Caritas Christi Urget Nos

Category: Preaching, Homiletics & Scripture

  • Monday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time

    Monday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    In today’s readings, God proves himself trustworthy, yet again. He appears to Jacob in a dream and promises that he will be with him wherever he goes, protecting him, and bringing him back to the land, which he would also give to Jacob’s descendants. In his joy, Jacob reacts by consecrating the land to the Lord.  God fulfills the promise and Jacob and he enter into relationship and covenant.

    Today’s Gospel reading is the Matthew version of the Mark reading we had a week ago yesterday, in which Jesus heals not one, but two people: he stops the hemorrhage of a women who had suffered from the malady for twelve years, and then he raises the daughter of one of the local officials. In their joy, news of Jesus’ mighty deeds spread all throughout the land.

    The Psalmist prays today, “In you, my God, I place my trust.” It’s a call for us to do the same today. We certainly don’t know how God will answer our prayers or even when he will do so. He might bring healing, but maybe in a way we don’t expect.  He may, as he did with Jacob, call us to something that seems beyond our expectation, but can be accomplished only with God’s help.  Whatever it is that God will do in us, his promise to Jacob is one in which we can trust as well: he will be with us wherever we go, and he will protect us.

  • The Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

    The Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    This set of readings always makes me chuckle just a little bit.  Back in my second assignment, before I became a pastor, I was assigned to my home parish, which is a bit unusual.  And the first Sunday I was there, these readings we have today were the readings that Sunday: “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place…”!  Talk about a prophecy of doom!  Thanks be to God, it all worked out just fine.

    I often wonder how people get through the hard times of their lives if they don’t have faith.  We can all probably think of a time in our lives when we were sorely tested, when our lives were turned upside-down, and, looking back, we can’t figure out how we lived through it except for the grace of our faith.  During the course of my priesthood, I have been present to a lot of people who were going through times like that: whether it be illness or death of a loved one, relationship struggles, job issues, or financial struggles, or a host of other maladies.  Some of them had faith, and some of them didn’t.  It was always inspirational to see how people with faith lived through their hard times, and very sad to see how many who didn’t have faith just broken when their lives stopped going well.

    That’s the experience that today’s Liturgy of the Word puts before us, I think.  Let’s look at the context.  In last week’s Gospel, Jesus has cured two people miraculously.  He actually raised Jairus’s twelve-year-old daughter from the dead, and he cured the hemorrhagic woman, who had been suffering for twelve years.  So both stories had occurrences of the number twelve, reminiscent of the twelve tribes of Abraham, and later the Twelve Apostles, both of which signify the outreach of God’s presence into the whole world.  So those two miraculous healings last week reminded us that Jesus was healing the whole world.

    But this week, we see the exception.  This week, Jesus is in his hometown, where he is unable to do much in the way of miracles except for a few minor healings.  Why?  Because the people lacked faith.  And this is in stark contrast to last week’s healings where Jairus handed his daughter over to Jesus in faith, and the hemorrhagic woman had faith that just grasping on to the garments of Jesus would give her healing.  Faith can be very healing, and a lack of it can be stifling, leading eventually to the destruction of life.

    We see that clearly in the first two readings today.  First Ezekiel is told that the people he would be ministering to would not change, because they were obstinate.  But at least they’d know a prophet had been among them.  Contrast that with Saint Paul’s unyielding faith in the second reading to the Corinthian Church.  Even though he begged the Lord three times to relieve him of whatever it was that was his thorn in the flesh, he would not stop believing in God’s goodness.  Much has been said about what Saint Paul could possibly mean by this “thorn.”  Was it an illness or infirmity?  Was it a pattern of sin or at least a temptation that would not leave him alone?  We don’t know for sure, but this “thorn” makes Saint Paul’s story all the more compelling for us who have to deal with our own “thorns” in our own lives.  Saint Paul’s faith led him to be content with whatever weakness or hardship befell him, and he came to know that in his weakness, God could do more and thus make him stronger than he could be on his own. That assurance gives us hope of the same grace in our own struggles.

    We people of faith will be tested sometimes; that’s when the rubber hits the road for our faith.  Knowing of God’s providence, we can be sure that he will lead us to whatever is best.  And our faith can help us to make sense of the struggles and know God’s presence in the dark places of our lives.  People of faith are tested by the storms and tempests of the world, but are never abandoned by our God.  Never abandoned.

    Let’s pray with this notion today.  Take a moment to quiet yourself, close your eyes if that works for you… 

    Take a moment now to think of whatever thorn is in your side.  Maybe it’s illness or infirmity, or a temptation that won’t go away, an uneasiness about something going on in your life, worry about yourself or a family member.  Whatever that is, bring that to mind and tell Jesus about it.  Yes, he knows your needs, but he wants to hear you say it and put it in his merciful hands…

    Now picture putting that need, that thorn, in Jesus’ hands.  Give it up and stop holding on to it.  Let go of whatever hold that thorn has on you…

    Take a moment now to pray to Jesus in your heart, using your own words.  Tell him that you trust him to make of this thorn whatever he wants it to be.  Tell him that you trust in his healing, and that you will stop holding on to the way you want it to work out.  Ask him to take the burden from you and promise not to take it back…

    Repeat this after me: Jesus, I trust in you.  Jesus, I give you my burdens.  Jesus, I will accept healing in the way you want it for me.  Jesus, I trust in you.

  • Saint Thomas, Apostle

    Saint Thomas, Apostle

    Today’s readings

    You know, sometimes I think we don’t know what we believe until we’re called upon to explain it.  Especially for those of us who are “cradle Catholics” – the ones who were baptized Catholic and have grown up in the faith all our lives.  We often just accept the things the Church teaches, and never really stop to question them.  And that’s okay, but it’s also okay when we’re called upon to explain our beliefs, if we have to do a little research.  Because there’s always more to learn, and there is always more believing to be done!

    “Do not be unbelieving, but believe” is what Jesus tells St. Thomas today.  He might as well say that to all of us.  Because we should never stop exploring our beliefs, never stop learning about our faith.  We’ll never know it all anyway – at least not on this side of heaven.  On that great day when everything is revealed, things will be different, but until then, we have to renew that call to “not be unbelieving, but believe!”

    I once had a couple preparing for marriage in my office.  The bride was not Catholic, but they are preparing to have their wedding in the Catholic Church, so they of course were going through our marriage preparation program.  The groom remarked when we met that day that “this might sound bad, but I’ve been learning more about the faith in explaining it to her.”  I told him that didn’t sound bad at all, and that moments like that are an opportunity for us to grow in faith.  So many spouses of people going through RCIA have said the same thing: they learn as much as their non-Catholic spouse when the attend RCIA with them.  Learning about our faith is a life-long, joy-filled process.  Do not be unbelieving, but believe!

    And so we are going to give poor Thomas the so-called-doubter a break today.  Because we all need to grow in our faith.  And what a wonderful invitation we have from our Lord: “Do not be unbelieving, but believe!”

  • Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles

    Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles

    Today’s readings

    Today we celebrate a feast of great importance to our Church.  Saint Peter, the apostle to the Jews, and St. Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, come together to show how the Church is truly universal, that is, truly catholic.  There are similarities between the two men.  Simon’s name is changed to Peter after he professes belief in the Lord Jesus, and Saul’s name is changed to Paul after he is converted.  Both men started out as failures as far as living the Christian life goes.  Peter denied his Lord by the fire and swore that he didn’t even know the man who was his friend.  Paul’s early life was taken up with persecuting Christians and participating in their murder.  And both men were given second chances, which they received with great enthusiasm, and lived a life of faith that has given birth to our Church.

    In today’s Gospel, Peter and the others are asked “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  Both Peter and Paul were committed to the truth about who Christ was.  They had too much at stake to get it wrong.  Having both failed on this early on, they knew the danger of falling into the trap.  So for them Jesus could never be just another guy, even a holy man – that was inadequate.  And both of them proclaimed with all of their life straight through to their death that Jesus Christ is Lord.  We too on this day must repent of the mediocrity we sometimes settle for in our relationship with Christ.  He has to be Lord of our lives and we must proclaim him to be that Lord to our dying breath.

    Both Peter and Paul kept the faith, as Paul says in today’s second reading.  If they hadn’t, one wonders how the faith, how the Church, might look today.  But because they kept the faith, we have it today, and we must be careful to keep the faith ourselves.  Too many competing voices in our world today would have us bracket faith in favor of reason, or tolerance, or success, or whatever.  But we can never allow that, we can never break faith with Saints Peter and Paul, who preserved that faith at considerable personal cost.

    Perhaps Saints Peter and Paul can inspire our own apostolic zeal.  In this beginning of a post-pandemic time, our apostolic zeal can be to heal the sick: by looking in on those who have been ill, by being careful when visiting vulnerable loved ones.  In this time of social unrest, our apostolic zeal can be to embrace the marginalized: to reflect on any traces of racism in our own lives and root them out, and to stand with our brothers and sisters of color, not just in this moment, but from now on, so that they will never be marginalized again.  In this time of natural disaster and other disasters like the building collapse in Florida, our apostolic zeal might see us reaching out to help those affected.  Our apostolic zeal is similar to that of Saints Peter and Paul: it comes about because Jesus is Lord, and that truth is forever important.

    Then, as we bear witness to the fact that Jesus is Lord of our lives and of all the earth, we can bring a world that has settled for the mediocre to look for something better, holier, more fulfilling.  Perhaps in our renewed apostolic zeal we can bring justice to the oppressed, right judgment to the wayward, love to the forgotten and the lonely, and faith to a world that has lost sight of anything worth believing in.  Now is the time for the Church to be released from its chains and burst forth to give witness in the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

  • The Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

    The Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    My absolute favorite line from this Gospel reading is, “Then he put them all out.”  I can just imagine Jesus going into the house, encountering the mourners, seeing the lack of faith in all of them, and saying “Go on!  Get outta here!  I’ve got work to do!”  Or at least that’s how I’d say it!

    It might be a funny little line, but I think it makes a significant point, and sums up the point made by the Liturgy of the Word we have for today.  Faith is necessary in our relationship with God and in receiving God’s blessings and in living the life for which he has created us.  Those incredulous mourners were symptomatic of a people who had abandoned hope of God’s interest in them.  They were so abused by the scrupulous religious establishment, that they didn’t really even know God, nor did they believe that God cared about them.  So all that was left for them was to mourn, because, as far as they knew, there was nothing for which to look forward.  The only thing Jesus could do, then, was to put them out of the house, so that he could respond to the faith of Jairus, the synagogue official, the father of the girl, who had called Jesus to come.  

    That’s not so different from the situation with the woman who somewhat detained Jesus on the way to Jairus’s house.  This poor woman had placed her faith in “many doctors,” who apparently did nothing but increase her suffering.  She seems to have had a stirring of faith, or maybe it was even a last ditch effort, a “Hail Mary,” if you will, and that leads her to touch the garment of Jesus as he passes by.  She makes an act of faith: “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.”  And in this humble act of faith, in which she undoubtedly hopes to go unnoticed, she finds that no act of faith is ever unnoticed by Our Lord.  Even though the disciples laugh at him for wanting to know who in the pressing crowd touched him, Jesus, who surely already knew who it was, acknowledges this woman of faith and responds to that act of faith.

    “God did not make death,” as the wisdom author in our first reading tells us.  And because he did not make death, he has given us faith as a remedy for its effects on our lives.  Maybe we won’t be miraculously cured like the hemorrhagic woman, and maybe we won’t be raised from the dead like the daughter of Jairus.  But we absolutely will experience resurrection and new life when we join ourselves to Christ who has triumphed over death.  That experience requires faith, and we must make it our constant care to exercise that faith, live that faith, and to “put out” of our lives any negativity, any dependence on worldly remedies, anything, really, that interferes with that faith.  Each of us must be absolutely willing to “put them all out” and react in faith to all that God wants to do in our lives.  Because our lives depend on it.  They really do.

    And we can have that faith every day, because Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

  • Friday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time

    Friday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    There’s quite a bit of laughing and astonishment in today’s Liturgy of the Word, and I like it!

    “Lord, if you wish you can make me clean.”  In some ways, that is the biggest understatement in all of Scripture.  Of course God can make him clean, God can do anything God wants to do.  But for the leper, I think it’s less of an understatement than it is a statement of faith.  He seems to have heard of or maybe has even seen some of Jesus’ other mighty deeds, and he is expressing the faith that Jesus can help him.  The big “if” for him, though is the “if you wish” part.  And of course, Jesus does wish, and he is made clean.

    In our first reading, God wishes to heal Abraham and Sarah too.  They display far less faith than our leper, but in their defense, they are new to the whole experience of God.  They would be happy enough for God to just bless them through Ishmael.  While God does grant descendants to Ismael, he intends to do more for the aged couple: he will give them a child through Sarah.  Abraham can’t imagine that coming to pass, and he laughs in the face of such overwhelming blessing.  But it is God who has the last laugh: he indeed gives them a son through Sarah, whom they are to name “Isaac,” which in Hebrew means, “God laughs.”

    God can do anything God wishes. Nothing is an obstacle for God, except, of course, for our lack of faith.  If we have the faith that our leper had in the Gospel reading, we might well be amused to see what God can do in us and through us and among us.  That doesn’t mean every whim of ours will be God’s pleasure, but it does mean that the ways he blesses us might make us all laugh for joy.

  • The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

    The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

    Today’s readings

    Today we celebrate a feast that is a bit unusual for us.  When we celebrate a saint’s day, it is usually celebrated on the feast of their death, not their birth.  But today we celebrate the birth of a saint, Saint John the Baptist, and the fact that we’re celebrating his birth points to the fact that St. John the Baptist had a very special role to play in the life of Christ.  In fact, the only other saint for whom we celebrate a birthday is the Blessed Virgin Mary.

    In our first reading today, Isaiah says that he was given his name while in his mother’s womb.  The same was true of Saint John the Baptist, whose name was given to Zechariah and Elizabeth by the Angel Gabriel.  Names have meaning.  The names of the prophets we encounter in today’s Liturgy of the Word are particularly meaningful.  Isaiah means “The LORD is salvation,” which pretty much encompassed the meaning of Isaiah’s mission, proclaiming salvation to the Israelites who were oppressed in exile.  The name given to the Baptist, John, means “God has shown favor.”  And that was in fact the message of his life.  He came to pave the way for Jesus Christ, who was the favor of God shown to the whole human race.

    Ultimately, the purpose for Saint John the Baptist’s life was summed up in a statement he made about himself and Our Lord later on in the Gospel of John: “I must decrease, He must increase.”  And so it must be for us.  Sometimes we want to turn the spotlight on ourselves, at least unconsciously, when that is, of course, exactly where it should not be.  For John the Baptist, the spotlight was always on Christ, the One whose sandals he was unfit to fasten.  Just as the birth of Saint John the Baptist helped his father Zechariah to speak once again, so his life gives voice to our own purpose in the world.  Like Saint John the Baptist, we are called to be a people who point to Christ, who herald the Good News, and who live our lives for God.  We are called to decrease, while Christ increases in all of us.  We are called to be that light to the nations of which Isaiah speaks today, so that God’s salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

    Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

  • Tuesday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time

    Tuesday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    Listen to those words of Jesus again:

    “Enter through the narrow gate;
    for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction,
    and those who enter through it are many.
    How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life.
    And those who find it are few.”

    Those are pretty challenging thoughts, I think. But they are thoughts we can resonate with. Certainly Lot fell into the trap of going through the wide gate into the land of Sodom, the residents of which our first reading says “were very wicked in the sins they committed against the LORD.” And how true for us as well. Isn’t it always easier to take the easy road, the road everyone uses, despite the fact that that road doesn’t take you anywhere you want to go? We might very well take that easy road time and again, and end up, well, with Lot,  in a place like Sodom.  God forbid.

    But the narrow gate isn’t easy to find and is harder still to travel. Living the Gospel and laying down our lives for others is hard work, and may often seem unrewarding. We may have to set aside our desires for the pleasures and rewards of this life. We may have to give up our own preferences for the good of others. 

    So we may well fail to get through that gate by our own efforts, due to the brokenness of our lives and the sinfulness of our living and the limited nature of our goodness. We may, in fact, find it next to impossible to travel through that narrow gate by ourselves.

    But here’s the good news: we don’t have to. The one who is our teacher in this constricted way is also the way through it. Our Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, and through him we can all find our way to the Father. He even gives us the key to that narrow gate: “Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the Law and the Prophets.” As we pledge to live our lives by considering the needs of others just as we would consider our own needs, we will indeed find that traveling that narrow road is the way that gives most joy to our lives. As the Psalmist reminds us today, “He who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.”  Let’s make it our effort to live that Golden Rule today.

  • Monday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time (Beginning of Vacation Bible School)

    Monday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time (Beginning of Vacation Bible School)

    Today’s readings

    God is absolutely, always, faithful to his promises.

    In our first reading tonight, God makes a promise to Abram, later to be called Abraham.  God calls on him to make an act of faith and go to a foreign land to become a great nation.  This would be a great miracle, because Abram and his wife Sarai, were childless into their old age, and had given up hope of ever having a child.  God promised to give Abram descendants and a land to live on, and God, who is absolutely, always, faithful to his promises did just that: Abram’s descendants are numerous and they inherited the land as God promised.

    In our Gospel reading tonight, Jesus calls his disciples, including us, to stop judging, so that we might have forgiveness for our own sins.  If we are always looking for faults in our brothers and sisters, we can’t see the goodness of God in them, nor can they see it in us.  But if we admit our own faults, and forgive the faults of others, we are open to the forgiveness that Jesus promises.  And God, who is absolutely, always, faithful to his promises, does just that: he forgives us time and time again.

    Today we begin our parish Vacation Bible School, where we will travel with Mary to the many places that she has appeared to people over the centuries.  Mary was faithful to God’s plan for her life, and because of that, she gave birth to Jesus our Savior.  She was the first of all the disciples and a witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Over the centuries, she continued to bring God’s love and mercy to people all over the world, causing many people to come to believe in God and receive his grace through the Sacraments of the Church.  She has appeared to people in Fatima, Medjugorje, Lourdes, Knock, and Guadalupe, just to name a few!  And every time she appeared, she helped people to know that God loves them and forgives them and is absolutely, always, faithful to his promises.

    When I was in the Holy Land in 2019, I got to visit the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth.  It was a wonderful place, because we know that is the house where Mary lived, where she heard God’s plan from the Angel Gabriel, and where she and Saint Joseph raised Jesus.  But all that is in the Basilica now are the interior walls of the house and the foundation.  The outside walls and roof are all gone.  You might think they caught fire or were destroyed in the centuries since, but that’s not the case. 

    Just on the eve of the house being destroyed by infidels during the Crusades, the house, which had survived similar attacks in the past, was picked up during the night, and brought by angels to what is now Yugoslavia.  Shepherds, who worked in the nearby fields, came one morning to see a house that had never been there before, and contained an altar, a statue of Mary, and a Crucifix.  The priest of the parish, who was crippled with arthritis, prayed to know where the house had come from, and Mary answered him in a dream:

    “’Know that his house,’ she said, ‘is the same in which I was born and brought up. Here, at the Annunciation….I conceived the Creator of all things. Here, the Word of the Eternal Father became man. The altar which was brought with the house was consecrated by Peter, the Prince of the Apostles. This house has now come to your shores by the power of God….And now in order that you may bear testimony of all these things, be healed. Your unexpected and sudden recovery shall confirm the truth of what I have declared to you.’”

    The priest was cured, and the house was venerated for three years, before it was once again moved by angels.  This time, people saw it getting moved, and ended up in the Marche region of Italy.  Unfortunately bandits surrounded the house, and Our Lord moved the house again, this time to Lecanati.  This caused a fight between the brothers that owned the property, and so the house was moved again, finally, to Loreto in Italy, where it remains today.

    During that time, scientists went to the Holy Land to examine the spot in Nazareth where the house had been.  They were able to confirm that the house is the same size as its foundation that remained in Nazareth, and that the building materials were all those used in Nazareth, and not in any of the places the house had moved to!  Over the years, of course, people came to visit and pray at the house, and many people were cured of illnesses there, just as the priest in Yugoslavia had been. 

    During this week of Vacation Bible School, you will learn that Mary has continued to make the love and mercy of God in Jesus known all throughout the world.  She is the first and greatest of all the disciples of Jesus.  And through her intercession, many miracles have taken place, and lives have been changed.  Because God is absolutely, always, faithful to his promises.

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

  • Friday of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time

    Friday of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    It amazes me when I think about all that the early Church had to go through and put up with. Saint Paul writes that he put up with persecution from all sides: from his own people as well as the Gentiles. He was beaten often, endured hazardous journeys and perilous weather, as well as every kind of deprivation. His experience was definitely extreme, but others who lived the faith in those days were also subject to persecution, torture and death. Our experience isn’t quite like that, is it? I mean, here we sit in this air-conditioned church and relatively comfortable surroundings. We came here freely to Mass this morning and it is unlikely that anyone will openly persecute us or torture us or put us to death for worshipping our God, although of course, it does happen occasionally in some parts of the world.

    But there is a subtle kind of persecution that we often must endure. We know that even if our society is not openly hostile to living the Gospel, it might be just one step short of that. Life is not respected in our society: babies are aborted, the elderly are not respected or given adequate care, children are not raised in nurturing families, people are hated because of their race, color or creed. Faith is ridiculed as the crutch of the weak. Hope is crushed by those who abuse power. Love is diminished by the world’s shabby standards of loving. Living the Gospel is costly to anyone who would want to be taken seriously in our culture.

    To all of us who come to this holy place to worship this morning and who hope to work out our salvation by living the Gospel, Saint Paul speaks eloquently. We know that he, as well as all of the communion of saints, is there to intercede for us and show us the way. He says to us today, “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led to sin, and I am not indignant?” He points us to our Lord Jesus who paid the ultimate price for the Gospel, and reminds us that in living that Gospel, regardless of its cost, we store up for ourselves incredible treasures in heaven, because it is in heaven that our heart resides.