The Hard Truth

Homosexual Love is called Friendship
A Homily for the Feast of Ascension of the Lord
Given by Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd
At St. Patrick's Church in Wareham

On this Feast of the Ascension, the Gospel reminds us of the requirements of Love: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned."

Love requires us to speak, and not remain silent even when the Gospel message, the good news that death to the world begets a new beginning of Eternal life, is difficult.
Love requires us to speak because Faith is a matter of eternal life and eternal death.

And so today, I feel compelled by the Lord to speak to you about a difficult topic.

One that raises many tempers because it touches the heart of who we are, why we were created, and how we live.
…
Mr. Charles Darwin, once noted that species seemed to evolve, and he theorized that the success of one genetic line, was due to survival of the fittest, the best genes.

Darwin’s theory of evolution, which in a more nuanced form remains today more or less widely accepted as the best explanation of the evidence gathered by biological science, reminds us of a biological truth, that CORRISPONDS with a truth of our FAITH but IS NOT DEPENDANT ON FAITH.

Namely that the propagation of our species, procreation, the command that the Bible renders “be fruitful and multiply” in the first pages of the book of Genesis is a SCIENTIFICLY verifiable EVOLUTIONARY IMMPERITIVE.

What we call a NATURAL LAW, that anyone: Hindu, Buddhist, Protestant, Atheist, or Agnostic, can see in nature, and accept without reference to God’s Revelation, the Church, or the Bible.

Historically, faiths, societies, and legal orders have PRIVELEDGED the relationship between a man and a woman, BECAUSE offspring, children, are good not just for the propagation of the species, or a particular family line, but also for society.

Demographers note that every stable society, like a stable building, MUST be at LEAST as large in the foundation as it is at the rooftop.

And what is the foundation or base of the societal structure: the young.

To have a STABLE society there must be at least 2.1 children born to every married couple in a society, for it to remain stable. and children, as the cliché notes, ARE THE FUTURE, so the more of them the better the chances of a bright future.

Both for the sake of society and for the individual, NATURALLY not having children is a PHYSICAL EVIL.

Let’s get that straight, a physical evil, not necessarily a moral evil, what we call a sin.

When a couple is trying to have a child and they can’t that’s a physical evil, they are not guilty of it, it’s not a sin it’s just not good.

To be clear, what I am saying as a celibate priest, is that the choice and promise I made at ordination is not natural— you could even say it’s a physical evil.

Sadly, while many of you can understand and agree that priestly celibacy is not natural

Many of the same people get enraged when the Church teaches that other forms of chosen infertility are not natural.

I chose celibacy, as Jesus suggested in the Gospel of Matthew, “For the sake of the Kingdom” for a supernatural reason to do, what I believe is God’s will, but what is the reason that so many others CHOOSE, and that’s the key word when talking morality: FREE CHOICE; what is the reason people choose behaviors that render them infertile?
…
So, what’s all this got to do with the Feast of the Ascension which the Church celebrates today?

Well the Feast of the Ascension, along with the Feast of the Assumption that we will celebrate in August POINT TO a key truth of our Faith.

They point to the fact, that like Jesus who Ascended this day into Heaven, and Mary who was Assumed and sits at the right hand of the Son, we too, are DESTINED, by virtue of our Baptism, to go to heaven, BODY AND SOUL. We believe, as we will soon profess in the Resurrection of the Body.

And what will we do in Heaven?

Well as St. Paul tells us: “…the kingdom of God is not a matter of food and drink, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Spirit…”

Food, in St. Paul’s letter to the Roman’s is a analogy for pleasure, disconnected from “righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Spirit;” In a word St. Paul is telling us that we are made for Charity or Love, which the opposite of becoming a stumbling block for the sake of pleasure, but always doing what is in the best interest of the other.

Love on earth points us to Love in Heaven, and the Feast of the Ascension reminds us that we need to practice on Earth, what we are meant to do for ever in Heaven

Today the world tells us that loving other people is “affirming them” In whatever they WANT to do, irregardless of the Law of God. But our faith tells us that tolerating evil, is the opposite of love.

The other day there was a little controversy in the news, because a church in a neighboring town DARED to challenge people to change the way they were living, this church DARED to freely speak about our Catholic Faith.

The Church posted a sign in front of the Church that read “Two Men Are Friends not Spouses.”

Sadly this sign provoked outraged, But what was so bad about it?

There was once a day when signs were posted in local business that said despicable things like “Catholics need not apply” and “Whites Only” And yet in their day these signs did not cause the outrage that this sign did.

Let’s think for a minute what the sign meant: “Two Men Are Friends not Spouses.”

Obviously is a rebut to the notion of “Gay Marriage,” And our president’s recent endorsement of it. But more importantly it is a statement about the natural law, and love.

First of all it says I love you my brother or sister enough to challenge them because I care about their soul. The truth sets us free, and the truth is that marriage is about the good of procreation and the propagation of the species.

In Heaven, Jesus tells us, that despite the fact that we will have bodies, there will be no marriage.

“For in the resurrection they shall neither marry nor be married; but shall be as the angels of God in heaven,” we read in Matthew’s Gospel.

LOVE does not require marriage; the perfection of Love, is not marriage, but what many married people tell me they long for: true friendship.

Two men, who love each other, are called friends not spouses, Because while the natural good of procreation draws a man and a woman together in that sacred bond in this life, that bond is not possible for two men or two women, AND not necessary for Love, Happiness, or Holiness. The Church is against fornication: in the form of homosexual marriage, but also pre-marital relations and contraception not because the POPE said so. We are against these things, because they are not loving.

Love entails doing what’s good for the other, for your beloved, and nature and Mr. Darwin tells us that procreation is the good for which we marry.

Where procreation is not possible, LOVE still is, friendship still is, and friendship with each other and with God is the definition of the Love we hope to experience forever in Heaven.

Catholic’s don’t hate Homosexuals, we love them, and because of this we desire them to be happy, we profess the truth, that marriage, and the marital act, is only good, only loving, when it is open to the possibility of new life. We deny homosexual “Marriage” because it is contrary to the good of the individual and society And therefore not loving. But LOVE and fulfillment is possible even for those who suffer from same sex attractions, just as it is for me, and countless men and women who have chose to be celibate for the sake of the kingdom.

The Church challenges all these to Love like the Angels, and to remember that as Jesus ascended into Heaven, we are made for Heavenly Happiness not merely for Earthly pleasure.

Hearing God

From a talk given to the Koinonia Vocation Group at Bishop Stang

on Luke 24:1-32
By Rev. Ronnie P. Floyd

I often get the question:

Does God really talk to us? Can we really hear God's voice?

Many Christians, particularly young Christians doubt
that if we talk to God in prayer He will talk back to us.

Perhaps you have talked and talked to God, at times,
and you feel as if you have never gotten a response:
about God's vocation and plan for you,
about your requests
about your questions
about why he allows people you love to suffer

Maybe you would just like him to say: "hey how you doing"
to let you know you're not crazy
for taking time to talk to God and practice your Faith,
when the world seems to be telling you are...

The Problem
The problem with talking with God
is that His response is often lost in translation.

You've all studied foreign languages;
have you ever decided to take your language skills out for a spin?

And tried to talk with an actual foreign speaker,
Bonjour m'amie comment t'allez vous ma cher...

And gotten back in response a garble of jiberish
that sounds like radio static?

Speaking of radio static....
did you know that much of the static we hear on the radio
is actually human voices and signals that we are just not tuning into properly or that are too weak for us to understand.

Like talking to a foreigner or tuning into the radio
it takes time and effort to hear voices from far away.
We need to focus on what is being said, and tune out other noise.
Sometime we just need to listen more carefully
or become attune to how something is being said.

And even when you understand the basics of what they are saying
you need to understand what they are saying means.

We had a professor in Rome who used to regularly say
"e un pezzo di torta..." it's a piece of cake
To which the actual Italian speakers would scratch their head wondering, what does the Trinity have to do with cake?

Our God is not far away or a foreigner,
but one of the key principles of theology is that
God is always so much greater than what we think He is.

God is not like us, in fact He is not like anything
we will ever experience in His creation!!!

And since we learn from experience
and think using these learned ideas
it is hard for God to communicate with us,
because it's hard for us to understand God.

In the Garden of Eden we are told
God walked with Adam and Eve,
somehow making His presence
co-natural with their understanding.

But because of sin that's not the case any more for us.

Movies like Oh God, and Evan Almighty,
demonstrate our human desire
for God to just talk to us man to man.
And of course He tried that in the incarnation.

The problem then and now being that
you can ignore your fellow man, as many ignored Jesus.

How to Hear from God
So how can he get our attention?

Wouldn't it be great if God decided to use billboards to talk to us? Just think, we could drive down the road and God
would simply choose one of a zillion billboards
to get our attention.

On the other hand, he could use something more subtle.
Like a gentle rap on the side of the head
whenever we veer off the course.

Yup, there's a thought. God smacking people upside the head whenever they don't listen.

The problem is I'm afraid we'd all be walking around in a daze from all the repetitive brain trauma.

Hearing from God is a learned skill.
Of course, you could be one of the lucky ones like Moses,
who was walking up the mountain, minding his own business, when he stumbled upon the burning bush.

Sadly although God talks to lots of people in spectacular and seemingly overt ways in the Bible,
the bible is the history of thousands of years,
and in all that time God spoke to people in these ways
only a handful of times.

Most of us don't have those kinds of encounters so we find ourselves looking for skills to help us hear from God.

But the fact of the matter is that God speaks to us
in all these ways and many more on a daily basis,
if only we pay attention and listen to him.

Like that piece of cake my professor used to talk about,
God try's to speak to us with images and symbols that we understand and can interpret.

When I was 16 praying about my vocation
God sent me a message in a little bundle of flesh.

Holding my infant nephew for the first time in a hospital
and marveling at the miracle of life,

for the first time I began to think of my vocation
not just in terms of the job I would do, but who I was called to be.

At that moment I was sure I was called to be a father,
and I was...I just needed to listen a little bit more
it took me another 8 years to understand that there is more than one type of father.

In billboards, on TV, in movies, on the Radio, in Books, in other people, in life events,

God is sending us a message through symbols and images
that we can understand, if we stop and think about them in prayer!

So how can you tell if God is Talking to you?

Here are some common ways God talks to us:
• His Word--In order to understand a person we need to know something about their character and history.
The more we understand the story of who someone is
the more we understand what they say
and why they are saying it.

To actually "hear" from God we have to know who God is, and the way he does things, and who we are to God.

The Bible goes into a lot of detail about how you can expect God to react and what kinds of expectations he has for us,

• Other People--In Genesis God creates man in His Image and Likeness, and so if we want to get to know God we can look at his picture in other people. And if Jesus says in the Gospel whatsoever you do for the least of my brothers you do for me, then logically when we listen to our neighbors we listen to God.

Many times God will use other people to speak directly to us or try to get through to us.

It's possible for God to use anyone at any time, but speaks particularly clearly in those who are striving to do His will.

And let's not forget that listening to other people includes things like the arts and culture, which are after all just alternative means of communication.

I love movies, particularly very artsy and symbolic movies. people often think I am weird when I tell them I hear God talking to me in movies. But why not? And I am not just talking about overtly Christian movies.

Sure, God is speaking to us all about courage and sin in a movie or book like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings,
but why can't he also speak to us through Stephen King, or Shakespeare, or even someone as antiCatholic as Dan Brown.

Our Circumstances--Sometimes the only way God can teach us something is to allow circumstances in our life to lead us to and through the very thing we need to discover.

Peter knew he was a sinner from the start of the Gospel, but he needed to experience his weakness, and how much he needed the Grace of God, in order to internalize that message, and so Jesus said "Verily I say to you Peter, before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times."

God doesn't want us to sin, but if we are to accept what St. Paul teaches: "that all things work for God for those who love God," then even in the experience of sinning God can speak to us.

I am not of course encouraging you to sin to hear God's voice, since the act of sinning is as much a distraction from God as an opportunity to hear Him

• The Still Small Voice--although our God is not in the habit of wacking us upside our head when we get off the path, our conscience attempts to do just that and is the small voice of God speaking to us in our heart.

As St. Ignatius explains when we are doing God's will we should have peace in our heart.

Whenever we're considering something and we don't have peace about it, it's a very good idea to stop and carefully look at the options. There's a reason you don't feel peace about it.

• The Actual Voice--Sometimes in our dreams or even occasionally in ever day life we're able to actually "hear" something that sounds to us like an audible voice.

Pay attention to those occasions because it is very likely God trying to tell you something important.

Overall, when God Talks, Shut Up and Listen!

Jesus is here, remaining with us,
but often we are so afraid, so uncomfortable,
with just being with Him, in His presence.

It all starts here, at the Altar, in the Eucharist,
through the Word of God, and in Prayer.

Here we begin to understand the structure of reality,
and see and understand God's constant conversation with us,
if we believe and are open to it.

Finally like the women who first received the message of the Resurrection at the tomb, don't be surprised or afraid
if other people, and even other Catholics think you are crazy
for hearing the voice of God.

It is always easier, in terms of effort and comfort,
not to hear Him! And that's why many don't...

The O Antiphons

In the Gospel today, once again
we hear the proclamation of the incarnation.

During Advent we hear this proclamation quite frequently
Because the Church wants to remind us of WHO is coming.

Not just a cute baby born of a holy family
but the Son of the Most High.

Born when Mary accepted the Message of an Angel of God
Born by the Power of the Holy Spirit,

Who overshadowed Mary,
like the Lord God overshadowed Mount Sinai

And who dwelt in her womb like the Word of God
Dwelt in the Ark of the Covenant.

He is Emmanuel, God with us,
and the Church doesn’t want us to forget that.

On December 17th, each year the Church begins to remind us
Each day of this reality,
the reality of WHO comes to us each Christmas
with its famous O Antiphons.

The O Antiphons are Short songs
that precede the singing of the Magnificat
each evening in the Vespertime prayer of the Church.

The Church reminds us with these seven titles,
these seven songs of who Jesus is
Yesterday the Church sang O Sapientia:

O Wisdom, who came from the mouth of the Most High,
reaching from end to end and ordering all things mightily and sweetly:
come, and teach us the way of prudence

This song of praise and expectation reminds us
that Christ is the Word of God, Wisdom made flesh,
and all true wisdom comes from Him.

Today the Church will sing O Adonai:

O Lord and Ruler of the house of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the flame of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: come, and redeem us with outstretched arms.

Reminding us that God is the Lord and Judge, not us,
and that His birth is an invitation to us to judge not
ourselves or others, but to trust in the judgement of God.

Jesus is the Radix Jesse:

O Root of Jesse, that stands for an ensign of the people, before whom the kings keep silence and unto whom the Gentiles shall make supplication: come, to deliver us, and tarry not.

Jesus is both the beginning and the end,
a new beginning from the root of humanity,
the new beginning that all of creation longs for.

O Clavis David begins the antiphon for Tuesday as we sing:

O Key of David, and scepter of the house of Israel, who opens and no man shuts, who shuts and no man opens: come, and lead forth the captive who sits in the shadows from his prison.

Showing us that as John says “I am the way the truth and the light, NO ONE can come to the Father except through me.”
Jesus is the key that sets us free
to obtain the deepest desire of our heart,
seeing God face to face,
if only we allow that key to unlock our hearts.

Four days before Christmas we sing O Oriens:

O dawn of the east, brightness of light eternal, and sun of justice: come, and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

Jesus is the light of the world, the light which He desires to kindle in our hearts and homes and communities.

On Thursday we praise Christ as the King of Kings
singing O Rex Gentium:

O King of the gentiles and their desired One, the cornerstone that makes both one: come, and deliver man, whom you formed out of the dust of the earth.

Proclaiming Christ the King of Kings the one who must rule in our hearts if we have any hope of attaining true peace.

Finally on the day before Christmas Eve we proclaim
Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, recalling His central mission.

O Emmanuel, God with us, our King and lawgiver, the expected of the nations and their Savior: come to save us, O Lord our God.

Reminding us of the central fact of our Faith that God, the rightful ruler of all creation, loves us so much to become man and dwell among us.

Taken together these antiphon’s spell out the central message of Advent, and the challenge for how every Christian must live their lives.

Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai,Sapientia –
The first letter of these seven titles of the Baby Jesus
Spells out in Latin ero cras meaning,

“Tomorrow, I will come.”

WHO will come? Our God will come to us.

You see there are lots of people who want to say
That Jesus was just a nice man
And that the Christmas story is just a nice fable.

But everything that Jesus said about Himself,
And that was written about Him in sacred Scriptures
And that the Church has taught us about Him for 2000 years
Refutes this view of Christ and Christmas.

Did anyone catch its purpose of what St. Paul calls
in the letter to the Romans
“the mystery kept secret for long ages”?

He says the mystery of Christmas is meant:
“to bring about the obedience of faith.”

It’s meant to change us by showing the world
“that God so loved the world..”

but it’s a message not meant for the world but for me and for you,

“God so loved [ME] that in the fullness of time
He sent His only begotten Son,
that [I] may not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

If we truly believe that He loves you and me that much,
That he was willing to give us His Son
Then this fact must bring about change in the way we live.

Every day we Catholics must live this reality,
Humbling our hearts in the obedience of Faith
Because He will come every tomorrow of our lives
To walk with us if only we allow him in.

Will the Child Jesus, who is Wisdom, the Lord, The Root of Our Humanity, the Key to our Desires, the Orientation of our Hopes, the King of all the World, God with us,

find a place in your home and heart this year?

Do Over

A Homily for the First Sunday of Advent
Given at St. Patrick's Church in Wareham
By: Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd, STL

Do you remember the carefree days of your childhood.

I was reminded of today one of the things that I love about childhood:
the “do over.”

Back then when you were playing a game or taking a test
And the outcome wasn’t what you were expecting
or what you desired all you had to do is say: “do over”
and strangely enough your parents, friends, family and teachers
were ok with that.

I suppose it was a function of their love for you,
and of your childlike humility in being able to admit frankly
that you screwed up and needed another chance!

Today, we get a “do over,”
in fact all of life is a do over,
in which our God challenges us to love
and over and over again gives us the opportunity to succeed.

Though we may fail so many times,
God loves us enough to let us fail,
and for forgive us our failures,
and to give us a “do over”
so that we can become the children he made us to be!

Maybe you have sin against God:
your parents, your best friend, or your spouse.

But that was then and this is now,
now is a gift, because each moment is an opportunity:
to seek out the Lord
to find forgiveness
to change your life and modify your behaviors
and to love, where in the past you failed to love.

Advent is the season of “do over” for the world.
We screwed up…and if you watch TV
you will notice that we continue to screw up.

And don’t get me wrong,
people will continue to screw up until the end of time!

But what’s really important is the realization that
“I have screwed up.”

We can’t control other people, we can’t control the world,
But so long as we ourselves are not perfect
We ought not cast stones at others
Because we have a share in the world’s brokenness.

Advent is a “do over” for the world,
Or rather it is a reminder
that God offers each of us a personal “do over,”
not just now but every moment of every day He gave us.

Will we take this opportunity, with hearts like those of children
and accept our responsibility in the screwed upness of the world
by asking God for a “do over?”

This Advent as we await the celebration of the Nativity of our Lord
why not give the world, and our family, and our friends
the gift of mercy, by first accepting it in your heart.

God wants to give us a “do over,”
so that we can give others this gift of mercy.
And make this dream a reality,

Why not make advent what it was meant to be
A time of preparation for a new beginning,
in which we prepare for Christ’s coming into the world,
not just 2000 years ago, but right now in our lives.

Imagine a perfect world, without war, or injustice, or hatred
This is the World Christ desires to create.

let Christ, who desires to come into our life
and make all things new
Find welcome in your hearts and homes this Christmas.

All of us need to be renewed through confess,
a renewed prayer life,
and through the Mass.

Because it’s only in preparing our hearts to welcome Him
That He can truly be born IN us.
And that the world can truly be renewed.

Let’s make the prayer of the Psalmist our own this Advent:
Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.

What's in the Words?

A Homily for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Given at St. Patrick's Parish

By Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd, STL

What's in a word?

In the bulleting today the insert
about the upcoming translation of the Mass
talks about new words that may be unfamiliar to you
that will appear in the Mass this Advent

Words like Chalice, which will replace "cup,"
or Consubstantial, which "will replace one in being"

What is a Chalice? A cup!

What does it mean to be Consubstantial?
It means you are one in being!

So why not continue to use these much more common and understandable words?

All throughout the world in every religion
one of the commonalities about religion is that
people pray with a unique dialect
or even a completely different sacral language.

In Judaism its ancient Hebrew,
a language that has long been dead
and yet today can still be heard in synagogues
throughout the world.
In Islam the language is Arabic.

In Christianity there are a number of different languages
depending on which branch of the Church you are talking about

Arameic, Greek, Syro-Malbar, Coptic, Ge'ez, Old Church Slavonic are just a few of the ancient tongues that are primarily used today for prayer alone.

In our own Latin rite of the Catholic Church
Latin is our Sacral Language

Latin unites us to the Church of Rome,
which evangelized most of Western Europe,
and gives us a common language to use when praying with
Hispanic Catholics, and Asian Catholics, and German Catholics.

In just a few hours I will be leaving for Spain
on pilgrimage to World Youth Day
where although I do not speak Spanish
I will be able to join with Pope Benedict
in Prayer at Mass in Latin.

However, even in our own venacular language, English,
there is a tradition of Sacral Language
that is a dialect or sub-set of English in general.

The purpose of these sacral dialects and languages
is to make the words hard to understand.

You heard me right--
WE WANT PRAYER TO BE HARD
TO UNDERSTAND!

WHY, you ask?

BECAUSE we are talking to GOD
we are talking to a being completely different from ourselves
or anything we have experienced in creation.

We are ultimately talking to someone who is unknowable
and yet peeking from behind the curtain of creation
desires to make Himself known.

And so it is important that our language
gives us pause, and causes us to ponder
about exactly what the relation is between us
the creator and Him the creator.

Why not use cup, instead of Chalice?
Because a cup is something we drink Mountain Dew out of
while a chalice, reminds us of something elegant,
ornate and beautiful.

It makes us think about the fact that what we are receiving
is not the Wine that is brought up in the cup
but the Blood of our savior poured into the Chalice
from His pierced side as He hung upon the cross for us.

Why consubstantial, instead of one in being?
Because we know what one means;
we know what in means;
and we sort of know what being means,

but we have no REAL idea what it means for the Son to be God and the Father to be God and yet for there to be only one God.

Consubstantial reminds us of the great mystery of the Trinity
three persons in one being, three who's in one what,
a mystery that speaks so much about God's nature
and our vocation to love,
but which we often fail to ponder
each time we hastily cross ourselves
or gallop through that phrase in the Creed.

In the Gospel Jesus always uses language VERY carefully,
in order to emphasize His point
and make us think, so that we might interiorize the Gospel.


In today's Gospel He calls a woman a dog, emphazing the division between the Jews and the Canannites
before praise her Great faith.

He does so to make the Jews, AND I MIGHT ADD
US, God's chosen people
really think about the strenght of our own faith.

If a dog, unworthy of a seat at the table,
in the estimation of the chosen people any way,
can have such great faith, how much greater should me faith be
as the son or daughter of God that I am?

Language has great power if we stop and think about it
and DARE I SAY PRAY ABOUT IT!!!!

Dear Lord grant us the graces we need to enter deeper into the prayers of the Mass through the difficulties we find with the new translation. Amen.

Where do we find God?

Homily for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Offered at St. Patrick's in Wareham

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

Continuing our meditation on the new translation of the Liturgy
Today we are challenged to ask the question:

Where do we find God?

In the book of Kings Elijah is told by the Lord to go out
To encounter God on the Mountain.

So Elijah goes out to the high place
to encounter the power of nature in wind, and earthquakes, and fire
and yet God was not present in any of these mighty signs.

It’s only in the quiet whispering of the wind did Elijah find God.

The Scriptures we hear today are so important because they speak to us
About the different places we find God.

In the Gospel of Matthew the Apostles are in a boat
in the midst of a storm on the Sea of Galilee.

And in this moment of Crisis,
Jesus appears, walking on the water,

He invites Peter to walk with Him on the Sea
And when He enters the boat He calms the sea.

These two paradigms of encountering God are really important
Because they point out the fact that
while God CAN appear in dramatic ways
most often He does not!


In Scripture we read about God appearing in many and in varied ways
In a booming voice or a burning bushes
In a column of fire, as a giant hand and in the power
that manifests God’s presence in the Arc of the Covenant

These stories of God manifesting Himself at critical times
in very explicit ways can lead us to have
an almost cartoonish understanding of how God reveals himself to us
on an everyday basis.

This can be such a problem for novices in the Faith,
Who come to Mass and hear in the Scriptures
these marvelous theophanies, and then wonder
why they don’t experience God
as a booming voice or a burning bush.

This is why it is so important
to realize that while God can reveal Himself to us in showy ways,
He does this in Scriptures only a handful of the times, at crucial points, during the 7000+ years of History recorded in scriptures,

He usually doesn’t, and when He does, He reveals Himself dramatically
Not to tell us about Himself, but to save us from some danger
That might destroy us.

In the book of King’s Elijah encounters all the wonders of nature
that many of us expect to experience God in,

And of course we do encounter God in nature.
Thunder, lightning, earthquakes, fire, tornadoes, storms, and hail all point to the Power of God who created these things,

As does the beauty and goodness of nature,
but God is not nature.

Just like a painting may tell us about the author but is not the author
Nature can tell us about its creator,
and granted God is present everywhere in creation,
but He is not nature.

What the passage from the book of Kings is reminding us is that
It’s important not to imagine God as Zeus
making Himself know by lightning bolts
or as Oden announcing His presence
with the thunderous blows of His hammer.

Rather, USUALLY God reveals Himself in the whispering of the wind
In the silent depths of our heart—through honest prayer.

The reason why God does not usually reveal Himself
In flashy ways is that no matter how flashy He gets
Any show of Power ultimately falls short of truly revealing God
AND God wants us to TRULY know Him!
and be in relationship with Him!

God is the creator of everything that was created,
Think of the power of the atom bomb and then multiply that power
Times infinity—and still you get nowhere near to
the awesome power of the Big Bang.

If we truly believe that God is the cause of existence
Then the awesome power which created all things that are
is by definition less than the power of God.

In theology this realization is called the via negative,
the negative way of approaching God.

Which is simply the realization that
God may be the creator of all things,
and He may reveal Himself through the things He creates,
BUT…
God is always more different than similar
to anything we experience in creation.

Think about the paradigmatic fairy tale about a prince
Who casts aside His royal robes and dresses like a commoner
To win the true love of His beloved.

All the glory of creation are just decorations,
What young people may call “bling:
that point to the True glory of Who God is.

God reveals himself to us intimately, as the Song of Songs suggests
Like a lover whispering in His lovers ear,
Because that intimacy is more authentic and profound
Than all the flashy gifts you could imagine:
roses, gold, diamonds, boats, cars, houses, you name it…

So, how does this relate to the Mass
and the changes in the translation of the Mass
we will be receiving in December?

Well the Mass, and the Sacred Scriptures
that we hear proclaimed at the Mass,
are the most exalted and intimate prayer.

Its Jesus’ prayer, which becomes ours IF we enter into it.

God may not appear to us in the WEAK signs of
a burning bush or thunder or lightning at the Mass,

Rather He reveals Himself in very REAL and POWERFUL,
though not flashy, ways:
Through the people, the body of Christ the Church,
Through Sacred Scripture and the Traditional Prayers of the Church
Through His ordained priests
And most especially through the Most Blessed Sacrament.

When we come to Mass, we are SUPPOSED to be quiet—

I often tell people about my experience of a Ge’ez Catholic Community
In Washington, DC—this community which doesn’t use the Latin Rite like us but the Ge’ez rite a 3rd century Ethiopian for of the Mass.

One of the remarkable things about this community
Is that after praying their version of the Mass,
which lasts about three hours,
they spent the remainder of the day in feasting and fellowship,

Fellowship, enjoying the gift of other people is really KEY
to living the Sabbath obligation, BUT

as the greatest commandment reminds us before loving our neighbor
we must FIRST love God with our whole heart, mind, and soul.

I love the fact that people want to share fellowship
here at Church on Sundays,

but we are falling short of the Greatest commandment
and our Sunday obligation,
if we don’t make some space to listen to the quiet whispering of God.

AND we are failing in our duty to love our neighbor
if after taking our quiet time for prayer
we interrupt their quiet time for prayer.

Coming to Mass we must pray ACTUALLY
This doesn’t just mean saying the words or doing the actions

It means really being quiet and reflective enough to see
in the persons, actions, and words of the Mass
GOD speaking not to us in general but ME in particular.

The new Translation of the Mass will give us
two new opportunities to meet God here at Mass:

First by translating the original prayers more faithfully
We will receive a portion of the Tradition, of Jesus’ self revelation
That to date has been hidden from us.

For the past 40 years it’s like we have been reading Shakespeare,
in cliff notes, dumb down.

And now for the first time in a long time, we will get to hear Shakespeare
As Shakespeare wrote it, and though the language may be more difficult

If we actually pray the prayers,
thinking about them and what God is telling us through them
we will get so much more out of them.

And secondly, because these prayers are different, new,
and sometimes difficult,
the new translation really challenges us
to enter into that deeper relationship.

The Day of the Lord

Homily for the 18th Sunday of Ordinary time

Given at St. Patrick's in Wareham

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

Have you ever taken your kids, or grandkids for ice cream
And being good, not gotten an ice cream yourself?

What happened when you asked your kids for a taste?
Well if your kids are anything like my nephews and nieces
it was like pulling teeth, to get some ice cream.

Despite the fact that most likely some ice cream will be wasted
And some will melt and drip to the ground,
Despite the fact that you paid for it.
Kids can be very attached to their ice cream,

But you know, it’s not just kids, all of us can be the same.
All of us have been given ice cream in the form of our life
Our talents, our treasures, our experiences, families, and friends.

And yet when God asks us to give just a little back
How often to we selfishly guard our ice cream, our life,
From the God who gave it to us in the first place.

And the thing about giving God back a little
of what He gave us in the first place is that
whatever we give to God He multiplies and blesses and gives back to us.

In today’s bulletin you will find an insert about the Day of the Lord
It’s the first in a series of inserts that will be in the bulletin
To help us prepare to pray Mass just a little bit differently,
And perhaps more profoundly, next December.

But before we rush to changes in words,
It is important to think about what the Mass and the Sabbath is!!!

The third commandment of God’s law teaches us to:
keep holy the Sabbath

As Catholics we know that going to the Holy Mass
is a key part of keeping Holy the Sabbath.
What Jesus teaches us to do when he makes that perfect prayer to God
The Father from the Cross is what the Sabbath is all about!

God asks us this, as Jesus taught us,
“not because man was made for the Sabbath
but because the Sabbath was made for man.”

Just like the boy in the gospel today offered Jesus fish and loaves
We are asked to give God, 1 day out of 7 and 1 hour out of 168.

How small and insignificant a gift
considering how much God gives us

BUT God does not ask us to keep Holy the Sabbath
because we were made to give God praise,
He asks us to keep it holy because by doing so,
By giving our simply gift to God
God desire to multiply it and give it back to us ten fold.

Like the boys gift of fish and bread,
which seemed so little in comparison to the hunger of the crowd

Our little sacrifice and gift of a day, and particularly this hour each week
Though, when we really think about, it seem so meagar
Is all that the Lord needs to satisfy not human hunger,
But even more important,
the human desire for right relationship with our creator and God.
Pope Benedict writes of the creation of the world,
That for five days God prepared the world,
Making a space, a home, for us.

And on the sixth day He created us,
He created humanity, the pinnacle of creation
So that on the seventh day we could enjoy the world God created
And through that enjoyment know the love of our God
And return that love in thanksgiving.

Thus Pope Benedict writes that man was made for the 7th day
Man was made to rest and enjoy God’s goodness
and thank Him for that Goodness.

When we lost that, because of disobedience
Because we imagined that we could figure out
what makes the human heart happy, without asking its creator,

we were cast out of paradise, into a world where we had to work
to seek a happy life, that God desired to give us as a gift.

God told us in the beginning that what will satisfy our heart
Is enjoying creation and giving Him thanks,

And yet we decided to look for happiness in all the wrong places
In our work, in our pastimes, in our hobbies, in drugs and alcohol and sex and wealth, and in so many other dead end pursuits.

The third commandment was made to remind man
where true happiness lies,
and what we have to look forward to, and hope for,
for all eternity in Heaven.
So how do we live the day of the Lord?
Like the crowds in the Gospel today
we start by placing ourselves in God’s presence,
which really means simply realizing that He is with us always!

We need to stop and smell the roses.

We start by stopping all the busyness
And pushing anything that could come between us and God
out of our life for just one day, including:
not just work but also chores,
cooking, cleaning, mowing the lawn, and shopping,
and this includes sports and activities that get in the way.

Doing this we are able to listen to Jesus teach us
about the goodness of life
and enter into conversation with God.

We enter into this conversation, this prayer, most intensly
when we come together with Christ in His Church
to offer our prayer of thanksgiving for all that we have received
together with the our whole Catholic family,
with Christ leading us in prayer from the Cross.

At Mass Jesus teaches us that life is so good that
We should love God enough to give Him everything
EVEN our sufferings and sorrows and our death.

Jesus takes our simply weak gifts and uniting them with our prayers
He turns ordinary bread and life, which is a symbol of our very small gift
Into His total self, body blood soul and divinity.

Jesus gives all of Himself to the Father
so that we might learn to do the same.

And He transforms our simple gifts
Into a food that will satisfy the multitudes His Body and Blood.

It’s important to remember however
that Jesus doesn’t just ask for one hour from us!

He wants the WHOLE SABBATH, the whole Sunday,
So that the gifts we receive and give at Mass,
can be celebrated and enjoyed with our whole family during this day.

Maybe for some, who have gotten into the habit of working on Sunday
Giving up a whole day seems too hard,
Its especially difficult for those whose jobs
require them to work on Sunday,

but I once hear a story of a man who with his wife
decided to take a huge risk and really live Sunday,
refusing to work or travel or shop or be a temptation for others to work
on the day of the Lord.

He was really afraid that he would loose his job because of it.
What happened was a every day miracle.
Athough he struggled with his choice to truly live the Sabbath,
So many opportunities opened up for him, and his business truly thrived.

When we trust the Lord with our fish and loaves,
It might seem like we will lose our lunch and go hungry
But God always repays us a hundred fold for all that He gives us.