Octave of Christmas Homily

Christ is born! Glorify Him!

Today we observe the Octave of Christmas and commemorate the Holy innocents. Through the fact that these two realities meet serves as a great contrast. On one hand we have the Word made Flesh lying in the humility of a manager and on the other hand we have the cry of Rachel who is weeping for her children.

The Nativity is not over glamorized by the Church. From the very beginning the Child born in Bethlehem is marked by great contradictions. Shepherds come in order to adore Him and kings come to do Him homage and yet Herod was filled with fear and wanted to threaten Him with violence. The shadow of the cross is already being shown to us from the wood of the manger.

The Holy Innocents did not not speak a word nor did they choose martyrdom. They did not even know the Name of Christ. Nevertheless, the Church venerates them as martyrs for they died in confession of Christ. Through their death it is proclaimed that the world resists the light that comes in order to save.

This is the cost of the Incarnation. God takes on our human flesh and makes His dwelling place here among us. Nevertheless, the world continues to rebel despite such a wondrous gift. The Lord comes bringing with Him truth. Truth is something which is difficult to accept, but by taking on truth whatever it may be we come to be healed in Christ.

This Sunday there is a great weight that has been placed upon our hearts. This is after all the final Mass in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite to be offered in this parish church. Here there is a sense of loss and sorrow that weighs upon us. The Church is not asking us to pretend as if grief is not real. Even Rachel in her sorrow was allowed to weep.

The Holy Innocents serve as a reminder of fidelity until the end. Through such fidelity that which would seem as if defeat becomes victory. Their blood which was spilled was not the end of their story for they are remembered and venerated to this day. Our fidelity must remain to Christ and to His Church no matter how difficult such fidelity may be.

The Infant Christ was threatened by Herod and so He went into exile. Yet He remained the Savior. So too the Holy Innocents lost their life and yet they now reign victorious in Heaven. Loss when united to God becomes an eternal gain. Through the loss that is felt let us remain united to the truth of faith and through the obedient taking up of such a task, we will strive for the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Holy Innocents teach us how to suffer and the Christ Child teaches us how to trust without fear. Let us have such faith as we continue to give thanks to God and strive to serve Him and His Church each and every day of our life.

Holy Innocents, pray for us.

23rd Sunday After Pentecost Homily

We are quickly coming to the end of the liturgical year. Very soon we will find ourself in the midst of the Advent season and will be preparing for the coming of Christ. He comes to us at the Nativity, He comes to us in the Eucharist, and He will come again at the end of time. It is He alone who is able to bring peace into our life for it is He alone who can fill.

As disciples of the Lord we must choose to live for the Lord. We can only live for the Lord if we are willing to take up the cross and follow after Him. In so far as we are willing to reject the cross or to compromise the cross we become enemies of the cross of Christ. The cross always leads us towards an encounter with truth for the cross is life giving.

Enemies of the cross of Christ know not the true meaning of sacrifice. They instead push Christ out of their life by making room for the world to come and dwell with them. They get caught up in the pursuit of pleasures as an end in themselves and fail to treat their neighbor out of love. For them the world is more important the proclamation of truth that is found within the Church.

Advent serves as a means to reorient ourself to what is truly important. Through the passing of these sacred days we make room in the inn of our heart for Him to come and make His dwelling place among us. This reality can only be made so if we are willing to embrace the cross and accept Christ fully into our life.

The woman in our Gospel understood this when she reached out from the depths of faith to embrace the garment worn by our Blessed Lord. She was then told, “thy faith has made thee whole.” Through such an act of faith she was made clean as we are able to be purified by all that keeps us from Christ.

In order to reach out to the Lord in such faith we must have humility. Through such humility we hide not behind excuses or act as if such a commitment is not big deal. Through such humility we truthfully come to the Lord and leave everything that we have with Him. If we are unwilling to act in such a manner of faith we are found unwilling to allow Christ to dwell among us.

Through the sacrament of confession we reach out to the Lord in such humility and allow Him to purify us in His mercy. Each day we must desire for the Lord to dwell with us by staying close Him and choosing to live our faith without compromise. What is keeping us from allowing the Lord to dwell among us?

And the Word was made Flesh: And dwelt among us.

19th Sunday After Pentecost Homily

Our Introit addressed us, “In whatever tribulation they shall cry to Me, I will hear them and I will be their Lord for ever.”

Over the course of this last week there have been many who have cried out to the Lord and rightfully so.

Some of you have cried out in fear, others in sorrow, others in anger, and others who are just at a loss of words concerning that which might now lay before them.

Some of you have moved to Johnson City for this Mass, others have grown up in it, and others have came here later because they were drawn to its reverence.

Some of you may move over the announcement which was made last week and that is okay because we must be willing to go wherever the Lord calls.

Wherever it is that we go let us remain united to the Church and the unity that is expressed therein even if it might feel like such unity can never be a reality.

For those of you who remain in this parish community we will continue to express the fullness of Catholic teaching and this Mass will continue to be offered reverently in the Ordinary Form.

Our Gospel directed our sight towards a wedding feast. This is the same wedding feast to which we are invited for this is the Kingdom of Heaven.

We must strive with the help of God’s grace to run this race towards the Heavenly Kingdom.

This means that we must persevere to the very end without allowing our wedding garment to be stained by sin.

Thankfully we have the sacrament of confession to which we can flock to be cleansed from such a stain in order that we may once again be found to be whiter then snow.

In order that we can have the grace of final perseverance we must cry out to God and believe that He is our Lord forever.

When it pertains to the wounds caused by this transition let us continue to cry out to Him. So too when it pertains to every other struggle in this life we are the cry out to Him and place our trust in Him for He is our Lord for ever.

We are to set our hands to plow and not look back for in doing so we are taking our sight off of the Lord and this Heavenly Kingdom and placing it upon something else.

In faith let us cry out to the Lord for He is calling each of us to fidelity to Him and His Church.

18th Sunday After Pentecost Homily

From our Intriot we were instructed, “Give peace, O Lord, to them that patiently wait for Thee, that Thy prophets may be found faithful: hear the prayers of Thy servant, and of Thy people Israel.”

From this verse we were given the words peace, faithful, and servant. Let us remain united to the peace that Christ alone can bring to our heart, let us allow the virtue of faith to be strengthened in order that we may never fall away from Christ and His Church, and let us always remain a servant to Christ in all that we say and do.

With this I must inform you that the pastors of parishes with the Extraordinary Form in collaboration with our bishop will now begin to transition this Mass into the Ordinary Form. This transition is made due to Pope Francis’ document, Traditionis Custodes, requesting that this form of the Mass no longer be offered in parish churches.

I understand that this news may be difficult to to hear. I sympathize with your fear and feelings of loss. Nevertheless, please be assured that this Mass at 2pm will continue for the most part as it has been.

This Mass will continue to be celebrated ad orientem, Gregorian chant including the chanting of the propers will continue, communion will continue to be offered at our make shift communion rail, and this Mass will continue to be offered in Latin. Despite transiting to the Missale Romanum 3rd edition the tradition of the Church will continue to be upheld and protected at this Mass.

As you exit the Church there will be a letter from me outlining this process of transition. Next weekend I have scheduled a meeting following Mass for anyone who would like to join me in discussing this transition that will be made over the course of the next three months.

No matter the feeling that we currently hold in our heart it is important that we remain united to the unity of the Church. We must remember and believe that the same Christ that is made present to us under the appearances of bread and wine will continue to be made manifest to us in the Eucharist. It is He who must be the rock upon which we place our faith. This transition is not reason to abandon the Church to pursue our own personal preferences. We must hold firm to the unity of faith for “the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.”

Let us invite the peace that Christ alone can bring to enter into our midst. Let us always remain faithful to the truth of faith and not be led astray. Let us always remain servants who are willing to follow wherever the Lord may lead, no matter how difficult it may be for us to follow.

Together let us move forward upon this transition in faith and trust in the Lord.

External Solemnity of the Rosary Homily

Today we celebrate the External Solemnity of the Most Holy Rosary. This celebration is great way to start this month of October because it reminds us that this month is dedicated to the rosary. Pope Leo has asked that the faithful throughout the world will join with him throughout this month to pray the rosary for peace.

This request is important to take seriously because our prayers are very important. This feast ended up being instituted by Pope Pius V to commemorate the victory that was won at the Battle of Lepanto. Pope Pius V had encouraged Christians throughout the world to pray the rosary for victory.

Our world truly needs such victory to be won. We are gravely in need of the peace that our Lord alone can bring. The news constantly reminds us of such turmoil that takes places locally, in our country, and in this world. There is constantly war, senseless violence such as attacks on schools or churches, and there has been the assassination of Charlie Kirk as well as the death of others.

Not only do we need peace in such areas as these, but our world also seems to move further and further away from the divine truths of faith. Children have wondered away from the faith, there increase in broken homes and a lack of a domestic church, sexuality is flaunted not accordance with divine law, and the sanctity of human life from conception until natural death is not respected.

Within the Church we have an attack on the unity of faith. There are some who have allowed their own opinions to rip them away from such unity and therefore we have so many denominations which reflect a splintered Christianity. Even in the Church there are some who allow personal opinions and preferences to become more important then the unity of faith.

Again the answer to this never ending litany of issues which our world faces is Christ the Prince of Peace. As our Blessed Mother appeared at Fatima and addressed herself as “The Lady of the Rosary.” She asked that the rosary be prayed in order “to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war.”

Some might claim that the rosary is a devotion that focuses to much on Mary. This claim is not founded in truth. The hinge to which all things point in the “Hail Mary” is Jesus. He is the fruit of the womb and through the rosary we are able to mediate on the mysteries of His life, death, and resurrection.

Through the rosary we place our faith in the Lord as we allow our heart to be drawn closer to Him through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Let us take up this powerful weapon in faith and pray that our life, our family, our world may come to obtain peace. We can only obtain peace if we place our trust in Jesus.

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

16th Sunday After Pentecost Homily

We are called to pursue the virtue of humility in our daily life. It can be easy to desire to pursue the place of honor at the expense of others. Rather, we should remember that we are a disciple of the Lord and thus everything that we do should flow from our relationship with Him. When things are about us and not about Him we have caused disorder in our life.

When we come to participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass our disposition should not be about us and our own preferences, but about the Lord. Everyone has so many preferences to how we are to worship Him, but at the Mass we join with Him at Calvary where time continues to stands still and we are united as one. In the liturgy we are to direct our sight entirely to Him.

The liturgy is primarily the “work of God” because Christ, as High Priest, continues His redemptive work through the Church. Nevertheless, we are called upon to cooperate with such work through our full and active participation as God’s people known as the Church. Through a lack of humility we would rather the liturgy be about us instead of Christ.

Beyond the Church’s liturgy every aspect of our life should be informed by our relationship with Christ. We are so quick to exalt ourselves, but so slow to humble ourself in the Lord’s presence. When we interact with others, especially those who we do not agree with, we must treat them with charity and realize that we are nothing more then a disciple of the Lord.

As a disciple of the Lord everything that we do must flow from our relationship with Him. We can only make way for such a reality to be made manifest if we are found willing to enter into relationship with Him. The world is busy and filled with so much noise and thus we must choose to make prayer a priority. Through prayer we make way for the Lord to be in our midst.

The sacrament of confession assists us in making way for the Lord’s coming. Through sin we turn away from Him, but through the forgiveness of sins these wounds come to be healed. A confession of one’s sins is impossible if one is not first found willing to let go of their pride and be humbled by Christ’s mercy.

In a matter of moments we will invite the Lord to enter under our roof. This is a humble proclamation that is made due to the fact that Christ’s love for us is so great that He willing to prevail Himself to us under the appearances of bread and wine. Through the reception of this sacrament we must encounter Him with humility by letting go of our pride.

No matter what lies in wait for us from here let us remain united to the truth of faith. In the midst of all hardship and difficulty we must remember that all that we do is about Christ. Through humility we continue to make way for His coming among us and treat one another as an outpouring of such humility that He shows to us from the wood of the cross.

15th Sunday After Pentecost Homily

Many prophets have come and gone. There are four major prophets of the Old Testament Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. There are all of the minor prophets and the other prophets. The final prophet of the Old Covenant was Saint John the Baptist who prepared the way for the coming of the Messiah.

Prophets are sent to speak God’s will and designs to the people of the Old Covenant, forming them in the hope of salvation. Their role is to speak God’s truth and to remind those who would hear of their covenant with God and to call them back to that covenant through repentance. Though existing prior to the coming of Christ each of them pointed the way towards the one who would come.

Through the miracle that was worked in our Gospel "they glorified God, saying: A great prophet is risen up among us, and God has visited His people.” This profession gets to the heart of what we believe for Christ is the Son of God and is the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity and is thus God Himself.

Jesus does not simply relay a message to us from God for He is the ultimate revelation of God for He is the Word who took on our human flesh and made His dwelling place here among us. He serves as the fulfillment of all prophecy for all of it pointed the way towards the one who would come, the Messiah.

From the Catechism we are told of our share in this prophetic office of Christ, “The holy People of God shares also in Christ's prophetic office," above all in the supernatural sense of faith that belongs to the whole People, lay and clergy, when it "unfailingly adheres to this faith . . . once for all delivered to the saints,” and when it deepens its understanding and becomes Christ's witness in the midst of this world.”

In other words as people of faith we must continue to bear witness to God’s truth daily. In order to accomplish this task we must live according to God’s design, we must show Jesus to others in the way in which we live and order our life, and we must help at building up the Kingdom of God here on earth through our actions.

So many act as passive spectators when it pertains to such a prophetic role. There is nothing which is passive about our faith because it is the proclamation of all that is true. Through it we are professing our salvation which should be of top importance to each of us. Let us boldly set out to profess Christ Jesus in our thoughts, words, and deeds.

“A great prophet is risen up among us, and God has visited His people.” This proclamation is of utter importance and thus we must continue to spread the Good News of this message.

13th Sunday After Pentecost Homily

We must be grateful for all that God has given to us especially the gift of His grace.

The lepers were helpless for their situation placed them as outcasts of the community. They were unable to do anything for themself that would bring forth healing except to beg their situation to God. They thus cried out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Of the ten who came to be healed only one returned into order to show gratitude for such a wondrous gift.

Like the lepers we are unable to be saved by our own merit. We needed Christ’s sacrifice upon the cross as well as the continued assistance of God’s grace in order to complete such a task. By accepting such a gift we must remember to be filled with such gratitude for what we have received.

There are some who unknowingly go about this life as if they are able to save themselves. They act as if no matter how they choose to order their life that they will be saved. Rather, we must realize our dependence upon God and the need for His mercy. In such a state we are able to cry out “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

Through such an act of faith these words lead us towards true repentance. With a contrite heart we come before God confessing our sins and receiving the grace of the sacrament of confession as we are absolved from these sins. We should be thankful for such a gift for without it we would be unable to be healed from those serious sins that have cut us off from the gift of God’s grace.

The ultimate proclamation of such thanksgiving is the Eucharist itself. The word “Eucharist” means “thanksgiving.” Thus through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass we are not passive recipients, but active in our role of giving back to Him who has given all things unto us. Through the Mass we are able to enter into His sacrifice and give thanks to God for this gift through our worship.

In coming to commune with the Lord in Holy Communion we invite Him to enter in under our roof. Through such a reception we are strengthened to enter into the world not living as an enemy of Christ, but as one who has been sent forth to bring Christ out into the world. In such manner the leper was commanded, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.”

This command did not send him back into the world unchanged, but as one that had been changed by God’s healing power. Let us continue to call out to the infinite mercy of God and intrust ourselves to the gift of His grace. In doing so we must always remember to give thanks for all that God has done for us.

“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”

12th Sunday After Pentecost Homily

The lawyer posed a question in order to test Jesus. Jesus turns this around by responding to him with a question of His own. To this the lawyer responded, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself.”

It is one thing to say these words and it is another thing entirely to put these words into action. Knowing this the Lord responded to this man, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”

The parable of the Good Samaritan unfolds from here and further expounds upon what was told to this lawyer. At the heart of the message we should not spend our time attempting to figure out who our neighbor is, but instead take care of all those whom we come across. One does not have to be of the same demographic in order to be shown such care.

Often times this Good Samaritan is seen as being Christ. He encounters this man who was left for dead and through His mercy restores Him to proper health, even entrusting him to the care of the inn which is the Church. It is from this same font of mercy that we are given health and set upon the straight path which leads towards the Kingdom of Heaven.

Like this lawyer we need to encounter the Lord and be sent forth by Him in a spirit of such charity. It can be easy to rationalize our lack of care for the needs of others. This was precisely what the Lord was making this lawyer to understand.

The Gospel challenges us to something more then using the proper set of words. Rather, it sends us forth to glorify the Lord by our life. Whenever we fail to love our neighbor we cannot claim to have love for God. Love God can only be made manifest if we are also willing to love our neighbor as self.

In our prayer we should reflect upon the ways in which we have failed to show such charity to others. This might entail thoughts that we hold in our mind concerning them, this might be the words which we speak against them, or even the actions that we put into motion which goes against their human dignity.

As Christians this gospel challenges us in a great way. If we are to grow in the practice of such charity towards our neighbor we must enter into the infinite love of God. By entering into this reality we are sent forth to share what we have received. Let us be willing to let go of ourself in order to grow in that love that expressed to us by Christ from the wood of the cross.