Caritas Christi Urget Nos

Category: Preaching, Homiletics & Scripture

  • St. Ambrose

    St. Ambrose

    Today’s readings | Today’s Saint

    St. Ambrose was a man who heard well the words of today’s Gospel:

    Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
    will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.

    While he was still a catechumen, St. Ambrose was chosen as bishop of Milan and was consecrated on December 7, 374. Ambrose was a classically educated man, a revered Scripture Scholar and a solid preacher. It is his preaching that in some ways influenced St. Augustine to convert to Catholicism, and it was Ambrose who baptized Augustine.

    Ambrose was a man not just of great learning, but also great courage. He strongly defended the Church against attacks by the Arians, and also by the empire. Ambrose specifically admonished Emperor Theodosius for the massacre of 7,000 innocent people. The emperor did public penance for his crime.

    St. Ambrose’s sermons and his works tell us that he was a very educated man who was willing to roll up his sleeves and get involved in the issues of the day. He practiced what he preached and he was not shy about calling people to repentance. He was able to influence learned men such as Augustine, and won many converts to the Church.

    Indeed, St. Ambrose knew well that it was imperative to build one’s spiritual house on rock by hearing and acting on the words of Jesus. As Isaiah tells us today, those words are trustworthy, and have power to trample out the proud and arrogant. May all of our thoughts and actions this day and every day aim at building on that solid rock.

  • Tuesday of the First Week of Advent

    Tuesday of the First Week of Advent

    Today’s readings

    Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.
    For I say to you,
    many prophets and kings desired to see what you see,
    but did not see it,
    and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.

    How willing are we to see everything and every situation as a gift from God? And granted, sometimes that kind of attitude can be quite a challenge. When everything is hectic at work, or when your work goes unappreciated, it’s hard to see that work as a gift. When your kids are making you nuts or your spouse seems distant, it can be hard to see your family as a gift. When aging parents are suffering from illness or children are sick, it can be hard to see life as a gift. There are many obstacles to seeing the beauty of every person and situation.

    Yet that’s just what Jesus tells us we should do. We are blessed to see what we see. When I was in seminary, working as a hospital chaplain, I saw my share of death and disease. My fellow chaplains were going through the same thing. Then, one day, one of them brought in this very Gospel reading for discussion in the morning. When we reflected on the truth of the reading, we found that we were able to see grace in the middle of all the suffering, pain and sadness.

    Sometimes even when things are hard, God can accomplish great things by helping us to carry those crosses. Even more important, God can help us to see great grace happening that would not otherwise happen. It’s difficult to get there, but today we can pray that we would consider ourselves blessed to see the things we see, and to hear the things we hear. Let us pray that God can help us to see the grace in every person and situation.

  • The First Sunday of Advent

    The First Sunday of Advent

    Today’s readings

    candle1[This weekend, I am not preaching at the regular Church Masses. We are having a special appeal, and the priest associated with that ministry is ginving the homily. But I do have two youth Masses that day: one at a retreat, and the other a Mass for one of our High School Religious Education groups. You’ll notice the homily is quite similar to my homily for Friday’s School Mass (which didn’t happen due to snow) below. Here, I want to use the catechetical opportunity to teach the youth about Advent and to give the season a good introduction for them.]

    Today, we begin the season of Advent, which is the time that we as a Church prepare for the coming of Jesus. In the readings every Sunday of this season, we’ll be hearing all about God’s promises. I wanted to take a moment to talk about the promises we’ll be hearing, and to associate them with the candles of the Advent wreath.

    On the first Sunday of Advent, we will light this first purple candle. Purple is the color of repentance, the color that reminds us to pray for help in overcoming our sins. The readings that we hear tell us all about God’s promise to save us. Jesus, who has risen from the dead and has ascended into heaven, will come again in glory and will usher in a kingdom of peace and justice. He tells us to watch for his coming every day and to pray for the strength to hang in there until he comes back for us.

    Next week, the second Sunday of Advent, we will light the first two purple candles. The readings that we will hear that day will tell us about God’s promise to forgive us. We all have moments when we sin against God, when we break our friendship with him. Whether we don’t go to Mass on Sunday, or disobey our parents, or cheat on our school work, or cut down our brothers and sisters and classmates, all of these things break our friendship with God. But the good news is that God still wants to be friends with us, and he promises to forgive us of our sins. When we confess our sins and repair our broken relationships, we are preparing the way of the Lord in our hearts.

    On the third Sunday of Advent, we will light the first two purple candles, and then light the pink candle. The pink candle reminds us that even in a time when we are working hard on repentance of our sins and reforming our lives, we can still be joyful because Jesus is coming with his power to help us to change. The readings we will hear that day will tell us about God’s promise to make everything new. Even when everything seems hopeless, and the days are dreary; even when we hear about wars and crime and all kinds of sadness, we can hope in God. God never meant for all this sadness to be part of our lives, and he promises to send the Holy Spirit to recreate the world and to recreate our hearts so that we can all share in God’s love.

    On the fourth Sunday of Advent, we will light all the candles, including this final purple candle. On that day, with all the candles lit, we will know that the birth of Jesus is very near. On that day, our church will be brighter with all four candles lit, and our hearts will be brighter because Jesus will enter our lives once again. On that day, the readings will tell us about the promise that we can be God’s holy people. Even though we have sinned and have made the world darker, Jesus comes to brighten our darkness and claim us as his own people. We are made holy because Jesus, who is holiness itself, is in our lives.

    I am going to give you all a little prayer to memorize this Advent. I want you to pray it every morning when you get up, and every night before you go to bed. I want you to pray it whenever you think of it during the day. Whenever you see me at Church, I’d love it if you prayed it with me right then and there. It’s a simple prayer, and there are just three words: Come, Lord Jesus. If someone comes up to you and prays that, you should respond “Amen!” It’s a prayer of the early Church, when they were waiting for the Lord to come again. For us, it’s a prayer that we will be truly open to God’s presence. Come, Lord Jesus!

  • Prelude to Advent: Come, Lord Jesus!

    Prelude to Advent: Come, Lord Jesus!

    Readings: 1 John 1:1-4, Luke 1:1-4, Luke 4:14-22

    [Mass for the School Children.]

    In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus reading from the book of the prophet Isaiah. The prophet Isaiah preached about 750 years before Jesus was born. At that time, the Jewish people were in a time of great turmoil and persecution. Isaiah preached to them God’s promise that he would send a savior to deliver the people from being unjustly imprisoned, from their blindness, and from their suffering. Jesus reads this promise to the people gathered in the synagogue, and then does something very startling: he tells them that the promise that Isaiah preached has come true, and that Jesus is the savior God promised to send.

    I’m sure that you all know very well that Christmas is less than a month away. What do we celebrate on Christmas day? The birth of Jesus our Savior. On Sunday, we will begin the season of Advent, which is the time that we as a Church prepare for the coming of Jesus. In the readings every Sunday, we’ll be hearing all about God’s promises. As you look around today, you can tell that the church is different: we have already begun to decorate the church for Advent. But we left one thing out, and that is the candles for our Advent wreath. Here at St. Raphael, we are really the advent wreath, as we gather in kind of a circle around the Altar. And we place the candles at the four corners of the Church. So now, some of the eighth graders are going to help me put those candles in place as we walk around the Advent wreath and think about God’s promises.

    On the first Sunday of Advent, we will light this first purple candle. Purple is the color of repentance, the color that reminds us to be sorry for our sins. The readings that we hear that day will tell us all about God’s promise to save us. Jesus, who has risen from the dead and has ascended into heaven, will come again in glory and will usher in a kingdom of peace and justice. He tells us to watch for his coming every day and to pray for the strength to hang in there until he comes back for us.

    On the second Sunday of Advent, we will light the first two purple candles. The readings that we will hear that day will tell us about God’s promise to forgive us. We all have moments when we sin against God, when we break our friendship with him. Whether we don’t go to Mass on Sunday, or disobey our parents, or cheat on our school work, or are mean to our brothers and sisters and classmates, all of these things break our friendship with God. But the good news is that God still wants to be friends with us, and he promises to forgive us of our sins. When we confess our sins and say we’re sorry, we are preparing the way of the Lord in our hearts.

    On the third Sunday of Advent, we will light the first two purple candles, and then light the pink candle. The pink candle reminds us that even in a time when we are working hard to be sorry for our sins and to change our lives, we can still be joyful because Jesus is coming. The readings we will hear that day will tell us about God’s promise to make everything new. Even when everything seems hopeless, and the days are dreary; even when we hear about wars and crime and all kinds of sadness, we can hope in God. God never meant for all this sadness to be part of our lives, and he promises to send the Holy Spirit to recreate the world and to recreate our hearts so that we can all share in God’s love.

    On the fourth Sunday of Advent, we will light all the candles, including this final purple candle. On that day, with all the candles lit, we will know that the birth of Jesus is very near. On that day, our church will be brighter with all four candles lit, and our hearts will be brighter because Jesus will enter our lives once again. On that day, the readings will tell us about the promise that we can be God’s holy people. Even though we have sinned and have made the world darker, Jesus comes to brighten our darkness and claim us as his own people. We are made holy because Jesus, who is holiness itself, is in our lives.

    Advent gives us the chance to get rid of all the darkness in our lives and to try to get rid of the darkness in our world. As we light our candles every Sunday, we might also take the opportunity to lighten our world by going to confession before Christmas, by reaching out to the poor and needy by buying a gift for someone on the Sharing Tree. We can lighten our own hearts by listening to the readings at Mass and praying for ourselves and our families and friends, and for those who have no one to pray for them.

    I want you all to memorize one little prayer this Advent. I want you to pray it every morning when you get up, and every night before you go to bed. I want you to pray it whenever you think of it during the day. When I see you in the halls or anywhere around here, I’d love it if you prayed it with me right then and there. It’s a simple prayer, and there are just three words: Come, Lord Jesus. Let’s say it together: Come, Lord Jesus. And again: Come, Lord Jesus. Now by yourselves…

    If we pray this prayer every day of Advent, we will truly be ready to celebrate the birthday of Jesus on Christmas Day. Let’s pray it just one more time together: Come, Lord Jesus!

  • Wednesday of the 34th Week of Ordinary Time

    Wednesday of the 34th Week of Ordinary Time

    Today's readings

    I think for most of us, the whole idea of giving testimony to anyone or anything can be more than a little daunting. And then to be dragged in before courts, and national rulers to do it – well, that just puts fear into our hearts doesn't it? That is, however, just what Jesus promises that will happen in those cataclysmic days of the end of time. For those who are not used to speaking in front of people, that can be frightening. But Jesus also promises that we need not worry about what to say on those occasions, because he will provide us with the defense that we are to speak.

    Which is why it is so important for us to always work on our relationship with the Lord. For those who don't have a relationship with him, they will never know the words they are to say, nor could they possibly recognize them if they were given those words. But for those who seek the Lord every day of their lives, they will be used to seeing God's grace and knowing the right words to say.

    It's a little like the woman who was desperate for the solution to a problem in her life. She finally knew that she had to pray about it, but because she hadn't really done that very much, she didn't know how to pray. So she got the old dusty Bible off the shelf, opened it at random, closed her eyes, pointed to a verse and read, "Judas went out and hanged himself." She knew that couldn't be the answer, so she tried again. She opened up to a random spot, pointed to a verse, and read, "Go and do likewise." That frightened here a bit, so she figured she would try one more time. Opening the Bible at random, she pointed to a verse and read, "Go quickly and do what you must do."

    That's an old joke, but it illustrates my point. If we want to be prepared to witness to Christ before courts and nations and rulers, we need to know who Jesus is. If we want to have the words to speak on those frightening occasions, we have to have a relationship with Him in the first place. Then we truly need not worry about what to say, because we will be able to sing God's praises before the whole world. And we can join in the song with all the victorious ones in the Kingdom of God:

    Great and wonderful are your works,
    Lord God almighty.
    Just and true are your ways,
    O king of the nations.
    Who will not fear you, Lord,
    or glorify your name?
    For you alone are holy.
    All the nations will come
    and worship before you,
    for your righteous acts have been revealed.

  • Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth Week of Ordinary Time

    Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    With all this talk about the harvest, and deception, and the great winepress of God’s fury, the end of time can be an absolutely frightening thought. The readings today almost make it seem like at some point, God will have had quite enough of our foolishness and return to wipe out the living and the dead. But that’s not the promise.

    The psalmist today makes the promise a little more clear to us:

    Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice;
    let the sea and what fills it resound;
    let the plains be joyful and all that is in them!
    Then shall all the trees of the forest exult.
    Before the LORD, for he comes;
    for he comes to rule the earth.

    The promise of which this psalmist sings is one of great joy, a joy that will envelop and lift up all creation. The occasion for this joy is that all creation has finally come to what it was destined for: the praise of God. This makes the judgment day not at all like the great destruction of God’s wrath, but more of a celebration of creation finally developing into what it was made for.

    Eucharistic Prayer III says “all creation rightly gives you praise.” This is what we were all made for; this is what everything was made for; this is the meaning of life. In these waning days of the year, we are called to look forward to the new creation, and called to partner with God in re-creating the world. We start with ourselves, by becoming the people we were created to be. That may give us stuff to work on in the coming year, but we can do that work with joy because we know that God “shall rule the world with justice and the peoples with his constancy.”

  • Our Lord Jesus Christ the King

    Our Lord Jesus Christ the King

    Today’s readings

    “My kingdom does not belong to this world.”

    feastofchristthekingpaintingToday we celebrate the great feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King. Here, at the end of our liturgical year, we celebrate the one who has led us through the year. As we look back, there may have been times of great achievement, or times of failure. We may have celebrated life, or had to deal with sickness and death. We may have been blessed by wonderful, nurturing relationships or we may have had to deal with discord and strife. But if this year has meant anything, hopefully we can say that we have come through it with the help of Jesus our Savior, who is our Lord and King.

    In today’s first reading, we have the promise of a king: one like a son of man with an everlasting dominion. This part of the book of Daniel comes from a series of visions. In these visions, particularly the one we have today, Daniel gives the Jews hope in persecution. This is no mere dream, and he is not just sharing his dream with a friend at work the next day. This is a vision that is spoken to lift the people up and help them to know that their hope is in God.

    The Jews of his day have been being persecuted by the Greek tyrant, Antiochus Epiphanes IV. He and his henchmen were certainly persecuting the Jews who insisted on living the Jewish way of life. But what is even more evil and more disastrous to the community, is that some of the Jews were starting to think that giving up their way of life and instead worshiping the gods of the Greeks was a good idea. They saw how powerful the Greeks were and attributed that to the gods they were worshipping. So, why not give up their own faith to follow one that seems to be working better? The biggest danger they faced was losing their faith to the pagans by adopting pagan ways of life.

    So, when did you see your first Christmas display? I’m not sure when I did, but I know it was way before Halloween. I was also amazed to hear Christmas music on WLIT in the first week of November. And on Thanksgiving Day, I was awakened early in the morning by the sound of a heavier than usual newspaper hitting the sidewalk outside my door. I wasn’t shocked to discover the reason for this rude awakening was that the paper contained tons of Christmas-related advertisements for after Thanksgiving sales. The mad rush for the hearts and souls of Christmas shoppers has begun. In just the last week, we’ve all seen long lines waiting for the latest video game system. People camp out in tents and brawl for the first places in line. Peace on earth, good will to all. Yeah, sure.

    So, we clearly are not under the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, but we are definitely in danger of losing our faith to the pagan forces of this world. And there are so many other seductive ways that pagan forces weasel their way into our lives and tempt us to give in to their power over us. Everything that promises us power, success and wealth has the ability to take our hearts and souls with it. Why not just give in? Won’t paganism and evil win out in the end?

    Well, Daniel sure didn’t think so. He prophesied that there would be one like a Son of Man who would triumph over Antiochus and others like him. This One would deliver them from the persecution they suffered and from the seduction that confronted them. This One would rule the world in justice and peace, and would lead the persecuted ones to a kingdom that would never pass away.

    The early Church identified this Son of Man with Jesus Christ. He is the One who has power to rule over all and he is the One whose kingdom is everlasting. He even referred to himself as the Son of Man, and made it clear that he was the Son of Man who would suffer for the people. He came to deliver those first Christians from persecution with the promise that he would indeed come again, and that same promise is made to us as well.

    But the problem was, he didn’t return right away. People lost faith, gave in to persecution, and just went with the powerful forces of the day. The delay in his return led some to believe that he was not returning, and so they should just do what seemed expedient. Why not go with the victorious pagan forces of the world? It’s a question that we must answer too.

    As we end this liturgical year and take a look back, maybe we can see some areas for improvement in our lives. Much like the resolutions we may make January 1st, we may be able to make some resolutions for our spiritual lives in the coming liturgical year. I don’t mean losing weight or getting more exercise: those you can make in the new calendar year. But maybe in this liturgical year we could resolve to pray more or work for justice and peace, or reach out to the needy. If we were to make some constructive resolutions for our spiritual lives, we could begin to take away the hold the pagan forces in our world have on us. We could even proclaim with our lives that Christ is our King.

    Jesus told Pilate in today’s Gospel that his Kingdom was not of this world. That should be the red flag for us. When we begin to worship and follow the forces of this world, we know that we are in the wrong place. Christ is the King, the Son of Man, who will lead us to a kingdom not made by human hands, a kingdom that will not pass away, a kingdom of justice and peace, a kingdom of love and mercy, a kingdom of grace and comfort, a kingdom of eternal beauty and unfathomable joy. The choice is ours, though. Will we follow the pagan forces of this world, or will we follow Our Lord Jesus Christ the King to that perfect and everlasting kingdom?

  • Saturday of the 33rd Week of Ordinary Time

    Saturday of the 33rd Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    When time runs short, we often worry about the silliest things. Maybe the reason for that is we don’t know what to do, so taking care of the small stuff makes it seem like we are getting someplace. Only we’re not. Take, for example, the recent release of some new video game systems. People were camping out in tents for days so they would be first in line. Other people got into fights defending their place in the line, or trying to move ahead. All of this while thousands of units of the systems were being held back in a warehouse someplace, so that the demand would make news. It sure did. And who didn’t watch that and think it was, well, a little silly?

    For the Sadducees, the silliness surrounded what seems like a game of trivial pursuit or some early version of a math story problem gone bad. If a woman married each of seven brothers, only to have them die before they could have children, whose wife would she be in the afterlife? I think the more important question would be, if the first six brothers died before they could have children, why would the seventh one marry her in the first place? Now that’s a question worth asking!

    And Jesus makes it clear that the answer to their question involves focusing on what’s really important. And that is eternal life. Now the Sadducees didn’t believe in life after death. One of my professors used to tell us that that’s why they were sad, you see. But Jesus’ message to them is that they are dead wrong on their belief that there is no afterlife, and it’s time they got it right. The most important thing worth striving for is eternal life, and Jesus is there to give it to them, and us, if we will but ask the right questions and live the Gospel.

    So as the year nears its end and time is running short, we have to ask the right questions and attend to the important stuff. Maybe this involves standing in shorter lines during the Christmas shopping season, and spending more time with our families, or in prayer, so that the real message of the end of the year – eternal life through the incarnation of our Savior – can be first in our minds and hearts.

  • Saint Andrew Dung-Lac & companions

    Saint Andrew Dung-Lac & companions

    Today's saints | Today's readings

    St. Andrew Dung-Lac was a priest in Vietnam in the early nineteenth century. He and his 116 companions, including Spanish Dominicans, members of the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris, and 96 Vietnamese, including 37 priests – of which Andrew Dung-Lac was one – were all martyred around the year 1839. It is estimated that between 100,000 and 300,000 Catholics were martyred in Vietnam during the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries.

    These martyrs knew well the dilemma that faced St. John in today's reading from the book of Revelation. The scroll – the word of God – tasted sweet on the tongue, but became sour in the stomach. The sweetness of receiving the Gospel very often becomes sour when one now has to live it. But live it we must, and quite often at a price. For St. Andrew and his companions, it was at the price of their very lives. For each of us, the price may be different.

    Whether we have to pay by having to give up a job promotion because it does not allow us to live the Gospel, or of having a strained or broken relationship with someone in our lives because they do not share our beliefs, or even just the social stigma of not giving in to the peer pressure that leads us to consumerism, the call of the Gospel can turn our lives sour indeed. This is often called a "white martyrdom" (as opposed to the "red martyrdom" of those who paid with their blood) and we are all called to suffer it at some point.

    But may we all step up and eat the scroll, proclaiming its message by our very life's witness.

  • The Presentation of Mary

    The Presentation of Mary

    Today's feast | Today's readings: Zechariah 2:14-17, Luke 1:46-55, Matthew 12:46-50

    You know, I'm not sure how my mother would react to my not acknowledging her presence like that, but I know it wouldn't be good! But, lest we impute the wrong motives to our Savior, we should understand that He was well aware of Mary's contribution to the will of God. St. Augustine reminds us that Mary was extremely obedient to God's will and singularly cooperative with God's plan of salvation. He says: "Indeed the blessed Mary certainly did the Father's will, and so it was for her a greater thing to have been Christ's disciple that to have been his mother, and she was more blessed in her discipleship than in her motherhood."

    Jesus was holding up Mary as an example of discipleship to all of us. Our constant efforts and prayers should be directed at being as open to the will of God as she was. By her fiat, saying yes to God through the angel Gabriel, Mary opened the world up to the possibility of salvation through Jesus Christ.

    The feast of the Presentation of Mary goes back to around the sixth century in the Eastern Church. It appeared in the Latin Church around the eleventh century and was made a feast of the Universal Church in the sixteenth century. This feast is not historical, but is based on a tradition from the early church of Mary having been presented in the Temple to God by Joachim and Anne when she was around three years old. This was to fulfill a promise made to God when Anne was childless. The tradition continues the theme which begins at Mary's Immaculate Conception, continues through the celebration of her birth, and through the Presentation we celebrate today. This tradition teaches us that Mary's destiny to fulfill God's will began before she was born and continued through her early childhood.

    We call on the intercession of Mary our Mother today, that she would guide us to lives open to the will of God, and that she would lead us always to proclaim the greatness of the Lord in soul and in spirit.

    Pray for us, O holy Mother of God;
    That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.