Fr. Matt's Homilies

Click here for the Gospel reading.

St. Paul says in his 1st Letter to the Corinthians (15:14), “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” If Christ did not rise from the dead, you might as well all go home! 

Since Good Friday, Jesus’ disciples (except His mother) had thought that Jesus was just dead, so they were devastated, crest-fallen, hopeless, and afraid—afraid that they would be killed like their master.

The Empty Tomb changes everything; it’s the key to Easter faith. Imagine going to a cemetery (like maybe our own) and coming across an emptied grave after a person had been buried there. Our first natural thought would be that someone has dug up the body and maybe moved it to another grave. That was the first thought on Easter morning. But then there is the evidence of the burial clothes that are left and folded up. A robber taking a body wouldn’t bother to leave behind burial clothes. The disciples didn’t take the body, because they would have presented it when they were threatened with death. So Jesus had risen had risen and had left the clothes there intentionally. The Beloved Disciple came to believe this: that a supernatural occurrence had happened—that God had raised Jesus from the dead! The clincher to knowing that Jesus was risen from the dead is that thousands of witnesses encountered the risen Jesus over the course of 40 days.

The Empty Tomb changes everything for the disciples: Jesus is alive and will never die again! There are profound consequences for them—and for us. Everything Jesus had said was true. Jesus is God. Jesus has opened Heaven (which had been closed since Adam & Eve’s sin). Perhaps most importantly for us, our sins have been forgiven (as long as we accept His Mercy)!

My brothers and sisters, we are called to celebrate the joy of Easter every week. During the 1st season of Easter, Jesus focused on things that we should focus on: God’s mercy (for example, in forgiving Peter for his denials), giving His Disciples mission and purpose, and preparing them to receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

St. Paul in our 2nd reading tells us how to be filled with Easter joy: “Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.” We often, though, think of “what is on earth.” If the daily news is our only news (especially this past year), we will end up sad, depressed, and hopeless. Instead we are called to think of “what is above”: What is above? The Good News of Jesus, which gives us joy, hope, and love! And not just any type of love, but unconditional love from God!
As Christians, we are called to live today and every day like that first Easter—full of the Lord’s joy, love, and mercy. Jesus’ favorite line after rising from the dead: “Peace be with you!” It was something that the Disciples needed to hear, and it is something that we need to hear. Being raised with Jesus, we leave behind our past sins and bad habits. We also live in total trust of God. As Christians, we seek out time to connect with our God each day through daily substantial prayer. Prayer is more important than the air, food, and sleep that we need.

Our identity as Christians--we are an Easter people and “Alleluia” is our song. As Christians, we are people of joy, because Jesus is our savior and our friend. Every Sunday is a “mini Easter.” So being an Easter people--if you’re committed to coming on Easter Sunday, then come the
other 51 Sundays of the year! Those who are in a state of grace, having confessed any known mortal sins through Reconciliation, can receive the risen Christ through Holy Communion every Sunday (and even every day).

My brothers and sisters, we celebrate today God’s greatest deed—raising Jesus from the dead. May we celebrate Easter and live in the joy and freedom that Christ has given us not just today but every day as an Easter people.

Click here for the Gospel reading.

We like new stuff.  New cars—and their factory smell.  A new, well-designed rectory that is centrally-located. Or shopping: “This product is ‘new and improved.’”  As the saying goes, “Out with the old, and in with the new.”

Before we get to the New, we have to start with the Old. We find the Old Covenant in the Old Testament.  God made covenants with people throughout the Old Testament, most notably with Moses on Mount Sinai.  The Old Covenant was written on stone tablets—the Ten Commandments.  The Old Covenant was given by God but it was something that was imposed from the outside.

In our 1st reading from Jeremiah, we hear about the promise of the New Covenant.  In contrast with the Old Covenant, the prophet says that the New Covenant would be written on the hearts of believers.  People of the New Covenant when they sinned would not be violating some extrinsic law but rather something intrinsic to their own persons, their own consciences.  Jesus is the one who ushers in the New Covenant.

Often in our lives, we enter into contracts (not covenants) with others. For example, at Caribou Coffee, we enter into the contract, “I agree to pay you $5 if you provide me with a caramel mocha latte.”  Contracts are short-lived; they only bind the two parties for as long as the service is being rendered.
Covenants, on the other hand, bind people together in a new family relationship.  One example of a covenant for Jews before Jesus’ earthly life was marriage.  Marriage has even taken greater importance for Christians.  In sacramental marriage, through God’s grace, a man and a woman are bound together “til death.”   A marriage covenant creates a stable foundation for any children that come about through their union.  Married couples have to re-commit themselves regularly to each other so they stay faithful to their covenant. 

Did you know that the phrase the New Covenant comes up only once in the New Testament?  Do you know where that occurrence is?  You should, because we hear it every time we come to Mass.  During the Eucharistic prayer, the priest quotes St. Paul’s 1st Letter to the Corinthians: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”   We see that the only time that the phrase “new covenant” comes up in the New Testament is with the Eucharist.  We can then say that the New Covenant is the Eucharist.  Similarly, the New Testament, which is just another way of saying the New Covenant, is the Eucharist.

As the 1st Reading promises in the New Covenant: “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”  We are nourished by the Eucharist to truly be God’s people.  That’s why we come to Mass each Sunday:  we re-commit ourselves to being part of God’s family through the banquet of unity and love. 

As we hear Jesus say in the Gospel, “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.”  Jesus is the grain of wheat that dies so that we may have something incredible—the very life of God, eternal life.  God instituted the Mass to drive home this point.  Just take a look at the presentation of the gifts:  grains of wheat that have died are brought forward and they become the body of Christ during the Eucharistic prayer.

God is also calling us to be like Jesus—to be grains of wheat that die so that we produce much fruit.  We aren’t talking about physical death but more of a death to our ego and our own will.  In other words, sacrificing our own wants out of love for others. You who are parents or work in jobs of service like teachers and medical professionals have experienced the goodness of self-sacrifice.  But all of us in our lives are faced with decisions to die to ourselves:

•           Young kids decide whether to share their things with friends and siblings
•           Teenagers decide whether to keep curfew
•           College students decide whether to go to the crazy Saturday night party or to forego it so they can make it to Mass in the morning
•           A newly-married person decides whether to stop living like a bachelor (or bachelorette)
•           New parents decide whether to make important sacrifices for their kids

As most of you are married or will be married, it’s good for us to reflect more on how to die to self in marriage, especially since our culture looks at marriage more as a contract than as a covenant. A man and a woman become one flesh when united in Holy Matrimony—they live the love that Jesus gave to His Bride, the Church, in giving up His Life.  Their covenant is “til death,” which encompasses many “good times” and “bad times.”  Although sometimes couples don’t “feel love” for each other, couples can nonetheless still choose to love…with the help of God’s grace.  To choose to ask for forgiveness and to forgive, to not give the spouse the silent treatment or to carry a grudge to bed.  If I might speak about divorce…it’s certainly an unfortunate outcome for a marriage, but not necessarily blameworthy for both spouses.  For a couple that entered into a valid marriage—a marriage that is seen as binding in the eyes of God—divorce then is just a rather permanent separation, although sometimes necessary due to the hardness of heart of one of the spouses.

My brothers and sisters, God has written the New Covenant onto our hearts, which is then ratified when we consume the Eucharist at Mass.  Being Christians, we are called to follow Jesus and to die to our selves, out of service of God and neighbor.  May we do so “til death,” “without counting the cost,” trusting that God’s will is what is best for us.
 

Click here for the Gospel reading.

Our typical image of Jesus is that he is a laid-back, nice guy…maybe like a hippie. Our Gospel stands in contrast to that typical image…Jesus is angry. But He doesn’t sin in this; it’s a righteous anger.

Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple is recorded in all 4 of the Gospels, so it is a major moment in Jesus’ ministry.  It probably happened during Jesus’ last annual trip to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover.  Each year for Passover, the city would be overflowing with hundreds of thousands of pilgrims.
The money-changers in the outer part of the Temple were important for Jews on pilgrimage.  Every adult male had to pay a temple tax but foreign coins were considered to be no-good, because they had images of emperors.  So the money-changers would convert their money.  Also the Jewish pilgrims had to have animals sacrificed for Passover, so there were animal vendors there.

The cause for Jesus’ righteous anger is that money exchangers and sellers of the animals are hiking-up the prices. This is a type of stealing, and it is particularly a sin against the poor. The selfishness of the profiteers is getting in the way of true worship of God.

Jesus tells the Scribes and Pharisees, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” They thought He was talking about the Temple building, but Jesus was talking about Himself…that He would rise on the third day after being killed.

Jewish worship was centered on animal sacrifice, but Jesus was showing that the need for this type of sacrifice was coming to an end.  In fact, the Temple gets destroyed 40 years after this cleansing. Jesus and His sacrifice on the Cross becomes the center of worship.  The Temple had been where Heaven and Earth met, but now that meeting place is in the Temple of Jesus’ Body—Jesus who is fully divine and fully human.

The 10 Commandments were detailed in the First Reading. A question: are you smarter than a 2nd grader? Even though many adults don’t know the 10 Commandments, we had our 2nd graders memorize them as they prepared for their First Confession. The 10 Commandments are the fundamental rules for living as God’s people. The 3rd Commandment (“Remember to keep holy the sabbath day”) gets moved from Saturday to Sunday in the early Church as a day to commemorate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.

Many of you grew up when Sundays used to be different than the other days in the week. For example, if you were going to go visit relatives on Sunday, you would fill-up your car on Saturday so that you had enough gas to get there and back on Sunday. The gas stations weren’t open. I never experienced that growing up, but I have seen how other cultures celebrate Sundays. In some places, some roads are closed down on Sundays so that people can bike on them. In Germany, stores and banks are closed on Sundays, and many people use it as a hiking day. In the Holy Land, Muslim shops close on Fridays, Jewish shops on Saturdays, and, I suppose, Christian shops on Sundays. With fewer people going to church on Sundays, there’s little to differentiate Sundays from Saturdays except for professional football. But I digress.

If Jesus is the New Temple for Christian worship, then we enter into that worship through His Mystical Body, the Church.  The Sacrifice of the Mass is at the heart of that worship, where we offer to God the Body and Blood of Jesus.  Through Holy Communion, God comes to dwell in us and we become temples of His Holy Spirit.  Others we meet can encounter the invisible God through the gift of love that we pass on to them.

My brothers and sisters, it has almost been a year since the pandemic disrupted our community by stopping all public Masses for a few months. Those were difficult times! I offered Mass each day during that stretch for all of you who could only attend virtually, such as through a TV broadcast or later our livestream options. I only have limited experiences of watching Mass online during the past year—mostly 3 ordination Masses that I was not able to be in attendance for.

We know a lot more about this virus now than a year ago. To the best of our knowledge, both our Parish and School have been very safe places. Not knowing all of the details, though, I can only say that there have been very, very few (if any) cases that could be traced to our facilities. Although the Archbishop’s dispensation to attend Sunday Mass will continue to be in place for now, those who have not attended basically in a year—whether you or family members or friends—it’s time to make a plan of how to return to Mass. If a person is high-risk or caring for someone who is high-risk, they will still be excused from Mass even when the dispensation changes (maybe they’ll stay away until they get the vaccine). Those people can still make a spiritual Communion and maybe there are ways that they can also receive sacramental Communion through our ministers. But as Pope Francis reminds us, we are made for worship in community. It’s not easy watching Mass on a screen in your home in your pajamas (wait, does that happen?).  One of the ways in which Jesus is present is in the community gathered for worship.  That’s not the same when everyone is watching at home. The Eucharist is our spiritual food for our pilgrimage to Heaven, so at least those in Mother Seton Hall at 8 and 10 a.m. can receive Jesus sacramentally (in addition to watching the Mass on our large screen).

For those wanting to make a return to Mass, we can think outside the box a little bit since Sunday Mass isn’t required right now (although we do need to do something like watch Mass online to fulfill the 3rd Commandment). Perhaps a daily Mass is a better place to start due to the short Masses and fewer people. All of our daily Masses, especially our Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5:15 p.m. or Saturday at 8 a.m. have room in the church. For Sunday Masses, we have room in Mother Seton Hall at the 8 and 10 a.m. Masses, and room in the Church at our 6 p.m. Mass. The only Mass that is at capacity right now is the Saturday 4:30 p.m. Mass.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus was very focused on true worship, a worship focused on His Body. We are invited to follow His Commandments so that we can live in true freedom and love.  We look, too, for ways to invite others to make a return to Mass that is at the center of our faith. May we be strengthened by this Eucharist to live lives pleasing to God.
 

Click here for the Gospel reading.

The Readings for Sunday Mass are set-up so that there is usually a link between the First Reading and the Gospel. It is a little tough to see the link in today’s readings. In the Gospel we hear that Jesus heals Simon’s Mother-in-law (and some other people). In our First Reading, we hear that Job is miserable; he even says, “I will never see happiness again.” It is true that Job has the boils in the story (so he is sort of sick). More importantly, though, Job has a terrible day in which he loses basically everything he has—including all his livestock and his children. His wife remains, but she is not all that supportive. She tells Job to “Curse God and die.”

As it turns out, the Psalm gives us the link between the First Reading and the Gospel. In the Psalm, we heard that “God heals the broken-hearted.” “Broken-hearted” can mean many things—including illness (as in the Gospel), bad luck (as in Job’s case), or sin (whether we are wounded by the sins of others or wounded by our own sin). Another form of broken-heartedness is relationships that go sour. This can be extreme brokenness if, for example, it’s a marriage that becomes separated or ends in divorce.

Broken-hearted can also take place when a dream that we have is broken—or is at least delayed. I experienced this in my sixth year of seminary. I was already a deacon at this point. The seminary doesn’t give a “green light” until the end of seminary but I had received a “yellow light” for most of seminary—"We think Matt will make a good priest.” That all changed when my ordination was delayed so I could work on things related to being on the autism spectrum. It was really tough news for me to know that I wouldn’t be ordained with the rest of my classmates. The next few months were tough until I came to the conviction that if God was calling me to be a priest, He would make it happen in His time. So that give me a lot of peace and I did end up getting ordained the next year.

The Responsorial Psalm goes on to say about the brokenhearted that “God binds up their wounds.” As regards to illness, there are still miraculous healings that occur to this day. When I give the Anointing of the Sick—whether it is for those with Covid or non-Covid—there is always spiritual healing even if there is only an occasional physical healing. We are blessed with modern medicine these days in which God heals people through doctors and nurses. Catholics brought about the field of modern medicine through their concern for the sick. We even see the mark locally in places like St. Joseph’s Hospital and Regina Hospital. During this pandemic, we are now hopeful with the vaccines getting distributed. Pope Francis has said that it is a good sign of solidarity to receive the vaccine. For me personally, I’m not worried that I would die if I got the virus, but I don’t want to spread the virus to others who could die from it. So the vaccine is a way that we help reduce the number of people who become broken-hearted. Now people can choose to not get the vaccine for their own reason, but it wouldn’t be due to a religious exemption (since the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are morally licit to receive).

For those who find themselves in bad luck, Job was reminded of the only thing we need…the only One we need is God. At the end of the story, Job was blessed with more children and even more things than he had at the beginning of his story. We might not receive those material blessings in this life, but we know that we have a great treasure waiting for us in Heaven.

Our wounds from sin—our own personal sin—is usually healed through the Sacrament of Confession. Sometimes we need to see a Counselor or a Therapist for our own woundedness, maybe if we have an addition or just a weakness on our part. A Christian therapist is worth their weight in gold! I sometimes just talk with my Counselor about my Pastor who maligns me and puts me in the dungeon of the rectory.

I want to close today by bringing this all back to a prayer that we pray at every Mass and maybe times throughout the week—the Our Father. I want to focus on the line “Lead us not into temptation (and deliver us from evil).” Other languages translate it as “Do not let us fall into temptation.” Now it’s the case that God does not tempt us. In fact, Jesus was tempted…by the Devil in the desert. Temptation and broken-heartedness are types of suffering. St. Paul says about suffering: “Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” There are good fruits that come about from suffering and broken-heartedness. It is also good to remember that Jesus was broken-hearted, particularly on the Cross when He was dying for our sins but also at times like when He wept at the death of His Friend Lazarus. When we are broken-hearted, we can be united to Jesus in a special way.

So my brothers and sisters, we all experience broken-heartedness in this life. But we take hope in the fact that “God heals the brokenhearted…He binds up all their wounds.” May we be healed by the Eucharist today so that we can walk with others who are brokenhearted.