Homily 17 June 2007 Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

It is good from time to time to reflect...
not only on the readings...
but on the prayers of the Mass.

In the collect of today’s Mass…we prayed…
"God our Father,
we rejoice in the faith that draws us together,
aware that selfishness can drive us apart."
We are all certainly aware that selfishness can drive us apart.
Families can become war zones when we think only of our own needs and desires.
Marriages flounder when one spouse demands his or her own way
with little no regard for the other.
Lives fall apart and jobs are lost when greed drives business…
instead of the good of all people.
Relationships become destructive…and even sinful…
when selfish pleasure takes the place of real love…
and when material desires and worldly standards
overrule the call of the Creator to be open to new life.

Selfishness was the root cause of the original sin.
Adam and Eve grasped the forbidden fruit…
seized for themselves what they wanted…with no regard for the law of God…
took by their own design what their base passions demanded of them.
They did so because the serpent promised them that they would ‘become like gods."
Of course they failed to remember
that they had already been created in the image of God…
the one, true, almighty and all-loving God.

Selfishness is at the core of the sins which plague our world today.
Money…fame…prestige…pleasure…instant gratification…"what I want now"
have become the driving forces
in the lives of most people in the world around us today.
Holiness…charity…reaching out to others…attaining heavenly glory…
are values that have faded from our world…
even the minds and hearts of many Catholics.

Abuse in all its forms exists
because the world views people as objects to be used for one’s own desires...
instead of creations of God to be revered for their beauty.

Perhaps sins driven by selfishness have touched your life…
or have taken your heart away from the path toward Christ.
The joy of being a follower of Jesus Christ…
is the joy of having the loving presence of Jesus
with us always in the Eucharist…
and knowing intimately the mercy of Jesus in the Sacrament of Penance.

The Gospel today proclaims the boundless mercy of Jesus!
A woman comes before Him,
who is described as "a sinful woman" from "the city."
She has a reputation as a serious and notorious sinner.
Despite the gravity of her sins…
the Lord Jesus extends the Father’s forgiveness and mercy to her.
Her troubled life and unconverted heart
require the generous and comforting presence of Jesus.
She needs to be forgiven.
She needs to have a human experience of reconciliation.
When selfishness and sinfulness take hold of our lives…
we, too, need to be forgiven.
Because sin is real and has lasting effects in human lives…
reconciliation needs to be experienced as a human event as well.
In the Sacrament of Penance…
the person of Christ…whose Sacred Heart we offend by our sins…
Himself offers forgiveness.


Notice how Jesus describes the woman to the others in the room…
"…her many sins have been forgiven because she has shown great love."
The woman’s love for Jesus…
shown through her human acts of kindness…
is a sign to the Lord that her heart is contrite and her spirit humble.
Each of us who stand before the Altar of the Lord today is a repentant sinner…
and we, too, show the Lord that we have sorrow for our sins
by our acts of love.
Because attitudes of selfishness continue to darken our cultural landscape…
we walk against the grain by living lives of self-giving.
It is the duty of every Christian to foster attitudes of self-less-ness.
This means:
openness to life…
openness to the accepting the presence of others in our lives
as companions and not as means to achieving our desires…
openness to seeking the well-being of others above our own needs…
and a willingness to forgo pleasure and comfort for the sake of holiness…
both our own holiness and that of those entrusted to our care.


The Sacrament of Penance…which we have reflected on…
is a revelation of the love and mercy of God our Heavenly Father…
and an expression of the fatherly care of the Church’s priests.
This weekend / Today…as we celebrate Fathers’ Day…
we recognize the vital role of good and holy fathers
in the work of the Church to bring Christ to the world…
and in raising their sons
to be mature young boys
and good planting ground for the seed of a priestly vocation.
We commend the fathers gathered here for their dedication to God’s holy Church...
and beg God our Heavenly Father to pour out his grace on them in abundance.


This past week we have honored with special feasts
the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Today we unite our hearts with theirs…
begging the mercy of Jesus
and seeking refuge in the motherly care of the Virgin Mary.
Strengthened with the Sacred Body and Precious Blood of Christ…
we go forth from this holy place to be living examples of Mary’s purity…
and of Jesus’ self-giving…self-emptying…charity.

May our hearts ever beat as one with the hearts of Jesus and Mary!

Homily 16 June 2007 Immaculate Heart of Mary

Today’s Gospel presents to us "Mary the Theologian."

A theologian is one who studies, reflects on, and ponders
the mysteries of God and the Church.

Luke presents to us the image of Mary reflecting on all that she sees and hears
and pondering them in her heart.
In her reflections and pondering…
Mary comes to know more and more intimately the person of Jesus.

Luke uses this phrase in two places.
When the shepherds come to adore the newborn Savior…
and…as we hear today…
after Jesus is found with the teachers in "His Father’s house."
Shepherds adored her Son.
At the age of 12 her son was among the learned men in the temple.

These and so many other mysteries about her Son…
became the food for much reflection in the recesses of Mary’s heart.
The more she reflected…the more she grew in wisdom and love.

As the theologian who has pondered the mysteries of God
then turns to teach those mysteries to the world…
so Mary has many lessons to teach us from her reflective heart.

Mary has known the pain and sorrow of seeing her Son die on the Cross…
and she has also known the triumph of the Resurrection.
Mary understands womanhood…parenthood…the realities of human life.

We can always turn to Mary in the face of life’s difficulties…
and here her motherly voice speak to our hearts the lessons she has learned.

Today we honor Mary’s reflective…pure…immaculate heart.
And we honor her most of all by committing ourselves to imitating her.

The recesses of our hearts
can also become places where the mysteries of God are pondered daily…
where the Lord speaks to us…
revealing to us His holy will for our lives.
We enter into the recesses of our own hearts
and find peace in prayerful union with Mary and Jesus.

Mary’s heart beats as one with the Sacred Heart of Jesus her Son…
and Mary’s love always leads us to Jesus.

May we pause each day and take quiet time alone
to ponder the mysteries of God and the Church in the recesses of our hearts
and to unite our hearts to Mary’s.

O Mary, whose Immaculate heart beats with love for us…pray for us!

Homily 15 June 2007 Solemnity of the Sacred Heart

The coat of arms of the DOY bears a golden dove,
taken from the shield of Pope Pius XII,
who created the diocese in 1943.
The dove is also symbolic of the patron of the Cathedral…
Saint Columba…
for "Columba" is the Latin word for "dove."

The image of the innocent…beautiful…little dove…
speaks to our hearts this holy morning…
and helps grasp the glorious mystery of the loving heart of Jesus.

Listen to the words of Saint Bonaventure…
a medieval philosopher and theologian,
a contemporary of Saint Thomas Aquinas…

"It was a divine decree that permitted one of the soldiers
to open His sacred side with a lance…
so that the Church might be formed from the side of Christ
as He slept the sleep of death on the cross.
Flowing from the secret abyss of our Lord’s heart as from a fountain,
this stream gave the sacraments of the Church the power to confer grace…
Arise then, beloved of Christ!
Imitate the dove that nests in a hole in the cliff…keeping watch at the entrance like the sparrow that finds a home.
Press your lips to the fountain, draw water from the wells of your Savior…."

In the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ…our Savior and our Lord…
we find the source of life…
life for the Church, born from the side of Christ on the cross
life made present to us in the Sacraments
life for us who…
like doves nesting in the recesses of a cliff…
take refuge in Jesus’ Sacred Heart
and in its unending…flowing stream of love and mercy.

The water which burst forth from His Heart
is the source of the Sacrament of Baptism.

The Precious Blood which flowed down His broken body…nailed to the cross…
is the Precious Blood we receive in the Eucharist.

The mercy contained in that infinite Heart…
a heart overflowing with love for His beloved bride the Church…
is available to us in the Sacrament of Penance.

The heart of Jesus is the heart of one who knows us intimately…
who loves us beyond what we could ever hope to understand…
and who longs to be one with us forever.

How blessed we would be if we had hearts so loving as His!

The heart of Jesus is a heart that beats with love for us!
It is a heart that pities us in our sinfulness and our brokenness…
and skips a beat with us in our triumphs!

In the Sacred Heart of Jesus we find life…love…peace…joy…and mercy!
Run to His heart in your needs…in your moments of temptation…in your sorrows!
Run and hide yourself in His wounded side!
Run and take refuge in His care…
"make your nest" in the comfort of that Heart which knows no end to love!

Cleanse yourself in the fountain of His goodness and mercy
in the Sacrament of Penance.
Let His love and mercy flow over you and through you…
bringing you the peace that only comes from our glorious and immortal Lord.
Nourish your souls with His Precious Blood!

In the Sacred Heart of Jesus we find a fountain of life…
an indescribably beautiful and marvelous fountain of life…
a fountain of life that conquers all evil and sin…
a fountain of life that wells up within us…
and makes our hearts sing the praises of Christ Jesus…
and the awesome wonder of His loving Heart!

Jesus, meek and humble of heart…
Make our hearts like unto Thine!

Homily 13 June 2007 Feast of Saint Anthony

One beautiful spring evening in the mountains of Western PA…
a few of us seminarians were sitting on the porch of the seminary building…
having a nice chat with our rector.
He was describing to us a problem with bugs in the chapel.
It seemed that countless numbers of ants
were constantly crawling back and forth through the sanctuary.
In his uniquely witty style…
Father Kurt lamented that…worse than just having ants in church…
“They keep passing the Tabernacle without genuflecting!”

Recalling the ancient custom of the faithful of the Church
of “double genuflecting” when the Blessed Sacrament is exposed…
I wondered if bending all 6 legs is required of ants!

Silliness aside…
our beloved Saint Anthony
is famous for having commanded a member of the animal kingdom
to bend his knees in adoration of the Eucharist.

As the story goes…a Jewish merchant challenged Saint Anthony
to prove the reality of the Holy Eucharist…
which he considered to be a mere “fable.”
He devised a contest…
in which the merchant would starve a donkey for three days…
and Anthony would enter into fasting and prayer for three days in the forest.
At the end of the three days…
the merchant would place a bale of hay before the hungry donkey…
and Saint Anthony would expose the Blessed Sacrament.

After the three days had passed…
the merchant placed the bale of hay 20 feet from the hungry donkey…
and Saint Anthony went to the church
and brought out the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance.

As the hungry donkey naturally walked toward the food…
Saint Anthony called out to it:
“I command you to come here and adore your Creator!”

The donkey stopped on his path toward the hay…
turned as if being led by a bridle…
and walked toward Saint Anthony.
He bent his forelegs…
and bowed his head to the ground in adoration.

Needless to say…the sight of a hungry animal
stopping to adore the Eucharist before taking food
brought the Jewish man to beg forgiveness converted him to Christ.

The life of Saint Anthony…”The Miracle Worker”…
is filled with miraculous stories…
stories that show forth God’s grace at work in his life
for the salvation of the world.
Saint Anthony…
born in Lisbon, Portugal in the 12th Century
and first an Augustinian Canon…
later answered the call to become a Franciscan Friar
and served as a missionary preacher to France and throughout Italy.

Though his miracles are well known nine centuries later…
and though he was also a professor in the Franciscan Order…
as one spiritual writer describes…
“It was as an orator…that Anthony reaped his richest harvest.”

During a festive dinner
following the ordination of Dominican and Franciscan priests
the superior asked for a volunteer to give a brief sermon.
No one responded…
and so young Anthony was chosen.

He was expected to be an awful speaker…
since he had little formal education.

He stunned every one in the room
by speaking with eloquence and learning and beauty…
beyond anything the priests could have imagined.

His magnificent gifts were instantly recognized…
and he was sent to preach the Gospel in places far and near.
and so converted countless men and women to the Christian faith.
He spoke with power, and conviction,
and had a spirit about him that resonated in the hearts of all who heard him.

He strove every time he spoke to present “the grandeur of Christianity”…
that others might come to know the untold beauty of the Christian life.

In one of his sermons. Saint Anthony proclaimed:
“Actions speak louder than words; let your words teach and your actions speak!”

In a time when preachers of the Gospel message lived in luxury…
Saint Anthony insisted on a radical simplicity for clergy and missionaries.
He insisted that those who speak the words of Christ strive to live like Him…
that their actions speak as loudly as their words.

This is the message of Jesus to the chosen disciples in today’s Gospel…
Go forth and preach that “The Kingdom of God is at hand.”
As you go to preach…live simply…
take none of the trappings of this world which will weigh you down…
present yourselves as peaceful, gracious, and caring servants.

Saint Anthony’s life…itself a living image of Christ…speaks to our hearts today…
and challenges us to make of our lives living witnesses to the Gospel.
Our words and our actions are to be one with each other…
and in harmony with the truth.
How scandalous are our “Catholic” politicians!
“Personally I am opposed to abortion…
but in my public, political life…I support the so-called ‘right to choose.’”
Their words mean nothing because their actions promote evil.

How scandalous it is for us to stand here and profess faith with our words…
if in an hour from now our actions betray Christ.

As we celebrate the glorious…miraculous…and eloquent life of Saint Anthony…
we beg his powerful intercession…
that we may find the courage and strength to live as Christ call us…
to be people of integrity
whose words and actions proclaim the grandeur of the Christian life!

Homily 12 June 2007 Sancta Clara Monastery

In today’s Gospel the Lord Jesus gives us two illustrations of the Christian life…
salt and light.
The Lord calls us to be salt for the earth.
Salt adds to food a lively taste.
So we are compelled as Christian people
to add zest to the world around us…
to bring some new life
to people who have not known the truth and beauty of the Gospel.
The Lord calls us to be a light for the world.
Light brings peace and comfort to dark places…
and allows us to see what is hidden in darkness.
So we are…by our Baptism…
entrusted with His light…
and called to shine that light in places of darkness and sin…
in order that peace and goodness may shine.
Each illustration presents an opportunity for Jesus to teach the Apostles…and us…
the sad reality of failing to live up to our vocations.
If salt looses its flavor…it is good for nothing.
If a light is hidden under a bushel basket…it is entirely useless.
The words us Jesus challenge us to be authentic disciples.
Each of our own vocations requires something particular of us…
and brings with it unique opportunities to be instruments of grace.
As Poor Clare Nuns…you place yourselves at the service of
the traditions of your Order and the traditions of the Church…
and you follow a uniquely graced life in the cloister.
As priests…we commit ourselves to ministry in the person of Christ…
the Head of His Body, the Church…
and to all the many challenges and graces that brings with it.
As lay persons, you have a vocation to bring the light of the Gospel
into places where nuns and priests cannot go.
Your place is not the cloister or the sanctuary…
but the school, the office, the factory, the grocery store…
wherever someone is in need of the presence of Christ.
Each of our vocations brings with it untold opportunities to be salt and light…
to season those around us with the truth…
and to enlighten their lives with Christ’s love.
After the example of Saint Paul in his letter to the Corinthians…
say "Yes" with Christ!
Be authentic disciples…living the unique call of your own vocations!
Don’t be unseasoned salt…or hidden lights!
Find lasting peace in this life…and heavenly rest in the life to come…
by entering more deeply into your own unique place in the Church…
and never fail to live completely what she asks of you!

Homily Corpus Christi 10 June 2007

Every few years the bishops of the Church
gather in a special meeting called a "Synod."

The "Year of the Eucharist"…
called for by Pope John Paul the Great shortly before his death…
ended in October 2005 with a Synod of Bishops in Rome.
The theme of the Synod was:
"The Eucharist: the Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church."

It is also the case that, following each synod,
the Holy Father writes a document called an "Apostolic Exhortation,"
explaining the themes and outcomes of the meeting.
In the Spring of this year, the Pope Benedict’s Apostolic Exhortation
following the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist was published.
It is titled: Sacramentum caritatis. The Sacrament of Charity.
Available online…

Today…as we gather to celebrate Corpus Christi…
this Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ…
it is a fitting time to reflect on the Eucharistic themes and lessons
our Holy Father shares with us in this document.

The Pope explains that he intends to set this document alongside his first Encyclical:
Deus caritas est. God is Love.
Pope Benedict has a fondness for a two-step approach to theological topics.
He explores first the theological foundations of the topic…
and then moves on to the practical considerations.
The first Encyclical moves from
a consideration of the theological meaning and nature of love
to a reflection on the practice of love…
how what we believe about love
and about God who is Love…
is lived out in the life of the Church.
The Exhortation Sacramentum caritatis
begins with the theology of the Eucharist…
and progresses toward liturgical expression and practice.

The two documents go hand-in-hand
in the Pope’s pastoral approach to the Church in our time.

In his first writing as Pope, Benedict set out to teach the Church
what love is…or rather…Who Love is…
and to teach us what love means to us as the Church.

Now we see him exploring the very heart of our faith and life as Catholics…
the Eucharist…
right alongside his understanding of the meaning and practice of love.

Pope Benedict’s words to us
flow through a three-fold expression of the mystery of the Eucharist:
The Eucharist is a mystery to be believed…
to be celebrated…
and to be lived.

It is the Revelation of the Son of God…God who is Love itself.
It is the celebration of the sacrificial love of Christ on the Cross.
It compels us to live and love with the passion and fervor of our Eucharistic Christ.

The Eucharist is first of all "A Mystery to be Believed."
It is…Mysterium fidei…a Mystery of Faith…
as the priest proclaims in the Eucharistic Prayer.
Not a mystery in the sense of something that confounds us.
A mystery in the sense of something before which we drop to our knees
in humble adoration.
The Mass is not just some thing among many which we Catholics do.
The Mass is the greatest event in which we poor mortal humans can share…
for in the Mass heaven is wedded to earth…
and we are given a foretaste of the glory which is to come.
The Real Presence of Jesus in the Tabernacle is not just one part of our religion…
alongside the customs of each other religious sect.
Such indifferentism must be avoided.
Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist…
in tabernacles in every corner of the globe…
is a reality for the whole world to rejoice in and to adore.
The Eucharist is the very source and summit of our life…
the very heart of who we are.
The Church’s faith is "Eucharistic."
All that we know and love as Catholics centers in Jesus’ abiding, loving presence.
All the other Sacraments are "bound up in" and "directed toward" the Eucharist.
The Eucharist is the fountain of the grace we depend on for living our Catholic life.

Secondly, the Eucharist is "A Mystery to be Celebrated."
"Lex credendi, lex orandi" exclaims the ancient phrase of the Church.
"The law of believing is the law of praying."
The Church’s beliefs are expressed in her prayer…
especially in her public, liturgical prayer.
The Liturgy of the Church is a celebration of what we believe.
The Mass is a celebration…in words, songs, and rituals…
of all that we believe about Jesus…
and of His real and abiding presence with us in the Eucharist.

The Pope reminds us that the our faith in the Eucharist and the liturgy of the Mass
are intimately united and "have their source in the same event:"
"Christ’s gift of Himself in the Paschal Mystery."
Thus the celebration of the Mass "should be…celebrated authentically."
It must be a true and authentic expression of the Church’s actual beliefs.
It must be celebrated properly, according to the Church’s norms and tradition.
Ultimately, the Mass is not about what we do.
It is about what God does in us and for us.
The liturgical action is the work of Christ, the real celebrant of the Liturgy.
We are called to place ourselves
at the service of the great gift of Christ in the Eucharist…
and at the service of the Church’s ancient tradition…
realities greater than us, which we dare not presume to control…
realities which we love, adore, and serve.

Third, the Eucharist is "A Mystery to be Lived."
The Eucharist should have a real and lasting impact in our daily lives.
Sunday is not just another day for us.
It is the Lord’s Day…the day of the Resurrection…
the Day of Pentecost: the birth of the Church by the power of the Holy Spirit.
It is the day of celebrating our Eucharistic faith.
A day of giving thanks for all the many blessings God has bestowed on us.
A day of resting in the Lord.
A day of enjoying the love and company of family and friends.
It is the day on which we must go to Mass… not because "the Church says so"…
but because God is so good to us…
and our hearts burn with a desire to praise Him…
to give thanks to Him…and to be more deeply united with Him.

The Mass we celebrate ends with the words "The Mass is ended, go in peace."
In the original Latin phrase, Ite, Missa est…
the words "Missa" comes from the Latin word for sending forth.
We are sent forth to live and proclaim what we have celebrated.
The Eucharist we receive transforms us…and becomes the "form of our life."
Because of the Eucharist, our lives are not the same as the rest of the world.
Because we receive Christ’s Body and Blood, and carry Him within us…
indulging in sin, greed, evil and worldly pleasure makes no sense for us.
Because Christ lives within us, we are compelled to be uniquely loving people.
We become one with Christ in this Holy Mass…
and so must strive to become one with Him in our lives…
by imitating His love, humility, and radical self-offering for the sake of others.

As the title of the Holy Father’s Exhortation proclaims…
The Eucharist is the "Sacrament of Charity…the Sacrament of Love."

The Church believes in and lovingly receives the Eucharist…
She lovingly celebrates this great mystery in the Mass
She lovingly proclaims Christ the Eucharistic Lord to the whole world.

May we always center our whole lives around this great Sacrament of love!

Homily 5 June 2007 Saint Boniface

In the early days of June 1813, Captain James Lawrence, in command of the U.S.S. Chesapeake, engaged the British frigate H.M.S. Shannon just outside Boston Harbor.
After a short, bloody battle, the Chesapeake was seriously damaged and Captain Lawrence lay mortally wounded.
Reportedly, Lawrence died with his last command still on his lips:
"Tell the men to fire faster. Fight 'til she sinks, boys. Don't give up the ship."
The Americans lost the battle and were compelled to surrender the Chesapeake, but Lawrence's dying words lived on.
Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, who is frequently and incorrectly credited with being the source of the phrase, had Lawrence's words – "Don't give up the ship" - stitched onto a battle flag. Commodore Perry flew that flag in the Battle of Lake Erie later in the same year – 1813.

Today we celebrate the feast of Saint Boniface…"The Apostle to Germany."
Saint Boniface…born around the year 673…professed vows as a monk in England
Went to preach the Gospel in Germany.
Through his tireless efforts…
many were converted to the Christian faith…
several diocese were founded or restored…
and the Church in Germany sprouted and grew.
In a letter that is found in today’s Office of Matins…
Saint Boniface writes these words:
"In her voyage across the ocean of this world, the Church is like a great ship being pounded by the waves of life’s different stresses. Our duty is not to abandon ship but to keep her on her course."
He continues later in the letter, reflecting on the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel:
Let us not be "silent onlookers nor paid servants who run away before the wolf.
Instead let us be careful shepherds…Let us preach the whole of God’s plan to men of every rank and age…in season and out of season."

In the hall outside the chapel of Saint Vincent Seminary…
there is a statue of Saint Boniface, the patron of Saint Vincent’s founder.
He is depicted holding a Bible.
Thrust through the Bible and into his heart is a sword.
Saint Boniface was killed in 754 while preaching the Gospel to the Germanic people.
He went to his death calling for conversion…for victory in Christ.
He went down with the words of Christ on his lips…his own "battle orders."
If…as Saint Boniface writes…
the Church is a great ship tossed in the waves in the ocean of the world…
then each of us is called in our own way stand fast…
to maintain course and never fail to preach the truth of Jesus Christ…
in and out of season…and always with love.

In short… "Don’t give up the ship."