"The Law of Gradualness" - Homily for the 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2022

 

“The Law of Gradualness” - Homily for the 31^st Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2022

 

In our first reading today from the Book of Wisdom we hear that God rebukes offenders little by little.

Similarly, in the New Testament, Saint Paul tells the Corinthians “I could not address you as spiritual men, but as babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it”

This is what is referred to in the Catholic Church as the “Law of Gradualness” – according to which people should be encouraged to grow closer to God and His plan for our lives in a step-by-step manner, rather than expecting a person to jump from an initial conversion to perfection in a single step.

 

St. John Paul 2^nd taught that this “Law of Gradualness” is Catholic, but Gradualism of the Law, (which wrongly suggests that there are different degrees or forms of God’s law for different individuals and situations) is not Catholic

I have experienced the law of gradualness in my own life for a long time.

God has slowly, in His mercy and His infinite love for me, revealed to me things that I did years ago that are sins, even grave sins, so that I can confess them and seek His pardon in the Sacrament of Confession and thus be reconciled to God. 

I used to take the Lord’s name in vain a lot…but I have confessed that sin when God revealed to me the gravity of that sin, and I have not taken the Lord’s name in vain since.

More recently, the Lord revealed to me the grave sin of gossip and calumny and slander, and so I have confessed those grave sins and have tried to move forward without committing those sins.

On the positive side as well, God has slowly revealed to me things that I can be doing to love God better, how to have a more radical care for the poor in my life, how I can lay down my life for my parishioners better, and like Zacchaeus in the Gospel today, I have realized that I too am able to give half of everything I take in to the poor.

God loves us more than we could ever imagine…and as we grow in love with God, he slowly, at our pace, is drawing us closer to Himself.

 

Let us thank God for the gentle ways, little by little, in which God is constantly drawing us closer to Himself. 

"The Preferential Option for the Poor" - Homily for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2022

 

“The Preferential Option for the Poor” – Homily for the 30^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2022

 

Our First reading today from Sirach almost exactly spells out the Catholic Church’s teaching on the preferential option for the poor.

 

In that first reading, Sirach says “Though not unduly partial toward the weak, yet the Lord hears the cry of the oppressed.”

 

When the Church speaks about the need for each of us to have a preferential option for the poor, it says “the preferential option for the poor…must embrace the immense multitudes of the hungry, the needy, the homeless, those without health care and, above all, those without hope of a better future” (St. John Paul II as found in the “Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church”)

 

As Catholics, we also need to be working directly with the poor in our community.  There are all different types of poverty, not just monetary, but also spiritual poverty, and poverty of relationships.  What are we doing ourselves to encounter the poor face to face in an attempt to show them the love of Christ?

 

As Catholics, we might be tempted to say that the poor in our community are taken care of by the government, but the Catholic Church teaches that “The principle of subsidiarity, (which is caring for the poor locally) is opposed to welfare assistance…[because] the Social Assistance State leads to a loss of human energies and an inordinate increase of public agencies…”

 

As Catholics, we also need to be people who are supporting the poor all over the world, particularly supporting Catholic missionary efforts around the world, who are working with the poorest of the poor. 

 

The Catholic Church is clearly calling each one of us to do our own part, to have contact with the poor ourselves, and support the care of the poor throughout the world!

 

Let us embrace this call to care for the poor everywhere, and let us embrace that call with joy!

Homily for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2022

 

“Both The New and The Old” Homily for the 29^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2022

I have always been struck by the image of Moses with his arms propped up by Aaron and Hur that we hear about in our first reading, and how the battle changed whenever they lifted Moses’ arms.  I think a question we might ask would be why in the world would the battle hinge on whether or not Moses’ arms were raised?

And I think one reason is that God desires Israel to know that it is through God’s power that they win the victory.  And then the next question would be “Well, why does God desire to have Israel know that it is through God’s power that Israel wins their victories…is God some kind of egomaniac?”

And here it is important to understand a key thing: God is not an egomaniac; God still desires all of us to know that God is the power behind every victory for our own good AND the good of the whole world.  That is a super important point, and so I would like to repeat it: God desires that we know He is the power behind every victory for our own good and the good of the whole world.  God loves us and every person in the world, and desires that we see that we need God’s help always and everywhere.  Israel was always falling into the temptation of thinking they were accomplishing things on their own, and it is still a temptation for us…to think that we are capable of doing good WITHOUT God.

As we face a “battle” in our own day…the battle of bringing the Good News of Jesus to the culture around us, we need to both rely on our own God given creativity to think of new ways to reach out to the culture while at the same time trusting totally in the power of God.

In Matthew chapter 13 verse 52 Jesus commends those who bring out from the storehouse both the new and the old.  I hope that we as a parish are doing both new things to reach those around us, but also doing “old things” and two old things to help change the culture that I would like to start are a First Friday Devotion and a First Saturday devotion.

For first Fridays, starting Friday November 4th – Mass will be at Annunciation every First Friday of the month, along with all the other prayers for the First Friday devotion.  I have never done the First Friday Devotion, so I am looking forward to taking part.  We will have Mass and the prayers every first Friday, all year round.

Another thing that we will be bringing out of the storehouse of the old is a First Saturday devotion as well.  We will have Mass at 9 am at Annunciation on the first Saturday of each month all throughout the year, starting on Saturday, November 5^th, along with the subsequent prayers required by the first Saturday devotion.  When I was a seminarian I did do this devotion, and found it to bear tremendous fruit in my spiritual life.

We will have pamphlets at Annunciation and St. Paul’s on the First Fridays explaining the devotion, and we will have pamphlets on First Saturdays at Annunciation and Saint Paul’s explaining the First Saturday devotion.  I hope to foster a spirit of both devotions again, in addition to all the new and creative ways that we are also seeking to reach people in new ways.  May we always remember, as St. Paul says, “We can all do things through Christ who is our strength” (Philippians 4:13)

Father Spitzer on Catholicism and Evolution. Fantastic!!!

"Washed in the River" - Homily for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2022

"Washed in the River" - Homily for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Like Naaman the Syrian in our first reading, who washed and was cleansed from leprosy in the Jordan, I washed in the river at Lourdes and was cured.  And like the leper who returns to give thanks, I want to publicly thank Jesus for healing me.

In thanking Jesus and the Blessed Mother for healing me, I also want to say that my brain tumor was one of the best things that could have ever happened to me and so I want to thank Jesus for the gift not just of my healing but also the gift of the tumor surgeries, radiation and chemo as well.  Almost nothing in my life is the same since my surgeries radiation and chemo, and I have realized that all those differences in my life since the surgeries radiation and chemo have been blessings!

I thought I was offering up my suffering for the victims of Catholic clergy sexual abuse, but I have realized that the number one person God used my suffering to help has been me.  St. Therese wrote that the best thing God could have done in her soul was “to have shown her her smallness”  And I would echo that in my own life as well…the greatest thing I learned through the tumor, radiation and chemo was my own smallness.

 

One of the first blessings after learning my own smallness was that I got off social media.  Another blessing was that my suffering got me to get rid of my smartphone, and it got me off tv.  Chemo got me eating healthier, and since I don’t have tv anymore I’ve been able to get tons more sleep.

All those changes in my life got me to start noticing my parishioners more.  I always just thought I was bad with names, but it turns out that in my case, when I cut a lot of the noise and distractions out of my life, I AM able to remember names, and pray for parishioners by name and be more present to parishioners and those living in my parish boundaries.

Chemo and radiation and the suffering also got me to realize how often I was talking about people not present, spreading gossip and committing all kinds of sins with my talk.  That realization has led me to make a promise to never talk about a person who is not present, unless it is to say something positive about that person.

I was and still am totally fine if I would die, but my tumor brought me to Lourdes and on that trip, in addition to the miraculous healing, I began to recognize God’s unwavering Love for me in that God answered all my thousands of prayers on that trip, and I began to see God’s love for me more clearly.

I think both of my parishes need a place where we can write down all the things we want to THANK God for.   We are really good about asking each other and the parish for prayers, but we are not very good about thanking God for blessings and miracles.  My prayer is that all of us, in the midst of the sufferings of our lives might realize two things:

1)     Your personal suffering can be offered up for other people and bear real fruit in their lives

2)     That God is able to use your personal suffering to help YOU, as I have just recently come to realize

Let us all resolve to give God thanks for all the miracles that He has worked in our lives, and wants to work in our future.  The Mass is the greatest way that we can give thanks to God…it is the way God desires most clearly to be thanked.  Eucharist means thanksgiving.  So let us give thanks to the Lord our God, because it is right and just.  May we be just like the leper who was healed, and let us return not just once, but again and again to Mass to say “thank you” to Jesus.

Finally for Free - "For Love Alone"

 This is a 15 minute film I originally purchased in 2015, and I am so glad that Grassroots Films has released it on Youtube!  It is a BEAUTIFUL film highlighting the beauty of Religious Life in the USA today.

"I no longer call you servants" Homily for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Homily for the 27^th Sunday in Ordinary Time…From Servant to Friend

Jesus says at the end of our Gospel today: “When you have done all you have been commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants; we have done all that we were obliged to do.'"

 

Those are harsh words from Jesus – but later on, at the Last Supper, Jesus says in John chapter 15 verse 15 “I no longer call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing.  I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from My Father.”

 

That is a MASSIVE swing from servant to friend!

 

So how do we grow in friendship with Jesus?

 

1)    Spend time with him each day and talk to Him in prayer, and even if you do not hear anything back, just be content to sit and rest in Jesus

 

2)    Love what and who Jesus Loves.  Jesus loves every human person.  Jesus also says he has a special place in his heart for the poor.  Do we love every human person, are we working and willing each person’s good, and do we love the poor?

 

3)    Remove anything from your life that is telling you that Jesus is not your friend.  If there are any songs or movies or shows or games or radio that are telling you that God doesn’t love you, stop immediately.

 

For some reason that we will only know when we die or when the Lord returns, God has allowed the Devil to suggest things to us in our mind.  Do not listen to that voice.  God always speak to us calmly and quietly, even when He is nudging us to confession.  The Devil is suggesting some combination of “Look what you’ve done”…”God loves some people but he does not love you” just ignore the voice of condemnation and listen to the quiet voice of God speaking to you

 

Jesus is clear at the Last Supper, He does not desire us to be His servant, He desires us to be His friend.  Let us take Him up on His offer!

St. Francis 2022

 

The Memorial of Saint Francis 2022

As I have stated before in Homilies and even gave a retreat on this topic last Fall, as I was going through Chemo at Fr. Meyer’s, I came across a collection of all the encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII and was struck particularly by his encyclical on the Saint we celebrate today…Saint Francis.  It is actually titled in English “On Saint Francis”

Just a few quotes from the encyclical:

11. “amidst the effeminacy of the time, Francis is seen to go about careless and roughly clad, begging his food from door to door, not only enduring what is generally deemed most hard to bear, the senseless ridicule of the crowd, but even to welcome it with a wondrous readiness and pleasure.”

 

23. “you well know, venerable brethren, that no small alleviation is to be found in the institutes of St. Francis, if only they are brought back to their pristine state; for if they only were in a flourishing condition, faith and piety, and every Christian virtue would easily flourish; the lawless desire for perishing things would be broken; nor would men refuse to have their desires ruled by virtue”

 

25. “We have always bestowed special care upon the Third Order of St. Francis…We exhort Christian men not to refuse to enroll themselves in this sacred army of Jesus Christ…(may you) strive to imitate (St. Francis)…Therefore take pains that the people may become acquainted with the Third Order and truly esteem it; provide that those who have the care of souls teach what it is,

how easily anyone may enter it,

with how great privileges tending to salvation it abounds,

and what advantages, public and private, it promises.”

 

That is why I am pursuing the Third Order Franciscans.  The plan is for me to make my promises in November.  Please pray for me, and I invite anyone who feels called to discern the 3^rd order of St. Francis to pursue it as well.  There is a fraternity in Bloomington, there is a fraternity in Terre Haute.

 

St. Francis, pray for us.

Saint Augustine on Catholic Giving 50% of their income - homily for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Saint Augustine on Catholics Giving 50% of their income

As I was doing research for last weekend’s homily on the steward slashing out his take from the master’s bills, I also came across an interesting thing that Saint Augustine said.  St. Augustine said that the steward, in telling the person who owed 100 measures of oil to sit and write a new bill for 50 measures of oil…the meaning of that action is this…Jews were commanded by God to give 10% to God, but Catholics should give half of their income to God.

The Archdiocese of Indianapolis assigns to each new priest a mentor priest who is not the newly ordained priest’s pastor, and so I met with him once a month for a year or so.  He said he always published his tax returns in the bulletin.

 

So my recent tax returns, for the year 2021 I had a total gross income of 34,485.  My charitable donations totaled $17,243.  I didn’t crunch the numbers until today, but it worked out that last year I gave away to charity exactly 50%.  The largest part was to Saint Paul’s and Annunciation, roughly 11,000 dollars to the 2 parishes, and another 2,500 dollars to FOCUS missionary efforts, 2,000 dollars to the Archdiocese of Indianapolis annual appeal, and then the rest to catholic charitable organizations working all over the world to help the poorest of the poor.

 

So why do I share this?  Don’t I know that Jesus says in Matthew chapter 6 that we should keep quiet when we give alms, and that we should not let our left hand know what our right hand is doing, and that if we announce our giving, we have already received our reward?  I have made the decision, through prayer, to forego my reward as my mentor pastor 14 years ago, in order to inspire Catholics to open their hearts more to the poor.  Catholics are statistically at the bottom in terms of their giving …and so I am sharing my giving publicly.  We live in a community where we are mostly sheltered from having to step right over poor people sitting at our doors, as the rich man in today’s parable in our Gospel had to step right over the poor man Lazarus.  But we don’t have to look far to see the poor in our community.  And also, the Catholic Church challenges us to give to all parts of the world generously as well.  To give to help eliminate the deaths of 25,000 children who starve to death every day around the world, to give so that our parishes can help alleviate the needs of the poor in our local communities and also provide a beautiful place of refuge for the poor in our communities.

 

In chapter 6, verse 38 of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus says “Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”  Let us all examine our giving, and trust that when God dares us to outdo him in generosity, that God really will supply all our needs.

What in the world is going on with this parable?!? Homily for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022

 

 “What in the world is going on with this parable?”

This week, I fielded lots of questions from our youth groups about today’s parable, and the questions were understandable.  Why does Jesus appear to praising dishonesty?

I have done more research for this homily than any other homily in my life.  And I found the answer on Friday, just in the nick of time!  One of probably 20 commentaries I checked was the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website, where they have the entire Catholic Bible, along with the readings for each day of the year.  The Bishops’ website is an awesome tool, and I highly recommend their website for going deeper into Scripture.

I found the answer in a footnote about the parable of the “dishonest steward”, which says this (and here I am paraphrasing): “The parable of the dishonest steward has to be understood in light of the custom in Palestine at the time of Jesus where stewards would add an expected cut for themselves in addition to what their master charged.

The dishonesty of the steward refers to the fact that the steward squandered his master’s property through dishonesty.  The dishonesty does not refer to the steward adding on his own cut to the master’s charge.  The master then commends the steward who has decided to not take his, the steward’s, own portion, but only having them write out the amount that each owed the master.

The steward acts in this way in order to win over the debtors because the steward and master both know he is being dismissed from his position.  The parable, then, teaches the prudent use of one’s material goods in light of an imminent crisis.”

So that is the end of the note on the bishops’ website.  A modern example might be a stock broker who knows he is going to be fired, and decides he will cut out his own commission in order to build up a relationship of trust with his clients, so that when he loses his job, the clients might give him a recommendation for his next job.  The stock broker does not defraud his company.  And the steward in the parable does not defraud his master.

What is the application for us…I think one of the things that Jesus is trying to say to us with this parable is that we are always facing the real possibility that at any moment we could die.  Are we always worried about making money and building bigger barns to store it all in?  God has given us countless material blessings…do we hold on to the material blessings tightly, or do we share generously and freely with the poor? 

If we do share our money freely with the poor, the poor will be there on the day of judgment ready to explain to God how we helped them and we put their needs ahead of our own needs. And, lest we think we are buying the vote of a poor person for us on the day of judgment, St. Thomas Aquinas clarifies that those of us who give alms to the poor in order to obtain from them the assistance of their prayers do not give with the intent of buying their prayers; but by our giving generously to the poor we can inspire the poor to pray for us out of charity. (Summa, second part of the second part, question 100, article 3, reply to objection 2)

Lord, may you open our hearts to continue to grow in generosity toward the poor in our own community and all throughout the world.  Amen!

Our Lady of Sorrows Homily for 2022

Our Lady of Sorrows

When I was up at Mayo Clinic after my first brain surgery, it took me about 5 days to wake up.  I was only awake about 5 minutes each day, and the thing I remember seeing is my Mom at the foot of my bed.  Sometimes it was night and she was hunched over in a chair sleeping at my feet.  Other times she was praying a rosary.  A few weeks later I remember telling my friend Fr. Meyer as I was preparing to go the next morning into emergency surgery…I said “I know this is harder on my friends and family than it is me.”  And I meant my mom and dad first and foremost.

 

Mary too was at the foot of the Cross, and while my parents and family and myself are all sinners, Mary and Christ were both without sin.  So their love was even more perfect than my mother and family’s love for me, but also love does not really admit of degrees.

 

Saint Bernard in today’s office of readings says “Truly, O blessed Mother, a sword has pierced your heart.  For only by passing through your heart could the sword enter the flesh of your Son”

 

Some of us here today might not know their mother.  Some of us here today may not have a good relationship with their mother.  And some of us here this morning may have a mother who has died.  But now our Blessed Mother sits in Heaven at the right side of her son Jesus.  She is now the mother of all of us, so whether we have a great relationship with our earthly mother or not, Mary desires nothing more than to intercede for us and our intentions.

 

Let us go to Mary with our needs and our intentions, asking Her to place our needs and petitions at the foot of Her Son, where once she watched him die, but now rejoices with Him in Heaven.

Bob Boyle Funeral Homily

 

Bob Boyle funeral homily

 

First of all to Rita, on behalf of all of us in this Church, it was an honor and a privilege to have a front row seat for your 69 years of married life with Bob.  The way you cared for him during his battle with Alzheimer’s, even taking a job as a receptionist at the Hermitage during Covid so that you could still be with him every day…heroic even falls short of describing what you did for Bob and how you loved him more than yourself.

 

Sean and Angie, Colleen and Mark, Molly and Ed, Kevin and Amy and Brian and Q, it was an also an honor and a privilege to see how you all supported Rita in your various ways.  In our first reading today we heard this “take care of your father when he is old, even if his mind fail, be considerate of him.”  You all lived that out in a special way that none of us who watched from a distance will ever forget.

 

The south side Catholic community is a village, and there is truth that it does take a village to raise children.  Melissa Allerd, Don Elbreg, Kirk Heisig, Myself, Matt Hollowell, Father Tony Hollowell, Kathy Marren, Mike Moylan, Jimmy Moylan, Ann Reece, Judy Reichmuth, Matt Tebbe, and Candy Thorn all spent significant time growing up at 421 Daffon Drive and that circle only expanded as the Boyle children grew older.

 

Brian started an annual golf tournament when Bob was first diagnosed with Alzheimer’s with the intent of bringing Fathers and Sons together, and that golf tournament has impacted tons of Father-Son relationships, and most of those fathers and sons are here today.  The annual golf tournament got a write up in Golf Digest, and at the end of the article Bob shared:  "Thank God for my son. This trip is the best thing that ever happened to us."

 

Bob loved the Catholic Church.  He was a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, some of whom are here today.  He was an active member of the Knights of Columbus.  He loved all things Irish, and Saint Patrick’s day was always his favorite day of the year.  He was a huge Notre Dame fan, which is a requirement for any Irish Catholic.

He spent most of his retirement in service to the Catholic Church.  He helped with technology here at St. Barnabas, and his kind Irish heart even allowed him to cross over into enemy territory to help at St. Jude with their technology as well!  He donated his time also to Roncalli High School, and IPS – teaching elementary computer technology.  Here at St. Barnabas, Bob also served as a reader for Masses, as a member of the Finance and Technology Committees, he served on the Parish Council, and, fittingly, he served as a marriage prep mentor to couples preparing for marriage at St. Barnabas. 

 

 

 

We hear about the summit of the Catholic Faith in our Gospel today. That center of the Catholic Church is the belief in Jesus Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist.  The belief that Christ is really present, Body Blood Soul and Divinity at Mass made the Catholic Mass a non-negotiable for him and his family every weekend.  I remember coming to Saint Barnabas often after spending a Saturday night at the Boyle’s.  It was not even a question…Bob took Jesus’ words seriously and came with his family to Mass every week, and it formed the center of Bob’s life.  In our Gospel today Jesus says to a crowd “Amen Amen I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you do not have life within you.  Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.”  Bob ate the Body of Christ, and so we now commend Bob to Jesus, trusting that Jesus will keep his promise and raise Bob up on the last day.

 

Bob Boyle, know that we will continue to offer Masses for you and to pray for you.  Please pray for us.   

"Where is Heaven" - Homily for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 2022

 

Where is Heaven? Homily for the 24^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sam Harris, who is a celebrity in the atheist community, several weeks ago asked the question, “Where is Heaven anyway?” He then gave the response: “We have all these satellites in space and no one has even seen heaven”

 

Sam Harris echoed the now 60-year-old comment from Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin after the first manned spaceflight when Yuri said "I went up to space, but I didn't encounter God."

 

Saint Paul, however, in our 2^nd reading today, gives us the only real and logical notion of Heaven and God when Saint Paul says “To the king of ages, invisible, the only God”  invisible means not able to be seen. 

 

Here is what Sam Harris and Yuri Gagarin and most atheists do not understand: time and space are finite concepts, and God is not limited by them.   The Catechism of the Catholic Church says in paragraph 2794 that when we pray “Our Father, who art in Heaven” Heaven does not mean a place and the Catechism continues “Our Father is not "elsewhere": God transcends everything we can conceive of”

 

I think Sam Harris is expressing a question that most Catholics have as well about Heaven and its location.

 

But we can rest assured that Heaven is real even though it is not present somewhere in the universe.  God made the universe, and time and space.  Heaven is occupied by the angels and all the saints who have died in a state of grace and, every person in Heaven is experiencing eternal and infinite bliss beyond the universe.

 

Lord, we ask tonight for the strength to continue to conform our lives to your plan, knowing that when we do that, it helps us both to experience peace in this life, even amidst great suffering, and also our conforming our lives to your plan will eventually allow us to enter the eternal and infinite bliss of seeing you face to face in Heaven.

Joyce Barrell funeral homily

 

First of all, I would like to thank every parishioner of Annunciation.  To try and list everyone who helped Joyce would be pointless because literally every parishioner helped Joyce in some way.

 

First of all, a lot of parishioners were involved in cleaning out her rental apartment.  Joyce had some sort of mental break when her mother died, and basically her apartment was frozen in time from when her mom died.  As we were cleaning out her rental 7 or 8 years ago, We found a lot of cards from Joyce’s mom to Joyce with the “Hallmark Lady who was always saying inappropriate things, was always wearing a hat and a coat and smoking.”  It occurred to me after seeing all of those cards that perhaps Joyce was in some way, in the deep recesses of her mind, keeping that connection to her mom alive by acting that character out every day, even though it got her thrown out of most of the establishments in Brazil!

 

The entire parish was involved because our St. Vincent DePaul Society paid for 3 dumpsters worth of trash to be hauled away from her apartment, parishioners helped mover her into the Brazil towers, parishioners straightened out her finances, parishioners did her legal work, parishioners helped her when it was time to move from Brazil towers to the nursing home, parishioners brought Joyce the Eucharist while she was in the nursing home.

 

Caring for Joyce Barrell is the single greatest act, on the part of a parish, that I have ever witnessed as a pastor.

 

And, in caring for Joyce, I think we all learned again the lesson that is all over the New Testament; caring for someone does not just help that person, and it is not just some tally mark that goes into our column only to be paid out to us at the Final Judgment; no, helping Joyce changed every single one of us, for the better, WHILE we were helping her.

 

Joyce Barrell, we will continue to pray for you.  Please pray for us!  Amen.

"The Church's Teaching on Contraception Brought Me Back to the Catholic Church"

 This is a talk given by Dr. Maria Bajuyo at one of my parishes 7 years ago.

Talk 5 Years Ago on ministering to people with gender issues

 I think this talk was one of my best so far, not because I planned it out that way, but because the Holy Spirit took over in some spots and allow me the opportunity to process some of the things that had happened over the first few years of my priesthood.  I hope it helps some of you.

Homily for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, 2022

 

St. Bede provides us some comfort when we hear Jesus say in our Gospel today “anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple”  St. Bede says there is a difference between renouncing all of our possessions, which Jesus DOES ask us to do, and LEAVING all of our possessions, which Jesus only asks some people to do.

 

The people that Jesus asks to LEAVE their possessions are monks and nuns

 

So first of all, some of you here today might be hearing Jesus call you to LEAVE all your possessions and follow him.  Let me know at some point if you are hearing Jesus invite you to becoming a monk or a nun, and I can help answer any initial questions and connect you with people who will help you figure out where God is calling you to.

But most of us, myself included, are not monks or nuns, so the question remains from our Gospel today: what does it look like for me to RENOUNCE my possessions but not leave them all behind?

 

And elsewhere in the Gospels Jesus gives us some examples because there are an infinite number of ways that we can loosen our grip on our material possessions…

Matthew 5:40 Jesus says if someone asks for your coat, give them your coat and also your undercoat as well

Are we willing, at a moment’s notice, to give to someone who needs what we have?

 

Jesus also says if someone wants you to accompany them for a mile, Jesus instructs us to accompany them for 2 miles. 

Do we have friends or family who desire us to help them?  Nursing homes are awfully lonely places, do we go and visit family and friends there?  Do we visit fellow parishioners? 

Are there other ways, besides walking, that we can accompany those who need some of our time?  Time is a precious commodity in our culture…are we generous with our time?

We don’t necessarily need to leave all of our possessions behind, but I think if we are honest we can loosen on our grip on our possessions, on our money and our time.  If we don’t at least loosen our grip, we risk not being a disciple of Jesus.

The Path of Humility - Homily for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, year C, 2022

 

A theme that we hear about in both our first reading and in our Gospel today is humility.  There are at least a thousand different true directions that a homily on humility could take, so I would just like to focus on one aspect of humility.  Humility can be understood as not being afraid of being humiliated.

 

I was listening to Catholic Radio this week, and a person brought up that particular aspect of humility as not being afraid of being humiliated.

 

And that struck me as so true.  So often, I am afraid of being humiliated, and while, since becoming a priest, I have not lied to avoid being humiliated, I certainly have in some instances not been as forthcoming as I could have been in order to avoid being humiliated.

 

And so I think one question for all of us, including myself, for an examination of conscience is “do I avoid being humiliated?”

 

And lest this homily sound like some random reflection on humility, I think it is important to call to mind that Jesus EMBRACED being humiliated.  He is 100 percent human like us in every way, and yet

He allowed himself to be humiliated by the spitting and the punches of the soldiers whom He created,

He allowed himself to be humiliated by getting whipped with cords and crowned with thorns

He also allowed himself to be humiliated by being stripped of all of his clothing in front of his Mom and everyone else who saw His Crucifixion.

And Jesus’s death on a cross was considered the ultimate humiliation for a faithful Jew (which Jesus was) because Deuteronomy chapter 21 says a person who is put to death on a tree is cursed

 

Humility is the antidote to pride, and so often our fear of being humiliated is rooted in our pride.  May we never run from an opportunity to embrace humiliation.   May we never lie or tell only part of the truth in order to avoid humiliation.

Saint Augustine, who we always remember every August 28^th in the Catholic Church said “Let us follow Christ’s paths which He established, above all the path of humility”

Avoiding humiliation, whether in our marriage, our family, our parish, or in our larger community, is a great temptation.  But let us not avoid humiliation but rather embrace those moments head on, because Jesus first embraced all of His humiliation.

Queenship of Mary, August 22nd 2022

 

Today the Church celebrates the Queenship of Mary

 

This memorial was set up with an encyclical written by Pope Pius XII in 1954

 

The encyclical has lots of awesome references, mostly from early Saints in the Church, and so I would just like to mention some of them In case anyone is under the impression that Mary’s queenship was just discovered in 1954

St. Andrew of Crete frequently attributes the dignity of a Queen to the Virgin Mary. For example, he writes, "Today Christ transports from her earthly dwelling, as Queen of the human race, And in another place he speaks of "the Queen of the entire human race.”

St. Germanus speaks to the humble Virgin in these words: "Be enthroned, Lady, for it is fitting that you should sit in an exalted place since you are a Queen and glorious above all kings."

She is called by St. John Damascene "Queen, ruler, and lady," and also "the Queen of every creature."

In the eighth century Gregory II called the Mother of God: "The Queen of all Christians."

Pope Sixtus IV described Mary as the Queen Who is always vigilant to intercede with the king whom she bore.

Pope Benedict XIV wrote an encyclical called Mary the Queen of heaven and earth

St. Alphonsus Ligouri, wrote "Because the virgin Mary was raised to such a lofty dignity as to be the mother of the King of kings, it is deservedly and by every right that the Church has honored her with the title of 'Queen'.

Furthermore, the Church sings hymns such as "Hail, Holy Queen"

 

We can rest assured that since her Assumption, Mary was crowned the queen of Heaven and Earth, and desire nothing more than to intercede for us.

 

Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth, pray for us!

Homily for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

 

Someone asked him, "Lord, will only a few people be saved?" He answered them, "Strive to enter through the narrow gate.”

 

1)    First of all, that same question is asked by lots of people today to Jesus, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?”  But see what Jesus does; He doesn’t answer the question.  And really, what good would it have done if Jesus had answered that question? 

 

If Jesus had said “Yes only a few will be saved”, everyone would still wonder “But will I be saved?” 

 

And likewise if Jesus had answered, “No, lots of people will be saved” that answer leaves the individual person still wondering about their salvation.  Instead of answering the question, Jesus responds with this line “Strive to enter through the narrow gate”.  It seems to me that one of the things Jesus is doing here is He is again restating the importance of following His teachings in this moment, right now, today.  And then we are to do the same thing the next day, and if we string enough days together where we cooperate with God’s plan, then Heaven will be there for us at the end.

 

2)    Secondly, that is what I love about being Catholic…the Church echoes the teachings of Jesus Christ and gets us to focus on the here and now as the only arena of spiritual battle of importance.  So many of us are worried and even haunted by the sins in our past, but one confession restores us back to full spiritual strength. 

 

At the same time, so many of are worried and fearful for what the future will hold, but Christ encourages us to trust in Him.  And Christ and His Bride the Catholic Church tell us a thousand different ways that the present moment is where Christ is to be found, and He is most clearly found in the Sacraments of the Catholic Church, and the central Sacrament of the Catholic Church is what we are celebrate here in this particular Mass.

 

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for shepherding us through our past, and also shepherding us through our fears of what will come, and for encouraging us to continue to strive to enter through the narrow gate!