HOMILY – 17th sunday Ordinary Time, Cycle B – The Feeding of the 5000
By Deacon Stephen | August 4, 2009
This is one I was particularly proud to present. I was affored the opputunity to refute the oh so common “Jesus just taught us all to share” hogwash that so often gets put out when this reading comes up. I leave it for all you readers to judge if I hit the mark.
The readings for this Sunday were 2 Kgs 4:42-44, Ps 145:10-11, 15-16, 17-18, Eph 4:1-6, Jn 6:1-15.
One particularly helpful technique that our great Homiletics Instructor taught us – the awesome Father Jeff Nicolas, Pastor at Epiphany by the way – is that sometimes you have to pop a few balloons in your homilies.
What he was referring to was a technique he called a “Counter Punctual”. A punctual simply is something that gets in the way – like a balloon that blocks people’s vision – and sometimes you need to “pop it” so people can see the real point, hence the term “COUNTER” punctual.
Basically what this means is that there are just some stories or issues where there are already preconceived notions or ideas in most everyone’s minds, often erroneous but sometimes just unimportant, and unless you deal with them up front, people just naturally tend to drift toward them and not hear anything else you have to say.
So it is with this Gospel today.
So let me try and clear this one up before we go any further.
THIS WAS A REAL MIRACLE!
What we just heard was the account of the Feeding of the 5000 from John’s gospel but this miracle is actually the ONLY ONE– apart from the Resurrection itself – that appears in ALL FOUR GOSPELS.
So as Miracles go, it tends to have a great big bulls eye painted on it.
It is quite often the one that so many in our modern skeptical culture tend to grab hold of and attempt to “deconstruct,” usually in a misguided attempt to find the “Historical Jesus.” They invariably end up saying things like “Jesus didn’t ACTUALLY multiply 5 loaves and 2 fish here – he just taught everybody to share.”
I’ve got one word to say in response to all that – Hogwash (to put it politely.)
Make no mistake – this miracle was REAL and it
happened pretty much as you just heard it.
The Feeding of the 5000 was a very public prelude for one of the Gospel’s clearest and unambiguous teachings – indeed this passage that we heard today is the beginning the very famous Sixth Chapter of John’s Gospel and we will hear almost ALL of it over the next four Sundays.
Jesus used this astonishing, large scale miracle to teach about an even greater miracle that was yet to come – “a very hard teaching” as we will hear about in the coming weeks.
The Eucharist – the Source and Summit of our faith.
Indeed the source and summit of LIFE.
One of the major messages that reoccurs over and over again throughout John’s gospel – and it’s one of the reasons that his is my favorite hands down – is that JESUS CHRIST IS LIFE – AND HE FREELY AND LOVINGLY GIVES HIMSELF – AND THEREBY IT – TO US.
“I AM THE RESSURECTION AND THE LIFE” he told to Martha on his way to raise her brother Lazarus.
“I WILL GIVE YOU LIVING WATER” he told the Woman at the Well.
When Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fishes here, he very consistently did so in order to give LIFE – ON THE SURFACE AT LEAST it was in the form of simple, basic nourishment that the many people there on the grass needed to sustain themselves.
But on a much deeper level, what he did there was to set the stage for his institution of the Eucharist, and this miracle tells us a great deal about that very thing.
The EUCHARIST is not a simple food – it is the ONE TRUE WAY of SPIRITUALLY nourishing our souls FOREVER – again, it is Christ’s FREE GIFT to us which brings us the divine gift of grace every time we receive it – and it is the very best means we have for us to achieve ETERNAL Life.
Have you heard stories of “profound spiritual experiences” that some people have had when receiving the Eucharist?
Have you ever perhaps had such an experience yourself?
And if you haven’t, and I submit that most of us have not, have you ever wondered why not?
Put another way, do you sometimes felt like you’re just getting in the Communion Line, going up and receiving the host (I REFUSE to call it a wafer by the way) and then going home unaffected?
Why is that you might ask? How can the same Christ affect so many people so differently?
The answer to this question is that OUR DISPOSITION to the Sacrament when we receive it has a DIRECT and SIGNIFICANT effect on HOW Christ interacts within us.
In case you think I’m making this up, I refer you to Catechism in paragraph 1128:
“From the moment that a sacrament is celebrated in accordance with the intention of the Church, the power of Christ and his Spirit acts in and through it. Nevertheless, the fruits of the sacraments also depend on the disposition of the one who receives them.”
God respects our free will – and our CHOOSING to love him is an INTERIOR act first and foremost.
His grace is always there, but how it works on us has US as a key component – just getting in line and receiving him it seems is just not enough.
What I’m really talking about here, primarily, is the oh so easy tendency we often find ourselves in by being overwhelmed by other thoughts – worries, anxieties, and even good things like plans for what we’re going to do later on – when we receive communion.
We don’t realize that by letting all these other thing cloud our minds, we’re crowding out the space Christ needs to fill us with his LIFE –- and by us doing this we’re short circuiting (for lack of a better term) the very thing we need most of all – and the sad thing is we usually don’t realize we’re even doing it.
Thomas More wrote on this extensively by the way – seems he had the same problem from time to time.
My point in all this is that we don’t need to see loaves and fishes multiplied before our eyes to be able to witness miracles. Miracles are performed on this altar every time mass is celebrated and we see it every week. Yet it is truly very much our own responsibility as to how we bring ourselves to the table of the Lord every week as to the extent he works within us.
I urge you all to prepare yourselves properly – clear your minds through active participation in the liturgy and most of all through regular and attentive personal prayer.
I can promise you that the experience you receive will be amazingly fulfilling in ways you cannot imagine.
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HOMILY – Corpus Christi Sunday, 2009
By Deacon Stephen | August 4, 2009
This was one I really enjoyed doing – it seemed to be a moment to refute the “it’s all about us” mentaility that seems so pervasive in so many places today (but thankfully NOT at my parish – they very much seem to hunger for these type of homilies if their comments to me are any indication.)
The readings for this Sunday are Ex 24:3-8; Heb 9:11-15; Mk 14:12-16, 22-26.
“Behold, behold the wood of the cross, on which was hung our salvation.”
We can feel the hard, rough wooden surface . . .
The weight of the heavy object . . .
The smell of the pine wood that the true cross was traditionally believed to have been made from . . .
. . . and the sickly, metallic smell of human blood, mixed with the dust of the road on the Via Dolorosa.
These are the realities, unpleasant though they are, that are brought to mind when we think of Christ’s passion . . .
. . . and these are things that we remember today.
The famous song so ironically says “WERE YOU THERE WHEN THEY CRUCIFIED MY LORD?”
I say “ironically” because WE WERE THERE and WE ARE THERE.
AND WE ARE ABOUT TO BE THERE AGAIN IN JUST A FEW MOMENTS.
When we knell before the altar during the consecration of the Eucharist – and make no mistake kneeling is very much how our posture should be if at all possible – we are kneeling in the dirt at the top of Calvary – of Golgotha, the Place of the Skull – at the foot of the cross, with Our Lord, JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD upon it!
When we hear the words of institution that Father will speak in a few minutes . . .
WE ARE THERE on that windswept hill long, long ago . . .
Make no mistake, what we do at the Altar at every mass is NOT A symbol . . .
It is NOT a retelling or a remembrance . . .
IT IS the ONE and ONLY sacrifice of Calvary!
WE ARE THERE WITH CHRIST.
The sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist IS the ONE and ONLY sacrifice of Calvary celebrated in an UNBLOODY manner right here, right now, and every day all over the world.
The mystery of the Sacrament is that it UNITES us in TIME and in SPACE with that MOMENT.
And that sacrifice is what we celebrate here today especially – on the Feast of Corpus Christi.
Oddly enough, what we CELBRATE is a Crucifixion – a MURDER in fact, for that is, of course, what it actually was.
(The deliberate killing of the innocent is ALWAYS murder, by the way, no matter what you may have heard otherwise.)
We actually CELEBRATE the nails through his palms . . .
The thorns on his head . . .
The burning pain of his back where he was scourged . . .
We FEEL the thunderstorm and the pouring rain just like the Blessed Mother and St. John did – when the heavens opened up and nature raged forth in grief and sorrow that dark, dark afternoon so long ago.
WE MOST DEFINITLEY SEE the red blood and the water that bursts forth when the lance was thrust into his side.
Indeed, I can smell that blood every time I hold the chalice – every time that wine passes near my nose, I remember the smell of the blood on
Calvary.
ALL THIS WE CELEBRATE TODAY.
Are we morbid, we Christians? Are we crazy?
Many throughout the centuries have thought so – Pliny the Younger was a Roman governor in the early 2nd century AD who wrote that we Christians were absolutely CRAZY – he called us cannibals.
He might understand the concept of a remembrance or a memorial – but to CELBRATE DEATH?
WE EAT AND DRINK FLESH AND BLOOD, don’t we?
That’s what we do every time we gather here for mass, isn’t it?
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. We celebrate BOTH the gift of the sacrament of the Eucharist he gave us on Holy Thursday AND what that Gift really was – Christ’s TRUE body and TRUE blood, shed for US ALL – that we might live.
We no longer offer animal sacrifices to the Lord – we no longer pour blood on our altars nor sprinkle the blood all over the people like we heard in the reading from the book of Exodus.
All that has changed with Christ – we now have ONE VICTIM and ONE PRIEST and they are the same person.
Jesus Christ himself is our priest AND our victim.
In a few minutes, when Father Jim stands at the altar and offers the sacrifice of Calvary he is not doing it as HIMSELF – it is CHRIST offering it, just as he did 2000 years ago.
In most of my homilies, I usually try and offer a few words of how we can take the words of the Gospel or the teachings of the Church and how we should apply them to our daily lives, but today – I’m NOT going to do that.
TODAY – it’s not going to be about US.
TODAY, it’s going to be about HIM – and him alone!
TODAY – we need to remember just what it was that HE DID – something he did do FOR US – upon that heavy wooden cross at the Place of the Skull 2000 years ago.
We can talk about just what exactly that all meant, redemption and salvation and all that which was GAINED for us ANOTHER DAY.
TODAY – we must meditate and remember upon just WHAT it was he did for us – HE GAVE UP HIMSELF, and all that he was – for US.
So when we fall on our knees at Calvary here in a few moments – and every time we go to mass – we need to remember what he did and utter a breath of thanks to him for it – for both the SACRAMENT and the SACRIFICE that he gave us.
For as we say IN JUST A FEW MOMENTS:
“When we eat this bread and drink this cup, we proclaim your death Lord Jesus, until you come in Glory!”
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In defense of his own theology | Philadelphia Inquirer | 07/05/2009
By Fric | July 5, 2009
Was browsing Google News and found this little tidbit. Apparently Archbishop Weakland, formerly of Milwaukee, has written a memoir defending his ministry work which was focused on the democratization of the Church. So telling is this quote from the article…
Weakland’s affinity for monasticism’s collaborative style, which resisted autocratic rule, conditioned him to embrace the Second Vatican Council’s redefinition of the church in non-hierarchical terms as the “people of God.” The new vision proposed “shared authority” between hierarchy and laity.
For decades, as he writes in detail, he carried that banner against the gathering forces of opposition that sought to retain the old top-down chain of command that demanded unquestioned loyalty to Rome.
Whereas the centralizing forces, led most forcefully by Pope John Paul II, insisted on what Weakland calls the “military” structure of total conformity, his view of the church, drawn from Vatican II, is mixed rule, as in the sharing of responsibilities between the federal government and the states in America.
via In defense of his own theology | Philadelphia Inquirer | 07/05/2009.
Somehow liberals, Catholic and secular, tend to read things into documents that are not there. Secular liberals read rights like abortion into the US Constitution. Catholic liberals read things like a remake of the Church into a democracy into the documents of Vatican II. They seem to do it the same way by seizing on a single line, phrase or concept and extrapolating them to the place they wanted to arrive at in the first place.
It’s just like bad apologists who cherry-pick verses from the Bible and base their own warped theology on that single verse which happens to allow a misinterpretation when taken out of context.
Weakland does it here by taking the phrase “people of God” and seeing that as a total break with the past. He takes it to mean that the Church is now supposed to be a democracy and that the laity does more and the clergy does less. To a degree, that is true. The laity has been called upon to do more in the Church and the clergy needs to help them do that. But it does NOT mean that the “reins of power” have been transferred to the laity.
It seems that the main reason Weakland and others like him do this, is so they can change something that they have personal issues with. It’s no different than Henry the VIII really. Don’t like something? Change it. Doesn’t matter if it should or could be changed. I want it and I want it now. Sure we could have married priests. But should we? As for women doing more in the Church… Good Lord! What else can they do besides be ordained? They are already the vast majority of the Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist and Lectors and parish council members at my parish and most I have visited. What we really need is for MEN to do more in the Church.
If the Church were to do what people like Weakland want, we would quickly fracture into a hundred churches and then 500 and then 1000 and it would never end. What has maintained the unity of the Catholic Church (schism with the Orthodox Churches notwithstanding) has been the authority of Rome. While we may be able to let the local dioceses determine things more than they used to because communications are now instantaneous between Rome and the rest of the world, thereby providing a check against a wayward bishop, that doesn’t mean that we have been given self-rule as if we are Canada or Australia trying to cut the apron-strings to Britannia.
Day to day governance of “the people of God” has ALWAYS been at the local level practically speaking. Historically, the pastor of a parish was the man in charge until he got called on the carpet before his Bishop. Same with the Bishop and his diocese. What got them in trouble then as today is the teaching of practices and doctrine that are contrary to the Deposit of Faith left to us by Jesus Christ. Often the proposed changes in disciplines lead to a weakening in the understanding of the doctrines of the Church. For instance, when the tabernacles are removed from the santuary or a priest refers to the purification of the vessels as “doing the dishes” (absolutely true story, I was there), what does that do to the people of God’s understanding of the Real Presence?
Letting local parishes have greater control over their parish tends to lead to the situation in St. Louis with St. Stanislaus. Or a local parish where it was once quoted to me “everyone there is a deacon”. When the Church says to do things a certain way, there is a reason. Unfortunately, the majority of folks weren’t taught those reasons after Vatican II, so that the “Spirit of Vatican II” could blow the Church in a different direction than intended by the actual texts.
As Pope Benedict said, the Council must be read in context with the prior Councils and Papal documents. It is not a break from the past, but a continuance of it.
Topics: Benedict XVI, Dissent | 1 Comment »
HOMILY – 3rd Sunday of EASTER – CYCLE “B”
By Deacon Stephen | April 24, 2009
This is the first one I’ve posted BEFORE actually delivering it, a practice I don’t ususally do. This will be presented this coming Sunday April 26th, 2009 and the readings are Acts 3:13-15, 17-19; Ps 4:2, 4, 7-8, 9; 1 Jn 2:1-5a; Lk 24:35-48. It is also my son Thomas’ first communion this weekend, although I will not be preaching that particular mass.
“Why do questions arise in your heart?”
We’ve heard time and again that the only stupid questions are the ones which are never asked . . .
. . . But Jesus here kind of takes that saying and throws it out the window.
HE says – we shouldn’t still have any questions LEFT at all.
Why would that be?
I can give it to you in one word – FULFILLMENT.
As he hung upon the cross – as we just heard on Good Friday – his last words were three that we all remember very well: “IT IS FINISHED.”
Today, we get to understand just EXACTLY what all of it meant.
What we’ve just heard is the very last part of Luke’s Gospel – only two verses come after this briefly describing Jesus’ ascension – and it is the passage we heard today where everything that went before was FINALLY EXPLAINED.
It is here that we FINALLY get to understand it all – this is the FINAL EPISODE of JESUS THE TV SERIES where everything GETS REVEALED!
And you know what the BIG REVEAL is?
HA! YOU HAVE TO GO BACK AND WATCH ALL THE EPISODES AGAIN!
Luke plays with the reader here – he tells us ONLY that “Jesus explains it all to everybody” but he gives us NONE of the details.
Jesus here seems kind of like an amused big brother explaining things to his younger siblings – things he knows very well and finds it kind of funny that they just can’t seem to get it. (As the oldest of four I can kind of relate . . .)
“Why do questions arise in your heart?”
We really DO need to AVOID having a TV mentality on this one though.
Unlike on television – WE – the viewing audience here – are NOT SUPPOSED to be spoon fed all the answers at the end of THIS show and go “AH HA – THAT’s what all that really meant!”
Luke sort of presumes here – somewhat understandably – that we’ve watched at least some of the previous episodes up to this point, as well as being at least passingly familiar with the “Old Testament” TV Series that finished up some time back (that was a great one too by the way) and as a general rule we can say we’ve at least seen some of them – and that’s good enough actually.
. . . BUT while this might NOT have been good TV – it’s very much good gospel writing – good news actually to coin a phrase.
What’s great here is that Jesus reveals that this was God’s plan ALL ALONG, ever since Adam’s sin.
Jesus, you know, HAD explained this before – at least partially – to all sorts of people on all sorts of occasions:
. . To his own village of Nazareth in “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
. . .To the Jews of Jerusalem in “Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up.”
. . .And to Peter in Gethsemane – “Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?” (
You see – Jesus had been talking about FULFILLMENT all the time throughout the series . . .
. . . BUT ALMOST NOBODY EVER GOT IT.
Just hearing it, it seems – isn’t enough.
It takes the ACTION – the DRAMA – the CLIMAX – just like in any good TV program – for everyone to TRULY GET IT.
It takes the empty Tomb . . .
It takes Mary Magdalene weeping in the garden. . .
It takes the man in white standing outside asking why we look for the living among the dead . . .
It takes the nail holes in his hands and his feet and the lance mark in his side . . . as we saw with Thomas last week.
It takes the RESURRECTION for everyone to BELIEVE, but it took TODAY’s Gospel for everyone to UNDERSTAND.
You do all understand now, don’t you?
No?
Well don’t feel too badly if you still have some difficulties or questions – we all do, although I’d like to think we’re quite a bit further along than the disciples were in today’s Gospel.
You see, even though the final episode of Jesus The TV Series was broadcast some time ago, we do have the benefit of the 2000+ seasons of the ongoing spin off series – “One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church” to help us understand.
And just what is it that the FULFILLMENT teaches us?
All that God promised, he has accomplished!
We have been redeemed!
Eternal life is not only possible, it is actually realistically attainable!
Jesus is the CHRIST – the MESSIAH – HE is the promised one since the time of Adam, slowly revealed through Noah, Moses, David, Elijah, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel and all the rest.
Now we can have REAL HOPE when we worry about our jobs, our bills and all that may come from the uncertain economic future we face – we KNOW that God has a plan, and that he will not LEAVE us orphaned.
NOW when we sit at the bedside of our sick loved ones we can KNOW that God not only exists, but that he loves each and every one of us.
We might worry – we might be afraid – and, yes, we might even suffer . . .
. . . But we can be COMFORTED for FULFILLMENT HAS HAPPENED.
God was with us the whole time BUT he is NOW with us in new and most amazing ways unlike before.
It was all God’s PLAN from the beginning – just like us celebrating the Eucharist like we will do in a few moments.
FULFILLMENT HAS COME – LET US REJOICE NOW AT THE TABLE OF THE LORD BECAUSE OF IT.
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HOMILY – Easter Sunday 2009 (Mass During the Day)
By Deacon Stephen | April 15, 2009
This homily was delivered on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2009. The readings were Acts 10:34a, 37-43; Col 3:1-4 and the gospel was Jn 20:1-9.
TODAY IS THE DAY – HE IS RISEN.
HE IS RISEN AND HE IS HERE with us.
So I want to ask each of you – why are YOU here?
WHY ARE ANY OF US here today?
What is it that compels you to come here on this day of all days?
(They tell you in homiletics training never ask a question you don’t already know the answer to – so . . .)
I can tell you why you’re here – why ALL of us are here.
You’re here today because of something amazing – no matter where your faith is – be it as strong as the mightiest fortress on the highest mountain . . .
. . . or as weak as the fingers that are just barely holding onto the edge of a cliff with worry, afraid of the fall that you fear is coming any time now . . .
Regardless of any of that – everyone is here for the same reason, a reason I’ve already told you actually . . .
HE IS RISEN.
You’re NOT here because this guy called Jesus walked around 2000 years ago and told everybody to “be good”, “play nice”, “turn the other cheek” or any of that stuff.
You know – Jesus said a WHOLE LOT OF THINGS – all good and true and right and necessary for us to hear and even to live by . . .
But you’re today NOT here TODAY because of anything Jesus ever SAID.
You’re here because of ONE THING . . .
HE IS RISEN!
If Jesus was just a philosopher of great insight, or someone who founded this “revolutionary new way of living” 2000 years ago – would we be here?
If Jesus were just the most original thinker in the history of mankind and even if he just told us all the most amazing secrets – about the universe, about humanity – even about GOD himself and ever single piece of it was the amazing, absolute truth . . .
Would we be here?
If THAT was all that Jesus was about – who but maybe scholars and philosophers or thinkers would have any significant interest in him?
In fact, Jesus would have been just another – who? – Gandhi? Einstein? Nietzsche? Oprah?
How many people do YOU know that would be willing to DIE for their belief in Frederick Nietzsche or Oprah Winfrey?
Again – we’re here for one reason – HE IS RISEN!!
You see it is the RESURRECTION that makes everything clear, and it’s the resurrection that makes everything else matter.
Christ’s words and teachings – his MIRACLES as marvelous as they all were – they would all be nothing but unexplained occurrences centuries ago.
The Eucharist – we would have never understood it, much less celebrated it, without the Resurrection. Indeed, what would we have to remember?
Even his DEATH – Good Friday – as crucial as it is . . . It would just be hopeless without Easter Sunday – just as Easter Sunday would be meaningless without Good Friday.
Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter – they’re really one dissoluble event and the Church celebrates them as such – they’re really one three day liturgy, from Holy Thursday through the Easter Vigil.
BECAUSE of the RESSURECTION – ALL of the miracles suddenly make sense like they never did before.
BECAUSE OF THE RESSURECTION – his teachings REALLY command attention and convey TRUTH and MEANING like they never did before.
BECAUSE OF THE RESSURECTION – we can understand the concept of “sacrament” – and how VITAL they are for our salvation.
BECAUSE OF THE RESSURECTION – the institution of the Eucharist on Holy Thursday night we understand for what it really is and what it means – Christ’s True Body and True Blood, poured out for us and our salvation.
BECAUSE OF THE RESSURECTION – we understand NOW what his death REALLY WAS and what it MEANT.
BECAUSE OF THE RESSURECTION – we now KNOW who he REALLY IS.
The apostles you know always seem sort of thick headed in the Gospels, they only rarely understood who Jesus really was and the significance of what he did.
We really should try and not be too hard on them for the times when they “didn’t get it” – those times were always BEFORE the Resurrection – I mean what did we expect?
The Resurrection is the moment where everything that went before and everything that would come after ALL crystallizes into focus.
And BECAUSE OF THE RESSURECTION – we have HOPE for ourselves. Christ showed us by the RESSURECTION what we have to look forward to.
You know, Eternal Life is NOT A MYTH.
It’s NOT wishful thinking or the “ignorant self delusion of the masses” like the atheists want us to think or an “after-the-event, made-up-occurrence” like some wayward theologians might say either.
I had a professor once – well over 20 years ago – who tried to tell us that the Resurrection was (and I’ll quote) “NOT ABOUT RESSUCITATED CORPSES BUT A STATEMENT OF FAITH.” HE was basically telling us that the Apostles had made up the whole “RESSURECTION thing” to give people some reason to believe in this Jesus guy in order for them found this “church” thing they’d come up with.
That statement stuck in my head and it kept coming back to me for years afterwards – had I been missing the point all this time? Was this Jesus Christ in whom I professed to believe – was it all really something else TOTALLY all along and I was just too blind, ignorant or just backwards to know any better?
But thank GOD, the Holy Spirit never left me, and in fact it was that incident more than many others that caused me to really investigate and learn my faith over the years – and I suppose in many ways I owe that professor a debt of gratitude – since that day in many ways helped to lead me to stand before you here today.
It was when I heard and then read St. Paul that I finally realized the truth – and I discovered to my amazement and relief that I wasn’t a fool after all.
In his first letter to this Corinthians – St Paul hits it right on the head and it was a relief to me like no other:
“If Christ has not been raised, then empty is our preaching; empty, too, your faith. Then we are also false witnesses to God, because we testified against God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if in fact the dead are not raised.
For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain and those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
If for THIS life ONLY we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.
BUT . . . HE IS RISEN!!!!! And that DARN WELL IS THE POINT!
Peter and the beloved apostle saw the evidence as we just heard, and the dawning of true understanding came to them. Jesus will appear to them and to many as we will hear in the coming weeks, and we will understand what is truly in store for us if we but keep his commandments.
The Resurrection is REAL – it really HAPPENED and it’s WHY we are here – today and EVERY day– and THAT is why we have reason to rejoice!
THAT is why that even though we may be hanging on by our fingernails and thinking we can’t face what the future holds for us in our lives – in the end we KNOW what the future ultimately holds.
HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN!
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HOMILY – 3rd Sunday In Lent – RCIA Scrutiny (Cycle A Readings)
By Deacon Stephen | April 15, 2009
This homily was delievered March 15th 2009, using the Cycle A readings for the RCIA Scrutiny. The scrutiny was actually at one of the masses I did not preach but Father Johnfelt (rightfully so) that we should use the same readings at all the masses that weekend. the readins are Exodus 17:3-7; Rom 5:1-2, 5-8 and the Gospel was Jn 4:5-42 or 4:5-15, 19b-26, 39a, 40-42 (the woman at the well.)
This one was one of the tougher ones to prepare – it’s about the Woman at the Well from John’s Gospel, a story we all know well, and I did proclaim the long version as is our custom. Reaction was very good for this one – several claimed it was actually my best – I’ll let you decide.
What we’ve just witnessed is a story of the birth of faith – the dawn of understanding.
It is the story of the beginning of a flood – a tsunami of belief that began with one little cupful of water.
Jesus Christ – the Son of God – he is the catalyst here – the one essential chemical added to the potion that causes everything else in it to react – spectacularly in this case.
The woman at the well was the beginning – she’s an innocent bystander who has her life changed forever because she happened to go to the Well of Jacob on a certain day, at a certain time, just like she had done probably just about every day for who knows how long.
The extraordinary entered into the ordinary – and changes everything.
Jesus was the force that entered into this woman’s life – and from her belief, soon the entire town and then the entire region of Samaria believed – and they believed like nobody else did at the time in fact.
They didn’t just see Jesus as just a prophet, they don’t even stop at calling him the Messiah or even the Christ, they actually called him “Savior” – a term that is never used anywhere else in any of the four Gospels in fact – just here this one time. It’s an exclusively Post Resurrection term that they figure out before it even happens.
The people of Samaria – ironically – see Jesus for EXACTLY who he is – the whole picture. Something the Jews and even the Apostles themselves at this point cannot begin to conceive – but it’s something that these people somehow understand . . .
. . . all from a simple conversation that took place at the Well of Jacob on one rather ordinary afternoon.
I’d like to pose a question – a very basic question – for every person here:
Do you remember when you FIRST believed?
Have you ever thought about it?
I’m assuming of course that everyone here does in fact believe in some fashion, and if I’m wrong please forgive my presumption, but nevertheless stay with me on this.
For everything there is a first time, right? Can you remember when you first understood, at least a little, what you believed?
If you’re a Cradle Catholic like me this is probably a really tough question – we grew up in the faith and maybe we’ve never even really thought about it.
It’s okay if you can’t answer this question – not to mess with everyone too much but the question is meant to be its own answer actually.
By asking it, I’m trying to get you to start thinking about something you may not have ever considered before.
Sometime’s that what a homilist’s job really is by the way – not to provide the answers but simply to ask the right questions.
The woman at the well can answer this question – without a moment’s hesitation in fact. If you were able to ask her, she could tell you EXACTLY when she first believed – indeed she DID in fact just tell us.
For the many of us here today who are converts, the question is a bit easier I think. You have an amazing gift that many of us Cradle Catholics don’t have – like the woman at the well you can probably tell us EXACTLY when and how you came to believe – just when it was that you encountered Jesus.
You see – that’s why we read this Gospel today of all days.
This morning at the 8:30 mass, we had our First Scrutiny of our RCIA Catechumens and Candidates – those who are to be welcomed into the fullness of the Catholic faith at the Easter Vigil in just a few weeks. It is because of them that this story is told to us on this day. And it is with them particularly in mind that I’m preaching this homily in fact.
They have recently come to believe and will publicly profess to the entire Church worldwide on Easter Vigil just what finding Christ means to them – they will take ACTION – because that’s what encounters with Christ always result in.
Like the woman at the well who had to run back and tell everyone of just what had happened – Christ moves us to ACT.
So I now ask each of you a second question – a follow up to the first one –– whether it was first discovered long ago or only recently, what exactly does your belief in Christ MEAN in your life, in practical terms?
What ACTION does it compel you to take?
Does it inform your everyday actions in any way?
Would anyone who gets to know you be able to tell that you are a believer?
Every person has to honestly answer this question for himself or herself – individually – and nobody needs to hear the answer except yourself (and God of course, although he already knows everything about you anyway, just as he did for the Woman at the Well.)
If the honest answer in your heart is something like “Not Much” or “Not Really”, swallow the little tablespoonful of guilt you might feel and treat it as medicinal and don’t be too hard on yourself. We’ll keep working with you.
Faith, you see, is a gift – it requires lots of living water to get it to grow.
Not all of us are as lucky as the woman at the well, right?
We don’t get to have a profound encounter with Jesus to the point where our lives are changed forever, do we?
Oh, there’s one of those rhetorical QUESTIONS again.
You see the point of this Gospel story is not so much to show how Jesus ONCE UPON A TIME had an encounter out of the blue with a woman from Samaria and it changed her forever.
It’s to show that JESUS CHRIST, being the Son of God, the Christ, True God and True Man IS ALWAYS reaching out to have an encounter with US and can change OUR lives forever too, just like he did for her and her entire people.
The Extraordinary is STILL intervening in the Ordinary, even to this day.
He’s in the Assembly gathered here today – the Mystical Body of Christ.
He’s in the Word we just heard – The Eternal Word.
He’s in the person of Father John when he consecrates the Bread and Wine – In Persona Christi.
He’s most especially in the Eucharist we will all share in a few moments – The Source and Summit of our Faith.
And he’s in the faces of those people in need we will encounter this week and next week and every week we walk this earth – whatsoever you do for these least ones, you do it for me.
We don’t need to look very hard to find opportunities for Christ to transform us – what we SHOULD do is try to look and listen a little closer and allow him to enter into each one of us – and watch the spectacular results that just a little cooperation with him on our parts can bring.
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HOMILY – 5th Sunday Ordinary Time – Cycle B
By Deacon Stephen | April 14, 2009
This homily was given February 7th and 8th, 2009. The readings were Job 7:1-4, 6-7; 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23; and the Gospel was Mk 1:29-39, the curing of Simon Peter’s mother in law.
“In the interest of full disclosure, I must begin by pointing out that a great deal of this homily is inspired by and adapted from Pope Benedict’s great encyclical from 2007 – “Spe Salvi”, that is “In Hope”.
When I first read the passage from Job that we just heard, I was immediately struck by the profound feeling of utter HOPELESSNESS that it projected – it truly sounds like the mournings of someone who has nothing to live for.
Agony and near despair permeate his words – and I know that words like these may very well be in the hearts and minds of many of us during these oh so uncertain times:
“My days come to an end without hope – I shall not see happiness again.”
Have our problems taken us to a place where we feel hopeless?
Perhaps someone who feels that way might even be sitting near us right now?
Ask anyone who has ever stood in the unemployment line – we can come up with all sorts of ways to “distract ourselves” or to create hopes that end up being false just to get through the day – because in our minds the only alternative is to feel NO HOPE at ALL
But I’m telling you as one who has stood in that line – multiple times in fact – FALSE HOPE may FEEL better that NO HOPE, but in the end they behave exactly the same.
Where is TRUE hope in the face of hardship?
What can “SAVE US” when suffering is at our doorstep?
I turn to Papa Benedict – from Spe Salvi:
“WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN HOPE – TRUSTWORTHY HOPE – by virtue of which we can face our present, even if it is arduous.
The one who has hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life.
To come to know God—the true God—means to receive hope.
We possess the hope that ensues from a real encounter with this God.”
A real encounter with God.
The True Hope and thereby True Relief.
That’s what Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John and the entire village of Capernaum experienced in today’s Gospel reading.
That’s what Peter’s mother in Law received – and we saw what it did for her.
That’s what the entire region of Galilee would have in the days after this event – a real encounter with God.
And that is what will make HOPE real for us – just like it did for me eight years ago this next week in fact.
A REAL ENCOUNTER WITH GOD.
That’s why Job – even though he had lost everything and sounded as if he were at the bottom of the darkest pit of Hell – never REALLY lost his hope – his entire LIFE was one real encounter with God.
Encountering God is HOPE GIVING you see – for it is LIFE GIVING. GOD is LIFE INCARNATE.
He is the ultimate existence. His name as he told Moses from the Burning Bush was simply “I AM” – in Hebrew “Yah Weh.” Existence. Life. Hope.
So the real question then becomes – HOW?
How do we have a “REAL encounter” with God?
I think that sometimes the very BEST way for us to encounter God often comes through encounters with other people, particularly when we hear about those who kept the faith – who endured – and who ended up triumphing in the end despite overwhelming odds. And sometimes only a saint will do.
The person I have in mind is probably someone you have NOT heard of – a saint that you probably do NOT know, but she is apparently one of Pope Benedict’s favorites because it was in Spe Salvi that I learned of her incredible story – and of the power that a REAL encounter with God can have.
Josephine Bakhita was her name. She was born around 1869—she herself did not know the precise date—in Darfur in Sudan.
At the age of nine, she was kidnapped from her family by slave-traders and over the next eight years she was sold five times in the slave-markets of Sudan.
The trauma of her abduction caused her to forget the name she was actually born with – the name by which we know her is a compound of the name given to her by the slavers (Bakhita is the Arabic word for lucky) and the Christian name she later took in adulthood.
She suffered much brutality during her captivity. On one occasion, one of her owner’s sons beat her so severely that she spent a month unable to move from a straw bed. As a result of all that she endured, including near constant floggings and even branding irons, she would bear over 144
permanent scars all over her body throughout her life.
She was eventually bought by a Venetian diplomat who brought her to Italy. It was here, after the terrifying “masters” who had owned her up to that point, Bakhita came to know a totally different kind of “master”— in Italian he was called “Paron” – he was Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God.
Up until that time she had only known masters who despised and maltreated her, or at best considered her a useful slave. Now, however, she heard that there was a “Paron” above all masters – the Lord of all lords, and that this Lord is good – goodness personified in fact.
She came to know that this Lord even knew her, that he had created her, and that he actually loved her.
She learned that she was loved by none other than the supreme “Paron”, before whom all other masters were themselves no more than lowly servants.
She was known and loved and she was awaited. What is more, this master had himself accepted the destiny of being flogged and now he was waiting for her “at the Father’s right hand”.
She finally had REAL “hope” —no longer simply the modest hope of finding masters who would be less cruel, but a GREAT hope.
She would later write “I am definitively loved and whatever happens to me—I am awaited by this Love. And so my life is good.”
She was soon baptized by the Patriarch of Venice and took sanctuary with the Congregation of the Canossian Sisters in Italy, an order of charity into which she would profess her final vows six years later.
Her special charisma and reputation for sanctity were noticed by her order, and she was instructed to publish her memoirs and to give talks about her experiences and these made her famous throughout Italy.
The liberation that she had received through her encounter with the God of Jesus Christ she felt she had to extend to the greatest possible number of people.
Her last years were marked by sickness, but she always retained her cheerfulness, and if asked how she was, would always smile and answer “as the Master desires”. She died at her Convent in Italy in 1947.
On October 1, 2000, she was canonized by Pope John Paul II and became Saint Josephine Bakhita. She is venerated as a modern African saint with a special relevance to slavery and oppression. She has in fact been adopted as the patron saint of Sudan.
I was profoundly moved by Josephine’s story when I read it. She faced unimaginable suffering, pain and hardship – things our modern western society can barely conceive of today, much less ever really understand.
Much like Christ’s crucifixion in fact.
But what struck me the most was how Josephine encountered Christ – she found him through the actions and the faith that she saw in the Holy Sisters. She knew him not at all at first – until he was made present to her through them.
We must seek out that personal encounter with Christ to rekindle our hope – and one of the best places to find him is in the kindness and simple faith of others.
For those of us without hope – this provides a source for its refreshment.
And perhaps more importantly, for those of us who still have hope, this provides us the opportunity to live up to our baptismal responsibilities to bring Christ to those who may have forgotten him.
It’s easy to be distracted – it’s easy to lose hope.
But it’s up to each one of us here however, to find ways to bring that REAL hope – the hope that does not disappoint – back to those around us when they seem on the verge of losing it.
Christ put each of us here to be his hands and his voice to each other – it’s something of which we must never lose sight.”
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HOMILY – 2nd Sunday In Ordinary Time – Cycle B
By Deacon Stephen | April 14, 2009
This homily I gave on January 17th and 18th 2009. The readings were 1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19 (where the Lord calls young Samuel at night); 1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20; with the Gospel Jn 1:35-42, where Jesus calls his first disciples.
This one was a bit more spiritually practical in approach, but I definitley did hit hard the Frist Commandment, which is something I seem to be tredning towards a lot. So far so good. I think this one was a little long – a little bit over 8 minutes versus my normal 7, but it seemed to work well. My son Thomas liked that I mentioned him, but I told him to expect that to be too regular. Like I said in the homily, tyhe LAST thing I want to be is predictable.
“In praying and meditating over these scripture readings, I found myself starting to go down the obvious roads – how these readings tell us to “answer God’s call”, or to “respond to his summons”.
And I said to myself – there’s just got to be MORE here than just that.
No matter how worthy an approach for some this might be, I just kept feeling that going down that road for me would be just too simple – or worse predictable. (And the last thing I want to be is predictable.)
The Holy Spirit it seems was directing me to go down another road.
It was the reading from the Corinthians was the problem for me – it was placed with the other two quite deliberately and yet it seems totally out of synch with them – it’s not about “answering the call” – it’s clearly about rejecting immorality and living a life full of virtue. I just couldn’t reconcile the two for some reason.
But as I read and prayed and thought on it more and more – I think I began to understand . . .
For me there just seemed to be a certain “ARROGANCE” contained within the “God is calling and we need to answer” approach that just didn’t sit well with me.
It kind of implies that WE are the ones in charge – WE get the final say – it’s up to US and US ALONE as to what we decide to do.
It seems that by going down that path I would inevitably reach a point where I would be implying that it was CHOICE that was supreme here. And THAT is something I could NEVER DO.
I’ve always been very suspicious and critical of the “It’s all about US” philosophy – to me it smacks of the sin of selfishness and flies in the face of the basic humility and subordination of our will to God’s that is so essential in the Christian Life.
Now don’t misunderstand me – I’m not that saying answering God’s call isn’t important, and I’m not saying we don’t have free will to choose him or reject him.
What I AM saying is that those facts – and that’s what they are, merely facts – needs to be subordinated to a far more important “TRUTH.”
GOD is GOD and WE are NOT.
GOD is ultimately in charge of everything – it is HE and HE ALONE to whom we MUST look and MUST serve and MUST obey. (The First Commandment, right?)
These readings are NOT about simply making A CHOICE to follow Christ or not like they may first appear – they’re about making the RIGHT CHOICE. It’s not about the “WHAT” it’s about the “HOW”.
Just because we have a choice, doesn’t mean that there’s not a RIGHT ANSWER and a WRONG ANSWER – a RIGHT WAY and a WRONG WAY. It’s not all just a question or personal preference, is it?
In fact, there really is ONLY ONE WAY to responding to God’s call – HIS WILL and not OURS.
You see – Samuel in the Old Testament and Andrew and Peter in the New – they didn’t just “choose” – they chose CORRECTLY. They set aside whatever it was that THEY may have wanted or planned or desired and made the RIGHT CHOICE – they did whatever HE wanted. No matter where HE led them – they were obedient to HIM. They just followed – they just obeyed – simple as that. And they did so for the rest of their lives – lives they ultimately gave up for HIM.
Looking at it this way, the reading from the letter to the Corinthians fits perfectly – Paul is saying that there IS in fact a right choice and a wrong choice – there IS an objective morality and therefore also an objective immorality – and it is Christ and his Church who is tells us which is which – the TRUTH as to which moral choices are RIGHT and which are WRONG.
You know I truly believe most people usually want to do what is right, I really do.
But I think there are many powerful forces in this world that can so easily lead good people astray. It often gets to the point of not knowing which way to turn – how DO you know with any real confidence just what IS the right choice to make – the moral way?
Well, we know of course the short answer – CHRIST is the way. (He said exactly so himself in fact.)
BUT JUST WHAT DOES THAT MEAN, EXACTLY – WHAT DOES THAT LOOK LIKE?
WHAT DOES FOLLOWING THE “WAY OF CHRIST” ENTAIL IN PRACTICAL TERMS?
Just how do we “Think and Act like Christ” as Father Hardesty told me those many years ago?
Well, looking to the Church for guidance in moral matters is a very good start, and I encourage everyone to listen and take seriously her teachings, especially on the sanctity and dignity of all human life – PARTICULARLY as TODAY – Jan 18, 2009 – was literally just proclaimed National Sanctity of Human Life Day. I encourage you to read up on it.
But – more basic than that – how do you begin?
What are the first steps to that “reconversion experience”? How do you create a “spiritual renaissance” within you or convert back from what that great Catholic speaker Jesse Romero calls “Comatose Catholicism”? (He actually borrowed that phrase from Cardinal Newman, by the way.)
You might be surprised, but it’s really very, very simple.
You probably have hears that you have to get to know Jesus – you have to understand him intimately – to fall in love with him as Father Jim says – and there are many, many ways to do this. . .
. . .but I’ve recently come to understand that there is in fact a really good ONE WAY – something simple that anyone can begin with and that works every time . . .
. . . read and pray the Scriptures – daily.
In fact it WAS Jesse Romero who inspired me with very simple solution – in one of his talks that my son Thomas and I heard just the other day – and it was so simple and obvious that Thomas got it quicker than I did – and he’s only seven.
Read and pray the scriptures – daily.
Jesse was telling the story of when he was on the threshold of his reconversion back to Catholicism some years back he was asking the very same question – what can I DO that I know will enable me to follow Christ CORRECTLY? St. Paul said to “avoid immorality” – but how can I be sure of always doing the right thing?
Fortunately Jesse was smart enough to know that to get the right answer that he was looking for he needed to go to an ultimate font of knowledge. And just like every good son instinctively knows, that’s always found in one person in particular – MOM.
So he called up his Mother and asked her “Mom, what do I need to do to know all about Jesus? How can I learn how to always do the right thing – make the moral choice?”
And his mom answered him. “Jesse, go get your Bible, pick it up and start reading. You start with the four Gospels and you read them all the way through. You “pray them” as you go – you ask for guidance and inspiration all the time you’re reading.”
Jesse thought about it for a moment and then he asked, “Well, what do I do after that?”
So she told him “You do it again.”
So he asked her “How many TIMES do I have to do it?”
“About fifty” she told him.
And being the good son, he did just what his mom told him to do. He read – and he prayed – the four gospels over and over – he chewed, swallowed and digested every word again and again – and they slowly became part of him.
It wasn’t long before he expanded his reading to the rest of the New Testament and from there he went back into the Old. His mind and his spirit slowly expanded to seek out the teachings of the Church and through regular reception of the Eucharist, Christ truly came to live inside him.
He now spends 20 minutes every single day reading and praying the Scriptures and he knows the right choices to make – Christ you see has quite literally told him. He has fallen in love with Christ.
Sometime after his reconversion he went back to his mom and asked her “Mom, did you really mean for me to read those gospels fifty times?”
And she told him “No Jesse, I meant for you to read them for the rest of your life. Telling you “fifty times” is what I knew it would take to get you there.”
If you ever get the chance to hear him speak please don’t miss it – I can tell you NO ONE can match the FIRE and PASSION he has for Christ and his Church – and like a good son he has a particular devotion to the Blessed Mother – he even calls himself “the Latin Lover of Our Lady.”
But HIS passion can be OUR passion – HIS enthusiasm can be OUR enthusiasm -and all it takes to begin is a regular reading and praying of sacred scripture – not just occasionally or once a week, but as often as humanly possible. Daily if you can.
Following the correct “WAY” is not as difficult as you might think, my friends – we actually do have it all written down for us.
Pick it up and begin.
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HOMILY – Christmas Vigil 2008
By Deacon Stephen | April 14, 2009
This one was from the Christmas Vigil 2008, after I had just proclaimed the LONG VERSION of the geneaology of Jesus from the beginnning of St. Matthew’s Gospel.
I thought this one was good – full of Christology, the Incarnation and lots of “Creator of the Universe” language. what worries me the most is that I will very likely preach this particular mass, always with these particular readings, every year. I’ll have to look to the Holy Spirit to help me keep it fresh.
“God is with us – Emmanuel.
He is here – he is FINALLY here, but of course as we all know, he is ALWAYS here.
God is with us – Emmanuel.
Jesus Christ is THE ONE – the one who came to us so that we all might live.
And it is his coming to US that we celebrate tonight.
For four weeks of advent we have been waiting, just like the people of God waited for centuries for the Savior to appear.
Advent is a season of expectation – but it is now over just as St. Matthew decreed with his genealogy of Jesus that we just heard.
Christmas has come – HE has come. The one who was promised from the very beginning HAS COME.
This is something which is both AWESOME and ASTOUNDING. Something that should shake our understanding of the universe to its very core . . .
GOD . . .
. . . the Creator, the author of the entire universe, he who created time and space and the entire cosmos, billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars and billions of planets, something so vast and powerful that our minds can barely comprehend it . . .
GOD . . .
. . . who created the luminescent ball of hydrogen and helium gas that burns in space 93 million miles away from us . . .
. . . who put the moon in place to control the tides and the oh so critical orientation of this big ball of dirt and water upon which we live . . .
GOD . . .
. . . who established ALL the laws of NATURE and of SCIENCE in this universe we live in and who brought forth the enormous abundance of life on this planet, against astronomical odds of coincidence and mathematical probability . . .
GOD . . .
. . . who specifically infused into every single one of us alive today – and billions upon billions more like us who went before and who are yet to come – the sacred gift of life and consciousness, each one of us unique, precious and unrepeatable . . .
GOD . . .
. . . came among US this night.
GOD became HUMAN – he took on a HUMAN NATURE.
Have we actually sat and thought about what this means – about ALL the implications of this event?
Well, that is what this night is meant for.
He who is ALL powerful, ALL knowing, ALL loving (for the act of creation must by its very definition be an act of love), LIMITED by nothing and CAUSED by nothing . . . IN FACT the very CAUSE and ESSENCE of LIFE itself . . .
. . .became one of US?
2000 years ago he came into this world utterly helpless, just as we all do, to a young mother who knew only to do God’s will. . .
. . . and to a foster father who became the model for all fathers who would ever come after him.
. . . GOD joined this human family . . . the simple family of Joseph, of the House of David, and his wife Mary.
Christmas is a celebration that has taken on a life of its own in our culture today.
It has come to stand for consumerism and commercialism and all those other materialistic “isms” that I’m sure you’re all rather tired of seeing and experiencing by now.
But WE who are Christians understand what Christmas is REALLY all about – and unlike Charlie Brown we didn’t need Linus to tell us either . . .
At its most basic, it’s about that HE CAME.
GOD came.
God “lowered” himself – and how can we honestly describe it as anything other than a “lowering” – into becoming human.
HE IS GOD . . .
And yet he came to us and breathed our air and walked among us and taught us many AMAZING things – and gave us gifts far beyond all imagining. . .
But contrary to what the media might tell you about him – the one whose coming we celebrate tonight was far, far MORE than just a “good man”, or an “innovative thinker” or the founder of a “new philosophy of life” who sprang from the hills of ancient Palestine some 2000 years past.
HE WAS – AND IS – GOD.
And HE DECIDED to become one of US. . .
The only explanation possible for his doing this – and in the end the only one that is at all necessary . . . is that he decided to do this because HE LOVED US.
And indeed the depth of his love for us would be shown through the ultimate sacrifice he made upon Calvary – which we are about to celebrate at this altar in just a few moments. . . .
He loves us so much that he comes to meet us where we are.
He came down from Heaven to be with us so that we could be with him in Heaven forever.
He loves us so much that He endured, hunger, pain, sadness, grief, joy, laughter, happiness, strength and weakness just so He could come to be with us.
We don’t have to search high and low for Him, because He came for us and to us. Just as he said in John, Chapter 3:
“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son . . . that whosoever believes in him will have eternal life.”
A love like that demands a response back from us – that is the thought I would like each one of us to meditate and pray upon this Christmas season – how do we respond to a wondrous love like that.
For THAT LOVE is what we are celebrating tonight. . . .
THAT is why we proclaim joy to the world. . .
And in the spirit of THAT LOVE – and of THAT ALONE . . . I wish you all a very, MERRY Christmas.”
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HOMILY – 3rd Sunday Of Advent – Cycle B
By Deacon Stephen | April 14, 2009
This was given on December 13th and 14th, 2008. The readings were Is. 61:1-2a, 10-11; 1 Thess. 5:16-24; with the Gospel 1:6-8, 19-28, which was about John the Baptist being the “voice crying in the wilderness.”
This one I think was my first real home run – I got more compliments about this one than any of my previous ones – the emotion, the irony and relevance factor to the then blooming economic crisis really hit home with many.
“Today we celebrate the Third Sunday in Advent – it is known as Gaudete Sunday, “Gaudete” is Latin for “REJOICE”. It is a day where we are all called upon to REJOICE at the Coming of the Lord!
But – do we really feel like rejoicing?
What on Earth do we have to rejoice about anyway?
What about family of five who have just been told right here at Christmas time that the mom will have to take three days of unpaid furlough because the City Government’s Budget is short? What do they have to rejoice about?
What about the electrician at the Ford plant out on Chamberlain Lane with two daughters in college who honestly doesn’t know if he’ll be employed this time next year? What does he have to rejoice about?
What about the widower for whom this is his first Christmas without his wife who just passed away this past year? What does he have to rejoice about?
What about the single mother who with her three children is about to be evicted from her small apartment because she lost her job and has gotten behind on her rent? What does she have to rejoice about?
What about the widow who lives alone and who will spend this holiday season like she has spent all the other ones – with no one who calls or who comes by to visit? What does she have to rejoice about?
What about the family of seven who have just been told that the father who is in his early fifties has stage four pancreatic cancer? What do they have to rejoice about?
What about the young woman who went into the abortion clinic on Market Street yesterday morning? What does she have to rejoice about?
What in the name of God almighty do they have to rejoice about?
Every single one of these people has a human face – they are individuals that breathe and live and cry and feel deeply about every one of these events that are happening to them. They, and countless others, experience hardship and suffering and injustice upon injustice every single day and for so many, things never get any better.
What do we have to rejoice about?
What we have, quite simply, is faith.
We all know that there is evil and injustice in this world. We know that there is violence and selfishness and downright tragedy anywhere you care to look.
But we still have faith.
And we here today KNOW that is spite of all the evil that happens to ANY of us, no matter the cause, we STILL CAN OVERCOME.
Because we HAVE FAITH.
We have faith that CHRIST IS COMING.
This season of Advent – this Sunday of REJOICING is NOT, as many might think simply a preparation for celebrating Christmas – his coming once long ago.
If it were indeed just that, then how could we possibly REJOICE in the face of all those people in currently in pain and suffering?
Gaudete Sunday is about REJOICING indeed that Christ is coming, but we are rejoicing not about Christmas, but in the belief that he WILL COME AGAIN.
Just as we proclaim the mystery of faith: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will COME AGAIN.”
We rejoice today because we know that when Christ DOES come again everything will be put to rights. Like it tells us in the book of Revelation:
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
We rejoice today because the scriptures we heard today remind us that Christ is coming back – and that day, my friends, is NOT a day to fear, oh no – It is a day to rejoice!
Our blessed mother proclaimed it so well in her Magnificat which we just heard – all injustices will be set to rights, the poor will be filled, the sick will be healed and the righteous will rejoice in these events.
We rejoice today because there is hope. We believe, we have faith, and our spirits rejoice in God our savior!
And surprisingly enough, we rejoice today because we still have a lot of work to do.
We have the wonderful opportunity this season and every season to make a difference for so many people, by a kind word, a simple smile or a phone call, a donation to St. Vincent De Paul, but most especially through our prayers.
Sometimes we all just feel so powerless in the face of it all, just like I’m sure those people do that I mentioned at the beginning.
But we still rejoice.
We rejoice because we believe John the Baptist’s voice crying in the wilderness telling us to prepare the way of the Lord and we know that things can get better – we know we CAN overcome if we work together.
We rejoice because we are truly working to build the future – a future of hope for all of us. In the face of uncertain times, we here at St. Gabriel and the entire Archdiocese are standing up for HOPE and for the FUTURE with our Building the Future of Hope campaign. We know we have many needs but we have the courage to say WE WILL STAND FOR HOPE. Christ you see is COMING and we want to be ready.
But most importantly, we rejoice today because of all those people in need this season and every season.
Because, as St. Thomas More once said, on the subject of miracles . . .
. . . there are precedents.”
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HOMILY – Feast of St John Lateran
By Deacon Stephen | April 14, 2009
This homily was given on November 8th, 2008. The readings were Ezekiel 47:1-2,8-9, 12; I Collosians 3:9-11,16-17; and the gospel was John 2:13-22, the cleansing of the temple.
This one is one which worked very well – I think I was starting to find my voice.
“Today is a day to rejoice with great gladness – great gladness I say.
Today we celebrate something wonderful – something that only happens every so often in the Church’s Calendar – today we celebrate Christ’s Church in a special, uniquely visible way.
Today is the feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran.
St. John Lateran is the Pope’s ACTUAL cathedral – it is the official basilica of the Diocese of Rome, NOT St. Peter’s as is commonly believed. And today we celebrate its original dedication over sixteen centuries ago.
And I can imagine many of you thinking “So?”
What is so important about this feast in that it supersedes the regular Sunday’s readings? Why are we celebrating this?
Or to paraphrase everybody’s old friend, Charlie Brown:
“What is the true meaning of this Feast Day, Linus?”
Now I could, as many a homilist no doubt WILL do this weekend, go into the history of the basilica, how it was dedicated and destroyed and rebuilt many times and who did what to whom and when and how beautiful it is today and all of that –
- but self control is going to get the better of me in this.
The reason that this feast is so important is contained within the Word of God that we just heard proclaimed.
It’s about US here living today – not about stones and arches erected centuries ago. They are simply REMINDERS to us as to the TRUE Meaning of this day.
WE are the Church.
WE are the Temple.
WE are the Body of Christ here on Earth.
CHRIST is our head and WE are his body. He directs us and we follow him.
As we just heard St. Paul say – “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
WE are that which flows forth from the Temple to renew the face of the Earth, just like in the Prophet Ezekiel’s vision.
“Wherever the river flows, every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live.”
But most importantly as far as this Feast Day is concerned – WE, the Church, the Body of, and most especially the Hands of, Christ here on Earth – ENDURE.
“Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”
The Temple of his Body was raised up after three days in the tomb – not simply as it was before but FAR, FAR MORE – it is now glorified and incorruptible – ENDURING forever.
We the Church, Christ’s Body, have endured persecutions and martyrdoms, corruption from within and revolutions from without, wars, famine, pestilence and even death – ALL IN HIS NAME – and in the end, we have ENDURED.
We ENDURE FIRSTLY because we take seriously Christ’s commandments, but we ENDURE MOSTLY because we try and truly LIVE his Spirit – the spirit of the Beatitudes and loving our neighbor as ourselves.
And for 2000 years we’ve tried to be the Healing Hands of Christ to all people in need. Right up to today.
Back in 2005, when Deacon Darryl and I were just a year into our Diaconal Formation, Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast. The devastation was amazing as we all no doubt remember, and many of our Deacon Brothers and their wives from this Archdiocese quite literally dropped whatever they were doing and joined in the relief efforts – no questions asked. And one of them related to me a story I’ll always remember.
It was while working with the relief effort in lower Louisiana, one of the Deacon’s wives encountered an older lady who had just discovered that she had lost several loved ones in the storm and she was particularly outraged at the time with grief and loss. She exclaimed out loud to the people around her “WHY, OH WHY didn’t God send his Angels to help us – in this, our hour of need?”
The deacon’s wife who was telling me the story said that at that moment she walked over to the lady, reached out and took her by the hand and raised her up, for she was on her knees with grief, and looked her straight in the eye. She then quietly said to her:
“Ma’am, God did something far more effective than sending his Angels to help you – he sent all of US. We have the hands – and the hearts – and His Spirit within us – to help you today.”
THAT you see is what we are celebrating today.
THAT is what has endured for 2000 years.
Like the stones of the Basilica, but far stronger and more enduring than they could EVER be, CHRIST’S TEACHINGS have been passed down to us – and we still practice and live by them today.
The Basilica you see is a visible reminder that Christ’s Church is everlasting – it is permanent and will endure until Christ comes again.
Like the Church herself, the basilica has endured fires, earthquakes, wars and over 1600 years of remarkable changes – and through all of that we would not permit it to fall – we repair and even rebuild it as necessary with our blood, sweat, tears and most importantly our prayers – so that it still stands today.
It is the visible sign in bricks and mortar of the Body of Christ that we all are – and which endures throughout the ages.
And that’s what this Feast Day is all about, Charlie Brown.”
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HOMILY – 28th Sunday In Ordinary Time – Cycle A
By Deacon Stephen | April 14, 2009
This homily was my second one – given October 12th, 2008. The Gospel was Matthew 22:1-14, the Parable of the Wedding Garment. It was okay certainly, but looking back I was still finding my voice I think.
“The Jesus Christ we hear today is STILL the one who is on fire.
As I had told you before, in the portion of Matthew’s gospel we have been hearing for the past few weeks and which we will continue to hear for several more to come, the Jesus we hear is one who has come into Jerusalem in triumph, cleansed the temple and certainly made many powerful enemies.
He knows his hour is very close but he is nevertheless bold and fearless in speaking of the weightiest of subjects. Everything about him from the parables he tells to the very language he uses are very much what they call in scripture studies “eschatological” in nature – in simple terms that just means he is concerned with “last things” – death, judgment, heaven and hell.
Matthew devotes three chapters here almost exclusively to parables about the last days – or to be more precise, the last judgment. All of these gospels we are currently hearing are all concerned with this – the fact that we will all be judged, and Jesus tells us very clearly through them what we must DO in order to inherit eternal life.
I must confess that this parable always bothered me – it always seemed so harsh, so unfair. We can easily understand the first part – about the king who visits vengeance upon those who murdered his servants – it echoes the wicked tenants from last week’s Gospel – and we all know it is meant to represent God’s final judgment upon the wicked. But It is the second part of the parable that always bothered me – the part of the man without a wedding garment being thrown out.
Part of the confusion here I think is that we may forget that this story is very much a Matthew parable and NOT a Luke one. Luke was primarily concerned with the poor and the powerless and we tend to think of the man thrown out like Luke would describe him – a poor beggar who just came in off the street for the fine feast, just as he was asked to do and suddenly he ends up mercilessly thrown out.
We think he just couldn’t afford to dress nice – that’s not his fault, right? Jesus loves the poor – he doesn’t treat them like that, does he?
Except that’s totally NOT what this gospel says.
Matthew was speaking to a Jewish audience and he was not primarily concerned with the poor and powerless – that was Luke. Matthew was concerned primarily with a people who had lost their way and his message was most often repentance and the changing of wicked ways.
The man who is thrown out here in Matthew’s Gospel is NOT poor or afflicted or any of the things we might at first think. The words of this Gospel say clearly that the “good and the bad” were invited – not the “rich and poor”.
Matthew points his finger directly at the chief priests and Jewish elders here – and by extension at us.
He was taking to task those who had heard the Gospel and knew what was expected of them but for whatever reason choose not to do it – “the stone that the builders rejected” as we heard last week.
The Jesus on fire here is calling us all to live up to the Gospel values he had been preaching all along.
Indeed, our actions in this life the gospel tells us will weave for each one of us our own wedding garments – and as in the case of the poor unfortunate fellow in this gospel, we very well could end up with a garment entirely inappropriate if we’re not careful.
And we know very clearly how THAT turns out.
So how do we weave the proper garment? What can we do to make sure we are fit for the banquet?
I’m reminded of something I was once told long ago by one of the very best priests I’ve ever know, Father Lawrence Hardesty.
Father Hardesty was pastor of St. Ann’s Parish in the tiny little town of Howardstown when I was in the 7th and 8th grade. The parish was the one my mom had grown up in and as the school was a very small one – only three rooms actually – and we went to mass every morning and confession every month. It was during one of these monthly confessions that Father Hardesty told me something that I’ve never forgotten even now – and they are words I think we should all try to live by.
It was after I had confessed my sins and I suppose I must have commented on how hard it was to not keep committing the same sins over and over again. He told me then in the most matter of fact manner,
“Stephen, just remember to always think and act like Christ.”
Those words – “Think and act like Christ” – rang in my head over and over all that afternoon and for many days afterwards and I’ve never forgotten them in all these years. They’re so easy to say, and yet difficult to do, but I discovered that IF I keep those words in my head it really IS much easier to do the right thing – conforming our lives to Christ is the key.
Let me leave you now with some words from one of my favorite saints, the great Saint Augustine – from a sermon he wrote on this very Gospel over 1600 years ago.
“What precisely is meant by the words, ‘My friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ Listen to the Apostle Paul: “If I give away all I have to the poor, if I hand over my body to be burnt, but have no love, it will avail me nothing.”
So this is what the wedding garment is. Examine yourselves to see whether you possess it. If you do, your place at the Lord’s table is secure”
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HOMILY- 26th Sunday In Ordinary Time – Cycle A – St. Vincent DePaul Sunday
By Deacon Stephen | February 16, 2009
This was my very first real homily. I omitted the introductory “thank you”s to my pastor, parishoners and all who had been so supportive during my four years of formation to the Permanent Diaconate – especially my wife and kids of course.
This was preached at all four of our masses that weekend – a great way to start!
The readings for this Sunday are Ezek 18:25-28: Ps 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9; Phil 2:1-11, 10:27 and Matt 21:28-32.
“The Jesus Christ we have just heard today is one who is on fire.
The parable you heard Deacon Darryl preach so well on last week takes place in Matthew’s gospel just prior to this one, but two critical events occur between them: Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and his cleansing of the money changers in the Temple.
These two events of extraordinary power and zeal change everything for Jesus and set the tone for the gospel passage we heard today. It is a very different Jesus we hear today from last week.
The Jesus we hear today is one who is no longer out in the countryside of Judea or Galilee but one who is now in the midst of his enemies, and his entry into their territory was dramatic to say the least.
They can no longer ignore him nor dismiss him as someone unimportant or inconsequential. The journey towards Calvary is reaching its climax – his hour is almost come – and Jesus is well aware of it.
Jesus’ message to the chief priests and the elders in this gospel is the very same message for us today – it is NOT by our intentions nor by our words that we will be judged, but by our actions. Meaning well is just not good enough.
Apathy and cynicism were then, as now, far too often the rule and it seems rarely the exception – Jesus wants to be clear that they must be rooted out of EACH of US if we aspire to Eternal life with him.
Jesus calls for a profound change of focus for all of us – just as Ezekiel did for the Israelites in exile during the first reading – he tells us to TURN AWAY from what is wrong in order to fulfill our true purpose here in this life – we must DO – not just say that we will, but actually DO – the will of the Father.
The father’s will is of course vast and there are many ways we can and should “DO” – but today I’m concerned specifically with one way in particular – one which I consider to be one of the most important.
As Jesus taught us in the parable of the Good Samaritan as well as in many others, God commands us to take care of the needs of our neighbor – a neighbor who is, simply and ultimately, whoever is in need.
For the past three years I have been privileged to be a member of the St. Vincent De Paul Society here at St. Gabriel’s – and today is St. Vincent De Paul Sunday.
The St Vincent DePaul Society is an international organization with local “Conferences” in parishes all over, who make it a point to quite literally “take action” and provide material and spiritual assistance to all those in need within their local boundaries.
Let me say that we of St. Gabriel’s parish truly know what generosity is. St. Gabriel is consistently THE top conference in the Archdiocese both in number of clients helped and in dollars donated, all of which comes from the wooden boxes in the back of church and which is used exclusively for the needy within our own Fern Creek & High View area.
One of the greatest things about the St. Vincent DePaul Society is that it provides a way for us as a community to follow the social command of Jesus – and we’ve just heard just how strong of a command it truly is.
Those of us in our local Conference bring the compassion of Christ to every client we help – and we do so in your name. We work very hard to be both good stewards of the funds given into our care as well as to be as compassionate, non-judgmental and as spiritually zealous as humanly possible to every client we help . . .
. . . Christ, you see, demands no less.
We are enormously grateful for the generosity from all our donors, but there are still very real challenges we face.
There are still often clients we cannot help for lack of funds – need is always growing it seems – and more than just in funding, we really need more volunteers to help.
Our Conference only has a handful of active members and quite frankly we often cannot keep up with the demands placed on us.
PLEASE consider helping us to be the hands of Christ to those in need – it’s a decision that can even change your life forever as it did mine three years ago. See the bulletin for details on our next meeting – consider yourselves invited – we would love to see you there.
I do want to leave you all with a bit of a challenge today – a spiritual challenge.
Truly loving our neighbor is something that often takes a lifetime of work to develop and before we can take whatever actions in each of our lives that Christ may be urging us to take, we need to properly discern his will.
I would like all of us to take into silent prayer this coming week the honest request for God to growth inside each one of us the true spirit of compassion for our neighbor – for ALL those less fortunate, to ALL those in need.
We all need to have our hearts more closely conformed to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and honest prayer is the best beginning.
You never know when one day you might, out of the corner of your eye, see someone else’s face reflected in the eyes of a person in need – and that face turn out to be that of Christ himself.”
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Homiletics 101
By Deacon Stephen | February 11, 2009
Well, it’s been forever since I’ve posted – but believe it or not, I’m back!
It’s been almost 6 months since my ordination to the Permanent Diaconate, and I must say it’s been an amazing experience. There are tons of things I could talk about that I’m now doing by virtue of Ordination, and I may get to them eventually, but the most visible thing that we Deacons do, of course, is preach.
And it’s been a blast so far.
I preach about once a month with an extra thrown in here or there for things like Christmas and I it occurred to me that I have a forum right here where I could post my homilies (more or less after the fact) and maybe generate some discussion and perhaps a little spiritual spreading of the word to a wider audience. And we newbie preachers can most certainly use some good, honest feedback I’m a tellin’ ya, so please consider yourselves invited.
Before I start posting my homilies, however, I thought maybe a few words of explanation might be in order, sort of as a way of quantifying the entire purpose and process, with hopes I suppose that some good experienced preachers might offer me some words of encouragement and advice.
I will say right up front that the response I have received so far has been not only amazingly positive but almost embarrassingly so as I keep saying thank you so much my head spins. But like I’ve told both my pastor and my parishioners, when it’s good, that’s the Holy Spirit, if it’s ever bad, that’s me.
Regarding the homilies themselves – first the mechanics.
Each one is designed to run about seven minutes and I’ll accept being about 30 seconds either way as hitting that mark. My spiritual director/ mentor told me that while this is a tough discipline to maintain but it will pay great dividends if you can stick to it for the first year and as I trust him implicitly in all matters, I always strive to live up to his teaching in this regard.
Homilies of course are intended to be proclaimed to an assembly within a liturgical setting, not read as words on a page or screen, so I order to inject onto the page my intentions as to how I intend to proclaim any given passage, I “write out” how I want to speak – lots of sentence breaks and capitalizations to indicate pauses and emphasis. The entire homily is intended to be proclaimed with slow and deliberate diction but without ever sounding pedantic or as if it were designed for second graders – one of my biggest complaints against a lot of preachers, particularly in years past as opposed to now so much, is that they too often “dumb down” their both their content and their delivery WAY too much, often insulting the intelligence of the assembly. But I digress . . .
My homilies themselves are actually untitled, although I will probably title them for their postings here in order to give some sense of what they’re about up front (my wife’s suggestion in fact.) Normally all I do is name them for the Sunday for which they are to be proclaimed, referencing both the Liturgical season as well as the Cycle year. This helps me keep from repeating myself as I may preach the same set of readings again from time to time, as well as allowing me to keep track of where I’ve been regarding themes, approaches, illustrations and techniques. I desperately do NOT want to be predicable or repetitive in any way – the assembly deserves the best preaching possible, as our Senior Associate has told me many times. I will also note the readings used at the beginning of every posting – right after the title so anyone who wishes to reference them can do so – indeed the homily itself is not really worth much without them.
Finally – regarding content.
The homiletic process that I was instructed under, and which is implicitly endorsed by the church at large in at least the broadest terms, highly suggests (they don’t go so far to “require” as any such pronouncement upon such this type of process would be ridiculously restrictive) that the homilist draw upon the scripture readings of the day in at least some fashion or in lieu of that at least from the feast of the day or the time of the current liturgical season. Some preachers I know play REAL fast and loose with this, and while we all ultimately have the freedom to preach on whatever any one of us determines needs to be covered – I have always tried to respect the intent of this scriptural/ timely school of thought as I think it forces us to keep the Holy Spirit in charge and not ourselves. We’re an integral part of the process of course, but like inspired scripture, the ideas must ultimately stem from the Holy Spirit first and foremost, no matter the subject, if we are to be true to our calling and our responsibilities as ordained clergy entrusted with the care of souls.
You’ll find I tend to try and invoke emotional responses a lot and passion, zeal and energy are the methods I try to employ in most cases – how well or not I do that I leave to the assembly or reader to judge.
I always write for MY PARTICULAR ASSEMBLY first and foremost, so you will see many references to them and I try and keep the scriptures from week to week together and often reference the “larger picture” the Church is trying to create in their selections of the Sunday readings, not to mention the Evangelist’s original purpose and intent. Me likes a little Biblical exegesis in me homilies – gives ‘em good flavor, aye.
You’ll find I try and respect the “both/and” approach to our Catholic theology – almost to a fault – but I will admit up front that I have little respect for the “it’s all about us” approach that so many seem to delight in giving preeminence. It’s about Christ first, and yet as we are an integral part of him I try to apply his person and his teachings to us in the pews in at least some peripheral way in every homily.
One last thing that I always try and remember regarding all my homilies is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ means “Good News”. I don’t mind taking people down rocky roads or occasionally to the depths of sadness or even anger, but I always make sure that I never leave them there – there must be something good to come from the homily in the end, or as my grandpappy used to say “It tain’t worth diddly”.
How well have I done so far? Well, like I said I’ll leave that to all of you to judge. I will post all of my homilies in chronological order – this first grouping will cover from the end of September in Cycle A to this past Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time in Cycle B, including the Christmas Vigil mass.
Going forward I will try and post them as I do them – more or less a few days after delivery (although if I feeling a little naughty I may post them a few days beforehand.)
Comment is always invited and I thank you in advance for your input!
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Angelus A Reminder of Mary’s “Yes”
By Fric | December 21, 2008
Via ZENIT – Angelus Seen as Reminder of Mary’s “Yes”.
Pope Benedict XVI
… noted that today’s Gospel is Luke’s account of the Annunciation, “the mystery to which we return every day in reciting the Angelus.”
“This prayer allows us to relive the decisive moment when God knocked at Mary’s heart and, having received her ‘yes,’ began to take flesh in her and from her,” The Pontiff said.
See, this is why I love Pope Benedict so much. He can, in so few words, point us to why we believe what we believe as Catholics. Look at the beauty of that one small quote. This is also the first Glorious Mystery of the Rosary of course, and he has just shown us how everything points back to Jesus.
Every time I read anything Benedict has written, I feel like I need to pause, re-read and savor the moment. Not because I don’t understand it, but more because his writing is so packed with insight.
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Diaconate Journey
By Fric | August 3, 2008
I’m actually a couple of weeks behind on this one. We’ve started formation for the Dicaonate finally. Started on July 19th with orientation. Our class has 18 men and 17 wives, and there doesn’t seem to be a person there we didn’t like. Pretty interesting mix of people, plus a lot of similarities too. Several have a military background. Many were “nudged” into the application process.
Heck, one wife was praying to the Lord before they got together and the Lord literally said to her, “Help Jerry become a deacon.” Bear in mind that this woman was a casual acquaintance of her future husband at the time and had no idea he was considering the Diaconate. Surprisingly we also have several couples where one or more of the spouses have been divorced.
And we seem to be a bunch of smart-asses too. Not in a bad way so much as we seem to be a group who can be irreverent about ourselves.
The day started with lots of good continental style breakfast food and lunch was also awesome. Very good job there. We got to meet our companion couple who are from the 2008 class about to be ordained in three weeks and the Deacon Office staff, which consists of Deacon Bob and his admin, Debbie. We also had another couple from that class come in and give a quick talk on things to expect.
We watched a one hour talk by Fr. Richard Rohr, apparently from a couple of years before he went deep into the enneagram, eco-spirituality and other highly questionable stuff. I thought he had a few moments that I disagreed with strongly. For instance he bemoaned and strongly lamented the rise of what I would call the orthodoxy and orthorpraxy oriented folks. On the other hand he did have some great points about ministry and why one does it. While I wouldn’t seek his stuff out as a general rule, it was a great talk in that respect.
After that great lunch (and a trip outside to warm up) we briefly told our stories about how we got there. That’s where we found out that we may be in for a ride with this group. 
Finally we got some books. A copy of the Catechism which goes to Mrs. Fric as I already had one, Bokenkotter’s Brief History of the Catholic Church, Keaton’s Deacon Reader and the transcription of Fr. Rohr’s talk I mentioned and the two follow-ups at that same conference.
Lot’s of stuff to mull over certainly. Didn’t seem to be anyone who was outwardly problematic in their approach to the Church. One woman mentioned she wanted to be a priest when she was young before she knew better. One woman seemed a little vague in a way that made me wonder how much of Church teaching she believes. Other than that (and that is hardly worth mentioning so far), the group seems solid.
I think there will be a lot of great friendships developed here. Really looking forward to the next four years.
Oh yeah. Retreat weekend is next week at St. Meinrad Seminary in Indiana. Been there once for a self-directed retreat day with some friends. Awesome place. Can’t wait.
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Accepted!
By Fric | April 12, 2008
It is now O-F-F-I-C-I-A-L. We are accepted into the Deacon Aspirancy Class of 2012.
We met with Archbishop Kurtz yesterday afternoon for a little less than 45 minutes total. He is an extremely gracious and engaging man. We truly enjoyed our talk with him. For some reason he didn’t have our packet with all the information on what steps we had completed, results, etc. So we just spent some time telling him about ourselves and our family. We segued into marriage and family issues and NFP and living out our faith daily. It was a fascinating talk.
Archbishop Kurtz is on two committees dealing with marriage and family/life issues and he is quite passionate about these subjects. We seemed to really connect while talking about these issues. He saw our own passion for these things and told us he could easily see our ministry taking place in these areas.
Surprisingly we didn’t really talk about things like why I wanted to be a deacon or what I expected to get out of it or put into it. I presume he puts his trust in the process that we have been vetted pretty well so far. I think he got a pretty good sense of us in the time we spent with him. As did we of him.
So, now we begin our first year, the aspirancy year, of the diaconate formation process. Four years of classes and studying. God willing, I will be ordained to the Diaconate in August 2012.
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Meeting with the Archbishop on Friday
By Fric | April 7, 2008
Finally another Diaconate update.
We had the psych test done way back in February. Mrs. Fric finished it in 3 hours. Took me another hour on top of that. Some of it was really odd. Some of it was relatively obvious. Weird parts were the questions like ”Would you like to be a florist?” and “If you were an artist, would you like to draw flowers?” Haven’t figured out what flowers signify, but I answered no to both.
There was an intelligence test and various types of evaluations and a personal interview with the psychologist. Mostly OK. I was still nervous, knowing that this one man could interpret the results in a negative way and I’m done.
Results were to take several weeks in the end. On the day we were to go for our results, the office called and rescheduled for the following week. Had to pause to keep myself from swearing, but I figured that God wanted me to practice patience. So I decided to take it all as no big thing. After all, what was another week?
When I got home, there was a letter waiting from the Office of the Diaconate. That was surprising. Figured it was about the psych profile, but I had thought the results weren’t sent to them until after we got to review them. I opened the envelope with some serious trepidation. I figured if any one stage would knock us out, it would be this one.
Lo and behold! We passed and would be meeting with the Archbishop! Whew! I have to say that at that point the weight of uncertainty lifted from my shoulders. It seemed like the whole thing was a weight I hadn’t realized yet. We still had to go over the results with the pysychologist which was a little disconcerting at the same time it was nothing to worry about. We knew we were in, but honestly, the results left me wondering how I passed. I see how Mrs. Fric passed, but me? I probably wouldn’t have let me in which is also illustrates the point about how I tend to be harder on myself than others.
So, we finally have our appointment with Archbishop Kurtz this Friday, April 11. This is the last step. While technically possible, it’s rare to get to see the Archbishop and not get into the program. After all they don’t want to waste his time. That’s why you go through this long process. So keep praying. I am sure I am creative enough to screw up.
God willing, I will start classes on July 19th, 2008 and be ordained some time in late August of 2012.
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RCIA Process
By Fric | January 27, 2008
Last week I gave my last scheduled talk for RCIA this year. Did a talk on the Eucharist. I spent quite a bit of time on it and prepared a ton of information. Never got to finish all the things I wanted to put in it, which is not uncommon. Last thing I did was to type up the bullet list of things about the Eucharist that I wrote out at lunch one day.
Turns out, that was what I spent most of my time on. Ah well. I covered the Eucharist in context of Mass and who can receive it and Who the Eucharist is and where we get our reasoning from. Then I spent some time walking everyone through the Eurcharist as foretold in the Old Testament and the New.
In a later post I plan on posting my ideas on the Eucharist as the Gospel Message in Sacramental form and how the Fall in Genesis has Eucharistic tones and prophetic elements. Have some more research to finish there.
Topics: RCIA | 2 Comments »
Diaconate Application Update
By Fric | January 27, 2008
I have been quite remiss in my updates on my application to enter the Permanent Diaconate. Since I last blogged about it, I had my perceiver interview, submitted my full application and have had my home interview.
The Perceiver Interview was done about a week or two after the last post in early October on a Wednesday. I met with Deacon Gerry at his parish and had a wonderful interview. He told me going in that he would just ask the questions and not comment, except to prod me to stop if I were pummelling an expired equine as it were. By the end of the interview he was making positive comments and really seemed positive about the whole process.
As we were walking out, I asked how long the decision process took and he said about 2 weeks or so. Sometimes more, sometimes less. I said I was mainly trying to gauge when to start getting nervous, as I was trying to take the whole process one step at a time. He then proceeded to tell me that I didn’t have anything to worry about.
That was certainly encouraging to say the least.
So, Mrs. Fric and I go to a Marriage Encounter Weekend not thinking much about the results yet. However, when we got back Sunday afternoon, a letter from the Diaconate Office was waiting for us. I had made it into the next round and enclosed was my full application. That was really FAST.
Unfortunately, I sat on the application for about 6 weeks. I had filled out part of it and was kind of wondering what to put in the biography. Really I fretted over it quite a bit. I had finally resolved to get it done no matter what the coming weekend. Mrs. Fric had already given me her part and I had no excuse. Oddly enough, Deacon Bob emailed me the next day asking me when he could expect the application as he wanted to get me scheduled for the home interview and psych evaluation as soon as possible before the rush of last minute apps happened.
OK. He was already planning on getting me that far? Cool! Still, I was nervous about the app. I actually wrote 3 and a half pages for my bio and upon advice from fellow Maniac, Deacon (who will finally be ordained into the Diaconate August 23, 2008), cut it down by half.
So, I get it in the mail on Monday and by the end of the week I have my response. I have been moved on to the next stage, the home interview. This is early/mid December at this point. I figure we will hear from the Deacon couple after Christmas most likely. I was kind of getting anxious when we were into January before I got their call. I was literally going to call Deacon Bob about it the next day when I got the call and set the appointment.
The Deacon couple plus the lay representative on the Selection Committee came over and talked with us for about an hour, less time than I though they would. Normally they separate the applicant couple and talk about the commitment and make sure both are on the same page. They actually skipped this for us since Mrs. Fric is the one who initiated this process. She was the one who decided it was time and pushed me along into doing it now instead of later.
The interview went very well I though and Deacon Dave even said he didn’t think some things that are common with converts (ministry formation and religious formation) would be an issue. Apparently some applicants are so new that they still have Protestant things to unlearn. Since pretty much all my religious formation has truly been Catholic, I have no ingrained habits to unlearn. This is all on this past Wednesday evening.
Yesterday the letter came in the mail, much like after the Perceiver Interview. I have been moved on to the next and pretty much last step, the psychological profile. This, like the Home Interview, is done as a couple. As I understand it, we take a 500+ question survey and have a personal interview with the psychologist separately. Then we go back for the results. Hopefully we will get this scheduled quickly. According to the other couple in my parish that has already been accepted, it’s about 3 weeks to get the results.
Presuming we make it past this step, all that would be left is the formal meeting with our Archbishop where he says “I accept you” which makes it official. They say that this meeting is largely a formality. No one can recall of hearing someone getting to the Archbishop and not getting in. Rarely do couples get to the psych profile and not make it too. I still am going to take it one step at a time, though I can nearly taste it, I am so close!
So, we are almost there. It’s been very interesting how we’ve been getting subtle hints that we are on track and seem to be expected to make it in. For the last month or more, I have been getting the emails that go out to the Deacon Community. Those of us in process currently also got the schedule for the next year from Deacon Bob. He prefaced it saying he wanted all of us to get ready schedule wise as he expected everyone receiving the schedule to make it in.
I am excited to no end. The more and more I think about it and what it means for me, it seems right and true that this is His Will for me and us as a family. And I sincerely pray that if it isn’t, I realize that and let it go. I’d be disappointed of course, but many of the things I can offer the Church, I can offer as a lay person. Not all, as I believe I am well suited to the preaching and teaching aspect of the ministry.
No matter what, all I want to do is serve Him.
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