Roman Catholic Homilies

The Authority of Jesus: Fourth (4th) Sunday in Ordinary Time, B, 2012

2012-01-27T16:24:00.000-05:00

Have you ever noticed that I like to quote other people or documents and let you from where I got some reading or some piece of information. The Second Vatican Council wrote, or G.K Chesterton said, or a contemporary Christian song goes. I do that because I defer to the authority of others and because it is NOT all about me. My friend gave me a T-shirt. It says in big letters, “It’s all about me.” My friend took a glitter glue gun, crossed out “me” and wrote “Jesus.” It really is “all about Jesus,” which is the title of another contemporary Christian song. This is the basis for the Gospel this week. When Jesus came to the synagogue, the Gospel tells that “The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.” Pope John Paul II explains that “the people immediately recognized the difference between Christ’s teaching and that of the Israelite scribes, and not only in manner but also in substance. The scribes based their teaching of the Mosaic Law of which they were the interpreters . . . Jesus did not at all follow the method of a “teacher” or “commentator” of the Old Law, but he conducted himself as a Lawgiver and, in the last analysis, as one who had authority over the Law.” Remember that elsewhere when Jesus was talking about the Law he would say, “you have heard it said to your ancestors, ‘You shall not Kill’ but I tell you . . .” or “You have heard it said that ‘you shall not commit adultery’ but I say to you …” By teaching on His own authority without reference to what the scribes, or the rabbis, or even Moses said, Jesus showed that He “was claiming the power to complete and interpret authoritatively or even propose the Law of God in a new way,” in order to show His own “awareness of being equal to God” which we profess every Sunday in the Creed. As God, Jesus had the authority the change the Law, but Jesus came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. What is the greatest commandment of the Law of God? The Gospel of Matthew records Jesus’ answer to that question, when it was addressed to him by one of the Pharisees. Jesus responded, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” What does it mean to love? Pope Benedict’s first encyclical was on this very topic. It is entitled “God is love.” His Holiness attempts in this encyclical to help us understand that true meaning of love as revealed in Jesus Christ. Love is what allows our faith to be fruitful. In today’s Gospel, Jesus freed the man of an unclean spirit. Before coming out of the man, the demon proclaimed “I know who you are – the Holy One of God!” But Jesus would not let the demon speak. Demons speak the truth only to deceive. The devil deceived Eve with words that sounded good, because even an atheist can teach the Catechism. But in a similar statement recorded in John’s Gospel, Simon Peter told Jesus, “We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God." Why was Peter not told to be quiet but the demon rebuked and told to be quiet. St. John Chrysostom, St. Ambrose, and St. Augustine all agree that even if the demon confessed Christ as the Holy One of God, it meant nothing without love. The demon did not have love of God but only fear of God. What did the demon say before declaring Jesus was the Holy One of God. The demon said, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?” The demon recognized Jesus as God, but the demon did not confess that God is love. The demon could only see God as a punishing judge who would destroy them and not let them continue in their evil lifestyle. Do we see the Holy One of God as someone who will punish us if we don’t live by His laws or do we confess Jesus to be the Holy One of God like St. Peter did. St. Peter made his profession that Jesus was the Holy One of God out of love for Jesus who had just promised to give them His Body and Blood to eat. St. John tells us in his first letter that “In this is love brought to perfection among us, that we have confidence on the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love. We love because he first loved us.” And that’s not me telling you how much God loves you, but the Holy Word of God.

Women and Men are Different: St. Angela Merici, B, 2012

2012-01-27T16:16:00.000-05:00

The family is under attack because women have forgotten who they are and are trying to be men. Click her for audio homily.

Stand Up and Speak Out: EF St. Polycarp

2012-01-27T16:05:00.000-05:00

If we deny Jesus before men, He will deny us before the Father. We are all called to be martyrs (witnesses). Click here to listen to audio homily.

CONDEMNATION: Conversion of St. Paul, 2012, B

2012-01-25T12:39:00.000-05:00

Mosaic at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the
Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
in Washington, D.C.

Why was St. Paul such a great evangelist for the Gospel? Because he was such a great persecutor of the Church. St. Paul did not mince words. We need to preach to the neo-pagans today, as St. Paul preached the Church in his day. Click here for audio homily.

Your Prayer Life: St. Francis De Sales, 2012, B

2012-01-24T21:44:00.000-05:00

A quote from Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis De Sales, bishop and doctor of the Church, on prayer and vocation. Click here for audio homily.

Let It Go: Third (3rd) Sunday in Ordinary

2012-01-22T06:30:00.000-05:00

Click here for audio homily, as given. My mom lived through the Great Depression of the 1930’s. I think that was the reason why just about every television we ever owned was down in the basement. “Put it down downstairs, maybe it can be fixed.” The televisions still worked to some degree but we just never seemed to get rid of them. When we would get a new TV the old one would go downstairs and await a chance to be needed. Because of my mother, I have become a bit of a pack-rat, too. “Don’t throw it away, you might need it someday.” I hear a little voice saying in my head. This was not the experience of Simon and Andrew, or James and John. In today’s Gospel, we here of the call of the first four Apostles. They left their nets and their boats and their family to follow Jesus. I went to seminary with guys who lives were changed by a similar encounter with Christ. They decided to leave the previous careers and listen to the call of Christ. (Show cards) These are souvenirs of priestly ordination. I call them priest trading cards. I’ll give you two Steve Gemme’s for a Tim Pfander. Thomas Muldowney was ordained a priest, 28 June 2003 (He was a nurse in Scranton, Pennsylvania); Lawrence LoMonaco ordained a priest June 1, 2002 (He was an engineer from Charlotte, NC); Timothy Nolan ordained a priest May 25, 2002. (He was an artist); Tim Pfander ordained a priest, 6 June 2004 (He was the manager of a security firm in Birmingham, Alabama); Stephen Gemme ordained a priest June 1, 2002 (He was a teacher in Worcester, Massachusetts). Of course, you know I was a teacher, ordained 24 May 2003. Msgr. Farmer was a lawyer, Fr. Bianco was a musician. Some of the other priests in the Archdiocese of Baltimore include Fr. Steve Hook who was a bank vice-president, Fr. George Gannon was lawyer, as well as others. And then there are others whom God called before they had a secular career, like Fr. John Rapisarda, Fr. Mark Bialek, and Fr. Matt Beuning. When God calls you, you need to respond to the Lord’s call as did Simon and Andrew, as did James and John. Is it easy, no. Is it simple, yes. Going to seminary, does not mean that you will become a priest. Going to seminary is about listening to the call. There are many guys in the seminary who for one reason or another never make it to ordination. There is a guy I went to seminary with who left before ordination and is now married with children. The point is to answer the call. For those who are already married, the Lord is calling you as well. Holy Matrimony, just like Holy Orders, is a sacrament and a vocation from God. What is God calling you to do? My sister gave me an article once from the Wall Street Journal about a married man by the name of Joshua Hochschild. Dr. Hochschild was a professor of medieval philosophy at Wheaton College, a small evangelical Protestant college in Illinois. Having studied the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, Professor Hochschild heard God calling him to become Catholic. Wheaton College has a policy of not allowing Catholics on their faculty. Because Professor Hochschild heard God’s call and joined the Catholic Church, he lost his teaching position at Wheaton College. Joshua Hochschild believed that following Jesus faithfully in the Roman Catholic Church was more important than his tenure-track professorship at Wheaton College. Professor Hochshild eventually realized that he longed to “obey the Gospel command to eat the flesh of Christ.” As a Catholic, he is teaching at Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg. But Father Larry, you might say, I can’t be a priest and I am already a Catholic. Well, how much is the Kingdom of God worth to you? Pray and Jesus will show you the way. St Pope Gregory the Great wrote “The kingdom of heaven has no price tag on it: It is worth as much as you have. For Zacchaeus, it was worth half of what he owned, because the other half that he had unjustly pocketed, he promised to restore fourfold. For Peter and Andrew, it was worth the nets and the vessel they had left behind; for the widow it was worth two copper coins; for another, it was worth a cup of cold water. So as we said, the kingdom of heaven is worth as much as you have.” It may start with something as simple as taking down some of the pictures on your walls and replacing them with pictures of Jesus, Mary, the saints, or the Crucifix. My mother had a holy picture hanging in almost every room of the house, except for some reason, the bathroom. Maybe it is as simple as spending time talking to your children about their religious education or saying grace before meals. Who knows, maybe God wants you to preach to a modern day Nineveh, or maybe to abandon your boat, or, at least, let go of those old televisions down in the basement.

Vocation to Holiness: St. Fabian, 2012, B

2012-01-20T15:25:00.000-05:00

Some are called to the priesthood, some are called to the religious life, some are called to the the Sacraments of Marriage, but all are called to holiness by their Baptism. I wanted to end with St. Fabian, giving his life for the TRUE Faith, but forgot. Click here for audio homily.

Accept No Substitutes: EF 19 January 2012,

2012-01-20T15:10:00.000-05:00

That was supposed to be the closing line of my homily but I forgot it.

As G.K. Chesterton says: The modern world will accept no dogmas upon any authority; but it will accept any dogmas on no authority. Say that a thing is so, according to the Pope or the Bible, and it will be dismissed as a superstition without examination. But preface your remark merely with "they say" or "don't you know that?" or try (and fail) to remember the name of some professor mentioned in some newspaper; and the keen rationalism of the modern mind will accept every word you say. Jesus warns about false prophets. It's not Oprah, or some theologian, rogue priest, or supposed "visionary." There is ONE Faith, (the Catholic Church), there is ONE Lord (Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world), and there is ONE Baptism (by water and the Holy Spirit). I also wanted to talk about the Medjugorge "seer" Ivan and how he has a lucrative business giving talks about his "apparitions" that are supposedly still happening.

Click here for Audio Homily.

Link to the Problems with Medjugorge.

Link to the post on "copycat visionary" Gianna .

Jesus is David, Priest, God: Tuesday, 2nd week of Ordinary Time, B, 2012

2012-01-17T19:07:00.000-05:00

Jesus response to the Pharisees shows that Jesus is the new David, the new Hight Priest, and God Incarnate. Click here for audio homily.

Is Ordinary Time Boring?: Second Sunday Ordinary Time, B, 2012

2012-01-15T06:30:00.000-05:00

Click here for audio homily. Merry Sunday of the second week of Ordinary Time! Why are there so many people who come to celebrate Christmas but so few to celebrate the Sunday of the second week in Ordinary Time. Is it because the ordinary is drab, boring, and dull? Actually, we really should not call it Ordinary Time. It is really ordinal time. If you remember your math class, one, two, three, etc. are cardinal numbers; first, second, third, etc are ordinal numbers because they order things in sequence. But Ordinary time is anything but ordinary. I remember walking into the sacristy one day and asking the priest, “Are we doing anything special, today?” He responded, “We’re celebrating Mass.” If we really understand what happens at Mass we could never say Mass is boring again. In the Book of Revelation, John tells us “I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away... I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven.” This is what happens at Mass. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is nothing less than Heaven come down to earth. In a few moments, I will take ordinary bread and wine, and because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, I will say those words of consecration, “This is My Body”, “This is the chalice of My Blood,” and by the power of the Holy Spirit, the bread and wine will cease to exist and in its place will be the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, true God and true man. There is nothing ordinary about that. So why are there so few people here? Why if we can receive the Almighty and Eternal God into our very being through Holy Communion are there not more people here today? Bl. Pope John Paul the Great lamented that “Stripped of its sacrificial meaning , [the Mass] is celebrated as if it were simply a fraternal banquet… How can we not express profound grief at all this? The Eucharist is to great a gift to tolerate ambiguity and depreciation.” Therefore, according to Bl. Pope John Paul, we must get away from the idea that Mass is a “fraternal banquet” and recover the more ancient theology that “the Mass makes present the sacrifice of the Cross; it does not add to that sacrifice nor does it multiply it.” We have forgotten the purpose of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. If we do not fulfill our purpose in life, our life is like an unsharpened pencil. It has no point. What do you do with something that has lost its purpose? You throw it away, or you put it in a drawer somewhere and bring it out once in while to look at it but it has no real impact on your life. There will not be an increase in Mass attendance or vocations to the priesthood, until priests are willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of the kingdom. As a career, the priesthood does not have much to recommend it. You can’t live where you want, or with whom you want, you can’t get married, you don’t get paid much, and people are always complaining. If, however, we could recapture the priesthood as the fight against the evil one, if we could recapture the theology of the Mass as the sacrifice of Calvary made present at the altar, if we could recapture the idea the we are all going to die and face judgment, then we could return to the Church as the vibrant force in the world. We have also forgotten the purpose of sexuality and of the complimentary nature of male and female; and we have lost the understanding of what it means to be a woman or a man. Men need a challenge, men need to conquer, men need to sacrifice themselves for a greater cause. We have, of late, denuded the Church of sacrifice, conquering evil, and the ultimate end of life. In the last forty years or so we have replaced sacrifice with a “feel good, no fault, you’re OK I’m OK” mush that does not succede in any other field of life and yet, we expect it to work in the Church. St. Paul says, (1Corinthians 9:27) “Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. Thus, I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing. No, I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.” Today, we would say, “non pain, no gain.” What would happen if the military boot camp instructor went easy on the recruits before they were sent off to war? If the drill instructor said, “There is going to be a fifty-mile hike with full pack starting at 6 am, and you’re invited.” What would happen? How long would they stay alive in the field of battle? In the same vein, we are in a battle with the devil, he will use every trick in the book to get us to loose our souls. It is the job of the priest to be our boot camp instructor and prepare us for the fight with the devil. The reason why we can’t attract men to the priesthood is because those who would enter seminary, see nothing manly in it. John the Baptist calls Jesus, “the Lamb of God.” Jesus is the Lamb of God because by shedding His Blood and sacrificing His life on the Cross, He fulfilled the Passover promise to save God’s people. Jesus did not just save us from slavery but also from sin. This is what we celebrate every time we celebrate Mass. This is what the priest is called to do. The priest is called to act “in the person of Christ” and in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass make present for us that one definitive sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, a sacrifice which cannot be repeated but that at same sacrifice is made present to us at every celebration of the Mass. If we want to rise from the dead, if we want to be free from the slavery of sin, we must eat the flesh of the Lamb of God but only if we are spiritually prepared. For even the Jews were told how to prepare themselves to eat the Passover lamb. This is why before receiving Holy Communion, the priest says, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, Happy are those called to the supper of the Lamb.”

Mary, the New Eve: EF Second Sunday after Epiphany

2012-01-15T06:00:00.000-05:00

Click here for audio homily. Archbishop Fulton Sheen had a great devotion to the Blessed Mother and he would celebrate Mass every Saturday in her honor. Therefore, he hoped that when he died and faced the fearful judgment seat of Christ, he would come before the mercy of Christ and hear the Lord say, “I’ve heard my mother, speak of you.” And yet in today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus referring to His Blessed Mother as “woman.” When they ran out of wine, “Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, how does your concern affect me?’” We may think that Jesus was being rather rude to His dear mama, calling her “woman” rather than “mother” or even using her name, “Mary.” Why does Jesus call her “woman?” The answer is in what Jesus says next; “My hour has not yet come.” The hour that Jesus refers to is His passion and death. Two week’s ago, on the feast of the Epiphany, we had the first overtones of the ominous music heralding the death of Jesus in the Magi’s gift of myrrh. Myrrh was a spice used to embalm the dead. Imagine if someone gave you embalming fluid as a present when your child was born. By bringing myrrh to the infant Jesus, the Magi were foreshadowing the purpose of Jesus’ life. Again, Archbishop Sheen would say, Jesus was the only person to be born for the express purpose of dying. Just as the gift of myrrh, foreshadowed Jesus’ death, so too our reading today when Jesus talks about His hour has not yet come, we hear the second chord of that ominous music of the crucifixion. This is why Jesus refers to Mary as “woman” rather than “mother.” Mary is referred to as “woman” again at the crucifixion. Jesus as true man, in addition to being true God, is often referred to as the New Adam. In the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, humanity is recreated and given new birth. Jesus restores us to the image of God that was disfigured by the sin of Adam. Since Jesus Christ is the New Adam, where is the New Eve? Mary is the New Eve. Immaculately conceived, and totally committed to God, never having put God on the back–burner, Mary was that New Eve who never sinned. Therefore, when Jesus is consummating the marriage of the bridegroom with is bride, the Church, by His death on the cross, who is there at the foot of the cross? It is St. John, the beloved disciple and Marry, the Blessed Mother. St. John tells us that at the crucifixion, “when Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.” In referring to Mary as “woman,” Christ was signifying her as the universal woman, the New Eve. Just as Eve is the mother of all the living, Mary is the mother of the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ. This is why our Lord calls Mary, “woman” rather than “mother.” For as the universal woman, she is now the Mother of the Church and St. John the Apostle is her first spiritual son. This is why Jesus says to Mary, “Woman, behold your son,” but why in speaking to St. John, Jesus says, “Behold your mother.” Therefore, when in today’s reading Jesus says “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come,” Our Lord is saying to His Blessed Mother that if I begin my saving mission, you also will be drawn into my passion and death. If I begin my march to Calvary, you, Mother will be coming with me. Our relationship will have changed and you will no longer be just the Mother of Jesus the Carpenter but just as I will become the new Adam, you will become the new universal woman, the New Eve giving birth with me to the Church. Since Mary is the Mother of the Church and we are the Church, Christ’s Mystical Body, Mary is our mother as well, as long as we stand at the cross with her. She is not only the mother of the Church, she is also its best exemplar. If we follow her example, if we pick up our crosses and follow after her Son, if we follow her words to the servants, and “Do whatever He tells you.” Then, at the end of our life when we face the fearsome judgment seat of Christ we too can hope to hear Jesus say to us, “I heard My Mother speak of you.”

Government Is The Problem: Friday, 1st week in Ordinary Time

2012-01-13T16:21:00.000-05:00

We get so caught up in the things things of this life we forget the really important things of eternity. Click here for audio homily.

Kenotic Heresy: EF Homily, Feria, 1st Sunday after Epiphany

2012-01-13T16:13:00.000-05:00

How did Jesus grow in wisdom, age, and grace if He was truly the omniscient God? Click here for audio homily.

Listen Lord For Your Servant Is Speaking: Wednesday, 1st week in Ordinary Time.

2012-01-11T17:11:00.000-05:00

God answers our prayers because he has something for us to do. Simply because we pray does not mean that we are part of the people of God. Click here for audio homily.

The Devil Believes in God: Tuesday, 1st week of Ordinary Time, B, 2011

2012-01-10T22:44:00.000-05:00

The Devil not only believes in God but has seen Him in the splendor of His glory and amazingly still chose to say "NO" to God's love. Click here for audio homily.

Mortal Sin: 7th January before Epiphany

2012-01-09T21:58:00.001-05:00

The three things necessary for mortal sin, it sure, and the amazing ability to thwart the will of God. Click here for audio homily.

Exchanging Gifts?: Epiphany, 2012,B

2012-01-08T06:30:00.000-05:00

Click here for audio homily. Be honest. How many Christmas presents have you exchanged or re-gifted? One year, my sister got a new digital TV for Christmas and while we were watching it, on Christmas night, there was a commercial with a happy face with a frown and the caption with something about 60% off the things you really wanted for Christmas. Do we ever really get what we truly want for Christmas? Only someone who really knows you, can give you a present that you really like. God gives us the best present of all. Jesus is our Christmas present from God. Jesus came to free us from our sins. Jesus came to bring us eternal life. Jesus came to reveal the love of God the Father for us. Sitting around the dinner table, somebody may ask, “Does anybody need anything?” I sometimes respond, “Salvation?” That is really the only gift we really need. And salvation is just that it is a gift. We do nothing to earn it or deserve it. I was talking to someone recently and they were commenting that if the Three Wise Men, had been women, the gifts that they brought would have been more practical—a sack of diapers, a casserole, and offer to babysit. The three wise men, however, may have known the ancient Hebrew prophecies of the coming Messiah from the time that the Israelites had spent in exile in Babylon. The prophet Daniel held a high position in the court of the Babylonian king and prophesied the coming of the Messiah. So, the wise men were wise enough to bring gifts that signified their knowledge of who Jesus was. A gift is simply that; something we do not have a right to; something that is given to us out of generosity and kindness of someone else. In that respect then, when the Gospel says the Magi “opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” They were not really gifts since, as God, everything belongs by right to God. The Magi were only giving to God what was His due. They gave Him gold in homage because Jesus is the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords. They gave Him frankincense in adoration because Jesus is God from God, Light from Light and true God from True God. They gave Him myrrh for His burial because Jesus who was born of the Virgin Mary, would suffer, die, and be buried, and on the third day rise again. What if Mary and Joseph decided to exchange the gifts they received from the wise men? Maybe we would like to exchange some of the gifts that that wise men brought. Gold is fit for a king but we don’t really want Jesus to be the king of our life. We would rather have a Jesus who is elected to govern us and if we don’t like His laws, we can simply vote Him out of office. If Jesus is not the Absolute ruler of our mind and body, they we deny He is our king and try to exchange the gift of gold. Frankincense is the symbol of Jesus being true God. We don’t use incense enough. It takes to long, it makes people cough. Do we want to exchange Frankincense for something a little more human. If Jesus is only a good moral teacher than we may not have to listen to Him, but if we accept that Jesus is True God from True God, then we will be obligated to listen to Him. Do we recognize Jesus as simply a holy man? C. S. Lewis in his book, Mere Christianity wrote: "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or he would be the devil of hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us." Perhaps we would like to exchange the myrrh? I like the little baby Jesus in the crib. HE is cute and cuddly a real kind of warm fuzzy feeling. Don’t start talking about sin and salvation and dieing on the cross. That’s a real downer. Jesus loves everybody. If we don’t want to face the reality of our death, and our final judgment, if we don’t want to face the reality of Hell and the promise of Heaven and of eternal life sharing in the Divine life of Jesus. Well then, yeah, exchange the myrrh for something else, but we can’t be certain that everybody who dies goes to heaven. If in the myrrh, we could recognize our own mortality and sinfulness, the true value of the other two gifts, gold and frankincense, would become much clearer. Our destiny, our true home, is to share in the divine life of the Trinity. That is the gift Jesus came to bring us; unless we decide to exchange it for something that will not satisfy us for eternity.

The Family at War: EF Homily--Holy Family Sunday

2012-01-08T05:30:00.000-05:00

Click here for audio homily. There is a war going on. The family itself is under attack; a war between the forces of darkness, sin, and death and the forces of light, grace, and life. The consequences of this war are eternal. There is a battle for your soul and the soul of your family. How will you enter the battlefield? We read in St. Paul’s Letter to the Collosians, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another.” We have a society that no longer allows prayer in the public school but it can teach homosexuality. We can no longer expect our society to support traditional family values. If you want your family to survive the war, you have to be prepared. You have to go to spiritual boot-camp. If you sent your son or daughter off to the military, and the drill instructor said, “We’re having rifle practice tomorrow at 10 am, if you feel like coming” What would happen? If the drill instructor said, “There is going to be a fifty-mile hike with full pack starting at 6 am, and you’re invited.” What would happen? When your son or daughter got onto the battlefield to face the enemy, they would almost certainly be killed. Would you then blame the government for not preparing your child? You are in a war with society for your soul and the soul of your children. The consequences of failing to prepare are not just physical death but spiritual death and eternal torment. Does this sound harsh to you? What would you do if you went to a doctor and she failed to tell you that you had cancer because she did not want to scare you or upset you? Well, I am telling you right now that there is a spiritual cancer attacking your family. Call it society, call it relativism, call it the devil, whether you know it or not you are at war. What are the weapons that we have to fight this spiritual cancer? The Church’s nuclear weapons are the seven sacraments. These are the most powerful instruments of God’s grace. Yet, there are four major tactical weapons in the Church’s arsenal: education, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. When I listen to converts talk about their conversion to the Catholic faith, one common theme is that Catholics don’t know their faith. They don’t know why they come to Church every Sunday or who they are receiving in Holy Communion. Therefore, when someone comes along and says, “I have a better way,” Catholics have no ammunition to fight back and they lose their faith. The Second Vatican Council tells us that the primary teachers of children are the parents. If you don’t want your children going unprepared into the battlefield, YOU have to teach them the faith. That means you have to know it yourself. When was the last time you opened the Bible? When was the last time you studied some aspect of the Church’s teaching? The second weapon for a holy family is prayer. The family that prays together stays together. It may be trite, but it is true. My mother was constantly praying. When she got into the car, she said a little prayer; she came in the house, she said a little prayer. Before she cut a loaf of bread, she made the sign of the cross on the bottom of the loaf with the knife. She followed the radio rosary as it changed times throughout the year; whether she was watching television or preparing dinner, when it was time for the rosary, the radio came on. St. Padre Pio referred to the rosary as his weapon. Do you have a family prayer time? You don’t like the rosary, fine, pray the Liturgy of the Hours; don’t like that, pick up the Bible. But find some time for family prayer or your children are going to have to face the enemy with weak spiritual muscles. Do you say grace before meals? The Catechism teaches us “The Christian family is the first place of education in prayer. Based on the sacrament of marriage, the family is the "domestic church" where God's children learn to pray "as the Church" and to persevere in prayer. For young children in particular, daily family prayer is the first witness of the Church's living memory as awakened patiently by the Holy Spirit.” CCC 2685. The third weapon for a holy family is fasting. Friday remains a day of penitential observance, not only during Lent but throughout the year. During Lent, the Church mandates that the penance should take the form of not eating meat. But during the rest of the year, the not eating of meat can be transferred to some other form of penance. Fasting can take the form of not drinking coffee or soda, maybe it means not watching television or not playing video or computer games. But I need to do some form of penance on Friday to remember that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. We need to make Jesus’ Cross, our own so that we can carry the heavy burdens of life. If we have not learned to convert little sufferings into spiritual ammunition, what is going to happen when the devil pulls out his big guns of disease, tragedy, or death. The fourth weapon is almsgiving. St. Augustine teaches us that that which we do not need for our own existence belongs to the poor. By giving alms, we are not only sacrificing buying something else, but we our showing our solidarity with the poor and therefore, with Jesus himself. Education, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are the four great weapons in the battle for a holy family. We need not worry who is going to win the war. Jesus won the war when He conquered sin and death by rising from the dead. The question is whether our family will become a holy family; whether our family has made it through spiritual boot-camp.

Torn asunder: January 2012, B

2012-01-06T22:05:00.000-05:00

Mark uses the same word in the Baptism narrative as he uses in describing the tearing of the Temple Veil. The Chalice veil reminds us that they heavens are rent open by the Crucifixion and we enter the Holy of Holies at Mass. Click here for audio homily.

Good Enough?: 5 January 2012,B

2012-01-06T21:54:00.000-05:00

Abel gave God the best. Cain gave God whatever. When God does not accept whatever we give Him, we lash out in anger. Good enough isn't good enough for God. Click here for audio homily.

Lamb of God: Most Holy Name of Jesus, January 3, 2012, B

2012-01-03T13:54:00.000-05:00

What does it mean for John the Baptist to call Jesus, "the Lamb of God." It is related to the Temple sacrifices, to Abraham, and to Moses. In order to be saved from the Angel of Death one had to eat the lamb. The is what we say using the new translation. Click here for audio homily.

How does God Suffer?: Mother of God, 2011, B

2012-01-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

Click here for audio homily. “When eight days were completed for His circumcision, he was named Jesus.” This circumcision and name giving ceremony was done when Jesus was presented in the Temple. I was praying the rosary one day and meditating on the fourth Joyful mystery, the Presentation of Lord in the Temple. I tried to picture Mary and Joseph carrying the little baby Jesus into the Temple and was reminded of all the fuss that went on when members of my family would visit with little babies. What happened to the baby's coat? Do you have the blanket? Where's the diaper bag? I thought about Mary carrying Jesus into the Temple and how St. Joseph was probably carrying the diaper bag. Think about it, the God who created the world had to have His diaper changed. Pope John Paul II in his book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, said that neither Judaism nor Islam can accept a God who is so human. The Pope wrote: "It is not suitable to speak of God in this way," they protest. "He must remain absolutely transcendent; He must remain pure Majesty. Majesty full of mercy, certainly, but not to the point of paying for the faults of His own creatures, for their sins." Yet, St. Paul tells us in the second reading that Jesus "was born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law." This is one of the great treasures of our faith that the Eternal Omnipotent God became truly human without ceasing to be God. What dignity that gives to every human being! It was at the Council of Ephesus in 431 that the Church decreed that the divine nature of Jesus was truly united to His human nature in one Divine person from the first moment of His conception. Therefore the Council declared that Mary was truly the Mother of God. Not that the divinity of Jesus began with His conception in the womb of Mary but that since Jesus’ humanity and divinity were united into one person, then Mary truly gave birth to God. This is the great feast we celebrate today, the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. This is not a title meant primarily to honor Mary. This is a title that is meant to remind us of the great gift that God has given us. This is a great gift for as St. Paul tells us “God sent His Son, so that we might receive adoption as sons, crying out Abba, Father." The early Church Fathers in talking about the fullness of Jesus' humanity said "that which was not assumed was not saved." That means that God had to be truly human so that every aspect of our life could be saved, every part of our person is holy to the Lord, from diapers, to donuts, to death. Only God, the author of life, could destroy the power of death, through dying on the cross and rising again on the third day. Jesus, the God-made-man, has sanctified our whole lives and showed us that death is not the end. What does this revelation of Jesus Christ mean in our daily lives? Since Jesus is the fullness of the revelation of God then everything Jesus did somehow gives us a revelation of who God is. By dying on the cross, Jesus showed us that God's love is somehow intimately connected with suffering. The closer you get to God the more you suffer. That is not very appealing in our modern day society that tries to avoid sacrifice and suffering but it is part of who God is. God is love and love is about emptying yourself for your beloved. When your beloved rejects your love it hurts you terribly. Yet, this is what the cross teaches us. St. Paul teaches us about Jesus' love for us "that, because Jesus himself was tested through what He suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested." What use would it have been for God to become man if he did not suffer? What is not assumed is not saved. If God did not experience the sufferings that we do, why would we bother to call out to Him in our suffering. What would He know about it? You want to talk to somebody that knows where you've been. Through the cross and resurrection, our suffering has meaning because God has been there and done that. Mary, too, was instrumental in the revelation of God for she not only gave birth to the Divine Word but was also there beside her Son as He suffered, died, and rose again. So we pray, Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Tabernacle veil: 31 December 2011, B

2011-12-31T15:03:00.000-05:00

"The Word become Flesh and made His dwelling among us" has to be understood in the context of first century Judaism and the absence of the the Ark of the Covenant and the shekinah. Click here for audio homily.

Born to Die: EF Octave of Christmas & St. Thomas A Beckett

2011-12-30T15:51:00.000-05:00

Why is it that the Church celebrates three martyrs right after the Birth of Christ? Christ was born to die. We are to give witness (to martyr) to Christ. Click here for audio homily.

Politicians, Taquiya, and Project Rachel

2011-12-29T03:00:00.000-05:00

Politicians claim to be Catholic but they "remain in darkness." Islam allows believers to to lie to unbelievers. The origin of the name of Project Rachel. Click here for Audio homily.

Throw it out: 27 December 2011, B

2011-12-28T11:55:00.000-05:00

The days after Christmas provide a little Christmas Triduum of the purpose of Catholicism. Why do people not come to Mass? If it doesn't have a purpose, throw it away. Click here for daily audio homily.

Christmas (The Nativity of the Lord): Mass is boring

2011-12-25T06:30:00.000-05:00

St. Margaret Clitherow

Click here for audio homily. Merry Christmas to all! Today, because we celebrate the birthday God made man, at the Creed, we will genuflect (for those who are able) at the words “and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.” Holy Mother Church wants us not only to give adoration to God but also to help engrain in our psyche the power that these words hold. Salvation is not communion with some Impersonal Philosophic Divine Essence. It’s not sitting on cloud strumming harp looking at God from a distance. – boring !!!! No wonder people don’t want to go to heaven or come to Mass every week if that is what heaven is like. But salvation is much more wonderful than anything we can ever imagine. Salvation is an intimate and personal relationship with a personal God who loves us more than we can ever know. How many times have you seen “A Charlie Brown Christmas” There is all this commotion about a Christmas tree and Snoopy’s commercialism, but in the end, Linus brings us back to the real meaning of Christmas by quoting Luke’s Gospel story of the Birth of Jesus. It’s a very familiar reading and I wonder how many people, when I began the gospel story, thought I sounded like the teacher in the Charlie Brown cartoons, “Wa Wa Wa Wa Wa.” When we heard the beginning of the Gospel story, did we mentally switch off a little button in our head, been there, heard that I hope the football game is more exciting. What is the major complaint about coming to Mass every week? It’s boring. Well, G.K. Chesterton writes, “A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit, fierce and free, therefore, they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again;” and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough... It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again,” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again,” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike: it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.” Have we taken the Christmas message for granted? The all-powerful, all-knowing, all-merciful God became, through Mary’s Fiat, which is the old Latin word for “Let it be done,” through Mary’s fiat, God became a little embryo that began to grow inside of Mary. In his encyclical on the Eucharist, Bl. Pope John Paul the Great wrote, “At the Annunciation, Mary conceived the Son of God in the physical reality of his body and blood, thus anticipating within herself what to some degree happens sacramentally in every believer who receives, under the signs of bread and wine, the Lord's body and blood. As a result, there is a profound analogy between the Fiat which Mary said in reply to the angel, and the Amen which every believer says when receiving the body of the Lord.” Thus, after the minister says “The Body of Christ,” we should with great faith proclaim “Amen” and receive our God into our mouths. And just as Mary was without sin, when she conceived Jesus in her womb. So too when we, Catholics, receive Jesus in Holy Communion, we must be in a state of grace, free from grave sin, and have fasted one hour, to prepare a place for Jesus to rest in our souls. And yet, this wonderful gift of God made man, this wonderful gift of Emmanuel, “God with us” not only in the Incarnation but also in the Holy Eucharist is something that we celebrate every Sunday. Let us recapture that faith of a little child on the day of their first communion, and figuratively say to the priest at every Mass, “Do it again.” Make present the Body and Blood Soul and Divinity of the living God present among us. This was the great desire of those martyrs who died for the privilege of attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In his encyclical, the Day of the Lord, Pope John Paul II, not only reminded the faithful of the grave obligation to attend Mass every Sunday. But also recalled the martyrs of the ancient Roman Empire who, during the persecution of Diocletian, were banned from attending Mass. Many, however, were courageous enough to defy the imperial decree and accepted death rather than miss the Sunday Eucharist. More recently, during the Reformation in England in the 1500’s, it was illegal to attend Mass and those who did were persecuted but St. Margaret Clitherow hid priests in her home, taught her children to love their Catholic faith, and refused to stop attending Mass. She was martyred on the 25th of March in the year of our Lord 1586. St. Margaret’s three children saw how much their mother’s faith meant her. Her sons, Henry and William, became priests, and her daughter Anne became a nun. Even more recently, I remember a grandmother telling me about her grandchildren who came to visit her after her parents had been stationed in some Arab country where Christianity was not accepted. When the woman told her grandchildren, “Get ready for Church,” they responded to her “Grandma, you can’t say that word.” Persecution of Christians still exists in today’s world. Let us remember the great gift that God has given us this Christmas, in the person of His Son, not only in the manger but also upon this altar, and in our own mouths. Are we willing, like St. Margaret Clitherow, to die for the privilege of attending Mass every Sunday and to accept the Son of God into our bodies as Mary did?

Promises Kept: December 24, 2011, B

2011-12-24T18:47:00.000-05:00

The Nativity fulfills three divine promises. 1.) to send a Savior, 2.) To be with us always, 3.) to prepare a place for us in eternity. Click here for daily audio homily.

The Word exists without the Voice: December 23, 2011, B

2011-12-24T18:40:00.000-05:00

Our modern society wants to stifle all talk of Jesus and Christmas, but even if the Voice is silenced the Word still exists. Click here for audio daily homily.

My love leaps like a gazelle: December 21, 2011, B

2011-12-21T14:46:00.000-05:00

What's the meaning of Love. Pope Benedict wrote "God has eros for us." God desires and longs for us to be with Him. Click here for daily audio homily.

Do It Again: December 20th, B 2011

2011-12-20T14:15:00.000-05:00

Do we take Mass for granted. Chesterton has a wonderful thought about children and boredom. "Do It Again," they cry. Click here for audio daily homily.

Listen Lord, Your servant is talking: Fourth (4th) Sunday of Advent, B, 2011

2011-12-18T06:30:00.000-05:00

Click here for audio homily. Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” In this Biblical story, Mary is totally open to the Will of God. Mary accepts God’s offer to become the mother of His son. The story of the Mary’s “Yes” to the Lord reminds very much of the Old Testament story of the call of Samuel. The Lord calls out to the young Samuel. Samuel keeps going to the Prophet Eli, thinking that it was Eli who was calling him. Finally, Eli understood that the LORD was calling the youth. So he said to Samuel, "Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.'" The response that Samuel was to give was similar to the response that Mary gave. Mary told the angel, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Samuel was told to respond, “Speak, Lord for your servant is listening.” Very often in today’s world when people pray they do not say “Speak Lord for your servant is listening.” Rather today many people pray, “Listen, Lord, for your servant is speaking.” This is what we see in the first reading from the Second Book of Samuel. King David had decided that he knew what was best for the Lord. He had decided the best way to serve the Lord is to build a temple for the Ark of the Covenant. David was going to build a house for Lord to dwell in until Nathan the prophet delivered the Word of the Lord unto David. "Go, tell my servant David, 'Thus says the LORD: Should you build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the day on which I led the Israelites out of Egypt to the present, but I have been going about in a tent under cloth. In all my wanderings everywhere among the Israelites, did I ever utter a word to any one of the judges whom I charged to tend my people Israel, to ask: Why have you not built me a house of cedar?'” David thought he was doing something good for the Lord. David was saying “Listen, Lord for your servant is speaking.” How often when we pray do we tell God, “I would really like it if you did this. Or, I want to You to give me that.” Are we being like King David or like the Virgin Mary? It has been said that if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans. David told God what he would do for God. Mary simply said, “Let it be done to me according to Your will.” David wanted to be in control of the relationship with God. Mary let God be in control of the relationship. Mary took a great risk in saying “yes” to God. As an unwed mother, Mary could have been stoned to death, but she trusted God with her life. Mary did not know how God was going to accomplish this great miracle but she trusted God with her life. St. Joseph was not prepared for a child that was not his own. He did not want Mary killed but he was not willing to take Mary as his wife after he found out she was not carrying his child. Yet, Joseph also said, “yes” to God and took Mary into his home. Joseph trusted God with his life. How many young couples are afraid to say, “yes” to God when an unexpected pregnancy or crisis occurs. How often do they say to God, “I have the solution, God, I will fix it”? How often are we open to what God is asking us in our life? I remember when I said “yes” to God when I decided to enter the seminary. I was scared and I did not know what was ahead of me. Yet I trusted God with my life (which is really His life, because He gave me life). So I said “yes” to God’s call to enter the seminary. Entering the seminary, does not mean that you will be a priest. There is a long and hard trail from that first “yes” of entering seminary to that last yes when you place your hands inside that of the bishop and say “I do” when he asks you, “Do you promise respect and obedience to me and my successors?” When I said “yes” to God, I did not know what lay ahead; when Mary said “yes” to God she did not know what lay ahead of her. When husbands and wives say “I Do” on there wedding day they do not know what lies ahead. This logic is often given for the reason couples live together before being married, but it is faulty logic. Statistics show that couples who live together before being married have a greater divorce rate that those who do not live together. Would you want a seminarian to celebrate Mass before he is ordained a priest? Of course not! Why would you want a man and woman to live together before they have their “yes” witnessed by the Church? Both the Priesthood and Marriage are Holy Sacraments of God. If you are thinking that God may be calling you to the priesthood or if your marriage is not blessed by the Church, please contact one of the priests here at St. John so that we can help you to share fully in the sacramental life of the Church. We have to say “Yes” to God and trust in Him as we walk into the unknown, like Mary and Joseph did. We need to be open and listening to God, rather than be like King David who said, “Listen Lord, for Your servant is speaking.”

Are you THE Prophet?: EF Feria Third Week of Advent

2011-12-17T21:46:00.001-05:00

Who was THE Prophet that the pharisees were waiting for and what does it have to do with Jesus? Click here for audio homily.

St. John of the Cross, dark night of the soul, Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

2011-12-14T16:21:00.000-05:00

Sacrifice comes from "sacrum" "facere" which is Latin for 'to make holy.' Holy means "totally other," "set apart." Today, we "set up" an new chalice for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Click here for daily audio homily.

Health Care Ministers' Mass: St. Lucy, B, 2011

2011-12-13T16:03:00.000-05:00

Martyr means witness. Those who take Holy Communion to the sick are white martyrs. Click here for daily audio homily.

Gaudete Sunday: Rejoice! Third (3rd) Sunday of Advent, B, 2011

2011-12-08T14:18:00.000-05:00

Click here for audio homily. Rejoice! That is why we light the rose colored candle of the Advent wreath and why I am wearing a rose colored vestment today. It’s Gaudete Sunday. It is called that because “Gaudete” is the first word of the entrance antiphon for Mass. Gaudete in Latin means Rejoice. We have several reasons to rejoice; for one, Advent is almost over and the great celebration of Christmas is almost upon us. The word “rejoice” appears in three of our four readings today. In the prophet Isaiah we read, “I rejoice heartily in the LORD.” In the Luke’s Gospel, we hear Mary’s great cry that “my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” From St. Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, we hear him write, “Rejoice always.” The only place we do not hear rejoicing is in the Gospel. Rather we hear the Levites and Pharisees question John the Baptist about who he is. John’s message is not one of rejoicing but of repentance. We cannot rejoice in something we are not. “A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light.” John the Baptist knew who he was. He was not the Messiah. He was not the Light. We can only truly rejoice when we know who we are. When we fall into the trap a trying to be someone we are not, we are constantly afraid of being found out. We are constantly comparing ourselves to someone else. They have more money than I do. She is more popular than I am. He has more athletic ability than I do. But at least I am smarter then they are. St Alphonsus Liguori said, “Who knows? If God had given us greater talent, better health, a more personable appearance, we might have lost our souls!” Because everybody is trying to be someone that they are not, we are constantly being lied to. “Your call is very important to us, please hold the line.” “Of course, I will respect you in the morning.” “The service man will be there between 9am and 5pm tomorrow.” Despite our idealistic expectations, we know that in reality that some marriages don’t last forever; some politicians do not really protect the public interest; and some priests do not live up to the holiness of their exalted vocation. We cannot rejoice because we have been lied to. The only person that we feel we can trust is ourselves. But John the Baptist calls us to repentance by showing us that he is not the messiah. There is one who is greater than I that is coming. This is why Isaiah, Mary, and St. Paul could rejoice. They had found the Truth and were willing to put their trust in the Lord. Only when we become humble of heart, as Mary is, can we realize that placing other needs before our own, leads to true happiness. Only when we are humble of heart can we know our proper place in the grand scheme of salvation. Only when we stop comparing ourselves to one another can we begin to put our lives in right order and work for the fullness of Truth, Goodness, and Life. Only when we are meek and gentle of heart and we recognize others as having co-equal dignity with us, as beloved of the Father. Only when we want what God wants, when and how God wants it, can we be said to be truly holy. But when we have reached this level of unity with God, we can rejoice because we are free from the oppressive nature of our desires and our needs. We should rejoice that God so loved the world that He sent His only Son. Not only should we rejoice that God became man, which is mind-boggling enough, we also need to rejoice that God became human in order to die to save me from my own selfishness and sin. Before I can have a savior, I have to admit I am a sinner. This is what John the Baptist was proclaiming in the dessert. St Paul tell us that “The one who calls you is faithful, and He will also accomplish it.” I can rejoice because, I know that the Jesus is the Truth. Jesus will not lie to me. If Jesus said, “This is my Body” and told us to “Do this in remembrance of Him.” I will rejoice in Him whom I trust. If I did not believe that Jesus Christ founded the Roman Catholic Church; if I did not believe that Roman Catholic Church had the fullness of divine revelation; if I did not believe that only Jesus Christ can save me from my sins and if I did not believe that I receive God every time I receive Holy Communion, I would be out of here faster than latest microchip. But I do believe those things. That is why I am here rejoicing wearing this rose vestment. Why are you here?

Immaculate Conception, December 8, 2011

2011-12-07T13:48:00.001-05:00

Click here for audio homily

Joachim, MARY, and Ann

Archbishop Fulton Sheen, who is in the process of canonization for sainthood, was often amazed that people had a really hard time understanding the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The Immaculate Conception declares that Mary "in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin." Archbishop Sheen says that he has trouble understanding why people have a hard time accepting the doctrine that Mary was free from sin because, he says, most people think they are without sin anyway. One sin that we must be especially aware of this holiday season is gluttony. Gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins. Did we eat too much at Thanksgiving? Will we have one too many desserts at the office Christmas party? Adam and Eve only had one bite from the fruit of the tree, but that was too much because God had told not them to eat of the fruit of this tree. Adam and Eve wasted the precious gift of God’s grace by doing what THEY thought was best. They were given a great gift, which as their children, we should have inherited; just like Great Grandfather who made billions in the oil industry, we should be entitled to that inheritance. However, Great Grandfather went to Las Vegas and lost all his money at the card table trying to get even more. We, as his descendants, should have inherited that money but due to Great Grandfather’s greed, we are left with the consequences of his actions. So too, we were created in the image and likeness of God, but because of the sin of Adam and Eve, that image was tarnished, though not destroyed, by original sin. And today, we suffer the consequences of original sin, that propensity or inclination to sin. Sin, however, really makes us less than who we are, who we are called to be, less than our exalted destiny of eternal life within the existence of the Most Holy Trinity. We cannot conquer sin by our own efforts, we cannot recreate ourselves, this is what we celebrate today. We celebrate the fact that in Mary, God decided to give us another chance. In virtue of the saving work of her Son, Jesus Christ, God created Mary to be free from stain of original sin from the first moment of her conception. This is why the Church often refers to Mary as the new Eve, and to Jesus as the new Adam. This is why the Gospel today tells us that Mary is full of grace. Grace is that life of God. Since Mary is full of the life of God there can be no trace of sin in her. Some translations of the Bible will say “highly favored” rather that “full of grace” but the Greek word that the Gospel writer uses for “grace” is the same word that St. Paul uses from “grace” in his letters. Therefore, Mary is “full of grace” and that is why the Church chose to use that translation. So what does it mean, practically, that Mary was conceived without original sin. How should that influence my life? First of all it means, as Bl. Pope John Paul the Great has said, that Mary was the first tabernacle in history. Just as she was without sin, when she received our Divine Savior into her body at the Annunciation, so too must we be without sin when we receive Our Savior in Holy Communion; for it is the same Lord, the same Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. This is also the reason why we fast for one hour before receiving Holy Communion. Again, as Bl. Pope John Paul, has written “What must Mary have felt as she heard from the mouth of Peter, John, James and the other Apostles the words spoken at the Last Supper: ‘This is my body which is given for you’ (Lk 22:19)? The body given up for us and made present under sacramental signs was the same body which she had conceived in her womb! For Mary, receiving the Eucharist must have somehow meant welcoming once more into her womb that heart which had beat in unison with hers and reliving what she had experienced at the foot of the Cross.” The Immaculate Conception reminds us that while Mary was free from the stain of original sin, it was her cooperation with that grace that kept her free from actual sin. Could Mary have sinned? Yes, she was endowed with a rational soul and free will. But she was so in love with what God had planned for her, even though she did not understand it, she said, “May it be done to me according to your word.” As we prepare for the celebration of Christ’s birth with buying presents and parties and feasting, let us always ask ourselves, “Is this what the Blessed Mother would have done?”

Being a Layperson is hard work: St. Nicholas, B, 2011

2011-12-06T20:07:00.001-05:00

It is easier to be a faithful priest than a faithful layperson. Click here for audio homily.

Are you a Zombie Catholic?: Second (2nd) Sunday of Advent, B, 2011

2011-12-03T10:58:00.001-05:00

Click here for audio homily. How many people handle their finances with the knowledge of an 8^th grader? Do you care for your health with information given to you when you were 13? How many people run their business without updating their knowledge? If it does not work for your health, or your finances, or your job, why do you think it works for your immortal soul and your relationship with God? The opening prayer for today’s Mass reads, “Almighty and merciful God, may no earthly undertaking hinder those who set out in haste to meet Your Son, but may our learning of heavenly wisdom gain us admittance to His company.” How often do we let the passing things of this world hinder our learning of heavenly wisdom? Are we setting out in haste to meet the Lord Jesus, especially every Sunday at Mass; or are we Catholic zombies who mindlessly shuffle into Mass late, sit down in the pew distracted about our earthly undertakings; file out of the pew walk up to receive Our Blessed Lord in Holy Communion without recognizing the great gift we have received; and then just as mindlessly head out the door before Mass is even over with? Or as today’s prayer says are we going to allow our learning of heavenly wisdom to gain for us admittance to His company? The Second Vatican Council called for full and active participation of the laity in the liturgy. The Council Document on the liturgy states, “This full and active participation by all the people is the aim to be considered before all else . . . and therefore pastors of souls must zealously strive to achieve it, by means of the necessary instruction, in all their pastoral work.” Full and active participation is to be achieved, according to the Council document, itself, by “necessary instruction.” The true meaning of this phrase has been clarified not only by Bl. Pope John Paul but also by Pope Benedict. In the document, Redemptionis Sacramentum, approved by Bl. Pope John Paul, it states that “it does not follow that everyone must necessarily have something concrete to do beyond the actions and gestures. . . .Instead catechetical instruction should strive diligently to correct widespread superficial notions and practices often seen in recent years. . .” Pope Benedict in response to the Bishop’s Synod on the Eucharist wrote in Sacramentum Caritatis, that “Clearly, full participation in the Eucharist takes place when the faithful approach the altar in person to receive communion. Yet, true as this is, care must be taken lest they conclude that the mere fact of their being present in church during the liturgy gives them the right or even the obligation to approach the table of the Eucharist.” Full and active participation in the liturgy is achieved, according to the Second Vatican Council, “by means of the necessary instruction.” Yet, how many people continue their Catholic education? And if they do continue it, how many do so by reading dissident and unfaithful publications, like the National Catholic Reporter. Here at St. John’s, in keeping with the mandate to provide you with the means of necessary instruction in your Catholic faith, we provide multiple opportunities to grow in your Catholic faith. There are many different Bible studies and adult education programs offered here at St. John’s. On January 13^th, I will be starting a Catholic Book Club as another forum to learn about your faith; we will begin with “Why does God allow suffering?.” We offer excellent CD’s on the Catholic faith for a small donation. You can pop these into the CD player in your car, and listen to them on your way to Baltimore or Washington, or wherever you are going. It is an easy way to grow deeper in your faith. I was rather disappointed about the lack of enthusiasm about the CD’s we purchased on the New Translation of the Mass. The Eucharist is the source and summit of everything we do as Catholics, and most people don’t seem to be interested in those CD’s on the new translation. The closing prayer for today’s Mass reads “Replenished by the food of spiritual nourishment, we humbly beseech you, O Lord, that through our partaking in this mystery, You may teach us to judge wisely the things of earth and hold firm to the things of heaven”. The Lord, or even the staff here at St. John’s, can teach all they want, but if we are not willing to learn, it is like the old proverb, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” The new translation of the Mass gives us wonderful opportunity to stop being Catholic zombies and to fully and actively participate in what we are doing by learning about the great gift that God has given to us in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Purple is not the color of Christmas: EF Second (2nd) Sunday of Lent.

2011-12-02T17:30:00.001-05:00

Click here for audio homily. What's all this purple about? No, I’M not just a Ravens fan. The stores and the malls have their Christmas decorations out. There are green tree-like things hanging from the light posts. Everybody knows that the colors for Christmas are red and green. Why aren't we wearing red and green vestments? Why are we standing up here in purple? Wearing purple in December and trying to tell people that it is Advent, and not Christmas, is like being a voice crying out in the desert, "Prepare you the way of the Lord, make straight his paths." The job of the Advent is to help prepare us for the coming of the Lord at Christmas. I remember one year, when I got so tied up with school that I did not get around to writing out my Christmas cards until December 26^th. As an apology in the Christmas card to explain why it was late, I wrote that since the Christmas season ran until the Baptism of the Lord, the Christmas card was not late it was simply liturgically correct. The stores could not sell so much stuff if they focused on what it really means to prepare for coming of the Lord. We wear purple in Advent to help us prepare for Christmas because purple focuses our attention on the two reasons for the season. One reason is that purple is the color of penance. In the Gospel, Jesus comments on John the Baptist saying, “"What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine clothing? Those who wear fine clothing are in royal palaces.” John the Baptist also calls us to repentance, but John wore a camel's hair shirt not a purple vestment. John the Baptist came from an important family. John's father, Zechariah, was a priest. John could have been a priest of the Old Covenant like his father. Rather, he left that comfortable world and the purple that the book Exodus said priests should wear and went to live on locusts and honey wearing camel's hair. The interesting thing about camel's hair is that to a Jewish person camels were ritually unclean. If you were unclean that meant that you were unable to participate in any of the activities of the society or the religion. Uncleanness was a sign of sinfulness. John the Baptist was trying to show us not only how each person is covered in sin but also how the world needed to be cleansed of its sins. John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. Repentance is the first step to being forgiven. You can't be forgiven of your sins unless you are sorry for them. By wearing the purple stole or chasuble we remind ourselves how we are covered in our sinfulness, how repentant we are for having hurt God, and how it is only Jesus who can truly heal us. It is Jesus who came to forgive sins. Jesus' baptism is a baptism of forgiveness in the Holy Spirit. John was only the pointer to someone mightier than he. This is why John sent his disciples to ask Jesus if “He was the one who is to come.” Here, then is the other reason for wearing purple. Besides being associated with forgiveness, purple has been associated, in Western Civilization, with royalty, at least, since the time of the Roman Emperors. The dye used to make purple cloth was very expensive and thus became associated with royalty. You may remember from the Acts of the Apostles, “woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods.” We wear purple during Advent because we are awaiting the arrival of the King of Kings at Christmas. A few weeks ago we celebrated Feast of Christ the King. Then, on the first Sunday of Advent and we start to wear purple in expectation of that coming of Jesus Christ, the King of Kings. Jesus is coming not only at Christmas, but also at the end of time and we need to prepare the way. John the Baptist talks of Christ's exalted status when he says that 'there is one who is mightier than he" and of whom John is not worthy to untie the thongs of his sandals. The thongs are like the shoe strings which hold the sandal on the foot. John is not even worthy to untie the shoe strings of Jesus. Yet the All-powerful, All-holy, All-merciful God became man to save us from our sins. That's why we can't cast off our purple until Christmas Day when our Savior comes. He comes to save us from our sins. Before we can celebrate Jesus saving us from our sins, we have to recognize our sinfulness and be repentant. Only with Jesus coming to save us can we cast off our sins and our purple vestments and rejoice in love and mercy of the God-made-man. So let us wait in restless anticipation for the coming of Jesus, our king and our Savoir, by wearing purple and crying out into the wilderness of the shopping malls so as to truly prepare the way of the Lord with repentance of sins and awe and wonder at his kingship.

God is not a vending machine: Friday, First week of Advent, B, 2011

2011-12-02T17:07:00.001-05:00

Are you waiting for a baby to give you present or a God who died for you? Click here for audio homily.

The Meaning of Chalice Veils: EF 1st Week of Advent Feria

2011-12-02T16:54:00.001-05:00

Jesus said "This generation shall not pass away until these things come to pass." What does that mean and what does it have to do with chalice veils. Click here for audio homily.

Apostle of Detachment: St. Andrew, B, 2011

2011-11-30T18:57:00.001-05:00

How to follow the example of St. Andrew as a layperson?: evangelization and detachment. Click here for daily audio homily.

The Real Meaning of Advent.

And with your Spirit: Tuesday, First Week of Advent, B, 2011

2011-11-29T12:01:00.001-05:00

Because Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, what does "and with your spirit" really mean? The priest acts in persona Christi. Click here for daily audio homily.

Happy Birthday! English Roman Missal, 3rd ed.

2011-11-26T16:30:00.000-05:00

The day has finally arrived! After a gestation period of about 10 years, the English translation of the 3rd Edition of the Roman Missal will be born in the United States. If you want to learn to chant the parts of the Mass there is an excellent website that has little audio clips or the music in the Roman Missal. With the new translation, we will not only stop telling God what to do, but we will start to humbly pray and beseech God. We will also have an accurate translation of "vita aeternae," as "eternal life" rather than "everlasting life." We do not need to ask God for everlasting life, we already have that because of our immortal soul. We are called to eternal life within the life of the Trinity; a life outside of time; a life that shares in the Divine Nature, as the 2nd Letter of Peter tells us. Happy Birthday, Roman Missal.

The Son of Man & This Generation; Friday of 34 Week of Ordinary Time

2011-11-25T11:01:00.001-05:00

Jesus called Himself the Son of Man, a title used in Daniel and Ezekiel. With the Destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, this generation did not pass away without seeing its destruction. Click here for daily audio homily.

The New Missal and Presumption: First (1st) Sunday of Advent, B, 2011

2011-11-24T16:39:00.000-05:00

I had an inspiration for my homily this weekend but the deacons are preaching this weekend. So given the introduction of the New Roman Missal, I thought I would just give you a brief overview of what I would have said if I had been preaching.:

When I read the Collect, or opening prayer for the First Sunday of Advent I was struck by two things. First, the prayer is one of humble petition rather than the imperative of telling God what to do. The new prayer for the First Sunday of Advent reads: “Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God, the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ with righteous deeds at his coming, so that, gathered at his right hand, they may be worthy to posses the heavenly Kingdom. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who live and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.” [As typed this prayer, I was tempted to capitalize the personal pronouns referencing God, but decided to remain true to the text.] But notice that ‘we pray God will grant this’, rather than we demand and expect God to grant this or that. We will see more of this deprecatory and humble language as we work our way through the new translation. However, the thing that stuck me like a light bulb when I first received my New Missal was the idea that “Grant your faithful people, we pray, … that THEY may be worthy.” Notice it does not say “that WE may be worthy.” The New Translation does not assume that simply because you are present at Mass, you can assume that you are counted among the faithful, this applies also to the priest. It also applies to the new translation of the words of consecration, “which will be poured out for you and for MANY” not “ALL.” Salvation is not a given. Salvation is not a freebie. Yes, Jesus died to save all people. Yes, we are not saved by our works, but we have to be faithful to that free gift of salvation, and the liturgy is no longer making that presumption. Only God can judge whether we are faithful. Let us pray that we will be among the THEY who are faithful and not the “we” who only presume they are faithful.

Infected with Niceness: St. Clement I, A, 2011

2011-11-23T12:25:00.001-05:00

The "spirit of Vatican II" has infected the Church with niceness, but that is not what the Gospels or 2000 years of Tradition call us to. Click here for daily audio homily.

Man resigns from USCCB over article on homosexuality.
Bishop supports faithful priests.

Afraid of the Second Coming?: St. Cecelia, A, 2011

2011-11-22T15:22:00.001-05:00

"If we say we love Jesus but fear His Coming, maybe we love our sins more?" -- St. Augustine. Click here for daily audio homily.

Diapers and the Cross: Presentation of Mary, A, 2011

2011-11-21T14:10:00.001-05:00

Becoming a saint means doing ordinary things with extraordinary love. You have to change a lot of diapers before you stand at the foot of the cross. Click here for daily audio homily.

Your NO Angel: Saturday, 33rd Week in Ordinary Time.

2011-11-20T10:30:00.001-05:00

Why does Jesus say there is no Marriage in Heaven? Becasue you can only have one spouse. When someone dies don't say they become an angel; that's a step down for us. Click here for daily audio homily.

WWJD: Dedication of Basilicas of Sts. Peter and Paul, A, 2011

2011-11-20T09:59:00.001-05:00

What Would Jesus Do?: One answer from today's Gospel is to freak out and overturn tables. Click here for daily audio homily.

Afraid to go Home?: EF; The Last Sunday of Pentecost

2011-11-19T15:00:00.000-05:00

Click here for audio homily. Everlasting horror and disgrace. A time unsurpassed in distress. Destruction. Doom. Wailing and grinding of teeth. The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from the sky. Heaven and earth will pass away. But of that day or hour, no one knows. Is this your view of the Final Judgment and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ in all His glory? In the Eastern Church, in the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, we pray “For a Christian, painless, unashamed, peaceful end of our life, and for a good account before the fearsome judgment seat of Christ, let us beseech the Lord.” Do you fear the Lord’s Second Coming? Or do you just think that it is not going to happen or at least not any time soon? St. Augustine centuries ago wrote. “He who is without anxiety waits without fear until his Lord comes. For what sort of love of Christ is it to fear His coming? Brothers, do we not have to blush for shame? We love Him, yet we fear His coming. Are we really certain that we love Him? Or do we love our sins more? Therefore, let us hate our sins and love Him who will exact punishment for them. He will come whether we wish it or not. Do not think that because He is not coming just now, He will not come at all. He will come, you know not when: and provided He finds you prepared, your ignorance of the time of His coming will not be held against you.” This is what we pray for, every time, we celebrate Mass, after the Our Father, we pray, “Deliver us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, from all evils, past, present, and to come…and mercifully grant peace in our days, that through Thy assistance of Thy mercy we may be always free from sin, and secure from all disturbance.” We should not have, as St. Augustine reminds us, any fear or anxiety about the coming of the Lord, whether it be our final judgment at the end of the world, or our particular judgment at the moment of our death, as long as we have abandoned our sins and live in the life of Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church. If we love the Lord, rather than our sins, and are in a state of grace, we should look forward to our death and the Lord’s coming. St. John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests, wrote, “Our home is in heaven. On earth, we are like travelers staying in a hotel. When one is away, one is always thinking about going home.” Because of the original sin of Adam and Eve, we are all somehow refugees and immigrants from Paradise. Our own actual sins are futile and destructive attempts to shape a new home by ourselves that can never satisfy that longing for home, the longing to be loved. We try to fit ourselves into this foreign world in which we live in, but we never fit. Since our true home is in heaven, we are then exiles and refugees searching for our homeland. What is it that refugees and immigrants do to remind themselves of their homeland? They gather together, they speak their own language, they tell stories from home, and eat and drink the food of their homeland. As members of Christ’s Mystical Body who yearn for the day when we enter our heavenly homeland, we gather together to use the same language of prayer that we have heard many times before, to tell the same stories of how God so loved the world that He sent His only Son, we tell the miraculous stories of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. We come together to eat the bread of heaven, the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Our Brother, who has gone before us to prepare a place in our Father’s Mansion. We, the Church, who are born from the pierced side of Christ on the Cross, with Mary as our mother, we, are that generation, the Mystical Body of Christ, which will not pass away until all these things have come to pass. One of the reasons why I became a priest is because I felt “at home” in Church. When I lived in Montana, I came home to Maryland for the summer. When I returned to Montana, my friends and colleagues said “Welcome Back.” Fr. Jack, my pastor, said “Welcome Home.” As G. K. Chesterton has written, "We look before and after, and pine for what is not; which cries against all prigs and progressives, out of the very depths and abysses of the broken heart of man, that happiness is not only a hope, but also in some strange manner a memory; and that we are all kings in exile.”

What would you do for a King? Christ the King ,A, 2011

2011-11-18T22:29:00.001-05:00

Click here for audio homily. What would you do for a king? That’s the title of song written by Bill Cantos. What would you do for a king? If He won all the battles He went out to fight. And returned as a hero on a starlit night, to a cheering crowd...Would it make you proud? Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. While Americans love the glitz and the glitter of kingship, we don’t like the idea of somebody telling us what to do. But the nature of Kingship is really not about power but service. Christ’s throne was the cross and His crown was not of gold and jewels but of thorns. We needed a God who was weak enough to be that kind of king. No chain is stronger than its weakest link, and Jesus had to show that there was no one weaker than He was. A Church founded on strength was sure to fail. But a Church founded on weakness had no place else to go but up. The repentant thief, a weak and helpless soul, whom Tradition has referred to as St. Dismas, became the first saint of the New Covenant; a man who denied that he ever knew the Lord Jesus became the first Pope; because they were weak enough to ask for forgiveness. This weakness is made present for us right here at every Mass. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass makes Calvary present in all its weakness. Christ did not give us a hard and solid stone statue by which to remember Him. Christ did not give us an unapproachable and prickly cactus by which to remember Him. Christ gave us the Eucharist, truly His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity under what appears to be bread and wine. It is NOT bread and wine but the Real Presence, the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, True God and true man; a host that can be broken, and the contents of a chalice that can be poured out. A host that can be received lovingly and reverently on the tongue or on the hand, depending on how weak you make yourself to be; or a host that can be abused and mistreated because someone does not realize the awesome gift they have received; or perhaps even more hideous is that they do realize who it is they are receiving and they wish to abuse Him even more as did those who tormented Jesus at foot of the Cross. The all-powerful God made Himself weak for me. The all-knowing God died for me, knowing all my sins, knowing all my weaknesses. When you sit in the presence of the Lord in the tabernacle or in the monstrance and reflect upon the tremendous love that God has shown to us, first by allowing Himself to be contained in this little space we call a tabernacle. But how does the Lord get into that tabernacle? Jesus Christ allows His chosen priests to remember Him in such a profound and mysterious way that the sacrifice of Calvary is made present on this altar, and the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. If the priest knew what he was doing, he would die, not from fright but from love. Yet, the human psyche is a fragile thing. It cannot bear such deep and intimate love. If people constantly remembered who it is that is present on this altar, the mind and the heart would burst. Therefore, we gloss over and we anesthetize ourselves, we gloss over the intimate and powerful love that God has for us. We celebrate Mass or we receive Holy Communion without thinking, because if we thought about what we were doing, our minds and our hearts could not endure it. So for our own sanity, we don’t think about. We do not want to admit how weak we are. Yet only the weak will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. “What would you do for a king?” What would you do for a king? If He won all the battles He went out to fight. And returned as a hero on a starlit night to a cheering crowd...Would it make you proud? And what would you do for a king. If He kept every promise that He'd ever made. Would you get out the tickertape and lead a parade, a society ball...Or would you care at all? Kings always seemed to me as such grand, imposing men. So full of stature, full of power. Such great authority in every word they say. I never thought I was quite the type. But I'd still love to meet one someday. So what would you do for a king? If He came to your door, would you ask Him in. Would you tell Him how much you admired Him? Do you think you'd dare? Or would you be to scared? Most king's don't seem to know much about the common man. So far removed and set apart. I cheer with thousands, we blend into a roar. Another face in an endless crowd. Is that all I really am, just one more?...So what would you do for a king? If He saw you fishing out by the sea. And He walked up to you and said "Follow me - It's time you know". Do you think you'd go? And what would you do for a king? If He took off his crown and agreed to die. And as you tried to understand it, He looked you in the eye and said, "This is for you". Well, what would you do?

To listen to the song, click here.

Faith To Move Mountains: EF Homily; St. Gregory the Wonderworker

2011-11-17T23:37:00.001-05:00

If you had faith to move a mountain, why would you want to move a mountain? Click here for daily audio homily.

Pork and the Roman Missal: Wednesday of 33rd Week of Ordinary Time , A, 2011

2011-11-16T12:07:00.001-05:00

St. Benedict said, "The first level of humility is obedience without delay." Click here for audio homily.

Human versus Civil Rights: EF 22nd Sunday after Pentecost

2011-11-13T07:30:00.000-05:00

Click here for audio homily. Before I was a priest, I taught history in various colleges around the country. I used to ask my students, if the governor passed a law that allowed me to shoot any student who got an “F” on their test, and then shot that student, would it be legal. They did not like the answer, but the answer, of course, is “yes.” Then I would ask them, it may be legal, but would it be right. The answer, of course, is “no.” The point is that there are human laws and there are divine laws. Only when human laws repay to God what is God’s, do those human laws deserve respect. In asking Jesus the question about taxes, the Pharisees were not really concerned with a political question but rather attempting to lay a trap for Jesus. If Jesus agreed to the paying of taxes, He might upset the people who wanted to restore independent rule to Israel. If Jesus disagreed with paying taxes, He could be accused of rebellion against the authority of Caesar. Jesus, however, very keenly applied the principle of the separation of Church and State. By asking whose image was on the coin, Jesus was able to distinguish between obligations that are owed to the state and obligations owed to God. It is important to be both a good American and a good Catholic. This is why we are called by the Church to pray not only for the Church and its leaders but also for the salvation of the world and its political leaders. We pray that government leaders respect the divine origin of their authority and provide for the life, liberty, and safety of all those entrusted to their care. In exercising our great freedom of religion it is important to remember two things. The first thing to remember is that freedom of religion does not mean freedom from religion. Pope Benedict has stated “Tolerance that only admits God as a private opinion, but that denies him the public domain, the reality of the world and of our life, is not tolerance but hypocrisy.” The second clause of Jesus’ statement maintains that we are to render unto God the things that are God’s. Well, what belongs to God? The correct answer is—Everything. Therefore, there is no part of our life where we can say God’s law does not apply. We cannot restrict God to Sunday or tell God that this part of our life is “off-limits” to His love, care, and guidance. Many people argue that the government has no right to regulate what happens on the Internet or in the bedroom. This may be true because the government has only those powers which we, the governed, give to it. But we cannot tell God to stay out of ours schools or our bedrooms. God created us and so we belong to Him. Our life is God’s life, not ours. As such, we will have to answer for how we used this precious gift of life. Thus, we need to draw the second distinction concerning freedom of religion—the distinction between human rights and civil rights. God is our creator, and we are made in His image and likeness, not Caesar’s or the government’s, and because we are made in the image of God we have certain God-given rights. These human rights include life, liberty, property, adequate food, clothing, shelter, proper education both religious and secular, proper health care, and adequate employment. These things are human rights given by God. The function of the government is to ensure the God-given dignity of every person and to ensure to them the rights of life, liberty, and happiness. The Declaration of Independence states as much when it says, “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men . . . to effect their Safety and Happiness.” When the government fails to ensure the rights of the vulnerable to life, when the government fails to ensure the rights of the ill to moral forms of health care, when the government fails to ensure the sanctity of marriage as the union of one man and one woman, when the government hinders the proper education of children, they are not fulfilling their duty and they are denying to God the things that are God’s and we have the right to altar or abolish it and to institute new government. Simply because the government says something is legal does not make it right. Otherwise, if the government had passed that law about students getting an “F,” there would be a few less students in the world today.

Baby steps: Thirty-third (33rd) Sunday in Ordinary Time, A, 2011

2011-11-13T06:30:00.000-05:00

Click here for audio homily. “His master said to him in reply, 'You wicked, lazy servant!… throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’” What ever happened to the warm fuzzy Jesus? You know the “Jesus loves me this I know cause the Bible tells me so.” What is with this wailing and grinding of teeth? Doesn’t Jesus love me whatever I do? Is Jesus saying that some people actually do go to hell? Notice the Gospel story says that the servants were given talents according to their ability. Notice that the servant that got five talents made ten but the servant that began with two only made four. The second servant ended up with less than the first servant began with. Yet each of these two servants, even though they had great discrepancy in their outcomes, received the same response from the master, “'Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master's joy.’” The servant who ended up with four did not even reach the starting point of the one with five. Yet, the master said to each one, the same thing, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” The quantity of what we do for the Lord is not as important as the effort we put into it. Even if the servant with one talent, had even gotten a minimal return, by putting it into the bank, the master would have probably said, “Well done good and faithful servant.” While the Gospel today ends with the grim reminder of the possibility of Hell when the Lord says “throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth." There is also the promise of everlasting joy in Heaven when He says to the other two servants, “'Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master's joy.’” Notice the Lord gives the same reward to both faithful servants even though they did not achieve the same results. The servant who started with five ended with ten and the servant who started with two ended with four, which is even less than the servant who started with five. God wants our best not our “better than.” The Gospel tells us that the Master gave to each one, talents, according to their ability. It did not matter to the master that one servant ended with ten and one ended with four. What mattered is that each worked according to their ability. A tall water glass may contain more than a small juice glass but the one is not more full than the other. When filled to the brim, each glass is completely filled and can hold no more. We look at the great saints like St. Therese of Lisieux and Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati who both died in their twenties, and we realize how little we’ve accomplished. We look at Bl. Mother Theresa of Calcutta and we say we can never do something like that. Well maybe we can’t. Maybe we are a little juice glass and Mother Theresa was large pitcher filled with the milk of human kindness. But both Mother Theresa and St Therese taught that to be a saint is to do ordinary things with great love. Mother Theresa also said, “God asks us to be faithful not successful.” We sometimes look at the great saints and say we could never do what they did. Well, maybe God isn’t calling us to be a great saint. Maybe God has only given us one talent. It is sort of like the baby who is standing up holding onto the edge of the chair or the table. They are pretty stable holding onto that chair or that table. But Mom or Dad is a few steps away with their open arms calling out to them in love. What does the baby do? Out of love, they take a baby step; One little step; Then another and another. Then they reach the loving arms of their Mom or their Dad. That one little baby step was the first step in being a high school track star, a police officer, or a saint. Start with baby steps. Say Grace before Meals, turn on EWTN – the Catholic television channel, go to the sacrament of Confession. Take baby steps and be not afraid. So the question is when the Lord comes what will he say to us, 'You wicked, lazy servant!… throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth’ or “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” We don’t get a choice in the answer that the Lord says to us, we only the choice of how much effort that we put into using our God-given talents.

Is God the center of your life: St. Martin of Tours A, 2011

2011-11-11T19:22:00.001-05:00

A comparison of rural vs. urban living, Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms of he Mass, music and Veteran's Day. Click here for daily audio homily.

EF Homily: St. Andrew Avellino

2011-11-11T16:43:00.001-05:00

St Anthony Avellino was bortn in Naples in 1520. A lawyer who enter the order fo the Theatines was a writer and reformer. He died of apoplexy in 1608 at the foot of the altar while starting the prayers of the Mass. He is invoked as the patron saint against sudden death. Click here for audio homily.

Why Chalice Veils: St. John Lateran, A, 2011

2011-11-09T13:17:00.000-05:00

Why do we celebrate the dedication of St. John Lateran? Why do we cover the Cahlice with a veil? Click here for daily audio homily.

The Envy of the Devil: Tuesday, 32nd Week of Ordinary Time, A, 2011

2011-11-08T20:39:00.000-05:00

Sin makes us less tan who we are. The Devil hates us becasue Jesus became man not an angel. Click here daily audio homily.

How easy is it to forgive?: Monday, 32nd week in Ordinary Time, A, 2011

2011-11-07T22:34:00.000-05:00

Which is easier to say "I forgive you" or say to the mulberry tree get up and move to the ocean. Click here for daily audio homily.

Are you ready?: Thirty-second (32nd) Sunday in Ordinary Time, A, 2011

2011-11-06T06:30:00.000-05:00

Click here for audio homily. My mother is a great inspiration for me, may she rest in peace. One day, Glen, this guy I had met in graduate school, called saying he was moving back into the area wanted to stay with me and my mother while he looked for a place to live. My mother agreed and Glen stayed for two or three days. I think we were talking about my graduation a few years away and my mother would say something like "If I live to see it." After about the second or third time, Glen asked whether my mother had a fixation with death. I said he should ask her. In response to Glen's question, my mother said that she did not have a fixation with death but she knew that she had to keep death always before her eyes because one never knows when God will call you. The more I think about my mother and the way she did things the more I realize how her faith shaped her life, not just on Sunday, but in everything she did. She wanted to be like the five wise virgins in the Gospel. She did not want to be caught off guard when her time came to meet Jesus. The wise virgins did not wait for the last minute to prepare themselves. There were ten virgins, altogether. All had lamps and all were waiting for the Master. If we’ve been baptized, then we have a lamp and we are waiting for the Lord. At funerals, we light the paschal candle, to signify the light of Christ that the deceased received in Baptism. When the Master comes, will we have oil in our Baptismal lamps? Unless we continually replenish the oil of those baptismal fires, we may not have enough oil to persevere through trial or sickness or tragedy or temptation. Where do we get that supply of oil that the foolish virgins searched for but too late? Where do we find that oil that will keep those baptismal fires burning bright? We find it in the Church, and especially at Mass. On November 27^th, we will start using the new translation of the Mass that the Church has been preparing for about 10 years. Why do we need the New Translation of the Roman Missal?: So that we can prayer in accordance with the teachings of the Holy Catholic Church. Here is the prayer over the gifts for the Solemnity of All Saints’ Day which we just celebrated. See if you can spot the theological error: The prayer reads, “Lord, receive our gifts in honor of the holy men and women who live with you in glory. May we always be aware of their concern to help and save us. We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. Did you spot the theological error? ---The saints can’t SAVE us!!! Only Jesus is the Savior of the world. My sister, who is an accountant, with no advanced degrees in theology, was able to catch the error, why couldn’t the theologians and liturgists with advanced degrees see that error when they translated this prayer, decades ago. Here is what the new translation of the Latin says: “May these offerings we bring in honor of all the Saint be pleasing to [Y]ou, O Lord, and grant that, just as we believe the Saints to be already assured of immortality, so we may experience their concern for our salvation. Through Christ our Lord.” In this prayer the saints are not saving us, they are simply concerned for our salvation. The other thing to notice about the new translation is that we are no longer telling God what to do. “Lord, receive this…” “Lord give us that…” “Lord, do this other thing…” In the new translation, we “beseech” the Lord, we “humbly ask,” we “pray” that that the Lord would do these things. God may be Our Father but He is not a sugar daddy or a vending machine. If we want to learn how to pray, we need a good translation of the prayers the Church gives us. Unless we keep our oil bags filled with the prayer of the Church, we make think we are ready to meet the Lord, but we could be caught off guard like the foolish virgins. My mother wanted to have her lamps ready when the Lord came. The best example of how her faith influenced her life happened right before she passed away. Mom loved to crochet baby booties, hats, and blankets for people. Being sick, she had not picked up her needle for a while. When she found that her home healthcare nurse’s wife was having a baby, she picked up her needle and crocheted a pair of baby booties for his baby. It was one of the last things she did before she passed away. In her illness, she was teaching me how to die. She always wanted to keep her relationship with God in the front of her mind. She did not want to be without oil for her baptismal lamp when the Lord came to call her home. Yesterday, November 5^th, was her birthday. It has been about 10 years since she has left this world. I pray that she is enjoying the wedding feast of the bridegroom in heaven, because if she did not have enough oil in her lamp, I'm in big trouble.

The Church is Historical, Individual, and Communal

2011-11-05T13:24:00.000-04:00

St. Paul's letter to the Romans lists many individual names. Why is this inspired Scripture? Click here for daily audio homily.

What is important?: St. Charles Borromeo, A, 2011

2011-11-04T16:13:00.000-04:00

If it is important you will find a way, if it isn't you will find and excuse. Click here for daily audio homily.

Why Black Vestments: EF Daily Mass for the Dead

2011-11-03T22:37:00.000-04:00

Why does the Church allow black vestments? Black is the color of the unknown, and unless you are the Pope and can canonize someone, you cannot be sure that your deceased loved one is in heaven. Click here for audio homily. To view the above referenced vestment, click here.

Black, Violet, White: All Souls Day, A, 2011

2011-11-02T16:19:00.000-04:00

Why does the Church pray for the faithful departed? Because the unfaithful departed cannot benefit from our prayers. The Church gives us three options in choosing vestments today: black, violet, and white. Each one teaches a different truth about this polyvalent commemoration. Click here for daily audio homily.

For the Love of God: All Saints' Day, A, 2011

2011-11-01T10:12:00.002-04:00

Click here for audio homily, with ad libs. I often wonder why I am here. Why am I standing up here dressed like this? What are you doing here? I am here today to tell you who you are. You are a child of God, made in His image and likeness and God loves you. Why did God make me? God made me to know, love, and serve Him in this life so that I can be happy with Him forever in the next. Our purpose, our destiny, is to live forever with God. If we do not fulfill our purpose in life, our life is like an unsharpened pencil. It has no point. Today we celebrate and remember all those people who achieved life’s purpose and are in heaven- from the great canonized saints of the Church’s official recognition to people throughout the millenia who are unnamed but are mentioned in the Book of Revelation. Someone (Francis Thompson) once wrote, “to most, --even good people-- God is a belief. To the saints, He is an embrace.” You can’t really love an idea and an idea cannot love you. The saints became saints because they fell in love. They fell in love with the person who is love Incarnate—Jesus Christ. God loves you so much, He gave up His Only Son for you. St. Frances De Sales wrote, Jesus knew my name when he was hanging on the cross. St. Therese of Lisieux tells the story of how she thought about the glory of the saints in heaven. If we compare a large drinking glass full of water to a little thimble full of water, they are both full. So too with God’s love, no one will feel excluded or empty because they have not done great things. They will be full of the love of God as much as they can hold. The only question is how big will our souls be if we reach heaven. If we love only ourselves or the things of this world, then there is no room in our heart for God or even for heaven. A saint is someone who lives in the presence of God and enjoys being there. So we come here today to be in the presence of God and to celebrate All Saints Day. We come to celebrate with those holy people who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith and to remember that we are called to live forever in the Presence of God. We are all called to be saints. The question is do we enjoy being in the presence of God. Do we look upon God as some mean old taskmaster that tells us you have to go to Mass, you can’t have fun, you can’t do that? Or do we look upon God as the awesome, unimaginably powerful and wonderful creator who desires to be intimately united with His creatures? Pope Benedict has written that prayer is an intensely personal act by which we come into a personal and intimate union with God. God is not a slot machine into which we put so many prayers and hope our prayers are answered and we hit the jackpot. The Church is not a social club where we come to make ourselves feel good by helping the poor to experience middle class prosperity. Church is not a place where you come to be entertained by the dynamic preaching, or the upbeat powerful music, or your child’s performance. We come to Mass to experience and to be united with the God of the universe; a God who is so awesome and who is so magnificent and yet a God who died on the cross for me. We gather around this altar to join the angels in their triumphant hymn and to cry “out in a loud voice: “Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb.” Jesus is that Lamb of God; The Lamb who was slain. Jesus was crucified for love of us. God loved us to death. Prayer calls us into that intimate union. That is why we come here today. We come to be intimately, physically, and personally united to the only One who truly loves us. The only One who died for us. The only One who conquered death and rose from the grave. We come to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to learn how to love that much. Archbishop Fulton Sheen, says that our heaven or hell begin here on earth. So if you don’t enjoy the love of God that pours out from every syllable of the Mass, which is heaven breaking into earth, what makes you think you will enjoy heaven? St. Elizabeth Ann Seton before becoming Catholic yearned to receive the Eucharist, to feel that love which God pours out in this Most Blessed Sacrament, an uncountable number of martyrs gave their lives rather than deny the love of the Lord Jesus showed them, untold mothers and fathers worked so hard to instill the Catholic faith in their children, numerous priests and consecrated religious sacrificed their lives for their true love, Jesus Christ. If we truly realized what happens on this altar our hearts would burst with love. May we all take to heart the prayer of St. Teresa of Avila, “O Lord, save us from sour-faced saints.”

The Holiness of the Priest; Thirty-first (31st) Sunday in Ordinary Time, A, 2011

2011-10-30T06:30:00.000-04:00

Click here for audio homily. Our readings today tell us about priests and religious leaders who are not always as holy or as faithful as they should be. You sometimes hear people say why do I need to go to a priest to forgive my sins, especially a priest who is himself a sinner. Archbishop Fulton Sheen, may he soon be beatified, wrote, “Our Divine Redeemer… says that He was sent by the Father; now He sends [the Apostles] with the power to forgive or not forgive. These words imply "hearing confessions," because how would the priests of the Church know which sins to forgive and which sins not to forgive if they did not hear them?” . . . The Archbishop then asks “why confess one's sins to a priest? Maybe he is not as holy as the penitent. That indeed could be.” But as he says elsewhere, “Sunlight is not polluted by passing through a dirty window.” So Sheen continues, “But though he is not holier in his person, he is holier in his powers, because Christ gave this power to His Church--only the Church claims it, and only the Church exercises it. The mayor of a town may not be as good as some of the citizens, but he has the power which the citizens do not; so it is with the priest. Furthermore, it is not the priest who absolves: he is only the instrument of Christ. Can man of and by himself forgive sins? No! Can man united to God forgive sins? Yes!” The Catechism of the Catholic Church (#120) states “The saving mission entrusted by the Father to his incarnate Son was committed to the apostles and through them to their successors: they receive the Spirit of Jesus to act in His name and in His person. [in persona Christi] The ordained minister is the sacramental bond that ties the liturgical action to what the apostles said and did and, through them, to the words and actions of Christ, the source and foundation of the sacraments.” You may remember the old definition of a sacraments as, “an outward signs instituted by Christ to give grace.” When the priest celebrates the sacraments, it is really Christ working through the priest. While it is a grave sin for a priest to celebrate the sacraments in a state of mortal sin, the sacraments are no the less valid or efficacious. Remember, “Sunlight is not polluted by passing through a dirty window.” The sacraments function “ex opera operato” which is Latin for , “by the worked worked.” The grace of the Sacrament is produced solely by the objective valid performance of the ritual act and not by the holiness or merits of “minister” who performs the act or the “subject” who receives it, provided that in this latter there be no opposing obstacle. In this sense, as St. Augustine said, "It is of little importance whether it is Peter or Judas who baptizes, since it is always Jesus himself who baptizes." The sacraments are not a magical incantations, but a divine promise. We hear God tell the prophet Ezekiel, “I have promised and I will do it says the Lord.” Dr. Scott Hahn wrote a book about the Sacraments called, “Swear to God” in which he argues that that the sacraments are covenantal oaths, like the ones God made with Abraham, Moses, and David. God has said when you do this I will be present. The new translation of the Roman Missal which we will begin using November 27^th, will make God’s promises even more apparent. Yet despite the very exalted calling of the priest, we must remember that priests are people too and they sin. A Benedictine monk once told me, “Unless your parish is connected to the universal Church, it becomes a cult with your name on it.” I am very fond of the description of the priesthood by a famous German theologian, Karl Rahner which goes – “The priest is not an angel sent from heaven. He is a man, a member of the Church, a Christian. Remaining man and Christian, he begins to speak to you the word of God. This word of his is not his own. No, he comes to you because God has told him to proclaim God’s word. Perhaps he has not entirely understood it himself. Perhaps he adulterates it. Perhaps he falters and stammers. How else could he speak God’s word, ordinary man that he is? But must not some of us say something about God, about eternal life, about the majesty of grace in our sanctified being: must not some one of us speak of sin, the judgment and mercy of God?” Therefore, support your ordained ministers and encourage them to be the spiritual fathers God has called them to be especially if they are not the most faithful or holiest person you have ever met because the holiness of the sacrament does not depend on the holiness of the priest.

EXTRA MATERIAL, NOT PREACHED

There is another Latin phrase, “ex opere operantis” which has to not with the work of the priest but with the work of the one receiving the Sacrament. Why don’t we feel God’s presence in the Sacraments? Well, are we prepared to receive the grace? Are we in a state of grace, free from mortal sin. Mortal sin is like the non-stick coating on a frying pan, God can throw all the grace He wants at us but if we are in a state of mortal sin, the grace won’t stick. Another factor is, do we know what we are doing? Do we realize the awesome ;love of God that we actually get to receive the Almighty and Eternal God into our bodies in a deep, personal, physical, and intimate way. One reason why people receive Holy Communion on the tongue is to help them remember the magnificent gift they are receiving. So even if the music is terrible, the homily is boring, there is a baby screaming in my ear, the grace of God is still there –ex opere operato- as long as the priest has celebrated the sacrament with the proper form, matter, and intent, no matter what the state of his soul is or the amount of his holiness or erudition. Do not judge the grace of a sacrament by how you feel about it. Do not doubt God’s love for you by the way you feel about God. God loves us more than we can ever imagine. The more we pray, the more we learn, the more we read, the deeper we fall in love with God and the more we will know of His love for us even if we don’t feel it.

The Bible and Tradition; Sts Simon and Jude, A, 2011

2011-10-28T20:12:00.001-04:00

The Bible does not interpret itself. It needs the living Tradition of the Church. For the audio of the school Mass homily click here.
H-T, THSTVSHT, THESTOVEISHOT

The Eucharist and Presumption, EF, Feria, 19th week after Pentecost

2011-10-28T06:30:00.000-04:00

Beeves, Consummation, and Vestments. Click here for audio homily.

Presumption and the New Missal, Wednesday, 30th Week Ordinary Time, A, 2011

2011-10-27T22:54:00.000-04:00

Will there be few who are saved? The new translation of the Roman Missal says don't count on it. Click here for audio daily homily

The New Creation: Tuesday, 30th week in Ordinary Time, A, 2011

2011-10-25T11:05:00.000-04:00

Creation was disfigured by sin. The Resurrection is the first fruits of the new creation. The Sacraments, and especially the Eucharist, are the divine in-breaking of the new creation into the world now. Click here for audio homily.

In the pink: Friday, 29th Sunday in Ordinary TIme, A, 2011

2011-10-21T17:00:00.000-04:00

Everybody seems to be 'in the pink' to support breast cancer research, yet they fail to recognize the studies that link breast cancer with abortion and contraception. Click here for audio homily.

Don't be nice: Thursday of 29th Week of Ordinary Time

2011-10-21T16:56:00.000-04:00

Jesus says that He came to bring the sword not peace. So why does every one say we should just be nice? Click here for daily audio homily.

What's love got to do with it?: Thirtieth (30th) Sunday in Ordinary Time A, 2011

2011-10-20T09:00:00.000-04:00

You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. But what is love? There is a story of an African who came to the United States. After spending a month in American culture, the African mentioned to his friend, “In my country, in Africa, we suffer from terrible droughts. Because we have so little water, many of our songs are about water. But I come to the United States, and I listen to so many songs about love. Do you have an absence of love in this country?” Part of the problem is that in English we have only one word for love and that word has been hijacked by secular culture to mean the very opposite of love. True love is life-giving. True love is found on the cross. True love lays downs one’s life for one’s beloved. This is the love that Jesus showed for each one of us. When was the last time someone died for you? Was it two thousand years ago or was it yesterday at Mass? Jesus died for YOU, two thousand years ago on Calvary and this is celebrated at each Mass. Jesus died once for all and the sacrifice of Calvary can never be repeated but Jesus left us the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as a mystical celebration that transports us to the foot of the Cross. Pope John Paul II wrote in his wonderful letter, The Church of the Eucharist, that “The Mass makes present the sacrifice of the Cross; it does not add to that sacrifice nor does it multiply it.. . . [it] makes Christ's one, definitive redemptive sacrifice always present in time. The sacrificial nature of the Eucharistic mystery cannot therefore be understood as something separate, independent of the Cross or only indirectly referring to the sacrifice of Calvary.” This is love. When the priest speaks the words of consecration through the power of the Holy Spirit common elements of bread and wine change into the very Body and Blood Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, and those words are irrevocable. The sacred species objectively become the Real Presence of Jesus Christ and those words cannot be altered until the sacred species are consumed; so to with the words spoken by a man and a woman on their wedding day. The vows exchanged, in the power of the Holy Spirit, those two little words, “I do” create an irrevocable bond between man and woman that cannot be broken except by death. This is why marriage is a holy sacrament because it shares God’s divine love and God’s divine life with us mere humans. That is why Catholics must be married with the Church’s blessing, because it is a sacrament. But marriage like all the sacraments, involves the cross, involves dieing to oneself, for that is the definition of love. From the Cross comes the Resurrection, from dying to self comes new life, from the total self giving of the spouses in mutual dying to self comes children. Marriage between a man and a woman serves a unique place in society by allowing for the procreation and education of children within the context of the family. While recognizing the heartbreak that same husbands and wives are unable to bear children, the ideal of the family must still be promoted for the common good of the society. Governments did not create marriage, God created marriage. Therefore, governments do not have the right to change its meaning. Governments, like that of The Ancient Roman Empire, that have catered to lust and sexual idolatry were not overthrown but decayed from the inside. If a government can say that the union of two men or two women is a “marriage,” the government can say that a forty year old man and a twelve year old girl can contract a marriage or for that matter a forty year old man and a twelve year old boy. And why not polygamy? For that matter some people really love their dogs, why can’t I marry my dog, if the government says it’s OK. The Catholic Church did not start this debate but is taking action in response to developments across the country to defend society’s most important institution, the traditional family. One very easy way to make your Catholic voice heard in the halls of government is to join the Maryland Catholic Conference’s Legislative Action Alert. This is a very easy and very quick way to make your voice heard on issues of interests to Maryland Catholics. Just go to the Maryland Catholic Conference website and click on “sign up today” when there is an issue before the state legislature the Conference will send you an e-mail to let you know your voice needs to be heard. You can click on the “take action” button and you will find a pre-written letter on the issue. You don’t even have to know your representative’s name. You just sign the letter and “click” and your opinion is sent to your representative in Annapolis. As a huge procrastinator, I have found the e-mails from the Maryland Catholic Conference an easy and painless way to make my views heard. Remember the famous words of Edmund Burke in defending representative government, “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

Scriptural Basis for Mortal Sin: Sts. John de Brebeuf, Isaac Jogues and Companions, A, 2011

2011-10-19T13:44:00.000-04:00

The Scriptural basis of mortal sin. Click here fore audio homily.

Whom do you trust?: EF 18th Sunday after Pentecost

2011-10-14T22:29:00.000-04:00

Click here for audio homily. Perhaps you have heard the story of the man who went hiking. As he was walking along the edge of the canyon, the road gave way and he began to fall. He stretched out his hand and grabbed this little branch growing out of the side of the ravine. Down below was a 500 foot drop to the jagged rocks below. Above there was no one to be seen. The man cried out, “God, help me.” The clouds opened, and a voice thundered out. “I am the Lord God, do you trust me?” The man cried out “yes, Lord! I trust you” The Lord said to the man, “Let go of the branch.” The man replied “is there any one else up there?” Whom do you trust? Can you think of four friends that you trust enough to carry you on a bed? How quickly can you spell “lawsuit.” In addition to the four friends that you trust, you must also trust in Jesus. After all what good is being carried on a bed into a room crowded with standing people, if all you are going to do is to hear a great lecture or some great moral teaching. You have to trust that Jesus can do something for you. Jesus gave to the man the best gift that He had. “Jesus seeing their faith, said to the man sick with palsy, “Be of good heart, son, thy sins are forgiven thee. And behold some of the scribes said within themselves: He blasphemeth, For Jesus to say to the sick man, “your sins are forgiven” Jesus must have known that He was God, otherwise He would not have said. “Your sins are forgiven.” We can also see that St. Matthew, believed that Jesus was God for Matthew then states, “Jesus seeing their thoughts.” Only God knows what we are thinking. Only God can reads the hearts and minds of all human beings. We cannot hide anything form God. We may often think that nobody knows what we read, or write, or look at on the Internet, there is a sort of false sense of anonymity. It makes us think that nobody sees us, but Jesus sees our thoughts. Only if Jesus is God could He do that. Jesus also showed that He was God because He physically healed the man. Jesus gave His critics physical proof that the spiritual reality of forgiveness was real and effective and that God has power not only over spiritual realities but over physical realities, as well. St. Matthew did not have to come right out and say that Jesus is God, he did it by retelling the words and actions of Jesus; actions that Jesus can only have done because He is God. C.S. Lewis, who wrote the Chronicles of Narnia, that was made into a major motion picture also wrote elsewhere that "I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg--or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." Whom do you trust? Rather than the Baltimore Sun Paper, Oprah, or some even modern scripture scholars, I will trust the words of the Holy Gospel and the teaching authority of Holy Mother Church. As St. Paul wrote in the Second letter to the Corinthians, “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed to you by us, Silvanus and Timothy and me, was not “yes” and “no, ” but “yes” has been in him. For however many are the promises of God, their Yes is in him; therefore, the Amen from us also goes through him to God for glory.” When we say Amen, during Mass, we are professing our faith in Jesus Christ as God and in the Roman Catholic Church which Jesus founded. Who is it that you trust?

What belongs to God?: Twenty-eighth (28th) Sunday in Ordinary Time, A, 2011

2011-10-14T22:22:00.000-04:00

Click here for audio homily.
I used to ask my students, if the governor passed a law that allowed me to shoot any student who got an “F” on their test, and then shot that student, would it be legal. They did not like the answer, but the answer, of course, is “yes.” Then I would ask them, it may be legal, but would it be right. The answer, of course, is “no.” The point is that there are human laws and there are divine laws. Only when human laws repay to God what is God’s, do those human laws deserve respect. In asking Jesus the question about taxes, the Pharisees were not really concerned with a political question but rather attempting to lay a trap for Jesus. If Jesus agreed to the paying of taxes, He might upset the people who wanted to restore independent rule to Israel. If Jesus disagreed with paying taxes, He could be accused of rebellion against the authority of Caesar. Jesus, however, very keenly applied the principle of the separation of Church and State. By asking whose image was on the coin, Jesus was able to distinguish between obligations that are owed to the state and obligations owed to God. It is important to be both a good American and a good Catholic. This is why we are called by the Church to pray not only for the Church and its leaders but also for the salvation of the world and its political leaders. The first intention in the prayer of the faithful is for the Church and its leaders. The next intention is the salvation of the world as well as world, national, or local political leaders. We pray that government leaders respect the divine origin of their authority and provide for the life, liberty, and safety of all those entrusted to their care. In exercising our great freedom of religion it is important to remember two things. The first thing to remember is that freedom of religion does not mean freedom from religion. Pope Benedict recently stated that “Tolerance that only admits God as a private opinion, but that denies him the public domain, the reality of the world and of our life, is not tolerance but hypocrisy.” The second clause of Jesus’ statement maintains that we are to render unto God the things that are God’s. Well, what belongs to God? The correct answer is—Everything. Therefore, there is no part of our life where we can say God’s law does not apply. We cannot restrict God to Sunday and the upcoming new translation of the Roman Missal or tell God that this part of our life is “off-limits” to His love, care, and guidance. Many people argue that the government has no right to regulate what happens on the Internet or in the bedroom. This may be true because the government has only those powers which we, the governed, give to it. But we cannot tell God to stay out of ours schools or our bedrooms. God created us and so we belong to Him. Our life is God’s life, not ours. As such, we will have to answer for how we used this precious gift of life. Thus, we need to draw the second distinction concerning freedom of religion—the distinction between human rights and civil rights. God is our creator, and we are made in His image and likeness, not Caesar’s or the government’s, and because we are made in the image of God we have certain God-given rights. These human rights include life, liberty, property, adequate food, clothing, shelter, proper education both religious and secular, proper health care, and adequate employment. These things are human rights given by God. The function of the government is to ensure the God-given dignity of every person and to ensure to them the rights of life, liberty, and happiness. The Declaration of Independence states as much when it says, “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men . . . to effect their Safety and Happiness.” When the government fails to ensure the rights of the vulnerable to life, when the government fails to ensure the sanctity of marriage as the union of one man and one woman, when the government hinders the moral education of children, they are not fulfilling their duty and they are denying to God the things that are God’s. Simply because the government says something is legal does not make it right. Otherwise, if the government had passed that law about students getting an “F,” there would be a few less graduates in the world today.

Afraid of Hell? St. Callistus, A, 2011

2011-10-14T22:09:00.000-04:00

The Bible must be read in context. Otherwise, we may truly say that the Bible teaches "there is no God." Click here for daily audio homily.

"Faith alone" is not Biblical: Thursday, 28th Week in Ordinary Time, A, 2011

2011-10-13T23:23:00.000-04:00

Protestantism is based upon two erroneous premises: "Sola Fides" and "Sola Scriptura." Neither of these doctrines are found in the Bible. In fact, the Catholic doctrines are found in the Bible. Click here for daily audio homily.

May God Have Mercy On Our Country: Tuesday, 28th week of Ordinary Time.

2011-10-11T21:28:00.000-04:00

The Rest of the Story from St. Paul's Letter to the Romans, chapter 1. Click here for daily audio homily.

or read Romans Chapter 1 here.here

Nursing Home Mass: Anointing of the Sick

2011-10-10T19:49:00.000-04:00

Does Jesus care about our sufferings? The Sacraments of the Eucharist and the Anointing of the Sick prove that He does. Click here for daily audio homily.

Choosing Hell: Twenty-eighth (28th) Sunday in Ordinary Time, A, 2011

2011-10-09T06:30:00.000-04:00

Click here for Audio Homily. In case you’re counting, there are about 77 days left until Christmas. I am reminded of this not because the secular world has already started its Christmas selling frenzy, they are still to concerned with ghosts and goblins. Rather, in the last few weeks our Scripture readings at Mass are about the end times. We have been hearing a lot of parables about working in the vineyard. Last week, we heard in the Gospel, about the tenants who failed to produce a harvest for the Lord. And the question, “What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?" They answered him, "He will put those wretched men to a wretched death.” As you may know, the Church’s liturgical year begins with the First Sunday of Advent and is only about 48 days away. The first Sunday of Advent will also be the day on which we begin using the new translation of the Mass. The last Sunday of Ordinary Time is Christ the King Sunday. As we approach that great solemnity of Christ the King, the Church asks us to meditate upon Judgment Day. We say in the Creed every Sunday, “That Christ will come to judge the living and the dead.” As St. John Vianney said, “Our home is in heaven, on earth, we are like travelers staying in a hotel. When one is away, one is always thinking of going home.” On the day we die, the Lord will come to us and ask us how we have tended His vineyard here on earth. “What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?" We hear in this week’s Gospel, the parable of the wedding feast. We hear of those who, though invited, refuse to come to the feast and we hear how everyone, whomever the servant finds are invited. But though many are invited, few are chosen. We cannot presume that since God loves each of us with unbounded love, it does not matter what we do with our lives. We must conform our lives to God’s standards rather than to our own standards or the standards of the government. If we come to the feast not wearing the wedding garment which God has asked us to wear, we shall be bound hand and foot, and cast into the darkness. The early 20^th century English author, G. K. Chesterton has written, “We have all heard people say a hundred times over, for they seem never to tire of saying it, that the Jesus of the New Testament is indeed a most merciful and humane lover of humanity, but that the Church has bidden this human character in repellent dogmas and stiffened it with ecclesiastical terrors till it has taken on an inhuman character. This is, I venture to repeat, very nearly the reverse of the truth. The truth is, that it is the image of Christ in the churches, that is almost entirely mild and merciful. It is the image of Christ in the Gospels that is a good many other things as well. The figure in the Gospels does indeed utter in words of almost heartbreaking beauty, his pity for our broken hearts. But they are very far from being the only sort of words that he utters.” We all love to hear the Jesus speak the beatitudes, "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh.” But in the next few verse Jesus also says, “Woe to you that are full now, for you shall hunger. Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you, when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.” When we come before the Lord, will we be wearing His wedding garment of righteousness or the will be clothed in our own self-will. One of the beauties of the new translation of the Mass is that we are no longer asking God to do our will. We no longer tell God to “do this” or “give us that” rather the new language has us humbly begging God to hear our prayers. Now is the time to choose whether we will come to the wedding feast and whether we will wear the wedding garment. After our death, we will no longer be able to choose but will have to stand on the decisions we make here on earth. This the meaning of phrase, “bind his hands and his feet.” Once we have been thrown into the darkness outside for refusing to wear the wedding Garment of the Lord, we will not be able to free ourselves from the wailing and grinding of teeth. We are not called to judge who will enter and will be thrown into the darkness. That is the job of the King, our job as servants of the King is “Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’ The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike.” Our job is proclamation of the invitation. It is Christ the King who will judge those worthy to enter the feast. So remember, while our life may be compared to an essay test, the final judgment is True or False.

God's Diapers: Saturday, 27th Week in Ordinary Time, A, 2011

2011-10-08T11:07:00.000-04:00

Catholics do not worship Mary. Mary is totally human but was given the privilege of being the Mother of God. The Almighty God became human and had to have His diaper changed, and Mary probably did it. Click here for daily audio homily.

A New Lepanto Needed: Our Lady of the Rosary, A, 2011

2011-10-07T12:21:00.002-04:00

It is said that Momar Qadafi remarked that what Islam had failed to accomplish by the sword, they have achieved by the pill. Pope Benedict has spoken on the decline of Western Civilization. Click here daily audio homily.

The Liturgy and Eternity: St. Bruno, A, 2011

2011-10-06T12:49:00.000-04:00

A review of the movie, "Into the Great Silence" and a comment on the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (the Old Latin Mass). Click here for daily audio homily.

MY WILL be done: Wednesday, 27th week in Ordinary Time, A, 2011

2011-10-05T12:04:00.000-04:00

In the Our Father, Jesus teaches us to pray "Thy will be done," but we often pray, like Jonah, "MY will be done." Click here for audio homily.

Making a good the best is a sin: St. Francis of Assisi, A, 2011

2011-10-04T21:30:00.000-04:00

Making a good into the best is a sin. The best is God. When we take something good, like sex, alcohol, or anything, and turn it into the most important thing, into a god, then that is he sin of idolatry. Click here for daily audio homily.

St. Therese of Lisieux, Doctor of the Church, A, 2011

2011-10-02T21:09:00.000-04:00

St. Therese of Lisieux was made a Doctor of the Church by Bl. Pope John Paul II. There are 34 saints which the Church says are important it know if one want to understand Catholicism. St. Therese wrote her autobiography,The Story of Soul, here are a few of her stories. Click here for daily audio homily.

The Destruction of America: Twenty-seventh (27th) Sunday in Ordinary Time

2011-10-02T06:30:00.001-04:00

What does this Gospel have to do with me in the 21^st century? It was written back in the 1^st century A.D. What does it have to do with me and my problems, here and now? Jesus was drawing on a traditional image of the people of Israel as a vineyard; a people that was set apart by God for Himself. They were His own personal possession and God loved them. God gave them everything they needed “a fertile hillside, cleared it of stones, the choicest vines; a watchtower, and a wine press.” But were the People of God, grateful to God? Because the people did not respect God or work diligently on His vineyard, God allowed the people of Israel to be overrun. In the year, 587 B.C., the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the Holy Temple and the Jews were sent into exile. This is what Isaiah is foretelling by comparing Jerusalem to a vineyard. We read in the Book of Isaiah and Jeremiah, as well as 2^nd Kings, about how the Israelites turned from worshipping the True God and started to worship false gods. They built temples to Baal and Molech and began sacrificing their children to these false gods. This is the reason why God allowed the Jewish temple to be destroyed in 587 B.C. Israel had turned from the worship of the true God and began to kill her own sons and daughters in a vain attempt for power, prestige, and prosperity. In the Gospel, Jesus continued the theme that the Jews had heard from Isaiah and Jeremiah. Jesus reminds the Jews how badly they had treated the prophets, “one they beat, another they killed, and a third they stoned.” He even predicted how badly they would treat Him. Jesus was foretelling His own death on the cross outside the gates of Jerusalem. We might, however, take comfort in the final line of the Gospel which says “the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit." We may rightly assert that we are the new people to whom God has entrusted the vineyard. The question is have we produced fruit or have we, like the like the ancient Israelites, sown only wild grapes? If we are the new tenants to whom that vineyard has been entrusted, have we produced a harvest of grapes for the Master or have we tried to seize the vineyard for our own uses? One need only look at the decline in priestly and religious vocations and the decline in Mass attendance that says only one-third of Catholics attend Mass each week. Is this the bountiful harvest which the Lord expects upon His return? Today is Respect Life Sunday. Have we respected the life of every human being or have we sacrificed our children on the altar of abortion for power, prestige, prosperity, or just convenience. Have we turned sexual expression into a false god as the ancient Israelites did? Do we measure our prosperity by the number of cars we own rather than the number of children we care for? The ancient Israelites did not totally abandon the worship of the True God, they just decided to accept other false gods, in addition to the True God. The result was that while God never stopped loving His people, God allowed them to suffer from the consequences of their actions. They lost their political independence; their country was destroyed. If we are the new vineyard tenants, have we done the same things as the ancient Israelites? Have we put the worship of the True God, alongside of the worship of money, sex, power, and absolute freedom of choice? Since God allowed ancient Israel to suffer the consequences of the sacrifice of their children to false gods, will God allow the same thing to happen to our country? We have seen our false god of greed and prosperity begin to crumble with the unprecedented downgrading of America’s credit rating from AAA to AA. Is this the beginning of the collapse of our Temple of wealth? Should we not listen to the prophetic voices that tell to turn from our evil ways and stop sacrificing our children? If you have been involved with the tragedy of abortion please know how much God still loves you. If you seek healing and forgiveness the Church offers two important means to restore your spiritual and emotional health. The first is the Sacrament of Reconciliation which deals with the spiritual consequences of abortion. The second is Project Rachel which deals with the emotional and psychological scars of this choice. God is always ready to forgive us, if we turn to Him; and God will never abandon His Holy Catholic Church. But like Ancient Israel, God may allow this country to face the consequences of its wrong choices. How can we ask God to bless America, when we cannot mention Him in our schools? How can we expect people not to kill each other, when we are not allowed to talk about the Ten Commandments? What are we teaching those children who have survived the freedom of choice? I once received an invitation to return to the History Department of the University of Maryland for an important lecture, the topic -- “The modern history of the Call-Girl.” If we don’t stop worshipping false gods, sacrificing our children, and producing wild grapes, don’t be surprised if this country is “taken away from you and given to a people that will produce its fruit."

The Purpose of Life: EF 16th Sunday after Pentecost

2011-10-02T06:30:00.000-04:00

Click here for audio homily. There is a story of a very high-powered executive who was waiting in line for a boarding pass at the airport. The clerk behind the counter was a little slow. The executive was becoming very impatient and was afraid of missing the flight. The executive finally decided to cut through the line to get to the ticketing countering. Angrily, the executive said to the clerk, “Do you know who I am!!” The clerk pulled over the microphone and announced, “Attention travelers, we have somebody at the desk who doesn’t know who they are.” Today’s readings are about humility. St. John Vianney said that “Humility is to the various virtues what the chain is to the rosary. Take away the chain and the beads are scattered: remove humility, and all the virtues vanish.” Being humble is not about thinking of as ourselves as less than who we are but in knowing who we are and not being arrogant or prideful about it. It is not humility for a world-renowned surgeon to say they know nothing about surgery. It is not humility for good cook to say that anybody could do it. Humility accepts the gifts that God has given us for the service of His people. It does not claim that these gifts are our personal property, or that because of these gifts we deserve special treatment. These gifts certainly do not make us better than someone else. It has been said that ordination does not, necessarily, make the priest holier than the people he serves. Ordination certainly does not make him better than the people he serves. Ordination does make him different than the people he serves. When out of false humility, priests deny who they are they do a disservice to their people and to the Church. To be humble one must know who one is. The ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates, said that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates also said that “the one thing I know is that I don’t know anything.” Humility then cannot be present in one who does not know the purpose of their life. Let me quote from Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the great TV personality and communicator who is the process of being beatified. The Archbishop wrote, “Here is a pencil. This is good pencil: it writes. That was why it was made. Is it a good can opener? It certainly is not. Suppose I use it as a can opener. What happens? First of all, I do not open the can. I do not attain the purpose for which I used the pencil. Second, I destroy the pencil. Now if I, for example, decide to do certain things which I ought not to do, I do not attain the purpose for which I was created. For example, becoming an alcoholic does not make me happy. Furthermore, I destroy myself, just as I destroyed the pencil by using it to open a can. When I disobey God, I do not make myself very happy on the inside, and I certainly destroy any peace of soul that I ought to have.” Fulton Sheen’s principle can also be applied to all other areas of our life, to the way we handle our money, our sexuality, our intellects, or whatever. Our purpose in life is to live in the love of the Holy Trinity forever in heaven. St. Augustine wrote “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you, O Lord.” There is a story of a very wealthy person who was used to luxury and fine things. This person was no great sinner but they were no great saint either. They did just what they had to do get by with regards to religion and Church. When they died, they did make it into heaven. The angel escorted them to the place where they would spend eternity. As they walked down the streets of heaven, they came across a huge beautiful mansion. The person said “Oh this is very nice, I wouldn’t mind living here.” The angel said, “Oh that’s where Mother Theresa lives.” Walking down a little way they came to another beautiful mansion. The person said “This is very nice, how about this house.” “Oh,” the angel said, “That is where St. Francis lives.” Walking down a little farther the houses became smaller but still very nice and cozy. The angel pointed to one of those smaller houses and said “That house over their belongs to Sister Mary Elizabeth who in second grade prepared you for First Communion and First Confession; and that house over there belongs to your uncle Fred who opened a free medical clinic for the poor people downtown.” Finally coming to the end of town, the angel stopped at a one room hut and said to the person, “Well here is where you will spend eternity.” The person look at the small one room hut and said, “I can’t live here, I’m not used to this, there must be some mistake.” The angel simply said, “Well, that is all that we could build with what you sent up here.” When we meet the Lord face to face and say “Here I am Lord!” will we end up being embarrassed because we did not fulfill our purpose in life?

Friday Penance: St. Jerome, A, 2011

2011-09-30T14:58:00.000-04:00

Canon 1251 of the Code of Canon Law says that Friday remans a day of penitential observance. God does not need anything form us but we should want to thank God for the many gifts he has given us. Click here for daily audio homily.

What is important? Tuesday, Twenty-sixth Week of Ordinary Time, A, 2011

2011-09-28T13:55:00.000-04:00

Nehemiah was homesick for the Temple in Jerusalem. The people Jesus called to follow Him were busy doing other things. St. Benedict wrote, "the first stage of humility is obedience without delay." You are t love the Lord God with all your heart, mind and soul. Click here for daily audio homily.

Jerusalem and sacrifice: Tuesday, 26th Week of Ordinary Time, A, 2011.

2011-09-27T21:55:00.000-04:00

Jerusalem was the place for sacrifice. The altar is now the new Jerusalem. Everyday we come to the Holy Sacrifice of Mass we are called to "sacrum facere" -- i.e "make holy" our lives. Click here for audio homily.