Below is a video series that All Saints Catholic Church, one of my 4 parishes, called "Rise Up". It also is a summary of my homily yesterday for the 4th Sunday of Easter.
Monday, April 22, 2024
4th Sunday of Easter, 2024
Monday, April 15, 2024
You Can't Eat a Eucharistic Miracle
First Communion 2024
Dear young people, I have some bad news for you, but then I
want to explain how it is good news.
Your first Eucharist that you will receive in just a few
minutes will likely taste just like the 2 practice hosts that you received at
practice a few days ago. And a lot of
Catholics and non-Catholics ask why the bread, when consecrated, does not turn
into visible flesh and blood.
The good news is that the bread and wine, when a priest prays
the words of consecration over them, still has the appearance of bread and wine
so that we can still eat Him.
In the history of the Catholic Church there have been about
200 times where, at Mass, when the priest prayed over the bread and wine, the
host did turn into human flesh and blood.
The problem is that then no one was able to consume Jesus. The Flesh and Blood of Jesus were all put
behind glass and preserved in some way.
So again, it is actually great news that Jesus comes to us
under the APPEARANCE of bread so that we can still consume Him.
And He changes us, over time, into Himself. That is why your parents and relatives who
are here this morning need to keep bringing you back on Sundays and Holy Days…Jesus
works on us slowly…the transformation into Jesus is a life-long process…
Thursday, April 11, 2024
Cowardice and St. Stanislaus
“Cowardice” a Homily for the Memorial
of St. Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr
I was
blessed to give a witness talk and have the Mass yesterday at a local senior
retreat. I then enjoyed lunch with the seniors
and the retreat chaperones. While in
line, someone took the Lord’s name in vain.
I am not sure if it was a chaperone or a student, but I know other
people heard it, and that other people knew I heard it, and other people saw
that I didn’t do anything to correct it.
Today the
Church remembers St. Stanislaus, who was a bishop in Poland martyred by a King
that St. Stanislaus stood up to. The
reading in the Breviary today for St. Stanislaus is from Saint Cyprian, and his
letter ends in this way “The soldier of Christ, trained by Christ’s commands
and instructions, does not begin to panic at the thought of battle, but is
ready for the crown of victory.”
As I was
reading that this morning, I was convicted that St. Stanislaus stood up to a
king, and I didn’t correct a person out of fear. I resolved, this morning in the confessional,
to go back to the retreat and apologize to anyone who heard this person take
the Lord’s name in vain and also saw me not do anything to correct him.
I love the
Catholic Church for so many reasons, and one of the reasons I love the Catholic Church is that the Church
sees EVERY action of ours to have eternal repercussions, NOTHING is
insignificant…and so I sinned in not correcting the person, and I sinned by the
scandal I caused…and so I am going to confess that sin but also make
reparations for my sins and go and apologize, and hopefully, in doing that, the
next time something like this happens, and I will have the courage to correct a
person out of love. Amen.
"Christ's Glorified Body Still Has Wounds???" Divine Mercy 2024
Divine Mercy 2024 “Christ’s Glorified
Body Still Has His Wounds???”
Leading up
to Divine Mercy Sunday in 2020, I was in my room at the Mayo Clinic having had
several brain surgeries. I was doing
Mass every day from my hospital room, but had plenty of time to research my
homilies. I was thinking then about
Christ’s Resurrected and Glorified Body still having wounds from His
Crucifixion. The Catholic Church teaches
that everyone, at the final judgment, will have their soul and body reunited,
and that the bodies of those entering Heaven will be perfect…so I was thinking “Why
does Jesus’s Glorified Body still has wounds”?
And it turns
out that St. Thomas Aquinas, 800 years ago, asked the same question and has a
really beautiful answer… St. Thomas said, essentially, that Christ’s resurrected
Body still has his wounds because they were earned out of love, and so seeing
his wounds in Heaven will cause us all the more to be thankful for his
sacrifice for us.
And that
made sense to me, and I preached from my hospital room 4 years ago that I hope
all the victims of priestly sexual assault will still see my wounds, and that
we will be able to rejoice together.
Everyone
here today has wounds and scars…some scars come from surgeries or injuries or
cancer, and many of us also have hidden scars of depression, anxiety, or the mental
and emotional scars of watching a person that we love suffer.
Again, the
beautiful teaching of the Catholic Church is that EVERY SINGLE DROP of our
suffering can be offered up for other people.
If you haven’t done that yet, I invite you to do that now…there’s no
magic formula… you can just say some version of “Jesus I offer my suffering up
for _______” or “I offering my suffering up for wherever you see the graces are
most needed” and hopefully, when you get to Heaven, those who you have suffered
for will be able to see your scars and rejoice together with you!
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
Does Jesus Hate Women? Homily for Tuesday in the Octave of Easter, 2024
“Stop Holding on to Me” Tuesday in
the Octave of Easter 2024
Jesus makes
a strange demand of Mary Magdalene in today’s Gospel “stop holding on to me” Does he not women to touch him? St. Thomas Aquinas quotes St. Augustine on this
Passage: St. Augustine says this: “Didn’t Jesus tell Thomas to touch His
side? Who can be so absurd as to suppose
that disciples should touch Him before He ascended to His Father, but not that
women should touch Him before He ascended?
We read of women touching Him before He ascended, including Mary
Magdalene herself in Matthew’s Gospel (Matthew 28:9 “And behold, Jesus met them
[Mary Magdalene and the other Mary] on their way and greeted them. They
approached, embraced his feet.”)
Rather, St.
Augustine points out that Jesus commands Mary Magdalene not to touch yet in
this Gospel because Mary Magdalene was still weeping at the tomb, and so believed in Him
only as a man. Also, St. John Chrysostom
says that Jesus also told Mary Magdalene not to touch Him “so as to allow
her to feel awe in talking with Him, as Jesus also no longer keeps company with
His disciples”
Monday, April 1, 2024
Easter 2024
Easter 2024
Christmas is
a time that most of us can, as human persons, identify with…most notably the joy
of the birth of a child. We all know mothers
who have given birth to children, and those are causes for great celebration.
But Easter
and the events leading up to Easter are very foreign to us on a natural level…we
need to remember that all that was necessary for Jesus to save us from Hell was
for Jesus to die and resurrect. And because
Jesus created space and time, Jesus could have set up the Old Testament
prophecies any way He wanted to, so we are faced with this confusing reality
that Jesus CHOSE to be TORTURED to death and then resurrect. as St. Peter reminds us in our first reading
today “To Jesus all the prophets bear witness”.
It is clear to us, as we look back through the Old Testament with
hindsight, we do see how nearly every line of the Old Testament points not just
to Jesus’ death, but to his immense suffering that He would undergo.
What are we
to take from this? I think one thing we
can say definitively is that Jesus came not only to save us but to show us how
to live, and In the Gospels, over and over again, Jesus says some variation of “if
you want to live, pick up your cross of suffering and follow Me”
Jesus
Christ, in CHOOSING to be tortured to death, has made holy our suffering
too, and that is the great news of Easter…by Jesus’ Resurrection, He has definitely shown that His triumph over death was through suffering, and so our suffering as well
has a sanctifying effect in our life now, in the lives of other people if we
offer our sufferings up for them, and, thirdly, our suffering in imitation of
Christ also helps us draw closer to Heaven.
Jesus Christ
SUFFERED death, but was resurrected today.
Amen. Alleluia!!!
Saturday, March 30, 2024
Good Friday 2024
Good Friday 2024
There are 5 precepts in the Catholic Church. What is a precept? The Catechism says that:
“The obligatory character of these laws are the necessary minimum
in the spirit of prayer and moral effort, in the growth in love of God and
neighbor:
The
first precept ("You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of
obligation unless you are sick or caring for someone who is sick
The
second precept is that you shall confess your sins at least once a year. This required confession at least once a year
ensures proper preparation for the Eucharist.
95% of Catholics surveyed reported NOT following either the first
precept or not following the 2nd or not following either one.
St. Paul in his 2nd Letter to the Thessalonians says
there will be a great falling away from the Catholic Church during or near the
time of the anti-Christ. 95% of American
Catholics have admitted themselves that they don’t take Jesus and the
Church seriously.
And Jesus asks a haunting question in Luke’s Gospel…when the Son
of Man comes, will he find Faith on Earth…
One of the most beautiful descriptions of our standard approach to
Jesus was written by Fr. Thomas Merton.
Fr. Merton writes this:
"I suppose it is usual for elder brothers, when they are still
children, to feel themselves demeaned by the company of a brother four or five
years younger, whom they regard as a baby and whom they tend to patronise and
look down upon. So when Russ and I and Bill made huts in the woods out of
boards and tar-paper which we collected around the foundations of the many
cheap houses which the speculators were now putting up, as fast as they could,
all over Douglaston, we severely prohibited John Paul and Russ’s little brother
Tommy and their friends from coming anywhere near us. And if they did try to
come and get into our hut, or even to look at it, we would chase them away with
stones.
When I think now of that part of my childhood, the picture I get
of my brother John Paul is this: standing in a field, about a hundred yards
away from the clump of sumachs where we have built our hut, is this little
perplexed five-year-old kid in short pants and a kind of a leather jacket,
standing quite still, with his arms hanging down at his sides, and gazing in
our direction, afraid to come any nearer on account of the stones, as insulted
as he is saddened, and his eyes full of indignation and sorrow. And yet he does
not go away. We shout at him to get out of there, to beat it, and go home, and
wing a couple of more rocks in that direction, and he does not go away. We tell
him to play in some other place. He does not move.
And there he stands, not sobbing, not crying, but angry and
unhappy and offended and tremendously sad. And yet he is fascinated by what we
are doing, nailing shingles all over our new hut. And his tremendous desire
to be with us and to do what we are doing will not permit him to go away. The
law written in his nature says that he must be with his elder brother, and do
what he is doing: and he cannot understand why this law of love is being so
wildly and unjustly violated in his case.
Many times it was like that. And in a sense, this terrible
situation is the pattern and prototype of all sin: the deliberate and formal
will to reject disinterested love for us for the purely arbitrary reason that
we simply do not want it. We work to separate ourselves from that
love. We reject it entirely and absolutely, and will not acknowledge it.”
We all need to stop throwing stones at Jesus to keep Jesus away
from us. We need to let Jesus, who is
perfect love, flood our hearts.
Jesus is not a dictator nor is he an egomaniac who demands that we
worship Him on Sundays and confess our sins once a year…Jesus made us and knows
what is best for us…let us recommit to allowing perfect love to once again
flood our being. Amen.
Monday, March 25, 2024
Homily for Palm Sunday 2024
“Perfect Love Casts Out All Fear!”
Most of the people in our Gospel today act out of fear. Every Apostle flees when soldiers come to
arrest Jesus. Peter, after promising to
never abandon Jesus, several hours later denies even knowing Jesus three times
out of fear.
Pontius Pilate knows Jesus is innocent, but out of fear of
the Jews and fear of losing his power, condemns Jesus to death anyway.
Many of us are tempted to be fearful. Certainly the Devil has a lot of ammunition
to make us fearful in 2024…wars, rumors of wars, plagues, elections…
But Jesus says, over and over again “DO NOT BE AFRAID!” The phrase “do not be afraid” is the most frequent
phrase in the Bible.
If you heard Fr. Vince Lampert’s talk, he confirms that the
Devil wants us afraid, wants us to think God is NOT in control and that God is
NOT in charge. But the Devil is a liar.
One of the few people who does not act out of fear in the
events surrounding Jesus’ Crucifixion is Jesus’ best friend the Apostle
John. St. John the Apostle stands by the foot of the Cross unafraid and unwavering. And the Apostle John has written
several letters that are in the New Testament.
In one of those letters St. John writes “Perfect Love casts out ALL fear” (1 John 4:18)
At this and every Mass, Jesus, who is Perfect Love, shows up
when the priest prays the Words of Consecration. At the end of this Mass you will have the
opportunity to spend a few minutes in silent adoration in the Real Presence of
Perfect Love. Whatever you might be
afraid of in your life today…turn those fears over to Jesus who is Perfect
Love, and ask Jesus to cast out all your fears.
You will be amazed at what will happen!
Friday, February 23, 2024
The Scandal of Rupnik
When I was still on Twitter, when the logo for the year of mercy was released in 2015, I commented that it was hideous.
I stand by that assessment...the oversized eyes, the melding of one of their eyes...it is creepy and hideous.
And then all the allegations have come out against the artist Fr. Rupnik...that he allegedly convinced religious sisters to have sex with him so that he could create his art.
Some, defending the idea that Rupnik's "art" should remain in Catholic Churches all over the world say some form of "Well, Carvaggio was a drunk and may have murdered someone; are you going to take down all of his work as well?"
But here is a big distinction: Carvaggio never murdered someone to help make his art.
Rupnik allegedly sexually enticed religious sisters and then allegedly absolved them of that same sin in the confessional, which incurs a latae sentiae excommunication on Rupnik if he in fact did that.
Caravaggio never did anything that incurred a latae sententiae excommunication to make his art.
And Caravaggio's paintings are masterpieces, and Rupnik's art is hideous and creepy.
1st Sunday of Lent, 2024, The Angelus
The Angelus
A recent survey found that 90% of Americans believe in angels, which is a greater percentage than believe in God, which does not make much sense to me, but hardly anything makes sense to me in the United States in 2024.
Almost every CHAPTER in the Bible mentions angels. Including our Gospel today, which says the angels ministered to Jesus in the desert.
At every Mass, we believe that in a special and unique way ALL the Angels and saints are present here, eventhough we cannot see them...and no other Christian denomination believes that about their worship service.
At Mass, when the priest finishes the preface he says some version of "now with all the angels and saints, let us together acclaim...Holy Holy Holy..."
That is the exact phrase that both Ezekiel in the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation say that the angels and saints are singing unceasingly and without end...we are literally singing WITH the angels.
As I always say, the Catholic Church has a buffet of options for prayers and devotions, and not every prayer will be helpful for every Catholic, but one prayer that Fr. Meyer and I both pray is the "Angelus". We start every morning in the rectory chapel with the Angelus at 6am. The Pope every Sunday prays the angelus at noon and then gives a short reflection to those gathered in St. Peter's Square.
A parishioner donated cards with the prayers of the Angelus on it, and so I will ask the ushers to come forward at this time and pass out the cards to anyone who is interested, and/or looking for something to do during Lent.
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
Ash Wednesday 2024
2 Things for Ash Wednesday
1) Give up something that you never want to go back to. 10 years ago, I gave up TV for Lent and on Easter I started watching TV again. The next year, I gave up TV for Lent, and after Lent I was hardly watching it, but by the time Lent rolled around again, I was back watching an hour a day. I gave up TV for a third lent...and now, for the last 4 years or so, I don't even miss TV.
2) Pick at least one partner who will hold you accountable. I have always had a gym membership, and I have noticed that the gym crowd swells on January 2nd from all of the people who make New Year's resolutions, but a week later it is always back to the regulars. But I have also noticed another thing...the aerobics classes and exercise classes that meet every week...they keep coming after January 7th and come all year...why...because there is a community and there is accountability..."where's Jan...oh she is on vacation in Florida...she'll be back next week" Maybe you are a part of a Bible study or a small group...let them know what you are doing and meet weekly to pray and talk about how you are doing with your Lenten resolutions.
Saturday, February 10, 2024
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
The Best Catholic Novels
There are a lot of great Catholic novels out there. Here are my top recommendations:
"Lord of the Rings" and the "Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien
“Toward the Gleam” by T.M. Doran…a must for any Tolkien Fan! https://ignatius.com/toward-the-gleam-toglh/
“Atticus” by Ron Hansen…written by a Catholic Deacon, one of
the best novels I have ever read https://www.amazon.com/Atticus-Novel-Ron-Hansen/dp/0060927860
A Trilogy by Brian Gail
"Fatherless" https://cedarhouse.co/fatherless/
"Motherless" https://cedarhouse.co/motherless/
"Childless" https://cedarhouse.co/childless/
The following are all written by Michael O’Brien:
"Father Elijah" https://ignatius.com/father-elijah-fep/
"A Father’s Tale" https://ignatius.com/the-fathers-tale-ftp/
A Trilogy by Michael O’Brien
"Strangers and Sojourners" https://ignatius.com/strangers-and-sojourners-sasp/
"Eclipse of the Sun" https://ignatius.com/eclipse-of-the-sun-esunp/
"Plague Journal" https://ignatius.com/plague-journal-pjp/
"A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens https://ignatius.com/a-tale-of-two-cities-7ttcp/
"Kristen Lavransdatter" by Sigrid Undset https://ignatius.com/kristin-lavransdatter-klp/
"The Death of a Pope" by Piers Paul Read https://ignatius.com/the-death-of-a-pope-doph/
These final two were authored by Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson:
"Come Rack, Come Rope" https://tanbooks.com/products/books/come-rack-come-rope-ebook/?h_campaign_id=436318446&bng_id=1363396189114446&h_ad_id=85212676805031
"Lord of the World" https://tanbooks.com/products/books/lord-of-the-world/
Monday, January 29, 2024
Deaconesses?
Currently in Canon Law, Canon 1370 says this:
"3. Both a person who attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive the sacred order, incur a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See"
What that means is that no priest can absolve any person who attempts to ordain a woman to the diaconate, nor can any priest absolve the woman who is "ordained". Instead, the priest who hears this in the confessional has to write to Rome in order to get permission to absolve the "ordainer" and/or the woman "ordained".
There has been some talk over the last 50 years about ordaining women as deacons. My question is this:
Can something that is currently a crime in the Catholic Church that a priest cannot grant absolution for suddenly be reversed and become Catholic teaching?
Sunday, January 28, 2024
4th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2023 "If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts!"
“If today you hear His voice, harden
not your hearts!”
The first
time I ever saw Eucharistic Adoration when I was a seminarian at St. Meinrad,
and I instantly fell in love with it…and I can look back over time and see how
the holy hours have made me an infinitely better person…I still have a long way
to go but they have me infinitely better.
As Father
Patrick Hyde talked about when he came to Dearborn County in November… just as nuclear
radiation in a negative way reorients every atom of our being without us
feeling the effects at first, being in the Presence of Jesus exposed in a
monstrance reorients every fiber of our body and soul and over time changes us
more and more for the better.
The average American
spends two thirds of their waking hours staring at glass screens whether it is
smart phones, tablets, laptops or television sets…and I just want to say that
the only glass screen that will bring us any lasting peace is staring at the
glass screen of a monstrance with Jesus’ Real Presence right behind it.
Starting on
Ash Wednesday, there will be a new perpetual adoration chapel at St. Mary’s in
Aurora…and we also be making an appeal to every parishioner next weekend to
fill out a card to sign up for at least one hour each week at the adoration
chapel.
I was
listening to Catholic Radio on the way to Mass this morning here at St. Mary’s
and a gentleman was recounting how he was baptized a Catholic at a young age,
and fell away from the Catholic Faith…made millions of dollars…but was also
addicted to alcohol…and when he hit rock bottom he went to the Catholic Church
which was locked. He said he walked
around the corner, and there was what he would later learn is a perpetual
adoration chapel. He said he slept in
the room, and when he woke up, he felt such a calm sense of peace, and that
time in the adoration chapel put him back on the right course.
Next weekend
after all the Masses, we will be asking you to sign up for an hour. I love the psalm from today for many reasons,
and it is “If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts..” so Fr. Meyer
and I just ask that you spend this coming week asking Jesus to show you what He
wants from you in regard to an hour of adoration.
Saturday, January 20, 2024
Saturday, January 6, 2024
Homily for Epiphany 2023
Homily for the Epiphany, 2023
“And having been warned in a dream
not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.”
In this
action of the Magi, returning to their country by another way, many Church
Fathers and Saints have seen this as a metaphor for what happens when EACH of
us encounters Christ…we take a new path after encountering Christ. And we all encounter Jesus Christ every time we come to Mass!
We live in a
culture that is saturated with gossip and slander…there are gossip tv shows,
gossip magazines, gossip websites, gossip newspapers and even entire cable
channels devoted 24 hours a day to celebrity gossip and slander.
All the
social media platforms reward you for gossiping and slandering other people.
I used to
gossip all the time…I would gossip and slander other people from sun up to sun
down. But I bought an audio version of
the New Testament about 5 years ago, and listening to it over and over again, I
was struck particularly by how so many sins committed with our speech, if left
unconfessed, the New Testament authors say those sins will keep us out of
Heaven.
Saint Paul
says in First Corinthians chapter 6 That slanderers will not inherit the
Kingdom of God.
Saint Paul
tells the Galatians that “The acts of the flesh are obvious: discord, fits of
rage, dissensions…I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this
will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
The Book of
Proverbs talks over and over again about how those who spread gossip are
destined for calamity
Jesus says
what goes into the mouth does not defile a person, but what comes out of the
mouth is what defiles them.
Even
spreading something we KNOW to be true about another person is a sin if it
paints that person in a bad light…that sin is the sin of detraction. Of course we need to tell the proper
authorities if we see something happen that is a crime, but detraction is along
the lines of “You won’t believe what I saw Lysander do this morning…”
I have two
things to be particularly in rooting out the sins of gossip and slander from my
life:
1 Monthly
confession
2 Now, any
time I am tempted to gossip or slander someone, I stop and pray a Hail Mary for
that person in my head
The
Catechism says “everyone enjoys a natural right to the honor of his name and
reputation and to respect.”
In Ephesians
4 St. Paul says that we should “say only the good things that people need to
hear, things that will really help them”
I used to
come to my parents, and spend the first of couple of minutes “venting” to them
about all the “problems” but I also realized about 5 years ago that “venting”
1 Is not “saying
only the good things that people need to hear, things that will really help
them”
2 Does not
do any good for my family and friends, and wastes their time
Let us
resolve to totally change our course, like the Magi to take a new road home,
because our speech can often get us in trouble, and sins of gossip and slander
and detraction, if left unconfessed, will keep us out of Heaven.
Let us
instead commit to the new road home of saying only the good things that people
need to hear
Thursday, January 4, 2024
A Homily from then-Cardinal Ratzinger 40 years before his death
This is an excerpt from a homily Cardinal Ratzinger gave about 40 years before he died on December 31st, 2022:
"This year is ending. This means, as always, that we spend a few minutes in reflection. We draw up balance-sheets and make an effort to anticipate what the future may bring. For a moment we become conscious of the strange thing called "time," which otherwise we simply use without thinking about it. We feel both the melancholy and the consolation of our own transiency. Much that caused us distress, much that weighed us down and seemed to make progress impossible, has now passed and become quite unimportant. As we look back, difficult days are transfigured in memory, and the now almost forgotten distress leaves us more peaceful and confident, more composed in the face of present treats, for these too will pass. The consolation of transiency: Nothing lasts, no matter how important it claims to be. But this compromise, also has its discouraging and saddening aspect. nothing lasts, and therefore along with the old year not only difficulties but mush that is beautiful has passed away, and the more we move beyond the midpoint of our lives, the more poignantly we feel this change of what was once future and then present into something past. We cannot say to any moment: "Stay a while! you are so lovely!" Anything that is within time comes and then passes away."
Wednesday, January 3, 2024
The final battle will be over marriage and the family
“The final battle will be over Marriage
and the Family”
One of the 3
children who were graced with visions at Fatima in 1917 was Lucia dos Santos. Our Blessed Mother asked the 3 children in
1917 to let everyone know that there would be a great miracle, and when that
day and time arrived, the Sun darted all over the sky for several minutes, and was
witnessed by over 70,000 people, some were atheist and non-Catholic newspaper reporters
and photographers who witnessed the Sun moving all over the sky. Lucy has since died, and Pope Francis several
years ago made her a venerable, putting her on the path to Sainthood.
Lucy said,
before she died, “The final battle between the Lord and the kingdom of Satan
will be about Marriage and the Family. Don't be afraid because whoever works
for the sanctity of Marriage and the Family will always be fought against and
opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue.”
We have seen
marriage and the family in the United States under assault for at least the
last 100 years, and more recently marriage and the family have been under
attack even from WITHIN some corners of the Catholic Church.
And so I
just want to say tonight that those who are in a marriage recognized by the
Catholic Church, and who are open to life…THANK YOU!
As a priest,
just know that I am SO inspired by all of you that are living out your marriage
as the calendars prepares to turn to 2024…I know it is not easy but marriages
and families that are pursuing holiness INSPIRE me and every other priest.
We have some
great readings this weekend about marriage…about wives being submissive to
their husbands and about husbands loving their wives as Christ loves the Church…I
think it is important to recognize that Jesus says in another Gospel passage, “The
rulers of the gentiles LORD it over them, but among you it shall not be so. Whoever among you wishes to be great will
become the SERVANT of all…” True authority
comes not from exerting power over another, but from serving everyone.”
Again, thank
you to all the families in this parish trying to make it work…may the Holy
Family intercede for all of us today and every day!
Wednesday, December 27, 2023
Christmas 2023
A Christmas Letter from Jesus
My Friends,
Thank you
for coming and celebrating my birthday tonight (today). I, like you, enjoy celebrating, and what we
celebrate tonight is cause for much celebration because 2000 years ago, when I
was born, people first began to realize that they were no longer in darkness,
but that the light was attainable again.
People began to realize that I had opened a way for them not just back into the
Garden of Paradise, but the infinitely greater gift of the opportunity to dwell in and with God! As my beloved friend
and disciple writes in his letter that you just heard:
The people
who walked in darkness have seen a great light!
Although
this is cause for much celebration, I want to write to you about
something. I am human, like you, and so
I recognize that for a lot of you, Christmas is a time of pain. Many of you have been blessed growing up with
wonderful Christmas memories. Let’s
pause there and just smile thinking about those celebrations of the past. Know that in those past celebrations I was
there with you, in the midst of your celebrations, and your joy brought great
joy to me.
But on this
side of Heaven, as we know, things can change.
A lot of you are sitting here at this Mass with a sadness because, if it
were up to you, a certain person or a group of people would still be with you
tonight (Today). Through the years, this congregation has lost
brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, sons and daughters. Some of you are sad tonight (today) because
you are separated from those who are still living, but are not able to make it
home for Christmas. Either way, whatever
the cause of the separation, there is no pain like the separation of people who
love each other. I want to say to you
tonight (Today) that I walk with you in your sorrow. I would not say to you, “move on” “forget”,
or “time heals all wounds” – I made you and I love you and like Job’s friends I
sit with you in the midst of your sadness.
I’ve heard
the expression “I’m just trying to make it through Christmas”. For many of you, Christmas is a more intense
reminder of who is NOT here. Precisely
because past Christmasses with loved ones and family were so joyous, and were
so awesome, Christmas becomes not a time for celebration but a time for being
confronted by the grief and depression brought on by recalling the ghosts of
Christmases past.
As I said
earlier, I would not tell you to stop being sad, because I share your
sadness. I made you from before time
began. I am not a distant God who rules
and commands from afar. I made you
because I love you. And I am a human
person too. You may recall my reaction
when I received word that my good friend Lazarus had died. Again, as my friend and Apostle John wrote:
“He wept”
I would like
to issue an invitation to you – I want to invite you into the joy of THIS
Christmas. I was with you in the past,
but I am with you right now in this moment too.
The first Christmas turned on a water faucet that is impossible to shut
off. The water flows now continuously,
and that water is my presence among you.
I am flowing forth within all those who love me, bubbling up like a
living stream overflowing, and so I am constantly “being born” and coming forth
in this moment, in new ways
I loved you
then, I love you now, and I will love you for all time. So let Heaven and Nature sing, let Heaven and
nature sing because the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.
Love,
Jesus