Homily for 9 May 2018

9 May 2018

“Glory” is one of those words we use all the time.  And Jesus gives us a clue as to what it means.  He says, “the Spirit of truth [the Holy Spirit]…will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.”  To “glorify” God is essentially to pass onto others what he has given us.

Jesus talks about the flowers of the field and how they give more glory to God than Solomon in all his splendor.  And that’s because they simply take the nature that God has given them, and they let it shine.  The psalm today says that “heaven and earth are full of your glory.”  Everything from the stars and the sun, to the angels and humanity, to the little bugs that crawl around in the dirt gives glory to God.  It all passes on, it all makes known, the creativity in the mind of God.  It all reveals something of God.  And so, it all glorifies God.

The thing about glorifying God, though, is that it doesn’t matter if anyone notices.  The flowers of the field glorify God, even if nobody takes the time to notice.  When Saint Paul was out and about telling people about God and sharing what God had done for him, he was glorifying God.  Whether or not anybody got on board with him was beside the point.  He wasn’t looking for numbers; he was just out sharing God with others.

And that’s an important lesson for us.  We glorify God by sharing his gifts to us with others: our talents, our strengths, our aptitudes, our experiences.  Some do it in really big, public ways; others do it quietly as they just go through daily life.  But our goal in glorifying God isn’t necessarily to increase Mass attendance.  Our goal is to simply glorify God, to share him with others, and to then let the chips fall where they may.

Whether or not anybody stops to notice God’s glory is beside the point.  Our duty, our pleasure is to simply glorify God, in all the little (or big) ways we share him, as his sons and daughters.

Homily for 8 May 2018

8 May 2018

God gives us two especially important tools to carry us through life.  And they are faith and hope.  The angels have wings.  We humans have faith and hope.

When Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown in prison, it was their faith and hope in God that got them through it.  There they were, sitting in the pitch black prison cell…“singing hymns of praise to God.”  And the next thing they knew, they were free.  Faith and hope had unlocked the prison doors.  And that has a lovely sound to it but, you know, they were in prison.  But that experience of prison was necessary; it made them put their faith and hope into practice.

It’s like when Jesus says, “grief has filled your hearts.  But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go [and leave you].”  The disciples had to experience a certain “grief of heart,” not only so the Holy Spirit could come, but so they’d have to become people of real faith and hope.  It’s one thing to believe in Jesus when he’s standing right there in the flesh; it’s another thing to have faith and hope when he’s not so visible.  So Jesus had to go away—for their own good.

Any time in life we’re “tested,” it’s a chance to grow in faith and in hope; it’s a chance to use the “wings” God has given us.  Sometimes God may seem absent.  But we know he isn’t; he hasn’t left us to fend for ourselves.  He’s right there, encouraging us along the ways of faith and hope.

Homily for 4 May 2018

4 May 2018

The commandments of Jesus aren’t necessarily an end in themselves.  There’s a purpose behind them.  And Jesus says as much in the gospel today: “I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.”  And that, it appears, is the purpose of Jesus’ commandments: to open us up to God the Father, the Source of...everything.

Jesus says, “Love one another.”  He says, “Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind.”  Jesus even speaks through the Church—we see this in the Acts of the Apostles.  “The Apostles and presbyters, in agreement with the whole Church,” sent an exhortation—a little list of things to do—to a community of Christians.  Jesus speaks, he commands, not to be a dictator, but so we can be opened up to friendship with God the Father...and all the angels and saints.

Before we had GPS,  we’d get the map out of the glove compartment to see how to get from Point A to Point B.  And that map is a help, it’s a guide.  Well it’s the same with Jesus and his commandments.  “Love one another, love God, keep the Sabbath, don’t kill, don’t covet,” and so on.  They’re all a big map to help us get to God the Father—the Source, the Headwaters, the Font, the One who’s even greater than Jesus.

So it’s good to listen to Jesus (because he knows how to get to where we want to go) and to follow what he says, as best we can—not so we can check the commandments off our to-do list, but so we can follow the path they form; a path through this life and onto the Holy City, where God our Divine Friend lives and makes a home for us.

Homily for 3 May 2018

3 May 2018

Feast of Saints Philip and James

(School Mass)

That’s a pretty enticing thing Jesus says: “If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”  It sounds a lot like the old genie-in-the-bottle: Just ask for whatever you want and it’s yours.  But that’s not exactly how God works.  The name “Jesus” isn’t a magic word.  We don’t say it out loud and—shazam!—things happen and we get what we ask for.  Of course, we know that.

But, still, it’s an intriguing thing Jesus says: “If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”  And he seems to be getting at what we heard this past weekend: The idea of communion—being in union with the Lord.  And so, to ask for something “in the name of Jesus” is to say to him: “I want what you want, Jesus.”  That’s what it means.  And then, no matter what happens, it’ll be what we want...because it’s what Jesus wants.

Now when the disciples heard Jesus, they heard the God the Father as well.  And that’s because Jesus spoke and acted “in the name of” God the Father; his mind and his spirit are one with the Father.  And when St. Paul, or St. Philip, or St. James (or any of the Apostles) preached and died for the faith, the crowds didn’t hear them—they heard Jesus speaking to them; they saw Jesus dying for them . . . not just Paul and Philip and James.  And that’s because Paul and Philip and James were one in mind and spirit with Jesus.  They said to him lots of time, “Whatever you want, Jesus, is what we want.”

So, Jesus says something pretty enticing today.  He says, “If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.”  And it’s true.  But the catch is we have to ask “in the name of Jesus;” we have to be able to say to him: Jesus, Lord, whatever you want is what I want.  And that’s a hard thing to do, for sure.

But the more we practice trusting in God, the more we’ll see some real “magic” happening.  And it’s nothing other than the magic of life.  “We want what you want, Lord Jesus.”  And that’s great, because what he wants for us is...life, life in abundance.

Homily for 2 May 2018

2 May 2018

The mass communications we have today can be a good thing.  Whether that’s tv or radio, the internet or social media, it’s helpful to know what’s going on out in the world.  Sometimes, however, it can be problem because everybody has a platform to say whatever they want—even if somebody is dead wrong about something.  And that’s where mass communication can be a problem.

How do you decipher the good arguments from the bad ones?  Which voices do you listen to, and which ones do you ignore?  Every time we engage the world of mass communications we have to ask those questions.  But when it comes to matters of faith we know who to listen more closely to.

In the Acts of the Apostles, there was a dispute about circumcision.  And without any hesitation, they said, “Let’s take this matter to the Apostles and the elders in Jerusalem.”  When it comes to matters of faith, we have a built in structure of authority in the Church.  And I don’t mean “authority” as in “power;” but rather “authority” as in “trusted groups of knowledgeable people.”  And they’ve been there from the beginning.  Those would be the bishops, and with them: theologians, philosophers, and poets.

We don’t have to think too much about who to turn to when we have questions of faith.  We turn to those people whom God has given us to be our guides.  May we give a little more weight to what they say.  And may they be strong in faith, so as to lead us into a deeper life of faith, too.

Homily for 1 May 2018

1 May 2018

God keeps his promises.  We hear it again in the gospel: Jesus says, “I am going away and I will come back to you.”  He says, “I am going to the Father.”  He says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”  God makes promises like that, but he also fulfills them.

Of course, it might be a while before a promise is fulfilled.  Our life might take a course we didn’t expect in order for a promise to be fulfilled.  Certainly, the crucifixion took Jesus’ disciples by surprise—even though he warned them a few times that it was going to happen.  But that had to happen in order for his promises to be fulfilled.

God keeps his promises, even if the path to fulfillment is windy and sometimes dark and unknown.  And if we find ourselves on that path, Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”  While we’re waiting for the fulfillment of God’s promises, he says, “Be not afraid.”  And he says that because he knows that he himself is trustworthy.

Our challenge is to take God at his word; that he is trustworthy, and that he will bring to fulfillment the many promises he’s given to us.  Jesus says, “Do you love me?  Do you trust me?  Then be not afraid.  I will make good on my promises."

Homily for 29 April 2018

29 April 2018

5th Sunday of Easter, Year B

Something wonderful is happening this weekend!  Thirty-eight of our children will be receiving Communion for the first time.  They’re all dressed up and ready to go.  They’ve been practicing how to hold their hands when they come up to receive Jesus.  They know how to say, “Amen.”  And, of course, they’re all set for the party afterwards.

There’s a lot of preparation that’s gone into today.  And that’s because something wonderful is happening!  Our children are going to be receiving Jesus for the very first time in Communion.  And that’s how it is for us Catholics.  Receiving Communion is a big deal.  After all, we don’t come up to the altar to eat some bread and some wine; we come up here to receive…Jesus, the Son of the Living God.  And that’s a big deal.

In fact, receiving Communion is the highpoint of the whole Mass.  It’s the whole reason we’re here: to receive the Lord, to open our hearts and our minds to let him in, so we can share life with him.  And so, Communion is a big deal.

If you’ve ever had a best friend, and you just wish you could spend all day with him or her, well, receiving Communion is a way that Jesus and we can be together all the time.  And the more we go to Communion, the closer to him we’ll get.

Now, our children here are going to be receiving Jesus for the first time.  They’re taking a big step on their journey of faith and growing in friendship with the Lord.  But what about the rest of us?  Just think of how many times in life we’ve gone to Communion.  Hundreds, thousands of times?  Just think of how much closer we’ve come to the Lord, Sunday by Sunday.  Receiving Communion is a big deal because it really tightens that bond of friendship with God.

But there are even more good things that come from Communion.  At the Last Supper, we know that Jesus gave his Blood to the Apostles and he said, “Take this all you and drink from it…it will be poured out for you and for many—for the forgiveness of sins.”  And that’s another effect of receiving Communion: the forgiveness of our sins.

You know, we all do things or say things which aren’t the best.  We all do it, and it’s okay to admit that.  It started way back in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve.  But Jesus gives us especially his Blood as a way we can “wash away” our sins.  Now, normally, blood is something that leaves a stain.  But Jesus’ Blood does just the opposite!  It takes stain out; it washes our sins away—amazingly.  And the more often we go to Communion, the cleaner our soul becomes.  And that just makes life better all around.

So Communion is a big deal.  It brings us closer to Jesus and it washes away our sins.  But there’s even more to it than that.  Communion also makes us brothers and sisters…in Christ.  Now, we all know who our parents and grandparents are, and who are brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles are.  There all those (sometimes crazy) people we’re related to by blood.

Well, when we receive the Body and Blood of Jesus, everybody who receives Communion becomes “blood relatives;” we all have the same Jesus inside of us.  In fact, that’s where the name “Communion” comes from.  The Eucharist puts us into communion, into unity and community, with everybody else who receives the Eucharist.

And way back in the first couple of centuries of the early Church, the people knew that.  That’s why Saint Paul’s letters always start with something like: “Dear brothers and sisters.”  It’s why monks and nuns are called “Brother” so-and-so, and “Sister” so-and-so.  Receiving Communion makes us part of the “family of God.”  That’s why we call priests “Father,” and why some religious women are called “Mother.”  It’s why we call St. Mary our Blessed “Mother.”

But the thing is that receiving Communion makes us part of a very, very large family; a global community of believers.  I think this is a reason why several years ago we stopped holding hands during the Our Father; as a reminder that because of Communion we’re connected with a whole lot of people who we can’t see or touch.

In our reading from the Acts of the Apostles, they say that “the church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace.”  Now that’s an area of over 5,000 square miles.  It’s like all the land east of Lake Winnebago, from Green Bay to (northern) Milwaukee.  And there were believers scattered throughout that whole area, but…they were in unity with one another—because of Communion.

That’s why—as Catholics—we can go to any Catholic church in the world and we belong there.  We always have a spiritual “home” wherever we go.  And that’s a pretty cool thing.  And then there are all the faithful departed, all the Saints in heaven.  We’re their brothers and sisters, too.  Death doesn’t get in the way of that.

The Acts of the Apostles said that “the church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace.”  Today we’d say, “the church throughout the world, in every country, and throughout all of heaven.”  Communion makes us part of a very, very large family of believers; brothers and sisters because of our one common relative: Jesus.

So there are a lot of wonderful things that come from receiving Communion: deepening our friendship with the Lord; being washed clean of our sins again and again; and being part of an enormous family and community of believers, the Church.  And the last thing I’ll mention today is what comes from the Gospel of John.

Jesus says, “By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”  Receiving Communion makes us not only friends of the Lord, but also his disciples.  That’s one of the meanings behind the “Amen” we say when we come up to receive the Eucharist.  “Amen” means—among other things, “I am a disciple of Jesus,” or “I want to be a better disciple of Jesus.”  It’s like when the bride and groom say, “I do” at their wedding…sort of.  Actually, it’s more like when an athlete says, “Okay, coach.  I’ll sign on with you.  So teach me, show me.”

Being a disciple means being in a relationship with the Lord, where he’s the coach, he’s the mentor, he’s the “one who knows,” and we’re the student, the learner, the one who’s trying to be like him in some way.

When you hear the word “disciple” think of the word “discipline.”  People who are disciplined are those who follow some sort of a standard, who allow themselves to be molded and shaped by something outside themselves.  There’s the image of the coach and the athlete, the teacher and the student.  There are also cultural norms, social etiquette, systems of values and beliefs, and so on. 

In the first Letter of St. John, he refers to the commandments of Jesus: love God, love your neighbor, believe in the name of Jesus.  That’s a set of standards which disciples discipline themselves by.  Jesus says, “By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”  By receiving Communion, we’re saying “Amen” to Jesus, but especially to Jesus as our Teacher, our Mentor, our Friend who always love us, but who always encourages us to be more, to be the best person he’s made us to be.

So there are a lot of wonderful things that come from receiving Communion: friendship with the Lord, being washed clean of our sins again and again, being part of an enormous community of believers, and strengthening ourselves as disciples of Jesus.  Receiving Communion is the highlight of what we do at Mass.  And it happens right here at these steps to the sanctuary.

We don’t usually think of these steps as anything important.  But they are a very sacred place; it’s where Communion happens, where heaven and earth meet.  It’s where we become what we’re made to be: sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters in Christ.