What Recompense can I give to the Lord?
Ordination to the Diaconate
Friday, June 25, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
St Margaret's Graduation Homily
I love being a priest, and as a young priest I have a lot of energy, so I am not afraid to spread myself pretty thin. The other day I was shocked to discover that I’ve put more than 20k miles on my truck since I got it last year.
And while I love visiting with the sick, the elderly, and the dying they are the first to admit that it’s you young people who are the future: of our society, our nation, and our Church
Ok, I know it sounds cliché but it’s true—the world is in your hands and in the hand of your friends and peers, because while your parents generation might be running things right now, while my, ever so slightly younger, generation is waiting our turn it’s your generation that are determining the course of future events—by the choices you make right now! Because you don’t just wake up one day and roll out of bed forty or fifty years old, and decide: today I am going to run for president, or take over a small third world country, or change the world as a great mom or dad. You don’t just decide twenty years down the line I am going to be a saint , or a sinner. Each and every day we live our choices and actions reveal the person that we are and the person that we are choosing to become!
If you choose to be courageous and kind to Love God and try to follow his plan for you today, and tomorrow, and the next day you shouldn’t be surprised if you are still doing these things on the day you die. If you love and respect people, and always put the good of your family, and friends before your own selfish interests now then don’t be surprised if you are loved and honored by many twenty years from now. And if you approach each day of your life as a present, as the gift that it is, from now until the end of high school don’t be surprised if you are happy each and every day—delighted by the goodness of God and His love for you! Of course, sadly the opposite is true! We humans are creatures of habit, good habits, called virtues, or bad habits, called vices.
Realize that what we do today, for good or evil, effects who we are and how well we love in the future. Of course, no matter how many mistakes we make our God and Father loves us and is always willing to set us free from bad choices, and give us another chance. You, my friends are at the threshold of adulthood Now is the time for you to choose, not by empty words but by your actions, the type of people that you want to be, and your choices now will echo throughout your life.
As we hear St. Paul say in his letter to the Corinthians: “when I became a man, I put aside childish things.”
The transition that you are going through now as you prepare for high school, is a transition away from childishness, away from selfishness, and small mindedness, and toward responsibility and greater love. As your minds reach their full maturity and potential now is the time for you to learn about God and to seek His will for your life, now is the time to put aside our childish view of God and to meet the real God, the God of the real world, the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob,
The God who tells us “I am Love,” and reveals what love looks like on the Cross.
God has given you hearts and souls and minds with the potential to do great things and be great people it’s been so awesome to walk with you this past year to see this potential in each of you. Hopefully I have helped you a little to activate that potential!
It’s truly been one of the best parts of my priesthood during this past year, working with you because each of you is so full of hope and joy; full of faith about the goodness of today; and in love with life, and even if you don’t realize it, with its Creator, our God. This is wath youth is all about.
Remember that while St. Paul tells us that we must put away childish things. our Lord cautions us not to lose the heart of a child. Being young is about being curious about creation and always standing in awe before it, and about receiving it as a wonderful gift.
I’ve seen this in you and by sharing in your journey you have reminded me why I listened to God’s call to become a priest in the first place.
Don’t be in such a rush to grow up that you lose the love for life, that you all have!
And so I come to the customary words of wisdom to the graduates:
Leaving grammar school is like leaving a protected harbor, the protected harbor of your childhood. Today you will begin the first of many storms, periods of turmoil and change in your life. Personally, I love the excitement of a good storm but while all the storms of life may not be fun, and some may even leave you sick and puking your guts out, remember that each storm is drawing you closer to your destination the peaceful waters and safe haven of God’s kingdom.
Remember that you are God’s children, He really does love you! When the storms of life seem to threaten your very life all you need to do is turn to Him in your need and He will help you.
As you chart your course in these coming years remember that “Love never fails!” Love must be your north star, your beacon and your guide, and so long as we keep our eyes on the Cross of Jesus Christ, we can never lose sight of love.
Practically speaking, be kind to one another there is too much ugliness in the world don’t contribute to it!
Remember that you were put in this world for a reason, not just to get to heaven, but to help those around you get there. God has a special plan for each and every one of you, maybe there is even a vocation to priesthood or religious life listen to God speaking in your hearts, and ask him for the courage to follow Him, even when you would prefer not to!
Make prayer, Sunday Mass, and frequent confession priorities, these are unimaginable sources of strength and peace, and they will get you through any difficulty and get you to heaven.
Finally remember what Jesus said to his disciples: Be not afraid, I will be with you always, even unto the end of the World!
Please know that you are in my prayers, and that as a Father, an image of God the Father I am always there for you if you need me!
May almighty God bless the class of 2010!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Vestment Homily
Given at St. Patrick's in Wareham
Every year priests are forced to come head to head with that unfortunately difficult passage from Matthew’s Gospel woe to the pharasees and scibes because…“all their works they do for to be seen of men. For they make their phylacteries broad, and enlarge their fringes. ”
Strangely enough, I am not challenged with this difficult Gospel today and yet I have chosen to preach about it.
Today Fr. John and Fr. Bill, and I have decide to give a little lesson on vestments at all the Masses and so I decided to start with this difficult passage because…
I have often thought it strange that after proclaiming this Gospel very seldom does the priest, who stands before the people in more or less ornate robes, with tassles and phylactaries, ever try to make apology for his manner of dress.
I think that embarrassment about this passage and a misunderstanding of the theology of sacred vestments are part of the reason why the quality of sacred vestments have suffered so much in the last fifty years.
Anyone who has been to Mass with me on a solemnity or feast, knows that I am either, for some reason, not ashamed by this passage, or, otherwise, hopelessly dense.
The fact of the matter is that vestments are not a new thing, a recent aberration of the fairly recent 15th or 14th or 13th century. In truth, Catholic priests in all 22 Catholic rites in the world
have for most of the life of the Church, definitely for more than 17 centuries, worn special garbs to celebrate the sacred mysteries. But if this is true, how do we understand what Jesus is saying when He says: “Woe to you…”?
When Jesus criticizes the dress of the Pharisees, he is critiquing not their fashion sense, but their love for honor and places of honor, and the fact that the loveliness of their hearts do not correspond to the loveliness of their clothing.
I will be the first to admit that my vestments are often much more beautiful than my soul often sullied as it is by pride, and laziness, and envy, and every other sin. As I tell all those who come to me for confession: even the greatest saint knows that he sins seven times a day.
However, the beauty of sacred vestments, are not meant to be a reflection on my dignity, wisdom, or authority, but meant to be a reflection of the dignity, wisdom, authority, and beauty of the one by whose authority every priests acts.
In that same chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says: do not be called rabbi or master or father. And yet we still call priests by the title father, not because of who they are, because of their own dignity but because a priest is an image of Christ, who works in and through his priests and who is the image of the Father.
Vestments are meant to remind, the priest, just as much as the people, of the great dignity of Jesus Christ, who is our one true high priest to remind us of the beauty of His act of pure love on the Cross, which by the power of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit priests make present on the Altar.
A priest before Mass starts dressed in His simple clerical garb, these simple black garments are a symbol of learning just like the graduates cap and gown which developed from the monks garbs of the early middle agesat the first monastic schools and universities
They are a symbol also of the death to the things of the world that an honest search for the Truth, that is for our God, requires.
Around his neck, a simple white cloth, serves as a symbol of his teaching role. It recalls the white cloth which was worn in Roman times by Senators to keep their necks warm so that they might speak for long periods of time.
However, these “street clothes,” symbols of learning and honor are meant to be completely covered by the Sacred Vestments that remind the priest that despite his learning, and his teaching role, what a priest does at the Mass is not a work of his own hands but accomplished by the pierce hands, and feet, and heart of Jesus.
Starting with the Amice, a simple white cloth that covers the neck the priest prays that the Lord may cloth him with the helmet of salvation.
Along with the amice he puts on the long white alb a symbol of the purity not of the priest’s soul but of every Christian’s soul when washed clean by Christ in the waters of baptism. By putting on this white garment the priest puts on the human dignity of Christ and is reminded of the death that Christ’s perfect love endured, a death to self that the priest makes present on the Altar when he offers the Body and Blood of the Lord to the Father, and which the priest is challenged to make present in His life.
Next he wraps a simple cord around his waist, to symbolize the perfect chasity of Chirst but also the chains and difficulties that true love forces us to embrace in this life.
Over these under garments, a priest wears a long thin scarf called a stole, which is a symbol of the yoke of Christ, a symbol of the of the authority of Jesus, but also the weight and burden of that authority, that we see in the cross.
Finally over all else come the chasuble, which means little house. This garment is a symbol of our one shelter and refuge, the love of God, by which all authority and power that comes from God is used for the good of mankind.
The vestments that the priest wears should be of the finest quality that we can afford, if we really believe that what happens at the Mass is a cosmic event that draws us into an eternal relationship with our God.
These beautiful garments, however, that we put on at Mass are only a reminder of how much more beautiful our souls are meant to be, that each of us are called to put on Christ, especially here at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
The outward symbols of the beauty of Christ’s work of salvation must make us want to make our souls inwardly more beautiful, more pure, and more holy.
Just like the woman in the gospel today we are all debtors to our Lord, Master, and God, we all owe God everything, and more still because of our sins.
It’s only by asking for and accepting God’s mercy and then working each and every day to put on the robes of justice, honor, mercy, and truth, that we can put on Christ and be counted among the sons and daughters of Christ.
Lets make St. Paul’s prayer our own today: I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Its all fun and games until someone goes to hell!
A friend of mine has a funny little saying that he tells his friends whenever they are being led into temptation or considering doing something morally sketchy: Its all fun and games until someone goes to Hell!
In the old days Christians used to put a lot more emphasis on the reality of hell.
That hell exists and is the punishment for those who reject God’s goodness, love, and mercy is a firm fact of our faith. Jesus tells us on many occasions, and suggests in the Gospel today that there is something other than the Kingdom of Heaven, that people do end up there, and that it is not a nice place.
I think there are two reasons why people don’t talk about hell that often:
The first is a bad reason—simply put some people don’t believe in Hell. They can’t believe that a loving God would eternally damn His children to a fiery place of tornment—not realizing that the reality of Hell is an intergral proof of God’s goodness. God doesn’t force us to love Him, He loves us enough to let us choose even not to love God, i.e. Hell. The problem with this is you can’t be a Christian and not believe in Hell; and just because you don’t know or think a place exists doesn’t mean you can’t go there.
I think the second reason why people talk less about hell is a better one! The second reason is what Jesus talks about today, in Scriptures Jesus tells us the God sees the heart of Man and that, he judges us not on what we accomplish but on our intentions. God wants us to love Him, and Trust Him, and follow His law, His plan, because we love and trust Him not because we are afraid of the fires of Hell
Some people, myself included think, it’s better to focus on heaven and getting there! It’s like walking a tight rope or climbing a mountain, what do people always say when you are up high?
DON’T LOOK DOWN! Maybe just knowing it’s there is enough without concentrating on it.
So what do we have to do to get to heaven? Well it’s not easy, but it’s also not tremendously hard, either!
In the Gospel today Jesus tells us: I tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees and scribes you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
What was wrong with the Pharisees and Scribes?? They were good people. You might ask, well what’s wrong with being a good person? Nothing, except we can’t settle for the mediocrity of just not doing anything bad, God doesn’t want us JUST to avoid bad things, He wants us to choose to do good things, to love, not just the people who are easy to love but also strangers and even our enemies AND God wants us to choose to do good things not because mom or dad or Mr. Hudson or Fr. Ron or anyone else tells us to or will praise us for doing these things. God wants us to try to do good and avoid evil because we love God.
Everything comes from God is a gift from God, given to Man, isn’t this enough to make us love our God?
Heaven is an eternity with God and so to get to heaven we need to want to be there we need to love God.
Who wants to got to heaven? What do you think Heaven will be like?
To tell you the truth, I am not sure what heaven will be like, St. Paul tells us eye has not seen nor has the ear heard, nor has it even entered the mind of man, what God has prepared for those who love Him, and so while I have some thoughts about heaven I know that it will be so much more awesome than anything I can imagine!
And because I know and love God and I trust Him I am willing to believe on blind faith that whatever He has prepared for humanity in Heaven is worth waiting for! Worth working for, living for and even dying for!
So if we trust and love God and want to get into heaven what do we need to do to get in? We need to try to be perfect. Did you all hear that, I didn’t say we need TO BE perfect but that we need to TRY. God judges your heart, he knows if you love Him and are trying to know and serve Him. Even if you fail a 1000 times, the difference between the sinner and the saint is that the saint picks himself up, goes to God in confession, and tries to do better again. The saint does not settle for being a “good person,” in fact the saint doesn’t care at all whether people say they are good, bad, or crazy, The saint wants only to give everything to God in love.
I’ve gotten to know many of you this past year, and I know that so many of you, especially you eight graders have really great hearts, don’t settle for being good people don’t buy into the lie that the way to be happy is by being successful, or wealthy, or having lots of friends or a beautiful wife, by being ordinary.
Be extraordinary, live extraordinary lives filled with the joy and peace that can only come from loving the Lord God. God created each of us for heaven, but also to fulfill a special mission on earth!
Our mission on earth is our path to heaven. Listen to God’s plan for you and don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid of anything, for Jesus is with you leading you, if only you will turn to Him, and trust in Him.