Our Priests

(I'm currently en route from New England back to South Florida, so I wanted to share with you what I wrote this week in our bulletin about Priesthood Sunday)

"The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest till it reaches its goal (Sirach 35:21)."

This past week, the Catholic Church in Miami lost one of the great priests in the history of the Archdiocese: Monsignor Emilio Vallina, the longtime pastor of St. John Bosco.  He built up the first Hispanic parish in Miami out of a car dealership in 1962.  He opened his arms to his fellow Cuban immigrants, and many years later, kept them open as Nicaraguan, Honduran, Salvadoran and countless others from Latin America in that poor neighborhood in Little Havana.  This humble man was a giant among his brother priests.  On this Priesthood Sunday, I can’t help but recall all “the giants” who have been called home to the Lord over the last several years.

Monsignor Vallina was ordained the same year as the priest who baptized me: Monsignor Luis Perez, the longtime pastor of San Lazaro in Hialeah and the familiar face who fervently led the rosary before every Our Lady of Charity Mass.  Msgr. Perez worked well into his 80s and even at an advanced age took on the arduous task of going to do mission work in Mexico.

In a name that is not familiar down here in Dade County but in Broward is as thunderous as his commanding voice, Father Gabriel O’Reilly was told 40 years ago to go build the parish of St. David in horse country in Davie just west of Fort Lauderdale.  He literally began celebrating Mass in a bar and before you knew it he had built a church, a rectory and school.  He was the only pastor that parish had even known when he died this past summer.

I could fill several pages of this bulletin with the heroic work of the priests that built up this Archdiocese that have gone home these last few years:  Monsignor Armando Balado, a saintly man who I devoutly served as an altar server, Father Florentino Azcoitia who inspired so many families through Encuentros Familiares, Father Amado Llorente, who quite literally led me to say yes to the priesthood through an Ignatian Retreat, Father Jorge Sardiñas, whose holiness taught me that every Mass was a retreat, Father Armando Perez who labored so hard for Hispanics in Broward County, Father Pepito Garcia who could always be found with a smile on his face visiting the sick at the hospital, and of course, the soul of the Miami presbyterate, Bishop Agustín Román, who was a living saint among us and whose legacy will be remembered in this Archdiocese 100 years from now.

I know that I left out many great priests, but I just wanted to share a few who made a profound impact in my priesthood.  Priesthood Sunday is celebrated so that we may appreciate the good work that priests have done in our lives.  I invite you today to think about those men who brought you closer to Christ, initiated you into the life of the Church, gave you First Communion, witnessed your marriage, anointed you, absolved you, buried your loved ones, and lived up to their high calling of acting in persona Christi.  I am blessed to be a priest because of all these holy men that have gone before me and are now, through our prayers, sharing in their Master’s joy.  They are priests forever.  We are indebted to each one of them because they made present for us our Savior Jesus Christ.  Pray for your priests!

 

 

Becoming Persistent Missionaries

“…proclaim the word; be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient; convince, reprimand, encourage through all patience and teaching.” (2 Timothy 4:2)

This week’s readings are all about persistence when it comes to prayer.  Jesus wants the disciples to pray, persevere, and not grow weary like Moses did during the battle against Amalek where he held his arms on high so that Israel would defeat its enemies.  Persistence is the key to prayer as we see in the parable that Jesus offers of the widow who keeps asking the judge for justice.  Our God is a God of justice who will give us so much more than what the judge gave the widow because we cry out to him and more importantly because we are his chosen ones.

Today the Church celebrates World Mission Sunday and we are called to be persistent in our prayers for all missionaries throughout the world.  Here we turn to the co-patroness of the missions who despite her young age, despite never leaving the convent, and despite ailments that afflicted her until her untimely death at 24, always prayed unceasingly and offered up her suffering for the missions and for the spread of the gospel.  Of course, I am talking about St. Therese of Lisieux who longed to be a missionary.  We look to her as a model of how fervent our prayers should be for all those brothers and sisters throughout the world who sacrifice so much to bring the message of Jesus Christ and the compassion and work of his Church to people that desperately need it. 

Today we pray for the Salesian Sisters in Chennai, India who dedicate their lives to rescuing girls from child trafficking and modern day slavery (yes it still very much exists in the 21^st century, sadly).  There in Chennai little girls are sold off and have to work in households from 5:00am to Midnight every day cooking, cleaning, and looking after babies despite being only 9 or 10 years old.  The Sisters rescue these girls and give them a loving home where they give them an education and restore their dignity.  (You can see more about the good work of these Sisters and the plight of these girls by watching this short video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jk5GGHdoS3w)  There is so much good that the Church does throughout the world that we don’t even know about it.  It’s not as simple as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and caring for the sick anymore.  Missionaries around the world risk their lives every single day to do the work of Christ and proclaim his glorious Name even in countries where it is illegal to do so just so that their brothers and sisters could have a better life.  That is what the Salesian Sisters do in Chennai, India, and that is why all these missionaries need our constant prayers.  A missionary has to be as persistent as the widow in the gospel and as bold as St. Paul tells Timothy to be in the second reading. 

I’ll end with this story about our dear Bishop Román who spent years and years going out to visit the Miccosukee Indians to celebrate Mass for them even though no one there was Catholic.  Yet, he persisted.  He would go again and again without a hint of discouragement, and many years into his ministry there, he finally got one person who embraced the Catholic faith.  Bishop Román would tell this story with so much joy.  So many would have given up after a year or two and so many would have thought one conversion over so many years a failure, but the good bishop kept pressing on and he rejoiced when all that hard work paid off because one heart now belonged to Jesus Christ.  This holy man reminds us that we too are all called to be missionaries by virtue of our baptism, and that we are called to invite others to share in the joy that we experience every Sunday here at the Eucharistic feast.  There are so many people out there that need to experience the love, mercy, and peace of Jesus Christ.  Today, I’m not asking you to go off to India to help the Salesian sisters.  I’m not asking you to go off to any distant lands.  Today, I just have one simple missionary request: invite someone to Mass who doesn’t usually go.  They may and probably will say no at first, but keep at it.  Maybe your persistence will cause them to finally give in to your request like the judge in the gospel.  And when they do come to Mass and open themselves to the outpouring of grace that takes place here at this altar, the sky’s the limit to what God has in store for them.  May we always be persistent in our prayers for missionaries around the world, and may we embrace our baptismal call to be missionaries on this World Mission Sunday and every Sunday by inviting one, just one, person to come to Mass with you next week.  St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us.

Blessed Are Those Who Give Thanks

“…and he fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him.” (Luke 17:16)

We are so blessed.  We are so undeservedly blessed.  Every Sunday we gather in this Church to celebrate the great gift that Jesus left us in the Eucharist.  We celebrate his presence.  We celebrate his love for us.  We celebrate that he became “true food and true drink” (cf. Jn 6:55) for us.  Yes, we take it for granted at times, even priests, but every now and then we need to stop and give thanks for the great gift that we have in the Eucharist.  Giving thanks is at the core of today’s gospel where the leper who was cured returned to Jesus in gratitude.  If you read this gospel passage in Greek, you will notice that the word for “giving thanks” in Greek is ευχαριστία (eucharistía) which we translate as eucharist.  So what the leper does is what we do every time we approach the altar of the Lord.  We approach to give thanks.

This past week I went on my yearly retreat, and I, along with twenty of my brother priests, was blessed to have as my retreat master the retired archbishop of New York, Cardinal Edward Egan.  All week long, Cardinal Egan tried to impress upon us the importance about emphasizing to all of you how blessed we are to celebrate the Eucharist, to receive such a gift, to be able to take part in this great sacrifice of the Mass.  Each day he would begin Mass by reminding us that “Mass is Calvary here with us.  Jesus Christ is our Priest and our Victim.  We are priests with him in renewing and making sacramentally present again the sacrifice and the wonder of Calvary.”  He reminded us that as his priests we take part in bringing Christ to you and the importance of instilling in our faithful a great love for the Eucharist.  I have said it time and again that there is no greater act that we do all week that is greater than this divine act of love that we mutually exchange with our God here on this altar.  This is why we are blessed because we get to take part in “the wonder of Calvary” which is made present in the Mass.  Jesus told his disciples that “many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it (Luke 10:24).”  Jesus could have very well been talking to us.  We get to hear his Living Word and get to eat this life giving food, his very flesh, every time we gather in this church.  This is why we must constantly give thanks.  Despite the hardships that we endure out there, we have a place of refuge in here where our Lord becomes present for us, and we have the opportunity, like the leper, to throw ourselves at his feet to give thanks.

Imagine how our world would be if we said “thank you” more often.  Imagine if we took this “eucharistic spirit” with us when we left.  This morning, as Pope Francis consecrated the Church to the heart of Mary, he talked about the importance of these two simple words:  “Saying “thank you” is such an easy thing, and yet so hard! How often do we say “thank you” to one another in our families? These are essential words for our life in common. “Sorry”, “excuse me”, “thank you”. If families can say these three things, they will be fine. “Sorry”, “excuse me”, “thank you”. How often do we say “thank you” in our families? How often do we say “thank you” to those who help us, those close to us, those at our side throughout life? All too often we take everything for granted! This happens with God too. It is easy to approach the Lord to ask for something, but to go and thank him: “Well, I don’t need to”. 

Yes, all too often we come to the Lord with a list of grievances, which he is all too happy to attend to, when we should be approaching him first with a spirit of thanksgiving.  We should also go out of our way to thank those who help us on the journey as well.  I remember in seminary that one of my spiritual directors taught me the importance of the lost art of a hand written thank you note.  Not a text, not an email, not a letter, but a hand written note.  It’s more personal.  It makes us go deeper into our heart to show our gratitude.  This is what we must do when we approach the table of the Lord: go deep into our hearts and realize how blessed we are to simply abide in his presence to give him thanks.  How blessed our world would be if we approached God and each other more often with those two simple words: thank you.

Today is Still Respect Life Sunday

"Increase our faith.” (Luke 17:6)

“For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice…” (2 Timothy 1:7)

The first two readings today tell us about so much hardship.  The prophet Habakkuk is crying to out to God because he does not see his provident hand at work in his life.  We sometimes may feel the same way.  We are besieged by stress in our work and in our homes, sickness in our families, and loss of loved ones.  We see all around us the violence the prophet talks about, and we are left asking the same question: “How long will this endure?”  Both the first and second readings come to the same conclusion:  we must have faith to persevere in this world.  This is why the apostles asked the Lord to increase their faith in the gospel.

This past Friday, a driver came to pick me up to go do a television interview.  He was a very nice man, yet for some reason he kept talking about all the bad things happening on the news.  Full disclosure: I try to keep up with national and international news, but I never watch the 11pm local news.  At the end of my day, I like to relax, say my night prayers, and fall asleep in a good mood watching SportsCenter.   But this gentleman caught me up to speed on every accident, every shooting, and every piece of bad news that had taken place in the last week.  However, after reeling off all of these negative events, without me saying a word, he came to the following conclusion:  “You see Father, that’s why with all these bad things happening in the world…we gotta have faith now more than ever.”  Immediately I thought about today’s gospel.  How else can we confront all the craziness in the world if it isn’t through faith?

Today the Church celebrates Respect Life Sunday.  Contrary to popular secular opinion or what the New York Times may have to say, the moral tenets that we uphold and pray are defended on this day are the same as they were before Pope Francis was elected.  Through his actions, Pope Francis has proven to be a great pope that defends life.  And through his words, the Pope had this to say on the day after that famous interview was released where the secular world thought he was softening the Church’s stance on abortion (Surprise! he actually strengthened our resolve):   “Every child who, rather than being born, is condemned unjustly to being aborted, bears the face of Jesus Christ, bears the face of the Lord, who even before he was born, and then just after birth, experienced the world's rejection. And every elderly person – I spoke of children: let us move to the elderly, another point! And every elderly person, even if he is ill or at the end of his days, bears the face of Christ. They cannot be discarded, as the “culture of waste” suggests! They cannot be thrown away!” (Pope Francis to Doctors on 9/20/13)

We do live in a society that likes to discard rather violently.  On this day, we look around us and see that we are indeed surrounded by what Blessed John Paul II called a culture of death.  It is up to us to change it into a culture of life.  St. Paul tells Timothy in today’s second reading that God did not give us a spirit of cowardice.  If this is so, and forgive me for sounding like a broken record, then why are most Catholics such cowards when it comes to standing up for human life?  Why do we let this culture of death pervade when we can drown out the screams of death with our prayers?  God always listens to the prayers of his children.  Just one caveat:  WE HAVE TO PRAY!  Respect Life Sunday isn’t limited to just one day, but it lasts the entire month just like we celebrate the month of the rosary during October.  We have such a beautiful instrument of prayer in the holy rosary where we can ask our Blessed Mother to protect those who are unborn, those who are elderly, those who are immigrants or undocumented, those who defend marriage, those who defend and work for the poor.  God did not make us cowards.  He sent us the spirit of courage to change the world and to stand up for all human life and of life’s divine values.

Yes, we may get discouraged like the prophet in the first reading when we see the state of our world,  but I’ve been saying it all year during this Year of Faith, our prayer must be those of the apostles:  “Increase our faith!”  With faith we can indeed move mountains and remind the world that Life has a name:  Jesus Christ.  When the world discovers this Jesus through us, they will abide in His truth and his love and all these evils will slowly start to disappear if we live up to the name of Christians.  This is our calling.  We are called to be a people filled with faith who spreads that faith to slowly eradicate this culture of death that is killing our children, marginalizing the poor and the migrant, diluting our marriages and our families, and discarding our elderly.  As the Pope said last month quite emphatically:  “They cannot be discarded!”  My friends, let us work to build up a true culture of life.  Then filled with great peace we will be able to say the closing words of today’s gospel when God calls us home:  “We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do (Luke 17:10).”

 

God Knows the Poor By Name

"And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus..." (Luke 16:20)

Do we let our possessions possess us? Back in the 90s there was a superb movie called  "Heat" that stared Robert Deniro and Al Pacino.  Don't recommend it for younger viewers but Deniro's character, who was a criminal, kept saying throughout the movie: "Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner."  He had this philosophy for criminal purposes, but let's flip this and apply it to today's gospel particularly when it comes to possessions.  The rich man in the gospel is so wrapped up in his lifestyle, in his wealth, and in just simply being rich that he ignores the poor man at his door step and forgets the words of Moses and the prophets.  The poor man actually has a name: Lazurus.  Once again we see God's preferential option for the poor.  The rich man has lost his way.  He become a nameless rich face.  We know these people: "that guy who drives the Ferrari or that lady with the expensive purses and fancy jewelry."  Many of these people are so attached to their possessions that they are defined by them.  Which begs the question posed in the movie: would we willingly leave all our possessions behind if we had to? My parents and grandparents had to do this when they left Cuba with so many others.  All they needed was God and family. But sometimes I wonder if I could just willingly leave everything behind.  As priests, we are transient in nature.  We're always moving, and every time I move I come to the realization that I have too many things.  Way too much stuff.  Now I wouldn't call myself a pack rat, but I hold on to mementos and gifts giving to me over the years by parishioners.  Just the other day I was in my office with a staff member hanging up a gift given to me by my youth group and I looked at the walls and shelves of my office and uttered with a little bit of disdain: "Look at all this stuff."  Now every single one of those frames, pictures, and mementos tells a story and recalls some beautiful memories and I wouldn't throw them out.  I always pack them when I move (don't worry, I'm not moving anywhere), but could I live without them?  I mentioned to the staff member how I really admired Pope Francis who basically left all his belongings behind in Argentina when elected pope. Bishop Roman's room was extremely simple with just a few books, a rocking chair, and his small bed.  Two men of great simplicity who drew closer to God because they were not attached to the things of this world.

Speaking of Pope Francis, this morning in his homily, he had this to say about the rich man in the gospel: "Whenever material things, money, worldliness, become the center of our lives, they take hold of us, they possess us; we lose our very identity as human beings...material things, his possessions, are his face; he has nothing else...this is what happens when we no longer remember God.  If we don't think about God, everything ends up being about 'me' and my comfort."  The rich man has no face yet the poor man has a name, Lazurus, and when he dies he is carried up by angels to the bosom of Abraham. He had no attachments.  He had nothing to leave behind.  He was ready to receive his eternal reward.  So close is our God to those who are poor, who have nothing, who suffer at the feet of the wealthy and powerful.  Material things aren't bad in and of themselves.  It's how we let them run our lives that can get it us into trouble. If they get in the way of our relationship with God, we start to forget that we are his children, created in his image and likeness, and that he calls each and every one of us by name to share his eternal joy.

What Pope Francis Really Said

“God our savior, who wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.  For there is one God.  There is also one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus…” (1 Timothy 2:3-5)

A lot of was made this past week about the interview Pope Francis granted to Jesuit magazines.  It is a long and fascinating interview that I encourage all Catholics to read because it offers a personal glimpse into the heart of our Holy Father and his dreams for the Church.  Of course the media focused on 30 or so words of the 12,000 word interview probably without reading the whole thing.  I could not stop reading the interview once it came out and was transfixed by everything the Pope had to say.  Let me give you a priest’s point of view without the filter of the secular media.

The interview began with a very simple question posed to the Holy Father:  “Who is Jorge Mario Bergolio?”  The interviewer said that the Pope paused and answered quite simply: “I am a sinner.”  A reporter asked me on Thursday how can the Pope say that if he is infallible.  I reminded her that the Pope is only infallible when teaching on matters of faith and morals speaking ex-cathedra in communion with the bishops.  But Jorge Bergolio, the man, is fallible, and he confirmed it when he identified himself as a sinner, just like you and me.  Right there, the Holy Father embraces the poverty that the readings call us to this morning.  But he goes further later on in the article when he basically repeats something that St. Paul alludes to in the second reading when he says where the Church needs to direct its energies.  Pope Francis says:  “The most important thing is the first proclamation:  Jesus Christ has saved you!”  Let’s start from there.  He said this was important because sometimes we corner ourselves into issues, that while important, may distract someone from the central tenet of our faith: Jesus saves!  When we come to grips with the fact that God sent his Son into the world to save us,  when we immerse himself in the Son who is the Way, the TRUTH, and the life, then we will be more willing to immerse ourselves in that Truth.

Our Holy Father sees the Church as a field hospital after battle that treats the wounded:  “I see clearly that the thing the church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful…I see the church as a field hospital after battle. It is useless to ask a seriously injured person if he has high cholesterol and about the level of his blood sugars! You have to heal his wounds. Then we can talk about everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds....”  Heal the wounds!   He talked about priests having to be ministers of mercy.  As confessors, we don’t ask how you arrived in the confessional, we’re just happy you’re there so that we can dispense God’s mercy and heal your wounds.  It is only then that we can delve deeper into the cause of those wounds, but it must always be done walking and getting to know the person of Jesus Christ who must be the center of our lives.  The Pope doesn’t change doctrine.  He doesn’t say anything new.  He just wants us to keep our eyes fixed on the Lord.  The great papal biographer George Weigel wrote this week in a superb column:  “Francis believes and professes all that the Catholic Church believes and professes to be true about the moral life, the life that leads to happiness and beatitude. But he also understands that men and women are far more likely to embrace those moral truths — about the inalienable right to life from conception until natural death; about human sexuality and how it should be lived — when they have first embraced Jesus Christ as Lord.” 

And there you have it.  Our Holy Father embracing his sinfulness, embracing his mission as the Vicar of Christ and announcing what the Church’s priorities have to be.  It’s what they’ve always been:  lives centered on the person of Jesus Christ.  The Lord says at the end of today’s gospel that we cannot serve two masters.  Pope Francis leads by example so clearly by living a life of simplicity, spending an hour each night in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, and proclaiming the living Christ above all else.  We are challenge to make Jesus Christ the center of our lives in this world that values power, riches, and pleasure above all else which is why we must embrace this spiritual poverty that leads us to only rely on our Lord.  What a gift we have in our Holy Father who keeps pointing us to the greatest of all gifts:  Jesus Christ!

(I encourage you to read the entire interview of Pope Francis from America Magazine at:

 http://americamagazine.org/pope-interview)

 

The Work of Our Hands

"Prosper the work of our hands." (Psalm 90:17)

Before every Dolphins game during pre game warmups, you can find me on the sideline quietly praying my rosary.  Many people have come up to me over the last two seasons and asked if I'm praying for the Dolphins to win.  Usually I just tell them that I'm just praying for the safety of the players on both teams, but privately I repeat the last verse of today's psalm as I see the players and coaches get ready to execute a week's worth of intense preparation: "Prosper the work of our hands.  Prosper the work of our hands." The psalmist repeats the phrase twice.  I repeat it constantly that the Good Lord may bless all the hard work they have done.  I pray this verse at times before Mass, a retreat, or any other endeavors I undertake.  If we put God first and commend to him the work we are about to do, then he will shower his blessings on us.  

There is so much going on in today's readings.  Jesus lays out the cost of discipleship.  We indeed pay a heavy price for following the Lord.   We must put him before family, friends.  We must take up our cross daily to follow him.  We saw the price that Christ paid on the cross for us.  There are no shortcuts to salvation.  During these times in which we are called to pray for peace in the world, the cross and Christ's sacrifice teaches us such valuable lessons.

Last night, Pope Francis held a five hour vigil to pray for peace in Syria and the Middle East. During his homily, he talked about the cross:  "How I wish that all men and women of good will would look to the Cross if only for a moment! There, we can see God’s reply: violence is not answered with violence, death is not answered with the language of death. In the silence of the Cross, the uproar of weapons ceases and the language of reconciliation, forgiveness, dialogue, and peace is spoken."

The silence of the cross! God could have taken his vengeance on humanity for what they were doing to his only Son, but the Father stayed silent and so did his Son.  Who could have imagined that such a violent image of a man crucified would now bring people so much peace as they gaze upon it when they pray?  Humanity's violent sins and actions were given a merciful response by God.  What a price Christ paid so that we may have the peace of eternal life.

Human hands are capable of such beauty, but they are also capable of unspeakable atrocities.  They can run with blood from acts of violence or they can bless with acts of peace.  One does not fight evil with evil.   We learned that lesson on the cross.  We must be instruments of peace and allow God to bless the good works we do.  This past week we celebrated the feast day of Mother Teresa who had a great quote about how to promote peace:  "Peace begins with a smile. Smile five times a day at someone you don't really want to smile at; do it for peace. Let us radiate the peace of God and so light His light and extinguish in the world and in the hearts of all men all hatred and love for power." Peace does indeed begin on an individual level.  The troubles currently plaguing the Middle East are far more complex, but how will firing missiles or dropping bombs help the Syrian people or the two million Syrian refugees, half of them children, who are currently displaced in neighboring countries in an unspeakable humanitarian disaster that is getting pushed aside in the news?  Peace always peace!  War, never war, Pope Paul VI said decades ago.  As disciples of Christ we must work for peace each day no matter the cost, and we must oppose any actions that may take us to war.  Peace has become so fleeting and the drums of war keep beating stronger and stronger with each passing day. We cannot give in to the practice of responding to violence with violence.  One of our bishops said this week that we must "flood heaven with our prayers" asking our Lord for peace in our world.  If each of us works for peace with just a smile or an act of charity or a simple prayer, then God will indeed prosper the work of our hands.

Humble Yet Honored Guests

"My child, conduct your affairs with humility..." (Sirach 3:17)

"My friend, move up to a higher position." (Luke 14:10)

Let me tell you about two humbling experience that happened to me yesterday.  The first happened in my office when our volunteer who tends the front desk on Saturdays had to leave unexpectedly.  I asked a girl from our youth group to answer the phones thinking that people would only call to ask for Mass times but didn’t count on a big walk up crowd.  Every minute or so this girl would be running to my office asking for help, so I went up to the front desk to sit in “the chair!”  My receptionist’s chair is a hot seat because every day she sits there answering phones, tending to the faithful who arrive to ask for information on sacraments, to seek Mass intentions, register their kids for CCD, and she does it all with a smile on her face.  I know what she does.  I had just never sat in her chair to actually DO what she does.  I only did it for half an hour and my head is still spinning a day later.  It lead me to the conclusion that every pastor should spend time sitting in “the chair” every so often, and at the very least it gave me a new found appreciation to the work my staff does.

The second humbling experience came later that night when my associate and I attended our parish’s Knights of Columbus Gala.  We both had tickets that were hand delivered by the Knights and had a big gold “VIP” stamp on it.  We were both hungry and anxious to have dinner, but when they came to our table to graciously tell us that we were the firsts to get up for the buffet line, we found that a huge line had already formed.  I turned to the priests that were with me and we all laughed: “Today’s gospel!  The last shall be first and the first shall be last.”  It’s as if all weekend God went out of his way to remind me of the importance of humility in the Christian life, and the importance of having this attitude as we approach the table of the Lord every Sunday.

When we walk through those church doors on Sunday morning, we are all the same. It doesn’t matter if you’re wearing a Roman collar and sitting up front or wearing cargo shorts and sitting in the back pew.  At this table, we are all God’s children.  There is no class distinction.  There is no order from richer to poorer or from best Catholic to worse Catholic.  No one has special seating.  (Sometimes they are necessary evils for our liturgical ministers, but I loathe “reserved” signs in church.)  When we walk into this sacred space, we should all feel welcomed, embraced.  It is Christ himself who takes us by the hand and tells us the same thing that the host in the parable told his humble guest: “My friend, move up to a higher position.”  Here at Mass, we are all VIP’s.  We are all God’s honored guests at this heavenly banquet, and we must approach the Lord with humility, recognizing that we are unworthy of such an honor, but acknowledging that by this sacrifice he has made us worthy. 

We approach this table with humility because what happens here is described so beautifully in the second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews.  We hear it and think the divine author is describing heaven, but he could very well be describing the Mass which is nothing less than heaven on earth:  “No, you have approached Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and countless angels in festal gathering…” (Hebrews 12:22)  Think about that!  Countless angels in festal gathering around this altar, for it is here that our Lord makes himself really present.  We enter the church worn out by the problems and stresses of our lives, and Christ greets us with this incredible gift.  This is why we approach him with humility because we need this bread from heaven to endure our earthly journey.  For an hour on Sundays, the troubles of this world are left by the church door as we approach this table as one body of Christ and take part in this divine exchange of pure love.  That’s why I don’t blame those who linger in church for five, ten, or even twenty minutes after Mass.  Why would anyone want to leave this festal gathering?

My friends, we must never take the Mass for granted just like I never take those who help me in ministry for granted.  We must cherish this gift our Lord gave us at the Last Supper.  Here we are all given a place of honor.  Here we are all honored by Christ who gives us the gift of himself in the Eucharist.  So magnificent.  So humbling!  If our Lord honors us and serves us in such an extraordinary way, shouldn’t we honor and serve each other just the same? 

Hedonism and the Narrow Gate

“Strive to enter through the narrow door.”  (Luke 13:24)
 

Hedonism: the doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the sole or chief good in life.

Last week, I unloaded a big word on you that I’ve never used before as I described the attitudes of Jesus’ times compared to ours and noted that not much has changed over the last 2000 years.  The big word was “hedonism.”  I used it as an addition to the two other deceiving ideologies that our popes have warned us about: relativism and secularism.  A couple of weeks ago, my father and I were talking about many of the themes that I have been mentioning in my homilies over the last few weeks.  We talked about how the world is deceiving Christians everywhere into living a lifestyle that goes totally against all of our basic and intrinsic values.  My father wisely noted that what is deceiving young people today and all Christians in general is a hedonistic culture that seeks only to find pleasure no matter what the cost or the consequences that it may have in our relationship with others, our relationship with family and friends, and more importantly our relationship with God.  I found Webster’s definition for hedonism fascinating: “the doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the sole or chief good in life.”  Imagine that!  A doctrine!  Unfortunately, it has become a doctrine for so many: “if it feels good, do it.”  A shoe company has spent 30 years telling us to “just do it.”  So as a result of the prevailing hedonism that exists in our culture, we have people who consider themselves Catholic getting swept up in this “do what feels good” mentality.  Young people who were raised Catholic see no problem going from party to party getting drunk to the point that they can’t remember where they actually were the night before.  Young Catholic couples see no problem engaging in pre-marital sex just because “it feels right” or “it’s the right time,” or my favorite “because we love each other.”  And then either they break up to engage in this behavior with someone else, or they go further in their relationship because they’ve achieved a level of intimacy that is reserved exclusively for the sacrament of Holy Matrimony and have no problem living together “because it’s convenient.”  I’m just talking about young people here.  What gets me is the parents who profess to be uber-Catholic who look the other way and allow this behavior to go on “because it makes my children happy” and of course we don’t want our children to be happy, but at what cost?

Today Jesus tells us that we must strive to enter through the narrow gate.  Now Christ himself is the narrow gate because he is the only one that can lead us to true happiness and joy.  In the opening prayer of the Mass today, we implore our Heavenly Father to help us “that, amid the uncertainties of this world, our hearts may be fixed on that place where true gladness is found.”  So right there in our opening prayer we debunk the myth of hedonism, for true gladness can only be found in heaven.  Yes, there are many things that can make us happy in this world, but they should not be the “sole or chief good in our life.”  That place is only reserved for Christ.  Let me put it another way:  true joy is only fleeting if it is not rooted in Jesus Christ.  Everything else is a myth that the world is selling and that we shouldn’t be buying.  As I mentioned last week, as Catholics we must stand up to these false ideologies and grow a backbone especially if we have young people under our care.  We cannot expect to continue living a hedonistic lifestyle and expect to enter through that narrow gate like the people in the gospel.  My friends, these are challenging times for Catholics, but with Christ, who is the reason for our joy, there is no evil that the world can throw at us that we cannot handle:  even if it comes gift-wrapped in a package called “pleasure.”

CAPTION READS: "I TOLD YOU BROTHER, WITHOUT CHRIST, WE'RE FRIED!" 

Spiritual Warfare

“...let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.” (Heb 12:1-2)

“Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. (Luke 12:51)

There is so much happening in the world that troubles me.  The violence in Egypt against Christians, immigrants dying seeking a better life, the total disregard for traditional Christian family values and the re-definition of what a family and marriage actually is, the rampant secularism that seeks to eliminate God from the public square as if the Almighty were a nuisance...I could go on and on with this list.  These things that are taking place are not so different from what Jesus encountered in his time.  There was violence in the Middle East back then too, and the Romans lived and promoted a hedonistic lifestyle much like what we are seeing today.  This is why Jesus seeks to set the world on fire because the love of God transforms, consumes, and eradicates all that may alienate us from his Divine Love.  Of course, embracing this love and embracing the Kingdom of God involves ridding ourselves of sin and of all those pleasures we seek with disregard for how it affects others.  The words from the Letter to the Hebrews in the second reading are very direct: “let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus.”  Sin clings to us a like a bad odor.  It infiltrates every part of our life and of our being until we feel like we no longer deserve and no longer can receive God’s forgiveness.  Yet he forgives us anyways and calls us to persevere through the journey of life with eyes fixed on him.

Living our Christianity to the fullest will also be a cause of division among families as Jesus says at the end of the gospel.  So many are rejected, even among family members, for how they practice their faith.  I’ve spoken about this before:  how we sometimes put adjectives in front of the word “Catholic” such as “devout Catholic” or “conservative Catholic” or my favorite “fanatical Catholic.”  Truth is the world sees people that faithfully go to Mass every day, say their rosaries, help the poor, and participate in the ministry of the Church as fanatical Catholics when really they’re just Catholic.  Even after 11 years of priesthood, I still am amused at how some people react to seeing a young man (humor me, please) walking around a shopping center wearing a Roman collar.  I am a sign of contradiction, a sign of division.  Yet Christ calls all of us to be a sign of division and to stand up for what we believe in.

I preached about this on Thursday on the Solemnity of the Assumption but wanted to expand on it a bit more this Sunday morning.  We are living in a time of spiritual warfare, if you will, where we have to take a stand.  We are surrounded by so much amorality that assaults our children, but we cannot be passive.  We must fight back.  Pope Francis implored the young people in Rio three weeks ago to be protagonists of history and to not get stuck in the back of the line and let history be written without Christian input:

Please, don’t leave it to others to be the protagonists of change. You are the ones who hold the future! You … Through you the future is fulfilled in the world. I ask you also to be protagonists of this transformation. Continue to overcome apathy, offering a Christian response to the social and political anxieties, which are arising in various parts of the world. I ask you to be builders of the world, to work for a better world. Dear young people, please, don’t be observers of life, but get involved. Jesus did not remain an observer, but he immersed himself. Don’t be observers, but immerse yourself in the reality of life, as Jesus did. (Prayer Vigil with Young People, July 27, 2013)

This task isn’t exclusively for the young as this week I’ve seen scores of grandparents come into our offices wanting their grandchildren to receive the sacraments in our religious education program because their children (my generation) have grown indifferent or apathetic towards God and haven’t passed it on to their children.  We MUST give a spiritual response to the ills of the world and also recognize that this is a spiritual war.  In a war, we must be armed which is why on Mary’s feast on Thursday I pulled out my rosary.  Our Blessed Mother walks with us during this journey as we go forth to set the world on fire with her beloved Son.  My friends, make no mistake about it, we will be attacked by forces in this world and outside of this world.  The devil exists and the Holy Father called him out by name almost immediately when elected Pope.  I see good people trying to lead good Christian lives struggling with sin and all sorts of issues especially family issues.  I’ve seen husband and wives divided because one wants to go to church and the other doesn’t.  I’ve seen young people come to Mass by themselves because their parents won’t bring them.  So the prophecy of our Lord has been fulfilled.  Jesus does indeed come to establish division, but the question remains: on which side of the division do you stand?  Will you lead the charge against the evils of this world or will you get swept up in the current that allows you to do whatever makes you happy?  Only one side leads to eternal life.  Choose wisely.