Homily for my brothers wedding

What is Love?

A Homily for the Nuptial Mass

of Michael and Karen Floyd

given at St. Anthony of Padua Church

On the Feast of Januarius the 18th of September 2010

By the Rev. Fr. Ronnie Paul Floyd, STL

What is Love? It’s consoling, at some level, to know, as St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians demonstrates that even 2 millenia ago the meaning of the word “love” was so elusive. Love is one of those things that is bigger than you and I, that can be glimpsed partially, but never wholly understood or comprehended.

Ultimately, St. John answers the question for us when he unequivocally states: God is Love! Not that that definition helps us, because God is as unknowable as Love itself. Like God, Love is something, or rather should I say someone to be experienced, and enjoyed, but never fully comprehended.

And so today you two are undertaking something that you can’t even begin to understand the consequences of...

This is why as Christians we believe that only those who have heard and accepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ can enter into the Sacrament of Marriage. True, marriage has been around a long time, long before the birth of Christ and the institution of the 7 Sacraments. In fact it’s been around ever since Adam and Eve, In the beginning God created man, In the image and likeness of God He create him, Male and female he create them. God created marriage from the beginning to be a privileged tool for our sanctification. Marriage is the way God wants most people to become holy, to become saints. God planned from all time that men and women, because they complement each other perfectly, should help each other to grow in self-knowledge and self-mastery, to grow in TRUE LOVE so that they might learn how God loves them and how they must love God through each other. SIN ruined this for humanity.

Michael and Karen, remember this, sin is not wrong because God says it is wrong, God says sin is wrong because it is wrong, because it ruins us and our relationships, making it first difficult, and then impossible to love. We see plenty of relationships and friendships, plenty of marriages ruined by SIN on a daily basis! because of sin, so often marriage is thought of today as a relationship of convenience and mutual benefit.

TODAY, you are not undertaking a natural marriage, TODAY, you are not entering into a relationship of convenience, TODAY, you are being asked to freely choose to enter into the sacrament of marriage A Sacrament because it is an outward sign of the Love God poured out for us on Calvary.

Our society asks nothing of you to enter into marriage, and that’s why so many of marriages fail. In contrast, Our Church and our God ask everything of you demanding, that you give everything to each other like Christ did on the Cross for us, and for the salvation of the World. Today you are taking up your vocation, your sacred calling by means of this vocation, God wishes to make you holy and sanctify the whole world.

If you do not give each other everything, living each day not for pleasure, or laughs, material possessions, or comfort but for eternal life, then you will fail, harming not only your own souls, but the souls of all those around you. The task is daunting, and in fact impossible, if not for our Faith! It’s only because of the power of the Cross, that we dare to undertake Sacramental Marriage. To make this work you must give 100% of your life to each other depending 100% on the help of God, and the prayers and intercessions of the Angels and Saints.

In a few minutes you will be asked to make a choice to love each other forever, for better and for worse. And there will be “worse” - there will be sufferings! But if you love each other, and place all your faith in God you can and WILL be HAPPY, despite life’s difficulties. This is the good news, the Gospel, of Jesus Christ.

By loosing your life you gain it!

True love is a mystery, that we can ever delve deeper into, always being transformed, more and more, into the image of Christ Jesus. And it’s especially when we suffer joyfully with Jesus, that God purifies our love and makes it most true. True love can be seen, if not understood, on the Cross, where the creator of all things, allowed himself to be tortured, abused, and murdered by us, His creatures, so that we might see what true love is and begin to live it. On the Cross, Jesus shows us that Love is patient and kind, he shows that it’s never rude, never easily angered, it doesn’t hold grudges, it is not self seeking! How often we have heard these words. Remember that they are meaningless if they are not understood in the context of the Cross of Jesus Christ. Fundamentally, Jesus shows us that Love is a choice--not a feeling or emotion, not a physical attraction, not a mutually beneficial social arrangement. Love is a stubborn choice to desire do whatever we honestly believe is good for the other person, 100% of the time, with NO concern for your own desires.

As Jesus said before the passion, no one takes my life from me, I freely give it. Today you must freely give up your life--not just by jumping in front of a bullet to save each other--in comparison to what you are doing, that’s easy! It’s when you start getting on each other’s nerve or when one of you hurts the other, and when you are afraid of the future, that you must die to self. It sounds so scary, but always remember what our Savior told us: Be not afraid, says the Lord, I go before you always. The bitterness of life’s difficulties just makes the joys more sweet for those who trust in God. God loves you, and wants you to be happy, trust in him and your marriage will be full of joy and laughs and surprises, as well as some tears, until at last you come to the everlasting joy of heaven.

If your faith makes you ready to undertake Christian Marriage draw near to God to make known the desire of your heart.

Mass the Way God made it!

recessional, originally uploaded by fr.ron_floyd.

I was so happy with the way Mass turned out. Everything was almost perfect.

SMR Class of 2010 after Graduation

SMR Class of 2010 after Graduation, originally uploaded by fr.ron_floyd.

After Celebrating their graduation Mass and conferring their decrees. Thank you guys for giving me an opportunity to wear my academic biretta ; )

Philemon

A Homily for the 23rd Sunday in ordinary time

given at St. Patrick's Church

by Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd, STL

Of all Paul’s Epistles, the little read letter to Philemon, written while Paul was imprisoned in Rome, quickly became one of my favorites in Seminary. That’s probably because it is one of the shortest letters, and thus it was the easiest question to get on the exams. I was lucky because when I took my exam on Pauline letters. I did in fact get this Epistle as the one I had to talk about for eight minutes.

The letter is a personal letter, unlike most of Paul’s other letters in Sacred Scriptures. It is written to a man named Philemon about his runaway slave, Onesemus, who ran off to follow Paul and who Paul is sending back now to his life of slavery. One of the reasons I like this letter is that it startles our modern sensibilities!

When we hear the word slavery we think of racism, cruelty, dehumanization, and injustice. Of course the first thing we must realize is that slavery in the ancient world was much different from slavery in the 1800s. It wasn’t primarily based on race but was primarily a political and economic arrangement. This isn’t to say that it was a good thing, but that maybe it wasn’t as bad as we imagine today. In reality, in many places slavery was much the same as employment at a big company prior to the 1980s

It was a lifelong relationship between employer and employee that demanded some sacrifices, that was often one sided, but that also promised stability and job security. In these days of lay-offs, constant company hopping, and employment anxiety I can imagine many wish for the good old days when a companies and workers felt responsible for each other. When you got a job and you only left when you retired.

Anyway like all human systems, slavery in the ancient world was a structure not always good, but often contained good elements. It’s to this type of slavery the Paul returns Onesemus and his reason is interesting! Paul trusts that no matter the situation one finds oneself in, there is always the possibility for good to come out of it, if only we trust in God. This is particularly interesting because Paul himself is imprisoned awaiting his execution in Rome.

Paul is not preaching a form of pious quietism, He is not saying that we should not speak out about injustice but he is pointing to the fact that in speaking out and working for justice our primary concern ought always to be spiritual salvation. Onesemus may have been at some level justified in running away but Paul worries that Onesemus’ escape might adversely effect the faith of his master Philemon, a fledgling Christian himself who now might feel wronged by the loss of Onesemus.’

Paul uses a beautiful play on words in the original Greek saying that Onesemus as a slave was before useless to Philemon, This is striking because slaves are meant to be useful to their masters, but Paul is suggesting that what is really important is our soul, and so whatever work Onesemus once did for Philemon, did not help him obtain eternal life. Now sending Onesemus back to slavery, Paul sends him back in charity, urging Philemon to receive him not just as a slave, but also as a brother, so that Onesemus might be useful to Philemon’s salvation. Paul also realizes that Onesemus’ physical freedom, is less important than his spiritual freedom, which He gained from Christ in Baptism, and now is exercising by embracing his Cross

I love this story because when we really start to think about it it really challenges the way we live.

How often do we fight for the things of the world, forgetting about our souls? How often do we assert our rights, with no consideration of how our use of rights affects others. We receive rights from God, not so that we can do whatever we want, but so that we can accomplish our purpose in life, our vocation from God, and our duty to our brothers and sisters.

Being a Catholic means becoming like Christ who gave up everything to God for us, for our salvation. Christ could have claimed rights. He could have decried the injustice of the situation. He could have defended himself. But he didn’t! Scriptures tell us He went to the cross silent like a lamb before the shearer. Jesus died silently because it was God’s will which would save our souls. This is the example we are meant to follow. This is the example Paul is suggesting in the Letter to Philemon.

God’s wisdom is an all knowing wisdom that sees all things as they are. As Catholics, the point of our life of Faith is not to fight to make this a perfect world. It’s too late for that, sin has doomed the world. Our job is to fight to save souls, by surrendering our will to the will of God and seeking to do it at all times!

Each of us have Philemon moments: when we feel unjustly offended by our brothers and sisters, even when perhaps we are at fault. And each of us have Onesemus moments: when we are truly suffering an injustice and we feel like we want to escape, to protect ourselves.

Paul is suggesting that whether we are at fault or not, each of us, in relationship with each other, and destined for eternal life must take responsibility for each other. We must stop being useless to each other by seeking our own best interest but instead always seek the best interest of others. Maybe you are a wife that feels wronged by your husband; Or a brother wronged by a brother; Or a parent wronged by a child, or vice versa; Or a friend wronged by a friend, or a stranger, or an enemy. The reality is that we all sin, and that we all hurt each other, so long as we are looking out for the RIGHTS of #1. There is no justice under the law because we are all sinners, we have all contributed to the cycle of violence that is sin, instead there is only mercy and forgiveness, which starts when we consider the good of the other before our own good, our own pride, our own injury. This is what true love means, and requires!