Wed of the 15th Week of OT Homily

1st Reading: Is 10:5-7,13-16

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 94:5-10,14-15

Gospel: Mt 11:25-27

There is nothing worse then the person who believes that they know everything. With this type of person there is nothing left for them to learn because they already know it. Of course in matters such as scripture and understanding the faith requires each of us to acknowledge that there is room for each of us to learn something more. This goes for each of us including priests. To think how bad a doctor would be if upon the day of leaving medical school they believed that they knew everything. If this were true they would have no reason to keep up with medical innovations and thus in time become ineffective.

In our Gospel Christ is not cutting down those who are wise and learned, but is pointing to those who are filled with pride. The prideful place themselves at the top of the world and thus they already know everything. Instead knowledge is given to the childlike because they are able to approach this knowledge through humility. Pride will never accomplish anything for us, but if we act through humility we will be opening ourselves up to Christ to acknowledge that we have more that we desire to learn about scripture and the faith that we profess. It is our life long challenge to continue to strive through humility towards Christ.

Today we celebrate the memorial of Saint Camillus de Lellis who is an example of living out a life founded upon humility. He struggled with his addiction to gambling and instead of trusting in himself alone gave himself over to Christ. He realized that he was nothing without Christ and then began to learn more about the faith daily. In time he began a religious society who was dedicated to working with those who were sick. May we take up his example and allow ourselves to open up to Christ through humility. May we allow this humility to further open up to our ongoing need to grow deeper into the reality of faith each day.

Mon of the 15th Week of OT Homily

1st Reading: Is 1:10-17

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 50:8-9,16-17,21,23

Gospel: Mt 10:34-11:1

In the busy world that we live in it is easy to place stumbling blocks in our way. If you were to get up in the middle of the night and attempt to walk about your house with the lights off you should be able to find your way around the house. Every once in awhile something pops up that you do not remember or should not be there and you trip over it. To save yourself from running into the same problem again you would probably move the object out of the way in order to save you the trouble. This is what today's readings are trying to inspire inside of the listener.

The people of Sodom and Gomorrah are being told that they are walking about blind because they place so much trust inside of sacrifices. The people of these cities are allowing themselves to stumble over their sacrifices because they fail to properly order them towards God. Jesus is warning His followers about getting caught in the dark of night and allowing things such as family to get in the way of their faith. Yes family is important, but we must place the Lord first in our lives and allow these relations to lead us towards Him instead of away from Him. It is the desire of Christ to be placed at the center of our lives.

Today we celebrate the feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel where we have a woman who will not allow us to walk about stumbling over objects in the dark of night. Instead this lady will bring light into our lives as she always directs us towards her Son. May we continue to trust in the Blessed Virgin Mary and allow her to bring us to Christ. When we draw towards Christ in this manner we will do so out of humility which is far different then any stumbling block that lies in wait for us. Through devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary may we come to know the saving power of God that is constantly at work within our lives.

15th Sun of OT Year B Homily

1st Reading: Am 7:12-15

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 85:9-14

2nd Reading: Eph 1:3-14

Gospel: Mk 6:7-13

The Catholic Church has held great influence over our society and there is a need inside of this culture for us to regain our concern for the morality of society. At one point Hollywood desired to please the Catholic Church because the influence that its faithful had was so great that people would band together in solidarity to boycott any film that was found to be offensive. In 1933 the Catholic Legion of Decency was founded and would wield great power inside of the American movie industry. This organization would work hard to guard against anything that was deemed to be morally offensive concerning cinema. This organization and others who followed in their footsteps walked into a world that could be hostile to the faith that was founded upon Christ and His teachings. Instead of giving into the demands of the culture they continued to go out and endure in spreading the faith according to the teachings of Christ. Their work spent inside the harvest helped to transform the culture of the world to Christ and His Church.

Christ sent out his twelve apostles into a world that would not always be accepting of the message of the Gospel. He informed them that there would be people who would not accept them and their message into their lives. Despite this truth they were not instructed to change their message to make people happy, but were simply told to try and then move on. These twelve men were not sent out into an easy world and therefore their desire to preach the truth would bring them all to a martyr's death besides Saint John. It would of been easy for them to conform with the culture and thus forget their Christian mission in order to save their lives. Instead they moved away from Christ and brought His message into the world. No matter what demand would reach their ears they would not change their mission in order to conform to the culture, but would keep Christ before them as the mark on which they should base all that they do. We are each invited to join with them as we go out into the world and must face the culture of our current society.

It has become easy for us to get sucked into our culture and forget the religious morals that we hold dear to ourselves. We exist in a world that has allowed these contrary messages to sneak into our lives and now make excuses to why they should be held as acceptable. Our moral compass has been changed from using Christ as the center of all of our life choices to placing ourselves at the center. We must move away from this state of life and begin to reclaim our culture. We must be the people who step up inside of our world and go out as new disciples bringing with us the teachings of Christ. We are the disciples who enter into a world that will not always accept our message, but we cannot lose hope because Christ stands at the center of the ministry that we bring into the world. When our faith revolves around Christ instead of from the culture that we live within we can truly begin to be free and finally be able to inspire change within the world that we live within.

Today's first reading takes a look at the prophet Amos, who was a simple shepherd who was called away from his job to become a prophet of the Lord. We see from this reading that the priest of Bethel was so upset with Amos for his visions that he casted him off from his midst. Being casted off because of one's willingness to be countercultural happens a lot. Anytime that we join together to profess the truth we will not make our culture happy because we are going against the flow of things. Creating this tension in society is the only way that we can hope to make people evaluate their thoughts and thus live in a tension that can lead them towards the truth. Each of us has been called by the Lord to follow in the footsteps of Amos who was told to: "Go, prophesy to my people." As we go into the world to reclaim the culture from its current state we will be living out this demand. Bringing the Lord into our lives will allow us to be missionaries to our culture who is in need of all the help that it can get.

Our letter from Saint Paul to the Ephesians reminds us of the fact that we are each destined to live out the purpose of God. When we live in communion with God we are opening ourselves up to the praise and glory that comes with Jesus Christ and are being sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit. In order to live out a life that is destined to live out the purpose of God we must hold God at its center and cannot solely draw upon the culture from which we live. When we enter into this culture we must trust in the power of the Holy Trinity which comes to dwell with each of us and can give us the strength to overcome any temptation that may enter into our lives. All the wisdom that we will need to speak and live out the truth of the Gospel can be found inside of the Trinity. It can only be through allowing the Trinity to enter into our lives that we can become true representatives of the Gospel that we must bring into the world. No matter how hard or impossible this task may seem we must rely upon the Trinity as our strength.

As we go out into the world and draw upon the love of that is found inside of the Trinity we are being the disciples of Christ who can reform the culture of which we live. We can thus bring the message of Christ into the world and allow Him to begin to reform our current knowledge of the culture. We can be the voices of reason ,within this confused world, that can forever speak the truth of the Gospel. Not only will we speak this truth, but we will most importantly live it out within our lives and stop allowing our culture to be the one that controls our lives. Many examples have gone before us in this life who have accomplished this great representation of the ministry of Christ, and they fill us with much hope as we go out to accomplish the same task. Therefore my brothers and sisters in Christ I pray that each of us will encounter the truth that is found inside of the Gospel message where we are able to see the kindness of the Lord and trust inside of the salvation that He bestows to each of us.

Fri of the 14th Week of OT Homily

1st Reading: Hos 14:2-10

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 51:3-4,8-9,12-14,17

Gospel: Mt 10:16-23

In today's Gospel we are told that we will be sent out like sheep among wolves. This imagery should make us instantly think of how tough it can be to live a life which respects our faith. There are many messages out there which are constantly coming at us and want us to turn from our beliefs and thus be devoured whole. Instead of giving into these messages we must trust in the Holy Spirit and open our hearts to it, so that we may be given the strength needed to encounter all of these wolves which are trying to put end to our growth of faith. The disciples encountered these same struggles and they were able to place their trust in the Spirit who was working within their lives.

The Holy Spirit does work inside of our lives and is willing to give us the strength needed if we can only open hearts to listen to its voice. If we can open our hearts, only a little bit, we can put to rest each urge which attempts to tare us away from our faith. Giving into these unnatural urges causes us to hear this voice less and less. We should instead allow this voice to speak more and more within our lives. By giving the Holy Spirit such weight within our lives we can trust that we will be able to endure each false voice that enters into our lives.

As we make room for the Holy Spirit to come and dwell within our lives our mouths will be able to proclaim the praise of the Lord. At each moment where we feel as if we will be led astray in our journey of faith we will be given the voice to cry out faithfully. Through growing in these habits we will begin to blossom like the vine and begin to produce much fruit within our culture. Our unmoving connection to the Spirit will give us the strength needed to enter into a world filled with many wolves and not have to fear as we allow our mouths to declare the praise of the Lord.

Memorial of St. Benedict Homily

1st Reading: Hos 10:1-3,7-8,12

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 105:2-7

Gospel: Mt 10:1-7

Today we commemorate the memorial of Saint Benedict. Saint Benedict and his order of monks have been close to me for my whole time in seminary. For my first four years of seminary I attended Conception Seminary College which is located in Missouri and for my second half of life in the seminary I attended Saint Meinrad Seminary in Indiana. Both of these communities taught me the values of the Benedictine Order and helped to form me in their spirit of prayer. These monks have been removed from the bustle of the world and have been set aside so that they may come to seek the Lord through their search for holiness.

These Benedictine communities have followed in the footsteps of their founder, Saint Benedict. Saint Benedict who drew away from the busyness of the city to form a community that was removed from it. This community would join together in prayer and aid each other in their search for holiness in everyday life. From this community of followers the Rule of Saint Benedict was written in order to aspire these monks to move towards holiness in their everyday lives. Saint Benedict is an inspiration to our society who finds it so hard to get away from the busyness of life to spend anytime secluded in quiet prayer.

Each of us here today have been called to search for holiness in our everyday lives. We each exist in the busyness of the world, but we have all been called to find time to turn away from this message. Through turning away at times to spend time in prayer we will draw ourselves closer to God and His Son. These experiences of quiet prayer will lead us to seek the face of the Lord at all moments of our lives. This transformation of our lives will lead us into the world and will allow us to proclaim the message of the Kingdom of Heaven. May we be an inspiration to the world of our need to draw out from it and begin to search for a relationship with God.