Easter Day Homily

Happy Easter to all of you. This morning we once again sing triumphantly "Glory to God in the Highest" and we allow our cry of "alleluia" to once again rise to the Heavens as we rejoice on this most holy morning. We rejoice because through our celebration of Easter we discover a great hope that sin cannot conquer over us, that in the midst of despair new hope can be ushered in, and that in each sacrifice that we must endure meaning will be found. On Easter morning we discover that our faith is so important, that it is not just something that we can claim by name, but not actually live out. Instead Easter is something that is transformative. It transforms each of us and through this reality our life can never be the same again. When we began to discover the stone that was rolled away from the tomb on the day of our baptism we were set apart. We can attempt to run away from the stone and thus the Resurrection all that we want to, but no matter how much we attempt to run we cannot remove the fact of the Resurrection from our midst.

Mary of Magdala fully expected to encounter the dead body of Christ. She was fully prepared to anoint his dead body, but instead she had an encounter which would change her life forever. From the rolled away stone of the tomb came the glimmer of hope that would only be confirmed by Christ's Resurrection. Therefore instead of being unchanged she was changed forever through this encounter. Her mourning was turned into joy and her despair was given hope. In her inclusion of Saint Peter and the other disciple into this situation she gave them the same glance into this joy and hope that would change their lives forever. We know that the life of Peter was changed forever through this encounter because from it he received the conformation that all that he was shown and taught was indeed true. This conformation of Christ Resurrected led him to embracing not the fears of the world, but instead he to would embrace the martyrdom of the cross because he came to understand the importance of being a follower of Christ.

 

We unfortunately live in a world that does not understand the importance of the Resurrection. Even within Christian families this importance is not fully understood. Instead of embracing the fullness of Christ and thus our faith we attempt to live a life that is filled with segregation. We like to banish our religion to Sunday and make sure that it is as far as possible away from our family life, our life at school or work, and our life that we live out in private. This cannot be the reality of our life because the Resurrection has taken place. Once we find this tomb that has been left opened we must allow our faith to flow into every aspect of our life like Saint Peter did, like Mary of Magdala did, and like all the saints have done with their unending service to God. We came to encounter this opened tomb at the moment of our baptism. It was here that we were forever confirmed as a follower of Christ. From baptism we were not given the choice to segregate our faith or to trust in sin, but instead to follow after Christ and all of His teachings.

 

Following this homily we will again state our intention to not be like old yeast, but instead to allow it to become equal to a fresh batch of dough. Here I am speaking about each of us making a renewal of our baptismal promises. In our baptism we were set apart from sin, and therefore through the open tomb of Christ that we came to discover on this Easter morning we must continue to strive to separate ourselves from sin and despair. In the Resurrection sin and despair can never win because Christ has already conquered over death. The Resurrection is a great light that shines from the darkness and thus it always leads us to great hope and joy. There is hope because in a world that has been darkened by the stain of sin we can see that our sin has been forgiven and that we to can conquer over sin due to our own love for God. In moments of despair and hardship the Resurrection promises the great joy that something greater will indeed come if we can allow ourselves to trust in Christ.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters in Christ may we continue to sing joyfully with all the angels of Heaven "Glory to God in the highest" and may we continue to allow our chant of "alleluia" to rise to Heaven where all our hope can be found. This season is most important for each of us because it is about new life. It is not about sin, despair, and hardship; but instead it is about virtue, joy, and hope. May we always trust in these three elements and allow Christ to continue to strengthen each of them each day. Through the rolled away stone of the tomb we have entered into the very life of the Church and have forever been oriented towards Christ and His Church on this earth. May we not allow ourselves to separate these realities from our life, but instead come to truly embrace them in their fullness. Today we rejoice with hope because on the third day Christ rose from the dead; may we to rise with Him with our faith and our trust and from this great relationship truly come to discover hope and joy.

Easter Vigil Homily

This most holy night is truly about coming to discover new life. This new life is continuously brought to each of us when we are renewed through Christ, this new life will be discovered by each of these candidates who sit before me with the desire to be received into the Church and to finally be admitted to the reception of the sacraments, in each passing generation of the world this new life was discovered through the coming of the Messiah, and of course the hope of new life is always brought about when we realize that the cross was not the end, but instead was only the beginning. Tonight we join with these women who move towards the tomb of Christ. In their procession to this tomb they brought their fears of what would now happen with their life due to Christ's death, but instead of having their fears confirmed they were welcomed with the great hope that comes with the Resurrection. In our discovery of this great hope, this night, we to are welcomed with Christ's words of "Do not be afraid."

The liturgy of the Easter vigil is most special because it is filled with so many great symbols that draw our minds towards the mystery of Christ's Resurrection. The biggest of these symbols is that of darkness. We began our liturgy outside in total darkness and from there we entered into this dark Church. In total darkness one's ability to see is entirely stripped away. Of course this is difficult to happen in the middle of a city, but if you were to enter into a cave and turn off your flashlight, you would not even be able to see your hand before your eyes. The reality of sin does indeed effect the way that we are able to behold God. It darkens our ability to see to the point where it overcomes us so much that we walk about lost in the darkness. This darkness that fills this night enters into our life every single time when we are led into despair. Life is not always easy, we know this from the loss of a loved one, we know this through the hardship of a terminal disease, we know this when unfortunate situations arise in our own life.

 

Nevertheless, we cannot allow the darkness of sin and despair to consume us. We cannot allow the darkness to win because in all reality light will always overcome the darkness. That is why the fire outside of this Church shined so brightly so that it could consume this darkness and that is why the light of a candle processed into this dark Church so that it could banish the darkness from our midst. This light that consumes the darkness is indeed "the light of Christ." Sin and despair have no control over the light of Christ because it will always win. This light that springs forth from the reality of the Resurrection comforts us in the words of our Gospel: "Do not be afraid." Indeed we have nothing to fear because on this most holy night we come to encounter the true light that shines from the darkness of sin and hardship. With this great light that destroys the darkness we are given a great hope that even even in the darkest moments of our own life light will indeed begin to shine brightly.

Easter is about the hope of new life. This great hope will be illustrated to us later in this Mass when we will recall the fact that we have been baptized. It is here that water will be blessed and then we will eventually move onto renewing the promises that we made on the day of our baptism. Again with the presence of sin inside of our life we have failed to live up to the great obligation that was made on the day of our baptism. Nevertheless we must know and continue to renew these promises that we have committed ourselves to. These promises and thus the reality of baptism are made most important due to the light that shines within the darkness from the fact of Christ's Resurrection. This light confirms that we can indeed have the hope to move past our sinfulness and to eventually join Christ in the joys of everlasting life. The problem is that we do not always allow ourselves to be comforted and thus to trust in Christ's loving embrace of "do not be afraid."

Instead of trusting in these loving words we sometimes allow sin, despair, and hardship to speak louder. With this great Easter season, that we have entered into, may we conquer these many voices and instead of continuing to run away from Christ allow ourselves to be moved towards His loving embrace and His words of love. May we truly allow ourselves to find comfort, hope, and new life from these words and the loving embrace of our Saviour. Tonight it should be a great joy for each us as these five candidates present themselves here to enter into the life of Christ's Church. In their hearts they desire to be moved away from the many false voices of this world and instead to be greeted by Christ who says to each of them and also to us "do not be afraid." This is indeed a night of great joy because the darkness of sin cannot conquer the light of the Resurrection. This night we rejoice as we continue to discover new life through our separation from sin and our total commitment to Christ. May we indeed continue to banish this darkness from our midst and allow ourselves to trust unceasingly in Christ's words of "do not be afraid."

Holy Thursday Homily

Time and time again scripture tells us that His hour has not yet come, but tonight we are told that He "knew that His hour had come." This hour that is being referred to in our Gospel is that of the events of the passion which began to unfold with the Last Supper where Christ came to institute for the Church both the priesthood and the Holy Eucharist. We celebrate this reality each and every single time when we gather for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It is during the Mass that we join with Christ in this hour that begins to unfold tonight. We join with Him as He gives the Eucharist to His apostles and we join with Him as He is eventually crucified upon the cross at Calvary. The Mass is not just some human action, but instead it is a divine action where we are always transported to this hour that begins to unfold when Christ would "pass from this world to the Father." We must therefore take this time when we gather together for the Mass most seriously, because at this time we truly join with Christ at His hour of mercy.

The Mass is most serious because within it we have a priest who offers our sacrifices to God. We must therefore go back to what was offered time and time again by priests within the temple, which is sacrifice. This sacrifice would be offered on behalf of the sins of the people and therefore would have to be continuously offered because it was not perfect. What we have within the Church is far different because when Christ's hour came, He would make the perfect sacrifice that would set us free for our enslavement to sin. It is through the priests of the Church that we enter into the Mass and thus enter into Christ's sacrifice that has been offered once and for all. Christ knew that the hour that He had to embrace was quickly coming, and so He gathered His twelve apostles into the upper room, gave the words of institution, and said to them "do this in remembrance of me." In these words He is revealing that they are the ones who have been chosen as his first priests to continue the priestly sacrifice of the Eucharist for the Church.

 Not only are these words most important in the institution of the priesthood, but also these words are most important in our own relationship to the Eucharist. At the time of the Passover very similar words were used to remind the faithful of the need to continue to commemorate this action that was accomplished by God. The Eucharist is therefore something so much greater than being a mere symbol. Instead the Eucharist is literally the Body, Blood, soul, and divinity of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Despite the reality that His hour had finally come does not herald that we have been cut off from God. Instead Christ continues to dwell here among us in the Holy Eucharist. In the Eucharist we join our own hearts to our Lord and thus allow ourselves to enter into His sacrifice and thus to be conformed to the image of Christ more and more each day. When we commune with our Lord free from the state of mortal sin we begin to love Him more each day which in return will lead us towards true fraternal charity.

This past year on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi Pope Francis stated in his homily concerning those who receive the Eucharist: "The Lord leads us to follow his path -- that of service, sharing and giving; and that little that we have, the little that we are, if shared, becomes a treasure because the power of God, who is love, descends to our poverty and transforms it." Following this homily we will celebrate the ritual of the washing of feet which displays to all of us the true fraternal charity that is required because we have received Christ present in the Holy Eucharist into our life. This action of service shows that it is not enough to receive our Lord at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and to not allow ourselves to be moved away from our sin and also towards true service and respect for our brothers and sisters in Christ. To receive the Eucharist is to commune with God's perfect love that is over flowing and therefore it should bring about the desire to enter into "service, sharing, and giving" to God and those whom we encounter.

Tonight as the reality of Christ's hour arrives for all of us may we indeed see the great love that God has in store for each of us. His love is clearly seen upon the wood of the cross and from this sacrifice it is continued to be seen within the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. This love is seen because Christ did not leave us alone when His hour had arrived, but instead He left us with the gift of the priesthood and of the Holy Eucharist. May we not take these great gifts for granted, but realize that without them we would not have a Church to worship within. Instead of taking these gifts for granted may we be transformed through the greatest love story that has ever been told which is Calvary and therefore is also the Mass. When we commune this day with our Lord may we allow it to transform us to resemble Christ more and more. From this daily transformation we must move away from our sin, we must grow closer to God, and we must therefore be moved into fraternal charity. May we indeed embrace these realities on this day when Christ's hour has finally come to pass. 

Palm Sunday Year A Homily

Today Christ joyfully enters into Jerusalem.

May we also enter into Holy Week with this same joy that surrounds us on this day.

We enter this week, not burdened by the guilt of Christ's passion and death, but with celebration and joy in what God has done for us.

-This reality will be revealed to us throughout these upcoming days, so may we joyfully allow ourselves to enter into them.

-Holy Thursday will be filled with joy because it was on this day that Christ instituted the Holy Priesthood and gave us the Holy Eucharist.

-Good Friday will be filled with joy because through Christ's death upon the cross we are forgiven for the many sins that we have committed against God.

-On Holy Saturday we will await with great anticipation for the great joy that will come on Easter. This joy is the reality of the Resurrection where we are forever given hope.

At this time we will joyfully process into this Church. May we do so with hearts filled with joy as we listen attentively to the words of our Lord's Passion and allow ourselves to be placed in the midst of them. Here our shouts of Hosanna will soon fade to make way for the cries of "Let him be crucified!" may we realize that these are the words that each of us shout out in the midst of our sin. With joy may we come to embrace Holy Week and also the sacrament of confession in order that we may put the vileness of our sin to death and thus be better prepared to behold Easter. May this joyful entry truly usher us into the joys that will unfold throughout Holy Week.

Passion Sunday Homily (Extraordinary Form)

Today we move into the time that is known as the Passiontide where we will journey even closer to Christ's crucifixion with each day that passes. This week Christ instructs us concerning what will await us after our death, next week we will have the account of our Lord's Passion proclaimed to us on Palm Sunday, and then we will arrive at Good Friday where our Lord gave His last breath upon the wood of the cross to bring about our salvation. As we journey through these upcoming days may we not take advantage of them as if they are without purpose. As a reminder to the importance of these days that lay ahead the preface for our Mass is to be taken from the one of the Holy Cross which places our attention upon our Lord's Passion and also we are instructed to cover any statues, images, and crosses to symbolize our true longing to come back into union with this beauty that has been shielded from our eyes. These next two weeks are therefore most important to our Christian faith because only through them can we truly arrive at Easter.

Our Epistle taken from Hebrews allows us to reflect upon the importance of this sacrifice that was offered by Christ upon the wood of the cross. As we know sacrifice after sacrifice would be offered inside of the temple to atone for humanity's sinfulness. Despite this offering of blood in atonement for our sins it would never make up the perfect sacrifice that would have to be offered by the Messiah. Therefore in Hebrews we hear: "how much more shall the Blood of Christ...cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God?" The Sanhedrin were able to understand that this man was human because they realized that He was born of Mary, had Joseph for a father, and came from a little town of Nazareth. What they missed was the fact that not only was Christ fully human, but He was also fully divine. Both of these realities make the sacrifice offered upon the cross most meaningful for each of us.

From the blood that was shed by Christ upon the cross we should be able to see seven very important effects that are realized within this world. Firstly, from this blood we have been cleansed from all of our defilement. Without the shedding of this blood we would be still guilty of the effects of original sin with no hope to be liberated. Secondly, the shedding of Christ's blood has won our redemption. If this blood was never shed we also would never be able to claim that we have been redeemed and thus have been made worthy of the Heavenly Kingdom. Thirdly, this outpouring of blood upon the cross is our making of peace with God and also all the angels. We can think how through the reality of sin that we have put ourselves at war against God and all of the angels, but by this shedding of blood these relationships have been healed. Next, the shedding of Christ's blood is a confirmation of the testament of the eternal inheritance for which we one day hope to enjoy within. As Christians we know that this world can often lead us down dead end paths which can ultimately lead us into despair, but thankfully we are a people of hope and therefore this shedding of blood gives us the hope necessary to encounter all despair that may befall us. Next, this shedding of blood is a drinking and inebriation to the consumer. Through this reality we should be most thankful for the Eucharist where Christ continues to allow us to commune with him. This Sacrament is not just bread and wine, but literally in the words of our Lord: "This is my Body" and "This is my Blood. Next, we can say that the shedding of this blood has led to the opening of the doors of Heaven. We know that these doors were closed through the fall, but thankfully due to the sacrifice that was offered upon the cross these doors have once again been opened to us. Finally, this shedding of blood has led to the deliverance of all the saints from Hell. In the fall Heaven's doors were closed, but thankfully Christ descended into Hell and thus lifted these holy souls to Heaven through His outpouring of blood.

The blood that flowed from the hands, feet, side, face, and body of our Blessed Lord has truly transformed our life and our world. These days that lay ahead for us are most important because in these days we will come to discover the cross and from the cross we will better be able to behold the glory that will come through the Resurrection. In these wounds and the blood that flowed out from them we have so many rewards to be thankful for. For this reason we should trust in hope with our Lord and truly see the great necessity to rip the presence of sin away from our life. We do this each and every time when we prevail ourself to the Sacrament of Confession and thus allow ourself to return to the great mercy of God. May this time of the Passiontide truly prepare our hearts and souls to behold Christ on Easter where we are given the hope that we can indeed overcome sin in our life, find comfort in the midst of sorrow, and come to realize the truth to the promise of everlasting life that was pointed towards in today's Gospel. May we not reject this gift, but instead come to accept it in its entirety by embracing the blood that was offered by Christ upon the wood of the cross.