Sunday, April 29, 2018

5th Sunday of Easter Year B Homily

We cannot allow ourself to become secluded.

Seclusion runs rampant within our culture. Families go their own way to eat a meal. With work, school, and sports it is easy for the family to become too busy to spend quality time with one another. Husband and wife grow apart due to being unable to find mutual time with each other despite living within the same home. Truly we live in a world which claims to be connected thanks to the use of smart phones and social media, but in all actuality this is not so.

We are very much so in need of community. We need the community which is the family to build one another up to strive for the pursuit of holiness in everyday life. We need the community of friends to help one another be pure and blameless in the sight of the Lord. We also cannot forget about the importance of the community which is the Church.

It is a growing trend for people to claim that they are spiritual, but not religious. This is an absurd statement because we are in need of the institution which is the Church. Not only are we in need of the Church, but the Church was also established by Christ. If Christ established the Church then who are we to reject the importance of such a wondrous gift. Yet despite the gift of the Church we so often seclude ourselves from being receptive of the graces which are poured out upon the faithful from here. I am referring to the gift of the Sacraments such as Confession and the Eucharist. I am referring to the gift of sacramentals such as the rosary, crucifix, and brown scapular to name a few. I am referring to assisting at the Mass.

To assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on every Sunday and Holy Day should be a priority in our life. To assist at Mass joins us with the community of believers and joins us to Christ to whom our attention is pointed. How sad is it to see those who have lost sight of the importance of this obligation. Coming when it is convenient which means that something else has been placed over their relationship with God. We cannot allow ourself to become too busy to make time for the Mass. We must remember that to honor the Lord’s Day is a commandment and thus the Church calls us to assist at Mass on each Sunday and Holy Day. To fail to do this without a just cause such as bad weather or being sick would be a serious sin and is something which should be taken to confession before receiving communion.

Our Gospel told us about the importance of bearing good fruit. If good fruit is to be bore then it must remain upon the vine. Without the vine to supply nutrients the fruit would wither and die. The same can be said of us because if we allow ourself to become secluded from the vine we also will wither and die. The family should become the vine which forms one another after the pursuit of holiness in everyday life. Friends should become the vine which supports one another and guides each other towards the truth of the Gospel. The Church is the vine that we need most of all for from this vine grace is poured out to us which gives us the strength to love and serve the Lord our God. Let us thus remain upon this vine and from it to be sent into the world to bear good fruit.

Sunday, April 22, 2018

4th Sunday of Easter Year B Homily

On this Fourth Sunday of Easter we come to celebrate what is known as Good Shepherd Sunday.

The shepherd serves as an important reminder of Christ and His role for the Church. In art the Good Shepherd is often depicted as having a sheep placed upon His shoulders. This represents the love and care of the Good Shepherd who goes in search for the lost sheep and brings them back to safety. The Good Shepherd must stay attentive to the needs of his sheep and thus make sure that they have something to drink, something to eat, and remain safe despite the many problems of the outside world.

Christ sees us in our thirst and thus established for us the Sacrament of Baptism. To these waters we were led in order that we may be cleansed and given new life. Christ sees our hunger and thus established the Sacrament of the Eucharist. To this food we are led in order that we may be nourished by Christ’s Body and Blood. Christ sees the danger of temptation and despair and establishes the Church in order that we may remain in its confines to be kept safe.

May we allow ourself to follow after this Good Shepherd. May we renew each day what was set forth from the moment of our baptism. May we follow this Good Shepherd towards the nourishment of Christ’s Body and Blood and thus conform our life onto His. May we follow this Good Shepherd thus allowing ourself to always remain in the protection of the sheepfold which is the Church.

Instead of following such a shepherd so many lose sight of His loving care. Thus they soil their baptismal garment through sin. Thus they avoid the Eucharist as they go about their life placing other things above it. Thus they find that they are wondering about lost outside of the confines of the sheepfold as they structure a Church made after their own image. We cannot allow ourself to get lost in such a way, but rather we must pursue Christ the Good Shepherd.

Let us thus pray for priests that they may be faithful stewards of what the Lord has handed on to us. Let us pray for vocations to the priesthood that more men will step up to answer God’s call that they too may become good shepherds. Let us pray for parents that within their own home they come to emulate Christ the Good Shepherd as they pray with their children, bring their children to Church, and instruct their children in the faith.

On this Good Shepherd Sunday may we allow Christ to come to us, lift us up, and place us on His shoulders. Let us come to accept His love for us and return this same love to others whom we encounter. No matter where He leads us may we be accepting of the truth of the Gospel and be willing to embrace it by the way in which we order our life. Let us come to trust in Christ the Good Shepherd and be willing to allow Him to lead us towards the safety of the sheepfold.

Sunday, April 15, 2018

3rd Sunday of Easter Year B Homily

On this third Sunday of Easter may we join with the Psalmist in his desire: “Lord, let your face shine on us.” This is a statement of trust and when proclaimed by Christians it becomes a statement of hope. There is hope because our Lord has triumphed over sin and death through His Cross and Resurrection. Throughout this Easter season the disciples slowly come to understand and believe in this reality. In our Gospel we are finally told concerning them that “he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”

Our Lord comes to us on this day and proposes the same questions to us. “Why are you troubled? Why do questions arise in your hearts?” The answer to these questions is the same that our Lord gave to His apostles: “Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.”

This statement should take our minds back to last week’s Gospel where we came to encounter Saint Thomas. Thomas who beheld these same hands and feet that still bore the marks of the crucifixion. Therefore, be it the apostles or ourself who beholds these hands and feet we must remember that through the marks of the crucifixion that we have been set free.

The Book of Acts as well as 1st John instructs us on the importance of repentance and turning away from sin. “Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away.” “The way we may be sure that we know him is to keep his commandments. Those who say, “I know him,” but do not keep his commandments are liars, and the truth is not in them.”

It was pointed out in our Gospel that the disciples came to know Him through the breaking of bread. We too come to know our Blessed Lord through the breaking of bread. This breaking of bread is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass where we come to encounter Christ through the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.

Therefore on this day may we come to abandon of sinfulness and begin to trust and believe in the Gospel. If we are to turn away from sin then we must embrace these wounds of our Blessed Lord. To fester in our sin, to make up excuses of how it right and just only turns us into liars who reject these wounds of our Lord.

Thankfully for us our Lord is merciful and just. Let us strive for Heaven each day and when we fall short of this reality may we allow the Lord to let His face shine upon us. For this is the face of mercy and forgiveness. This is the face of the Savior who dies upon the cross out of love for us that one day we to may come to join with Him in the Kingdom of Heaven. May nothing on this earth be placed before this reality!

We thus need to cooperate with grace. Grace as poured out from the life giving waters of baptism which have integrated us into Christ and His Church on this earth. Grace as is poured out in the Sacrament of Confession when we come to see the merciful face of our Lord. Grace as poured out in the Breaking of Bread where we come to behold Christ present with us in the Eucharist. Let us strive to behold the face of our Lord and come to embrace His Hands and Feet which bare the wounds of the crucifixion which have set us free.

Sunday, April 1, 2018

Easter Homily

Happy Easter!

Today we celebrate the joy of our Lord’s Resurrection. In our Gospel we encounter His apostles who “did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.”

As with Christmas our celebration of Easter is to embark upon a season. It is not to celebrate this one day and then to move back life as if nothing has happened. In these days which lie ahead the apostles begin to learn about the meaning of Scripture and the fact that Jesus had to rise from the dead. Through their encounter with the living Lord in these days they became transformed and were finally prepared to be sent out to testify to the truth and to draw others towards this truth no matter the hardship, even if it be the loss of their own life.

If our Lord endured the cross without the Resurrection we would have no reason to celebrate this day or any day. After all every Sunday is a celebration of the Resurrection for this is the day that He rose from the dead. The apostles came to the tomb prepared to encounter a dead body, but instead they encountered the life giving reality of our faith. If they encountered a dead body then time would pass and the story of Christ would also pass from recorded history.

If you have not seen it I recommend the new movie “Paul, Apostle of Christ.” This movie sums up the life of the early Church. In the early Church there was the risk of being put to death for the faith that you practiced. They had to live in hiding in the hope that their community would not be discovered. If the Resurrection never happened this community would not exist because it would make no sense to die for such a cause. Yet these early Christians came to “understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.”

Hopefully we too can come to “understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.” I say this because to come to understand such a reality is to allow our life to be transformed. This understanding assists us in the midst of the many hardships of our life for from the cross that we are forced to bear something greater will come. This understanding assists us in turning away from sin because to do so is to come to embrace the Scriptures and what was begun in us at the moment of our baptism. Let us thus come to “understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead.”

Christ has Risen. He has risen indeed, Alleluia.