'The Week of Salvation' (Palm Sunday homily)

 Listening to the Gospel we heard--the heart of our Faith --

Makes me fall silent. Maybe you, too.

That’s why we do this every single year.

If you’ve come this far in Lent, 

it may be that you feel you missed the boat.

You can still make Holy Week your Lent.

If you ever said, I wish I knew my Faith better, 

may I suggest that taking time during Holy Week,

to come on Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil?

These days will help you go deeper into our Faith,

because this week is the heart of our Faith.

If you wish you’d gone to confession—it’s not too late. 

There are confessions Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

To accommodate everyone, we added a Sunrise 7 am Mass 

here at Our Lady of Good Hope just for Easter. 

And, if Masses are crowded, let’s try to have good humor and patience.

We’ll have folks we don’t see very often;

Yes, your favorite seat may be filled.

Our generosity of spirit can only make it more likely 

we’ll see them again.

Also, as the Mother Church for our parish family,

Our Lady of Good Hope is the site of our shared Easter Vigil.

We have a large group of men, women and children 

Who will be baptized and confirmed 

and receive Jesus in the Eucharist the first time.

This is the week of salvation. His week; our week.

It’s about what we did to the Lord; even more, what he did for us.

Why so much death? (5th Sunday of Lent homily)

 

This Gospel provides an opportunity to deal with a question 

that sometimes people ask about us Catholics: 

Why do we talk about death so much?

Why is an image of Jesus dying on the Cross so prominent?

Many say we should focus on the Resurrection.

Sure: but you can’t talk about resurrection without talking about death.

One answer might be: well, death is just part of life.

That’s true, but only to a point.

It ignores something else we Christians believe: 

that God, in the original plan, did not want us to die. 

Let me say that again:

God’s original plan did not include death!

The world we live in – which includes sin and death –

is not the world God wanted for us;

And it isn’t the new world he is preparing for us.

Sin means that our life is a shallow, shadow kind of life. 

Let’s remember that death came into the world 

because of human rebellion against God.

That rebellion, however, doesn’t mean living without God; 

it means replacing the God who actually made us,

with the god of my own will, my own desires, making myself god. 

And that means not a world centered on one God,

but a world of seven or eight billion gods – one for each of us;

and what do you think that world looks like?

That’s a world of greed, injustice, murder and indifference. 

And that kind of so-called “living” – Jesus came to tell us – 

is a shadow experience of life; a kind of “deathly” living.

Whereas Jesus came to give us true life; the fullness of life.

And to have that fullness of life, 

you and I must die to what this world thinks is life. 

This is where God’s mercy is at work.

As you and I get a little older, our eyes aren’t so good, 

our hearing fades, our body doesn’t do all it used to…

this experience has a way of humbling us, and teaching us: 

you really aren’t God, you know that? 

And if we listen, and accept the lesson, we grow wise. 

And we are reminded: this life isn’t my destination; 

I’m on the way to something bigger and better. 

It is in letting go of this world that we gain the world to come.

This might be a good exercise for each of us: 

to look ourselves in the mirror, and ask the question: 

“Who is God?” And then tell ourselves: “Not you.”

Dying to self is the very hardest thing we do: 

we fight it from the first word many of us learn – “No!” – 

to our last breath.

And yet: think of those whose sacrifices gave us our freedoms.

Think of those who, when disaster strikes, run to the fire.

Think of your own parents.

Only when we die to ourselves do we become life-givers.

At this Mass, we are joined by those preparing to be baptized in two weeks.

Baptism is dying with Jesus, so that we can live for him forever.

Dying to shadow-life; rising to eternal life.

They are here to pray, 

but also, to seek our prayers, for the grace of conversion.

God has called them; and their witness reminds us: 

he’s calling you and me too!

Next week is Palm Sunday and then Holy Week:

if the Cross is the most important thing that ever happened, 

then Holy Week recalls the most important week in history.

We’ll have all our normal activities this year!

Make the most of it.

If you need to go to confession, but have been procrastinating, 

there are plenty of opportunities over the next two weeks. 

Do I live for me, for here, for this? Or do I want to live forever?

Who is blind? (4th Sunday Lent homily)

 

Credit: Masterfile

Of all the people in the Gospel who couldn’t see,

only one was healed.

It was he who, without question or delay,

simply went and did as the Lord said.

Everyone else tried to analyze, argue or deny.

That’s not to say we shouldn’t try to understand.

Some questions we ask help us to see;

There are others we ask that aim to delay choosing.

So often, there comes a point when we know:

no more delays—just go!

When I was 19, I left the Catholic Church,

And joined another church. I came back 10 years later.

Over that time, I had questions,

I debated and wrestled—and that was right.

But, there came a moment, and I remember it vividly.

It was during Lent: as I drove home from work one day,

past a Catholic church, I heard the question in my head:

“What holds you back?” And I knew: “Nothing, Lord.”

A day or two later,

I went to confession for the first time in 10 years.

So, how about you? Are you holding back, or delaying,

on something you know the Lord wants you to do?

For a lot of us, that’s how we handle the sacrament of penance;

That is to say, we hem and haw and put it off.

It’s no great mystery why that happens.

Not many of us want to admit our sins,

especially to another human being.

Maybe we get discouraged,

Or we rationalize, I’m doing pretty good.

Just so you know; priests go through the exact same thing.

Again, the blind man could have had all the same feelings.

Did you notice, he didn’t ask to be healed?

Maybe he’d gotten accustomed to his situation or given up hope.

It amuses me to imagine him arguing with Jesus:

“Hey, what’s with this messy mud on my eyes?

Can’t you heal me without that?”

That makes me laugh, 

because sometimes I have conversations like that:

“Do I really have to do it this way?”

Instead, he simply went and did what the Lord asked.

He, and he alone, was healed.

So—for the sacrament of penance—just go!

We have confessions Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 

Thursday, Saturday and Sunday!

Check the bulletin.

As Mass began today, we prayed the words of Isaiah:

“Rejoice…”

But wait, Lent is about self-denial—

what are we rejoicing about?

Well, consider the blind man in the Gospel.

After the Lord put clay over his eyes,

and sent him to the pool:

what might he have been thinking?

I don’t know, but: if he felt certain he would be healed, 

would not his heart have swelled with hope?

Would he not have raced to that pool? 

Well then, the same for us:

Even as we pray, and confront our sins,

and ask God to help us change,

You and I really can be sure

God will forgive and heal us.

Here at this Mass, some among us can’t wait to be baptized.

They’re racing to the pool! In a moment, 

I’m going to invite you to join me in praying for them, 

for God’s help on the rest of their journey.

Meanwhile, the rest of us can—in confession—

Go back again to the pool of Jesus’ healing forgiveness.

And, when we share the Eucharist at Mass,

We are the blind man who can now see.

We come to worship the one who healed us.

It's not about them, it's about you (Sunday homily)

 These readings are about heaven and hell.

Let’s start with heaven.

In the first reading, Moses asks to know God’s Name. 

He wants to draw closer to God. 

After all, Moses and God’s People had been in slavery 

for over 400 years. 

The stories of what God did in Abraham’s life, 

in the lives of Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, were all distant memories. 

Perhaps even God himself seemed very distant. 

In Hebrew, names are more than just what someone is called.

They express the essence of who someone is.

When God tells Moses he is “I AM WHO AM,” 

he is revealing his true nature, 

that he is the One who truly and fully exists.

By responding this way, God is being very intimate with Moses,

And encouraging Moses’ desire for that intimacy.

Notice that: God WANTS US to know him this way!

This intimate union with God is heaven.

That is what heaven is.

So, whatever else you imagine heaven to be,

First and last, it is complete closeness with the Blessed Trinity.

And please remember: God wants this for us.

You and I don’t talk God into this; he’s talks US into it.

The problem is never God’s want-to, but ours.

You and I never have to change God’s mind. 

It is our mind, our lives, that need to change, 

and God is always at the door our heart, 

you and I only need to invite him in.

At the beginning, I mentioned hell. Where does that fit in?

Well, that’s what Jesus is warning against in the Gospel. 

Unless you and I repent, he says, we will all likewise perish.

He doesn’t mean natural death, but spiritual death.

And, one of the escape routes we choose to avoid a serious question

is to focus on other people – instead of ourselves.

Jesus says: don’t focus on whether those Galileans were sinners.

That’s a way to avoid thinking about the really hard question:

My need to change.

Our Lord Jesus points to a fig tree yielding no fruit.

God is patient – vastly more patient than you and I are.

In fact, this is actually one of the major reasons 

people don’t believe in God; 

because they say God is too slow to act, to bring justice.

“Why does God wait?” people ask. 

Still, don’t presume on God’s patience.

Jesus said it: give the tree some time; but: 

if it doesn’t yield fruit, cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?

There’s nothing fruitful about looking at others and saying,

“Oh yeah, she’s a fruitless tree!”

Ask yourself…about yourself.

The Gospel – the Good News – Jesus brings us 

is what he, as God, told Moses so long ago: 

He is True Life, and he invites each of us to be fully alive with him.

There is always an invitation, as there is right this moment, 

to become that life-bearing, fruit-giving friend of God!

Take advantage of this Lent: of many opportunities for confession;

of the opportunity to turn back to Jesus.

The Power of 'No' (Sunday homily)

 Let me repeat something that is so simple we may miss it:

Lent is all about conversion. 

That’s the point of self-denial, of taking more time for prayer, 

and of giving away money or things to others.

You and I don’t fast and pray and give things away

In order to gain more of God’s love;

He already loves us as much as he possibly can.

We also don’t do these things for a show.

The only point is the extent to which this helps our own conversion.

And note that: Lent is about our own conversion; 

it’s not your job to convert her, or him.

Even in the family: true conversion has to be me choosing it for me.

Focus on your own conversion, and let that be your witness.

So we start with humility.

In the first reading, the faithful Israelite must confess:

My father was a nobody. My ancestors were slaves.

We didn’t set ourselves free – God did it.

In fact, everything we have comes from God.

And in the Gospel, even Jesus the Lord humbles himself.

But perhaps the main thing we might notice

in the Gospel is the power of a single word: NO.

How much you and I need to learn the power of saying “NO”:

No to temptation; No to all the tasty and enjoyable things 

that are too important to us;

“No” to all the distractions and short-term things 

that so fill our thoughts, that we fail to focus on the distant horizon.

This is really hard. But it’s an essential part of our Lent.

We know this, because Jesus himself did it. 

He went into the desert and fasted.

He said “No” to pretty much everything – 

food, drink, entertainment, other people’s company –

before he launched on his great mission of our salvation.

He did it, without needing it, to be in solidarity with us.

And thus he makes clear how much you and I DO need it.

Notice we began Mass with the sprinkling of holy water.

Remember that Lent is also about preparing for baptism, and – 

for those of us who have been baptized – 

about renewing and reclaiming it.

[And I might mention, at this Mass, we have some folks 

who are preparing to be baptized in six weeks. 

Today we acknowledge them as the “Elect” – 

meaning, they are chosen by God to enter into the new life of baptism. 

And we have others who were baptized in other communities, 

but now wish to be part of the fullness of the Catholic Church.

It is the grace of their baptism that urges them to this! 

And we want to pray for them along the next steps.]

Recall that when you and I were baptized, 

The deacon or priest asked three questions;

And we, or our parents, gave three renunciations. 

We said “No” to Satan; 

“And all his works?”

“And all his empty show?”

And notice, Jesus is tempted by the devil after 40 days.

That means his struggle with evil corresponds to Holy Week.

Good Friday represents the devil seeking to kill him,

Perhaps because he would not bow down to him.

When you and I learn the power of “No” when it’s needed,   

We gain the power of a true “YES” when that is needed!

YES to being truly generous with ourselves and our time and our stuff.

YES to trusting God with peace and calm.

YES to going deeper and farther, 

the way Peter stepped out of the boat, 

and walked – albeit briefly – on the water.

So if you want to take something away from this homily,

Take a simple word. That word is “No.”

Use this Lent to learn how to say that word and mean it:

A “No” to the stomach, a “No” to the eyes, and a “No” to the ego:

So you and I can receive the fullness of God’s life.

That’s a good way to make Lent fruitful, don’t you think?

The hardest fast (Sunday homily)

 Everyone knows that Ash Wednesday is this week, right?

And we all know that those 18-59 are obliged to fast 

on Ash Wednesday – and on Good Friday. 

That means one full meal and two snacks if you need them.

And, we all know that the focus of Lent 

is on repentance and self-denial: 

that’s why we pray more seriously, and look to be more generous, 

and we choose to give things up.

Allow me to point out: the hardest fast is not from food.

It is from words.

The words you and I speak.

And the words we listen to. 

Fewer words mean more silence.

What happens if you die right now? (Sunday homily)

 Lent begins in two and a half weeks. 

For the next three Sundays, 

you and I will hear from Saint Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, 

from chapter 15, where he talks about resurrection.

This is a great transition to Lent.

Let’s recall what we believe as Catholics.

At the moment our life in this world comes to an end, 

you and I will immediately face Christ as our judge.

We call this the “particular judgment.”

And in that moment, Christ will weigh our faith: 

did we respond to his grace? Did we obey his commands? 

Did we repent of our sins and turn to him for mercy?

And then, one of two things will happen.

If you or I die without God’s friendship, having rejected his grace; 

refused to change, or, perhaps gave mere lip service, then what? 

Remember what he said: “Not everyone who cries, ‘Lord, Lord!’ 

will enter the Kingdom.” 

And they will say, “but look what we did in your name!” 

And Jesus will say, ‘Depart from me! I never knew you!’”

So, if that’s where any of us are in that moment before Christ, 

then we will go to hell, precisely because we refused the grace 

and the conversion of our lives that would prepare us for heaven. 

On the other hand, if we “die in God’s grace and friendship,”

As the catechism states it (Paragraph 1030), 

then we enter into heaven. 

But at that point, you and I may need some further brushing-up, 

so that we are truly ready for heaven. 

This is what purgatory is.

If you and I make this life a time of conversion, 

of breaking bad habits, of self-denial, 

we will not need much from purgatory.

Here’s a prayer that you may want to pray each day:

“Lord, send me here my purgatory.” 

The point Saint Paul wants to make is simple:

Do not make the mistake of thinking this life is all there is.

You and I are meant to live forever.

Moreover, our bodies are not just something 

we throw away or leave behind. 

We will have our bodies back in the resurrection.

So Lent is coming, and we have a few weeks to gear up.

Since I mentioned purgatory, that’s a good way to understand Lent: 

You and I are seeking our purgatory here and now.

Our sacrifices, penances and extra prayers are tools, 

in service of what Lent truly is about:

Conversion. Change of heart. Change of life. Getting ready for heaven.

The origin of Lent is that it was a time of intense preparation 

for those who were going to be baptized at Easter – 

and that is why they fasted, and prayed intensely, 

and examined their lives so closely.

And for those of us who have been baptized,

Lent is our time to re-embrace our baptism.

So, notice: at Easter you will be asked to renew those vows.

It's not a mere ritual; it’s a very solemn moment.

So, Lent is near. It’s time to get ready.

You should have seen by now 

we will have a Eucharist-focused Mission in two weeks, 

leading into Lent. 

It will also be a lead-in to an opportunity for all of us 

to focus particularly on the Holy Eucharist during Lent. 

There will be many opportunities for prayer and reflection.

I want to issue everyone in the parish a challenge:

Let’s make this the best Lent you’ve ever had.

I’m asking that we all unite in that desire – 

and help each other make it happen.

Here’s some simple but serious homework:

First: now is the time to think about your plan for Lent.

And, second, I ask everyone to begin praying that this Lent 

will indeed be a powerful time of conversion for our parish family. 

Pray for yourself, your family, and for each other. 

Let’s pray for our St. John Paul Family to experience conversion.

Five easy ways *everyone* can answer God's call (Sunday homily)

 I bet this has happened to you.

You put new lights – brighter lights – into your kitchen, 

and then, you look and grimace: hmm, that floor doesn’t look so good! 

Or, it’s the bathroom, and you look in the mirror! Hmm, not so good!

That’s when you turn down the lights!

Something like that – yet far more transcendent – 

happened to Isaiah in the first reading, to Paul in the second reading, and to Peter in the Gospel. 

The intense reality of who God is 

illuminated for them the disturbing reality of their own lives.

Isaiah said: "Woe is me, I am doomed!

Paul said, “I am not fit to be called an apostle,

because I persecuted the church of God.”

Peter said, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."

Now, perhaps you can think of a moment 

when you experienced something like this. 

I recall being on an airplane 

and it suddenly went very bouncy-bouncy, 

and I intensely wished I’d gone to confession.

My prayer was something like Isaiah’s.

But please notice, however disturbing this experience is, 

it is a mercy – it is a grace!

Would it have been better had Isaiah not woken up?

Would Paul have been better off not converting?

Notice also, in each case, this searing of their consciences 

preceded Isaiah, Paul or Peter being sent with a mission.

Please remember this whenever someone asks you 

to pitch in or take on a project.

You might want to answer, no, ask someone else.

But what God really wanted to hear was Isaiah’s, “send me!”

There are a lot of individual tasks that make up our faith-family.

We all rely on people to organize different things.

By the way: sometimes people notice a change, and ask, 

why did that change? Why did that go away? 

Often the answer is, we need help to organize it.

And there really is something for everyone to do.

The overall mission is clear. You and I are witnesses of Jesus.

We are his messengers.

Being sinful and weak doesn’t disqualify Isaiah, Paul or Peter.

But they all needed conversion.

And for everyone who wonders, when will someone revive things?

Don’t wait for someone else. Answer like Isaiah: “send me!”

How do you do that? How is that accessible to absolutely everyone?

I’m going to give you five things everyone can do.

First: everyone listening to me can pray.

If you and I reach the Kingdom, 

we’re going to be stunned by how much tired, persevering prayer 

held this world together like spiritual duct tape.

Prayer doesn’t have to take hours of our day.

Start each day with the morning offering.

If you drive to work, turn off the radio 

and pray the Rosary or Divine Mercy chaplet.

You’ll be a more patient driver, I prophesy!

Pause periodically – just for 10 seconds! – and remember God.

Second, everyone can say, “I believe in Jesus!”

Our little children can say that. 

Our oldest, tired-est parishioners can say that.

You don’t have to be a theologian. 

But it is our lives that make our words credible.

That leads to third: like Peter, Paul and Isaiah: seek conversion.

Ask, and God will light up what needs to change.

Fourth and fifth:

The early Christians won their world by their love.

They were generous and forgiving.

Everyone can give something. 

And everyone, sooner or later, faces the choice to forgive.

That’s what it is: not a feeling but a choice:

To let go of that wrong and give that to God.

Imagine how Paul felt to be embraced 

by the Christians he tried to kill!

What if they had refused?

So, there you have it: five ways everyone can answer the call.

Pray. And say. Convert. Give. And forgive.