Fourth Sunday of Easter

Dominica IV Paschae A
3 May 2020
Good Shepherd Sunday

 The Fourth Sunday of Easter is typically called “Good Shepherd Sunday.”  Yesterday the Church observed the feast day of one great shepherd, the feast of the bishop St. Athanasius who lived in the 300s.  St. Athanasius was one of the great bishops from the earliest centuries of faith life in the Catholic Church.  At the age of only twenty-one he had already written a great work titled “On the Incarnation,” expounding on the truth that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Eternal Son of God, had condescended and lowered Himself to take on flesh in the womb of Blessed Mary and so come to us as God incarnate, God in our flesh.

I want to focus our attention on one implication of the mystery of the Incarnation that St. Athanasius explained and defended, and then apply that to our time, especially in view of a hoped-for return to some greater normalcy in our sacramental life.  Listen to St. Athanasius’ words, “The Word of God, incorporeal, incorruptible and immaterial, entered our world.  Yet it was not as if he had been remote from it up to that time.  For there is no part of the world that was ever without his presence; together with his Father, he continually filled all things and places.  Out of his loving-kindness for us he came to us, and we see this in the way he revealed himself openly to us.  Taking pity on mankind’s weakness, and moved by our corruption, he could not stand aside and see death have the mastery over us; he did not want creation to perish and his Father’s work in fashioning man to be in vain” (On the Incarnation, Office of Readings, May 2).  One implication of the Incarnation, the truth that the Eternal Son of God took on our flesh in the womb of Blessed Mary, is that God desired to be and came close to us.  He came like one of us in all things but sin.  He came within our very flesh and our frame to be near to us.

This has an application for the practice of our faith life as Catholics.  You see, God is not to be viewed simply as a concept.  His interaction with us is not only spiritual but direct, personal, and physical.  He is incarnate.  He comes near to us.  And so, His grace and power and blessing are enfleshed too, here and now.  We are meant to have a relationship with God that is personal and direct.  I point this out because I wonder about a possible ramification of this time of quarantine.  What will happen when we begin to return to normal?  Will we find that some of our Catholic brothers and sisters, perhaps not well-formed, will have become too accustomed to live stream Masses?  Too accustomed to the illusion of participating in Mass through a camera?  Such practice for us is permitted now because there is little more we can do.  And to be clear, that’s okay for now.  But, when we can do more and live more normally, will we find that some have disappeared somewhere beyond the camera?  It’s a different matter for a Protestant brother or sister, especially who attends a megachurch, to return to “normal” where the normal pattern may well be watching a pastor on a TV screen.  But what should return to “normal” look like for a Catholic?  Please God all of our brothers and sisters in the Catholic fold will return, but we need to prepare ourselves to be true Catholics and witnesses to them, to be St. Athanasius’ to them, to proclaim the truth clearly and convincingly as he did that God has come near in the Incarnation and that no artificial distance, or the illusion of digital proximity, can suffice for an authentic life with our Good Shepherd.  We need to also prepare ourselves to be witnesses who bring non-Catholics nearer and into the fold.

What are the lessons of the Incarnation?  Jesus, the Son of God in the flesh, is the one who comes near such that the woman with the hemorrhage can reach out and grasp his cloak.  This is the God who spits on the ground, making mud with the dirt, and smears it on the blind man’s eyes to heal him.  This is the God who desires proximity and direct, personal contact such that he confronts lack of belief by demanding, put your finger in the nail marks and place your hand in my side, and believe.  God is not merely and cannot remain merely a concept.  He is to be encountered in a direct and personal way.  Through a video lens or on a screen is not the norm and will not suffice under normal conditions.  People experience God in many and varied ways, to be sure.  By His power He is and can be present spiritually with us and, as we say, in our hearts, especially when we foster prayer life.  This is true.  But what a greater treasure do we have as Catholics… by the Incarnation God comes near to us directly and personally and this is the heart of a proper sacramental life!  How strange it is that we Catholics are sometimes accused of having a distant faith or a faith that is only about rules.  That’s only true if you remain distant and close God off to the reality of your life in all its episodes, in all its joys and struggles, and even in the darkness of sins.  How strange it would be then, again under normal conditions when we are more free to live a sacramental life, that a Catholic would keep a distance from the Lord.  God’s grace in you was begun by direct gift that comes from his personal offering on the Cross and the physical, close, pouring of water for rebirth in the Spirit.  That new life is strengthened by the direct and personal anointing of confirmation such that you become a temple of the Holy Spirit and decorated as a solider of Christ.  The Lord gives himself most intimately in his resurrected and living flesh in Holy Communion, nourishing you to keep on the path of intimacy with him.  Even in our sins, darkness, and struggles he is near to save us.  How strange it is then that a Catholic would keep a distance from this merciful work of the incarnate God in confession and choose instead to live at greater distance and to wallow in indignity.  God has come near, within our very flesh!  He desires and makes intimacy with Him possible.

That God comes in our flesh as the fulfillment of the shepherd King in the line of David gives us an image of God’s closeness.  God’s work is continued in our time by the proximity of ordained shepherds in our midst.  In the Gospel Jesus proclaims himself to be the gate for the sheep.  And he says that whoever enters through the gate (through him) is the shepherd of the sheep.  That is an instruction especially to priests that we must have a deep interior life with Jesus.  We must live in, and minister through the gate, through Jesus, if we will truly fulfill the calling to be shepherds in his name.  And listen to the clear and unique Gospel imagery for how shepherds lead, which will give particular force to the Church’s ancient liturgical practice that you can see and may have noticed here at the altar: From the sheepfold, “the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out…. he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him.”  Standing at the sacred altar, ahead of you, but on the same side of the altar with you truly signifies our journey, our procession in this life: a shepherd walks ahead of you to lead, but also on the same side of the altar with you since he is also one of the Lord’s flock.  The shepherd seeks to keep his gaze and the gaze of the flock entrusted temporarily to him, not on himself, but on the signs in the cosmos that the Lord is returning to meet us in judgment.  Both shepherd and flock have focus for the journey of the spiritual life by focusing on the horizon whence we await the return in glory of our Good Shepherd incarnate still in our flesh!

On this Good Shepherd Sunday I ask your prayers for me, for Fr. Bali, and for Fr. Mejia as we seek to care for and to lead the flock here at our parish.  I ask for your prayers for our Archbishop, who has important decisions to announce soon about how and under what conditions we will seek to return to a more normal sacramental life.  By extension I ask you to pray for our deacons.  And I ask you to pray for future priests and express to God a willingness to welcome and to promote from among your own sons whatever is God’s will, should He call one or more of them to be future priests.

Second Sunday of Easter/Divine Mercy Sunday

Dominica II Paschae A
19 April 2020
Divine Mercy Sunday

At times in preaching some images that might communicate a point can be more evocative, if not provocative.  When a preacher employs such images he might try to prepare his congregation for the unexpected so that they don’t fall out of their seats.  Today I have just such an image.  And so, oddly enough in this setting, I can tell you to fasten your seatbelts… and what’s more… you can literally do so!

The evocative or provocative image, however, is not mine but comes from the Scriptures.  St. Peter employed the image.  It is in his letter in the Bible.  And it formed the entrance antiphon of this Holy Mass.  The image is that of an infant nursing and longing for the mother’s milk.  It’s an image that paints a vivid picture for Christian life and the nourishment we need to grow toward our mature goal: salvation in heaven!

Interactions with parishioners at times provide very powerful things for my meditation.  Maybe it is good for you to hear and to know that… that your lives bear the marks of God and the touch of the divine and things spiritual.  Normally we need someone else to point that out to us, no?  You have been in large, multi-generational family gatherings and you know how you enter and exit various conversations all going on at once around a table or in the living room.  So it was at one such gathering of parishioners that I turned from my spot at the table because a mother with a young infant said something behind me.  We began speaking and I noticed that her infant son was… well, there is no other way to say this… he was grabbing quite aggressively and intently at her blouse and even down it!  He wanted to nurse and he knew how to communicate the desire.

That image came to my mind in my reflections for today’s Mass as I read the entrance antiphon, a verse from the First Letter of St. Peter: “Like newborn infants, you must long for the pure, spiritual milk, that in him you may grow to salvation.”  God’s Word makes use of the image of an infant longing to nurse to tell us something about what we need in order to be transformed from infant Christians to fully mature saints in heaven.

The infant who longs to nurse is hungry and wants food.  He knows where the source of that food is.  Though an infant can’t explain it, he needs that food in order to grow and to mature and to become what he is supposed to become… a fully mature adult.  There is a longing within the child and it is placed there for an important purpose.  When that longing for the nourishment of milk is fulfilled, it helps him arrive by the process of growth to where he should be.  Upon our birth into the family of Christ and his Church we begin as infants.  But we are not supposed to remain there.  We are supposed to grow and to mature.  The goal of our growth, unlike natural life, is not simply the number or the maturity of years, but rather that of full Christian maturity and the life of heaven.  Thus, the entrance antiphon could say that we must long for spiritual milk so that we may grow to salvation.  It is a good and a holy desire to long for our souls to be fed.  The spiritual milk we need comes to us in various ways by God’s grace.  Do we bother to notice the longing of our souls?  Do we know the source of our nourishment?  Do we seek it, quite intently and vigorously, like that infant I saw at the family gathering?  Will we go after the saving teachings of our faith and seek the practices that give life to our soul?  While we are more separated from one another than normal perhaps we can ask the Lord to use this time frame to teach us to long for our spiritual nourishment and to not take it for granted when our distancing ends, even as we know that his grace still comes to us now.

But there is something still more in the lesson to be like newborn infants longing for pure, spiritual milk.  The point of the image, brothers and sisters, is not merely that we seek to fulfill our soul’s longing by aggressively grabbing at the things of God.  There is something more that tempers that image for us.  Any mother could tell you that nursing is not only a function of the transfer of food, or only a physical act by which a baby gets nourishment.  There is an intimacy and a deep union – a communion we could say – between a nursing mother and her child.  Nursing is also about bonding the mother and child, not just about feeding.  And there is something of God and of the spiritual life there too.  I think that’s why a preacher like St. Peter would use the image.

As you and I continue to celebrate the joy of Easter and as we hear that antiphon telling us to be like newborn infants longing for pure, spiritual milk, we should note that we best not be grabbing at the things of God.  Rather, we should note that our soul is called to an intimacy, to a communion with God.  Our distancing, by the time it ends, would be wasted if we return to more normal practice of the faith in an entitled way, grabbing at God’s gifts.  No, let’s nurture a longing within ourselves such that our return to normalcy is marked by the peaceful, contented, relaxed assurance of an infant, knowing that God feeds us.  If we struggle or doubt in this odd time frame, let Jesus’ action in the Gospel we heard today assure you.  What can we make of his twice appearing within that locked room where his apostles were?  I suggest the lesson that we want to take away is that there are no obstacles that can prevent the Risen Lord from feeding us with his presence and his grace and his gift of peace.  Just as locked doors and walls were no obstacle to him doing whatever he wanted, so our distancing, our suspension of the normal sacramental life does not create an obstacle for God who can impart the spiritual milk of his grace however and wherever.  Even now in these days, long for the Lord and expect him to appear in your midst.  Expect him to show the wounds that are the mark of his credibility as the one who suffers with you.  Expect him to speak to you: Peace be with you!

Good Friday

Good Friday
10 April 2020

In my homily yesterday at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper for Holy Thursday, my focus was on Jesus’ sacramental offering of himself even before he died physically.  And my hope for us is that we understand that Jesus truly and really offered himself in that First Holy Communion at the Last Supper.  There was nothing lacking in that offering of himself on Holy Thursday, even as he awaited the completion of that offering in the flesh on the Cross on that first Good Friday.  Yesterday’s focus was on offering.  Today’s focus is on consummation. 

At the point of his death our Blessed Lord spoke these words that we have translated into English: “It is finished.”  That is a translation of the Latin Vulgate biblical text.  In Latin the Lord’s phrase is: “Consummatum est.”  That phrase does indeed carry with it the notion that something is brought to completion.  And so our English text can rightly say, “It is finished.”  But I want to highlight something in the Latin as a point of attention for us today.  Looking at the root of the Latin there is not only a sense of completion but also a sense that something is being “brought all together.”  Still more, there is a root sense that something is “being perfected” or “being brought to its highest form.”  And this gathering together, this being brought to perfection, is not happening in isolation but together with something else, or with others.

With that in mind I offer this simple and brief thought for today.  We recall the enduring love of God for us and the depth to which He goes to save us.  Veiled in our flesh such that His glory as God is hidden, He goes still further and is veiled under brutal torture and disfigurement.  His glory and love is not recognizable and it is not recognizable because of our sin, our pride, and our rejection of him.  Do not hear in English “It is finished” to mean that a book or a story is closed, done, nothing more to happen.  Rather, consider the root meanings from the Latin.  The Lord completes his self-offering on the Cross.  In that sense, in the flesh, his offering is consummated.  But remember his act on the Cross, was to bring all together, to bring to perfection, and to do so not in isolation, but to bring others along with his offering.

Perhaps that can be a focal point for our experience this Holy Week.  Perhaps that can help us understand the ache and the longing in our hearts.  Our longing is about more than just desiring a return to normal.   Rather, it is a recognition that the Divine Heart of Jesus beats for us and pours out His love.  Our hearts receive that love if we will lift the veil of our sin, our pride, and our rejection of him.  Our hearts are brought together into his offering.  And that is why we long to receive him in Holy Communion.  Jesus’ self-offering is complete, it is finished.  But it is not the end of story… may we be determined to freely cooperate with him and to be brought together, to be brought into his perfect offering.  Receiving his grace and his love, may we go forth as disciples who seek to be co-workers with the Lord in bringing others souls all together into his self-offering for salvation.

Holy Thursday

Holy Thursday
9 April 2020

On this holy night that begins the Sacred Triduum, the sacred three days that celebrate how Christ accomplished our salvation, the Church reflects on three principal mysteries from the Last Supper.  Our attention is drawn to our Blessed Lord’s example of humble charity.  Charity is love, and it is modeled for us in the washing of the apostles’ feet together with the Lord’s explicit command that our lives too must be marked by humble charity and service of others.  Our attention is drawn to the institution of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, that greatest, most august sacrament that makes present truly and really the Lord’s sacrifice for our salvation, the offering of the gift of his whole self.  Our attention is also drawn to the institution of the Sacrament of the Priestly Order.  We believe that our Lord’s command to the apostles, “Do this in memory of me,” conferred upon them a real authority from the Lord to continue his mission in this world through his Church.  If that command did not confer upon them the priestly office and authority then his words would be meaningless, rendering what the apostles would go on to do in his name little more than re-enactment or religious theatre.  But no, our faith tells us that the Lord in his divine love and mercy for us made his offering of self on this night at the Last Supper.  Having a love that knows no bounds, our Lord also established the way that his offering could be and would be made present in every time and place in this world.  With such a focus on the priesthood I am delighted to acknowledge here with us a few priests.  Of course, my assistant, Fr. Bali whose presence is a source of great blessing and comfort to our parish.  We welcome back Fr. Stanley who, together with seminarian Martin Parizek, is here to form a small choir to add beauty to this Mass.  A happy day of the priesthood to you, my brothers!  I am grateful to you Fr. Stanley and Martin for your initiative in providing chant at this Mass.

In the course of the Last Supper, gathered for the expected Passover meal, Jesus did something new in the presence of his apostles.  He fulfilled the Passover and transformed it to refer to himself.  At the Last Supper the Lord truly and really offered himself under the appearance of unleavened bread and wine.  And he did that in view of what he would accomplish the next day on the Cross.  Before he even died on the Cross Jesus offered himself at the Last Supper.  That can perhaps seem a bit mysterious to us, right?  What does it mean and how do we understand the Lord offering himself in Holy Communion at the Last Supper when in fact he had not yet died on the Cross?  Is there something inauthentic or, at worst, fraudulent and empty in that first Holy Communion at the Last Supper?  How can we understand what took place this evening so long ago?

I suggest to you there is nothing at all in conflict, or inauthentic, or hollow in the sacramental offering the Lord made of himself at the Last Supper.  And I think you know this already and you understand it in a different context.  So, let’s switch to that other context.

We have all been to weddings.  A couple who has grown in relationship, in trust, and in love for one another determines they desire to commit to one another permanently.  They desire to publicly express their love and to embark on a new mission as spouses who are called to make their love enfleshed and complete in sacrificial self-giving and in openness to the gift of children.  When you attend such a wedding and witness such a couple’s offering of their love to one another, is there anything unusual, inauthentic, or hollow in their offering in that moment at the wedding?  I bet you would say, “No, there isn’t.”  That newly married couple must still enflesh and consummate their vowed love later after forming their spousal relationship at the wedding.  But you easily recognize that simply because they have not yet consummated their vowed love there is nothing inauthentic or out of place or somehow less than true about their love when a couple exchanges their vows on their wedding day.  It is true and real and meaningful on that very day and in that very moment of the wedding when they profess: “I promise to be faithful to you, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love you and to honor you all the days of my life.”  The same can easily be understood then of the self-offering Jesus makes in his divine love at the Last Supper.  In the course of that meal, taking bread and wine, Jesus offered himself sacramentally, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.  He did so in view of what he would accomplish the following day on the Cross.  Yet by virtue of still awaiting the Cross, there was nothing inauthentic or hollow in that first Holy Communion received by the Apostles.  This is how we understand what the Lord did on this evening.

This evening is about the Lord’s offering of himself in sacramental form, a form that is so familiar to us as Catholics.  It would be easy for us to focus this year on what we are not “getting” or not “receiving” this evening, namely distribution of Holy Communion.  But I want to encourage you to not miss the opportunity that history and pandemic affords this Holy Thursday, an opportunity to re-orient our thoughts so that when we arrive at our longed-for return to normal, we will arrive changed and strengthened in faith.  St. Augustine, the son of our parish patroness, in a homily on St. John’s Gospel remarked on the type of expected return of favor when you are invited by someone to a dinner.  Reflecting upon St. John’s account of the Last Supper, St. Augustine remarked that at the Last Supper there follows a consequence for those who ate (cf. Tractate 84).  What Jesus was serving was not merely the type of fare you would find on an ordinary menu and certainly not at an ordinary Passover.  Rather, our Lord was serving divine love, a love that has nothing greater, because he was laying down his life.  Like the Apostles, if we receive and eat the offering of that love then the consequence is that we likewise must return the favor, so to speak.  In other words, as St. John writes elsewhere, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 Jn. 3:16).  St. Augustine connects this consequence to what is found in the Book of Proverbs, “When you sit down to eat with a ruler, observe carefully what is before you;” knowing that you are bound to make similar preparations (cf. Proverbs 23:1, the text has difficulties and interpretations beyond the words often published in bibles).  Rather than focusing on what we are not receiving this year, and making Holy Thursday 2020 wasted on lament, might we focus on what we have received so very often before pandemic upended everything?  Might we focus that we have come to the sacred table of our great King – the altar – so many times to receive what is set before us and that the consequence for us is that we likewise are supposed to offer ourselves in imitation of the Lord?  St. Augustine refers to the words of St. Peter who highlights the same consequence: “Christ … suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Pt. 2:21).  If Jesus makes an offering that is the sacrifice of his life for us, and if we have received that offering in Holy Communion so many times, have we returned the favor?  Have we made similar preparations by offering ourselves for him?  Have we laid down our lives to be his disciples?  Have we laid down our tendency to sin and to choose our own plans?  Have we laid down our selfish focus on my time and my wants in order to hear and respond to the vocation God gives us?  Have we laid down our egos and pride in order to fufill the mission we have to be public witnesses to the Lord in this world?  Or do we hide our faith?  Do we take up our own pursuits?  Do we refuse to seriously address and change our sins?  In other words, have we eaten of this offering before // but not yet returned the favor?

As you are encouraged to accept the grace of a spiritual communion this Holy Thursday, perhaps the call to lay down our selfish pursuits and follow the example of the Lord can be our focus.  In other words, perhaps our focus this year can be more on what we ourselves are supposed to give and what we ourselves are supposed to offer, rather than on what we are not receiving this year.  In this way, like the Lord, may we embrace our crosses and be prepared to accomplish in our flesh the offering we speak and we desire by our presence at the sacrificial banquet of our great King and Eternal High Priest!

Fourth Sunday of Lent

Dominica IV in Quadragesima A

22 March 2020

There is something going around the world today. It can’t be seen with the naked eye. I’ve never seen it as an object in and of itself. But you can see its effects in people, in how it impacts them, sickens them, and deforms their life. Reports around the globe tell us it is everywhere. It damages life and separates families. Nothing seems to stop it. You know I had to mention it this weekend! I’m speaking, of course, of sin!

In the midst of the moral threat of sin, the Good News is clear. There is a remedy to sin and our separated life from God. The Good News is Jesus Christ! Maybe we need a moment like now to realize what is truly important and what lasts. Maybe we need a moment like now to admit what we give so much time to that ultimately passes and falls through our fingers. The Lord came as God the Father’s remedy. He came to place godliness within our very flesh. To place the salutary vaccine of grace directly into our bodies and souls. And the Lord released the power of that remedy by willingly laying down his life to save us. The remedy has been given on the Cross. That same remedy is made present again on the sacred altar at the Holy Mass. The sacrifice of the Mass is not a new remedy or a re-sacrifice of the Lord. Rather, the power and reality of the one and same gift of the Lord is made present here.

Since the remedy has been given, our task is to live in such a way that the remedy can actually work in us. The remedy of Jesus and his saving grace lacks nothing, but it does require our cooperation if it is to be effective for us in the face of the disease of sin and its threat to our eternal life. This isn’t difficult to understand. We understand it in a physical health way quite readily. Imagine if I need medicine for a physical illness. The medicine is one important piece, even an essential piece. But if I don’t keep myself hydrated, if I don’t allow myself to rest, if I eat poorly, if I keep exposing myself to the same source of disease then I shouldn’t expect a good outcome from the remedy. It’s the same with sin. The remedy of Jesus’ sacrifice and his ongoing grace to us is not a static gift. He gives it constantly and it needs our constant cooperation. We are saved by Jesus and by him alone. But our ongoing work to cooperate with that gift, to turn from sin, and to break patterns where we squander the remedy is the daily work of each disciple.

And thus, we come here to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We are renewed in the saving remedy of the Good News by the two-edged sword of God’s Word in the Scripture readings. We are encouraged by the faith of a community that pushes us to strive toward Heaven and holds us accountable. We come face-to-face with the very Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. If we are in the state of grace and worthily prepared, we receive the Lord’s gift of himself, his remedy, under sacramental form in Holy Communion. But today gives us an opportunity, as unique and unwanted as it may be, to call to mind the truth and the value in our Catholic tradition of the Spiritual Communion, something which saints described and practiced throughout Christian history. When we receive Holy Communion under more normal circumstances we might refer to that as physically receiving Holy Communion. Christ’s faithful have long recognized that physically receiving Communion is not always possible. What might be some limitations? Perhaps a person is disabled, sick, or imprisoned and cannot make it to Mass. Perhaps you plan to go to Mass but a broken-down vehicle prevents that from happening. Maybe you are in a place where there is no priest, on a military post, or traveling in some remote location. All of these and more are physical barriers to receiving Holy Communion. But the faithful have also long recognized moral barriers to receiving Holy Communion. When I examine the state of my soul, perhaps I notice there some grave sin that needs to be confessed first and thus I need to refrain from physically receiving Holy Communion until I first go to confession. Maybe a person has not committed some objective sin but notices some part of Catholic doctrine that needs to be accepted and received more fully to be living a deeper life as a Catholic. Maybe a Catholic has not married in the Church and needs to have that addressed first before approaching for Holy Communion. We might even say that very small children who have not yet reached the age of reason, by which they become morally responsible, are in a type of barrier that normally does not permit them to receive Holy Communion until around the age of eight.

Given the possible reasons why physical reception of Holy Communion may not be possible, the question should be asked: is there no benefit of grace for such persons? Does that mean there is no communion at all? The Church’s spiritual writers and saints have long encouraged the value of a spiritual communion. When we are not able to make a physical communion, we recognize that by his power as God, the Lord is not limited in his ability to give us his grace. In a spiritual communion we identify what, if anything, we are responsible for that prevents our physical communion. We express to the Lord the desire to confess any sin as soon as possible in order to be more deeply united to him and, with obstacles removed, to be able to make a good Holy Communion as soon as possible. In a spiritual communion we prayerfully express our desire to receive the Lord and to embrace him spiritually. We do this confident that he blesses such self-examination and desire. We do this such that the grace the Lord gives in a spiritual communion may strengthens us to see our resolve to its conclusion, to remove all barriers to Holy Communion and to make a physical communion as soon as possible. My brothers and sisters, this grace is yours today and I encourage you to adopt this worthy practice in these difficult days. Wherever you are, as frequently as you want, you can turn your mind and heart to the Lord to make a spiritual communion. By this you will continue to be strong as members of Christ’s Body the Church, as we pray for a speedy end to what prevents the normal course of our life in this moment. As this Mass continues lift your hearts, your minds, and your lives to the Lord in sacrifice. Know that this is pleasing to God. And be confident that God, who is generosity beyond measure, will give you a rich store of the grace needed to remain near to Him today and every day.

Second Sunday of Lent

Dominica II in Quadragesima A

Safe Haven Sunday

8 March 2020

We are all aware of the large-scale response to the flu and in particular to the coronavirus this year.  To limit spread of disease by human contact we are seeing responses around the world and changes to church practices too.  Many bishops, including our own, have announced changes to liturgical practices.  First, I think it is reasonable to emphasize that we should all remain calm and avoid hysteria.  Secondly, we should observe good hygiene and vigilance at all times.  This moment is an opportunity to give some instruction for some adjustments at Masses and to communicate some suggestions from the Archbishop.

• The obligation to attend all Sunday and holy day Masses is most serious.  However, the Church always recognizes that certain events, however rare, may remove that obligation.  A serious, infectious illness is one such example where such an ill person is not bound to the obligation.  This recognizes both the sick person’s need to rest and get healthy, and it recognizes a certain charity to not expose others in the community to serious health risk.  Please be self-aware when you are sick.

• Good and regular handwashing is advised, as is the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers.  I’m asking all extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion to have their own private bottle of sanitizer to use before distribution of Holy Communion.  Regarding our use of hands at Holy Mass: The Church’s directions for Mass do not instruct us to hold hands at the Our Father.  That is a popular practice in some locations but a posture the Church does not envision for that prayer.  You might have noticed that our altar boys always keep their hands folded during the prayer.  That is because I have trained them not to hold hands since it is not asked for in Mass instructions.  At the suggestion of the Archbishop, beginning today we are not encouraging hand holding during the Our Father.  I ask you not to make anyone feel forced into holding hands.  Use of hands also impacts something that is actually optional at Mass, the shaking of hands at the sign of peace.  Again, following the Archbishop’s suggestion, beginning today we are discontinuing the shaking of hands.  The priest will give the ritual sign of peace and your response, as normal, is “And with your spirit.”  But after that we will omit the shaking of hands and immediately begin chanting the “Lamb of God.”

• It is already our regular practice here that we do not distribute from chalices.  We have one chalice that we reserve in the sanctuary for parishioners who cannot receive the Sacred Host due to serious gluten allergy.  That chalice will remain available to them.  Today gives an opportunity to remind us all that the chalice that remains here in the sanctuary is only for those who do not and cannot receive the Host.  Some parishioners report such a high level of allergy to wheat gluten that they cannot receive the Host and they also cannot drink from a chalice if someone consuming the Host drinks from it.  So, today I want to remind us all that if you are able to receive the Host then you should do so and then return to your pew.  Those who cannot receive the Host will find their way up to the chalice we keep here.  Under no circumstance should someone consuming the Host also come up to this reserved chalice.  Be assured, nothing of the grace and fullness of Christ is lacking by receiving under the form of the Host alone or the Precious Blood alone.

• Since receiving Holy Communion on the tongue is the far more traditional practice, and since it contains its own built-in reverence by receiving, but not touching the Host, I am NOT going to instruct anyone to receive only on the hand.  However, take note of some tips for receiving on the tongue.  Our altar boys try to place the communion paten under your chin when you receive on the tongue.  It would help if you keep your folded hands lower and not up high near your chin.  When you arrive for Holy Communion, whether standing or kneeling, respond “Amen,” try to keep your head still, and then open your mouth sufficiently wide and also extend the tongue so the Sacred Host may be placed on it.  Let the minister draw back the hand before closing your mouth and then return to your pew.  Hand-to-hand contact is also a concern for those who opt to receive Holy Communion in the hand.  If you do so it is necessary to have clean hands, to present your hands completely open and flat, with palms up, and one hand on top of the other.  Please do not begin to close your hand on the minster’s fingers until the minister withdraws the hand.  Finally, I know many of you like to kneel to receive Holy Communion and so we have kneelers in place at the main aisle Communion stations.  That might help remove the amount of stretching of the arm and movement involved in putting the Host on the tongue.

Okay, we got through all of that!  So, we do all that to give reasonable attention to our bodily health and to avoid illness and threats to our bodily life.  Would you agree with me that giving attention to our spiritual health, avoiding spiritual illness and even eternal death needs attention?  Would you agree with me that if we have a proper hierarchy of values, a moral pandemic impacting our life as God’s children and risking spiritual death and Hell needs even more careful attention?  That is what I really want to address today.  Together with Archbishop Coakley we are observing a coordinated effort across the archdiocese this weekend for our second annual Safe Haven Sunday to address the sensitive but necessary topic of the moral pandemic of pornography.  Because of the prevalence of the Internet and smartphones this issue impacts adults and teens, men and women, boys and girls, and even impacts our children at increasingly younger ages.  First, our focus is to name and face this issue that negatively impacts so many of us and to call to conversion so that we may live more fully as God’s children.  And, secondly, this effort is to equip parents to protect and confidently parent your children in a hyper-sexualized culture.  As you leave Mass today we have a booklet resource for you.  This resource is specific to treating this topic for parents of children, especially when you have discovered a child has been exposed or has a habit of use.   If you have children and teens in the home I want you to make sure to pick up a booklet.  There is no shame in taking that resource as an aid to your parenting.  You will note on the booklet’s front cover and in its first pages an invitation for parents to sign up for a 7-day challenge that will provide a crash course via email of lessons and practices parents should observe to address this topic in the home.  Given the statistics on this topic, parents, you should likely just assume your child has been exposed and that your middle school and high school child may already have a habit of use.  We want to discourage passive parenting.  I know these conversations are awkward and we’d just like to assume our children are immune.  But by our silence do we really want to communicate to our kids that guarding their souls from sin is somehow less important than the instructions we readily give them about safe driving and getting good grades?  Ironically, many would suggest they give their child a smartphone for a sense of security, for ease of contact, and to track or locate a child.  But if parenting is passive, that very device becomes the pitfall.  It can form habits whereby we engage in less real contact, preferring the screen to real human interaction, and it can become the portal for serious poison to come directly to your child.  One of the simplest and smartest things I have heard a parent do is to have a house rule where at bedtime, or a certain time of evening, all smartphones have to be placed in a basket that is kept overnight in the parents’ bedroom.  Since the majority of exposure and use happens while kids are bored and in their bedroom, this practice can greatly reduce access to this material.  In addition, parental controls and filtering/blocking software should be placed on devices so that the very thing you give your child for a sense of security does not become the device that leads them astray.

With reference to the Scriptures I want to draw upon the idea of our vision and how it needs to be transformed.  Last weekend in the first reading from Genesis we heard of the Fall, of Original Sin, and how the eyes of Adam and Eve were opened to what the serpent, the Evil One, wanted them to see.  This week in the Collect we prayed that we may have “spiritual sight made pure” so that, as the Lord promised to Abram in today’s first reading, we may see the land that He will show us and thus know our destination and our inheritance.  The Transfiguration of Jesus is the sneak peek of his future and ours, the sneak peek of our inheritance – the glorification of our bodies in Heaven forever!  We need to be transformed by the Lord’s grace so that we grow in purity and strength against the serpent’s poison in our time, which is a stumbling block to our heavenly goal.  Like the disciples in the Gospel may we train ourselves and purify our vision so that we too see “no one else but Jesus alone.”  The truth is our vision is obscured by our fallen nature and our tendency toward sin; even more, our vision is blinded by serious sin.  Use of explicit material makes us unable to see and accept the good of human sexuality and its nature and essence designed by God.  We each need to strive to use the spiritual weapons available to us to root out sin and to grow in conformity to Christ.  Part of this work is also attending to our children and young people so that they are not abandoned and without guidance in the face of lethal threats to their purity.  Explicit material is not the only threat on our way to Heaven, but it has become a most serious and widespread threat.  This threat, and others, needs even more attention than our efforts to avoid the flu or the coronavirus.

Thus, in addition to the booklet you should take as you leave Mass, I want to suggest some important practices.

• Pray and beg the Lord to deliver you and your family from this sin.  Ask him to strengthen your serious resolve to act against this sin.  Pray the Rosary and the St. Michael Prayer.

• Make use of regular and honest confession, especially to be able to receive Holy Communion worthily.  See that your children regularly confess.  Go as a family.

• Willingly take on penances to atone for your own sins and those of your loved ones.

• Have frank conversations with your spouse and age-appropriate conversations with your children.  Speak not only about the sin of explicit material but talk about fostering real relationships, holiness, the goodness of the human person, the goodness of human sexuality and its proper place within marriage alone.

• Consider how an accountability partner and filtering/blocking software like Covenant Eyes can help you have a source of strength in the battle.

• Finally, we would be remiss here to avoid the blessing of Eucharistic Adoration and committing to a regular weekly time to make a Holy Hour in our chapel.  There is no reason why any parishioner, men and women, whole families together, even our youth cannot take on this practice to grow in relationship with Jesus who is truly present among us.  In particular, I want to appeal to our men: If you are not yet committed to a regular time of adoration, get involved by calling the Parish Office soon.  We have some late night and early morning hours that can use a second person for adoration.  That can be a way that you men can serve the role of guardians and protectors.  You might also consider taking an hour at those times when one of our female parishioners is alone.  We need you to step up.  You won’t regret the blessings.

On this Safe Haven Sunday we want to promote conversion and purity of life.  And we pray that parents be confident that your words and your example as a parent/guardian can inspire your child to appreciate, choose, and grow in chastity in order to live the beauty and truth of sexuality according to the liberating Good News of Jesus.

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday

26 February 2020

Today we have begun the holy season of renewal known as Lent.  This season is a time of spiritual exercises, engagement in serious spiritual battle, by repentance, acts of penance, and the mercy of confession to be restored in the dignity begun in us at baptism.  Several of the references in the scriptural texts of this [service] Mass, the scripture readings and antiphons, point out the particular focus of this season: namely, the heart.  We are called to look and to search deeply, to scrutinize, our heart so that we remember our dignity as God’s children and notice where we are weak and have strayed from the path of life with God.  We do this so that we may repent and turn from our sin and make a return to our Heavenly Father.  The first reading said it this way: “Even now, says the Lord, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning.”

As we undertake this deep work of the heart, we observe penances that we do together as the whole Church and, at the same time, we should also take on our own personal penitential practices.  Don’t be confused by the Gospel for this day when it says, “Take care not to perform righteous deeds in order that people may see them.”  This does not mean that our religious practices cannot or should not be seen.  Rather, it tells us of the importance of our intentions: We should not do these good works in order to be seen.  No doubt, some of our practices (like ashes) can be seen, but we should each also take on personal practices that only we know and that only our Heavenly Father sees.  In other words, we do not undertake the battle of lent “to win the praise of others.”  Our Heavenly Father already and always loves us, and we do not win His praise; however, in a certain nuanced sense our penances and practices should be motivated by the desire that only the Heavenly Father takes notice.

This holy season is a good time to recall that we should always be aware that we are in a spiritual battle.  Listen again to the Collect of this [service] Holy Mass: “Grant, O Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting this campaign of Christian service, so that, as we take up battle against spiritual evils, we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint.”  Notice the military language.  In Lent we engage in a campaign, not a competition to win votes, but a military-like operation for a specific objective: to be renewed again in the life we began in baptism, to be restored to baptismal dignity that has been harmed by our sins.  We take up a battle in the spiritual realm.  We do not literally put on body armor or pick up guns, but we must struggle with our fallen nature and our attraction to sin so that we train ourselves to keep our eyes fixed on the things above and so that we attain the specific objective of Heaven.  Our weapons are the spiritual practices of prayer, almsgiving, fasting, penances, and confession so that we form our bodily nature and its desires to obey and cooperate with our spiritual nature and the call to holiness of life in Christ.  Listen again to that same prayer but an older translation: “Grant us, Lord, the grace to begin the Christian’s war of defense with holy fasts: that, as we do battle with the spirits of evil, we may be protected by the help of self-denial.”

Today we begin this holy season.  Take seriously your battle.  Make sure your weapons are not weak or trivial.  Recognize that you have been claimed for Christ.  Live more greatly for him now so that you may live eternally in Heaven!