Homily - 22nd Sunday of Ordinary TIme

Readings:

Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29

Psalm 68

Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24a

Luke 14:1, 7-14

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My dear friends the message from our Gospel today could not be any more clear, be humble. This event in Jesus’ life paints a scene, which, in many respects, summarizes the entire life of Jesus, who after his humble death on the cross was raised to his throne in heaven; “the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” You can just imagine this vivid and lively party going on and it’s at the time to move from the social cocktail hour to the dinner table. Jesus is there observing the actions of everyone carefully and you can just kind of see his wheels turning as a great opportunity to teach about humility unfolds. It would be fair to say that humility is one of Jesus’ favorite virtues and so we should be attentive today to what humility is all about. Why is humility important? Why does it come up all over the scriptures, just think about how many times Jesus shows a divine preference for the humble; ‘the sick over the healthy, those who lack over those who have, the oafish fisherman as Apostles rather than the sophisticated scribes, the nerds to the in-crowd, the sinner to the self-righteous; why is humility so prized by Jesus?’

Ultimately, humility puts us in a posture that allows us to be receptive to the divine life of God. As St. Augustine once observed, “If you ask me what are the ways to God, I would tell you the first is humility, the second is humility and the third is humility …”. Humility puts us in the right place to receive eternal life. If you’ve ever studied European history you might recall the country of Austria, which for a period of time held a very strong empire. When the king of the Royal Family from Austria passes away there is a special ritual used before the funeral. When the casket reaches the doors of the Church, the guard would knock and a priest would ask: “Who desires admission here?” The guard would respond: “His apostolic majesty, the Emperor.” The priest would answer: “I do not know him.” The guard would knock a second time and announce the deceased to be the highest emperor. Again, the response from the priest was, “I do not know him.” Finally, a third knock would provoke the same question from the priest: “Who desires admission here?” Then the answer would be: “The deceased is a poor sinner, your brother!” Then the door of the church would be opened. In the end, it will not be our great achievements in life that prepare us to receive God’s blessings but rather our humble disposition before the Lord.

So that sounds simple enough doesn’t it? Be humble, receive heaven. My dear friends we all know from our own experience that humility doesn’t come as easily as we would like it to. This is part of the reason why Jesus preached it so much, because being humble is difficult. In our culture today I want to identify for you three major enemies that make it difficult to live a humble life. Once we know the enemy its always easier to fight! Pride, Pragmatism, and Personal Rights.

Public enemy number one to humility … pride. Pride is the exact opposite of humility. Whereas humility creates space for God and others, pride fills up all space with yours truly. Pridefulness is an over exaltation of human ability leaving no wiggle room for grace to break into our lives. Remember our Gospel from today, “everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted”. Declare war on pride in your own life for it is always better to humble ourselves than to be humbled by another.

Pragmatism. In the United States we are a very pragmatic people, that means, we are rather practical, sensible and realistic, we know how to get things done, we are task-oriented and feel everything is possible through sweat, work, and effort; we are pragmatic. Everyday I have my to-do list of items and I love checking them off knowing that I got things done. But if I were to exaggerate that list too much, if I stressed too much in my life over getting things done by my effort and will I will soon stifle humility in my life. Yes, God wants our work and our effort but as remind Psalm 127:1 says, “Unless the Lord builds the house in vain does the laborer build.”  Arch Bishop Dolan of New York once said, (quote) “We are not defined by what we do, how much we earn or produce, or what we achieve, but by who we are, and we are usually closest to God when we are weakest, emptiest, and lowest.” So don’t be afraid to admit you can’t do everything on your to-do lists, to do so takes humility.

Finally, the third enemy, personal rights. In the United States we are grateful for the gift of personal rights that offers us so many freedoms that others do not enjoy and lets not forget that the Church through out the centuries has championed for human rights and rightly so for our leader, Jesus Christ, was the world’s most forceful defender of such. When I say that personal rights are an enemy to humility I do not speak of this American treasure but rather about that attitude, that disordered attitude, that leads us to believe we need to get our due, that we are owed something and deserve special treatment because of who we are, what we’ve done, or what has happened to us. This train of thought only leads one to feel sorry for themselves; to cower over and lick their own wounds. But humility enables us to admit that in the long run we don’t deserve anything at all and yet we have a God who has been so generous to give us life and has given us everything we could want from this life through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Okay, so we know humility’s important, it helps us get to God. We know what enemies to fend off to create a healthy environment in our hearts, but how do we water humility so that it really takes root and grows in our life? How do we, so to speak, exercise our humility muscles?

I think we need to remember that humility is a chosen virtue … what I mean by that is we have to actively consent to living in a humble way before the opportunity to be humble comes. Humility doesn’t come in individual acts, but rather is a disposition towards how we handle situations in our lives. Thus, we must actively choose to put ourselves in a humble attitude. When I was beginning my third year of seminary in Rome the whole issue of humility really came to a head for me. I was on silent retreat with a fantastic spiritual director who was helping me move deeper into my heart. In doing so together we encountered that inside of me there was a real deep temptation of spiritual pride, that of looking down upon others because they did not dedicate their lives to Christ as much as I thought they should. After one of our meetings my spiritual director asked me a random question, “Does the name Eric mean anything to you?” I stopped in utter surprise. He continued, “The Lord keeps asking me to pray for Eric.” As I looked at him with utter disbelief I told him that Eric is the name I took at confirmation. There was no way he knew that name. I continued to tell him that the Holy Spirit would probably ask you to pray for Eric during this time, because while I am very proud to have the name Jacob I have been ashamed that I chose Eric as my confirmation name and not some more well known saint, more heroic, or what have you. So my spiritual director said when I pray today to pray as if I was Eric as a way to stir up in my heart a more humble disposition. Since then if ever I feel a lack of humility I will pray as Eric instead of Jacob. Humility is a virtue we grow in by first choosing to actively live it out before the opportunity to be humble comes.

In that humility I was able to become more myself. I was free to accept who I truly was rather than grasp at what I wanted to make myself out to be. This is the primary gift of a life of humility here on earth it frees us from the need or compulsion to wear a mask and pretend to be someone else we are not. Humility puts us in a posture that allows us to be the true sons and daughters of God the Father we are, which is the blessing he gave us in Baptism and wishes to bring to fulfillment at the end of our lives.

Keep in mind, my dear friends, humility is not a microwavable virtue, put it in, push the button and its ready to go in two minutes. It is more like a crock-pot, it takes time, you have to let it brew, stew, be seasoned, mellowed, for hours, then its good to go. Humility cooks in the crock pot of silent prayer before the Lord, especially before the Eucharist in adoration. Sometime this week take an extra half hour out of your schedule and come here to the Church and pray before the Eucharist, or come on Friday for Eucharistic Adoration to season that virtue of humility.

In the more immediate moment here at the Mass prepare your heart well to receive your God in the Eucharist today. Listen to the prayers over the Eucharist with attentiveness. Before you receive Jesus in the Eucharist you bow your head as an act of humility, and when you receive our Lord in your hands or on your tongue let those words you spoke just moments before echo in your heart, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive but only say the word and I shall be healed.” 

Homily - 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time

Readings: 

Isaiah 66:18-21

Psalm 117:1, 2

Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13

Luke 13:22-30

We have in our Gospel today a rather straightforward question. A man comes up to Jesus and asks him, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” What a good question. Isn’t it a question we’ve maybe at least at some point in our lives wanted to ask God, how many will really be saved? And here in the Gospel they were wondering the same thing. How man will be saved? A few? A thousand? A million? 144,000? Notice how our Lord when he responds to this man does not report a number, rather he shifts the focus of the question from being about everybody else to being about the individual asking the question: “You strive to enter through the narrow gate …” What a great answer … If we ask Jesus How many will be saved? Or even just will I be saved? We can see his answer already … “You strive to enter through the narrow gate.” So lets look at this narrow gate, what is it made up of? How do we strive to enter through it? I want to propose a triple-path to help us get to and enter through the narrow gate: 1) the path of grace 2) the path of virtue 3) the path of enduring suffering well.

Anyone who wants to enter through the narrow gate must first receive grace. To pass through the narrow gate is impossible for man alone and so he needs the grace of God. Grace enables us to enter through the narrow gate. If one were to look among all the other religions of the world you would discover that the doctrine of grace is unique to Christianity. Grace means that God acts first, that he has come to us to help us attain eternal life. A good definition of grace then is Calvary, that is, the mount upon which the Cross of our Lord was planted. Grace = Calvary. For when you look upon the limp body of our Lord Jesus breathing his last for our sins you see a reservoir of grace that is filled to the brim and flowing over. It’s there in the heart of Jesus where all the grace we need to enter the narrow gate, to gain eternal life, is kept. How does it get to us? Remember that after our Lord breathed his last his side was pierced with a lance and what poured out was blood and water. In our Catholic faith the water is a sign of Baptism and the Blood is a sign of the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of our Lord. So what gets the grace from that heart to this heart? From that heart to your heart? The sacraments, especially Baptism and the Eucharist. Imagine a long pipe connected to that wounded side of our Lord, that pipe reaches across centuries and millennium to bring the grace that flows from his wounded heart, wounded out of love for us, to us here in the year 2010. That is exactly what the sacraments do. They connect the event of Calvary to your very own life today. Without this grace we would not even know where to begin in trying to enter through the narrow gate.

The second path to and through the Narrow Gate is virtue. Once we have received grace we have to maintain it and we do that with a life of virtue. Our virtuous lives enable us to keep God’s grace actively working in our lives. Grace is sustained by growing in virtue. What is virtue? Virtue is a good habit bearing on our activity and we form good habits by discipline. Virtue exists, by the way, both for the natural life and the supernatural life. To be good at anything, like basketball, baseball, football, golf, dancing, gymnastics, swimming, chess, one needs to discipline themselves with good habits so that they can perform. Since football season is coming up lets take that as our example. Everyone knows that preseason is a time to get in shape; to pump, pump, pump it up. But if in the off season you haven’t been keeping good habits like exercising daily, eating well, and taking care of your body it is going to be harder to get into top shape come time for regular season. You have to discipline yourself, form good habits, so that you can achieve your goals. Just as there are disciplines in training for football, like exercising, weight lifting, drills that enable a player to throw the ball, catch the ball, juke, block, or tackle better. So too there are disciplines in the spiritual life, like prayer, coming to Mass, going to confession, devotions, spiritual reading, studying the teachings of the Church, these are all disciplines that enable a Christian to grow in virtue, virtues like living a more pure and chaste life, exercising patience with those who frustrate us, being more truthful with those we love, having more faith in God when times are difficult, and loving even those who hate us. Yes, grace might give you a free gym pass, so to speak, but if you don’t take the time to go to the spiritual gym of your life and use the weights and techniques of the spiritual life, you won’t have a chance at walking through that narrow gate come game time. The grace that pours into our lives from the cross must be maintained, sustained, and activated by a virtuous life.

Finally, striving to enter through the narrow gate includes the ability to suffer well. A life of grace and of virtue will bring with it certain suffering. We would not be able to walk through the narrow gate without enduring at least just a little bit of suffering. Why does suffering have to be part of God’s plan we might wonder? Let’s be clear when Jesus came to earth he didn’t come and say, “Hey everyone, I have good news, suffer!” No … rather, he found us in suffering, in our strife and our struggle, and he chose to enter into that all of it, to the greatest degree possible, so that something good might come of it, namely so that salvation might come of it. Our Lord’s suffering on the cross has turned the worst evil of our life, our own suffering, strife, and struggles, to be the source of the greatest good of our life, our salvation. Thus, here we see that the narrow gate of heaven that we want to walk through is closely connected with suffering well.

Our second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews can comfort us about this whole reality of the narrow gate involving difficulties, the author writes, (quote) “all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.” Here that athletic vocabulary echoing a bit. Discipline. Training. The struggle that comes from disciplining ourselves, the strife of leaving behind our old lives, the suffering because others think we’re weird for loving Jesus, and the sadness of turning away from the things of the world or the things in our own life that we have tried previously to fill ourselves up with, turning from all that, to God and asking him to fill us up with his grace seems a cause not for joy but for pain. But in truth this is all leading us the to peaceful fruit of righteousness so that we may, with the grace of God and virtuous life, “make straight paths for (our) feet” through the narrow gate of heaven.

Why not make the gate wider? Why does it have to be narrow? In the Gospel of John chapter 10 verse 9, not our reading from today, our Lord says this; (quote) “I am the gate and whoever enters through me will be saved.” Connect that statement with our Gospel today in your mind. Think about it … the gate is narrow precisely because the gate is Jesus, and so to enter through the narrow gate ultimately means conformity to the very person of Jesus Christ, to live a life of grace with Jesus, to follow in the wake of the many virtues he exhibited in his earthly life, and to participate with him in the suffering he endured on Calvary. By the way, that’s why he will be able to recognize us when we come and knock on the door, because we have been conformed to him, we have been likened to his own person. If we do this we will have no need to worry that we might have to hear those most horrifying words that were spoken in the parable today to the one who knocked on the door, “I do not know you.”

So how many will be saved? 10, do I hear 20, 50, one million, 25%, no come on, turn away from this pointless question, rather you strive to enter through the narrow gate by living a life with Jesus himself.

Homily/Personal Testimony - Chastity Leadership Training Weekend

I was asked to come offer Mass for an awesome group of about 130 plus young adults who are striving to say no to the selfish love of modern society that always leaves us empty and say yes to the true self-giving love that gives us life, happiness, and joy by satisfying our deepest need, that is, to make of ourselves a gift.

Here is the homily I preached on Friday night August 13th. It includes a snippet of my own struggles as a young teen and college student with chastity. Peace!

Two days ago I texted Peggy Tachino, who has done so much to help prepare this weekend, and asked her if she had looked at what the Gospel reading is for Friday, the opening day of this weekend on Chastity. She replied, “Haha … now I did … God is awesome!” She replied that God is awesome because The Gospel we just heard is at the heart of the entire renewal of chastity and our understanding of human sexuality as a sacred gift and response to God’s self-emptying love. If you are at all familiar with John Paul II’s great work of the Theology of the Body, which took him years to complete, you would be well aware that Matthew 19:3-12 is the central text from which all his teaching stems from. So prepare yourselves, whether you are here to hone your chastity leadership skills or don’t even know the first thing about chastity the Spirit is operating on all cylinders to bring you the graces you need.

In talking about chastity the first thing we should understand is that chastity is a virtue that enables us to love somebody else. The virtue of chastity empowers a person to give real true love to another. A person living out the virtue of chastity is able to give true love to those whom she or he encounters. A virtue, according to Thomas Aquinas, is a “good habit bearing on activity”, that is to say, it is something that empowers you to have good actions. So chastity is a good habit that bears on what kind of activity? We might be tempted to blurt out sexual activity, but chastity is not confined to sexual activity. Chastity’s claim to fame, in the world of virtues, is that it bears on the activity of channeling love. So that means without chastity we can never truly make love or give love (that is true, whole, self-giving love) to another person, friend, fiancé, or spouse. Chastity allows the truest part of our self, which is the desire to be a gift for someone else, to travel from us to them. Chastity is kind of like the wooden bridge hanging over a mile high canyon that love walks across to get to the other side. If the bridge of chastity has missing boards, if there aren’t well taken care of hand rails, if we don’t take time to tie down the ropes well and pound them in with pegs so the bridge is safe and secure, love will have a very hard time getting to the person it is intended for. The virtue of chastity empowers us to give real self-giving love to others.

Modern society believes that chastity, which channels love, prevents us from experiencing love. Chastity, which connects the love of two people is thought to be what hinders love by the secular world. What we see as a bridge to love, modern society sees as an obstacle. Picture for a moment now what this bridge to love looks like for the current situation of our modern society, we have as a collective society in America slowly but surely ripped up board after board and loosened the ropes making it nearly impossible for true love to travel from one person to another. From the teenager who thinks as long as they don’t have intercourse its not sex, to the husband and father who is addicted to internet pornography, to the explicit nature of music videos and advertisements, to sex education that sees chastity as impossible and in fact unhealthy, our culture is inundated not with a simple disinterest in the virtue of chastity or ignorance of it, but rather a resentment for chastity, a resentment that actively sees chastity as a hindrance to love. We are not simply just standing by and seeing the bridge of chastity deteriorate over time we are actively ripping it apart collectively as a society. Our resentment for chastity is so strong that when most of us come to the bridge of chastity and try to give love to another person we’d rather take our chances jumping across the canyon then walking across the bridge, that’s how bluntly stupid we can be. Most of us probably can agree in the silence of our hearts that we have struggled with chastity and our culture hasn’t made it easy for us at all, because what should be a bridge to love is considered to be an obstacle.

Where does this resentment for chastity come from? At times, it has, even snuck into our own hearts, but why?

Resentment finds its origin in a weakness of the will. A weak will becomes the breeding ground for resentment. Resentment arises from a weak will. John Paul II wrote a fantastic book that gives a lot of background philosophical thought to his Theology of the Body called “Love and Responsibility”, it is a wealth of breath taking insights into true love and I recommend it for any minds out there who might have a palette for such. In this book JP II writes the following: (Quote) “The fact is that attaining or realizing a higher value demands a greater effort of will. So in order to spare ourselves the effort, to excuse our failure to obtain this value, we minimize its significance, deny it the respect which it deserves, even see it as in some way evil, although objectivity requires to recognize that it is good.” (End quote) Two things are made apparent in this quote. 1) Since chastity is a value that demands a great effort of the will our weak wills will excuse ourselves from attaining it. 2) Since it is objectively a good and we are not trying to attain it we have to demonize it, that is, we come to resent it. John Paul II will continue to describe this as being the classic vice of sloth, which as all you vibrant catechism readers know is one of the 7 (wait for it) deadly sins. Sloth, as defined by the Angelic Doctor St. Thomas Aquinas is “a sadness arising from the fact that the good is difficult”. If the good is difficult and our will is weak we can become sad. But this sadness that we can feel at times at how hard and difficult it is to be chaste does not deny the goodness of chastity outright, but in actuality preserves a sliver of respect for chastity. Resentment takes it one step further and instead of making us sad convinces us that we need not even try to attain the good of chastity in our life and so, without much care and integrity, we do whatever is convenient and pleasurable when it comes to sexuality. These individual choices snowball into overpowering and consistent desires to do whatever is convenient and pleasurable. And thus the desire for pleasure takes the place of superior values. Pleasure supplants virtue and we resent chastity. All of this resentment finds its breeding ground in the weakness of our will.

As you can see we have gotten ourselves in quite the pickle, but it wasn’t eating a pickle that got us here. It was eating of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, which was the premier and supreme act putting on display the weakness of our will, which disobeyed even the simplest command. We can look at the prospect of living a chaste life and become paralyzed with how dauntless and relentless such a task can be. But the love of God “is as strong as death and relentless as the grave”, says the Song of Songs.

Because of the grace of God the struggle for chastity is a victory we can win. We might be backed into the corner, but we are able to fight back with His grace. Chastity, real, enduring, and life-giving chastity, by the grace of God, is within our grasp. Three practical tips to keep ourselves from buying into a resentment of chastity;

1) Do not let your struggles with chastity remain closed, hidden, in a dark closet, apart from the light of faith, truth, and grace. Talk about it with a friend you trust, keep each other accountable. Turn to the sacraments, confession especially. With regularity come before the Lord’s altar and receive him in the Eucharist. Pray for chastity, offer your rosary for purity, make it a point to God that you want his help!

2) Know the enemies strategy. I believe there are two main strategies that Satan masterfully uses with regards our sexuality to try and ruin us. Either he coaxes us to ignore the serious problem we have by denying that they exist and rationalizing our way out of addressing them or he burdens us with so much guilt and turmoil we are lead to despair. Avoid both! Don’t be too harsh of a judge on yourself that you won’t accept God’s mercy. Don’t be overly strict or too lax!

3) Humility, humility, humility! Be humble before your God and acknowledge your weakness so that you don’t give a chance for resentment to find a place in your heart. Confession is always a humbling time, good! Humility frees us from a whole slew of possible vices and temptations. St. Phillip Neri said, (quote) “Humility is the best safeguard of chastity.” (end quote) Living out life-giving chastity is possible with a little effort and a lot of grace!

Maybe you’re thinking, “Alright so I’m willing to do a lot for chastity, but what is chastity going to do for me?” “What is the long lasting benefit of a chaste life besides knowing I live in accord with Paragraph 2337 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church?”

Chaste love is the key to unlocking our vocation. Living a chaste life is integral to discovering our personal vocation in life. Chastity unlocks a lot of doors on the path to discerning our vocation in life. In my own life the path of impurity and unchaste relationships began, like for most young boys, because a friends dad had a ‘magazine’. I was in 5th grade during a sleep over at my house and of course the kid left the magazine at my house leaving me in charge of making sure we didn’t get caught. Well I did what every intelligent 5th grader would do I hid it under my pillow, because no parent would ever look there? Right? Obviously I got caught. But that didn’t change things I was primed for a difficult path to remain a young chaste man.

By the 9th grade I started dating seriously and each relationship I had we struggled with how far we would go. I remember countless nights with various girlfriends trying to discern if we did too much, of course for me all I was interested in was making sure the girl didn’t feel bad about it so we could still do similar things next time.

In 10th grade I dated a girl for the first time who actually stopped me from going beyond simple kissing and I was shocked, and sadly I broke up with her shortly thereafter. By the end of high school I had experienced a strong conversion in my faith life and started to feel the possibility of being called to the priesthood. I started dating a girl who was Catholic and was involved in youth ministry like I was. Thus, we shared a common faith and hit it off really well. Shortly though, my unchaste desires would push the relationship to be more sexual and I convinced myself that since it was with a person who I did holy things with too it was okay, as long as we didn’t have intercourse, that was the real sin.

But in my mind I struggled, I felt empty, I knew something wasn’t quite right. After graduating I went to World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto. While I was there I had a powerful confession where I confessed all of my impurities, even the ones I had hidden from confession prior to that. The day after that I heard John Paul II preach to the young people and as he preached I couldn’t help but shout in my heart these words, “I want to be a priest for that man, because he is doing something to change the world and I want to be a part of it.” After having made a definitive attempt to turn to living a more full chaste life within just a day the Spirit was leaping from my heart asking me to consider a vocation to the priesthood.

I came back home decided to end the wonderful relationship I had with my girlfriend and was going to enter the seminary immediately. My parents and I however decided to wait until after college. So I went to college where things took a drastic turn for the worst and I made real mess of things. I soon began to lose sight of the idea of being a priest. In college as I started dating again, I quickly discovered that the whole span of my dating life I was always willing to do whatever the girl was willing to do. And so when a girl, whom I only knew for a week, invited me to go all the way I regrettably gave her my virginity. The relationship spiraled into my shortest and most provocative sexual relationship of my entire life. After a month or so I remember being at her house and she asked if she could go to Mass with me. Not in a million years I thought to myself. I played the question off for the moment and then as I was driving home it hit me, my life is a mess this is not who I want to be and so I broke it off, went to confession and recommitted myself to a chaste lifestyle. Within 2 weeks I received a call from the director of priestly vocations of San Diego telling me about a new program of formation that would allow me to enter priestly formation while I was still in college.

Fresh off of another commitment to change my life I knew I was meant to enter. So began the struggle of chastity not with another person but solely within my own heart. It took many years of seminary to break from the patterns of impurity that plagued my life and finally the definitive break came at the end of my 4th year of seminary. It was also my first full year in Rome and I had everyday, since arriving in Rome, been praying every holy hour, reciting every rosary, and offering the reception of every Eucharist for a deep sense of permanence that I was called to be a chaste celibate priest. In that context I asked for purity and chastity to reign in my heart. During my time in Rome I lived chastely for the longest period of my life since my childhood and I would soon receive everything I was asking for in prayer. It became clear to me that the relationship I was having with Jesus, the deep intimate prayer life I experienced of him, could only be truly manifested in the priesthood.

Then, following that discernment I remember like it was yesterday one of the most powerful prayer experiences I’ve ever had. I was in Paris at the cathedral of Notre Dame in their side Blessed Sacrament Chapel and as I sat in that chair begging Mary to take away the remnants of my impurity I felt her presence near me, as if she was standing right in front of me. I felt her place her hands in mine and move to kiss me, with the most pure, chaste kiss of my life, on each side of my cheeks, and on the lips. The Spirit then placed an anointed word on my heart that just burst forth onto the pages of my journal from Mary, she said, “Jacob, give me all of your love.”

I finally knew after years of repairing my bridge of chastity how to give my love to another person. I knew I was meant to give it to Mary and the Church, whom she represents. Chastity was the key to unlocking my vocation. Even though it might not be too obvious, living a chaste life is integral to discerning your vocation.

St. Terése of Liseuix when describing the moment she knew her vocation wrote, (quote) “Beside myself with joy, I cried out: ‘Jesus my love, my vocation at last I have found it, my vocation is love’. Everybody’s vocation is love, but the question is how you will carry that love of Jesus from your heart to the hearts of others and you’ll never be able to carry that love fully to the one it is meant for without the bridge of chastity. Here in these upcoming moments in the Mass lose yourself in the Eucharist, let your own passionate love be re-oriented towards our Lord’s presence in the bread and wine that become his Body and Blood, for it is here in the Eucharist that he will take care of the daily maintenance necessary to make you a most chaste spouse either of another person for marriage, of Jesus for religious sisters, or Mary and the Church for priests.

Homily - Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady

Readings:

 Rv 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab

Ps. 45:10, 11, 12, 16 

 1 Cor 15:20-27

 Luke 1:39-52

The writings of Benedict XVI have over the past two years influenced me and moved me greatly. In his book “Jesus of Nazareth”, a must read, he had this to say about the saints: “The lives of the saints are the true interpreters of the word of God.” Nobody understands the Word of God better than those holy men and women who reflected deeply on the scriptures and lived out their vocation to do God’s will. Their lives serve as a hermeneutic tool, an interpretive key, to help understand the scriptures and their message.

If this is the case for all the saints how much more it is the case for our Blessed Mother, who by the power of the Holy Spirit conceived the Word of God, Jesus Christ, in her womb. No person on earth has ever been closer to the Word of God. Thus, Mary is quite at home with God’s Word, she lived on God’s Word and with God’s word and was penetrated by God’s word both physically and spiritually. Her whole life revealed the truth about God’s Word, she spoke God’s words, she thought with God’s words, her thoughts were God’s thoughts, her words, God’s words. The Light of Life was kept in her care endowing her with an inner enlightenment of wisdom and this is why her life, resplendent with truth, interprets the Word of God more truly than any other person to live on earth.

In today’s Gospel we hear a beautiful song of Mary, what the Church calls her “Magnificat”. This whole song is a clear expression of how Mary truly pondered the Word of God and it is really a reflection of her spiritual journey with God. By proclaiming the words of this Magnificat Mary wants to invite us into her inner life; to love and know the Word of God that lived inside her, to live with the Word of God that she brought up and to think with the Word of God that she taught. And by the gift of the Church we can do so in so many different ways: by reading sacred Scripture, by praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament, by most especially participating in the liturgy and of course receiving the Eucharist, where the Word of God is made present in the form of bread and wine.

By her life Mary opens the Word of God to our lives and makes it present in our lives. But, what is the interpretation, what is the message she reveals to us with her life?

If we were to examine her whole life, from the nativity, to the visitation, the wedding at Cana, to the foot of the Cross, and try to sum up everything Mary would want to say that message of the scriptures is that “God is to be great in the world and in our lives”.

God is to be great in the world and in our lives.

This message is expressed in the Magnificat when Mary says “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, My soul magnifies his greatness.”

Too often in today’s world are we afraid that God might be a “rival” in our life, that he might encroach on our freedom, our own personal space. And so the thought of modern society echoes and rings:

“God does not give us our freedom, with all his commandments, he restricts the space in our lives. So God has to disappear; we want to be autonomous and independent. Without God we ourselves would be gods and do as we pleased. Then we will be truly free and have the full beauty of life.”

But when God disappears, men and women do not become greater; indeed they lose their divine dignity. In the end, they turn out to be merely products of a blind evolution and, as such, can be used and abused. This is precisely what the experience of recent generations has confirmed for us.

Mary says the opposite of modern society. “God is to be great in our world and in our lives.” Only if God is great is humankind also great. We must not drift away from God but make God present and ensure that he is great in our lives and then all the splendor and divine dignity that He has given to us freely will be ours.

We should make God great both in our public life and private life. This means making room for Him in our everyday lives, dedicating time to God in prayer, giving him time on Sundays and Holy Days. We do not waste our free time if we offer it to God. If God enters into our time, all time becomes greater, roomier, and richer.

The mystery of the Assumption confirms all of this for us. If Mary spent her life doing nothing but making God great in her life, than how fitting it is that she would be raised Body and Soul into the glory of heaven, where as Queen of Heaven and having received the complete fullness of the fruits of salvation, that Christ won on the Cross, she can glorify God.

How great it is to know that we have a Mother in Heaven. By being in heaven she can now be close to us, she knows our hearts, she can hear our prayers, and helps us with her motherly kindness.

Mary made God great in her life by saying “yes” to his will and allowing his Word to penetrate her entire person. The Church provides us with the same pattern when we receive the Eucharist. We say Amen, Yes it is so, and receive the body and blood of the Word of God made flesh into our inner being empowering us to make God great in our lives.

Homily for 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Readings: 
Ecclesiastes 1:2;2:21-23
Psalm 90
Colossians 3:1-5, 9-11
Luke 12:13-21


A true story, however, I’ve changed the names of priests. There once was a wise old priest, named Father John, and a young excitable priest, lets call him Father Jacob. Father Jacob was traveling through the area and Father John allowed him to stay in the guest room one day. They were chatting in Fr. John’s room and Fr. Jacob was admiring its simplicity: it had only one bookshelf, one closet, a desk, a crucifix, and an uncomfortable reading chair. Fr. Jacob said, “Your room is so plain. Where do you keep the rest of your stuff?” Fr. John replied, “This is it.” “But it is so simple”, Father Jacob countered. Fr. John cleverly said, “Well, if I walk down to your room all you’ve got is your suitcase!” Fr. Jacob replied, “Well, sure, but, after all, I leave to keep traveling tomorrow, I’m just passing through.” Fr. John said, “Aren’t we all.” 
“I’m just passing through.” “Aren’t we all?” The wisdom that is contained in this simple remark is the truth that we are being reminded of from today’s readings. Namely, that all of us, when it comes to this world, are just passing through, that, although, we live in this world we are not of this world. Why is this an important message? Why does Jesus make it such a common theme in his preaching to teach us not to be too caught up with the things of this world? 

One reason is because the things of this world are fleeting. When we cling to the world the joy we seek escapes us. As our first reading so boldly proclaims; “Vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!” and thus the pleasures of the world are illusive to us! A good question to ponder is what exactly does vanity mean? Egoism, pride, self-centeredness, these are all words that come to mind but they all are unable to really capture the true meaning of the original Hebrew and Greek. In fact, our English word vanity doesn’t encompass all that is contained in the original context. The primary meaning of this word translated as ‘vanity’, scholars tell us, is the image of ‘mist’. So, “Mist of mist. All things are mist.” Now there’s a great image for understanding the world in relation to us, it’s like … mist. Think about mist for a second, you can see it, you can get close to it, but once you get to it you just pass through. There’s no substance there, there’s nothing truly worthwhile and so the things of the world, when the Lord asks you to make an accounting of your life, mean nothing, they are but mist. The things of the world, when we go after them, will escape us and leave us out to dry. 

What’s the most ‘misty’ like thing in our world? What is it that every time we seek it out it comes and goes, passes like the wind, like mist that we can’t really grab onto? In my opinion, it’s instant gratification. Think about it … instant gratification is ‘misty’, it sort of baits us in and after we’ve experienced it nothing remains, just a memory. Think of eating for example. There are two main parts to eating the taste and the nutrients that goes into our body. If we only ever eat what tastes good and never eat anything for the nutrients we will only gratify our desires and never give our bodies the nourishment we need. The same effect happens to our soul with all earthly pleasures. When we seek out to get instant gratification more often then we seek to give our souls the nourishment it needs we leave our souls malnourished. Because there’s nothing good for our souls when we indulge in the pleasures of the world. For example sexual pleasures; impure thoughts, gawking at members of the opposite sex, looking at pornography, all of these temptations, which the modern secular media has canonized as normal healthy living, all of these things are vanity, they are like mist, why? Because they all do not satisfy what is truly at the heart of our sexual desires, that is, to be in a loving committed relationship with a person of the opposite sex who has given themselves totally over to us through marriage. Now that has substance. You look at any couple in this parish who has been married for 25, 30, 35 or more years and you see substance, true love. If you ask them they will tell you it hasn’t been easy, but they know that their life has meaning because they have given themselves in marriage to that other person. Instant gratification, which is the Gospel message of the secular world, is like mist. 

And so as Christians, in order to be not of the world we must turn away from instant gratification, which only leaves our souls empty. When we strive to follow Jesus Christ we must reject the hollow mist and turn towards God to fulfill us. The meaning of our soul, which is not of this world, will be gutted out if we try to fill it with the mist of instant gratification. Thus, we would be wise to listen to the advice of St. Paul in today’s second reading, “Put to death the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed.” We are called as Christians to do what most people in today’s world would laugh at, to deny ourselves, to die to ourselves, and live the new life fully that has been given to us in Baptism. As St. Paul reminds the Colossians “You have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in the image of its creator.” Wow! That is quite the task and it is what we are called to do by virtue of our baptism so that we may fill our lives up to the brim with joy, peace, and love. As Christians, we reject the hollow mist of instant gratification and turn towards a life with God by following Jesus Christ. 
Now at this point there hopefully should be a little bit of tension rubbing within you. A tension that says okay, I know I should avoid the sins of the world, that’s obvious … but how do I live in this world and be not of this world? How do I go about storing up treasures in heaven like Jesus wants me too? 

The Christian life calls us to live at a different level, which contributes to the coming of the Kingdom. Being baptized in the name of Jesus transforms us into children of God who work to bring about, by his grace, the fulfillment of God’s kingdom. We operate in this world at a level that non-Christians cannot even begin to grasp, which contributes our very own person to the Kingdom of Heaven. There are three basic levels of happiness that we can attain in this world. The first is the material level, wherein our physical needs and desires are satisfied. The second level is the psychological or emotional level, wherein our emotional needs and desires are satisfied. Then there is the contributive level, wherein we can satisfy a need and desire deep within us to contribute not just work, time, money, or what have you to a cause, but literally our very ownselves. At the very center of our being we desire to be given as a gift, to have our very own person be a gift that others cannot live without, that is, to contribute our very own selves. Nobody, except a baptized Christian can contribute themselves for the cause of ushering in God’s kingdom. Thus, our lives, as Catholics, operate on a different level when we truly embrace it to build up God’s kingdom. 

Learning how to live in this world and be not of this world begins right here at the Eucharistic feast. We, as Catholics, participate in a true sacrifice for the sake of our sins. We are all priests of the new covenant, by virtue of our baptism, and we offer ourself as a spiritual sacrifice, and … everything else we bring with us, that means our family member whose sick we offer to God, our children whose away from the Church we offer to God, our atheist friend who curses the name of Jesus we offer to God, all our daily activities, our work, school, studies, taking care of the household, all of that we bring to this altar and offer to God, begging him to bless everything that goes on during this next week. And in doing so we consecrate ourselves and our week to be an instrument that aids in bringing about the reign of God over all the earth. Here, today, at this altar where in a real way heaven kisses earth we begin to order your life in such a way that you can live in this world but not be of this world. 

The most important reason to do this is found in the parable that Jesus says today in the Gospel. There will come a point in our lives where we will have to make an accounting of our life before the Lord and show all that we have contributed as well as all the vanity, or mist, we sought out that did nothing for our good or the good of his kingdom, but the good thing is that as we show him the different parts of our life his facial expression will never turn sour, because he gazes on the totality of our lives with pure love, a love that forced him to open his arms on the cross. Our sins demanded his death, and his resurrection now demands our life and so we strive to give it to him everyday, especially in the Eucharist.