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  • Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary

    Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary

    Today's readings | Today's feast

    mary birthThe birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been celebrated since at least the sixth century. This is not a historical feast, of course, and the date was chosen to correspond to the beginning of the Church year in the Eastern Church. The date of her birth also helped to determine the date of the Immaculate Conception – on December 8, nine months prior to today.

    We don't have any historical account of the birth of Mary for several reasons. First, births were not recorded at that time very well, in fact we don't have an accurate date for the birth of Jesus. And second, no one would have known at the time of Mary's birth her significance in God's plan for salvation. But that significance does come to light prominently in the tradition that has grown up around her birth. It is said that Mary's parents, Joachim and Anne, are infertile, and they pray for a child. They receive the promise of a daughter who would be central to the salvation of the world.

    Every single birth is a sign of hope in our world, and therefore a cause for great celebration. Even though the world may be in a bad place, and dark from sin, birth brings joy because it is a sign of God's wanting the world to continue to bring salvation to all people. Mary's birth stands out prominently among us because of the grace she received from God who chose her to be mother of His Son.

    The Byzantine Church Daily Worship proclaims well the joy that we have on this feast of Mary's birth: "Today the barren Anna claps her hands for joy, the earth radiates with light, kings sing their happiness, priests enjoy every blessing, the entire universe rejoices, for she who is queen and the Father's immaculate bride buds forth from the stem of Jesse."

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

  • Holy Hour For Life

    Holy Hour For Life

    The basis for the movement to respect life, brothers and sisters, is the fifth commandment: You shall not kill (Ex 20:13). The Catechism is very specific: “Scripture specifies the prohibition contained in the fifth commandment: ‘Do not slay the innocent and the righteous.’ The deliberate murder of an innocent person is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human being, to the golden rule, and to the holiness of the Creator. The law forbidding it is universally valid: it obliges each and everyone, always and everywhere.” (CCC 2261) And that would seem simple enough, don’t you think? God said not to kill another human being, and so refraining from doing so reverences his gift of life and obeys his commandment.

    But life isn’t that simple. Life is a complex issue involving a right to life, a quality of life, a reverence for life, and a sanctity of life. Jesus himself stirs up the waters of complexity with his own take on the commandment. In Matthew’s Gospel, he tells us: “You have heard that it was said to the men of old, “You shall not kill: and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.” But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment.” (Mt 5:21-22)

    We know the issue that has brought us here this evening. Planned Parenthood has quietly been building a large clinic in Aurora, very near to us here at St. Raphael. The clinic was set for opening on the 18th of this month, although that date may change, based on news today. That a large clinic which provides abortions may open in our area is abhorrent to us; we hate to think about that kind of thing happening so close to us. But the truth is, whether it’s happening next door or two states away, it’s still wrong.

    Our bishop has called us to spend this day in prayer and penance for the cause of life. He says, “Prayer is our most powerful weapon. Pray that the Gospel of Life will take root and flourish in the seven counties that make up our diocese. Pray for all pregnant women in need, particularly those who find themselves in seemingly desperate situations. Pray for a conversion of heart in those who support and work at abortion facilities. Pray for healing of those who suffer the impact of abortion.”

    I would like to invite us all to begin that prayer by examining our own consciences. We may proclaim ourselves as exemplary witnesses to the sanctity of life because we have never murdered anyone nor participated in an abortion. And those are good starts. But if we let it stop there, then the words of Jesus that I quoted a moment ago are our condemnation. The church teaches that true respect for life revolves around faithfulness to the spirit of the fifth commandment. The Catechism tells us, “Every human life, from the moment of conception until death, is sacred because the human person has been willed for its own sake in the image and likeness of the living and holy God.” (CCC 2319)

    And so we must all ask ourselves, brothers and sisters in Christ, are there lives that we have not treated as sacred? Have we harbored anger in our hearts against our brothers and sisters? What have we done to fight poverty, hunger and homelessness? Have we insisted that those who govern us treat war as morally repugnant, only to be used in the most severe cases and as a last resort? Have we engaged in stereotypes or harbored thoughts based on racism and prejudice? Have we insisted that legislators ban the production of human fetuses to be used as biological material? Have we been horrified that a nation with our resources still regularly executes its citizens in a futile effort to stop the spread of crime? Have we done everything in our power to be certain that no young woman should ever have to think of abortion as her only choice when facing hard times? Have we given adequate care to elder members of our family and our society so that they would not face their final days in loneliness, nor come to an early death for the sake of convenience? Have we avoided scandal so as to prevent others from being led to evil? Have we earnestly petitioned our legislators to make adequate health care available for all people?

    Because every one of these issues is a life issue, brothers and sisters, and we who would be known to be respecters of life are on for every single one of them, bar none. The Church’s teaching on the right to life is not something that we can approach like we’re in a cafeteria. We must accept and reverence and live the whole of the teaching, or be held liable for every breach of it. If we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem. On this day of prayer for the sanctity of life, our prayer must perhaps be first for ourselves that we might live the Church’s teaching with absolute integrity in every moment of our lives.

    Our God has known us and formed us from our mother’s womb, from that very first moment of conception. Our God will be with us and will sustain us until our dying breath. In life and in death, we belong to the Lord … Every part of our lives belongs to the Lord. Whether that clinic in Aurora opens or whether it doesn’t, our call is the same. We must constantly and consistently bear witness to the sanctity of life at every stage. We must be people who lead the world to a whole new reality, in the presence of the One who has made all things new.

    Bishop Sartain ended his beautiful letter with these stirring words. I can think of none better to send us forth as witnesses to life. “May we never tire of proclaiming the dignity and worth of every human life. May we never tire of serving the vulnerable and their caregivers with generous hearts. And may we never cease to pray for the day when all people, and all societies, will defend the life of every human from conception to natural death.”

  • Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week of Ordinary Time

    Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    Truth is quite often really unwelcome. Those who oppose the truth will usually do whatever they can to silence it. That has always been so, and perhaps it always will be so. The ancient Israelites were often guilty of murdering the prophets, because the truth that the prophets proclaimed was too difficult for them to live. In today’s Gospel the demons that possessed the poor man knew who Jesus was and what he came to proclaim. Those demons wanted no part of Jesus, in fact, they wanted him to go away. But of course, Jesus who is the way, the truth and the life will not let the man remain possessed, and the demon flees.

    But the demons that oppose the truth remain in our world. They possess people, institutions, and social systems. They attempt to cloud a respect for life by preaching the so-called truth of “choice.” They attempt to oppress whole peoples and developing nations with the so-called truth of “free trade” and capitalism. They attempt to derail justice with corruption, peace with national interests, respect for authority with a kind of false freedom of expression.

    But the truth who is Jesus will not be overcome by anything. And we do not believe that forces of darkness will ever have the last word. For the truth will overcome them like the thief in the night, and all that darkness will be put to flight in the light of truth. So may we Christians continue to sing of the Lord’s truth so that all people will continue to be amazed, just like the bystanders at the casting out of the demon. And with the Psalmist, we can rejoice that we will “see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.”

  • Labor Day

    Labor Day

    Today’s readings: Genesis 1:25-2:3, Psalm 90, 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12, Matthew 25:14-30

    5 1 joseph worker2The US Catholic Bishop’s Labor Day Statement reminds us that “Labor Day is a holiday with an important, but sometimes forgotten purpose. It was established in New York in 1882 as a day to honor work and workers and also a time to celebrate the contributions of the American Labor Movement. For too many, Labor Day has become just another day off or a time to buy school supplies, rather than a day to honor the hard work of school teachers, janitors, cafeteria workers, and others. Unfortunately, it often takes a horrible mining disaster or a terrible attack like 9/11 to remind us of the everyday heroism and hard work of people who still labor under the earth, who go into burning buildings, or who contribute to the common good by their everyday work and enterprise.”

    Today we celebrate the grace of human labor. Labor has always been central to the Church’s teaching on the meaning of life. We were created to be workers, sent forth to “be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth.” God never envisioned his creatures to be passive and just soak up the atmosphere. We were created for a purpose, and it is the great project of our lives to figure out that purpose and embrace it.

    Created by God, we have also been gifted by God, given talents of many varieties. Those talents and gifts are never given to us just for ourselves. We cannot bury them in a hole, but must instead reinvest them in the kingdom of God to bring honor and glory to God’s name. All of our work is intended this way, so that our own labors are a participation in the ongoing creation of the world, a participation in the mission that God has entrusted to his creatures.

    It is this divine origin of human labor that has led the Church to teach tirelessly about the dignity and rights of workers. Among the many teaching of the Church on this topic, we are reminded that:

    • The economy exists for the person, not the person for the economy.
    • A fundamental moral measure of any economy is how the poor and vulnerable are faring.
    • All people have a right to life and to secure the basic necessities of life (e.g. food, clothing, shelter, education, health care, safe environment, economic security).
    • All people have the right to economic initiative, to productive work, to just wages and benefit, to decent working conditions, as well as to organize and join union or other associations.

    So we don’t have permission to write off human labor as some kind of necessary evil or a commodity to be bought and sold. We must instead venerate all labor, that of our own efforts and of others. We must also vigorously defend the rights and dignity of workers, particularly of the poor and marginalized. And we must always offer all of this back to our God who created us to be creators with him. May we pray with the Psalmist this day and every day, “Lord give success to the work of our hands!”

  • Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time

    Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    There are two distinct experiences of God expressed in today’s readings. On the one had, there is that experience of God that is totally fearful: that God is too awesome to behold and no one can look upon him and live. That was generally the experience of God that the ancient Israelites had. If we think about it, many of us have or have had this same kind of experience as well. We may have grown up with this image of God as a policeman or dictator who watches over our every move and punishes us for all of our iniquities.

    The author of the letter to the Hebrews, though, says that there is another experience of God. This experience is of God who is glorious and loving, and calls us to worship him in festive assembly. This is the experience of God brought about by the new creation: Jesus having fulfilled the Paschal Mystery now makes it possible for us to approach our God without so much fear and trembling, but rather with joy that comes from our salvation.

    Now just as an aside, I would want to mention that these two experiences of God are not necessarily mutually exclusive, unless we ourselves make them that way. Because we have to be very careful to remember that God is still awesome and incomprehensible, and the experience of gazing on his face may still be quite frightening. But because of the salvation we have in Christ, that fear can be overcome and we can rejoice in our awesome God.

    But now let’s look at that experience of God of which our second reading speaks. Listen again to what is proclaimed to the Hebrews:

    You have approached Mount Zion
    and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
    and countless angels in festal gathering,
    and the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven,
    and God the judge of all,
    and the spirits of the just made perfect,
    and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant,
    and the sprinkled blood that speaks more eloquently than that of Abel.

    What we have here is a vision of the heavenly worship. We are all gathered in the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. And gathered there are the angels, the saints, the purified souls of the faithful departed, God who is the judge of all and Jesus who makes possible our salvation. But it’s not just who is there, it’s the way they are there. The angels are in festal gathering, the firstborn are enrolled in heaven, the just are made perfect. This is the story of the Communion of Saints, brothers and sisters, and it is our hope.

    Because if this is the image of the heavenly worship, and if that worship centers around Jesus whose sprinkled blood speaks more eloquently than that of Abel, then we who receive his precious body and blood in the Eucharist can hope to join that heavenly worship in the life to come. There all of our defects will be made clean and all of our brokenness will become whole. Our imperfect worship here on earth will be purified and made glorious with all God’s holy ones.

    As we come to the Eucharist today, that table of the Lord to which has been invited all the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind, we must remember with great humility that our God is awesome and beyond us and fearsome, but also gentle, and with us and our salvation. May we receive his precious body and sprinkled blood which gives us life forever, knowing that our worship is practice for that great day when we can finally join the heavenly worship with all the angels and saints, all the firstborn enrolled in heaven, and all the just made perfect. Because the heavenly worship space is the home that, as our Psalmist says today, God in his goodness has made for all of us who are poor.

  • Saturday of the Twenty-first Week of Ordinary Time

    Saturday of the Twenty-first Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    I don’t know if you’ve noticed it, but the last few days in the Gospel readings, there’s been a lot of wailing and grinding of teeth. This section of Matthew’s Gospel spells out the urgency of the call to discipleship and the nearness of the Kingdom of God. Today’s reading is no exception.

    When some people have been encouraged to take on a new ministry or share their gifts in some way, very often they will say, “Oh, I could never do that.” Today Jesus says that kind of thinking isn’t kingdom thinking. What today’s reading tells us is that there is no such thing as a “little gift.” We are all called and gifted in some unique way, and we must praise God with that gift no matter what the gift is and no matter how insignificant it may seem.

    So whether we have a gift that looks like ten talents, or five, or even one, the call is still the same. No matter how awesome the giver may be, fear of failure can never be an excuse to bury our talent in a hole in the ground. Every single talent must be reinvested in the kingdom, so that we can come together and bring forth a harvest of justice and peace and life and beauty. Because, who needs wailing and grinding of teeth?

  • Thursday of the Twenty-first Week of Ordinary Time

    Thursday of the Twenty-first Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    When I was little, I often remember my grandmother saying “thank God for small favors!” Now that’s a holy and pious thought, and I’ll have you know my grandmother was certainly holy and pious. But when she said it, it was usually because someone had just done the least they could possibly do, or something they should have done long ago. So the sense of the saying was more like, “could you spare it?” or “well, finally!” Still, I love that phrase, “thank God for small favors” because it reminds us that everything, no matter how big or small, is God’s gift to us, and we should be grateful for it.

    One of the most important marks of the Christian disciple is thankfulness. St. Paul was a man of thanksgiving, and we see that theme often in his letters. He may berate his communities when they were missing the point, but he would always also praise them for their goodness, and see that as an opportunity to thank God for giving the community grace. Today, it’s the Thessalonians he is grateful for. He praises them for their great faith and then says, “What thanksgiving, then, can we render to God for you, for all the joy we feel on your account before our God?” Because it’s always God at work in the believer and never the believer all on his or her own. It’s grace, and we are thankful for grace.

    God continues to work his grace in our community as well. We are a community of faith, and we see that faith in action in the many ministries of the parish. But even more than that, we see that faith in action in our workplaces, communities, schools and homes. There is never a time when we are not disciples. We are grateful for God’s grace working in and through us in every situation. The word “Eucharist” means thanksgiving, and so the heart of even the most basic and solemn parts of our worship is thanksgiving. We are thankful for all favors, big and small!

  • Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist

    Martyrdom of St. John the Baptist

    Todays’ readings

    baptistBeheadedWhenever you hear the stories of the saints, if you can’t read between the lives that they are always and everywhere pointing to Christ, then you’re missing the point. That’s a general rule of thumb when it comes to studying the saints, which by the way, is a very praiseworthy endeavor. One of the very best illustrations of that rule of thumb is the life of St. John the Baptist. Of course, it’s easier to see that in him, because he’s prominently mentioned in the Gospels.

    St. John the Baptist bore the marks of all the prophets that came before him. He was called from his mother’s womb. We see that in the stories of the Annunciation and the Visitation. He called for repentance – a complete change of heart and mind. We see that in the baptism that he made available, a baptism that even Christ himself received. His words were sometimes unwelcome. We see that in the Gospel story this morning. And finally he was murdered in reaction to his ministry. All of the prophets before him had those same marks, and most of them ended in the same way.

    But through it all, he pointed the way to Christ. In the Gospel of John, we read:

    “So they came to John and said to him, ‘Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing and everyone is coming to him.’ John answered and said, ‘No one can receive anything except what has been given him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said [that] I am not the Messiah, but that I was sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease’” (John 3:26-30).

    John’s life and death were a giving over of self for God and other people. His simple style of life was one of complete detachment from earthly possessions. His heart was centered on God and the call that he heard from the Spirit of God speaking to his heart. Confident of God’s grace, he had the courage to speak words of condemnation or repentance, of salvation. Everything that he did and everything that he was pointed to Christ.

  • Twenty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time

    Twenty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time

    Today’s Readings

    “Strive to enter through the narrow gate,
    for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter
    but will not be strong enough.”

    Those are kind of chilling words, in a way. We’ve been so conditioned to think that the spiritual life has to be easy. We are a society that has no patience for anything that requires a lot of work or effort. We have this sense of entitlement that eschews anything that makes demands of us. It’s no wonder that our society in general can often be so spiritually shallow, no wonder that we are caught up in consumerism, no wonder that people have little respect for one another. Because if the spiritual life is going to require work, then many people say they’re just not going to do it. That’s why so many people have left the Church. They might say there are other reasons, and for some people there genuinely are other reasons, but for many people, it’s just not worth the effort to get up on Sunday and come to Church.

    To all of us who are tainted by spiritual laziness once in a while, or even very often, Jesus says today, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.” It’s going to take some work, maybe even a lot of work, but if we have decided that eternal life with God our creator is worth it, then we will do what it takes. And it’s not enough to just say, “I’m okay because I believe in Jesus.” Some Churches teach that’s all it takes. But that’s not Biblical, and today’s Gospel is all the evidence for that that we need.

    I was thinking about this yesterday when I was at the Cathedral in Joliet for Deacon Tom Marciani’s Ordination. As part of that rite, the bishop hands the newly-ordained deacon the Book of the Gospels and says, “Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you now are. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.” I remember that very well from my own Ordination as Deacon a couple of years ago, and I was thinking that part of that instruction really applies to all of us. Because we are all called upon to believe what we read, teach what we believe, and practice what we teach.

    We are called to believe what we read because the Word of God is Truth. We might all be interested in what’s on the news, or what Oprah and Dr. Phil are saying, but none of that is Truth with a capital “T”. No, the only real Truth, the only Truth that matters is the Truth that comes from God who is Truth itself. That Truth is revealed in the person of Jesus Christ and in the writings of Holy Scripture. Other information we get on a daily basis might be more or less true, but the Word of God is Truth. We are called upon to believe it and live it.

    We are then called to teach what we believe because if there is just one source of Truth with a capital “T” then we need to make sure everyone knows about it. What good is Truth if everyone is believing something else? And before you object that you’re not a teacher, forget it. Every one of us is a teacher in some way. We might be called to teach in a classroom, but not everyone can do that. We might instead be called to teach in our workplaces by being people of integrity. We might be called to teach our children by living lives of faith and passing that faith on to them in word and action. We might be called to teach the world by participating in acts of justice and charity. We must all teach the Truth, because the Truth is worthy of so much more than being hidden by believers.

    Finally, we have to practice what we teach. Because it’s not enough just to believe and teach. Authenticity in believing and teaching comes in our living. If we are people of faith, then we have to live that faith by reaching out to those in need. If we are people of Truth, then we have to stand up for that Truth by our integrity of life and our passion for justice.

    All of this requires commitment and effort and real work from all of us. We have to strive to enter through that narrow gate, because we don’t want to ever hear those bone-chilling words from today’s Gospel, “I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, you evildoers!” God forbid.

  • Saturday of the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time

    Saturday of the Twentieth Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    You may often have heard me speak of one of my favorite spiritual principles, and that is: “it’s not about me.” Today, we have two wonderful Scriptural examples of that very principle. First we have Ruth, a foreigner, who came to the aid of her mother-in-law Naomi in her time of need. Naomi had no heir, and her son, Ruth’s husband, had died. This left both of them in a very precarious position. Neither of them had a male figure to afford them any legal status in that society. But Ruth takes care of Naomi anyway, offering to glean ears of grain so that they’ll have something to eat. She didn’t have to do that, she could have left her mother-in-law high and dry, but she didn’t.

    Boaz, too, didn’t have to be so welcoming to Ruth. It was expected in Jewish law that after the harvest, whatever was left on the stalks was to be left for the poor. But he didn’t have to provide her with water, and see that the men didn’t take advantage of her. But he did.

    All of this prefigures what Jesus was telling the people about the Pharisees in today’s Gospel. These Pharisees did everything to be seen, because it was all about them.. They had the law, so they were teaching the right things, but not for the right reasons. Do what they say, Jesus tells them, and not what they do. Because it’s not about us.