The Joy of Being Forgiven

 

Homily for April 2^nd and 3^rd – Go and sin no more

Father Vince Lampert, the exorcist for our Archdiocese, came to Saint Paul’s on Thursday night and gave an AWESOME talk about exorcisms.  I encourage anyone who missed it to go to Saint Paul’s Facebook page and watch all of it.  (click here or watch below)

Fr. Vince talked a lot about confession and noted “When we recommit ourselves to God, God does not care about the past, God cares about where we are.  When people live in the past, they live in a world of guilt, and when you live in a world of guilt, your best friend is going to be the Devil…the Devil is described in the book of Revelation as an accuser.”

 

We see this encouragement to go to confession and then move forward knowing that we start anew in all three readings from today. 

Our first reading from the Prophet Isaiah says, speaking on behalf of God “Remember not the events of the past, see, I am doing something new!”

Saint Paul tells the Philippians in our 2^nd reading today: “forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal”

And in our Gospel we hear Jesus say to the woman caught in adultery “Neither do I condemn you…go, and from now on do not sin any more.”

 

In the Mass and in the Confessional, most of the prayers and words of the priest are offered on behalf of himself and the people.  But when the crucial words of consecration at Mass and absolution in the confessional are said, it switches to the first person…”I absolve you” “This is my Body”

The Church says that in that moment, Christ is literally saying those words through the priest

 

And so the sacrament of reconciliation is just that, an opportunity to reconcile with God himself, to not just start over, not just to have our sins forgiven, but also to receive new grace from God moving forward.

 

The average confession lasts three minutes.  The confessional and the Mass are the last place the Devil wants you to be.  But when we leave the confessional, I promise you will sing with the Psalmist “The Lord has done great things for us, we are filled with joy”

The Older Son is Blind to All His Blessings

 

Homily for the 4^th Sunday of Lent, 2022

 

There is a line in our Gospel today that I would like to preach on, and it is this: “He said to his father in reply, ‘Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends.”

 

The main problem with the older son is his blindness to all the blessings that have come to him precisely because of his Father.  The oldest son has food at every meal thanks to his father, he has wealth built up by his father, he has servants because of his father, and on and on…and yet he sees none of these blessings but only what he lacks.

 

And we also tend to be blind to the gifts given us by our Heavenly Father.  Our food, our shelter, our heat and air conditioning, medicine, water, electricity, our clothing, our schooling…we have so many blessings from our Heavenly Father…and yet do we thank Him… or do we complain about what our Heavenly Father is NOT doing for us?

 

Paragraph 1360 of the Catechism instructs us that every Mass is “a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Father, a blessing by which the Church expresses her gratitude to God for all his benefits”.  Indeed the very word “Eucharist” means “Thanksgiving”…so all of us who are here are participating in the best way possible to thank our Heavenly Father for all that He has done for us.

 

Let us ask God that we might have our eyes opened to all the blessings He is freely pouring out on us, including our sufferings.  Let us not be blind to all the good things our Heavenly Father is doing in our life, but instead let us recommit to thanking God unceasingly!

 

Lord Jesus Christ, help us to be freed from the blindness of the older son in your parable of the prodigal son.  May we see all of the blessings you are pouring out on us, and be grateful for all of them.  Amen.

The Gift of Smallness...a homily on the Annunciation, 2022

 

Annunciation 2022

 

Several years ago, if anyone had asked me a question about the state of our country or ways to improve the Catholic Church, I would have had answers to those questions.

 

But today, I do not have any answers.  I have realized that I am very limited, indeed very very limited in what I can do to change our country or improve the Church. 

 

In stepping away from social media, I have made a commitment to be as present as possible to the people of my parishes, and trust in God that God will take care of the bigger picture, and I am at peace now that I do NOT think I need to understand it all.

 

Mary is the same way in the Annunciation story from today’s Gospel.  It is clear she struggles to fathom God’s plan when She asks the angel, “How can this be?”  But Mary immediately understands that she can put all her trust in God’s plan…she does not need to know anything about God’s plan beyond an obscure reference by Simeon, when Mary brings the baby Jesus to the Temple, that a sword will pierce Her heart.  She trusts in God even when she watches Her Son Jesus tortured to death.

 

Let us focus on our local community, and make that our priority.  Let us take care of one another as Catholics, and let us be a light that attracts others in our community to come here.  Let us leave the big things for God, and let us be content to be small, as Mary was.

"Their god is their stomach"

 

“For many conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ.  Their God is their stomach”

Saint Paul warns the Philippians that many among them treat their stomach as their god.  This is a hard teaching, but I think all of us Americans need to look at ourselves very closely on this one.  And it is a particularly timely topic for us this Lent.  Gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins.

Before diving into the sin of gluttony, I want to acknowledge here in the beginning that some people also struggle with eating disorders…mostly young women…and so it is important for anyone tempted to binge and then force yourself to vomit, or to starve yourself because of athletics or to try and make yourself look like any other person, please see me or any other person you trust, and that person or I can help connect you with a counselor to treat that condition.  My sister Laura, when she was in high school, suffered from multiple eating disorders, and she was not aware it for multiple years.  She shared her story on my blog (click here to visit her post), and she recommended a website with lots of resources called madeinhisimage.org

Most of us, however, struggle with eating too much.  Gluttony can be defined as eating or drinking in excess, or eating in such a way as to damage one’s health or mental capacity.

Food is pleasurable, and God created pleasure as a way to incline us to take care of ourselves, but provided that we do not make pleasure our aim.  Some pleasurable things are nonetheless sinful, and some pleasurable things require moderation.  Food is a pleasurable thing that requires moderation.

Alcoholic beverages, in moderation, are also okay because, as St. Thomas says, they can make conversation easier, but it is a deadly sin to fall into drunkenness.

Recreational Marijuana and all other illicit drugs are mortal sins because, unlike alcohol which can be enjoyed in moderation, all illicit drugs can rewire and alter a personality after using it just once.  Even medical marijuana has a sketchy foundation, at best.  The Mayo clinic found: “One of the most common reasons cited for medical marijuana is glaucoma. Data for this, though, is extremely weak; any positive effect is short term.”  The Mayo Clinic also found more broadly that there is “substantial evidence for an association between Marijuana smoking and respiratory disease, motor vehicle collisions (MVCs), lower birth weight offspring, schizophrenia and other psychoses”

Another reason that people cite for gluttony is stress, and at the beginning of 2022, a survey found that 80% of Americans report being stressed.  3 or 4 years ago, before my brain tumor, when I was watching TV, had a smartphone and a social media presence, I would stress eat.  If we find ourselves stress eating, let us examine what we are doing to avoid stress.  Are there things we can cut from our life to still work in the world but avoid stress?

Also, during this Season of Lent, as we think about potentially fasting from some foods, let us approach that fasting in a healthy way, seeing that most of us typically have more than enough to eat, and, when we cut back, we have more time and a clearer head so that we can enter more deeply into our prayer life as well.  Gluttony, as with all sins, can only ultimately be defeated in each of us cooperating with Jesus Christ each moment.  Do you have a relationship with Jesus?  Let us make Jesus the Lord of our hearts, as opposed to making a god out of our stomachs.

The War in Ukraine and Our Lady of Fatima

 

“The war in Ukraine, and Fatima” - Homily for March 5^th and 6^th

 

At the beginning of our Eucharistic Prayer, we will once again say blessing the bread and wine “which we offer you firstly for your holy catholic Church.  Be pleased to grant her peace, to guard, unite and govern her throughout the whole world”

 

As we have watched the events in Ukraine unfold these past 2 weeks, I can’t help but think of Our Lady of Fatima.  Fatima is a Marian Apparition that has been recognized by the Church, and it was a series of 6 visits by Mary to 3 shepherd children in Portugal.  The final apparition on October 13^th, 1917 was accompanied by a miracle of the sun dancing in the sky, which was witnessed by approximately 70,000 people.

There were also three visions given to the children, and in the second vision, our Blessed Mother asked that the Holy Father, in union with all the bishops of the world, consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  Our Lady cautioned that if Her requests were not granted, “Russia will spread its errors throughout the world, raising up wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer and various nations will be annihilated.”

 

Russia was never consecrated the way Our Lady of Fatima had requested, and so the error of Russia, which is Communism, has spread literally from 1917 onward, now being present in China, North Korea, Laos, Vietnam and Cuba, but also a stunning number of Americans and Europeans also have a favorable view of Communism – 30% of young adult Americans report being supportive of Communism…clearly Russia’s error has spread not just to countries to where Communism is the official government of the land.

 

In a stunning move on Ash Wednesday, the Bishops of Ukraine asked Pope Francis to consecrate Russia as Our Lady of Fatima requested. I cannot see anything that the Pope has to lose in consecrating Russia and asking all the bishops of the world to join him.  Let us unite our prayer, fasting and almsgiving to this effort as well.

 

Let us pray for the Holy Father, and for the ongoing war in Ukraine, and the Catholic Church around the world, that God “be pleased to grant her peace, to guard, unite and govern her throughout the whole world!”

For the Victims

 Please share this with any victims of Catholic clergy sexual assault/abuse/harassment.  Thank you!

Do not let your fast be another person's penance?

 

“Your Fast ends in quarreling”

 

I had heard the phrase a lot these past couple of years – “Do not let your fast be another person’s penance”.

 

What I think this phrase gets correct is that we should not allow our fasting to end in quarrelling as the first reading from Isaiah puts it.  We should have enough discipline not just to abstain and fast from something, but also the discipline and spiritual strength to not let that fast deteriorate us to the point where we are irritable.

 

But if by the phrase “Do not let your fast be another person’s penance” one means there are certain things that a person should not fast from, that is problematic.  An example might be “If I give up caffeine, because I know that it will make me irritable, I should not give up caffeine.”  But I think that is wrong.  What we should do is give up caffeine AND have the strength to not allow that fast to become another person’s burden.

I am not saying that we should set ourselves up to fail...if we are new to giving things up for Lent certainly we need to be patient with ourselves.

The Catholic Church does not even require us to fast during Lent other than Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, but if we fast from something, perhaps it should be the thing we are most afraid to go without.

Isaiah chastises those whose fasting ends in quarrelling…may that not be said of us, no matter what we are fasting from.

The importance of our speech

 

The importance of speech – Homily for February 26^th and 27^th, 2022

Sirach says in our first reading that one’s speech disclose the bent of one’s mind.  Jesus also references the importance of our speech in our Gospel.  And the importance of our speech is mentioned in the letters of Saint Paul, Saint James, Saint John and others.

 

One of the things that the Bible and the Catholic Church make absolutely clear – one of the quickest ways to Hell is our tongue, usually words that we say, but also we can sin by not speaking when we should.  Some examples of ways to sin through our speech:

It is a serious sin to spread gossip, something that we don’t know to be true

It is a serious sin to say something we know to be true about another person but sheds a bad light on that person

It is a serious sin with our words to in anyway approve of another’s sin

boasting and bragging are also sins we commit through our speech

Swearing and taking the Lord’s name in vain is a serious sin against the second commandment.

And of course lying is something we should never do either.

 

We can also sin by NOT speaking when we should, particularly when we see another committing a sin, but do not say anything to point that out.

 

On the positive side, we can use our speech to praise another person directly.  We can all recall someone who spoke something to us, a positive word of encouragement that turned our day around for the better.  Why don’t we do that more often? 

 

Looking back on my life when I was younger, I can’t remember any time where I use my speech to affirm another person, but I can remember lots of times where I committed all of the above sins of speech or lack of speech.

With Lent starting this coming Wednesday, as we think about what we can give up, let us add to that list a resolve to not commit any sins with our speech, not spread gossip, not say anything negative about anyone, let us not boast nor brag, let us commit to never swearing and never taking the Lord’s name in vain...

 

Let us instead commit to using our speech to affirm at least person per day in person.  Not electronically, not on snapchat, not via text but in person as Jesus always did.

"Love Our Enemies" - Homily for the 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

 In today’s Gospel, Jesus twice says we are to “love our enemies” 

 

We have all heard this phrase so often, it likely flows over us without much notice.  While watching a video this week on loving our enemies with our teens, some unique insights to this phrase were mentioned.

 

First of all, this loving our enemies is a unique teaching of Catholicism.  It is not found in Islam nor Hinduism nor Budhism nor atheism.  Indeed, Love as an action, as working for the good of the other, even our enemies, is not present in any other religious tradition other than Christianity, although there are certain people already in the Old Testament who loved their enemies, including the story from our first reading today where David has the opportunity to kill king Saul (Identified by David's companion as David's enemy) but David instead chooses to take Saul’s spear to a hill and call out to Saul’s camp letting Saul know he had the opportunity to kill him, but that chose not to.  This action of David sparing his enemy leads to his enemy, King Saul’s repentance.

Along those same lines, If the early Catholics, when suffering persecution in Rome under Nero and other emperors, had resorted to terrorism or fighting against the Roman Empire, it is likely that Rome would have never been converted.

An adviser to Emperor Nero, the Emperor who had Rome burned and blamed it on the Christians, that adviser related the following “Tyranny has at its disposal steel and fire, chains and wild animals to set upon prisoners.  I can recall those prisons, the tortures of the cross, the iron hooks, and that pale driven into a man’s midriff and forced out his mouth.  I can still see how limbs were torn from bodies attached to wagons driven in opposite directions, and all the rest of the inventions of diabolical fury…in the midst of all these tortures, there was one who did not moan, no he did not beg for his life, no, rather he smiled as though there was happiness in his heart.”

 

A willingness to suffer persecution even unto death has always led to a rapid flourishing of the Church.  As the saying goes, the blood of the martyrs is the seedbed for the flourishing of the Church.

 

Let us love not just those who love us back but also love even those who hate us, even up to the point of laying down our lives if that what is asked of us.

Homily on wrapping up year 2 of our pandemic

 

“In the Year of drought, it shows no distress” – homily for Feb 12^th and 13^th, 2022

 

We have in our first reading today: “Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, He is like a tree planted beside the waters…in the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.”  And we have a very similar passage in our Psalm today: “Blessed is he who delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on his law day and night.  He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade.”

 

We are living in absolutely unprecedented times…in a lot of ways spiritually and physically not just a 1-year drought but the metaphorical drought is wrapping up its second year.

 

We are exhausted, our patience with each other has worn thin or broken, some of us are battling suicidal thoughts, depression, anxiety…the whole range of things that are being reported throughout this pandemic…Psalm 32 describes it this way: “Indeed my strength was dried up, as by the summer’s heat”

 

That is a great description of most of us: “Dried up as by the summer’s heat”… But psalm 32 goes on “But now I have acknowledged my sins; my guilt I did not hide.  I said “I will confess my offense to the Lord.” And you, Lord, have forgiven the guilt of my sin.”

 

In the Old Testament, there was a year of Jubilee every 50 years, which was essentially a great big reset button.  Our culture needs just such a jubilee year, and I think it starts with each of us individually acknowledging our sins in confession and starting over fresh.  We cannot impact the culture around us if we have nothing to give.

 

Confession is the last place the Devil wants you to go, because he knows as long as you feel buried under your sins, you will despair.  But if you have not been to confession in a while, I promise that you will feel immediately better, and you will literally feel that a physical weight has been lifted off of you.

 

If you find your strength “dried up as by the summer’s heat” I invite you to confess your sins, and then, as we hear in our first reading, be “like a tree planted beside the waters…in the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.”

When were you saved?

 

Homily for the 5^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 5^th and 6^th

“Through the gospel I preached you are also being saved”

 

A lot of non-Catholics ask “when were you saved?”  The correct answer is “I am in the process of being saved.”  That is why Saint Paul uses that phrase here, and why Matthew 25 shows that God’s judgment rests on the works that we do that flow from our Faith, and not simply because at some date I decided to accept Jesus into my heart and make Jesus my personal Lord and Savior.

 

Jesus even warns “not all who call me Lord will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but only the one who DOES the Will of My Father.”

 

This “potentially being saved” is not God holding a sword over us ready to pounce – it simply is the Truth….because of free will, I am always able to walk away from God at any point up to the moment of death. 

 

To believe at any point in my life my salvation is guaranteed, is simply wrong.

 

There are two opposite temptations, depending on our personality and temperament.  One temptation is to think our salvation is guaranteed.  The opposite temptation for others, given their personality and temperament is to fall into despair that they are not saveable.

 

Neither of those is correct for a Catholic.  Hope is the belief that God can and wants to save me through the Catholic Church and Her Sacraments…that if I commit some huge sin, God’s mercy is always waiting in the confessional, that the Body and Blood Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist changes me more and more into God’s likeness each time I receive him.

 

Saint Paul tells the Philippians to “work out their salvation”…this is a regular them of Saint Paul, and again we have it in our 2^nd reading today…”through the Gospel I preached to you, you are being saved”  Let us get to work on cooperating with God’s Grace and God’s Will, so that we may one day enter the eternal bliss of Heaven.

Speaking of "Truth" and "Love"

 

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time - TRUE Love

 

Love – Homily for January 29^th

 

Saint Paul in our 2^nd reading today gives us an examination of conscience about whether we have true love in our heart for God and also our neighbor

 

1) “Love is patient” – are you patient?  We live in a world that is going faster and faster each day, which is a temptation to be inpatient.  Do I drive patiently?  Do I wait in line patiently?  Am I patient with my children?  With my spouse?

 

2) “love is kind” – Am I kind?  There is a sign I’ve seen over the years that says “Just be kind”  But saint Paul teaches that there is more to it than JUST being kind, but kindness is an aspect of Love.  Are you kind to those you meet for the first time… but also are you kind to your children, your family, and those that you have known for a long time?  So often it is easy to take for granted those whom we have known for a long time.

3) “Love is not jealous” – are you jealous of anyone?  Jealousy is one of the seven deadly sins

4) “Love is not pompous, and it is not inflated” – pomposity is the deadly sin of pride

5) “Love is not rude” – are we rude to each other?  Social media and the anonymity have caused a seemingly 2,000 percent increase in rudeness – are we part of that?

6) “Love does not seek its own interests” – Do you put your needs first, or do you put your neighbors needs above your needs?

7) “Love is not quick-tempered” – do we blow up at others, either out loud or in the silence of our heart? 

 

8) “Love does not brood over injury” – do we do that?  Do we sulk and meditate on the wrongs that have been done to us?

9) “Love does not rejoice over wrongdoing” – what is wrongdoing?  We have to first understand and know what wrongdoing is.  There is a moral code that Christ gives us which is why Saint Paul ends this examination of conscience with…

10) “Love rejoices with the truth.”  Love rejoices in the Truth, and Love does not rejoice in lies.  There are a lot of lies being uttered these days…do we spread these lies…do we believe these lies…or do we rejoice in the Truth?

Promised Land by Toby Mac

I was always anti-praise and worship but given the absolute plummeting of my interest in secular music, I have turned more to praise and worship.

I still am leery of some of the lyrics, but most of it is solid.

This is my current favorite:

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, January 22nd and 23rd

 "Adoptionism" and other Heresies

Adoptionism is a heresy that says Jesus Christ was adopted by God the Father at His Baptism.  But this cannot be true for many reasons. 

 

1) We have the Christmas story and the Angel says to the shepherds “Today a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord.”

 

2) and the Magi visiting asking where the newborn King of the Jews can be found. 

 

3) We have the story of Jesus’ presentation in the temple where Simeon sees the newborn Christ and the Bible says “Simeon took him into his arms and said “my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in sight of all the peoples”

 

4) We have the story of a teenage Jesus teaching the Scribes and Scholars, and Jesus’ response to His parents, “did you not know that I would be in my Father’s house?”

So even though most heresies are defeated by Scripture, most heresies are designed to spread among those who do not know the Scriptures. 

At His Baptism, we do have the Spirit descending upon Jesus, but the Church Fathers all saw that as a sign for other people, not that Jesus was, at the moment, being adopted into the Trinity.

So when we hear in our Gospel today that “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit” it does not mean that at Jesus’ baptism in the previous chapter that Jesus received, for the first time, the Holy Spirit, but instead Saint Cyril points out that Christ did not perform miracles as did the saints, but Jesus Christ, being by nature the Son of God, Jesus exercises by His own power that grace which is of the Holy Spirit. 

And this is one of the many reasons Jesus gave us the Catholic Church – to sort out what is true and false teaching.  It isn’t just “me and Jesus”… “me and Jesus” has resulted in about 60,000 different denominations of Christians…we need to always be checking what we are hearing in our hearts and consciences with what the Catholic Church teaches about Jesus.

Lots of heresies have found temporary footholds in the hearts of Catholics throughout 2,000 years, but the Catholic Church has never ceased to point them out and, ultimately, defeat them.  When there are genuine disagreements on how to interpret a particular passage of Scripture, the Church is Christ’s appointed referee in the dispute.

May we always be seeking to grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ in accord with the teachings of the Catholic Church and Her saints.

Homily on Evangelization, January 16th 2022

 

Our Psalm today is “Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations” and “Announce His salvation day after day”

I want to ask us all to think about a question: “Are we proclaiming God’s marvelous deeds to all the nations?”  and are you announcing His salvation day after day?

 

If we are not yet announcing God’s salvation day after day, what might that look like?  I think a good place to start might be a line that we pray at every Mass, and that line is when we ask God to “order our days in His peace.”

 

I have found that to be the case, over time, as I have turned my life over to Christ, slowly and with fits and starts, He has ordered my life in His peace

 

What do I mean by ordered?  I mean that whereas when I was younger, I felt a lot of times like my life and the world around me were chaotic and I didn’t know which way was up, Christ has, over time, grounded my feet, because it is a sickening feeling to not know where the ground is.  As a priest, I have found an order in the rhythm of the day, daily Mass, a daily rosary, the Liturgy of the Hours that all priests promise to pray several times throughout each day, there is a comfort to that order which also still allows us also to be open to the new things, the intrusions of the spiritually poor and or physically poor.

 

In fact, I would say ordering our days according to God’s plan LEADS PRECISELY to our ability to spot the needs of our neighbors better.

 

And secondly, there is that word at the end – peace.  Christ, through His Church, offers each person peace…and in a world that seems to be attacking that Peace that Christ offers, a world that is attacking that Peace more and more each day…woe to us if we do not share what we have found in the Catholic Church, woe to us if we sit on this Good News and keep it for ourselves.

 

May each of us proclaim Christ’s marvelous deeds to all the nations and announce His salvation day after day.

The Chosen

 I cannot recommend "The Chosen" enough.  Click HERE to watch the first episode

https://watch.angelstudios.com/thechosen/watch?vid=S1:E1&ap=true

The Baptism of the Lord 2022

"He shall bring forth Justice to the nations, not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the street”

 

We are all here because we desire, on some level, to Hear Christ speak to us.  And the main way that we reach out to God is through prayer.

 

But if you are like me, you want to see and hear from Jesus Himself

 

And so I think it is important to remind ourselves of several things

1) When we hear the words of the Mass and participate in the Mass with a full, active, and conscious participation, Christ IS speaking to us!

 

Secondly, when we enter into private prayer, know that Christ, as the Prophet Isaiah reminds us in the first reading, Jesus Christ does not cry out, He does not shout, He does not make his voice heard in the street.”

The implication of that fact for us is that Jesus, at least 99.99999% of the time, refuses to shout above the noise of our world, but rather he speaks softly to us.

That puts the onus on us to remove ourselves from the Dictatorship of Noise and find silence in our lives and I think we need to do that at least 30 minutes a day.

Christ does not make himself heard above the buzz of Instagram/Facebook/Twitter/Youtube/Netflix/Disney+/smartphones/emails etc. Christ IS calling us away to a quiet place to be alone with Him so that we can increase our chances of hearing His voice.

 

He Himself also sought out quiet places away from the crowd, often early in the morning, to be alone in prayer with the Father and the Holy Spirit

 

May we follow His lead and seek Him where He promised to be found, notably in the words and actions of the Mass, and in the silence, away from the noise of the world.

Epiphany 2022

 I had been trying all week to come up with a homily for the Epiphany, but for some reason, nothing came to mind.  And then, on New Year’s Eve, I caught the last 5 minutes of the Foo Fighters front man being interviewed on NPR.  He said some really fascinating things, and although he probably didn’t realize it, some of the things he said speak to our celebration of the appearance of the Magi.  Immediately when I got back home, I searched for the interview and found some fascinating excerpts from his interview:

 

1) “When I went to my first punk rock show, there was this real sense of community and that tribe of those like-minded kids that maybe all felt the same.

That was one of the things I loved so much was the people coming together.”

And 2) “This was where everyone could come; these were the misfits; these were the weirdos these were the freaks; but this is where they found their tribe and their community, and I felt like them, and when we get together there’s some comfort and some reassurance in that.  “Oh, this is where we belong.”

 

What Dave Grohl, the lead singer of Foo Fighters was getting it is there was a comfort in belonging to a tribe, and I think we all know what he means.  Even the Jews had 12 TRIBES, and those 12 tribes didn’t always get along.

But what we celebrate today with the arrival of the non-Jews from the East is the end of tribal divisions… or at least the possibility that now exists to end tribalism. 

All have the option of joining the one tribe of the Catholic Church.  And that is good news, particularly for the poor, the misfits, the freaks, the drug addicts, the abused, the broken, all are now invited to join the ultimate tribe of the Catholic Church.

Imagine whatever you think is the worst sin – anyone who has committed that sin is still welcome here in the Catholic Church. Of course, for the non-Catholic and the fallen-away Catholic, there are some simple rites of initiation or reconciliation if you want to participate fully and take advantage of all that the Church offers, but we need to let everyone in our community know that they are welcome to come in, and even to attend Mass.

We have signs in front of our Church saying that all welcome to come inside, and yet still I got a call a few months ago from a person who said he sat out in the parking lot at Annunciation for a half hour trying to work up the courage to come in, and he finally did and he was so glad, and he just called to thank us for leaving our Church open.

How many people out there are in that exact same position?  How many people don’t think they’re welcome in our Churches?  The Devil of course desires to sift us all like sand, each our own individual grain, each ultimately our own tribe, but God desires to draw everyone together into the one tribe of the Catholic Church.

Let us go out and invite people to just come in.  Because only here will they find the end of tribalism.

January 1st: Mary the Mother of God 2022

 

“Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.”

 

I want to issue a challenge to all men: pray the rosary every day

 

And if you have a family, LEAD them in the rosary every night

 

Pray the rosary and also bring your family to Mass.

 

A study found that if a father does not go to church, only one child in 50 will become a regular worshipper. If a father does go regularly, three-quarters of their children will become churchgoers.

 

Fathers need to take their family to Church every Sunday and Holy Day (unless you are sick or caring for someone who is sick), but also, as a way to make the transition easier, I also want to challenge in a particular way families, but everyone, to pray the Rosary daily.

 

Mass can seem unintelligible to both young and old, and so, in addition to the Mass, the rosary can provide a wonderful supplement for a couple of reasons.

 

1) While at Mass it is true that everyone is participating, the priest is the presider, while at the family rosary, the Father can take the lead.

 

Secondly, what we hear in our Gospel today, about how Mary kept all these things and ponder them in Her heart, Mary was an eyewitness to Jesus’ ministry, and so the rosary is a great way to tap into those fruits of Mary’s ponderings!

 

I challenge all men in the parish to make Catholicism their top priority, and if you have a family, to bring your family to Mass every Sunday and Holy Day (unless sick or caring for someone who is sick), and to lead your family in a nightly rosary.  It will transform your family and our parish!