17 Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A Homily

At some point in our life we have all had something that we have had our heart set upon with great desire. In order to obtain whatever this may be we had to save our money and work hard in order to obtain what we desired. We of course would never have obtained anything if we were never willing to put any effort into motion. Maybe this was saving up for a video game system such as the Playstation 4, saving for a new bicycle, saving as a family for a trip to Disney World, saving for your first car, or that last stretch of saving leading to retirement. No matter what this item was we first realized how greatly we desired it and then worked hard to obtain our goal. Our Gospel does not present us with the final goal of receiving a possession which in time passes away, but instead it presents us with the great reality of obtaining for ourself the joys of eternal life. Our Gospel tells us that the Kingdom of heaven is a like a merchant who is searching for a fine pearl which upon finding is willing to sell everything in order to obtain it.

We are each being invited daily to both discover and obtain this fine pearl of great price. Once we truly come to discover it we will in return see the great value that it presents to us. In our discovery of this great treasure we will realize that nothing whatsoever could fulfill our desires like Christ is able to do. Of course we can claim that we have already made such a discovery because after all we are at Church today, we pray, we study the Bible, and we do good things for other people, but may we realize that such a discovery requires us to always dig deeper. It is one thing to know that these things are important and it is a totally different thing to actually come to obtain it by the very actions of our life. As we have saved and worked hard to obtain many of our life's desires; may we be willing to do the same to discover and obtain this fine pearl of great price.

Religion and in return God may not seem to be the most valuable thing for us to obtain. After all the many things which fill our life are tangible and thus we are able to touch them and look upon them. Religion, as we know, is different because we cannot touch it and we cannot see it. With religion we are to have faith in order that we may better be able to believe. Because of this it is easy for us to forget and to not realize the importance of the great treasure that we do have. I promise that what we will discover will truly be life changing; not because we will be bound to a list of rules, but instead because it will only be here that we will be truly liberated from all that enslaves us. This pearl of great price will truly set us free and will come to give us comfort at all of life's darkest moments. This pearl of great price will order us towards the perfection that is found in God who created us out of love and desires that we in return reciprocate this great love to Him.

Therefore we must ask how it will be that we can come to discover and obtain this pearl of great price. We must realize that primarily we must build up a relationship with God; not hidden behind the excuses of I go to Church, I pray, or I read the bible; because we like to use these excuses to not dig deeper in our faith. We must also evaluate our life through an examination of conscience and ask in what ways we have committed sin; because we grow comfortable in our sin and even begin to justify it's place in our life. If through this examination of conscience we realize the place of mortal sin we must immediately return to the Sacrament of Confession and through our realization of all of our sin we must ask in what ways we can practice the virtues in order to turn away from the sin that is present in our life. We must also place the Eucharist as a top priority in our life because we so often receive and leave as if we have received mere bread. What we have received is not mere bread which passes away, but instead it is truly the Body and the Blood of Christ.

My brothers and sisters in Christ may we truly desire to obtain that pearl of great price. May we not allow ourself to miss such a treasure because of our lack of time or our lack of interest. We have placed so must interest and time in perusing objects which always in time pass away. We have worked hard with goals upon our mind where nothing whatsoever would get in the way of obtaining our goals. May we instead desire to obtain that pearl of great price with the same intensity; because what we will come to discover here will be so much greater. As Solomon requested to grow in distinguishing right from wrong may we do the same in our own desire to be guided in the truth of the Gospel which always leads us towards discovering and obtaining that pearl of great price. With our life devoted to this pearl of great price we will truly be found worthy to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.

6th Sunday After Pentecost Homily (Extraordinary Form)

We must join always with the multitude who found themselves gathered around Christ. Of course this path that leads us towards the side of Christ can become most difficult for us to faithfully stay upon. As the multitude became famished with a lack of food, so do we become famished and weak when we do not worthily enter into the life of the Sacraments. Without worthily entering into the life of the Sacraments we are left wondering about on a path which leads us to nowhere and we in return will be left to collapse upon the side of the road and ultimately be left for dead. The Sacraments are the very thing which have been instituted for us by Christ in which we are invited to enter into in order that we may be drawn into relationship with Him. Through the Sacraments we are given the strength to stay faithfully upon this path with no fear of what death will hold for us because we will be found to be faithful stewards of all that God has entrusted with us.

Our world is truly famished and it is in need of nourishment. Christ fully understood this reality when He looked out upon the multitude who were present and worked this miracle which would truly bring nourishment into their life as a foreshadowing to the Eucharist. We can seek to find this nourishment that is most necessary in plenty of places, but we will never find that we have been filled. When we are hungry we know that we must consume food in order to be nourished. It is not good enough for us to simply taste it or to smell it because these actions alone will never fulfill what we are actually in search for, which is nourishment. It is for this reason that sex, drugs, alcohol, and many other activities never give us fulfillment. We are never given fulfillment in any of these places because when they are used to escape our present reality they are never going to give us fulfillment. These actions can even consume us to the point where we fall into the state of mortal sin and thus allow ourself to be cut off from sanctifying grace.

The Sacraments are indeed what is necessary for us to be fulfilled. Christ desires for us to be joined to Him through the Holy Eucharist. If we are plagued by sin it must be through the Eucharist that we are healed. If we have fallen into the state of mortal sin we must realize that the Sacrament of Confession is not to be feared, but instead to be welcomed because it allows us to return to our relationship with Christ found in the Eucharist. If we truly desire to receive nourishment, not just something that is bodily, but also spiritually, we will flock towards the Eucharist. Yes Christ was giving the multitude food which would conquer their hunger, but He would also feed their soul with the bread of life which does not pass away. In the Eucharist each of us are given the great opportunity to receive nourishment which will never pass away and here we will come to discover our true fulfillment that cannot be found anywhere else. 

May each of us worthily flock towards the Eucharist this day. Through the Eucharist may we allow ourself to reciprocate the love that is shown to us by Christ who sees that we have grown famished in this life. In the Eucharist we will be nourished and here alone will we find the fulfillment that we desire within our heart. Through sin and the exclusion of God we will never find this reality until we are ready to surrender ourself to the great mystery of love that is found within the Eucharist alone. For in the Eucharist it is Christ who comes in the form of bread and wine to dwell with us. The Eucharist, as we know is not a mere symbol, but instead the Eucharist is truly the Body and the Blood of Christ. Through this most wondrous gift we should know that Christ does not desire to see us famished in the state of sin and despair, but instead He desires to usher the great reality of nourishment and fulfillment into our life. May we continue to grow in our love for the Eucharist and may we always allow it to be placed at the center of our life instead of allowing ourself to surrender to the weight of sin.

As we will hear following our reception of Holy Communion in what is know as the post-communion prayer: "We have been filled, O Lord, with Thy gifts: grant, we beseech Thee, that we may be cleansed by their effect and defended by their aid." We will truly be cleansed and defended if we allow the Eucharist to to bring life to us who are found famished by the path that lies before us; because only here will we find nourishment and fulfillment.

4th Sunday after Pentecost Homily (Extraordinary Form)

To have obedience to God can be a very difficult virtue for us to always accept. This is so because we first want to know that something is in fact true before we respond to it with our life. Because of this it can become most difficult to accept obedience with great trust. Simon displays the constant banter of thoughts that we have in our head which may push us towards losing this trust. Some of these thoughts that we have are of trust, but others are of course are of doubt. His first thought was of doubt because after all they have labored all night and in return have caught nothing. Instead of trusting in his own thoughts Simon allowed himself to trust in the words that came forth from the mouth of Christ and with that he caught an abundant catch. Our Gospel never tells us that he first came to reason that these words were true, but instead he exclaimed: "at your word I will let down the net." It was the word of Christ alone that caused him to surrender his thoughts in favor of the virtue of obedience.

In reality it is easier for us to give commands to others then for us to carry out what we have been instructed to do. When we are able to be the one who utters commands to others we, as ourself, are convinced that what we believe is to be the truth. Do we ever allow ourself to fathom the possibility that we are incorrect with our expectations of others. You see this most often with the person who has a broken item and in their anger cannot accept that they are the cause for it being broken and therefore go on to demand a replacement from the maker. It would of been so easy for Simon to be the one to give the commands in this situation because if that were the case he never would of been challenged to grow in the virtue of obedience. From Saint Francis de Sales: "We all have a natural inclination to command, and a great aversion to obey; and yet, it is certain that it is more to our advantage to obey than to command. It is for this reason that perfect souls have so great an affection for obedience, and find in it all their delight."

I believe that our modern society has a problem with accepting the virtue of obedience. We have grown up being taught that we are to be our own person and therefore have developed a do as we wish mentality in everything that we do. In the American system we are use to voting and allowing everyone to get a say on the direction that our nation will take concerning who our leaders will be and what laws that we will adopt. We see this same problem with obedience when we hear of Catholics that want to import this American way of thinking into how the Church is ran. Instead of being obedient to Christ's teachings they see it as an option to vote concerning what should be held as morality or that they should be the one to decide what will be held as morality for them and their family. If religion begins to test us and challenge us away from what we may find to be comfortable; it indeed can be very difficult to trust and respond through obedience. Nevertheless we must realize that it is not the Church that is out of touch with society, but instead it is society which has grown out of touch with God.

Obedience exists in order that we may grow back in touch with God. We should never be obedient blindly, but we should be obedient always to what God demands of us. At times what is demanded of us will be most simple to respond to, and that is great. But at other times what will be demanded of us will be most difficult for us to respond to, and with that we cannot run, but instead we must embrace the virtue of obedience which will help us to grow closer to Christ. If we cannot trust in what Christ has to offer us through His words we will never be able to grow in the virtue of obedience. Therefore we must take time to study the Catholic faith in order that we can come to understand what she actually teaches. We are told that we should follow our well formed conscience, but this statement does not give us the credence to do as we wish, but instead shows our need for obedience to what we will find revealed to us within the Catechism.

My brothers and sisters in Christ today may Saint Simon intercede on our behalf. May he lead all of us forward in submitting ourself to true obedience for Christ and His Church on this earth. To grow in this virtue we need to pray and remain open to God's will and in return to respond to this will as Simon did in our Gospel. We also need to continuously educate ourself concerning the authentic faith that is has been handed down to us by Christ which we cannot receive proper education from a opinion column found on the internet or through an article that is found in a newspaper. In responding to those who are over us may we also practice the virtue of obedience and when we in return must ask something from someone may we do so keeping in mind their humanity and the truth of the Gospel that must always be upheld. May we therefore allow ourself to join Saint Simon and exclaim with great faith: "at your word I will let down the net.

14th Sunday of OT Time Year A Homily

Why is the child favored in our Gospel over the adult who has grown wise and learned? This remark is not made to display that those who are wise and learned are now without value, but instead by pointing towards a child Christ is able to show the relationship that we must have with Him. An adult is no longer in need of having a parent provide a home for them, an adult is no longer in need of having someone provide them with nourishment, an adult has become self sufficient and therefore no-longer holds obedience to anything, and as we see in modern culture adults can at times lack the trust that is necessary to have in others and thus have developed a relative way at looking at religion and at the world. But what about the child? A child needs a parent to provide them with a home, a child needs a parent to provide them with food, a child must be obedient to the rules that they are given, a child runs to the comfort of their parent when injured, and a child is able to accept ideas without questioning there possibility away.

 

One prayer that we constantly pray is the "Our Father" which through its many words draw us into this relationship that Christ desires for us. In order for us to utter these words with true faith we must embrace the role of the child in accepting such words. We cannot utter these words with the mindset of an adult who has become self sufficient and therefore not in need of anybody's help because if that were the case our intention is that we really don't need God in our life. The "Our Father" is a reminder of the opposite because each of us really do need God in our life. God provides for us as the Father provides for his son. When we are in danger and are in need of help Christ is present to lead of through this roughness of a storm. When we are mourning due to the loss of a loved one Christ is present to usher comfort into our life. When we are tempted towards falling into sin Christ is present to lead us away from this temptation. When we have fallen into sin we do not have to feel its weight, but allow Christ to bring us His mercy.

So many have uttered the words of the "Our Father," but in doing so they have rushed past them as if they were mere words without any value to offer. In our rush and through our lack of intention we do not utter these words as if we were a child who needs the love of a parent, but instead as if we were an adult who is in need of nothing. So many allow sin to entwine itself into their life that it seems to be common place and therefore in return the line of the confessional is left empty. So many take pride in their achievements and never allow themselves to turn towards God unless something unfortunate first befalls them. So many attend Mass week in and week out and yet have done nothing outside of the Church as the building to enhance their life of faith. Christ in our Gospel is not telling us that an adult cannot achieve the Kingdom of Heaven, but instead is leading us towards realizing that we are always in need of being held in relationship with Him as child is held in relationship with their parent.

May we trust in the value of these words and allow ourself to be moved towards Christ as a child. In this way we will realize that we cannot heal ourself from our sin, but instead we are in need of the mercy of Christ that is offered to us through the Sacrament of Confession. In this way we will realize that that our education inside of the faith is a life long process and therefore does not end when we graduate from school. In this way we will see the many gifts that we have been given in this life and thus give proper glory and praise to God instead of having ourself become the one who is exalted. When we pray we will not do so as if we were only speaking mere words that do not contain any value, but instead we will do so as one who is held in relationship with their parent who loves them dearly. May the "Our Father" truly become that prayer that guides all of our prayers and may it become the very way that we enter into relationship with the Father.

May we be willing to come to Christ this day and allow Him to take care of each and every single thing that may plague our life. As our Gospel goes on to say: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest." If we are burdened by sin He will give us mercy. If we are burdened by temptation He will give us the strength to fight against it. If we are burdened by sickness he will give us hope. If we are burdened by the loss of a loved one He will bring us consolation. As a child we are drawn towards Christ who is willing to give us all that we will ever need to reach the Kingdom of Heaven. May we not reject this great invitation, but instead may we come to embrace it.