He is Risen!

Homily given on the Vigil of Easter

at St. Patrick's Church in Wareham

by Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd

All around the world tonight the cry goes out…

In Greek they say:
Christos Anasti—to which you are supposed to say—
Alethos Anasti

In Latin its:
Christos Resurrexit—Resurrexit Dominus Vere Sicut Dixit

And in English the refrain goes:
Christ is Risen—He is Surely Risen

This is the reason for our faith, and at its core,
The mystery of the incarnation and birth of Jesus
The mystery of His life and teachings
And the mystery of His Passion and Death,

Only make sense in light of this moment,
And our Christian faith and life only make sense
in light of the triumphant proclamation
CHRIST IS RISEN as He Promised.

For many Catholics like so much of our faith
We take the resurrection for granted.

Having heard that Christ rose from the death
And professing it each week in the creed
We allow this wonderful news to sound commonplace.

Let’s take a look at it from the perspective of Mary,
Who the Church honors so highly because of her constant presence
And cooperation in the life of Christ.

Announced by Angels she was there for the miracle birth.
She was with Him when he took His first steps,
And spoke His first word, she taught Him about human life
And was amazed when as a child He began teaching adults about God

She was there during those quiet years and
There when He changed water into wine at Cana
There for his ministry to the poor and sick and sinners
There when the crowds wanted to make him king
and then again when they shouted crucify Him

Finally she was there at the foot of the Cross
when He breathed His last and there to receive his body
and lay it in the tomb.

Imagine the emotional roller coaster of a life, not unlike our life,
And imagine the great sadness when it seems as if it’s come to an end.

Of course, Mary knew and believed, that death could not be the end
But she probably didn’t know how God planned to fix
A situation the seemed irreparably broken.

And so she watched and waited,
like she had for so many year of Jesus’ hidden life,
simply wondering what God planned to do with her son.

We’ve all been there,
we have all been in situations that we don’t understand
and can’t control—situations where those we love
are hurt, or sick, or in trouble
and all we can do is watch, wait, and pray

This is what Mary and the early Church were feeling on good Saturday
Anxious sadness and nervous fear.
Maybe they had a glimmer of hope in their hearts,
Maybe they remembered that
He had predicted this and spoken about resurrection.

Maybe they were just worried
that the crowd would come for them next.

And then the women burst in, returned from the Grave,
Shattering their fear and worry and proclaiming:

HE IS RISEN

He is truly risen—and for us His disciples 2000 years latter
Just as for those first believers
This news is the cause for our Joy.

Because death is no longer in play.

So many people including many Christians
live their lives in fear of death

Our pursuit of wealth, pleasure, honor, these are all ways for us
To make ourselves forget that central limiting truth of our existence

We are all dying.

We try to ignore this, we try to control it, we try to put it off
But ultimately it is there at the back of our mind
And subconsciously at the root of all we say and do

Whether we obsess about it running from death,
Or allow the certainty of our death
to make us cynical about the goodness of life,
Disordering our moral compass,

the reality of death is necessarily at the root
of all human thought and action.

And for those who don’t truly believe in the resurrection of Christ
And thus in the resurrection of the body

Death must be a terrifying and limiting reality.

But for those who believe, death loses its hold over us.

Not because we believe that we won’t physically die
But because if we die, we know that we who have died with Christ
Will also rise with Christ.

In baptism, each and every Christian
Is washed and covered with water three times
Symbolizing going into the tomb for three days with Jesus

We have already died to this world with Christ,
And so now we are not afraid.

We are no long slaves to death.

AND BECAUSE WE ARE NO LONGER AFRAID OF DEATH
We can love as God commands us.

We can care for the sick—without fear of becoming sick ourselves
And speak up for the oppressed—without fear of violence
We can do the will of the Father—without fear that we are going to miss out on any of the experiences of life because life is ultimately
A preparation for eternal life in Heaven.

Friends, Christ is Risen

And we have been set free from death
This is the reason for our joy.

But are we truly joyful in the way we live our lives?
Like the Apostles and Mary awaiting the resurrection
Our lives are so often filled by the darkness of the world
We too sit watching, waiting, and praying
That God heal the seemingly irreparable damage done to our lives.

BUT THAT WAS YESTERDAY
THIS IS THE DAY THE LORD HAS MADE
LET US REJOICE AND BE GLAD IN IT

As Christians we can’t dwell in the sufferings of yesterday
But must always keep our eyes on the joys of tomorrow.

We can’t allow ourselves to get stuck
on Good Friday or Holy Saturday

But must remember that already, but not quite yet, Jesus is Risen
The battle is over and the strife is done.

Our hearts must be filled with Easter hope and joy
And we must let this joy fill up our hearts
Whenever the cross pops up again in our lives.

You may have heard Fr. John say that three days ago,
On Holy Thursday, the Mass that we began,
The Sacred Triduum, was in fact one long extended liturgy.

A three day liturgy that encompasses
the entirety of the paschal mystery
This three day liturgy paints a picture
of the entirety of the Christian life.

Our life is constantly in motion,
moving from the joy of Holy Thursday
to the sadness of Good Friday
to the silence of Holy Saturday
but always returning to this happy night,
always returning to the resurrection.

In each of our lives, whenever the winds of life blow us
To the right or left, we must always remember the resurrection
And correct our course based on this certain truth.

Even in sad times we are joyful,
Because Christ is Risen, and if He is Risen as He Promised
Then we know that He will raise us up too.

We should think about this promise,
And pray about it, and look forward to it,

For in it is the source of our strength.

St. Peter in his first letter says:
be always ready to make apology, to explain,
the reason for your joy.

This is the reason for our joy!

What does the Cross really mean

Homily Given at the Mass of the Presanctified on Good Friday
at St. Patrick's Church
By: Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd

The past few weeks I have been preaching about
exactly what we believe and understand
that our Lord did for us on Calvary.

We say so responsively that Jesus died for us on the Cross.
Often without thinking about what that means.

We fail to consider the reality of the Cross in all its ignominy
We fail to consider what Jesus accomplished on the cross
And so we fail to see how the Cross is a challenge to us today
To incorporate this mystery—
which is so central a mystery because
it is the same saving mystery we celebrate at the Altar each week
—into our lives.

Jesus didn’t go to his death
because we’d been bad and God needed to punish us
He needed to inflict pain on someone!

This image of an angry abusive father
is not God the Father in Heaven.

There is a sense in which Jesus was a scapegoat for our sins,
But that’s not at the core of what He did.

The Cross is not a human Sacrifice
God specifically prohibits these in the Old Testament
Saying that He really doesn’t even desire animal sacrifices

WHAT HE WANTS—is what animal sacrifices symbolize.


As I said in my homilies two week ago
God desires a sacrifice of praise more than anything

God desires quite simply, the only thing we have to give Him
The only thing He can’t make—
a free gift of our gratitude, praise, and love.

Everything that exists was created by God—
and God doesn’t need us to give him what’s already His own

This is even true of our life—
He gave it to us, and if He desires He can take it away,
So there is no sense in human sacrifice.

What He does desire, is that His children
Seeing all that God has done for them,
All the good things He has given them

Respond in gratitude and thanksgiving—
the Greek word for this is Eucharist.

You see, you can create a free will,
but you can’t force someone to use it the way you want them to,
at least not while allowing them to remain free.

A lesson parents quickly learn with their children.

Parent’s sometimes resort to coercion, or force, or violence
But God, who could force us, believes freedom is important enough
To protect, even when it means Humanity sinning.


On the Cross Jesus freely gave thanks to God for the gift of His life
When in perfect freedom He commended His spirit
into the hands of the Father

You’d think, that if all God desires is thanksgiving,
well then:
why not give God thanks and praise on the beach
or while watching the Sun rise over the Sea of Galilee
or while feasting with His friends
or in any number of more pleasant situations
than on the Cross.

And the fact of the matter is God does desire us
to offer the sacrifice of praise in these moments too!

But trusting and loving God, is meaningless
If we limited it to those moments when we think we
Understand, approve of, and enjoy the will of the Father.

The true test of Love is not agreeing that a sunset is beautiful
The true test of Love believes that the sun will return
In the dark cold of midnight.

In the Garden of Eden God gave Adam and Eve the Garden to enjoy
Placing no restrictions on them save one.

That one restriction was the test of love
God challenges us to trust in Him even when we don’t know
Why He does what He is doing
To give Him praise even when His plans don’t correspond,
Or perhaps even go against our own plan.

Adam and Eve failed, in fact we all fail.
Because giving God thanks and praise for everything He has given us
means attempting to seek and do His will always,
in our selfishness even the saints have trouble doing this,

we have all eaten from the tree of knowledge of good and evil
whenever we ignore God’s plan and seek to do our own will.

What Christ did on the tree of the Cross
Is the exact opposite of what we do at the Tree in the garden.

Christ gives all up to God’s plan—
Christ embraces a plan that includes human freedom
And that allows human sins to cause human suffering—
He allows His creatures to arrest Him, mock Him,
Beat Him, spit upon Him, Condemn Him, strip Him,
Nail Him, crucify Him, and ultimately to murder Him.

And the Cross challenges us to give God the same sacrifice of praise,
When these things are done to us.

On the Cross Jesus does the will of the Father,
That’s His sacrifice.

And the will of the Father is not that Jesus die,
although God allows that possibility,
the will of the Father is that Jesus shows us God’s love.

On the Cross Jesus show’s us that there is no situation in life
into which God cannot come,
no situation into which He does not desire to come
to be with His Children and comfort them.
This past week I was sick with a cold.
God did not give me the cold
BUT (with sarcasm) HE COULD HAVE MADE IT GO AWAY!

As Jesus says, just a word and He could have sent 12 legions of angels
To chase away all the viruses and bacteria
that left me in bed for almost a week,
just days before Holy Week one of the most busy times of the year.

As a sat in bead, shivering and sweating, coughing my lungs out,
And feeling bad for myself, worrying about preparing for Holy week,

I realized how much of a blessing my cold was—it got me to stop,
To slow down the frantic pace that my life has been taking on
The past few weeks, and to pray, and seek God’s will.

Maybe my cold was my little cross,
but looking at it with the eyes of thanksgiving
I see how it also a gift from God—
and honestly this has been spiritually one of the most peaceful
Holy Weeks I’ve had in some time.

There are lots of crosses going on out there:
Unemployment, or underemployment
Sicknesses much more serious and scary than my cold
Rising food and fuel prices, increasing instability in the world
Natural disasters, the deaths of love ones,
Uncertainty about the future.

The Cross shows us that into each of these crosses
Jesus, our God, desires to come,
To take our burdens on His own shoulders
So that we can see, or at least believe
That God is working in our life—
making even bad situations in our lives opportunities
for blesses, and heroic acts, and love.

Christianity is founded on the belief that God loves us
And created us to be happy,
and that no matter what happens in our life, good or bad,
God is working it all out for our good.

In 1787, when the founding fathers completed
their work on the new Constitution Ben Franklin quipped
"I have often ... in the course of the session ... looked at that sun behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting. But now at length I have the happiness to know it is a rising and not a setting sun."
Franklin was speaking of a painted sun
on the back of the presider’s chair.

He noted that in art it is often difficult to tell if a sun
is rising or setting—perhaps the same is true of life.

Our Christian faith, and the mystery of the Cross,
Requires us to believe and have faith in God
That the sun of His plan, is always rising on our life.
As Christians we are an optimistic people,
Whose “glass half full” philosophy was justified
once and for all by the empty tomb on Easter.

This is our sure and certain hope, which allows us to offer God
the Sacrifice of Praise, together with our Lord Jesus Christ,
Even when we are on the cross with Him.

The Sacrifice of Christ

Homily for the 5th Sunday of Lent

Given at St. Patrick's Church

By: Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd

The other day I was asked an odd question—
what would have happened if we went back in time
and stopped Jesus from dying on the Cross for us

Setting aside the interesting question of time travel,
I think the question betrays a misunderstanding
many of us have about what Jesus actually did.

On Good Friday the Church will adore the Cross,
and pray, “We Adore you oh Christ and we praise you,
because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the World.”

But what did he do for us on the Cross,
He offered a Sacrifice for us,
the same sacrifice we celebrate here on the Altar,
but what is that Sacrifice?

Its not a human sacrifice, human sacrifice was a pagan practice
which the Old Testament specifically prohibits.

God is not a cruel God,
He doesn’t demand an innocent human to die to redeem us from our sins,

In fact in the Old Testament the Psalmist tells us that
God is tired of the blood of bulls and goats
He is not thirsty for blood, or hungry for flesh.

Rather he wants what those sacrifices symbolize,
A contrite humble heart.

That is what Christ Sacrifices on the Cross.
And what is a contrite heart?

During this season of lent
We hear a lot about confession,
because Confession is all about
being humble and contrite before the Lord.

A humble and contrite heart is a heart that acknowledges the possibility
That my will might not be correct,
That my plan might not be as good as God’s plan,
even if I can’t understand what God is doing in my life or in the World.

This is what Jesus did, by becoming a man, and being born of the Virgin,
And walking among us, and following God’s plan even unto death,
death on a cross.

As the Greek Fathers note, in a sense our salvation was won
not on the cross but in the Garden of Gethsemane,
where Jesus’ human emotions and human will and human passions
placed him at odds with the divine will of the Father,
and yet begging the Father to take this cup from Him,
Our Lord humbly submits to the will of the Father, saying:
“not my will but yours be done.”

Jesus though truly God, was truly man,
and death was in the plan God had for Him,
whether that meant death of old age or on the Cross.

The sacrifice Jesus makes to God the Father is not human sacrifice
but sacrifice of the human will.

Truly, the violence of the Cross was more an invention
of man’s cruelty to man than God’s explicit will,
and yet in God’s plan that includes human freedom,
God uses the cross to show what true love looks like.

On the Cross, Jesus shows us that it is possible to trust God’s will
more than we trust our own instincts and wisdom,
and He invites us to do the same.


We come here each week to the Altar of God to offer sacrifice,
To “worship in Spirit and Truth”
By offering not the bloody sacrifice of bulls and goats,
But the bloodless Sacrifice of Calvary,
The sacrifice of a humble and contrite heart.

And as we are asked to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ
We are asked to make the same sacrifice that He made for us,
We are asked to unite our entire life, the good and the bad alike,
In thanks to God.

Ultimately it all comes down to Faith
Not the faith of pious frauds, but the faith that allows us to live
Even when living means embracing the Cross.

In the Gospel today we are challenged to ask ourselves
the simple question, do I trust God.

Lazarus died, and despite the fact that Jesus loved him,
Jesus allowed Lazarus to die, because it was God’s plan,
For the glorification of God and the revelation of His Son Jesus Christ.

Jesus wept in Bethany, but he did not weep for Lazarus,
But for the weakness of their faith.

At the altar we are asked to make a sacrifice of praise,
with humble and contrite hearts,
thanking God for the beauty and joy of our lives
but also for the sorrow, anguish, and death,
because we know and believe that these things are allowed to happen
only for the glorification of God.

This is the central message of the Gospel:
God is in charge, in charge of world history,
and the particulars of our story,

Trust in God—and give Him thanks and praise for His goodness
No matter what,
This is the sacrifice He desires.

Gall and Suffering

Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Lent

By: Rev. Fr. Ronnie Floyd, STL

Given at St. Patrick's in Wareham

on April 2nd, 2010

I was thinking the other day while praying the Stations of the Cross
about the Crucifixion and particularly about the Gall,
which Jesus was offered to drink
before being nail to the Cross.

Gall a narcotic made by mixing wine or vinegar with myrrh,
the fragrant material used to embalm bodies,
was a narcotic which was used to pacify those about to be crucified.

It was given to criminals, and to Jesus, not so much as a humanitarian gesture
But so that the condemned would be more docile as he was fixed to the cross.

Of course, it had the effect of lessening the pain of crucifixion.

The bible says that Jesus tasted it, but refused to drink.

To most of us this makes no sense—
In this day and age pain is bad, drugs are good, so where’s the question?
Of course we want to be drugged before we go to a torturous death.

No wonder why so many teenagers and young adults resort to illegal drugs
To lessen the difficulties and sufferings of life.

It seems to me that there is a double standard in this country:
We say that drugs are ok when coping with physical pain
but not so ok when coping with the emotional and psychological pain
and loneliness of growing up and being human.

Whether illegal or legal drugs like: alcohol, coffee, nicotine, sugar
Are used by most of us here, on occasion, to lessen the difficulty of life.

I mean admit it all you drug users!!! who here has never gone at it
with a box of chocolates or an ice cream Sunday after a difficult day?

And of course, it’s not just chemicals with which we drug ourselves,

Attempting to dope our experience of life is often done with activies too:
Eating, watching TV, the internet, pornography, gambling.

So often we use the good things of the earth to blind ourselves,
and block our ears, and dull our senses to the reality of suffering
The suffering of others and our own sufferings.

Our faith teaches that: every creature of God is good,
and nothing to be rejected that is received with thanksgiving:

Because as we hear in the book of Genesis: Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you;

Jesus teaches us that everything on the face of the Earth
has a purpose for our good,
And if only we strive to live in the Love of God,
no evil will touch us

Speaking of those who live the life of faith Jesus says:
They shall take up serpents; and if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them:
But this does not mean that we will not experience our own crosses.

In the Gospel today the disciples ask what may seem like a silly question:
Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

Often today we do not think of suffering as a punishment for sins,
But in fact our faith teaches that it is.
Whenever we suffer we suffer because of humanities sins,
But as Jesus points out in the Gospel today and on the Cross
We don’t necessarily suffer for our own sins.

Our sins cause suffering, maybe not for us, but definitely for someone,
Jesus on the cross suffered though he was sinless, because we sin,
Our sins caused his suffering,
But on the cross, as in the Gospel today,
Jesus suggests the central tenant of our faith,
Which is the reason why we are here today to offer Eucharist,
thanksgiving to God!

He says: it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.

Suffering is an opportunity, an opportunity to be weak,
An opportunity to open our heart to another in a way that we NEVER WOULD
If everything were “A okay”
Suffering is an opportunity to love and be loved
in a way that is hard for us to love, in a way that is unselfish,
in a way that is truly LOVING.

At some level we’ve all experienced it—the way a tragedy brings us
so much closer together with those we love!

That’s why Jesus refused the Gall before being nailed to the cross,
And why the Church teaches that drugs, though they can be helpful,
Should never be used simply to numb ourselves to life!

If Jesus had taken the Gall, would He have been able to forgive his executioners, or should I say to forgive us, from the cross?

Would he have given the beloved disciple, that’s us again, his mother
As a consoler and teacher of faith, hope, and love?

Would he have trusted in His Father to the end,
And been able to offer up to His Father this Eucharistic Sacrifice
His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, with His last breath?

Would he have saved the world, if he had chosen the easy way.

Suffering is not good in and of itself, and our God does not desire us to suffer,
BUT HE DOES ALLOW IT!

Because it is better to be blinded to the illusion of worldly happiness for a while
Than to be blinded to the REALITY of eternal happiness FOREVER!

Each of us, by virtue of our Baptism,
Is chosen by God to be a king.

We are chosen like David in the first reading, to RULE,
To rule over our life, through all its joys and sorrows,
Choosing always to do the WILL OF GOD, choosing always to love!

All things, ever created rock, mineral, plant, animal,and person
are created to help us do this.

During this Lenten season we are challenged to examine our life,
So that we might see the ways we are using the things of the world
Not to live life, not to love, but to drug ourselves to our humanity.

Suffering, is an opportunity to be embraced, not a terror to be feared.

We must strive to remember today and really take seriously
The central challenge of the Gospel:
If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Lord, set us free today from the blindness that makes us see
The poor as inconveniences, our neighbors as obstacles,
our loved ones as possessions, and sufferings as burdens.

Help us to see your plan, which leads to the cross,
As the only way to happiness!