28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily

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28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
2 Kings 5:14-7
Psalm 98:1, 2-3, 3-4
2 Timothy 2:8-13
Luke 17:11-19
October 9, 2016

Both our first reading today and our gospel tell of people who was thankful for being healed of their leprosy.

In the first reading, it is Naaman who wasn’t even Jewish.  He was a great military leader but afflicted by leprosy.  Someone tells him about the prophet Elisha who can help him.  Elisha tells him to go plunge into the Jordan River.  At first, he didn’t want to but others convinced him to.  When he made at “act of faith” to do what didn’t make sense to him, then he is healed.

Once he is healed he goes back to Elisha to thank him and he becomes a believer in the God of Israel and no other God.  He is thankful and a man of true faith.

In the gospel, it is not just one but ten lepers who ask Jesus for help.  The ten lepers cry out to Jesus “Have pity on us.”  We need to realize they did so standing at a distance.  Leprosy was not a pleasant thing physically but add to it that anyone who had it had to be isolated made it even worse.

What is Jesus’ response?  Does he heal them right then?  No, He told them to “Go show yourselves to the priests.”  When a leper was healed they were to go to a priest so the priest could see them and declare them clean.  But they haven’t been healed yet.

Yet, they do as Jesus said.  In doing so, they make an act of faith and then they are healed.  However, only one returns to give thanks.

How often do we ask God for help?

Why are we even willing to ask God?  I think we are willing to ask God because hearing the many stories in the Bible about God healing people gives us hope that God will provide for us too.  As we sang in our response verse, “The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.”  This revelation comes through the stories in scripture.

I suspect when we feel a need we all remember to ask God for help.  The need helps us to remember.  However, I also suspect that we aren’t so good about thanking God when we receive help.

When we are truly thankful for what God has done for others before us and what he has done for us, then we can live with an “attitude of gratitude.”  This is turn fills us with hope but not just an ordinary hope.

In ordinary hope, we expect there are better things to come but in the hope that goes with faith, we know that God is with us even when things are difficult.  The hope of faith gives us the strength to get through the tough moments rather than just trying to pray them away.

The hope of faith transforms the way we live.

We see this in Paul.  As Saul, he had been a zealous Jew who believed that Jesus was a false messiah and thus heavily persecuted the Christians.  Jesus had to directly intervene with Paul to get him to see the “light” and become Christian.  Then, as Paul, he was a zealous promoter of the Christian faith.

What does Paul’s work as an apostle get him?  As he writes to Timothy he is in prison.  He could have lamented being in prison.  He could have pray to get out of prison.  He doesn’t.  He just trusts that God will help him in whatever situation comes before him.

Paul is thankful for what God has already done for him.  When I say thankful, not just for some healing or any one time miracle.  Paul is thankful because he realizes that God could have condemned him to Hell for his persecution of the Christians.  Instead Jesus reached out to him with forgiveness that Paul realizes he didn’t deserve.  What is Paul thankful for?  His salvation.

We are here to celebrate Mass.  That is “what” we are here to do but why do we come?

We might come because life isn’t going so well and we want God to help us.  In the first part of Mass, we hear God’s Word from the Bible and the stories of how God has taken care of his people can help us find hope in our own needs.  Thus, we are strengthened in the Word of God.  Are we thankful for this?

Then we celebrate the Eucharist.  We must remember that the word “Eucharist” means thanksgiving.

Why should we be thankful for the Eucharist?  The most obvious is because of what we receive in the Eucharist.  It is not just bread and wine.  It is the Body and Blood of Jesus.  It is Jesus giving himself to us to strengthen us.  This alone is reason to be thankful.

However, this is not all the Eucharist represents for us.  The words of consecration “this is my Body…this is my blood” come from Jesus’ own words at the Last Supper.  When He said those words he spoke of his Body being given up for us, his Blood being shed for us.  This establishes a direct connection between the Eucharist and the Sacrifice of the Cross.

This is why whenever we celebrate the Eucharist, we have a Crucifix present.  For us, it is right next to my chair.  Seeing the Crucifix is to give us hope.  It reminds of the sacrifice we celebrate.

Here we must appreciate it is a Crucifix, not just a Cross.  The Cross is the instrument of our salvation but when we see Jesus on it, we see Jesus himself giving his life for us.

Thus when we celebrate the Eucharist, we have much to be thankful for.  We are thankful for what we receive in the Body and Blood of Jesus.  We are thankful of Jesus giving his life on the Cross for us.  We are filled with hope.  We can be transformed by the hope that comes from the Eucharist to be filled with an “attitude of gratitude.”  We are filled with hope and transformed to look at the world differently as we go out in faith and hope to live our lives trusting in Jesus.

St. Francis of Assisi

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Today, October 4th, we celebrate the Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi.  He is among the more popular saints.  I myself have read biographies about him and have a picture of him sitting on a table in my sitting room.  In the picture, he is standing outside in the woods dressed in his Franciscan robe with a bird flying at his fingertips.

I think St. Francis’ popularity is growing today because of his love of nature.  He is a patron saint of the environment and in a world where global climate change and how we are using our resources is a big concern, St. Francis is called upon for his intercession.

I like St. Francis for two reasons.  First, I too love nature.  I just love being outside.  It is a big part of why I try to take daily walks.  Sometimes people ask me if I miss my job working for the New York State Department of Transportation.  I think when they ask this question, they are doing so in the context of do I miss being an engineer.  Sometimes, but what I miss most about my job with the state is that for five of the seven years I worked for the state, I worked on construction projects and that meant I got to be outside every day.  That is what I miss most.

Next to the picture of St. Francis on my sitting table is a window that is six to eight feet across.  While it is a big window, I only open the curtains about one foot in the middle.  By doing so, the view I have from my chair is of the trees in the backyard and the roofline of the neighbor’s garage that is shaped like an old barn roof. That is the image that reminds me of God’s creation.  If I open the curtains more, I see more houses, etc.  I prefer the simple setting of the trees and the barn roof.

That leads into the second reason I like St. Francis.  He lived under a vow of poverty but not for the sake of being poor but rather for simplicity of life.  We live in a busy world.  We have too many things going on in our lives and that keeps us from knowing God and being aware of God’s presence in our lives.  I find God in the quiet moments and so I long for simplicity of life.

We live in a world that is constantly changing at a rapid pace.  In my own lifetime we have gone from computers that took up a whole room to do basic calculations to having cell phones that manage our lives.  I myself have a smart phone, an office computer, and a laptop for gadgets.

The first car I drove was a manual shift.  Now, they are coming out with cars that drive themselves.  Does any of this really make our lives any better?

The vehicle I currently drive has a built in GPS system to tell me how to get to where I am going.  GPS in the car stands for “global positioning system.”  What I need most in my life is a different type of GPS system.  What I need is a “God positioning system” to put me where God wants me to be.

Peace,

Fr. Jeff

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C & Respect Life Sunday

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27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Habakkuk 1:2-3, 2:2-4
Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
2 Timothy 1:6-8, 13-14
Luke 17:5-10
October 2, 2016

The Apostles ask Jesus to increase their faith.  It seems like a good request.  I suspect many of us, myself included, make the same request.  It’s a challenge to believe.  We can feel like we need more faith!

Yet, what is Jesus response?  “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea’ and it would obey you.”

I guess I don’t have much faith because I can’t get the mulberry tree to uproot and move.  I would say I need more faith but how do we measure our faith?

We might feel like we need more faith when our prayers are not being answered.  Are there times when we repeat the words of Habakkuk, “I cry for help but you do not listen!”?

Do we cry out “violence” but nothing changes?  ‘Why must I look at misery?’

Every time there is a shooting, people cry out to God.

Every time there is a terrorist attack, people cry out to God.

When one sees the misery of those who don’t have a home to live in or food to eat, a cry goes out to God.

Will it ever change?

I think part of the problem is that people don’t really grasp the “vision” that God has given us on how to live.  People hear God’s commandment to love but don’t listen to God to hear what it means to love.  They think this means just telling them we love them and never talking about anything they do as wrong.

I think there are a lot of people don’t respect life.  I’ll go so far as to say that I wonder if the people who commit shootings and terrorism even respect their own lives, let alone the lives of others.

Respecting life is not just a matter of crying out when there is a shooting or terrorist attack.  To respect life requires us to everyone as a unique individual, given life by God, and having all the same rights and deserving respect.

If we truly respect life, it doesn’t matter if the person can take care of themselves or is totally dependent on others.  Respecting life means respecting the person at a core level even when they have done something wrong.

October is Respect Life month in our Catholic faith.  When people hear the Catholic Church speak about respecting life, many know that our Church is against abortion, euthanasia, and the death penalty, but I think a lot of people, including a lot of Catholics, doesn’t understand why our Church is against these things.

These are important issues and they are not easy to talk out.  Our church teaching doesn’t match popular opinion.  I don’t feel it is easy even to stand up in a Catholic Church and talk about this issues, let alone trying to talk about them to people outside the Church.

Yet, as Paul writes to Timothy, “God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather of power and love and self-control.”

If we are going to respect life, we need the gifts of the Spirit (knowledge, wisdom, and understanding) to know what it means to respect life and we need the gift of courage to speak up.

Respecting life very much includes life as it begins in the womb.  It includes life at its end (the tomb) in this world when our bodies are tired and week from age or illness.

Respecting life also means every moment in between (from womb to tomb).  It means feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty.  It means understanding the needs of those who have committed crimes.  They may deserve punishment but they need compassion.

We are nearing the end of our Jubilee Year of Mercy but the need for mercy will never end.  We count on God’s mercy for ourselves and we should be moved by mercy to respect all life.

Maybe we know what we can do to respect life.  Maybe our first step is to learn why the Church calls us to respect life.  We need to make sure we have a well-formed conscience in order to live out our faith.

It’s no secret we are in a presidential election year.  There are others offices open for election.  You must decide for yourselves who you are going to vote for but it is important for us to vote.  Our Church calls us to discern what is important to us and to learn where the candidates stand on the issues.  There are lots of things to consider in selecting a candidate.  Is respecting life one of them for you?

Feast of St. Michael – Homily

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This evening we celebrated a special Mass followed by a dish to pass supper to celebrate our parish feast day.  We were blessed to have about 100 people join us. Thank you to all who helped, especially the Altar & Rosary Society that coordinated the dinner.  Thank you to all who brought food.  It was wonderful.

Here is my homily for the Mass.

Feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, Archangels
Revelation 12:7-12a
Psalm 138:1-2ab, 2cde-3, 4-5
John 1:47-51
September 29, 2016

We gather here today for our parish feast, the Feast of St. Michael.  We should recognize that it is actually the Feast of the Archangels and so it includes Gabriel and Raphael along with Michael.

Angels are mentioned nearly three hundred times in the Bible.  We might wonder how many angels there are.  Well, Matthew 18:10 speaks of how we all have a Guardian Angel and there are a little over 7 billion people in the world today.  So that would mean there are at least 7 billion angels actively working as Guardian angels.

7 billion angels…. It isn’t enough.

Out of all the angels in Heaven, the Bible only tells us the names of three, Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael.  Tonight, of course, we will focus on Michael.

St. Michael is probably most known for the scene described in our reading from Revelation (12:7-12a) where Michael leads the battle against the dragon.  The dragon is the image of Satan.  Satan was once an angel himself but, along with other angels, he rebelled against God.  He was defeated and cast out of Heaven along with those who fought on his side.

It might be hard to imagine angels rebelling against God.  They have seen God face to face.  How could they turn from God?  We must remember that just like us, angels are individual beings with free will.

For his role as the leader in the defeat of Satan, Michael is seen as our protector and thus is the patron saint of police officers as well as soldiers.

Michael is also a patron saints for doctors and in sickness.  This is because there is also a history of Michael as an intercessor for healing.  Our most common image today for Michael is what is seen in our new statue, Michael crushing the serpent as depicting in Revelation.  If you check your church art history you can also find Michael portrayed holding scales symbolizing justice and as a healer.

As I mention images of St. Michael I should mention the idea of idolatry.  There are Protestants who think that Catholics worship the images we have of the saints.  That would not be true.

We do not worship the images.  In fact we do not worship the saints in any way.  The images, whether they are statues, paintings, or prayer cards, simply serve to remind us of the saints in the same way one might keep pictures of your loved one.

As to worship, we do not worship the saints.  We venerate the saints.  To venerate is to show honor and respect.  We honor the saints because they are with God.  We ask for their intercession as they stand before God.  They do not do the miracles.  God does.

The saints intercede with their prayers before God.  In our Creed, we refer to the “Communion of Saints.”  We think of saints as those in Heaven but we are part of the Communion of Saints.  The Communion of Saints exists in three parts.  First are those already in Heaven.  The second are those in Purgatory undergoing final purification before entering Heaven.  The third is us, the church alive on Earth.  We ask for the intercession of the saints already in Heaven and in turn we pray for those in Purgatory.

But what do saints have to do with Michael?  He is an archangel.  Why do we call him Saint Michael?

Today, when we think of “saints,” we think of those humans who have died and have been raised up to Heaven.  At its most basic level, the word “saint” means “holy” and saints are those with the most Holy (God) in Heaven.  Thus angels are saints.

With this in mind, we call Michael Saint Michael.  For us in this parish, he is our patron saint.  This means we especially ask his intercession to watch over us as a parish as we seek to do God’s Will.

We are not just a bunch of individuals who come to the same building to worship God.  We are called to work together to help each other be “Raised in Christ.”  We need to support each other as we try to live in this world today.  We come together to celebrate Mass tonight.  It is good that we worship together.  Tonight we will not leave right after Mass.  We will go downstairs to share a meal together.  We will talk with one another, maybe with a friend, maybe with someone new.  The point is to be support each other as we try to live out our Catholic faith.  That means faith should be part of the conversation.

We need to strengthen one another.  It is not easy to be a Catholic today. Some people want to hear nothing about any faith.  Atheists deny the existence of God while agnostics doubt God’s existence but do not deny it.

Because people deny God’s existence, they do not accept the teachings of Christ as good ways to live.  Some of them still do good things but others, with nothing as a moral compass to guide them, fall prey to temptation and give into the temptations of the Evil One.

Our reading from Revelation today depicted the defeat of Satan in Heaven.  Evil was cast out of Heaven that day but evil still exists today.  We see it in the shootings.  We see it in the terrorism.  We see in the taking of innocent lives.

I said before 7 billion angels is not enough.  We are still doing battle against temptation and so we need the angels’, especially St. Michael’s, assistance to defend us in battle.  In just a moment we will offer our Prayers of Faithful.  Today we will end our prayers by saying together the prayer of St. Michael that is on the cards that were on the tables as you came in to ask for St. Michael’s intercession to defend us against temptation and evil.

 

St. Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
and do thou,
O Prince of the heavenly hosts,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan,
and all the evil spirits,
who prowl about the world
seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C & CMA – Homily

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26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Amos 6:1a, 4-7
Psalm 146:7, 8-9, 9-10
1 Timothy 6:11-16
Luke 16:19-31

Today Jesus speaks about the rich man who wore fine garments and dined sumptuously each day.  This in and of itself won’t be all bad but he did it seemingly oblivious to the poor man Lazarus lying at his door covered in sores.

People acting like this is nothing new.  Writing a few hundred earlier, Amos speaks about those who laid in “beds of ivory” and had the “best oils” while being complacent to the needs of others as Israel was collapsing.

Are we complacent?  Are we aware of others?  I’m grateful that we have some parishioners who are very generous giving of their time, talent, and treasure to help in our parish.

In the psalm we hear about how the Lord secures justice, gives food, and raises up those who were bowed down.  God helps us and when we help others we are all “Raised in Christ.”

How much do we look beyond ourselves?  How much do we look beyond those we see every day?  Remember that the rich man was oblivious to Lazarus.  After they both died, they were separated by a great chasm, Lazarus in Heaven and the rich man in Hell.

Do we live like we are alone in the world or do we live mindful of how we are part of much larger than ourselves?  To me, one of the great gifts of being part of the Catholic Church is that we are not individuals, we are no just part of one parish.  We are part of a “universal” (catholic means universal) church that is much bigger than what we see in human terms in one little parish.

We are St. Michael’s parish and we will celebrate our parish feast day this week but we are also part of the Diocese of Rochester.  Sometimes we don’t feel connected to the diocese apart from the fact that Bishop Matano leads our diocese.

What might ask what does the diocese do for us?

Well, in terms of community, the diocese very much supports the work of Catholic Charities in our community.  For the parish, do you know that the diocese does all the work to set up and maintain our computers and we just pay for equipment and materials?  Do you know that the diocese helps us with all the rules and regulations from the government that keep changing that we need to follow for our finances and administration?

What else does the diocese do for our parish?  Our diocese provides the priests for our parishes.  The diocese paid for my entire education in seminary.  Since becoming a priest the diocese has supported me with continuing education in leadership development.  In short, I am here because the diocese makes it possible for me to be here.

The diocese does support us.  With this in mind, it is the time of the year when we start our annual Catholic Ministries Appeal.  You may have already received your letter from Bishop Matano announcing the theme of this year’s campaign, “Raised in Christ.”  We are all called to stop being complacent and to help each other.  When we help each other physically and spiritually, we are all “Raised in Christ.”

We help others in our direct support of Catholic Charities and our Community Food Closet to people in physical need.  We do it spiritually in our faith formation programs.

We are also called to support our diocese to do the same beyond our parish boundaries.  In supporting the CMA, you also support our national bishops’ conference as well as the work of Pope Francis.

Your contributions to the CMA help make it possible for our diocese to no longer charge annulment fees to make it easier to help those dealing with broken marriages.

The CMA makes up about 60% of the entire diocesan budget.  It is vital to the work of the diocese.  For instance, do you know that a little over 10% of the money raised in the CMA goes to Catholic Charities?

I don’t know if you aware of it but our parish has a history of not making its goal.  Last year the goal was around $51,600.  The total raised was a little less than $37,000.  When a parish doesn’t meet its goal, it pays the difference out of its general budget.  That means we sent a check to the diocese for a little over $14,000.

Now the good piece of news here is our diocese has lowered our goal for this year to $45,750, a decreased of nearly $6,000.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is compared to last year that would still leave us almost $9,000 short of our goal.

That’s a lot but I believe we can do it.  This is the fourth parish I have served in since my ordination.  In each of the three parishes I have served in before, we stepped up our promotion of the CMA and raised the total given in a year by amounts of $8,000 or more.

We can do this.  It means we all have to dig a little deeper.  We need people who regularly contribute to the CMA and are able to increase their contribution.  We need more people to donate.  Every little bit helps from the $5 donation to the $5,000 donation.

As I prepared my homily for today, I went online to our diocesan website and gave my contribution online.  You can contribute online or by check in the mail.  All registered parishioners should get a mailing from the diocese.  If you don’t starting next week we will have donation envelopes available in church.

I ask you to please prayerfully consider what you can give.  Every little bit helps.  Some can give more.  Some can’t.  Give what you can.  It’s important to our diocese.  It’s important to our parish.  It’s important to me.  When you give, it shows me you believe in what we are trying to do.  None of us is perfect but we strive to do the work of Christ.

My Last Video Presentation

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Last week I did my first presentation at St. Michael’s Church in Newark.  It is called “What Comes After the Jubilee Year of Mercy?”  It largely contains pieces of what I did in my three presentations at Immaculate Conception Church on the Jubilee Year of Mercy but it does contain some new insights.

You can view this presentation at http://www.renewaloffaith.org/video—mercy.html.

Peace,

Fr. Jeff

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily

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25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Amos 8:4-7
Psalm 113:1-2, 4-6, 7-8
1 Timothy 2:1-8
Luke 16:1-13

Jesus tells the parable of the steward who was fired for squandering his master’s property.  The very purpose of a “steward” is to manage well the owner’s property.

Of course, Jesus tells this parable to direct us in how we live as Christians.  God has blessed us with various gifts.  We are free to choose to do whatever we want we with them but if we want to be good disciples, then we need to be good stewards of what God has given us.  This means not to squander away what God has given us.  It also means not to use our gifts just for our own gain but for the building up of God’s kingdom.

We each have different gifts.  Do you use yours for good?

Just to give a couple of examples in our parish, I’ll mention our Finance Council.  It is made up of people with financial backgrounds to help us make sure we use what you have contributed to the parish well.  We have our new Building and Grounds made up of an engineer, a carpenter, and a safety manager who also use their experience to help us.  On a different note, we have all the people who are good at making crafts who make stuff for our bazaar.  Then, there are the people who made the cookies for my presentation last week to whom I say thank you.  They also cook for our funeral receptions.

I could continue but I want to focus on a particular group.  Today is Catechetical Sunday.  A catechist is one who teaches others about our faith.  This weekend our first group of catechists go to work as our faith formation programs for children start.  The second group is our RCIA catechists who teach those who wish to join our church about what it means to be Catholic.

We should be, at least I know I am, thankful for these volunteers who as good stewards use the skills and knowledge that God has given them to share the faith with others.

If you go and read the Canon Law of our Church or the Catechism you will see that for children, the parents are the ones who hold the primary responsibility for teaching their children about the faith.

This is because parents are the ones who spend every day with their children.  You see, teaching children about our faith is not just a question of classroom teaching.  Teaching children about our faith means praying together as a family.  It means coming to church.  It means teaching children how to bless themselves with the holy water when they enter a church.

Then, as they grow comes the “classroom” teaching.  Here, the church does not expect parents to do this on their own.  Here, our Church says that the parish must help the parents teach their children.  If you read Canon Law, it says one of my primary responsibilities as pastor is to see to the catechesis of the people.

The homily is an important part of this.  It is the one opportunity I have to address everyone who comes to Mass.  I also try to help people grow in faith through the presentations that I do and through my website.

The two groups that most need catechesis are, of course, the children and those new to our faith.  It is very important that as a parish, we take our responsibility here very seriously.

It is my responsibility to see to this but I can’t do it myself.  For the RCIA program we are so fortunate as to have a few people who lead the sessions and a core team and a leader who run the program as volunteers.

For the faith formation of our children and youth, we have a program that is coordinated by June Sherman who runs these programs full-time.  To make the programs possible, she relies on our volunteers who teach several of the classes and lead our Children’s Liturgy of the Word sessions.

We count on these volunteers to make our faith formation programs possible.  It would be difficult to have our children’s, youth, or RCIA programs without them.  We need to thank them for what they do.

I also want thank everyone who volunteers as a good steward in our parish.  I mentioned some earlier.  There are others.  To all I say thank you.

If you aren’t volunteering in our parish or in our community, pray about what you might do.  If you aren’t able to volunteer because of age, illness, or disability there are still two things you can do.  First, live our faith in ways that others can see and pray for others to come forward as good stewards of what they have been given.

May we all be good stewards of what God has given us so that the world comes to know God’s kingdom and his will be done.

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily

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24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14
Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 17, 19
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-32

Some of you may be old enough to remember the days when people went to confession at least monthly if not weekly.  It didn’t matter if you were conscious of mortal sin.  You must have done something wrong and you better go.

This might fit with the image in our first reading.  The people had committed a great sin by making a golden calf idol.  They clearly broke the commandment against idolatry and they deserved to be punished.  God was going to lay his wrath against them.  This image here is of God as a punishing God.  So, we better go to confession or else.

Today’s gospel includes the story of the Prodigal Son.  It is a favorite story to many.  The image portrayed of the father is not a punishing father.  His younger son has taken a share of the inheritance and left, leaving the father behind.  In the culture of the time, the father had every right to disown his younger son for this but this father does not.  He still loves his son.

Even though his son has lived a bad life, the father is eager to welcome him back.  So much so that as the son arrives, the father runs out to greet him, throws a celebration, and restores the full status to his younger son.

Which image do you prefer?  Do the idea of a God who punishes inspire you in any way?  Or would you rather God fit the image of the father who runs out to greet his son and forgive him?

God does not want to punish us.  Even though the Israelites have sinned by making the golden calf, God relents of punishment through Moses’ intercession.  It didn’t take much effort on Moses’ part because God wants to forgive us.

What is your image of Confession?

Do you fear going to confession?  Are you afraid of God’s wrath?

When we see someone going to confession, do we “speculate” about seeing them go into the confession?  What did they do?  Or do we celebrate that the person has repented?  While sin is bad, when one repents, it is time to rejoice.

Yet people do not rejoice.  In fact, many don’t go at all.  The pendulum has swung from weekly or monthly confession to the other extreme.  We think confession is outdated or we think we don’t do anything that bad.

There is no right length of time before we need to go to confession.  If we commit mortal sin, then we should go.

Confession may seem like something we want to avoid because we don’t want others to know our sins.  We should try to avoid needing to go to confession, meaning we shouldn’t sin but when we do sin, we should go to confession.

We should not fear going to confession for it is God’s gift to us.  It is a gift we need.

To understand it as a gift, we should take a look at the names we give it.

Confession is probably the most common name.  The name does fit because we are confessing our sins.  However, God already knows our sins.  We confess them out loud to admit we have sinned and need God’s help.  While confession is a necessary part of the sacrament, the act of confessing is one part of the sacrament.

Another name for this sacrament is penance.  After we confess our sins, the priest answers us a penance to do.  The penance is to show our remorse and our desire to sin no more with God’s help.  This represents a third part of the sacrament, contrition, which is the sorrow in our hearts for our sin.

Another name for this sacrament is reconciliation.  This is what we come for.  Our mortal sins have separated us from God.  Our venial sins have distanced us from God.  We want to change that but we cannot make this happen on our own.  We need the fourth part of the sacrament, absolution, to reconcile us.

Reconciliation is the name I like because it is the purpose of the sacrament.  It is the gift we receive in the sacrament.  We need to move from dreading confession to rejoicing that God makes reconciliation possible.

I feel privileged to be able to be the priest as people come to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  I want you to experience God’s mercy.  It’s why I sit in the “box” for an hour on Saturday.  If you can’t make it on Saturday afternoon, you can make an appointment.  If you want to remain anonymous you can call and make an appointment without giving your name and I will meet you in the church.

God wants to forgive us but first we need to admit our faults and return to the Father like the prodigal son.

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily

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23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Wisdom 9:13-18b
Psalm 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17
Philemon 9-10, 12-17
Luke 14:25-33

Is Jesus really telling us to hate people?

This doesn’t match with what Jesus says the two greatest commandments are, to love God and love our neighbor.  The fourth commandment tells us to honor our mother and father and now we hear Jesus saying to hate our mother and father.  It doesn’t make sense.

Jesus goes on to tell us that we must even hate our own life.  God is the one who has given us life.  Why should we hate the life that God has given us?  It’s confusing.

We think of love and hate as direct opposites.  To love a person is to care deeply for them while to hate them is to despise them, to wish ill upon them.  Is that what Jesus is telling us to do?

No.  While we might think of love and hate as opposite that is not what the original words of Jesus were saying.  The word Jesus used for hate does not mean to despise or maybe even to cause ill to a person.  It is a much gentler “love—less”.

What Jesus is telling us still means to love all but that we must put God above all else.  This is not easier.  Jesus knows this.  He wants us to understand what we are getting ourselves into.  If we truly desire to be his disciples we are going to have to make some tough decisions.

This is why Jesus talks about calculating the cost.  In deciding what to do, we need to take time to think about what it will require of us.

Jesus speaks of the comparison of building a tower.  In today’s terms, let’s say we want to build a new garage.  What is it going to take?  First, we need enough land to build it on.  We will need to prepare the site.  Can we do this ourselves or do we need to hire someone?  Then we need to pour a concrete floor, build walls and a roof.  We need garage doors.  We need lighting.  We probably want an automatic garage opener.  We need to paint it.  We need a driveway to get to the garage.  Wow!  This could be a lot of work.  It could cost a fair amount of money.  After looking at what it will take we can think about if we have enough to build a garage or not.

In the same way, we can ask ourselves what is required of us to Jesus’ disciples.  Are we willing to make sacrifices?

Here I think of the way our RCIA program works for anyone wishing to become part of our Catholic church.   It’s that time of year for our program to start.  We don’t start with the people becoming Catholic and then after that teach what it means to be Catholic.  No, for older teens and adults, we have them attend the classes and then make their decision to join our church or not.  We teach them about what it means to be Jesus’ disciple and then they can “calculate the cost” for themselves.

The decision for most of us to be baptized was made a long time ago, most often when we were babies.  That doesn’t mean that we don’t need to think any more about what it means to be Jesus’ disciples.  It is an ongoing decision for us.

Anytime we need to make a significant decision, we need to “calculate the cost.”  What impact do the possible choices have on my faith?  What impact do they have on our family, our own lives?  What does the choice we make say about who we are as a person?

We need to pray for God to guide us.  Wisdom reminds us, “Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the Lord intends?”  It is not easy to know what God wants us to do.  When we do know what God wants us to do, it is not always easy to do it.

In a black and white world, we might like it all spelled out for us.  We would like it all spelled out for us in very exact times and we want God to make it easy for us.

God worked to spell it out for his people.  We think in terms of 10 commandments but for the Jews there were a total of 613 commandments.  Even with all those commandments, the Jews still struggled to do what God asked of them.

Jesus comes to break open the Word of God for us, to show us what it really means.  He knows it is not always easy.  He knows we fall short.  If we could always get it right, there would have been no need for Jesus to die on the Cross for our sins.

Jesus comes to teach us the Father’s Will but we need help to apply it in our lives today.  That’s why that after Jesus’ Ascension God sends us the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son.  The Holy Spirit comes to give us knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.  The Holy Spirit gives us counsel to make good decisions.

Where does it all start?  What is God’s will for us?

I think we can start with one simple prayer that we have all memorized, a prayer that we will say together before we leave.  It is a prayer that is part of many devotions.  It is a prayer that we can say quickly and without even thinking about it.  It is a prayer that Jesus taught us.

It is the Lord’s Prayer.

We pray thy kingdom come.  What does that mean?  What does God want the world to be like?

We pray thy will be done.  What is God’s will?

We might say the Lord’s Prayer often.  How often do we think about the words?  How often do we calculate the cost of what it takes to truly pray thy will be done?

Catholic Charities as the Work of the Church

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This past weekend was the first weekend since I came to St. Michael’s that I haven’t preached.  Instead, we welcomed Deacon Peter Dohr who serves as the Executive Director of Catholic Charities Wayne County.  He spoke to us about the important work they do in our area and some new programs they have started to help build up families and relationships.

If you have ever looked at my website you should know that Catholic Social Teaching is very important to me.  It is important for two reasons.  First, I grew up in places where there are people who struggle to make ends meet including my own family members.  Secondly, I see it as an absolutely essential part of our faith.  Some people see Catholic Social Teaching as something new.  I think this comes from knowing that no pope had written a specific document on social teaching until Pope Leo XIII wrote Rerum Novarum in 1891.  Since then there have been a number of papal documents written (cf. “Catholic Social Encyclicals”.  However, it is not “new” teaching.  There are new documents because the world has undergone huge changes in the last two centuries from the Industrial Revolution as well as the speed of modern transportation and communication changing how we interact with one another.  In this context we need to know how to live out our faith in today’s world.  That’s what these social documents of the Church have been written for.

To show that Catholic Social Teaching did not begin in 1891, we can read Matthew 25:31-46.  Jesus tells us that we will be judged by whether we help or fail to help those in need.  If you watch my second presentation on the Jubilee Year of Mercy, you can see how our social teaching even goes back to the Old Testament.

In every parish I have served in as a priest, there has been a group of parishioners leading the social ministry of the parish. In every parish I have served in I have served on a board of directors from Catholic Charities.  In my first assignment in Elmira, I served both on the local board of Catholic Charities Chemung-Schuyler and Providence Housing.  In my second assignment at Our Lady of the Lakes, I continued on the Providence Housing board.  Moving to my third assignment I continued for a couple of years with Providence Housing and also served on the local board of Catholic Charities Tompkins Tioga.  What I enjoy about Catholic Charities is the strong effort not just to provide a handout but to provide a help up, to help the people become better at caring for their own families.

Now that I am in Newark, NY I am already forming ties and partnering with Catholic Charities Wayne County.  I believe to be the Catholic Church that God calls us to be, we must help those in need.  There are a number of good Catholic groups out there doing this.  In you aren’t already involved in helping those in need, you can start by finding out what efforts your parish has.  You can also check out Catholic Charities.  In our diocese, Catholic Charities, has some presence and ministry in all twelve counties.

I’ve already referred to the Catholic Social Teaching section on my own website including a list of the “Catholic Social Encyclicals”.  If you would like to have a book with the official social teaching of our Church check out the “Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church.”

The Jubilee Year of Mercy ends in three months but the need for mercy will go on (see my videos on mercy).

Peace,

Fr. Jeff