that even a dying, repentant thief could recognize the King of the Universe as he hung upon the Cross.

       What’s the key?  Quite simply, the Kingdom of God is not made of bricks or stone or pomp or circumstance or lots of shiny things.  It is made up of relationships. Relationships with God and with one another.

       Relationships are not rocket science.  If you want a relationship to grow, you give it two things.

       1. Time, and

       2. Attention

If you want your relations with Christ to grow,

       You give it time and attention

       Once again, I say, “If you cannot find ten minutes a day for private prayer with Our Lord, your life is out of control and you need to make adjustments…no excuses.”

If you want your relationship with your spouse, your family, your friends to grow

       You give it time and attention.

Very few relationships end because of conflict

       Conflict is simply a symptom.

Very many relationships die because of neglect.

     This coming year we are preparing for my 40th class reunion. Quite frankly, we are just amazed at how many of us are still alive.

       But here’s a good exercise.  Go back and pull out your high school yearbook from your senior year.

       Count how many people wrote in your book that you would always stay in touch. Think about how many times you wrote that in the yearbooks of others. 

       Where are those people now? 

Very few relationships end because of conflict

Very many relationships die because of neglect.

If you want a relationship to grow, give it time and attention.

If I was the Evil One, I would try to steal your time.

I would fill your life with so many good things.

Not bad things

Good things:

Career, responsibilities, hockey, soccer, volleyball, dance, video games, even volunteering…you name it, so that you would not have time to give attention to the essential relationships….to what really matters. 

The Kingdom of God is built of relationships

       In fact, we even describe it in terms of the most intimate relationship that we humans can have with one another,

We call it being in full communion

with God and with one another in the Church

In this holy communion, who I am is intimately joined at the very level of being with who God is

       And who you are as the body of Christ.

This is celebrated in the Eucharist as we celebrate and receive holy communion from this very altar.

       Virtue deepens this communion

       Sin injures or severs this communion

       Reconciliation restores this communion.

In the end, it is not our stuff that we take with us when we leave this earth

       It is the relationship we build while we are here

              Our communion with Christ and with one another.

This is our treasure in heaven.

It’s all about trajectory.

       And it begins now

              The Kingdom of God is close at hand

       Because you and I are close at hand.

Let us build these relationships with Christ and one another

while there is still time

So that we may say today and every day into eternity

       “Thy Kingdom come.”

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It’s Not the End of the World

[Hey, folks. Deacon Mick Fornelli hit another one out of the park this weekend. I do like to hear him preach. Here is the vid of his homily on what we are to make of Jesus words about the tribulations in his age and in our own.

My own musings on the same readings, albeit with a very different take, are below.]

Dcn. Mick Fornelli – It’s Not the End of the World

     

BECAUSE OF THE NAME

Fall is football season. With football comes  pre-game. With pre-game, comes pep talks.

     The purpose of a pep talk is to inspire the squad to achieve higher than their expectations of others and perhaps even of themselves. Pep talks inspire confidence, build courage, unite teammates and set the heart on fire to aspire to great deeds. They usually have a great punchline like, “Win one for the Gipper!”

       Today in the gospel, Jesus is also giving a kind of pep talk. He mentions how his disciples will be betrayed by those closest to them. How they will be dragged before religious and civil authorities because of his name.  And so what is his punchline? 

“You will be hated by all because of my name!”

What’s up with that?!

Unlike the first Christians, we have the benefit of history. We know what happened in the three centuries following Pentecost.    Almost immediately, Christians were persecuted, first in the synagogues, and then at various times in the Roman Empire until Constantine legalized Christianity in 313 AD.  (Ironically, because they did not sacrifice to the gods, the early Christians were persecuted as atheists.)

But it has not stopped there. According to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, 900,000 Christians were killed  in the last decade, about one every six minutes. Fortunately, this is down by about half from the previous decade that saw 1.9 million Christians killed in various parts of the world. These are sobering numbers.

Jesus was not being morbid, he was simply being realistic. It’s no different today than it was then. The simple fact of the matter is this. In today’s world, to be Christian, and especially to be Catholic, is to put a target on your back. If the political climate of the last few years in this country has taught us anything, it is that if you try to live your faith, even if you do it poorly, there are those in society who will find this very annoying. Finding it very annoying, they seek to remove us from the public square. 

In this country, this has taken on the guise of the privatization of religious sentiment. Briefly put, it goes thus: “You may believe what you want, but don’t bring the insights or collective wisdom of your faith into polite public discourse. I find it offensive that your faith might seek to make a contribution to public discourse, let alone public policy.” 

The fallacy of such a position seems obvious. Is this the only age in which human beings have existed in history? Could we not learn from the lived experience of our forebears? Are we doomed to simply repeat the errors of history, content in our own self-aggrandizement? 

Hardly. For the past 2100 years, the Church is the only institution which has seen every political power and social movement come and go. We are not going anywhere. We have a place in the public square.  As we have spoken in every age, we have a sacred duty to speak to the present age. A polite silence helps no one, saves no one.

Catholics in America are no strangers to subtle, polite persecution.

The question is, will we speak or remain silent?  

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The Four Last Things

[I don’t think we can really begin to live fully until we come to terms with our own mortality – not in a morbid way, but in a healthy way, born of the hope that is in store for all of us.]

Well, winter is here and the liturgical year is winding down. Only two more Sundays before we start Advent. As we get to the end of Ordinary Time, the Church asks us to contemplate the end of all time. In this light, it’s not a bad idea to review the Four Last Things. As you recall, they are: death, judgment, heaven or hell.

       In truth, I don’t think any of us can really begin to live until we come to terms with our own mortality.

       [The Fr. McGillicuddy joke was told here. You have to watch the video to hear the joke! There is also a bonus joke about the Sadducees. ]

We don’t tend to contemplate our own death in the normal course of the day. However, I suspect that many of us have done so in the wake of the recent pandemic. I think living in the harsh beauty of Alaska also makes us pause from time to time. Anyone who has lived here for any length of time has lost a friend or a loved one to the wilderness. Twenty-eight years of ministry have also taught me that the more familiar you are with death, the less scary it becomes. There are certain people who have taught me how to die well as I have accompanied them to their passing. The moment of death can be a very grace-filled, and beautiful encounter. A friend’s wife once commented that it was very similar to being present at a birth. For the Christian, death is not something we hasten, but neither is it something we fear. As St. Paul says, “For we know that if our earthly dwelling, a tent, should be destroyed, we have a building from God, a dwelling not made with hands, eternal in heaven.” (2Cor 5:1). Death then is simply the next step to the fulfillment of God’s plan for us.

       That plan is that we become what God has intended us to be. There is a subtle, but real heresay out there that when we human beings die we become angels. It’s a nice thought and it makes for good Christmas stories, but it limps theologically. Angels are spiritual beings. They do not have a body. By comparison, we human beings are spiritual and corporeal. We have a body and a soul. When Christ came to redeem us, he took on our human nature, body and soul in the Incarnation. This is why the resurrection of Christ is so significant. By his own resurrection, Christ has shown us what lies in store for all the baptized who remain faithful. Namely, that at the end of the age, these lowly bodies of ours, such as they are, will be raised. Then comes particular and general judgment. If we have remained faithful, then we become what God has intended us to be—perfectly human, body and soul. 

In talking about the last things, there is a temptation to see them as something distant and remote. But they are not. Our judgment at the end of the age depends entirely on our relationship with Christ now and throughout the rest of our lives. So in a very real sense, heaven begins now. (Hell also begins now, for that matter.) It’s a matter of trajectory. If we enter into communion with Christ now and deepen that communion in the future, that relationship continues and is fulfilled when we pass through the veil. If, however, we sever communion with Christ, then that is our fate. Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.

The decisions we make now will carry us into eternity.

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The Uninvited Guest

“Hey, honey! Guess who’s coming to dinner?” How is Zacchaeus going to explain THIS to his wife? No need really. Check it out.

Zacchaeus gets an uninvited guest for dinner.

Everybody likes to be liked.  It’s part of human nature.  Conversely, nobody likes to be despised.  It hurts our sense of self-worth. But sometimes, either because of the choices we make or the choices of others, we might find ourselves the object of people’s ire.  (Often this will happen in traffic!)

     It’s hard to imagine how much the people despised a guy like Zacchaeus.  He was a Jew, but he was also a tax collector for the Roman occupational government.  As such, he was seen as a collaborator. Unlike our own Internal Revenue Service, which is highly regulated and can only take what the government is legally entitled to, one of the common practices of the day among tax collectors was to charge more than the actual tax and pocket the rest. By his own admission, Zacchaeus appears to have done exactly that. People hated his guts. 

       Given all this, at first glance he’s not the kind of person that you would normally expect to seek out Jesus. Yet, there he is, climbing the sycamore tree to get a glimpse. That’s when things get interesting.

       I truly believe that the last thing on Zacchaeus’ mind was that Jesus would invite himself to dinner. But that’s how Jesus works, sort of like a traveling salesman.

       [Incidentally, you know what you do when the health food salesman knocks at your door?  Go ahead and ‘vite – him – in!]

       Like the door-to-door salesman, Jesus invites himself into our world and into our lives without apology. He does this all the time. It’s what happens next that makes the difference between a detached observer, a consumer of religious goods and services, or a disciple. 

       Zacchaeus did not ask Jesus to barge into his life; but when he does, Zacchaeus recognizes Jesus for who he is and the opportunity for what it is. Here is salvation from his miserable existence.  Here is Hope Incarnate standing right below him. The repentance of Zacchaeus is profound and genuine because the forgiveness and reconciliation offered him is profound and genuine.  The lesson of Zacchaeus is a lesson for us. No matter how wretched or despised we may think we are, Jesus barges into our lives. Today, salvation will come to this house. It’s how we respond that will make the difference.

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Persistence in Prayer

Does persistent prayer change God’s mind? Would you believe in such a fickle God?

Last Sunday evening, I was celebrating Mass at St. Elizabeth’s.  You know how you always check out things at another parish to see what good ideas you can steal. I learned from a poster in their Narthex that they have I have a Trivia Night every so often to raise money for their World Youth Day pilgrims.  Let’s take a team over and clean house!

       It got me to thinking that how much cool stuff I have been privileged to learn in the course of my life, but also how much little known and useless information I have amassed over that same period. 

       For example, in high school, a friend of mine and I challenged each other to learn all the American presidents, the order in which they served, and the years that they served.

       I found that much like the genealogies of Jesus in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, the American presidents are a diverse lot. There are great saints and great sinners. Geniuses and men of…shall we say, elusive intelligence. However, all seem to have wanted what was best for their country.

       One of the most maligned is Calvin Coolidge, the nation’s 30th president who served the White House from 1923 to 1929, and was in office at the outset of the Great Depression. His nicknames were: Cautious Cal, Cool Cal, Silent Cal, and the Sphinx of the Potomac.

Not many people know much about President Coolidge today. But if you Google him, the first 49,000 citations will mention this one passage that he gave in a speech in 1929. He said: “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

     Mr. Coolidge was right. In a way, he is echoing what our Lord is saying in the parable of the widow and the unjust judge. Does she prevail solely on the merits of her case? Not really. Does she prevail because of the benevolence of the judge? Hardly. No, it is her persistence that wins the day. 

     Why does Jesus ask us to be so persistent in prayer? Our prayer certainly does not change God’s mind.  God already knows what we need long before we ask. Parents are the best examples of this. Our mom or dad could give us what we need without our asking, but would we really appreciate it? Probably not. How delightful it is to a parent when a child comes to their own realization of what is best and then asks for it.

    Three and a half millennia of human experience has shown that persistence in prayer has profound effects upon the one doing the praying. God does not change as a result of prayer. We do. Persistence in prayer allows us to discern God’s ultimate desire for us and to make that desire our own.

       As I said before, more often than not, time is an ingredient. A monk much wiser than me once said,

“I have found that so much of prayer is simply waiting on God; and I have learned that if I am willing to wait long enough, insight always comes.”

       Timing is everything. And God’s timing is so much better than our own. He not only knows what we need, but when we need it.

Persistence in prayer allows us to move from praying, “MY will be done.” to “THY will be done.” 

As we spend more time in prayer we begin to realize that God has three ways of answering prayer. 1) “Yes.” 2) “Not yet.” and 3) “I have something better in mind for you.” 

       Okay great, Fr. Leo. How do I do this?

It’s not that complicated, but it require some discipline.  You need to find a time and a place. To take some time each day to unplug from the distractions of this world. Find a quiet place and spend some time with the Lord. Decide on a time each day that will work for you. You may have to tweak this a bit. And this may change depending on your situation.

For example, at one parish my prayer time happened at 9:00 at night. Here at St. Pat’s, since we are the party parish, it has to happen in the morning at 7:30. 

You may need to adjust this time, you may need to fight for this time, but you need to make time.

I’ve said it about 163 times so far as your pastor, so you should be able to complete this quote for me.

“If you can’t find ten minutes a day for private prayer with our Lord, your life is what…? [OUT OF CONTROL!]

And you need to do what…? [MAKE ADJUSTMENTS]

Any excuses….?  [NO!]

You are not far from the kingdom.

 So first, make the time.

Second, find a place.

       Create a space in the home.

       Or change your routine to bring you to a holy place.   

       I love this one quotation that is popping up on the door in many churches in France.  In four short sentences it says: 

       It is possible that on entering this church, you may hear the Call of God.    

       On the other hand, it is not likely that he will contact you by phone. Thank you for turning off your phone.   

 If you would like to talk to God, come in, choose a quiet place, and talk to him.   

       If you would like to see him, send him a text while driving.

Or get creative. I love to tell the story of the fellow at St. Benedict’s who had two issues. First, because of his weird work schedule, he couldn’t find his ten minutes and he kept bringing the stress of his work home with him.

       As we chatted, the Holy Spirit kicked in and I asked him, “You live right down the street from the parish, right?

Why don’t you just pull your truck in and park in front of that big crucifix in front of the church on your way home?”

       You know, he did.

       About a month later he was in my office again and said, “You know, Father, that ten minutes has made all the difference.  I don’t even get out of my truck. I just do my Magnificat right there.  And I’ve also found that I can just leave all of the stresses and burdens of the day right there at the foot of the Cross. I suppose I could pick them back up again, but I’ve never seen the need.”

Let me end by paraphrasing Mr. Coolidge.

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence in prayer. Vocation will not; nothing is more common than unfulfilled vocations. Cleverness will not; you cannot outmaneuver God. Erudition will not; the world is full of theological derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Pray On! has opened and always will open the door to grace for the human race.”

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Two Grateful Lepers

[Howdy, Church fans! Well, we are all recovered from the trip to the Holy Land. Hope you enjoyed the ride. Deacon John is preaching this week, but I will be covering St. Elizabeth’s this evening before I blast off the the Canon Law convention in Cleveland. If you want to catch the livestream of that, you can go to their Facebook page by clicking here; https://www.facebook.com/SaintElizabethAnnSetonParishAnchorage

In the meantime, here’s my thoughts on today’s gospel with an added bonus at the end.

It was not an easy thing to be a leper in Jesus’ day. Unlike today, where the use of sulfates has pretty much eradicated the effects, and the stigma, of the disease, to be a leper in the first century was to be completely outcast from society. Not only were you physically disfigured and rather smelly, you were ritually unclean as well. This meant that you could not worship with the believing community. Indeed, you were seen as cursed because of some sin of yours or a recent ancestor.

Two grateful lepers are offered for our consideration in this week’s scripture readings, both are Gentiles. The first is Naaman the Syrian. You may recall that he was a general of the army of the King of Aram. At first, he was disappointed that Elisha did not do some outrageous ritual. Instead, he just had him bath in the Jordan seven times. But at the advice of his servant, he did and was cleansed. His gratitude knew no bounds.

The ten lepers that approach Jesus, also in Samaria. Jesus is even less dramatic than Elisha. He simply has them show themselves to the priests to verify that they are now ritually pure and the curse lifted. They go off to do what he says and are healed on the way.
So why the big deal about the Samaritan leper who comes back to give thanks? If you look at it on the face of it, the other nine, apparently Jews, were obedient and presumably did go and show themselves to the priests, just as Jesus instructed them. The Samaritan does not follow instructions. Instead, he returns to give thanks.

The lesson here is that gratitude is the higher virtue. Once they were cured, they could all move about freely anywhere they wanted. They could have gone to the priests first or they could have returned and given thanks first. Only the Samaritan gets it right.
As Christians, when we realize what we have been given, and what we have been forgiven, our first response should always be grateful. It is in the warmth of this gratitude that all our other acts of charity and duty take on luster of grace.

BONUS!

As many of you know, I fly a little airplane around the Alaskan wilderness to many secret fishing holes and a few cabins that people let me use in their kindness. It is a float equipped Citabria 7GCBC with a 160 horse-Lycoming I0-360. It is great for getting me wherever I want to go. Here are some pics of the past summer. Enjoy.

Dog is my copilot.

Undisclosed fishing hole, #1

Undisclosed fishing hole, #2

A boy and his airplane.
Knik Glacier
Mt. Saint Augustine as seen from Bruin Bay.

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Doing the Math

[Do you really have to hate your mother and father to follow Jesus?}

     This week marks something of a milestone in space exploration as NASA is continuing to ramp up for a return to the moon.

     I find this of great interest. One of my earliest childhood memories was crowding around the television in our basement watching the first lunar landing and seeing Neil Armstrong exit the landing craft and become the first human being to walk on the moon.

     Space and things astronomical have always fascinated me. So it was with great anticipation that I awaited the first images from the Hubble space telescope as it was launched into low earth orbit in 1990. With great precision, the engineers pointed this amazing contraption into the heavens. Then they hit the button and awaited the first images to be beamed back to earth…

     …The images were blurry.  The telescope would not focus properly.

     After no small amount of analysis, it was found that the problem was due to a simple error in math.  One engineering team had been designing using the metric system and another had been using the imperial system. Fortunately, the problem was corrected three years later by a crew from the Space Shuttle and now even thirty years later, we can enjoy vivid, high-resolution images of galaxies and nebulae and all kinds of cool things that are out there in the great expanse of space. 

     I think of this embarrassing, and very expensive episode with the Hubble Telescope where the greatest minds of our time got it wrong, and I am reminded of a plaque that hung in the office of the Superintendent at the jobsite on Adak in the Aleutian Islands where I worked construction in the summers during college.  It read:

     “PRIOR PLANNING PREVENTS…uh, PRETTY POOR PERFORMANCE.”

     In short, if you want to do the job right, you better know what you are getting yourself into beforehand.

     That is essentially what Jesus is doing as he speaks with his disciples in this week’s gospel from Luke 14. If you are going be his disciple, you’ve got to know what you are getting yourself into.

     Our Holy Father said this morning that these are very difficult words. Jesus is going up to Jerusalem.  A great crowd is following him, many simply because he is a superstar.  Jesus stops and tells them in no uncertain terms that discipleship is not for the faint of heart.

     First, your relationship with Christ, must come before your family.  This is not to say that you have to disown your family. But it does make sense.  They say that “blood is thicker than water.”  The question here could be WHOSE blood?  When it comes to a case of facts, we have to admit that the blood of our family heritage that brought us to life in this passing world always gives way to the blood of Christ who has given us eternal life. The primary relationship HAS to be Christ for even our relationships with our family to be rightly ordered.

     Second, being a follower of Christ will involves SACRIFICE. For Jesus to say, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” would have made absolutely no sense to his listeners. Crucifixion was a brutal Roman means of execution. In our own day, it is as if he had said, “Whoever does not sit in his own electric chair cannot be my disciple.” Or “whoever does not lie on his own lethal injection table cannot be my disciple.”

     What are we to make of this? If we listen to what he says elsewhere, we cannot escape the conclusion that if Christ is truly the center of our lives; if we try to be his disciples; even if we do this poorly, there are those who will find it very annoying.  And finding it annoying they would like to see us removed from the public square.   

     This can happen on many levels. 

     In its most benign sense, it may mean that we will be snubbed and ignored in matters of public discourse. And this is certainly true. In the wake of the Enlightenment, truth is in the eye of the beholder.

      It was Descartes who famously said, “I think, therefore I am.” In so doing he made himself the center of the universe around which everything else revolved.  

     How small is the intellectual leap from seeing truth as an objective reality to a subjective one. Unthinkable a few generations ago, now the airwaves and screens are full of those who hold sincerely that my truth is as real as your truth.  This bodes ill for those of us Christians for whom the truth is not a something, but a someone – Jesus the Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life.

     Furthermore, it is a sad testimony that in the secular West, a person is free to embrace just about any religion…except Christianity. Among Christians, we Catholics are the most suspect. 

     In its most extreme sense, this desire to remove us from society takes on the form of brutal, repressive persecution of the Church, even to the point of death. Earlier this month, President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, forcibly closed seven Catholic radio stations and placed the Cardinal Archbishop of Managua under house arrest on charges of sedition and treason.  Cardinal Alvarez’s alleged crime was that he supported student protesters who had demonstrated against the policies and practices of the regime. Namely, that all opposition candidates in the recent election had all been arrested and incarcerated before the last election. 

     We say to ourselves, “Oh that could never happen here!”  Personally, given the momentum of history, I am not so optimistic. But neither am I worried if it does. Persecution is part of discipleship. The seeds of faith have always been watered by the blood of martyrs.  Why should we think it will be any different in our own time?

     In light of this, Jesus’ comment that “Anyone who does not renounce all of his possessions cannot be my disciple” is almost an afterthought. Still it bears reflection. They say that you spend the first third of your life wanting stuff, the second third of your life accumulating stuff and the last third of your life trying to get rid of stuff.  Nevertheless, at some point each one of us must ask the question: “Do I own my possessions?  Or do my possessions own me? The answer to that question will tell us much about ourselves and where we are on the spectrum of discipleship.  In the end we know that we are stewards, not owners.  We leave everything behind in this world. In the meantime, we are each given gifts of time, talent and treasure.  The key is to use these gifts in a way that is pleasing to the Giver, and to return them to the Lord with increase.

     The words of Jesus today are very hard in one sense, but they are very liberating in another. When we stop to think about it, Jesus is not asking us to do anything he has not already done himself.  Furthermore, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, the power of God’s love alive in the world; the same Spirit that animated the life of Christ, descended upon Mary and the Apostles at Pentecost; the same Spirit that animates the life of every Christian; through this Holy Spirit, Our Lord has given us the means to live our Catholic faith in the midst of the world courageously and joyfully. 

     We stand in the truth in love in the world and for the world. In so doing, we transform the world and help it to become what God has created it to be.

Is it easy?  No, and it never has been.

Is it worth it?  Absolutely.

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Being “catholic”

Having lived in a foreign country for some time, moving in their culture and speaking their language, I have a great admiration for anyone who emigrates to the United States. English is not an easy language to learn! Other languages have rules. We have rules, but break them with impunity. Here is a poem I found about that very thing. Sadly, I do not know who to credit it to. Please help me out if you can. Whoever wrote it deserves credit.

English is a Funny Language

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,

But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.

One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,

Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,

Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,

Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?

If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,

And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,

Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,

Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,

And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,

But though we say mother, we never say methren.

Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,

But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Yes, English is a strange language.  Once in high school in my AP English course, the teacher, a very kind man who was always looking for ways to expand our vocabularies noticed that one of our classmates was very expansive in her preferences. “Goodness, Laurie,” he said to her. “You certainly have very catholic tastes!” At this, the class broke out in laughter. “What have I said?” he asked innocently.

       She laughed and said, “Dr. Jenkins…I’m Jewish!”  He blushed a bit and explained that ‘catholic’ in the sense that he had used it simply meant “universal” or “all encompassing.” 

       As I mentioned last week, it is this sense of universality and expansiveness that led J.K. Chesterton to once describe the Church as “Here comes everybody!”

       This is a very different from the early days in salvation history. As we read in the Old Testament, when things started out, it was a very exclusive relationship between God and his Chosen People.

       However, as time passed we see the prophets proclaiming, as Isaiah does in today’s first reading, how starting with Israel, the Lord will eventually gather all the nations to himself.  Again, it’s all about relationship.

       Jesus is very clear, however, that there is no preference for seniority in the Kingdom of God. Thus, “some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” It doesn’t matter when you arrive at the reunion. Once you walk through the door, we are all family.

       That being said, it’s helpful to assess from time to time how ‘catholic’ we really are in how we live our lives.  Namely, does our Catholic Faith inform every part of our lives or just certain parts of it?

At home do we stop what we are doing everyday and gather for prayer, besides just before meals?

At work, do our coworkers know that we are Catholic by the values that we bring to the workplace.

In society, This is an election year. How much does Catholic Social Teaching inform how we vote on the candidates and the issues?        

May our faith and our lives always be truly “Catholic”, not just in name, but in fact, and in action. 

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Involved or Committed?

Hey, Church fans! Had a great time last week flying a couple of kids around to see the local glaciers. This week, we hear Jesus say, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” What’s he getting at? Check it out.

Are You Involved or Committed? XIX Sunday in Ordinary Time

      

Yesterday, I had had breakfast with a friend at a local iconic establishment. 

       We both ordered bacon and eggs.

       As our food arrived, he looked at me and said, “You know, that’s the difference between being involved and being committed. 

       “How do you figure?” I asked.

       “Well,” he said, “Look at your breakfast.”

       “Yeah,” I said, “Bacon and eggs.”

       “Yep, bacon and eggs,” he said. “Think about it. The chicken is involved…the pig is committed!” 

       He’s right, you know. 

       It raises a good question for each of us in light of Jesus’ words in the gospel today.

       When it comes to being a disciple of Jesus in St. Patrick’s

       Are you involved

              Or are you committed? 

One thing I like about St. Patrick’s is that we never do anything halfway.

We go all in. We sing every verse and we don’t leave Mass early, even when the donuts are right outside the door! 

       We do this for a reason. First know hat one should never be in a hurry to leave the House of God. 

Second, we remember with sadness that Judas was the first one to leave Mass early…

We are here to praise God, to share our stories, to share communion and fellowship with God and one another, and to be sent back into the world to proclaim the Good News of the Resurrection and the forgiveness of sins.

       But at certain point each one of us has to decided, “I am merely involved, or am I committed?” 

How you answer that question will make all the difference.

This is what Jesus is getting at when he says, “Where your treasure is, there also will be your heart.”

If our “treasure”, i.e., that which is most valuable to us is our relationship with God and others, those relationships will take priority over everything else. That is when we become committed.  That’s when we organize our time and our resources to building up those relationships.

I’ve said it before, “Show me your calendar and your bank statement and I will tell you what your priorities are.”

But such a commitment isn’t easy and it doesn’t come overnight. Such stewardship of our time and resources takes time, practice, vigilance.

There are lots of things that compete for our attention. Very few of these are bad in and of themselves. Indeed, if I was the evil one, I would fill your life with so many good things that you would not have time for the essential relationships that give life joy and meaning.

It we are not careful our lives can become like our garages, filled with so much cool stuff that we can no longer use it for the reason it was built. 

We need to pay attention. We need to be vigilant. We need to be like “servants who await our master’s return.” We need to examine our priorities every day to make sure we are focused on who and what really matters.

       As individuals and as a parish family, we have all been given so much. Thus, much will be demanded of us. At the end of the age, when we stand together as a parish before the Lord, he will ask us what we did to build up the Kingdom here in 99504.

       Now is a good time to examine where our heart is. Now is a good time to look at our calendar and our bank statement. Is our relationship with Christ, with our parish family, with the Church our first priority? If not, where do we need to make adjustments? There is no guarantee of tomorrow. The Master could return at any moment. Now is the time to decide if we are involved or committed.

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What Matters to God?

[Hello, Church fans! Wow! Did Deacon Mick hit it out of the park this weekend. Probably one of his top five homilies of all time and certainly worth sharing with the blogosphere. Here it is. My musings on the same readings are below. ]

Deacon Mick Fornelli – “Your money or your life?!”

Way back when, as I was filling out the application to be a seminarian for the Archdiocese, I came across the last question which read: “If you were not applying to become a priest, what do you see yourself doing in five years?”  I have a business degree from a big, fancy university.  So I paused for a moment and then wrote down: “Working on my third million!”

The way I would do it is simple. I would open up a Self Storage facility. These things are essentially a     license to print money. There is a very good reason for this—People have too much stuff! 

They say that we spend the first third of our live wanting stuff, the second third accumulating stuff, and the last third trying to get rid of stuff. Coming to the end of what is likely the second third of my life, I can relate. If you have a storage unit, or have ever had a storage unit, you know what I am talking about.

When I was in college and up through the time I was ordained at 29, I had a simple rule. “If it didn’t fit in the pickup, it didn’t go.” But eventually, stuff started to fill up the corners of the garage, and then the center, and well…. All I can say is thank the Lord for Craigslist and Marketplace. Now I can get rid of stuff.

The point of the parable about the foolish rich man with the big barns is pretty clear to us. Stuff is nice. Stuff is useful. But in the long run, stuff doesn’t matter in the Kingdom.

The Kingdom of Heaven is built on relationships. Thus, the only stuff we take with us from this life are the relationships that we build up in this life with Christ, and with one another. This is what we mean by “the communion of saints.” 

Relationships are not rocket science. If you want a relationship to grow, you give it time and attention.  So, spend time in prayer, giving your attention to the Lord. Spend time with your parish family in liturgy and fellowship. Spend time with your friends, giving them your love and attention.  This is the stuff of the Kingdom. This is our treasure in heaven.