Caritas Christi Urget Nos

Tag: God’s faithfulness

  • The Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

    The Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    I really think one of the greatest obstacles to progress in our spiritual lives is the thought that we have to do everything ourselves. That we have to be trained and recognized and that whatever it is that has to be done has to be done by us. After all, we are good enough, aren’t we? So why should we ask for help?

    I think you can see where I’m going to go with this. But this leads to one or both of two things. First, if whatever it is does work out, it’s all about me. Aren’t I wonderful? Aren’t I great? Did you see what I did? But second, if it does not work out, it can make us think we aren’t good enough, we are a failure, and send us into frustration and depression and all sorts of bad behavior.

    Very often, this kind of thinking it’s all on us and all about us makes us shy away from doing something we are called to do. How can I do something like that? I’m not good enough to accomplish that. Someone, anyone else is more qualified to do that than I am.

    Look at the apostles. What a rag tag bunch they were. Who would ever have thought they were good enough to come together and do anything, let alone foster a fledgling Church and proclaim a new Gospel that a lot of people couldn’t bear to hear? Yet, Jesus knew them best, of course, and he saw the men he created for that very moment to do that very important task. And then, because they didn’t know everything and weren’t qualified to accomplish the task ahead of them, he gave them what they needed in pouring out the Holy Spirit on them.

    It’s so clear in today’s Gospel reading: “He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick—no food, no sack, no money in their belts.” Because if they have everything they need, then they don’t need Jesus, they don’t need the Holy Spirit. So by going without, they have more than they could hope for. By being unqualified, they accomplish great things. Jesus makes it very clear today that that is the life of the disciple.

    And that includes you and me, friends. We aren’t qualified to do all the things we are asked to do, and we don’t have everything we need. I remember when Bishop Conlon called me to tell me he wanted me to come here to Saint Mary’s. I was very aware that I didn’t have what I needed to be the pastor of such a large parish. But as I prayed about it, God reminded me that it wasn’t about me at all, and that he would give me what I need.

    And he has been so faithful to that! Every single day, I am almost overwhelmed by how much of a blessing it was for me to come here. I look around at our marvelous volunteers, and I know I don’t deserve how wonderful they are to me. I meet you all as you come out of Mass, and I think how blessed I am that you took time out of your day to come pray and worship with me. I have what I need to be the pastor of this place because God knows what I need far better than I do, and he is faithful to giving me all that and more.

    So I offer that to you today. Wherever you need to go in your life, whatever you are being called to do, put it in the hands of Jesus and follow that path. Trust that he will give you more than just some food, a sack, and money in your belts. Trust that he will give you everything you need and more, and trust that then you will be truly happy. Who knows what amazing deeds God has planned to do in us and through us, if we just trust in his faithfulness!

  • 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.

  • Liturgy of Remembrance: Plainfield Tornado

    Liturgy of Remembrance: Plainfield Tornado

    Today’s readings: 2 Corinthians 4:14-5:1 | Psalm 23 | Mark 4:35-41

    It’s easy to understand how the disciples on the boat were worried, even panicking.  They’re in a boat, in the middle of the sea, and it’s a dark night, and a storm whips up, and their beloved leader is sleeping.  One wonders how he could sleep so soundly in the midst of the storm!  

    Our life is full of storms.  Some of them are minor things, but others have a lasting impact.  Some of them merely give rain to the fields, some of them bring destruction.  In our area, this was never more evident than thirty years ago this afternoon, when an F-5 tornado tore through sections of our area, destroying the high school one day before it was to be filled with students on their first day of school, and, of course, destroying Saint Mary Immaculate Church, taking the lives of 29 people, and injuring many others.

    I wasn’t living in Plainfield at the time, but I remember hearing about it because one of my good friends, Paul Sirvatka, chased the tornado, and had video of the beginning of the storm.  Hearing the news that day was surreal; nothing that devastating had ever happened in our area before, and the tales of the destruction were heartbreaking.  

    So many storms, of various types, have happened since, including this year.  We are still living with the very destructive storm of COVID-19, and with the storms of social unrest caused by more and more reports of racial injustice.  And, of course, we can’t forget the much smaller, F-1 tornado, that was part of the “Derecho” storm a couple of weeks ago.  We could also add the storms of our own lives: the illness and death of loved ones, employment insecurity, family troubles.  It seems like there’s almost always a storm or two brewing in the atmosphere of our lives.

    In all these storms, it’s human nature to ask whys our loving God allow such destruction?  We will never know the answer to that fully because we can’t see the big picture that God sees.  But we believe that our faithful Lord is with us in the storm.  Whatever it is that is pounding against our boat is no match for our God who is with us in whatever way He knows is best for us.  It doesn’t mean he’s going to wave a magic wand and make all of our troubles go away, but it does mean that we don’t ever have to go through anything alone.

    Several years ago, there was a contemporary Christian song called “Sometimes He Calms the Storm” and the lyrics of the song have given me peace in my stormy times.  Here are some of them:

    Sometimes He calms the storm
    With a whispered peace be still
    He can settle any sea
    But it doesn’t mean He will

    Sometimes He holds us close
    And lets the wind and waves go wild
    Sometimes He calms the storm
    And other times He calms His child.

    We don’t know, any more than those disciples did, why the storms in our life come up.  They may be remnants of the evil unleashed by original sin, or even the direct sin of people.  Sometimes God prevents them from harming us; other times he prevents us from something that would have been more harmful.  But whatever happens, we are never alone, and our God is there to be with us, steadying us, guiding us, giving us the grace to get through it and be of help to others, with strength we never knew we had.Whether the storm needs to hear it, or we do, Jesus says in the midst of it all: “Quiet! Be still.”  Sometimes he calms the storm, and other times he calms His child.  

  • The Easter Vigil in the Holy Night of Easter

    The Easter Vigil in the Holy Night of Easter

    Today’s readings

    “You shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:28).  I love that last line from the last of the Old Testament readings we heard tonight.  There is a covenant, there has always been a covenant, there always will be a covenant. God created us in love, and he loves us first and best.  No matter where we may wander; no matter how far from the covenant wemay stray, God still keeps it, forever.  We will always be his people and he will always be our God.  If I had to pick a line that sums up what we’re here for tonight, what we’ve been here for these last 40 days of Lent, that would be it.

    Over the past couple of days, as we have observed this Sacred Paschal Triduum, which comes to its denouement tonight in this Vigil of vigils, we have been on a journey to the Cross. We get that direction from Holy Mother Church, as She sets the tone for this Triduum in the lines of the Entrance Antiphon, which we heard way back on Holy Thursday Evening.  That antiphon was this:

    We should glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,


    in whom is our salvation, life and resurrection,


    through whom we are saved and delivered.

    It might seem a little odd to reflect on the Cross – triumph or not – on this holy night.  I mean, surely we’ve moved on, haven’t we? We came here for resurrection and want to get on with our lives.  Just like we tend to rush through our grieving of loved ones – to our own psychological and spiritual peril, by the way – so too we want to rush through our Lent and particularly our Good Friday and Holy Saturday, so that we can eat our Peeps and chocolate bunnies and call it a day.

    But we disciples dare not let it be so.  Because certainly we know how we got here to this moment.  We know that we would never get an Easter Sunday without a Good Friday, that we can’t have resurrection if there hasn’t been death, that we there isn’t any salvation if there hasn’t been a sacrifice.

    And there sure was a sacrifice.  Our Lord suffered a brutal, ugly death between two hardened criminals, taking the place of a revolutionary.  He was beaten, humiliated, mistreated and nails were pounded into his flesh, that flesh that he borrowed from us, through the glorious fiat of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  He hung in agony for three hours and finally, when all was finished, he cried out in anguish and handed over his spirit.  Placed in the tomb, he descended into hell.  Collecting the souls of the blessed ones of old, he waited while earth mourned and disciples scattered and everyone wondered what happened to this Christ, this Anointed One, this One who was supposed to be their Messiah.

    And then came the morning.  The Sabbath was over, and the sun was rising in the east on the first day of the week, and the women came with spices to prepare their Lord for burial.  But they couldn’t: he has been raised!  He is not here!  Our Lord is risen and death is defeated!  The menacing, ugly Cross has become the altar of salvation!  The Cross, that instrument of horror, has triumphed over every darkness thrown at it, and we can– and we should – do no less than praise our God with all the joy the Church can muster!

    We have journeyed with our Jesus for three days now.  We ate with him, we prayed through the night with him, some of us at seven churches.  We saw him walk the way of the Cross and tearfully recalled his crucifixion.  We reverenced the Cross, joining our own crosses to his.  Now we’ve stayed up all night and shared the stories of our salvation, with eager excitement at the ways God has kept that covenant through the ages.  A roaring fire shattered the darkness, and a candle was lit to mingle with the lights of heaven.  Then grace had its defining moment as Christ shattered the prison-bars of death and rose triumphant from the underworld.

    It’s so important that we enter into Lent and the Triduum every year.  Not just because we need to be called back from our sinfulness to the path of life – yes, there is that, but it’s not primary here.  What is so important is that we see that the Cross is our path too.  In this life we will have trouble: our Savior promises us that.  But the Cross is what sees him overcome the world and all the suffering it brings us.  We will indeed suffer in this life, but thanks be to God, if we join ourselves to him, if we take up our own crosses with faithfulness, then we can merit a share in our Lord’s resurrection, that reality that fulfills all of the salvation history that we’ve heard in tonight’s readings.

    Our birth would have meant nothing had we not been redeemed.  If we were born only to live and die for this short span of time, how horrible that would have been.  But thanks be to God, the sin of Adam was destroyed completely by the death of Christ! The Cross has triumphed and we are made new!  Dazzling is this night for us, and full of gladness!  Because our Lord is risen, our hope of eternity has dawned, and there is no darkness which can blot it out.  We will always be God’s people, and he will always be our God!

    And so, with great joy on this most holy night, in this, the Mother of all Vigils, we rightfully celebrate the sacrament of holy Baptism.  Our Elect will shortly become members of the Body of Christ through this sacrament which washes away their sins.  Then they will be confirmed in the Holy Spirit and fed, for the first time, on the Body and Blood of our Saving Lord.  It’s a wonderful night for them, but also for us, as we renew ourselves in our baptismal promises, and receive our Lord yet again, to be strengthened in our vocation as disciples.

    We should glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,


    in whom is our salvation, life and resurrection,


    through whom we are saved and delivered.

    We are and always will be God’s people.  God has made new his glorious covenant through the resurrection of our Christ.  And so, having come through this hour to be sanctified in this vigil, we will shortly be sent forth to help sanctify our own time and place.  Brightened by this beautiful vigil, we now become a flame to light up our darkened world.  That is our ministry in the world.  That is our call as believers.  That is our vocation as disciples.  “May this flame be found still burning by the Morning Star. The one Morning Star who never sets, Christ your Son, who coming back from death’s domain, has shed his peaceful light on humanity, and lives and reigns forever and ever.  Amen.”

    Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

  • Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time

    Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    The prophet Micah, in our first reading, proclaims the whole reason for our being here this morning.  What is incredible about our God is his limitless compassion, his relentless pursuit of a people who often spurn him, his steadfast faithfulness and consistent, unconditional, unending, unmerited love for all of us.  He actually delights, Micah tells us, in compassion and clemency, abandoning his righteous anger in favor of restoring us to life.

    This is a God unlike any of the so-called gods of old.  Our God is the one who chooses to forget his anger, and instead grant unmerited clemency – clemency that is given before it is even requested.  He knows our sinfulness, yet chooses to cast those sins into the depths of the sea rather than remember them and dwell on them.  He shows faithfulness to Jacob and grace to Abraham, not because we have kept the covenant, but because his faithfulness will not allow him to abandon those he has covenanted to love.

    The Psalmist sings our God’s praises well today, reflecting on the unmerited grace we have received:

    You have favored, O LORD, your land;
    you have brought back the captives of Jacob.
    You have forgiven the guilt of your people;
    you have covered all their sins.
    You have withdrawn all your wrath;
    you have revoked your burning anger.

    Friends, this is the grace that gets us out of bed in the morning.  No matter how we have turned away, our God will not turn away from us.  No matter the darkness of our sin, our God will not refuse to bathe them in light.  God’s wrath could indeed be devastating, but our God chooses to forget his rage as he forgets our sins, and instead brings us back to life.

    “Who is there like you?” Micah asks.  No one.  And that’s what brings us to celebrate this morning.

  • Monday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time

    Monday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    I love the words of the Psalmist today: “The Lord is gracious and merciful.”

    These are words that are easy for us to pray when things are going well, but maybe not so much when we’re going through rough times.  It seems like the psalmist is going through some very good times, but we have no way of knowing that.  The only key to the great hymn of praise the psalmist is singing is that he is reflecting on the wonder of creation and the mighty deeds God does in the world.  The psalmist sees wonders not just in his own place but everywhere.  He says, “The LORD is good to all and compassionate toward all his works.”  Every part of creation has been blessed by God’s goodness.  Because of this, God is to be praised not just now, but “forever and ever” and by “generation after generation.”

    This fits in very nicely with Hosea’s prophecy in our first reading today.  Preaching to the Israelites in exile, he proclaims that God will change the relationship between Israel and the Lord.  That new relationship would be a spousal relationship between God and his people, in which the spouses are partners in the ongoing work of creation.  God will give Israel the ability to be faithful to God, and for His part, God will remember His faithfulness forever.  God’s great mercy and compassion are seen with abundance in the Gospel reading.  Jesus rewards the faithfulness of Jairus and the woman with the hemorrhage with miraculous healings.  Key to all of these wonderful events, in all three readings, is that God who has created us is committed to re-creating us in His love and faithfulness.

    So as we approach the Eucharist today and reflect on all the mighty and wonderful things God does in our midst, may we too sing the Psalmist’s song.  May we all praise God’s name forever and ever, and proclaim his might to generation after generation.

  • Monday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time

    Monday of the Fourteenth Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    I love the words of the Psalmist today: “The Lord is gracious and merciful.”

    These are words that are easy for us to pray when things are going well, but maybe not so much when we’re going through rough times.  At first glance today, it seems like the psalmist is going through some very good times indeed.  But we have no way of knowing that.  The only key to the great hymn of praise the psalmist is singing is that he is reflecting on the wonder of creation and the mighty deeds God does in the world.  Indeed, the psalmist sees wonders not just in his own place but everywhere.  He says, “The LORD is good to all and compassionate toward all his works.  Every part of creation has been blessed by God’s goodness.  Because of this, God is to be praised not just now, but “forever and ever” and by “generation after generation.”

    This fits in very nicely with Hosea’s prophecy in our first reading today.  Preaching to the Israelites in exile, he proclaims that God will change the relationship between Israel and the Lord, much as one would change the relationship with a fiancé when the two are married.  God will give Israel the ability to be faithful to God, and for His part, God will remember His faithfulness forever.  God’s great mercy and compassion are seen in the Gospel reading, which is Matthew’s version of the story we had from Mark a week ago Sunday.  Jesus rewards the faithfulness of Jairus and the woman with the hemorrhage with miraculous healings.  Key to all of these wonderful events, in all three readings, is that God who has created us is committed to re-creating us in His love and faithfulness.

    So as we approach the Eucharist today and reflect on all the mighty and wonderful things God does in our midst, may we too sing the Psalmist’s song.  May we all praise God’s name forever and ever, and proclaim his might to generation after generation.

  • Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time

    Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    The prophet Micah, in our first reading, proclaims the whole reason for our being here this morning.  What is incredible about our God is his limitless compassion, his relentless pursuit of a people who often spurn him, his steadfast faithfulness and consistent, unconditional, unending, unmerited love for all of us.  He actually delights, Micah tells us, in compassion and clemency, abandoning his righteous anger in favor of restoring us to life.  “Who is there like you?” the prophet asks.  No one.  And that’s what brings us to celebrate this morning.