Fr. Matt's Homilies

Click here for the Gospel reading.

Greatest commandment…typical question for Rabbis in Jesus’ time.  It was also commonplace for the Rabbi to not only give one commandment but to tie it to a second one.  Although Jesus’ Greatest Commandment of love of God and love of neighbor was deeply rooted in Sacred Scripture, it was a novel answer.  It would not have been the answer of other rabbis who would try to sum-up Israel’s 500+ precepts.  Jesus’ Commandment was revolutionary.  If it seems that this Greatest Commandment is not revolutionary, it is because Christianity has changed the morality of all cultures since Jesus.  When we follow Jesus’ Greatest Commandment, we get our relationships in the right order: Jesus first, then Others, and lastly Yourself.  This spells J-O-Y, joy; we experience joy when we get this order right.  However, if we do it in the opposite manner—Yourself first, then Others, than Jesus—then it spells Y-O-J, which could stand for “You Only Judge.”

The first half of the Commandment is love of God: "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”  An Old Testament figure that radically lived this out was Job.  Job had blessed with a wife, many children and material things most of his blessings were taken away in an instant.  Rather than curse God, Job said, “The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.”  Job had discovered that if he had God, he had everything.  Our love of God must be independent of circumstances, or in other words, we must love God totally in every circumstance, even in this pandemic.

Our love of God is shown by keeping His Commandments, especially the second half of Jesus’ Great Commandment of love of neighbor: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  When Jesus says to love our neighbor, he is talking more than just our family members, friends, those who live on our street, or even those we agree with or live lives similar to us.  The answer to the question, “Who is our neighbor?” was given to us in the Good Samaritan parable.  The Good Samaritan shows us that everyone, even our enemies and those on the “other side” (such as politically), are our neighbors.  We are to give them our love by praying for them and desiring to be with them in Heaven.

In the First Reading, we heard of several of the groups of people who need special assistance:  Migrants, Widows, and the Destitute (more than just poor).  These all seem to apply to our modern times.  The immigration system in the U.S. is unjust and has been unjust for many, many years—more than just the current administration or the past administration.  As for widows in these days, they might not be on the verge of being denied things like food and clothing (like in Jesus’ day), but assisted living facilities (which are necessary) nonetheless drain the elderly of the little resources they have.  Additionally, widows are rather isolated from visits from family members, especially during this pandemic.  And as for the destitute, they have maybe made some poor life decisions or, like Job, have had everything taken away from them through no fault of their own.  Debt of any kind is difficult to handle.  We are blessed here at SEAS that we retired our debt in the last year.  But many, many people have serious debt through things like college expenses and credit card bills.  We as Christians can—and are called—to work together to bring freedom to all the migrants, widows, and destitute.  Giving alms, for instance, can be a way to atone for our own sins and to provide for the needs of others.

St. Teresa of Calcutta is a saint from recent times who radically lived out love of neighbor.  She and her Sisters would take in the poorest of the poor from the streets of Calcutta and care for them with dignity.  They saw Christ in those poorest of the poor.  They took to heart Jesus’ words: “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.”

My brothers and sisters, Jesus has given us the simple Commandment of loving God and loving neighbor.  The challenge is in living it out.  If we think that we can do it on our own, we will always fail.  But with God’s help, we can truly love like Christ: totally and faithfully.
 

Click here for the Gospel reading.

Do you remember the royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana in 1981?  I don’t, because I wasn’t born yet!  Three-quarters of a billion people worldwide watched it.  Diana, the former pre-school teacher, wore a wedding dress with a 25-foot train.  They had 27 wedding cakes, including a 5-foot tall main cake that took almost 3 months to complete (they had a second one ready in case something happened to the first).  Total cost:  $48 million (or $137 million in today’s [2020] money), making it the most expensive wedding ever (almost twice as much as the wedding the 2018 Royal Wedding with Meghan Markle [2020: $70M]).

A wedding banquet of such extravagance is at the heart of our Gospel passage today.  A king has prepared a gigantic banquet for his son, the prince, by having his calves and fattened cattle killed for it.  The king had sent out invitations in advance and then a summons when everything was prepared. 

At the end of the parable of the wedding banquet, Jesus states, “Many are invited, but few are chosen.”  Although many people were invited to the wedding, some of them didn’t show up.  They were indifferent to it and found excuses to not come…one to his business and another to work on his farm.  Similarly for the Princess Diana wedding, many were invited; literally, anyone could have watched it on TV.  But some didn’t either because they slept through it, they had to work, or they just didn’t care about it.  To be at the royal wedding itself, people had to be in the special graces of the royal family.  Some of those invited, though, had to send in their regrets, whatever the excuse was.

We all are invited to “show-up” to God’s wedding banquet, which is called the Wedding Banquet of the Lamb.  Our Heavenly Father is the king who wants to throw a no-expenses spared banquet for His Son, Jesus, who has wedded Himself to the Church, which He gave up His Life for.  The saints and angels in Heaven already are celebrating that eternal Wedding Banquet.  We enter into it every time we come to Mass.  Since it is Heaven on Earth, it’s the greatest thing we can experience on Earth.  It’s the feast of rich food and choice wines from our 1st Reading.  The Eucharist—Jesus sacramentally present to us at Mass—has been called the source and summit of our lives as Christians.

There are many things—either during this pandemic or outside of it—that prevent us from showing up to the Wedding Banquet.  Those with underlying serious health conditions have not been able to attend Mass…many of them have been watching online or on TV.  Although the dispensation to attend Mass is still in-place, some bishops, like Fr. Michael’s former pastor, Bishop Don DeGrood of Sioux Falls has greatly narrowed the dispensation.  Archbishop Hebda will do the same here, too, although it’s still a little ways off at this point.  Occasionally outside of the pandemic, you might be somewhere that would be very difficult (like over 50 miles of driving) or impossible to get to Sunday Mass.  Obviously, when you can’t get to Mass, you aren’t required to go.  But other times, we might have a sports tournament or a vacation for which attending Sunday Mass would be a mere inconvenience.  In that case, it would be sinful to miss Mass—it would be putting our selfish needs above the greatest responsibility to give God our best in worship.
 
Whether we are dispensed to be at Mass or not, we have to keep in mind God’s commandment of “Keeping Holy the Lord’s Day.”  If we are not obligated to go to Mass, God’s commandment means that we still need to do something like watch the Mass or at least spend some time praying through the Sunday readings.  Maybe you know people who used to attend the wedding banquet of Mass but have chosen not to go any longer (like some extended family I just heard about this week).  Try to share with them how much we enjoy feasting on God’s love and mercy.  Invite them to come home.

Sometimes showing-up isn’t enough, though.  There’s little known about the man without a proper wedding garment in the Gospel.  We each received our wedding garment at our baptism.  The priest or deacon said to us, “See in this white garment the outward sign of your Christian dignity…bring that dignity unstained into the everlasting life of Heaven.”  Unfortunately, the man in the Gospel passage, had either a stained wedding garment or something that wasn’t fit for such a royal banquet.  The man was at fault as evidenced by the King’s words leaving him speechless.  He had failed in charity—loving God with his whole being and loving his neighbor as himself.  His punishment is to be bound and cast out into the darkness…a symbol of Hell.
My brothers and sisters, how do we not just “show up” to Mass or to our particular judgment after death without a clean wedding garment?  It’s by knowing and loving the King, our Heavenly Father, and His Son the Prince, our Lord Jesus Christ.  Obeying the Church is obeying Christ.  If the Church says something is sinful, it’s for our own good to avoid it…to keep our wedding garment unstained.  This is private revelation, but Our Lady of Fatima said that more souls go to Hell over sins of the flesh than any other type of sin. 

That seems reasonable.  Sins of the flesh include anything that violates the goodness that God had designed in the marital act—sex outside of marriage, pornography, masturbation, contraception.  For example, there can be a real and natural desire to want to space kids, but contraception isn’t the means to do it but Natural Family Planning (NFP) is the means.  NFP is science-based and not just the rhythm method from earlier times.

My brothers and sisters, as much as you might have wanted to be a guest at the Lady Diana’s royal wedding (or the one in 2018), we should even more desire to be at the eternal Wedding Banquet of the Lamb in Heaven.  We first need to reject any excuse to not participate in it in this life.  When we do come into the King’s presence at the end of our life, our greatest gift will be our unstained wedding garment.


Homily for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time; October 4

Click here for the Gospel reading.

Vineyards were very common in the ancient middle east.  That is why vineyards were also a common image in the Bible.  (It’s too bad it wasn’t hops, since I prefer beer…but I digress).  The vineyards in our readings today symbolize God’s people Israel.  Israel had been planted in good soil, but they produced wild grapes (or sour fruit) out of sinfulness.  The sending of messengers to find good fruit represent the Old Testament prophets like Isaiah (the author of our 1st Reading).  The murder of the son is obviously a foreshadowing of Jesus’ own Crucifixion outside the walls of Jerusalem.

The vineyards in our readings also represent the Church, and therefore, us.  The vineyard in the 1st reading had been trampled upon due to the sins of God’s people; our own sins make the Church appear as if it is broken down.  In the Gospel account, we hear of all the security that the vineyard owner had taken for his vineyard—he builds a hedge, digs a winepress, and puts in a tower.  Spiritually speaking, the hedge and the tower for the vineyard represent the great lengths that God has invested in us to keep us safe from threats to our souls.

The true vine is Jesus.  Jesus tells us that He is the Vine, we are the Branches.  As Jesus says, if we remain in Him, we will bear good fruit.  The good fruits that we can have through living in right relationship with God and others include acts of charity and mercy, doing our work (or homework) to the best of our ability, and making repairs for sins—our own and those of others.

Nobody is free from sin by their own efforts; only Jesus can deliver us.  To produce good fruit for the Lord, we need a strong aversion from sin, even venial sin (which do great harm to the soul).  Jesus is not only the Vine, but He is also, in this parable, the Winepress.  The winepress is used to crush the grapes so that all the juice that is used in making wine comes out.  Jesus, through His Crucifixion, was pressed to give His Life so that the good fruit of His Love would be available to us.  As we heard last week, we are to work in the Lord’s vineyard.  Part of that work is this:  Jesus now works to press us, emptying ourselves of our own will and desires, so that we can love God and others like Him.  Any time we look at a Crucifix or an image of Our Lord or Our Lady (who always had her eyes on the Savior), we grow in our love of God and we are given more strength to avoid sin going forward.

Whatever situation we find ourselves in, everything we do can be done out of love.  Every gift and opportunity we have can be offered back to God.  One of the most difficult moments of the day for a lot of people is when we wake-up, especially if it is to an alarm clock.  We might be tired (or really tired if you have an infant).  We probably just want to stay in bed, but this is precisely the moment when saints are made.  Out of love, we can cutback on the use of the “Snooze” button so that when the alarm goes off, it’s actually time to get-up.  This is the Heroic Minute…to start the day in prayer.  The time of prayer doesn’t have to be long (it’s called the Heroic Minute for a reason), but to get on our knees (if we can), to thank God for another day, to ask Him to be with us in what we know we have on our schedule, and to ask for His help for the surprises and temptations that will come our way.  Sometimes we encounter things that are frustrating like traffic jams or other drivers on the road, getting a mild illness or needing to quarantine due to having exposure to someone who tested positive to COVID.  That morning consecration to God as part of the Heroic Minute will help us to serenely accept those frustrations and to offer them back to God for our continuing conversion and the conversion of others.

Another thing we want to offer to God in a way like Jesus’ offering to the Father is our work (or homework, including for kids).  Sometimes just trying to stay focused is a difficult task.  We can begin our work with a prayer to ask that we offer this time to God.  We try to do our work in a concentrated manner.  When we are tempted to a distraction, rather than just give in, we can learn to say say, “Not now.”  Sometimes setting an alarm for 10 minutes can help us to gain self-control, because after the alarm goes off we might realize we don’t actually need to do the thing right then that we felt so drawn to.

My brothers and sisters, as grapevines in the Lord’s vineyard, we ask for the help today to stay connected to Jesus, to remain in Him.  By God’s grace, we grow in our love by offering the things of our life, including the first moment of our day as well as our work, to God.  By allowing Jesus the Winepress to lovingly crush us so that only God’s will remains us, we will become other Christs in this world.

Homily for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time; September 27

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Our Gospel tells us of two sons asked to work in their father’s vineyard.  One says “No,” but actually does go to work in the vineyard.  The other says “Yes,” but doesn’t do it.  What is left out of this parable is the best option—to say “Yes” to working in the Lord’s Vineyard and then to do it.  As Jesus says elsewhere in the Gospels, to have our “Yes” mean yes and our “No” mean no.

So how do we practically say “Yes” to working in the Lord’s Vineyard?  Working in the Lord’s Vineyard is not just for priests and religious but for all Christians.  It means first and foremost praying with the Lord every day—asking Him would He would have us do with our day and with the rest of our lives.  Once again, the Lord’s prayer is best prayer to commit ourselves to working in the Lord’s Vineyard.  During the Our Father, when we pray “Thy will be done,” we are praying that everything would go according to the plan He has for the world.  Consequently, if our will is not united with God’s will, then we need to let go our own will.
Another way we say “Yes” to working in the Lord’s Vineyard is being faithful to our promises.  We make promises at major moments in our life that are at the core of our being.  We make those promises before others and before God.

This occurs first and foremost at our Baptism, when we were made adopted children of God. For most of us who were children at baptism, our parents and godparents made the promises to raise us in the faith.  We take ownership for our own baptism promises every time we profess our faith, such as during the Creed at Mass.

At our Confirmation, we are given a grace from God to work to bring others into the Lord’s vineyard.  We have promised to bring others to Christ…do we ever offer to pray with people or invite them here to SEAS?
We make promises for our vocation.  For those who have been married in the Church, your Sacrament of Holy Matrimony has made you and your spouse 1 flesh.  On your wedding day, you made several promises.  One of the promises to be faithful—both physically and emotionally—to your spouse.  You also made the promise to accept children lovingly from God and (for the Catholic spouse) to bring them up in the Catholic faith.  Clergy and religious make promises of respect and obedience to their superiors, of chastity, and to pray for the sake of the Church.  Just as if a priest has stopped praying His Liturgy of the Office, if we ever find ourselves unfaithful to our promises, we ask for forgiveness from the Lord through Confession and lean more heavily on God’s grace going forward.  And if you were married outside the Church, please contact us to begin to get your marriage blessed by God.

We also make promises in our jobs, even if they aren’t solemn promises. Out of justice, we promise to do our work while we are “on the clock,” and to try to limit our distractions.
There’s another group of people who make special promises because of their important and difficult work.  Politicians and judges, take solemn oaths, because their work is concerned for “justice for all”—what is sometimes called the common good—giving what is due to another.  The Oath of Office is said at installations by elected officials, judges and military officials traditionally with the person holding their hand over a Bible.  In part it reads:
I, (Name), do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
“So help me God”?  A politician or a judge who sees their work as important in the Lord’s vineyard will turn to God regularly.  Since elections are determinative of who receives those offices, our voting at an election is an important moral act.  Our vote is not an endorsement of their personality, but it is an endorsement of their character and of their political courage.  The U.S. Bishops in their updated letter “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” state that there is one issue that is preeminent in 2020—the intentional killing of persons through abortion and euthanasia. 

The bishops write: “The threat of abortion remains our preeminent priority because it directly attacks life itself, because it takes place within the sanctuary of the family, and because of the number of lives destroyed.”  As for the numbers, in the U.S. it means about 1 million surgical or medical abortions a year or 61 million since Roe v. Wade.  The U.S. is also one of only 5 countries (including North Korea and China) that do not prohibit abortions after 24 weeks.

Politicians of good character recognize that abortion is the most important issue in our time, that Roe v. Wade must be reversed because it was a horrific decision.  A Christian politician of good character will pray, “God, my beliefs tell me that every life is sacred and yet there are many pressures for an expansion of abortion and euthanasia.  I must obey you rather than man.  I must obey your Church rather than my own will.”  On the other hand, a so-called Christian politician of bad character might say (if only subconsciously), “I’m personally opposed to abortion, but I’m going to do nothing to impose my views on others.  In fact, I’m going to do all I can to expand it both at home and abroad, and to make taxpayers fund it.  I welcome an endorsement by Planned Parenthood.”  When politicians get abortion and euthanasia wrong (which are moral issues and not so much political issues), when politicians don’t safeguard the justice of the most vulnerable people in our society, they are going to get other policies seriously wrong because they don’t have good character.

My brothers and sisters, we are being asked to work in the Lord’s Vineyard.  May we say “Yes” and follow through on it by turning to the Lord in prayer and being faithful to the promises we have made.  May we pray also for elected officials and judges that they would be faithful to their promises and vote for candidates who will be of good character, especially in the area of life.

Homily for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time; September 13

Click here for the Gospel reading.

We have some hard-hitting readings on forgiveness today.  The 1^st Reading tells us that the sinner hugs wrath and anger tightly.  These resentments are widespread in humanity—it’s more of a pandemic than Covid-19—but resentments seem especially common in families.  Often times a family member might even carry a resentment to another family member for years or decades without remembering even how it started.  Even here in Hastings, there are some resentments 25 years after the fact that St. Boniface and Guardian Angels had to merge into SEAS.

Many of you have seen the movie Home Alone—I watch it almost every December.  In the middle of the movie, the main character Kevin is at a church where he sees his neighbor who he is afraid of.  Kevin learns that his neighbor can’t really be around his son or granddaughter because of a falling out many years ago.  Kevin, in a maturity beyond his age, encourages his neighbor to make amends with his son for Christmas.  I suppose it spoils things a little bit, but the neighbor takes Kevin up on his offer and is reconciled with his son and granddaughter at Christmas.

Maybe you’ve heard that there’s two different types of anger—righteous anger and non-righteous anger.  Jesus had righteous anger when he overturned the tables in the Temple.  Righteous anger is the proper response to injustices; we should have a bit of righteous anger over the million plus babies killed through abortion every year.  But we cannot respond to an injustice in anger…we must respond in love.  Often times the anger we harbor can be rooted in a righteous anger—someone caused us a great harm.  But that anger becomes a sin, when (as St. Thomas Aquinas puts it) our passion for revenge goes beyond the control of reason.

The best way to grow in forgiveness is by praying for forgiveness.  And the best prayer is the one that Jesus gave us…the “Our Father.”  Every time as Mass, as well as maybe 10 or a 100 other times in the week, we pray the words, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  My brothers and sisters, God will only forgive us as much as we forgive others.  The mercy we extend to others is the mercy we will receive from God.

As Jesus’ parable shows us, God is willing to forgive us our large debts.  The large debt that the king forgives the one servant of was one that would have taken a really long time (100,000+ years) to pay back.  That stands for us, though, too.  We could never buy our way to Heaven after incurring debt through our sins.  But Jesus redeems us—which literally means, that He buys us back—He pays the debt for our sins so that we can enter into Heaven.  God is super-patient with us; we need to be patient with others.  If we don’t forgive the little debts that others have to us, we will be like the wicked servant who gets thrown into prison until he pays back the king his entire large debt.  True, we can’t change how we feel when someone wrongs us, but we can choose to love and forgive by allowing Jesus to forgive the other through us.

Letting go of our resentments is tough to do in practice.  Every day brings its own frictions, where we bump into others, especially those we live with.  Rather than letting those frictions or resentments fester, we can always choose to respond in love: to offer a smile or greeting or do something else to restore a friendship or relationship.  St. John of Avila has good advice for forgiveness:  if someone annoys you 50,000 times, that’s how many times you have to forgive them…your patience has to get ahead of your bad feelings.  St. Teresa of Avila has similar words for us: “the reason God gave us other people was so that we can learn to love like God loves” [paraphrase].  See if it was just us and God, we would be loving the one who was all perfect and all good, and who never did any harm to us. But that's not how God loves. He doesn't just love those who are good, he loves those who are wicked, he loves those who hate him, he loves those who sin against him. So in order for our love to not be love of only ones who do good to us, but to love our enemy as well, He gives us our neighbors.

If sinners hold on to resentments, it is the saints who learn to let go of other’s lack of love.  On December 28^th every year, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Innocents.  Those are the infants that were killed by Herod when he was trying to kill off the infant Jesus.  They had such a tragic end to those lives, but now those innocent toddlers are saints in Heaven.  This proves an interesting point:  it was not their parents’ love but rather Herod’s hatred that made them holy.  We all have a similar opportunity—through the Cross, we can deflect others’ hatred and sinfulness toward us and offer it back to God for the sake of our own conversion and the conversion of others.

Nettuno, Italy is best known by Americans as where Allies in World War 2 landed in Italy on their way to capture Rome.  But that’s not what brought me to Nettuno in January 2017.  My seminarian classmates and I went to the Basilica in Nettuno to see the remains of St. Maria Goretti, Virgin and Martyr.  She had died at the age of 11 at the hands of a young man who wanted to violate her.  Thirty years later, she appeared to her murderer in a dream giving to him 14 white lily flowers—a sign that he took he had been forgiven for his evil deed.  This vision moved the man to contrition, and he would spend the rest of his life atoning for his sins.  The story of St. Maria Goretti shows that God’s mercy is unrelenting, that forgiveness sets people free.

So my brothers and sisters, if we want to be holy like the saints, we need to let go of our resentments.  When we forgive, it is then that will truly live!

Homily for the 23rd Sunday in OT, September 6, 2020

Click here for the Gospel reading.

The last movie I saw in the Hastings Theater before Covid shut it down was “The Way Back” with Ben Affleck.  Affleck’s character is an alcoholic who catches a break with a Catholic high school to coach the boys’ basketball team to a new level only to have his addiction cost him his job when the season is on-the-line.  He couldn’t totally let go of his drinking habits by his own will; he needed to hit rock bottom to finally see why he couldn’t continue drinking excessively.  Affleck’s acting is quite good in the movie, perhaps because it hits close to home for him.  Just back in 2018, his own alcoholism led to an intervention by his wife, and then he checked into treatment, and later returned to his church.

Alcoholic interventions are a major way that loved ones get involved in correcting another’s problems.  An intervention allows loved ones to present the person with the addition the opportunity to accept their problem and make changes before the problem becomes significantly worse.

The need to correct another’s serious problem is mentioned by Jesus in today’s Gospel.  Jesus gives us a 3-Step process that would culminate in something like an intervention by the Church.

The first step is the fraternal correction.  It’s good to point out that the first step in correcting another’s sin is not any of the following: gossiping about the person’s fault to another co-worker, family member, or friend; giving the person the silent treatment; or reporting the wrong-doing first and foremost to a person’s superior (unless a person’s safety is in jeopardy).   No, Jesus speaks of fraternal correction: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.”  Notice that Jesus refers to the one who has sinned as a “brother”; we are always to see others who sin as having God-given dignity and never to see them as our enemies.  The phrase “tell him his fault” means “to lay open or uncover” his sin.  Since the sin has to be uncovered, it gives the perpetrator the benefit of the doubt—he might not realize that he has sinned or that his sin is serious.  This is a gentle rebuke, not a harsh one. 

The second step is bringing along one or two witnesses.  It is hard to know whether these witnesses have also directly observed the serious sin, but either way they are to go along to help to establish the seriousness of the offense.

The third step is telling the Church.  Jesus says “church” only one other time in Matthew’s Gospel…when speaking to Peter: “and on this rock I will build my church.”   Part of belonging to the Church, Christ’s Mystical Body, is that we have to go after the sheep who have wandered away.  Yes, there may be discipline involved, but it is a discipline that is more like medicine.  “Change your ways or you will miss out on the great reality that is Heaven, in being united with loved ones for all eternity.”  As the Church exists for the salvation of souls, the goal in any discipline is to reconcile the sinner with the community.  The Church may need to intervene, like an alcoholic’s intervention, to try to get them the help that they really need and to limit them from wounding others.

After speaking about action in correcting others’ sins, Jesus pivots to talk about the importance of prayer in getting a wayward brother or sister in Christ to overcome their sinfulness.  In the last few years, when evil has happened in our country or in our community, an increasing number of people say, “Prayer does nothing; we need action!”  Jesus rejects this belief; both action and prayer are necessary.  In fact, prayer in which “2 or 3 agree on anything” can lead to powerful action that would not have occurred if people would have kept their prayers to themselves or just acted without prayer.

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus expresses his great desire for unity…that “we would be one just like He and His Father are one.”  This God-given unity comes about through prayer.  So if you want a united family, pray!  “A family that prays together, stays together,” as the late Fr. Patrick Payton always said.  Having a culture of prayer in your house even when children are young will pay dividends down the road.  I remember fondly kneeling down as a family to say prayers in my sister’s bedroom growing up.  Rote prayers are important, especially for the youngest ones to learn.  However, saying petitions as a family teaches the youth to see God as someone to invite into all aspects of our life…not just at church once a week.

If you are looking for particular ways to pray as a family, our Catholic tradition gives us many.  Families can say grace at meals…even just the standard “Bless us, O Lord…”  Night prayers, including ones like “Now I lay me down to sleep…” can be a good way to unite the family before giving our sleep over to God.  But perhaps the greatest prayer for families is the family rosary.  If a full rosary sounds like a lot, start with a decade.  When we pray the rosary in a community, we are praying with our Blessed Mother just like the Disciples did in the Upper Room waiting for Pentecost.  The rosary is powerful:  it’s a public prayer said in the face of the ordinary and extraordinary needs everywhere—whether it be in the Church, the world, our nation, or in our personal lives.  And sometimes the most powerful prayers are those prayed by children.

You may have heard that SEAS will be doing a prayer campaign for “Nine Days of Healing” starting on the 14^th.  I’m sure couples and families can brainstorm great ideas to do together for that.  Maybe you’ll commit to saying a rosary each day for those 9 days.  Maybe it’s committing to having that conversation with a loved one that you’ve been afraid of having but you know that you’re the best one to let them know just how much harm their sins are causing.  Actions such as those can change peoples’ lives (like it did for Ben Affleck).  May we be strengthened by the Eucharist today to be the people of action and prayer that others need.

Click here for the Gospel reading.

I don’t own one and maybe you don’t either, but you are probably familiar with the Alexa device.  You can ask Alexa different questions...such as who is the founder of different churches.  If you were to ask her, “Alexa, who founded the Lutheran church?”, she would reply “Martin Luther.”  Or “Alexa, who founded Mormonism?...Joseph Smith.”  Or “Alexa, who founded Evangelical Protestantism?...John Wesley.”  Most telling, though, is when you ask her, “Alexa, who founded the Catholic Church?...Jesus Christ founded the Catholic Church.”
In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus instituting the Church… although its full significance won’t come to the disciples until Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension.  This is the first time that Jesus uses the word church in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus states, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.”
Before Peter is given this special power and responsibility (because “with great power comes great responsibility”), Jesus had put out a question to his disciples: “Who do you say that I am?”  This is the first time He has directly questioned His disciples about His identity; it’s no longer good enough to repeat what others have said.  As mentioned in the passage, some people in Jesus’ time were saying that He was just a prophet.  Nowadays if people were asked who Jesus was, they might say He was just a teacher or a good person.  My brothers and sisters, we have to be convinced by the real answer, the one given by St. Peter: “You are the Christ (or Anointed One), the Son of the Living God.” Or to put it succinctly: Jesus is Lord and God.  Jesus is to be Lord of our lives.
There is a phrase that goes back to the early Church that says: “Where Peter is, there is the Church, there too is God.”  Jesus, in choosing to not leave his Church abandoned, sent the Holy Spirit and appointed Peter as a visible head and shepherd of his whole flock.  All of the 266 popes throughout history can be traced back to St. Peter.  In modern times, we have been blessed with some great and holy popes: St. John XXIII, St. Paul VI, the philosopher St. John Paul II, and the theologian Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.  Our current pope, Pope Francis, is teaching us how to accompany others who do not currently belong to the flock.  As every soul on the earth is under the care of Pope Francis, he needs prayers from God’s holy people.  This is why we pray for the Pope in every Eucharistic Prayer at Mass.  It is also good in our daily prayers to pray for the Pope and the bishops united with him.  As Christians, we desire to be closely united to Christ.  Christ has willed this unity to also come about by being united to the person who is his representative on earth, the pope.
In the Gospel, Jesus gives St. Peter (and his successors) the power to bind and loose.  The phrase of “binding and loosing” is mentioned several times in the Old Testament (such as in our First Reading).  It has three meanings.  First, “binding and loosing” sometimes refers to teaching authority being given to a person. Second, it can refer to discipline in a community—whether one is kicked out or is admitted to the community.  Finally, it can refer to spiritual authority to forgive/retain sins.
All 3 of these meanings are meant here by Jesus…all 3 powers are given to the Pope.  The Deposit of Faith has been entrusted to the Pope and the Bishops.  As for determining who is a good standing member of the Church…who is united with the Pope and Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church requires a formal act (like a public profession of faith at Mass) for someone to become Catholic.  The Church is visible with a visible head, the Pope, so visible unity is to be sought by Christians.  Except for extreme situations, we don’t admit to Holy Communion non-Catholics, because their desire for the Eucharist should propel them to become visibly united to the Church of God.  The Church is concerned with scandal—sins that are publicly-known that lead some to question if the Church has changed her beliefs.  It is also in the authority of the Pope and Bishops to tell Catholics who are in scandalous situations—pro-abortion politicians or people who have married outside the church (and thus not really married in the eyes of God)—to rectify their situations before approaching for Holy Communion.  Finally, the Pope and Bishops have the power to pronounce the words of absolution in Confession…a power that is delegated to priests.  We know that when we hear the words of absolution in Confession that our sins have been forgiven.
My brothers and sisters, we desire to be united with Christ and His Church.  This also means being united with His representative on earth, the Pope.  May we do little acts of faith and love, such as praying for the Pope, so that we can live the unity that God desires for us.
 

 Homily for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 9, 2020 

Click here for the Gospel reading.

Sven and Ole were out in an ice fishing house during a blizzard.  They heard some noises outside.  Sven said to Ole, “I suppose we should go see what’s going on.”  So they stepped outside.  They saw a blurry figure saying to them, “Come.”  So they walked over to the figure and saw that it was Jesus.  Ole said, “You know, Jesus, this isn’t really a miracle, because we walk on water all winter.  A real miracle would be if you tried lutefisk and actually liked it!”

Now the miracle in the Gospel was an actual miracle; the lakes don’t freeze over in Israel.  The fear in the Disciples was an actual fear, too.  Just as the Disciples were afraid in the storm, we have become afraid in the storms of our life…some of which are storms that seem particular to this year of 2020.

We have all been greatly affected by the Coronavirus and fears of catching it ourselves or loved ones catching it, whether it’s even safe to go to the store or to social gatherings. Speaking more on the economic and social side, we had the closing of work, schools, and churches.  Many of you have been afraid as to whether you would have the money to survive.  There’s also the fear of stagnating in our job or education.
We have been hit by the storm of racial tensions.  It’s been about 2.5 months since George Floyd’s death that has rocked the world.  There have been fears of racism and fears of violence.

Another perennial storm in our lives can be our vocation (for many of you marriage).  At one point, we were probably in the Honeymoon or Infatuation stage when we were on Cloud 9 and things seemed so wonderful.  We had great expectations for our life ahead.  And then life happened…for you maybe it was kids, health issues, job difficulties, or arguments with your spouse.  We moved into a disillusionment stage, maybe saying to ourselves, “This isn’t what I signed-up for.”

Whatever our fears are, Jesus tells us, “Be not afraid.”  True, there are many things that we can’t control…but God does not leave us without help.  He desires us to turn to Him and to trust that true peace and joy can come from Him alone.

Peter, like the other Apostles, was filled with fear from the storm and in seeing Jesus as almost like a ghost.  But when Jesus said, “It is I,” he took it to mean that it was the Lord, the God-man.  In faith, Peter asked Jesus to tell him to walk on water.  And when Jesus told him to step out of the boat, he did so because he trusted Jesus.

Yes, it’s true that Peter was the only disciple that fell into the water that night when he took his eyes off Jesus, but he was also the only disciple that walked on water.  More importantly, too, Peter was the only disciple that was saved personally by the Lord that night; the other disciples were saved collectively on the boat.

My brothers and sisters, with all of the fears that surround us in our life, are we willing like St. Peter to leave them behind in the boat?  And step out in faith towards Jesus?  Jesus who calmed the wind and the seas and gave Peter the ability to walk on water is asking us to allow Him to have greater involvement in our lives.  When we are afraid, He cherishes us when, through prayer, we relate our fear to Him through prayer and, like St. Peter, say, “Save me!”  For the ways in which we feel paralyzed, maybe most significantly in your marriage, Jesus says take that first step.  Maybe it’s working at affirming your spouse, maybe it’s seeing a Christian counselor who can help you as a trusted advocate to work through things, maybe if you would like some marriage enrichment it’s going on a Marriage Encounter weekend.  Or, maybe if you and your spouse feel like your marriage is in crisis mode, then it’s taking a look at Retrouvaille.  Retrouvaille (which is a French term for re-awakening) is what my parents went through when I was 11.  Thousands of marriages have been saved through it.  Last week I attended one of their weekend retreats for hurting couples.  The communication skills that the couples learned gave them hope that they could work through their issues including significant ones like addictions and affairs.

My brothers and sisters, Jesus is inviting us to step out of the boat, to leave behind our fears, and trust in Him greater.  May we find the peace and joy that God desires for us by knowing that Jesus is with us in the storms of our life.

Homily for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time; August 2, 2020

Click here for the Gospel reading.

I was blessed to be able to be in the old Yankee Stadium before it got torn down.  I wasn’t there for a baseball game or concert, though.  In April 2008, I rode in a 15-person van with mostly people I didn’t know beforehand.  We spent a night at Notre Dame on the way out.  On a Sunday morning, we waited in-line for a few hours and then found our seats in the upper deck.  We waited in our seats for a couple hours before Mass with Pope Benedict began.  There were 60,000 of us there.  At Communion time, it took a while for the concelebrating bishops and priests to spread out throughout the stadium and give us Communion (and baseball stands are not built for the distribution of Communion!).

I think of that Mass as a modern day example of the Feeding of the Crowds.  There were about three times the people at Yankee Stadium than when Jesus fed the crowds.  We hear that there were about 5000 men in the crowd, so the total with women and children would be about 15 to 20 thousand.

The miraculous feeding of the crowds look forward to Jesus instituting the Eucharist.  The similarities are striking.  Both take place in the evening with people reclined.  Both have the same actions: “took, blessed, broke, gave.”  In both accounts, Jesus hands the broken loaves to the disciples.

My brother and sisters, we might have a wish to have been there when Jesus fed the Crowd.  I might have a wish to relive that big Mass at Yankee Stadium.  But, at every Mass, we are miraculously fed by the Lord.  At every Mass, the words of our Psalm come true: “The hand of the Lord feeds us.”  He strengthens us so that we can live out our state of life--the priesthood (in my case), married, widow, or single.  Jesus is the Good Shepherd who feeds his sheep.  May our lives become Eucharistic so that we can give the Love that we have received to others we meet.

Homily for the 17th Sunday in OT; July 26, 2020

Click here for the Gospel reading.

The year 1952.  Some of you might remember it, but I don’t.  1952 was the year when Walt Disney first announced to others that he was going to go after a project that would be called Disneyland—a place where both adults and kids could have fun together.  It was a very risky idea back then:  movies cost $1-2 million to make whereas Disneyland would be $20 million and without any guarantee of a return on investment.  The fact that Walt’s brother Roy held the money purse and was against the project (and also others on the Board of Directors were against the project) could have deadened the project.  But Walt was determined, even taking out the maximum personal loan possible of $50,000 to provide seed money for the project.  Things still looked shaky until Disney formed an agreement with ABC-Paramount.  Walt’s vision proved successful and now Disneyland is known as the “Happiest Place on Earth.”

We hear about the Pearl of great price in one of Jesus’ parables today.  I can’t help but think that Disneyland is a real life example of that parable.  To use a term from poker, Walt Disney was all-in on Disneyland.  And many people have enjoyed great memories there since then (including this guy).

In today’s Parables of the Pearl and the Treasure in the Field, what is important to realize is that there is one, singular thing that the buyer is focused on.  People today talk often about Bucket Lists…but this isn’t that.  The buyers don’t have a Bucket List…they have a Bucket Item.

My brothers and sisters, we want to have a single Bucket Item in our lives.  When we have one Bucket Item, it means every decision is based on that one priority…we are all-in.  Have you figured out what the Bucket Item is?  That we all share?  Getting to Heaven!  There’s a common phrase among the young people that is abbreviated YOLO; it stands for “You only live once.”  It means to leave nothing back and to live each day with purpose.  A Christian version of this motto would be:  “YOLO, be a saint!  You only live once, be a saint!”
Do we rightly value Heaven as our Bucket Item?  We don’t value Heaven rightly when we sin and put other things before God…when we are too attached to created things.

When we are living a purpose-driven life, every decision is based on that one priority, on that Bucket Item of getting to Heaven as a saint.  First and foremost, it means being all-in in your vocation…for married people, it means helping to get your spouse and kids to Heaven.  Aiming for being a saint will also affect decisions at work and seeing the purpose of your job.  King Solomon shows us in the first reading that a wise and understanding heart was what he most needed in his position of authority.  We might not have anywhere near the same sort of authority, but we are called by God to offer our work in service. 

As a Christian you are to see your work as an opportunity to glorify God, to promote the common good, and to support your family (rather than making work the most important thing in your life).  Getting to Heaven will also instruct you as to how you spend your Sundays…going to Mass even on vacations and after late Saturday night parties or wedding receptions.  You will also have a different approach to where your money goes (it’s not to be rich or live comfortably)…to the parish and other charities that help people in need.  Also, how to spend your free time (because it’s a gift from God)…getting involved with faith formation activities, watching only wholesome movies and shows, and avoiding websites that don’t lead to your flourishing as a person.  And through everything, aiming for making it to Heaven means praying and asking God frequently throughout the day what He would have you do.

My brothers and sisters, our Bucket Item of getting to Heaven is more important than Disneyland.  We are aiming for eternal life with God and the saints in Heaven.  Are we willing to give up anything that stands in the way of allowing Jesus to bring us to Heaven?

Click here for the Gospel reading.

Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the weeds was easily relatable to his listeners in such a community focused on farming.  The weed that he refers to in the parable is one called darnel or cockle.  Since wheat and weed sound so similar, I’ll call the weed cockle during this homily.  So wheat and cockle look very similar in their early growing stages—in fact, a farmer would probably be unable to distinguish one from the other especially as they were intertwined.  But there is a big difference come harvest time:  the wheat could be used for bread whereas the cockle was poisonous and only really useful for burning.
My brothers and sisters, Jesus’ parable has meaning for our lives.  Our lives are a mix of both good (wheat) and bad (cockle and weeds).  At the end of our life, we will only be one or the other.  So you will either meet the fate of the wheat or that of the cockle.  By our actions, we choose to either to be burned with the cockle or to let go of the cockle in our lives and to be gathered with the wheat into God’s barn.
  
Jesus tells us that Satan, the Evil One, has planted the cockle seeds.  Some of their roots are worldliness, sensuality, and pride.  Each of our lives has cockle because each of our lives has sin. In the parable, the farmer instructs his workers to let the wheat and cockle grow together until harvest time. This means in our own lives, we will have sin until the day we die. It also means that believers will be surrounded by unbelievers during their earthly sojourn.

We all know about the analogy of a frog boiling to death in a pot of water.  The water starts off cold and then is slowly heated so that the frog chooses to stay put.  It adjusts to the warmer and warmer water until it’s too late….and you have frog legs (like at a Chinese buffet). In our culture, we are like frogs in a slowly boiling pot. Things change around us, and we don’t realize how dangerous it is for us. Too often we as Christians just go with the flow rather than doing what we need to do...jump out of the pot.

Some of the cockle in our life involve the things we watch and listen to.  How many of the series do we watch have good, wholesome characters who are working at improving themselves? When was the last time we saw a real positive portrayal of the Catholic Church or the Catholic faith in a movie? Do the people we get the news from ever bring us the news through the lens of faith? A lot of the media we consume is cockle or as the English say, rubbish. Perhaps you heard this story this past week: an Associated Press story implied that Catholic institutions too aggressively pursued funds from the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).  Cardinal Dolan of New York weighed in saying that the story was misleading at best. Thousands of Catholic parishes and schools across the country which relied heavily on Sunday collections would have had to cut jobs if it wasn’t for the PPP program. Here at SEAS Parish and School we were recipients of PPP funds, which saved us from having to go down to a barebones staff. Our mission of helping souls get to Heaven we take seriously, so that is why in good faith we applied for the PPP funds. 

It can be tough to find wheat for our souls through the media, but things like getting some of our news from Catholic News Agency or The Catholic Spirit can help. Ever wondered what it might have been like for Jesus to call and befriend his disciples? Download “The Chosen” series (it has its own app). You might remember the free Rediscover book from about 6 years ago that almost everybody got. The reason for making that book available was that almost all Catholics never read anything about their faith. As much as we are willing to read the next great book, a Catholic book like Letters to a Young Catholic or Theology of the Body for Beginners can go a long way in helping us to become more in love with the Church of God. Or if you like fiction, the writings of C.S. Lewis and Tolkien are chalk-full of Christian allegory.

The cockle of the world also gives us false understandings of human persons. We hear so-called wise people say that religious faith is antiquated and that abortion/contraception/gender change surgery are health care. To help grow the wheat in our life, it can be real refreshing to listen to people on Relevant Radio or KTIS talk about things from a Christian perspective.

If cockle or sin is going to be with us until harvest time, we could conclude that it doesn’t matter how we live. But that would not be further from the truth! It is one thing to allow poisonous plants to grow in our field and another thing to eat that poison.  We eat the poison when we give into mortal sin or even deliberate venial sins. On the flip side, we nurture the wheat in our lives when we follow God’s commandments including worshiping him as we can on Sundays, when we are forgiven of our sins, when we resolve to avoid sin—especially mortal sins—going forward, and when are merciful to others.
My brothers and sisters, at the end of our life, will we chose to be with the cockle or the wheat?  It might seem like nobody would ever choose the cockle, but that’s what we choose every time we sin.  We are immensely blessed that Jesus, the Bread of Life, comes to us in the Eucharist.  He wants to sow good seed into our lives and transform our wheat into much good.  First, though, we have to allow Him to remove the cockle of our lives.  May we welcome God’s grace so that we can begin to be gathered as wheat into God’s barn.
 

Click here for the Gospel reading.

For my priestly retreat 1.5 years ago, I went to a retreat center south of Tucson, Arizona.  One of the first things I noticed when I drove on to the property was all of the peacocks.  They had a roosting tree for the peacocks.  I would watch every sunset as the 17 big peacocks, who can’t fly much, would fly up to the lowest branch and gradually fly up to their high perch in the tree.

Now that tree wasn’t alway like that--100 years ago it wouldn’t have been able to support those 17 peacocks.  At some point, the roosting tree might have looked like the Christmas Tree from Charlie Brown.  Such a tree certainly could not support a pride of peacocks and probably not even a sparrow.

So when Jesus says in the parable that good seed fell on fertile soil and produced 100-fold, it’s like going from the Charlie Brown tree to that peacock roosting tree.  When we allow God to grow us 100-fold, it’s not so that we can be a roosting place for birds (although I did have a seagull land on my shoulder once), but so that other people would come to know and love God through us.

The saints (like St. Francis, St. Teresa of Calcutta, and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton) are those that allowed God to grow them 100-fold.  How did they become such holy saints that drew people to God?  They practiced humility as well as docility.  We regularly focus on humility in the spiritual life, but we rarely speak of docility, so that’s what I want to speak about today.  The words “docility” and “doctor” come from the Latin word “docere,” which is to teach.  A person who is docile is, therefore, one who is teachable.  A docile person is one who hears God speak to her and then adjusts her life to reflect what she has heard God say.  

If you agree that the holiness of the saints is worth emulating and docility is something to strive for, we need to learn how we can listen to God like the saints did.  They all had an active prayer life, one which centered on silence.  Silence is the language of God.  Heaven will be full of joy but it will also be full of a good silence.  Some of the purifying that needs to take place before a just soul can enter Heaven is to make it to entirely desire silence.  It is better if we can begin to like silence in this life.  We cannot hear God’s voice if we are constantly distracted...we are like the seed that cannot grow roots.

There are some ways to grow in docility by learning to grow in silence.  We try to foster silence at key moments of the Mass so that we can reflect on God’s presence among us.  A way to grow in docility at Mass is read the Sunday readings beforehand (maybe even on the way to church).  Eucharistic Adoration, like in our Chapel which is open almost 24/7, is another place to learn silence...you could call it a School of Silence.  Walks, when we unplug from listening to music or looking at our Smart Phones, can be times to be with ourselves and with God.  As is taking in God’s creation of a sunset--whether it be with or without peacocks.  How we shut ourselves off to the world and pray is not so important as that we do it...each day.

My brothers and sisters, to allow God to grow us 100-fold from being the Charlie Brown Christmas tree into a tree the size of a peacock roosting tree, our invitation is to turn towards God humbly and with a listening, docile ear.  We listen less to the things of the world and listen more to what God says to us silently in prayer.  This is what the saints did and what we can do to be holy like them.
 

What is fulfilling in our life?  Our world gives us one message.  We are living in a material world, and we are often thought of as consumers.  Companies try to get us to buy the fastest cars, to make us look as youthful as possible (“Fr. Matt, how about getting the gray out of your hair?”), and to own the newest gadgets (can you believe that the iPhone is 13 years old?!).  We spend much time and energy planning the “perfect” vacation, 4^th of July party, or wedding (and much of that planning goes out the window during the Coronavirus)?  After we buy those products or have those special events, we might feel happy for a while but then we start after that next thing that we vow will make us permanently happy.

Spiritual goods are a bit different.  They are not all that enticing from the get-go and we have to labor for them.  How often have you heard someone say, “When I retire, I’m going to pray 4 hours every day”?  I guess Pope Benedict would be one.  In my experience, though, and maybe it’s the same for you, when I do find a little time to pray, I come away from that time with a peace that I can’t find in any of that material stuff.  And I find that the next time I labor to find time to pray, it gets a little easier to make it work.  The happiness we get when we hear God speak to us is a joy that remains with us even when things get tough.

Today’s Gospel tells us something about what is fulfilling in life.  Jesus speaks about the benefit of lasting fulfillment in the Gospel:  “whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”  To find that lasting fulfillment isn’t easy to do, though.  Jesus’ language is strong:  “whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.”  Our love for Him must be even greater than our love for family members.  Jesus was not doing away with the importance of families, but was saying that love of God is absolute and unconditional.  In other words, the fact that we are adopted as part of God’s family through Baptism is more important than belonging to our human family.

Why does Jesus say that loving him—loving God—is so important?  As the Book of Deuteronomy states, we are to love God with “our whole heart, mind, and strength”—in other words, with every fiber of our being.  God made us for such an all-encompassing love.  If we do not nurture and take care of our love of God, it will die.

When we love God completely, we can love others more deeply.  Our love of people and created things then becomes defined by loving them in the measure in which they are loved by God.  These lesser loves—like love of spouse, love of parents or children, love of neighbor, love of creation—are enriched, purified, and encouraged to grow when we love God.  Our love becomes less self-centered (we have less of an ego) and we become more other-focused.  A person who loves God becomes more human.  Loving God is the short-cut to loving others.  We can appreciate their God-given dignity.  The choice isn’t between either loving God or loving things, but either truly loving both God and created things or loving neither.

So how do grow in our love of God?  Loving God is especially shown by expressing thanks.  If God is the giver of every good thing, it pleases Him when we thank Him for His Gifts.  Something I have been doing for the last 15 months or so is keeping a list of 3 to 5 things I’m grateful for each day.  I would encourage you all to develop that Attitude of Gratitude by writing down at least 3 things each day you are thankful for.

Another way we grow in our love of God—and love of others—is in following Jesus’ words: “Take up your cross.”  This is the first reference to the Cross in Matthew’s Gospel; points to the disciples’ destiny.  The phrase is especially startling if we reflect on the deeper meaning:  to “take up your cross” means, like Jesus, to carry a crossbeam to our own crucifixion.  It sometimes means to rely on God in our everyday burdens, but it means more than that.  God is calling us to die to self every day.  We grow in love of God by struggling each day (at least in little ways) to overcome defects of character, laziness, selfishness.  It’s a struggle but we begin to think and act more like Christ.  We love God when our whole life—even our work and leisure—is an unceasing search for him.

My brothers and sisters, as we still find ourselves attracted to and attached to material things, our invitation is to turn to God for the greater spiritual goods.  By loving Him, we will find joy, live lives of thanksgiving, and love other things properly.  May we grow in love of God so we can also grow in the love of other people.
 

Click here for the Gospel reading.

Everyone in the Twin Cities knows about Mary Jo Copland, because of her work with the homeless.  I have read her biography, and I’m sure some of you are familiar with her background.  Her childhood was not all that cheery; for one thing, she grew up with an abusive dad.  She learned to turn toward God in prayer, and she continues to do so today.  Last I heard, she starts her day with 2 hours before the Blessed Sacrament every day from like 2:30-4:30 a.m. while most of the country is still sleeping.

Mary Jo’s personal troubled upbringing is reflective of our shared history—from our shared first parents of Adam and Eve.  As described in our 2nd reading, we have all contracted Original Sin.  Original Sin is a type of impoverishment.  Just as the actions of Mary Jo’s father impoverished her, we are all impoverished by Adam’s sin.  As a result of Adam’s sin, none of us are born children of God…none of us are born in right relationship with God.

That’s why we need Baptism.  St Paul says in our 2nd reading that God’s Grace is stronger than the effects of that Original Sin. Grace is God’s free gift—something that we cannot initially earn or merit by our own efforts. Jesus restored our relationship to God by dying for us on the Cross.
 
Just as Mary Jo was wounded by her own father, we have been wounded by the sins of others.  All of us have been wounded by the sin of our first father, Adam.  We go through life now spiritually crippled, which includes the following defects: more inclined to sin, knowledge of God’s ways isn’t always intuitive, and we are enslaved to our passions.  We are tempted by the Devil (just as Adam was). The Devil hates us and wants to destroy our body and soul in Gehenna (also known as Hell), as Jesus described in the Gospel. Jesus our Savior, on the other hand, wants to heal our woundedness, especially from our own sins, and to give us freedom to live as true children of God. He heals us most especially through God’s Word in the Bible and the Sacraments.

Baptism is how the Grace of Jesus is first poured into our lives. The rest of our lives are spent trying to live out our baptismal call. It used to be that Catholics, without question, would bring their children to baptism shortly after birth.  Even though infant mortality is much lower than it used to be, it is still advisable to not delay baptism…even babies can use grace in their earliest days. We try to stay in right relationship with God, sometimes called a state of grace, the rest of our lives, particularly after we reach an age when we start sinning.  When our relationship with God has been ruptured, God asks us to make an Act of Contrition and to go to Confession.

To help us better understand how Grace works, I’m going to use the example of superheroes (which comes to us from Fr. Mike Schmitz).  Some of you know superheroes well and others not so-well (for those people, superheroes are people with special powers).  How the superheroes receive their superhero powers can stand for the different views about how grace operates in a soul. So I will share a couple of incorrect beliefs of grace before sharing the Catholic belief of grace.

Most people know Batman…Batman is a superhero without God’s grace…his superhero powers come from just building up his own strength.  

Ironman, a superhero who flies around in a suit, is a “Lutheran superhero”—his powers aren’t a part of himself (they come from his suit), so he doesn’t have his powers when he is not in his suit. [Martin Luther believed that grace is like snow that covers a dung heap]

Captain America—a patriotic superhero who holds a shield with a star on it—is the superhero who shows the Catholic version of Grace.  Steve Rogers, the identity of Captain America, is always the same person—whether he is fighting bad guys or cleaning his house.  He was just a normal human before he took the Super Soldier Syrum, the material that stands for grace in this example.  Following the taking of that syrum, he had abilities that no other human has: he could run about 60 miles per hour and have the strength of 30 men.  Going back to Grace—for Catholics, Grace elevates our fallen human nature over and above what we can have by our own ability.  For example, unconditional love—the love that God has for us—is given to us through grace (such as in the Sacraments) so that we can truly love others as God loves them. God gives us spiritual gifts, sort of like superhero powers, especially through Confirmation that are to be used for the good of others. Going back to Mary Jo Copeland, it seems like God has given her a special gift of mercy to the poor...the poor have a special place in her heart because the poor have a special place in God’s heart.

My brothers and sisters, our invitation this day is to rely on God’s grace, sort of like Captain America and even more so like the example of Mary Jo. Are we convinced that we can’t love as we ought to unless we spend every day in prayer—and at least once a week before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament? Do we run to Confession to get healed when Satan strikes a mortal blow through mortal sin? It’s Father’s Day...and we honor that true fatherhood comes from God (and not from our first father, Adam). Do we—especially us men, whom Satan attacks particularly because he can often bring down others with us—take up our spiritual weapons? Asking for the help of our Blessed Mother, who was given a special grace to avoid sin altogether, is especially powerful against the Devil since he can’t stand her humility.

My brothers and sisters, we are affected by the Sin of Adam, but moreso beneficiaries of God’s grace. May we live in his grace this day and every day so that we can truly love others as God loves them.
 

Click here for the Gospel reading.

Our readings today show us that the Body and Blood of Jesus affects in us 3 primary ways.  The Body and Blood of Jesus unites us, strengthens us, and brings us to eternal life.
Firstly, the Body and Blood of Jesus unites us. Why did God choose bread and wine as the materials for Holy Communion? God could have chosen anything for the Eucharist.  Not to be flippant, but He could have chosen bananas and milk. However, bread and wine are fitting for Communion.  This is because bread and wine are common nourishment in almost every culture. Holy Communion is the sacrament of spiritual eating, so it uses foods that are often used in physical eating.
More importantly, there’s something deeper, though, about grains of wheat and grapes. There are many grains of wheat that go into making a loaf of bread. There are many grapes that go into making a cup of wine. Similarly, there are many Christians that go into making the Church—the Mystical Body of Christ. If you look at the saints or at Christians around the world, there is much diversity. Whatever we look like, whatever our social-economic status is, we are all the Body of Christ.
The motto could have been for seminary: “Enter seminary, see the world!” Rome, the Holy Land, learning Spanish in Mexico, visiting our Archdiocesan mission parish in Venezuela, and teaching English in South Korea. The Catholic faith and the Mass is the same throughout the world even with differences in language and culture. Saints were formed by their cultures—whether it be Saint Francis in Assisi, Saint Andrew Kim and the Korean martyrs, the Cristeros in Mexico, or a bit more local: Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, and Blessed Solanus Casey and Blessed Stanley Rother. Even in our local church, every parish has its own gifts and challenges: Our Lady of Grace in Edina has its own gifts and challenges, so do we here at SEAS, and so does St. Peter Clavier—the historic African American parish in St. Paul.
Secondly, the Body and Blood of Jesus strengthens us. We are reminded in our 1^st Reading how the Israelites spent 40 years in the desert. They were grumbling and lacking trust even at the beginning. God was faithful in providing manna to them every day but the Sabbath (on which they would eat leftovers from the previous day). God was always with them in their pilgrimage…and God is always with us in our pilgrimage to Heaven. The Body and Blood of Jesus gives us strength from God to overcome obstacles like sin in the world.
Jesus is really present in every Tabernacle around the world.  There is only 1 Catholic church now in Hastings, but there are three other Tabernacles: one at the new school Chapel, one at Regina, and one at the rectory. A good act of faith we can do is to make the sign of the cross whenever we drive or walk past a place with a Tabernacle.  In addition, as we have talked about Eucharistic Adoration before, it is an act of love to spend time with Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration. That is why as part of Confirmation preparation, our students are required to spend some time in Eucharistic Adoration. The most personal relationship we can have with Jesus is when we receive His Body and Blood at Mass and then spend time with Him in adoration.
Thirdly and lastly, the Body and Blood of Jesus brings us to eternal life. In the Gospel, Jesus says, "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.”  It’s pretty clear that Jesus wants us to eat His Body and drink His Blood.  This requirement of Jesus is why we have 1^st Communion prep (date set for August 9^th) for those who reach the age of reason (often around 7 years old…when a child can make moral choices).
The fact that the Body and Blood of Jesus brings us to eternal life is most especially seen in what is called Viaticum.  Viaticum, which is Latin for “food for the journey”, refers to the last reception of Holy Communion right before death.  When someone asks for Last Rites, priests offer the Anointing of the Sick and the Apostolic Pardon and, for those who are able, Confession and Viaticum.  Right before someone goes off to the eternal feast of Heaven, how fitting it is for people to receive the panis angelicus, the bread of angels, the Eucharist.
My brothers and sisters, the Body and Blood of Jesus unites us, strengthens us, and brings us to eternal life. May our lives be Eucharistic—that is, in Thanksgiving—to our God who is always with us.
 

Click here for the Gospel reading.

One of the most intelligent writers in the history of the Church was St. Augustine. He spent over 30 years writing his account of the Trinity. [the following is taken from Marian Horvat, “Augustine and the Sea Shell.” https://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/h065rp.Shell.html] One day he was walking by the seashore contemplating and trying to understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity when he saw a small boy running back and forth from the water to a spot on the seashore. The boy was using a sea shell to carry the water from the ocean and place it into a small hole in the sand.

Augustine asked him, “My boy, what are doing?”

“I am trying to bring all the sea into this hole,” the boy replied.

“But that is impossible, my dear child, the hole cannot contain all that water” said Augustine.

The boy paused, stood up, looked at the Saint, and replied, “It is no more impossible than what you are trying to do – comprehend the immensity of the mystery of the Holy Trinity with your small intelligence…”

The Holy Trinity is the greatest truth of Christianity. But as the boy reminded St. Augustine, it is also a great mystery.  God isn’t just one person but the Holy Trinity—a communion of three persons.  Each Person is fully God.  The Trinity—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—never act alone but always together.

Our communities are to be modeled after the perfection of the Holy Trinity.  The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit love each other completely.  Their love has extended to all of creation.  We count in the Heavenly community those angels and saints whose love has been perfected like the Trinity.

The Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, is a communion of persons, too, that matures in the love of the Trinity.  When we look at individual members—whether it be inwards at ourselves or outwards at others—we realize that we are still in need of being perfected by God’s love.  Although we are members of the universal Church, we experience the Church typically in our parish of SEAS.  In a community such as a parish or a family (which is also called a domestic church), we learn to love the invisible God by loving those we live with.

Our city is also called to be a communion of persons—families living together in harmony.  We are to strive for the common good, including “liberty and justice for all.”  Sometimes our neighbors are very different from ourselves—different beliefs, different political persuasions, different races—but we are all called to love each other whole-heartedly.  And as Christians, we believe that every person is created in the image and likeness of God. If we ever view another person as an enemy, we can pray to God that we would see them as our brother or sister.

I had the opportunity to attend a rally for clergy of all creeds on Tuesday in St. Paul in response to everything surrounding the death of George Floyd.  Being white and Catholic, I was definitely in the minority at the rally, although Archbishop Hebda and a few other priests were there.  I appreciated coming together with those other clergy—most of whom seemed on the surface to be rather different than myself—to pray to God to bring peace to our city.

St. Paul in the Second Reading tells us that “the God of love and peace will be with you” if we do particular actions for the sake of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ:  rejoice, stop sinning, encourage, agree, live in peace, and greet even your non-friends.  The Holy Spirit makes these actions possible, because God wants to unite the human family.  In contrast, left to our own inclination to sin and the devil’s desire to divide humanity, we know too well how communities fail in unity and instead are at each other’s throats.

Brothers and sisters, if we want to grow into greater unity, we do well to pray to the God of unity.  Many of our Catholic prayers including the “Glory Be” & even the Sign of the Cross remind us of the unity of the Holy Trinity.  We were baptized in the name of the Trinity and we are forgiven of our sins at Confession in the name of the Trinity.  The Holy Trinity comes to dwell within us every time we receive Communion. May we pray to God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—so that all of our communities may grow in love and unity.
 

With a last name like Shireman, you might expect me to be a big Lord of the Rings fan. Actually, I’m not all that versed in it, but I do think it is an epic series that has a deep plot, in thanks to the giftedness of Catholic author J.R.R. Tolkien. The hobbit Frodo at one point in the opening book [The Fellowship of the Ring] says, “I miss the Shire.” We might say that to miss our homeland is a very human sentiment, although apparently it is also a very hobbit sentiment.
 
There is something similar going on in today’s feast. After Jesus’ Resurrection and 40 days with His disciples, it is now time for Jesus to return to where He came from—the Father’s House in Heaven.
 
In the reading from Acts, we heard that The Disciples were looking intently at the sky where Jesus had left Earth and entered Heaven. The Disciples have a mixed set of emotions—they are joyful because they believe Jesus’ words that it is better for Him to return to the Father so that they can send the Holy Spirit.  But they are also experiencing grief...that Jesus is no longer located with them. I would venture a guess that they all had the human sentiment in their hearts: “we are going to miss him—his human speech, his human way of acting, of looking, of smiling, of making us feel loved.”

I think we can all relate to this type of very human sentiment during the pandemic because we, too, are experiencing grief and loss.  We are experiencing grief over not being able to be around loved ones. This is intensified if it involves a loved one who is dying or who has died.  We are experiencing grief over things that have been radically changed--whether it be jobs, graduations, Confirmations, 1st Communions.  We are also experiencing grief over not having public Mass and not being able to receive Jesus sacramentally through the Eucharist.

During this pandemic, I have often heard expressed (and felt personally) a rather human desire: “I can’t wait for things to be back to normal.” It’s another similar sentiment to what Frodo had expressed for the Shire. Much later, when Frodo does return to the Shire, however, things are not the same.  Why? Because Frodo has changed and the world has changed.

Even as we prepare to have public Masses resume, things are going to be different, because we have changed...and the world has changed. Since the obligation to attend Mass will continue to be lifted, many of our fellow parishioners won’t be able to join us in-person (like the elderly and those with underlying health issues). In fact, the Masses at care facilities that Father Dave and I celebrated before the pandemic will probably be suspended until a vaccine is developed. At least initially, music will be limited at Mass to reduce the spread of droplets. To help with social distancing before, during, and after Mass, you’ll be spread out in our church so that you probably won’t get to sit in your normal seat. And this might be the most difficult for me and for the kids and kids-at-heart—we won’t be able to have donuts after Mass or socialize on church property.
In the Bible following the Ascension, it is apparent that God’s will for the Disciples is that they don’t return to normalcy...to what things were like during Jesus’ public ministry or during the joyful 40 days after the Resurrection. The Disciples were given 10 short days to prayerfully prepare for the sending of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church at Pentecost. It is easy to see that the Disciples and the world were changed forever on Easter Sunday. It is also true that they are changed again forever on Pentecost. The Holy Spirit filled them with zeal to carry out Jesus’ final orders as we heard in the Gospel: to make it their work to make every person a student in the School of Jesus.

My brothers and sisters, our natural human desires, including the desire to see God face-to-face, will be most perfectly fulfilled in Heaven. Our desire to be with our loved ones without any restrictions—will also be fulfilled in Heaven. Jesus waits for us there.  As does our Blessed Mother, the angels, the saints, and some of our loved ones.  But we have work to do...God is sending us on mission to share Jesus with others in this world that has changed by the pandemic. Two-thirds of Americans say that through the pandemic God is trying to get our attention to change our behavior. God has given us faith and each other, members of Christ’s body, to persevere through this difficult time. But there are so many people broken right now and feeling so helpless...they need us to tell them that God loves them. God loves them so much that Jesus died and rose for them and is now in Heaven waiting for them to make it home. So if “returning to normal” means keeping our faith private, then that is not something we can desire. But if “returning to normal” means going back to our mission of sharing God’s love with others, then that’s something we pray for. We have been filled with the Holy Spirit like the Disciples at Pentecost. And we have been changed forever...to help others’ forevers be changed.