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!

Become what you receive.

Teaching Mass III

By: Rev. Fr. Ronnie Floyd, STL

Given at St. Patrick's in Wareham

on November 14th, 2010

In one of my favorite movies, the Godfather, a Cardinal talking with Michael Corleone talks a stone from the bottom of a fountain. And showing the stone to the Godfather, he notes, "this stone has been sitting at the bottom of this fountain for a long time hundreds of years even." Then Cracking it open, he says, "and yet it is still dry inside. This is like the faith and men's hearts. For a thousand years Europe has been emersed in Christianity
and yet it has not penetrated."

The famous English author and reporter G.K. Chesterton makes this same observation, saying: Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and not tried.

Today we arrive at the last part of our teaching Mass, and we are asked to consider the Communion rite. In the Liturgy of the Word we began our prayer of the Mass by recalling God's mighty deeds and promises, using these memories to direct our prayer, asking God to do for us what he promised to do for our forefathers.

In the Liturgy of the Word, we asked God's Spirit to come upon the Church--and to CHANGE--common things Bread and Wine into the actual Body and Blood of Christ. In doing so, we prayed that the same Spirit of God, would also change us into Christ's mystical body, into the Church,
into Saints destined to sing the joyful song "Holy Holy Holy" together with the Saints forever in Heaven.

And now today, we consider the communion rite--which is also know as:

the procedure for shuffling up to the Altar to receive Communion so that we can get out of here as quick as we can. Right?

You know one of the great reforms of the second Vatican Council was to rethink the meaning of this part of the Mass completely. In the "old days" many priests viewed this part pragmatically
as a necessary evil--the way we give all you folks the fruit of the Mass--the Eucharist.
In fact before 1962 the communion of the faithful, wasn't a necessary part of the Mass--it could be, and routinely was, simply skipped!

Just think about how much shorter Mass would be if we didn't have to wait for all you folks to come up to the altar to receive communion! And after all, Mass real is about getting an obligation
out of the way as quick as possible--right?

WRONG! Mass is the Divine Liturgy, a word that I have used for the last two weeks without defining. Divine, of course, simply means having to do with God but Liturgy, is a word we throw around a lot, without understanding. The word means WORK; and so the Divine Liturgy means God's work, and what is He working at? To quote the hymn Amazing Grace, "He saves a wretch like me!"

God is working to save the World--and the gift of His Life, His body and blood on the Cross, is a means to this end. As I said in my homily, last week, changing bread and wine, into His body and blood, is not just a parlor trick, It's an invitation to receive Him into our hearts and be transformed by Him--to become like Christ to become sons and daughters in the Son,
so that we can grow ever closer to and eventually at the end of our life enter in to the presence of God, His interpersonal love story, forever in Heaven.

If this is what the Son of God was born to do, giving His life to you on the Cross, then receiving communion must be a central part of the God's work, the Divine Liturgy. But just receiving the Body and Blood is not enough, we must be humble before him and open to His Liturgy,
the work He wants to do in our soul.

Remember that rock, taken out of the fountain. Receiving communion each Sunday, being surround it by it doesn't mean that it is going to penetrate us. And although we receive the Body of Christ, as a symbol of God's desire to penetrate our heart and our desire for God to enliven our souls with God's life. If we do so in Bad Faith, with sin on our heart, we make that communion we receive a LIE.

People often think that the Church is on some sort of power trip when she teaches that if you are in a state of grave sin you shouldn't receive communion. When in reality, we are saying that if you have been shoveling manure all day, and your hands are dirty, you shouldn't shake the President of the United States, of for that matter anyone's, hand.

It doesn't do us any good to receive Communion, and spiritually spit it out because we have committed adultery, or murder, theft, or lying. It doesn't do us any good to receive God's life within us if we don't make Him #1 in our life, if we misuse his holy name, or don't worship him each week on Sunday. It's a lie, and a lie to the ultimate lie detector, the God of Truth.

That's why St. Paul warns us: whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord.

When the priest hold's up Jesus' Body and Blood, saying behold the Lamb of God, we make it our prayer--that God might heal us make us worthy to receive such a great gift--but for this prayer to be sincere--we must "confess our sins to on another" so that the Church, which Jesus gave the keys to the Kingdom to might set us free to be able to worthily receive Him.

I would like to end with a little story--a priest friend was telling me the other day how when he was a Child, after Mass, if he had been good, his parents would take him to a local bakery and let him buy whatever pastry he wanted. He always wanted a jelly donut.

One day he asked his mother, "what happens to the jelly donut after I eat it?"

His mother looked at him and smiled and said, "well if you chew it very carefully, it goes down your throat, into your stomach, and then becomes a part of you."

Holding his hand up to the light and looking at his hand, he said, "but I don't see it?"

His mother responded, "you might not see it, because it breaks into tiny piece which strengthens every part of your body."

When, we receive Jesus, reverently either by making a throne with our hands or by opening our mouth allowing the Lord to feed us like a little child and we spiritually chew on the Body of Christ really thinking about the gift of Love Jesus is giving us, dying for us on the cross to feed us with His own body and Blood then we become, what we receive, we become truly like God,
just as Jesus became truly Man.

Lord I want to see.

Teaching Mass II

By: Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd, STL

Given at St. Patrick's in Wareham

On November 7th, 2010

C.S. Lewis, the great English Novelist, maybe best know for His, "Chronicles of Narnia," grew up an Atheist, and yet at the mid-point of His life had a great conversion to Chrisitianity, caused in part by another great author, JRR Tolkien, a devout Catholic.

And so as a convert, or maybe one should say a revert, having come back to the faith of his childhood, Lewis had great insights into the experiences of non-practicing, non-believing people. Insights that he put to great use in latter life, as he tried to share the good news of the Gospel with so many people who had written it off as irrelevant. Much of his evangelical and apologetically efforts can be seen in his writings. Even his children's stories has strong Christian overtones. This is particularly true of one of His best works of adult fiction, which every Christian should read. The Screwtape Letters are a fictional account of the corresponded between two demons engaged in the work of stealing souls.

In one of my favorite passages, their target, an average man, has fallen into the camp of the Enemy, that is the Church. As a result, the senior demon writes the junior tempter
to express his displeasure. He notes however that all is not lost. Saying:

One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. [not] the Church as we see her spread but through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners.

That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes I our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans. All your patient sees is the half-finished, sham Gothic erection on the new building estate. When he goes inside, he sees the local grocer with rather in oily expression on his face bustling up to offer him one shiny little book containing a liturgy which neither of them understands, and one shabby little book containing corrupt texts of a number of religious lyrics, mostly bad, and in very small print.

When he gets to his pew and looks round him he sees just that selection of his neighbours whom he has hitherto avoided. You want to lean pretty heavily on those neighbours.

Make his mind flit to and fro between an expression like "the body of Christ" and the actual faces in the next pew...

Does this sound familiar? How often do we hear the truth that the Church is the mystical Body of Christ, One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic and then look around and think with typical New England cynicism: YEAH RIGHT!

Friends look to your right, and to your left, look at the person in front of you and behind you; these are God's Children, people called to be saints in heaven, they are irrepeatable GIFTS from God to the World, they are gifts to you. God has placed them in your life, to help you be happy, and grow in Holiness. The splendor of the Church is all around you in the POTENTIAL that each of us has as Baptized Children of God, and yet so often we don't see it!

Today, we will consider the second major part of the Mass the preface and Liturgy of the Eucharist, which is the mystery of the unseen reality of what is going on in the Church at every moment, of every day--the sanctification of the World, through the Church by the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross.

As the Liturgy of the Eucharist begins, simple gifts are brought forward gifts that symbolize human life--bread the basic food of the world and wine, a symbol of the celebration of life. They are plain, ordinary, and yet these ordinary symbols show us that all things are possible for God. God takes these ordinary things, and promises to transform them into something extra-ordinary! The Body and the Blood of Christ!

SO THAT, I think we often forget why Jesus changes the bread and wine into His Body and Blood He does it SO THAT we who eat His Body and Drink His Blood might be transformed, just like the bread and the wine! Into sons and daughters of God. As the Greek Fathers used to say:
God became man so that man could become God. And just like the Body and the Blood, this transformation, that is taking place on the Altar AND in us is spirit and truth. We like the Eucharist, continue to look the same, perhaps we even act the same, once we are changed, and yet we believe that we are at the level of our being different given POWER to become God's Children, saints in Christ.

My friends, don't be blinded by your eyes! Don't let sight get in the way of your seeing, what God is doing for and in you right now! Like the mother of the seven brothers in the book of Maccabees realize that there is more to life than what we see, and feel, and touch. Realize that life is a gift from God that must be given back to Him, as a spotless and unstained Sacrificed to His Glory. Realize as Jesus says in the Gospel that the physical realities and institutions of this life are only a precussor of the REALITY of Heaven that we are made for.

Live for that reality!

Open the eyes of your Soul to see the good things that is doing. See that all the promises made to
the Patriarchs and Prophets, Apostles and Evangelists are now, at this moment being fulfilled in Heaven and on Earth at this Altar.

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 ; )