Homily for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

As Catholics, we hear a lot about prayer. When someone is going through a difficult period in their lives, we might say something like, “I'll pray for you”. Every week, we gather to pray the ultimate prayer, Holy Mass. Sometimes we even have a prayer before and after our meals. While we might talk about prayer, there many who may not understand exactly what prayer is and why it's so important.

To give the simplest definition, prayer is opening our hearts to God and asking for good things from Him. When we pray, we express our desire to be in union with Him, and to do His will. Likewise,through prayer we approach Him with humility and ask what we need in our daily lives. In short, prayer is joining ourselves completely with the Triune God and His will.

Sadly, there are many Catholics who might talk about praying, but rarely, if ever, enter into prayer. Often, this may be caused by not knowing how to pray, or what to say or do when praying. Others may not realize how important prayer is to living a Christian life. For many, prayer only comes easily when facing a difficulty in their lives.

For those who don't know how to pray, it's important to realize that prayer does not need to be difficult or complex. In fact, Bartimaeus in today's Gospel passage is held up as an example of how to pray. He didn't enter into a grand discourse, using lots of words and actions, praising Jesus and asking for healing. Instead, he simply called out repeatedly, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.”

This prayer of Bartimaeus is considered one of the simplest and most powerful prayers that we have. The Jesus prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” is one that can be said repeatedly throughout the day. Another, even simpler variation is to simply pray the name of Jesus repeatedly under your breath as you go about performing the tasks of your daily life.

This is an important aspect of any prayer. Prayer is not something that we do once in a while when we feel we need to pray, or only once a day. Because prayer is a desire for union with God, all Christians must be entering into prayer on a continual basis, not just priests and religious. We must constantly be finding opportunities for prayer. This is why the Jesus prayer is so powerful. It takes little time and very little concentration to silently repeat the name of Jesus. Even the longer form, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” takes just a few seconds to say on a regular basis. Of course, there are many other prayers that can be used as well, such as repeating “Jesus, I trust in you” from the Divine Mercy image. Longer prayers, like the Rosary or Divine Mercy Chaplet, are also very beneficial.

Bartimaeus shows us the necessity for persisting in prayer. He didn't shout once, and give up. He kept repeating his request even while the crowd was telling him to be silent. He kept pleading for Jesus to grant his request even when he probably thought Our Lord might go by without stopping. Bartimaeus was persistent in his prayer, and Jesus granted his petition.

We too must persist in our prayer. This can be difficult, as the crowds around us might consider a prayerful life as foolish. Persistence in prayer can wane when we allow ourselves to become discouraged during those times that our prayers might not seem to be heard, much less receive an answer from God. Ironically, the most difficult time for perseverance in prayer is when our lives are going well and we can spend our time praising God for the good things we have, yet it is just as important to persist in praying during those times of our lives. Prayer is something that should be a joy during our good times, and a support during our lows.

May we be able to pray together the words of Bartimaeus, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Homily for the Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

I don't know too many people who like to suffer. There probably aren't many people who enjoy being crushed “in infirmity”, using the prophet Isaiah's words. In fact, most of us are like the Apostles James and John, who asked Our Lord to seat them in the positions of highest power, authority, and honor within His Kingdom. Given the choice between glory and suffering, we'll all take glory every time.

In the Gospel today, Jesus flips conventional wisdom on its head. This event we just heard occurred during Our Lord's earthly ministry, long before He is to face His sacrificial death on the cross, and is a foreshadowing of how He will offer His life. To receive the glory, Our Lord tells the Apostles, you have to go through suffering. After all, what cup and what baptism is He talking about? The cup is the cup of suffering that He drinks from during His Passion, and the baptism is the baptism that He receives by the shedding of His Blood during His death on the Cross. Jesus is telling the Apostles that if they want to enter into glory in His kingdom, they need to be willing to suffer as He will suffer, and give their lives as He will give His life.

This had to be difficult for the Apostles to hear, just as it is difficult for us to hear. The Apostles no more desired suffering than we do, yet Our Lord is teaching them that there is a spiritual value to suffering that goes far beyond what we can see in our earthly lives. I know it's hard to believe that the suffering and pain that we see every day can be beneficial for ourselves and for others, but as Christians we believe that all suffering can have a redemptive aspect. The suffering that we face every day of our lives can serve to purify us, almost like scrubbing off the impurities, and draw us closer to God.

A phrase that many Catholics are familiar with regarding redemptive suffering is “Offer it up”. Many of you may have had opportunity to remind others with this phrase throughout the years, although I've sometimes heard it be used in the sense of “I'm tired of hearing you whine. Deal with it!” Of course, that's not how we should really be looking at offering our sufferings. Instead, we should be willing to offer our daily sufferings – our pain, our sorrows, our annoyances – to be joined with Our Lord's suffering and death upon the Cross for our salvation and the salvation of the whole world.

Sometimes when dealing with extreme suffering, we might enter into despair and feel that no one can understand the pain that we're struggling with. This is not true, as the Letter to the Hebrews gives us hope that Our Lord is with us in our suffering. He understands what we are going through, as he went through some of the most extreme suffering during his Passion and Death. We are reminded that we can “confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.” (Heb 4:16)

This reminder of the redemptive aspect of suffering is one that is very important in our world today, especially here in Montana. For many, suffering is something to endured, at best, or eliminated by what ever means possible, at the worst. To overcome their suffering, people turn to alcohol, drugs – both prescription and illegal – and other addictions.

If the suffering becomes too severe, people seek to end their lives, looking to death as the ultimate end of suffering. Two states in the United States, Washington and Oregon, allow physicians to assist in committing suicide, and a judge here in Montana has ruled that physician-assisted suicide should be allowed here as well. It is currently still illegal and the ruling is under appeal, but could very easily be legalized in this state.

Physician-assisted suicide should be opposed for three reasons. First, it denies the redemptive aspect of suffering, choosing to end the sufferer's life to avoid the suffering instead of allowing it to continue for his or her good and the good of others who benefit from the example and sacrifice. Second, story after story has been coming out of Oregon in which insurance companies and the state medical plan have refused long-term treatments, offering physician-assisted suicide it their places. This can and will happen elsewhere, especially as health care reform includes the mandate to reduce costs. Third, and more importantly, through physician-assisted suicide we attempt to take over God's role as the giver of life, determining on our schedule how long one's life will last instead of following God's will for that person.

While physician-assisted suicide denies a redemptive value to suffering, we do believe that suffering does have a spiritual benefit. May we be willing to truly offer up our sacrifices for our good and the good of all humanity.

Problems with Promotion of Volunteerism?

Next week, there will be a major push through the "big 4" television networks in the United States to promote volunteerism. Gus Lloyd, host of Seize the Day on the Sirius/XM Catholic Channel, brought up some concerns regarding this program on his show this morning.

Now, being a volunteer is a good thing, a very good thing. In fact, as Catholics, we're called to volunteer our time and abilities in the service of the Church. I would dare to say that most parishes don't have enough volunteers, and are almost always in need of more people willing to volunteer. The problem that Gus Lloyd has with this program is that many of the so-called volunteer opportunities are really promotions of agendas. For example, if you search the AARP-sponsored Create the Good site for health care, one of the first links is a video on "How To Spread the Truth About Health Care Reform". No matter how important the current debate on health care is, what does it have to do with volunteering in our communities? Gus also points out that several of the volunteer opportunities in the Beverly Hills, CA, area includes volunteering for Planned Parenthood to promote their view of women's health, which always includes abortion on demand. Again, this is politicking, not volunteering.

Gus came up with a great alternative on his show. Instead of using these sites to find volunteer opportunities, find other options. Ask your parish how you can help. Volunteer some time at a crisis pregnancy center. Contact your local St. Vincent de Paul or Catholic Charities and find out what needs they have for service. There are plenty of opportunities to volunteer in a way that will promote a culture of life, not perpetuate the culture of death so common in this country.

Donation button

I've added a Paypal button to the blog. No, I'm not going to be charging for reading my homilies. They're not that good. I'm just happy when most people stay awake as I'm giving them at Mass.

The button is there in case one or two of my many readers (meaning: one or two of my 12 followers) feel generous enough to throw a couple of dollars my way. This money will only go for one purpose: purchase new, worthy vestments, such as the beautiful vestments made by Luzar Vestments in the UK, and beautiful, worthy altar vessels, such as those available from Adrian Hamers. For far too long, unsuitable and just plain ugly vestments and altar vessels have been the standard fare for many parishes. We've lost a sense of beauty in the Church, and I hope that these vestments and altar vessels can be used throughout my priesthood to bring even a small part of that sense of beauty back to the Church.

I greatly appreciate any and all donations that people are willing to give from the generosity, but know that everyone are more than welcome to continue to visit this blog and participate in the comment boxes if you are unable or unwilling to donate. This blog has been open to everyone, and will remain open to everyone until the day God calls me home or the blogging ends, which ever comes first.

Update: For those coming from Priests in Crisis, welcome! I feel kind of embarrassed that Suzanne posted this to her blog, as there are priests who need the support the Priests in Crisis blog brings far more than I do. Nevertheless, welcome once again!

The "goal" of $12,000 that Suzanne mentions came from a Plurk posting which led to this post. It's a rough number, and I may have to come up with an actual goal to work towards.

Homily for the Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

We have some very strong, even disturbing, imagery in the readings today. Our Lord commands us to remove body parts that cause us to sin. St. James compares the rich with animals that have been fattened up for the slaughter. These intense images are given to us today to demonstrate the danger of falling into sin or leading others into sin, and how sin separates us from the Body of Christ.

This is a message we need to hear today. When you look at the popular culture, it's clear that we have lost a sense of sin. Someone's sinful actions are excused if no one is perceived to have been hurt by those sins or if there is “consent” to the actions. Some sins are not only tolerated, but encouraged and promoted. The only sins that are publicly scorned are those which can be used to drag a political opponent through the mud. In fact, the only real sin, in the eyes of the popular culture, is daring to challenge someone's actions as sinful.

Contrary to what the popular culture might say, we are still a sinful people in need of redemption and forgiveness. Sadly, because the culture glorifies much which is sinful, we have forgotten what sin is and why it's so dangerous. Even Catholics, long ridiculed for so-called “Catholic guilt” over real or imagined sins, have all but neglected the Sacrament of Confession. There is a real need in the world today to restore an understanding of sin.

We can begin this restoration by defining sin. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity.” (CCC 1849) To put this definition much more simply, sin is putting ourselves and the gifts which we have been given by God over God Himself and those around us. Sin is the opposite of love, and where sin exists, truly self-giving love cannot exist.

With this definition, I hope we can begin to see why Our Lord used such strong imagery in the Gospel passage today. Jesus compared living a sinful life to being thrown into Gehenna, a garbage dump outside of Jerusalem where fires perpetually burned. Due to the strict ritual purity laws in Judaism, Gehenna was considered the place that was the most unclean, and casting someone's body there would have been the strongest condemnation of that person, forever cutting him off from the rest of the Jews.

Spiritually, sin has much the same result. When we sin, we cut ourselves off from God and the Body of Christ. As I said before, sin is the opposite of love. In fact, sin is a turning inward on ourselves to the exclusion of others, even God Himself. We become fixated on our needs, desires, wants, and possessions. Other people become either objects to be used, or obstacles that prevent us from doing what we desire. This focus on ourselves is so strong that we are even willing to give up the eternal life promised to us by Our Lord.

If we truly understood the danger of sin, we would act immediately to separate ourselves from those things that regularly lead us to sin. These occasions of sin are things and situations in our lives which are dangers to our moral lives, leading us to perform sinful actions. Much as we try to avoid those things and situations that could cause us to be hurt or killed, we should make every effort to avoid the occasions of sin that we encounter on a daily basis. This is what Our Lord means when he says to cut off your hand or foot, or pluck out your eye if it causes you to sin. It is better in this life to give up some things that lead us to sin and gain eternal life in the next.

Sin is a reality in the world. It hurts us and hurts those around us. May we have a greater awareness of our sinful nature, seek to avoid sin, and ask forgiveness for those sins we have committed.

Homily for the Twenty-Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Edit: Added a recording from the 11:30 AM Mass



When you look at the popular media, such as the TV or newspapers, who do they hold up as the most important in the United States today? Is it President Obama or members of Congress? How about the elected officials in the states' governments? Perhaps it's actors, musicians, and other celebrities? In our country today, those who have worldly wealth, power, fame or any combination of the three are held up as the most important and influential people.

Now, let's look at the Gospel passage for today. Who does Jesus say are the most important people? He tells us, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.” Our Lord takes worldly wisdom, so common in His time as it is today, and turns it on its head. Instead of tying importance to fame, power, or wealth, He challenges us to be servants of all.

Unfortunately, this desire to link power with importance also exists within the Church. If you asked random people who they thought were the most important people in the Church, they would probably go down the hierarchy: the Pope, the bishops, the priests. They might not mention Mother Teresa and the religious order she founded, the Missionaries of Charity. The sisters who belong to this order spend their lives serving and caring for the poorest of the poor. Mother Teresa herself spent much of her life in service to the poorest in India. The great majority of her days were spent feeding, clothing, and bathing the poor who were dying.

As Christians, Our Lord calls and challenges us to not seek power and prestige, but to be “the servant of all”. We see this in the hierarchy of the Church, which is built on service of the Church. One of the Pope's titles is “Servant of the Servants of God”. Bishops, when celebrating Mass, will refer to themselves as “me, your unworthy servant”. Priests are called to serve the bishop throughout the diocese, and to serve the people to whom he has been assigned. Lay people who participate in the administrative and ministerial structures of the Church are called to engage their positions in an attitude of service, and not for personal gain. The power that we do have within the Church comes not because we are important, but because we serve.

This is misunderstood throughout the Church, especially within developed countries like the United States. There are those who seek to gain higher positions within the Church for the sake of gaining more power and importance, not to better serve Jesus' people. They become ambitious for personal gain and jealous of those who have the power they seek. St. James warns us against this ruthless desire for power, saying, “Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice.”

We can see this disorder at play in the Church. There are great divisions within the Church today, and many of these divisions come about due to self-centered power grabs. Sometimes we see this in local parishes as a group of people try to make themselves the most important in the parish, often with the consent and support of the pastor. On a larger level, there are groups who want to remake the Church in their own image, with members who have worked their way through the Church organizational structure to positions that they feel hold power and importance. Even the Papacy is not immune to this desire for power, as the history of the Church is riddled with attempts by bishops and cardinals seeking to become the Pope for power, and not for the call to service that comes with the office.

As Christians, we are called by Our Lord to seek out ways that we can become a “servant of all”. We're called to serve Catholics and non-Catholics, Christians and non-Christians. We're called to serve those we like and those we can't stand. As difficult as it can be, we are called to step out of where we're comfortable and reach out to those who make us uncomfortable. We're even called to serve those who might reject us or take advantage of our service. Our Lord tells us, “Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.” May we be willing to serve Our Lord by serving those the world sees as unimportant.

Homily for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

At first glance, Our Lord sets up what seems to be an impossible contradiction. He tells us, “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.” On a human level, it's easy be confused by saving our lives by losing them, and losing our lives by saving them. Of course, Jesus isn't talking on a human level, but on the supernatural level, and the life that he's talking about is our eternal life.

So, what does it mean to lose our lives for the sake of Our Lord and the gospel? Jesus tells us that we must be willing to “deny [ourselves], take up [our] cross[es], and follow [Him]”. He even gives us the example that we need to follow. Speaking to the disciples, Our Lord predicts how He will give His life, as He tells them, “the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days.” Our Lord challenges us to deny ourselves and accept our sufferings, but only because He did that first for our salvation.

As we're all pretty much aware, denying ourselves and willingly giving up our lives runs contrary to our human nature. Our natural desire is to save and protect ourselves. We can see this in Peter's reaction, as he wants to protect Our Lord from the Passion and Cross, and gets rebuked for it. If we truly wish to follow Our Lord, even to the Cross, we have to fight the desire to turn back and find an easier path so that we can save our earthly lives. Those who do succumb to this desire may be able to live a good life here on Earth, but put their eternal lives at great risk.

What does it mean to give up our earthly lives? To be clear, this doesn't mean that Our Lord is telling us to give away everything we own and live on the streets, begging for food. To give up our earthly lives, we need to resist the temptations of the world and seek the will of God. In our culture, it's easy to fall into the trap of materialism and consumerism, buying and owning things for their own sake. If we are willing to give up our earthly lives, we use the things of the earth for our own survival and to advance God's will in our lives and those around us.

It's important to realize that this desire to give our lives for Christ and His Gospel is a fruit of the faith that we have in God, and that this faith is itself a gift of God. Because this faith is a gift, we have to be open to the gift and allow it to work within us, but our faith in God is not a private act between us and God. St. James tells us in today's second reading that “faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” If our faith in God is going to lead us to salvation, we must allow that faith to lead us into doing good for others. In fact, St. James reminds us that we demonstrate our faith through our works.

This is in contrast to a position held by some Christians. You may have heard a preacher on TV or a family member say something like, “We are saved by our faith in God, and not by any works that we do.” Usually, this is accompanied by an accusation that Catholics teach that we are saved by “good works”.

Of course, the Church does not teach that we can work our way to Heaven, and in fact, there are two errors here. First, we can't just do a bunch of good things for others and expect to get into Heaven regardless of what we believe about God's mercy and justice. Second, we can't believe that God will save us, but not lift a finger to help others. We must allow for God's mercy to save us, while allowing that faith in God to lead us to do good for others.

When we do sacrifice our lives for the Gospel, we have Our Lord's promise and example that the sacrifice will not go unrewarded. May we be willing to take up our crosses, as Our Lord did, and follow Him.