Episodes
10 hours ago
Jesus connects Love, Obedience and Joy
10 hours ago
10 hours ago
The gospel that I have just read. Jesus connects love, obedience, and joy. Jesus says he Himself found joy and fulfilling the will of His Father even in the face of adversity. That adversity was nothing less than laying down his life for his friends. By his sacrifice on the cross, this is how he can say there is no greater love than this to lay down one's life for his friends. Jesus says, you will live in my love if you keep my commandments. Even as I kept my father's commands and I live in his love, when motivated, obedience by love becomes a source of joy. Jesus said, it was not you who chose me. It was I who chose you. Though you live in this world. You must not be of this world.
I chose you to go forth and bear fruit. Your fruit must endure. It takes courage to follow Jesus. Christian discipleship is demanding. Saint Augustine and Saint Paul both taught. We are not citizens of this world. We are on a journey. Were pilgrims going through the world until we get to our promised land, which is heaven? Christians seek to experience the things that are above, not what is here on earth. To choose the city of man means to choose oneself over God and neighbor. To choose the city of God. Beings who love God and total trust and obedience. The question is, can the values of our culture be reconciled with the truth of Christ? It is in this church on this very altar, that the kingdom of God and the city of man meet.
It is here that we receive Jesus in the Eucharist. It is here we have learned, as Jesus asks, to learn how to love one another.
Homily begins at 20:21
Tuesday Apr 30, 2024
Pray the Rosary
Tuesday Apr 30, 2024
Tuesday Apr 30, 2024
My name is Father Noe Torres, I am the Vicar at Immaculate Conception in Hendersonville and at the Basilica of St. Lawrence in Asheville and now I am here at St. Dorothy, three churches!
I will be with you celebrating the Holy mass and sacraments. If God asks us if you have done 7 works of charity before you enter heaven you will begin to remember that you only helped two or three, but you had in your life the commandments and sacraments. God invites us to fulfill and bear fruit and love, love your wife, love your children, and love your neighbor; lets celebrate with Christ the passion.
God blesses you always and don’t forget to pray the rosary every day to the Blessed Virgin Mary, I need families to pray together.
No more internet, well a little internet, but I need families to pray together.
I invite St. Dorothy to pray everyday in the home and at church with your heart.
Amen.
Homily begins at 22.30
Tuesday Apr 23, 2024
I am the good shepherd, says the Lord
Tuesday Apr 23, 2024
Tuesday Apr 23, 2024
We continue to pray for Father Miller as he attempts to recover from illness. And I know it's somewhat difficult for you because you never know who you're going to get. On a given weekend, we have reached the bottom of the barrel. My name is Father Matthew Kauth, and for those of you I don't know. I work at the seminary in the rectory of Saint Joseph College Seminary and it's a pleasure to be here with you. I have been here a million times, but in many years gone by as well. So, it's good to be back.
In the sixth chapter of John's gospel, which we commonly call the Bread of Life discourse, it begins with our Lord feeding the 5000. And Saint John makes an interesting comment on that, because when Jesus has the people recline and he's about to feed them. Saint John mentions in his gospel there was a lot of green grass there. It seems like a throwaway line. Why would he bother with so few pages of a gospel and so few things to recount in space and time of all that our Lord did as he himself says, if I recounted everything that all the books in the world would contain it, why waste one line to say a lot of green grass? It is what the scholars call a memory hook. Imagine Saint John, years after our Lord has ascended into heaven and the island of Patmos exiled, recalling those moments of the one that he loves as the beloved Disciple himself. And he finally sees what happens. So often in John's Gospel, as you've noticed, no doubt that our Lord says one thing, and everyone understands something else.
They keep missing each other, as for example, with Nicodemus when he says, unless you be born from above again, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. And Nicodemus, rightly scratching his temples, thinks to himself, how in the world am I going to fit inside my mom again? And if his mother was there, she'd be saying, no way, right? But doesn't get it. In other words, speaking about something different, they constantly miss each other. But in this case, no doubt John mentions it because he sees the fulfillment of the good Shepherd. Why mention green grass? Because here's the shepherd about to feed them, and in this case, not with grass. He has them recline on the grass, and he feeds them with bread and with fish. All in anticipation of feeding them with himself and so, when you hear perhaps that favorite psalm of most Psalm 23, when you when you hear Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want fresh and verdant green, or the pastures where he gives me repose. John remembered the green grass, and he understood now with the light of the Holy Spirit, he knew why our Lord did what he did in fulfillment of that song and yet there's more to that Psalm than just the green grass and the feeding. And it's an aspect that you and I perhaps don't want to see. I would rather stop at the green grass and wanting for nothing. But the psalm goes on. Though I walk in the midst of darkness, I will not fear, because you are with me the question that is begged here is, why in the world would a good shepherd lead you into a dark valley? Wouldn't a good shepherd keep you in the sun? Wouldn't he make sure that you fed and frolicked on the hillsides as opposed to a dark and barren valley? And yet the psalm goes on. You have set a banquet for me in the sight of my foes. Why would the shepherd feed them with foes all around them? He is the good shepherd. But that doesn't make it easy. He takes you where he is going to go. Once there was a man by the name of Solzhenitsyn. You probably know who he is. A great Russian author. And in the time of the Soviet communism, he was one of the agents and because the only moral principle of the Soviets was whatever's best for the party, they typically betrayed each other because there is no morality. I remember this line that he said when he himself was betrayed and lying in a Russian gulag before he exposed it later on, and all the terrors and atrocities of Russia, he said, as he's lying in prison on a bed of rotting straw.
I thought my whole life wrongly about prosperity. Praise you, prison, for if you had not grabbed me, I would not have found my lord. How strange is that? He's lying on a bed of rotting grass, and it is the very place in which he encountered Christ. Remember, after our Lord feeds the 5000. They come after him, and he turns around and says, you're not following me because you've heard my word, or because you've seen signs, much less that the fact that you think that I'm God, you're only following me because I fed you bread is the lowest possible gift I could give you. It's the prosperity gospel. But life, as Solzhenitsyn says in that passage, is not about prosperity in the human sense. It is about the education of the soul. I want to learn to feed on Jesus Christ, on His word, on his presence. I want to know him. And if that's the case, then nothing can actually hurt me. I can walk through a dark valley, not by myself, none of the darkness of sin away from him, isolated and alone and frightened. But I walk next to him, and I will go where he goes. It's like the beautiful line from Ruth I will go where you go. I will lie down. Where you lie down, I will eat what you eat, and I will die where you die. All with the knowledge that that's not the end of the story. And the beautiful thing about Easter is those who have walked through the dark valley with him get to see the sunrise.
There's a beautiful line in Saint Paul's letter to the Corinthians, which you hear every time you go to a wedding, perhaps. Right. Love is patient, love is kind. And everyone's been married for 25 years. I know about that. And but at the end, he says Caritas know it. It's a beautiful line. But charity does not go away. It doesn't die, it doesn't leave. That is to say, friendship with Christ if you know him. But you got to ask yourself that question. Do you know his voice? Does he know yours? If you know him, if you are friends with him, then the very last beat of your heart on this earth is the first beat of your heart in eternity. That charity doesn't go away. Friendship with Christ does not go away, though everything else does. We conquer overwhelmingly. Saint Paul says, because of him who has loved us. And that is worth and Alleluia!
In the name of the Father, and of the son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
Homily begins at 26:51
Tuesday Apr 16, 2024
Let us open our heart to Jesus
Tuesday Apr 16, 2024
Tuesday Apr 16, 2024
In our gospel reading today, Luke underscores the fact that Jesus is truly alive. Now, this might strike you as a very basic truth of all Christians believe but let me add a bit more to that sentence that makes it even more striking. He is very much alive in the Eucharist that is consecrated in every Catholic Mass that is offered throughout the world, every day until the end of time. This is a basic truth that many Christians do not believe, and it is this that I want to focus on today. Let's zero in on the first sentence. Zero in on the first sentence of our gospel reading, Luke begins this passage with two disciples who had met Jesus on the road to Emmaus, telling the apostles that Jesus was alive.
Here's the part that gets overlooked. And they recognized him only when he broke that bread with them. What an interesting thing to say. They walked and talked with him for quite a while, and they did not recognize him until he blessed the bread, broke it, and gave it to them. That sounds suspiciously like Holy Communion, doesn't it? And speaking of Holy Communion, we know from the very earliest times that this belief that Jesus is alive and physically present Body, Blonds Soul and Divinity.
After the consecration of the bread and wine was clearly believed. In fact, it is this very belief that caused the pagans to accuse the early Christians of cannibalism. From a letter dating in the to the year 176. We read of an early Christian by the name of Athens, who wrote to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Addressing this charge, he argued that Christians are not cannibals because cannibal is and requires that the flesh of the victim be dead.
He simply observed, Christians are not cannibals because the flesh of Christ which is consumed is not dead flesh. The resurrected and fully live flesh of Christ glorified body. Our faith teaches us that with the sacrament of the Eucharist, we are invited to a profound encounter with the living Christ. It's not merely a symbolic gesture, a remembrance of past events.
Rather, it is a sacramental reality where the divine intersects with the human. In other words, at the time of consecration, the perfect sacrifice of Christ on the cross is made present to us in this Holy Mass. The sacrifice on Calvary reaches through time and touches us with grace and power. For while the crucifixion occurred at a point in historical time, it transcends time.
I find it to be so very sad that not only do Protestants not believe that Jesus is truly alive in the sacrament, but many Catholics do not believe this either. Polls show us that those who profess to be Catholic, 69%, believe that Jesus is present only symbolically in the Eucharist. Of those who attend mass every Sunday, the statistics are a bit better, but still not good.
63% believe that Christ is fully present. Body, Blond, Soul, and Divinity in the Holy Eucharist. That still means that fully one third of mass going Catholics do not believe this. You might ask, how can we witness to those who do not believe that Jesus is alive and among us today in the Blessed Sacrament? Well, my friends, I would say that actions generally speak louder than words.
As Catholics, if we truly believe that the kingdom of heaven is on earth with us now, here in this church, we must act like a king is present. We must always enter a Catholic church with great respect and solemnity. We must dress with proper dignity that is befitting an audience with the King. We must honor him with reverence, without oration, and with a profound and holy fear.
As this year has been proclaimed to be the year of Eucharistic Revival. Let me conclude with a quote from the great Curia of ours, Saint John VNA. “We know that Jesus is there in the Tabernacle. Let us open our hearts to him. Let us rejoice in his sacred presence”. That is the best prayer.
Amen.
Monday Apr 08, 2024
Be A Man and Women of God
Monday Apr 08, 2024
Monday Apr 08, 2024
The Sunday is so rich, there's so much to be, to be shared and to be to reflect on. First, it's the first Sunday after Easter. The resurrection. The big deal. Resurrection is everything for us. And today we are celebrating that divine mercy that amazing sign of God's love. When he revealed to Saint Faustina, revealed to her, explain to her how much he cares about us, how much he loves us, pointing to his heart, telling us through her that his mercy is so great, and we are so oblivious. We have no clue how much God loves us. We have no idea how much, how patient He is, how forgiving he is, how many chances he gave us over and over. You see, my brothers and sisters, if we understand God's forgiveness, God's mercy, if we see our imperfect person or understand our whole attitude to life changes. Because you see, if you're aware that you're not perfect, that you make me, you are sinner and God is forgiving you at humbles you. Your nose is no longer up in the sky. You know, you feel like I'm a sinner. I'm grateful that God been patient with me. You know, you live in this humble attitude and the beautiful thing is you become more understanding to those who are imperfect. You become more patient for those who are weak, who make mistakes because you are yourself imperfect and when you see someone in imperfect, you tell them, Hey, welcome to the club. We all are sinners. We all are weak. It's like kids playing in the swimming pool. All these kids are in the water and splashing. And one kid got up and the point finger at the others. Hey, you are all wet. You're all wet. They all look at him. You're stupid. You are wet too. We all wet. We are no water, you know. That's how human nature. By being in the water or by being in the flesh. We are weak. We are sinners. Of course. We all fall short before the mercy of God. That's why the more we understand God's mercy, the more we become merciful to each other. So, this is. And what does it mean? Mercy. It means that's the sign of love. When you love somebody, you go easy on them. When you love someone, you don't hold every mistake over their head and beat them and say, look at you what you did, you know? If you love someone, you go easy on them. Them. All right let's get up.
Let's try to do better. Let's try to recover from this. Don't stay down. We help each other get back on our feet and do better. That's the whole idea. So, we did. We do need to appreciate God's love. And that's why we dedicated the whole Sunday to honor God's mercy toward us. Not God doesn't need it for us. It's for us to be aware that God that we've been we've been loved so much, we've been forgiven so much, not only number one, but to do the same to each other. Be merciful, forgiving, and kind to each other. That's. That's why Jesus today spoke about forgiveness. Forgive. You know, He gave us the power to be fit to represent him on Earth.
To the church, of course, to the to the consecrated priests and bishops, etc. So, what do we learn today, brothers and sisters? We have an awesome, loving God, and he love to see us live in harmony with each other patient and kind with each other. You want to break his heart, fight with each other, hurt each other. That's the worst thing you can do. If you love God, you make peace. Be the instrument of his peace everywhere you go and you, to achieve peace, it will involve sacrifice. It involves lying to yourself. That's why Jesus says blessed are the peacemakers. He didn't say. He wouldn't say that if it was easy. You don't give somebody a big reward ever. Something easy to achieve. Everybody could do it. There would be no reward. All right. Hey, you know, I know he could tell us. So today, my brothers and sisters, I don't want to go on and on. Repeat the same message. Simple. You love Jesus. Go easy on each other. You love Jesus. Prove it. Show it. Don't talk about it.
Be a man. A woman of God. God. Man and woman of mercy. Man of women. Of peace. When people see you from a distance, let them feel happy, joyful, not run for their life. Or here comes trouble. Run for your life. Because some people, when they come in, forget about it. Forget about it. They know. All they do is criticize. They pick on you. Pick on this and gossip. Run their mouths about everything. They're a nightmare. You know, That's not us. Don't ever be careful. Don't ever be that because it's very easy. We could all do it. Don't do that. Be a man and a woman of God. Whenever. Wherever you go, bring that gentle presence of Jesus that people feel when they see you. Like I said, from a distance, their heart and elated and happy and joyful for seeing you. Bring Jesus with you. Bring his gentle presence. So, yes, Lord of Heaven and Earth, we are so grateful for you, for your amazing mercy, for being patient with us over and over. We make stupid mistakes. We say stupid things all the time, and many times we hate ourselves for the things we do or mainly for the things we failed to do that we could be doing in our life. Thank you for being going easy on us and patiently walking with us. Help us do the same. Help us be great. Show you our gratitude by being kind to each other, forgiving to each other, merciful on each other. And we pray, especially for our brothers in the world who have no hearts, who are so cruel, mean, and hurtful that they may come back to their senses and repent and stop hurting their brothers and sisters so we can truly all honor you, Lord Jesus, and make you proud all the days of our lives.
Amen
Homily begins at 22:18
Tuesday Mar 19, 2024
The Sixth Sorrow of Mary
Tuesday Mar 19, 2024
Tuesday Mar 19, 2024
The name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
What image comes to mind when you think of motherhood? Well, perhaps the most common image is or pictures of motherhood is that some form of image of Madonna and child that really takes center stage around Christmas time. However, this image of a mother holding her child presupposes another moment, because every birth is preceded by a conception. The mystery of our Lord's Nativity is preceded by the mystery of the Annunciation. And recalling that first joyful mystery, the Angel Gabriel delivers the divine invitation that Mary is chosen to be the mother of God's son. Our Lady is given a free choice to accept or to reject the gift of the son and to accept or reject the invitation to motherhood and so you see that the first movement of the vocation of motherhood and fatherhood occurs the moment that mothers and fathers are open to life and invitation that is sadly rejected all too often in this modern world. The Blessed Virgin Mary personifies what it means to be open to life, to receive the gift of new life. Motherhood requires a fundamental trust in the love of the Heavenly Father, and this trust in the Heavenly Father bear’s fruit.
Our Lady's Yes. Or we say oftentimes in Latin Fiat, the word meaning let it be her willing acceptance to the gift of her son is the first movement of motherhood. This first joyful mystery of the annunciation moves then to the third joyful mystery in which she gives birth to the son of God. She receives her divine Son accepts him, and then she wraps him in swaddling clothes and lays him in a manger. The son is newborn. He is full of life, Hope, expectation. This familiar image of mother and son projects the tenderness, the tranquility of the vocation of motherhood. However, this image only communicates the first part of the mystery of motherhood. Because as soon as we are born, we begin a pilgrimage towards death and it's precisely there at death that we encounter a second image of motherhood, seeing the life of Jesus and Mary.
The third joyful mystery 33 years later becomes the sixth and the seventh sorrow of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the sixth sorrow of our Lady occurs when she receives her son after his crucifixion and death on the cross. This time when she receives his body, it is lifeless, drained of expectation. The seventh sorrow of our lady occurs when she once again wraps his body in swaddling clothes. Only this time she lays him not in a manger, but in the tomb. The tears of joy that were shed at his birth have become the bitter tears of sorrow shed at his death. And yet, we might say there's a sort of a faint echo of the mother's words that can still be heard through her pain and sorrow. Fiat, let it be done to me, according to your word. Our lady continues to bear witness, even at death, to the lesson of motherhood. The fundamental receptivity to the will of God. This is foundational for motherhood. In his will is our peace. And like that serene image of the Madonna and child, the ties that's been called the mother holding her adult son lifeless body also radiates the tenderness and tranquility of motherhood. It is actually a very peaceful image. Our Lady, or rather our Lord, is comforted by our lady in both scenes, in both moments at his birth and at his death. And so we discover that motherhood begins with receiving the gift of a child. But motherhood doesn't end there. After receiving and caring for that child, every mother must give that child back to God.
Back to the Heavenly Father. The sixth and the seventh star of Our Lady completes the mystery of motherhood.
Now, this is a lesson that seems rather abstract, but it's something that I encountered firsthand a number of years ago. That's when I first learned this lesson. Many of you know my brother Mark. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer five years ago. Now, many of you prayed for him, prayed for his family and my family during his battle on behalf of Mark and his family, were very grateful for your prayers and for your sacrifices these five years. My brother Mark died in November, just days before Thanksgiving, and I had the privilege of offering his funeral mass. But 12 years ago, my sister-in-law, Pamela and Mark, Mark's wife, was pregnant with their fourth child, Elizabeth Marie. The day came for Pamela to deliver the child. However, when she arrived at the hospital, they discovered that their daughter died that day before she was born. Mark and Pamela, of course, were devastated. They began the day expecting to greet their daughter. Instead, they had to say goodbye. The joy and hope of birth was immediately transformed into sorrow and grief. In other words, Pamela expected to experience the third joyful mystery birth, but instead found herself confronting the sorrow of our lady death. As you know, this is every parent's nightmare. You see, life and death, as we know, are certainly connected. But life and death are not supposed to be so close together. Why did God permit Elizabeth to die so young without even experiencing a life out of the womb? Why did God choose Mark and Pamela to experience this grief, this sorrow, and this pain? What purpose did they serve? There were many unanswered questions, and many questions linger to this day. Now, some parents here can identify with Mark and Pamela. Some of you had have had to bury a child. Some of you will one day, unfortunately, bury a child. And the universal response of every parent who experiences the injustice of an untimely death is the same. Parents shouldn't have to bury their children. I hear this over and over again. 12 years ago, I had the privilege of offering Elizabeth Marie's funeral mass. And when my brother Mark came in carrying the tiny cast a casket in procession and into the church for the funeral up to the altar, the mysterious vocation of motherhood and fatherhood became clear. Receiving the gift of a child is only the first part of the vocation of motherhood and fatherhood. Giving the gift of the child back to the Heavenly Father is what completes the vocation. In other words, all persons belong first to God, not to us. Parents are rather stewards of the gifts that ultimately belong first to the Heavenly Father.
So therefore, the vocation of motherhood and fatherhood is beautifully defined by our Lady. Our lady demonstrates that fundamental receptivity to the will of God produces joy. The joy of receiving a gift. Gift of a child. But she also reminds us that the receptivity to the will of God can also include sorrow, the sorrow of having to detach from the child and giving the gift back to the father. So now we see that the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary remind us that God allowed our Lady to experience more grief, more sorrow, more pain, more agony than we could ever imagine that any of us could ever experience. And the father loved this daughter, the mother of God, more than any other human person. Our lady was not spared this grief, nor should we be expected to be spared of the sorrowful mysteries of life. So, as we enter into Passion high this week and into Holy week next week, we're reminded that motherhood is not merely captured in that sweet image of Madonna and child, but also includes the mother holding her son's lifeless body before she talked him into the womb, the womb of the tomb. But as we know, this is not the end of the story. In a fallen world, the joyful mysteries of life become the sorrowful mysteries. But you see, these only set the stage for the glorious mysteries yet to come.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Homily begins at 19:42
Tuesday Mar 05, 2024
Fourth Sorrow
Tuesday Mar 05, 2024
Tuesday Mar 05, 2024
Third Sunday of Lent
March 3, 2024
Good morning to all of you. I am Father Brian Becker. I got a call from Father Miller earlier in the week. I know you keep him in your prayers, but please continue to do. He is having a difficult weekend with his illness, and he was asking for some assistance with the masses this weekend and he gave me a call. I'm here to be with you from Saint Joseph's College Seminary. It's my current assignment and it is one of those assignments in the dioceses, which we refer to as a full contact ministry. That's the reason that I'm up here before you with a broken wing. I was playing Ultimate Frisbee with our seminarians a couple of weeks ago, broke my collarbone and now I have this great thing that I get to offer for Lent happened. If the doctor’s prognosis is correct, I should be out of this thing by about Easter. This is what happens when you're when you're late about choosing what you're going to do for Lent. God gives you a gift. Here we are now for Lent.
Father Miller said he has been preaching to you in a series of homilies on the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady. He very gently suggested to me that, you know, if I could find a good angle, I could go ahead and continue that. And I thought that was a great idea. He told me, you’re up to the fourth sorrow that our lady meets her son on the way of the cross. Now, this is this sorrow in particular is one that that lines up very nicely with our Lenten devotions, because this actually maps directly on the fourth sorrow to the fourth station of the cross, where our lady met her son Jesus, on his way of the cross and considering this mystery, I want to share with you one of the considerations from a popular form of the stations, not sure which form you guys use in your parish devotions, but one that I have been formed in from my time in seminary was the one that was composed by Saint Alphonsus Liguori.
Saint Alphonsus has this meditation on this station and therefore also on the sorrow of our lady. He says, consider how the son met his mother on his way to Calvary. Jesus and Mary gazed at each other, and their looks became as so many arrows to wound those hearts which loved each other so tenderly. This is a beautiful image. We have several writers in the spiritual life that have a poetry about the way that they write. We've seen this in in many images. You can look at your own stations and you can see a beautiful depiction of that gaze that shared between Christ and his mother. But this is a beautiful exploration of what passed between them in those moments when they looked at each other and it's a very interesting image that Saint Alphonsus uses to describe this, that their looks became as so many arrows to wound those hearts which loved each other so much. Why this image, then? Why is this a wounding that passed between them? Well, part of what Christ and our Lady are showing us here is the true nature of charity, the true nature of the love that they shared for each other. Both of them were engaging in the way of the cross, in the way that was proper to each one of them. Christ supremely bearing all the sufferings of the sins of the world, in addition to his bodily torments, was going up to the mounts to give his life for us. And our lady, being the perfect disciple, was joining him on this journey. She, more perfectly than any human, joined with her son on his way of the cross, she united her heart to his and in a sense, she died her own death there at the foot of the cross in union with her son. And in doing this, each of them was showing perfect charity. Christ, as the author of Charity himself and Our Lady, as the one who most perfectly possessed it among men and it's a mark of that charity to be so concerned with the one that you love, that they're suffering wounds you more than the suffering that you're going through yourself. Christ bearing the weight of the sins of the world when he sees his afflicted mother, the movement in his human nature is to weep for her to be wounded, in turn by the fact that she has to suffer. This along with him and our lady following her son most perfectly does the same thing. In turn, she weeps. Not so much for the fact that she has to do this with her son and fulfillment of the Divine Plan. But she weeps because the one whom she loves so much is suffering. We have this interchange, this gaze that they share, this gaze that is full of love, and yet is one that wounds. So, meditating then on this image, we have a couple of lessons for the way that we approach Lent. One of them is the nature of our own sufferings. We're all going to have moments in our practice of Lent when the things that we take on are going to become quite a burden for us and we are going to be wrapped up in the fact that I am miserable. I didn't really think this all the way through. Maybe I wasn't quite as prudent as I should have been, and now I'm regretting what I took on. In the middle of your penance, you might find yourself wallowing in self-pity and dreaming of the day when Easter comes, and you can release yourself from whatever strictures that you've been under.
What's the remedy for this? When we find ourselves wrapped up in ourselves in this way. We have to recall the reason that we are doing these things. We are not engaging in our practices of Lent primarily for the purposes of self-fulfillment. We are not fasting for the sake of losing weight. We are doing these practices out of a desire to do as our Lady did, to unite ourselves with our Savior out of love for Him to participate as fully as we can in His way of the cross. We are uniting ourselves with Christ, journeying with Him to Jerusalem there to go up and to die with him. When we are chafed by the things that we have visited upon ourselves or that God has given to us, what are we to do in those moments? We are to very intentionally make a gift of these things to our savior in honor of our Lady. Christ is suffering so much for us on account of the sins that we have committed. What we do in Lent is we seek to make some small return, some small participation in that suffering that we may be redeemed from our sins and that we may merit by the sufferings of our Savior to share in the joy of his resurrection. We give these things as a gift to our Lord. And the second lesson that we take in our practice of Lent is from the nature of this charity that is demonstrated to us by our Lord and Lady. Another thing that we can do with our sufferings is that we can give them not only to our Lord, but we can also give them to others.
In a sense. In addition to making this gift of the things that you are offering up for Lent to our Lord in your prayers, also explicitly call to mind those persons for whom you are offering these tendencies. This is another great way to exercise charity by what it is that we are giving up by what it is that we are suffering. In your prayers list out these people that are in your lives, perhaps those who are suffering worse than you, those who have suffered some tragedy, some illness going through a very difficult time in their life by the gift of the Holy Spirit and the operation of God's grace. This is one of the other great things that we are privileged to share in the order of charity that offering these things to God, we can also offer them for the good of our brothers and sisters here on Earth.
This is another way to keep us from getting wrapped up in ourselves, in our self-pity. And we can give these things not only to our savior, but also to our brothers and our sisters and our friends. Remember this. This is the point in Lent when things tend to start getting a little bit difficult. The initial fervor has worn off. We're into the long slog and we need something at this point to renew our devotion to what it is that we are offering to Christ. When you find yourself flagging in your disciplines, make these movements anteriorly. Make an offering of these things to your Savior. Name those people for whom you will suffer these things. And in the order of this grace of Christ, there will be a very fruitful return on these sufferings that we ourselves and those for whom we are praying will be given great graces to enter into Christ suffering so as to merit a share in His resurrection.
Homily begins at 21:08
Monday Feb 26, 2024
Third of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed virgin Mary.
Monday Feb 26, 2024
Monday Feb 26, 2024
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit seeking our Lady's intercession. Let us pray.
Hail Mary, full of Grace.
The Lord is with thee,
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners
now and at the hour of her death.
Amen
Good morning, brothers, and sisters. Today, I'll be speaking to you about the third of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The third sorrow is when she and Joseph lost Jesus for three days and then eventually found him in the temple. This is, of course, the fifth joyful mystery of the rosary. I'll just read it, and this is again, it's in your bulletin. The beautiful picture on the front is of this sorrow and then there's a section, of course, to give you some direction on the specific devotion and this comes, of course, from the Gospel of Luke.
Now, his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of Passover. And when he was 12 years old, they went up, according to custom and when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy, Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it. But supposing him to be in the company? They went a day's journey, and they sought him among their kinfolk and acquaintances. And when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking him. After three days, they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them, and asking them questions and all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when they saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously, he said to them, how is it that you saw me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house? They did not understand the saying which he spoke to them, as with specifically the mysteries of the rosary. You know, we meditate on them so, so often we can become kind of a little used to them. And we don't always go deeper. We don't always really pray and try to seek the deeper mysteries that are always present. Of course, anything in regards to the word of God, there's always more to seek, always more to find, because it's not. These aren't mere human words. These are the words of God, God's Word. And since God is infinite, the truth is infinite. And so, we can always seek more of it. In this mystery, the sorrow of the Blessed Mother.
Obviously, we know the story. Jesus stuck around in Jerusalem. He didn't tell Mom and Dad. They took off and went with family in the company back to Nazareth. They go a whole day's journey and they're looking for him. They just figure, you know, Jesus is a socialite, right? He likes to go out and be with the people. He's clearly very extroverted from what they can tell so they're looking for him. They can't find him. They've been traveling the whole day. Obviously, he's not with their group. He's not with the group. He's probably still in Jerusalem. They turn around and walk another day back to Jerusalem as two days. And then on the third day, they're searching for him and eventually they discover him in the temple.
I like to think that Mary and Joseph were probably talking on the road back to Jerusalem saying, okay, where will he be if he's in the city? They probably in his mind, he was in one of two places. He was either with the poor caring for them in some way or he's in the temple because that's the house of God in prayer. I figured he had to be in one or the other. And eventually they go to the temple and there he is, sitting down perfectly fine, sitting amongst the teachers, listening to them, and asking them questions. Now, as a slight aside, sometimes people will call this mystery. When Jesus taught in the temple, that is absolutely not true at all. Don't call it that. Jesus didn't teach in the temple, at least not at the age of 12. Why? Because he's 12. He was sitting among the teachers. He was listening to them and asking them questions. Now, could he have taught? Of course he could. He's the son of God. No doubt. But he's just a 12-year-old boy. That would be very presumptuous of a child to try to teach adults, even if there are children who know more than adults. You know, is it really going to go well for you if you go up to them and say, let me tell you how this is? Jesus isn't teaching now, are they learning from him? Probably because he's that wise right in He's wisdom itself, but he's sitting there listening to them. Then Mary and Joseph come up to me like, Son, what's going on? Why have you done this to us? Don't you know that your father and I have been anxiously searching for you? Now, that is, I think, a completely natural thing to say to a child that has just disappeared. Some of you have lost a child here and there at times. I remember one time we were going on some family vacation and, you know, there are 12 kids, so it's a lot of us. And we stopped, you know, use the bathroom, get some snacks. We got in the car and drove off and we go a couple of miles down the road and left one of the boys back. Mom was like counting heads. no, we're missing someone. So. Right. So, you know, as parents, when you lose a child, when they're you don't know where they are, so to speak, it's very traumatizing Immediately. What comes to your mind is all the worst possible things. And most of all, you're afraid that they are suffering, and you want to save them. You want to protect them from that. You run and you start searching for them. And naturally you would feel a tremendous amount of anxiety until you see your child, until you know they're okay. That anxiety is perfectly normal that happened. So here are Mary and Joseph. They can't find Jesus. no. Now, what do they think was probably happening to him? One of the fathers of the church said they believed that his passion had begun. They thought that's what they were anxious about. You see, Mary and Joseph, 12 years earlier, the last the second sorrow of the Blessed Mother had already heard the prophecy that this boy, this baby at the time is going to suffer. They knew that Jesus was going to suffer. They just didn't know how and when, so they knew was going to suffer. This father said that Mary and Joseph were thinking, no, maybe his passion has begun. You can imagine the fear and the anxiety that that would provoke, and they hurry back to Jerusalem, and when they find him perfectly fine, they're upset with him. If you found a child that was just didn't come home for a couple of days, and then you come up to them and they're just having fun. They're just, you know, having a good time, Everything's fine. Why don't you do this? Don't you know how worried I've been? That's what you would say to them. And how does Jesus respond? I'm so sorry. I didn't know it would worry you. No, no. Here is the son of God saying to them Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know I'd be in my father's house? Jesus has no idea why Mary and Joseph are anxious and worried about him. No idea. Now, that's hard to understand if you don't really know Jesus. Why? Because you think as the Son of God, he knows everything, right? This is where you're wrong. Jesus has to intellect. He has a divine intellect, which knows everything. Which knew that Mary and Joseph would have been anxiously searching for him. But he's got a human intellect that doesn't know everything, which is weird, because that means Jesus doesn't tell himself everything.
He doesn't. His divine intellect does not tell his human intellect everything, which means his divine intellect allowed Jesus to not understand it, allow Jesus to not understand Marian Joseph's anxiety and worry for him. And what does he say? He's basically saying, Mom, Dad, didn't you know, this is where I'd be. He again, he doesn't understand their fear and their concern for him and, you know, that is kind of normal for children in general, isn't it? Mom and dad are freaking out because of X, Y, and Z, and you're like, Mom, dad, what's the big deal? I'm fine. Jesus is experiencing this exact thing. Now, Mary and Joseph are still not comprehending what's going on here. They don't understand. Now, in this mystery, one of the things we must pay close attention to is the anxiety that Mary and Joseph felt. You see, there are different kinds of anxiety and there are different reasons. There are different reasons for being anxious. I can be anxious because I'm going to suffer. I can be anxious because someone I love is going to suffer. It usually follows one of those two. Either I'm going to suffer or if someone I love is going to suffer.
Now, one of the things we notice from the Saints is that they're never anxious when they are going to suffer. Never. They trust in the will of God. They've learned to bear their crosses patiently. Whether they are suffering or know beforehand that they are going to suffer, they don't feel any anxiety. That's because they have a profound faith and trust in the Lord. Now, if you saw one of your children suffer that would cause you pain, wouldn't it? It would cause you pain. It would make you suffer. But again, this is a very important distinction. You're allowed to feel anxious for the suffering of your children or the suffering of others. But Jesus doesn't want you to be anxious about your own suffering. But what is the nature of the anxiety that Mary injuries have had? Remember, this is the immaculate mother of God, sinless and perfect, and always. Saint Joseph, great. Second greatest saint of the church. Right. Clearly profound faith in God, amazingly virtuous and holy man. Their anxiety is not sinful at all in this context, which means it had nothing to do with their suffering. They were anxious because they were concerned about Jesus's suffering. Now, what was the nature of that concern? Was it? I don't want Jesus to suffer because that's often what we think with the ones that we love, especially our children. I don't want him or her to suffer this or that. No. Again, a saint wouldn't think that a saint would not actually want their children to suffer. That's not where their anxiety comes from. Their anxiety comes from the fact that they want to be with them when they suffer. They want to be by their side. Now, we know this because Mary always perfectly conformed to the will of God would never resist or go against the father's will for her son. We know that God wants Jesus to suffer. He wants him to suffer and to die to redeem all of us. We know that is the will of God. Mary knew that was the will of God, and so she would have never prevented Jesus's sufferings. Never. The Saints say that the reason she and Joseph were anxious and rushed back to Jerusalem to find him was not because they wanted to stop his passion, because they wanted to support him, to stand by him in his passion. They didn't want him to suffer alone. This is a very important point, and this is one of the ways in which so many young people become self-centered egotists because their parents don't let them suffer. You don't punish when they do wrong, whenever they do wrong, and they could get in serious trouble. You bail them out. Now, you might think that that's a loving act. That I'm saving my child from suffering. No, that is a completely and utterly self-centered act and is never pleasing to God. I'm not saying you don't help your kids and you can get them out of what trouble you can in reasonable circumstances. But the idea that they're not supposed to suffer is un-Christian. I'm sorry if the Son of God is supposed to suffer, you think your children are any better? Any different? You think the will of God for your children is going to be different than his will for his own son? No, you've got it wrong. All of us need to suffer because of sin. All of us. And you can say, what about the little ones that are innocent? No one is innocent. Everyone has original sin, you know, besides Mary and Jesus, All of us.
Everybody has original sin. They might not have personal sin. Fine. I understand. But they are a part of this collective, sinful humanity. And if Jesus, who was innocent, had to suffer, then your little babies who are innocent must suffer too. And we need to learn to stop complaining or getting upset or angry with God because of the suffering of the people that we love. That's just a temptation of the evil one to reject the will of God. Suffering is an intrinsic part of salvation. You separate suffering. You don't have salvation, the suffering of Christ and our suffering. It's not only his suffering. It's our suffering in unity with him. And what is the greatest suffering for any parent? It's the suffering of your children. It's not your own suffering. It's the suffering of your children. Which is why that is always the greatest test that God gives to a Christian. He will take one or more of your children and he will make them suffer in this or that way. And then they'll say, do you support me? Wasn't that the test we heard in our first reading? Isn't that how God tested Abraham? The reason Abraham received the promise that he would be the father of many nations is because he was willing to sacrifice his only son. His only son because God asked of him. Imagine just for a moment, your Abraham, your old, you don't have any kids. And then, miraculously, by the grace of God, your wife gets pregnant, and you have this boy and now you have an heir, you can hand everything over to him.
Your name will be passed down. It's very exciting. You're very happy. Abraham loved this boy more than anything else, even more than himself. And when this boy was a young man, we think like a young teenager. Something like that. God says, by the way, Abraham, you know that miraculous boy I gave you. I now want you to offer him in a Holocaust.
I want you to kill him and burn him on an altar for me, for my honor. And Abraham doesn't hesitate. He doesn't say, Are you sure? God, this is what you want. I mean, you're the one who gave him to me. He doesn't tell Sarah. I don't know how that would have gone. He just takes. His kid gets the wood, the fire, the knife says, come on, son, we're going to go pray to God. And they go up the mountain. He ties them up. He's prayer ready? No hesitation. He's about to literally cut his throat. And God's like, Whoa, whoa. Okay, Abraham. Okay, just stop. Stop. You passed. You pass the test, and then he sees the ram, and he offers that instead. The reason Abraham received the greatest promise that God had given to anyone at that time in history is because Abraham was more like God than any other man on Earth.
We know it because of his willingness to sacrifice his only son, because that is the greatest act of God, the Father. When God, the father is looking down on us and he's saying, Who down there on that little blue planet is like me. But there's only one test. Take the one you love even more than yourself and sacrifice them for me.
That's the test. And our lady, she passed. We know she was there at the foot of the cross. She never resisted the passion of her son. In fact, the Saints teach us that if the Roman soldiers had stopped crucifying him, she would have gone up and finished. That is the faith of Abraham. That is the love of God. Now, for some of you, I know that there are times in which you would have no problem sacrificing this or that child. So again, but generally, I'm just speaking. Generally, you won't do that, right? There's always that one at that time, right. Lord, please, I'm willing to sacrifice this one for you now, you know? But it's still the greatest test that he's going to give each one of us in one form or another. Yes. It might not be the actual death of the child, but how many times do either we or someone in our lives know someone who lost a child? That's the worst pain for anyone. And sadly, how many times do these Christians lose their faith in God at the loss of that child when in fact it should enhance their faith? It should draw them closer to God, the Father. Because who can understand their pain better than God? Who understands better the price that has to be paid because of sin in this mystery, you have Mary and Joseph. They were not resistant at all to Jesus's passion. Their desire was to go and be with him in his cross, not to take it from him. And that is one of the most important things you can do as parents for those that you love is stand by them when they're suffering. You can suffer with them, but don't necessarily take that pain away. They need it. It's sanctifying. So as you continue to pray and meditate on these sorrows of the Blessed Mother, you'll see as we go through all of them, how our Lady in such a unique way is able to not only help us experience and understand the passion of Jesus, but to respond to that passion in the most perfect way in those situations in your life in which you are anxious and afraid for your own suffering or you want to stop the suffering of your children, I want you really to pray about this. Are that what God wants? You to do? What is he asking of you? And the one that you love? Is he asking this cross, this suffering? If it is the father's will, are you going to go against it? You can always ask God for anything that you want. But you know, when we end our prayers, we in the same way Jesus taught us, not my will thine be done. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
Homily begins at 15:00
Saturday Feb 24, 2024
Meditating on the Second Sorrow of the Blessed Mother
Saturday Feb 24, 2024
Saturday Feb 24, 2024
First Sunday of Lent
February 18, 2024 •
The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Seeking our Lady's Intercession. Let us pray.
Hail Mary, full of grace.
the Lord is with thee
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
Good morning, brothers and sisters. So, thank you for your prayers. Thought I'd give everybody an update on my health. My doctors think it's a problem with my gallbladder. They're probably going to recommend surgery, but it's, they say a minor surgery, so it's not that big a deal. They think I have gallstones and that's why I've been sick the last couple of weeks. Just keep it in your prayers and I'll keep all of you posted. I appreciate that.
For those who weren't able to make it on Ash Wednesday, this image that I have displayed on the altar, you can go on our website and listen to that. The beginning of that homily, I explain the image. It's very beautiful and we're consecrating and blessing the image by leaving it out on the altar will do that during Lent and probably during the Easter season as well. Over the next several weeks, I'll be preaching to you about the seven Sorrows of Mary. Last week we spoke about the first of her sorrows, which is when she and Joseph brought Jesus to the temple and the Prophet Simeon prophesied that not only would our Lord suffer, but our lady would suffer along with him.
Today, in meditating on the second sorrow of the Blessed Mother, we remember her and Joseph's flight into Egypt. If you remember when Jesus was still very young, after the wise men had come to Jerusalem seeking the new King of Israel, they went to Herod and asked him where the king was. They figured the King of Israel wouldn't know where the new king is. And Herod was a little surprised by this. And he got the wise men that the scholars of the law and they told him he was to be born in Bethlehem. He sent the wise men to Bethlehem and they found Jesus and gave him gifts. But Herod wanted to know who this Jesus was so he could have him killed. So obviously the Lord told the three wise men, the Magi and Mary Joseph, that Herod was going to try to have the child killed. And they got ready and they fled into Egypt and then Herod had all of the young boys, two years and younger, massacred in Bethlehem and the surrounding areas, just in case he thought he would have definitely be able to kill this newborn king. This song in particular is fairly obvious because here we have the prophecy of Simeon being fulfilled. Early on in the life of Christ, he's just been born.
He's still a baby and already someone is seeking to kill him. Mary sees at the very outset of the life of Christ this, this fulfillment. And she, as you can imagine, must have grieved very greatly that anyone would want to harm not only her baby boy, right, but the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior, and Christ. We can obviously see that kind of grief and sorrow out of her love for not only God, but also her own child who just happened to be the same thing. But there was another sorrow that we don't often consider. And I want you to imagine the grief that Mary experienced when she heard about all the dozens, if not hundreds of young boys that were slaughtered because of her son. It's one thing to suffer over your child. That's in danger of suffering or death. But imagine how all these other families must have endured such agony, all because Christ was born in Bethlehem, all for that reason. Imagine the test that must have been to Mary's faith. You know, why would God allow this? Obviously, God told Joseph and Joseph got Mary and Jesus out of there. Why didn't God do that for the rest of the families with little kids? Now, Mary, having perfect faith, obviously trusted in the Lord's plan, whether she understood it or not. Now, to understand the reasons for why these things had to happen, they had to happen. They weren't optional. They had to happen to Christ. To understand this, you have to understand the entire history of God's people. Because for any true Jew, one of the greatest events in their history, both tragic and wonderful, is when in Egypt, Pharaoh had all of the sons, all of the little boys who were born of the Israelites slaughtered, he had them slaughtered because he was worried that the Israelites would rise up against him. You could let the women live, he said, but kill all the young men. Of course, that led to Moses being cast in a basket on the waters saved by Pharaoh's daughter, raised in the palace, and eventually delivering God's people through these great signs and wonders, and then bringing them through the desert to the promised land. This is the most significant event in the life of the Israelites, where God deliver them from slavery and Egypt.
Now, since the death of all these young children happened to the Israelites long ago, since they had to go into Egypt, they had to flee from Egypt. Our Lord Jesus had to experience those exact same things. This is one of the mysteries of our faith that people don't meditate upon enough. Everything that happened to the Israelite people of old had to happen to Christ, and everything that happened to Christ has to happen in one form or another to every future Christian in redeeming us. Jesus Christ conformed himself to our nature and not just to our nature as human beings, but to the very experiences that we have in our own lives. The only way the Israelites could truly accept him is that if that he himself endured everything they endured, and even more so, our Lord chose to live this life as a mirrored image of the life of His people.
To show, See, I'm one of you. I know everything that you know. I've experienced everything that you've experienced and more. And yet this same truth applies after the fact to everyone who is supposed to be conformed to the life of Christ. If you and I are to be conformed to the life of Christ, that means we're conformed to the life of Israel old because Christ was conformed to their life. This is one of the essential aspects of salvation. We see this in the lives of the saints. The greater the saint, the more perfectly their life in one way or another reflects the life of our Lord. That's why these seven Sorrows of Our Lady, which are the stars of Christ himself, are so important to us. That's why our meditations upon them are so necessary because they enable us to understand our own life. Why is this happening to me? And that's the question we ask whenever we're suffering, right? Why is this happening to me? What did I do? Well, I mean, sometimes we know what we did. We send. But sometimes you might not have done anything wrong in that situation and you're still suffering. If we are truly to be one with Christ. And that's. That's the goal here. That's the whole point of the church. And there are teachings in the sacraments that we must be conformed to every aspect of his life. There will be times in your lives, like the first start in which you'll be told that you have future suffering ahead of you. There's a cross you have to learn to bear patiently. You can do that best with our lady. She understood this well. There'll be times in your life in which your children, in one form or another, will be threatened or in danger. You have to flee from your own land, your own home job, family situation, whatever it is, in order to protect them, suffer because of that. We saw that in the life of our Lady in Christ. There'll be times in your life when your children are the cause of great suffering for others, like the loss of all of these poor children in Bethlehem. And you'll have to endure that as well. You'll see as we go through all of the seven sorrows in some form or another, how your own life will conform to them and the more you meditate upon these great mysteries, more you keep them in mind. It's not going to lessen your suffering at all. Not one iota, not one bit. You will continue to suffer just as much, but you will see that you are not alone. You'll see that this has already been done before. In the Old Testament, it was done perfectly in the life of Christ don't ever be surprised that it's in your life as well. And you won't despair. You'll have faith, you'll have hope, and you'll be able to endure whatever comes, knowing that it will pass away in the end. Ultimately, as you know, as will go through the seven sorrows, clearly death is the end of all suffering. Final thing that we must all endure at one point in this life. No one can avoid that. And yet our Lord doesn't want us to fear any suffering. That doesn't mean we run after it, you know, go out and seek suffering. That's a psychological illness. You know, you can get treatment if you have that, but it means whenever it comes to us, we should not assume that this is not part of God's plan.
That should be the assumption. God has a plan for me. And the more I can keep my mind and heart focused on our Lady and Christ and their suffering, the easier I will be to allow that grace of the Holy Spirit to strengthen me, to endure these crosses that always come during Lent. I want us to practice the creed in Latin, so we'll be reciting it during the season of Lent, hopefully. Maybe during Easter, we could start singing it. But do we have the page number for the Creed? Page 26 In the Blue Book in the St Michael Hymnals we'll do the creed in Latin, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Homily begins at
Tuesday Feb 06, 2024
Homily-Hell
Tuesday Feb 06, 2024
Tuesday Feb 06, 2024
Meditating on the four last things. Of course, we started with death. It's inevitable for all of us. Last night I spoke about judgment again, inevitable for all of us. And for tonight. And tomorrow I'll do hell. And then heaven. And this is where the divide comes in regards to our own personal experiences. Everybody is going to experience one or the other, heaven or hell.It all depends on the judgment. But tonight we're going to address hell. I thought it would be more appropriate to address heaven tomorrow for the feast of or the solemnity of our patron saint, Dorothy. So there are some very clear teachings that our Lord gives about shale or the place of the dead, the damned hell, Hades. Right. Whatever you want to call it.
I'm just going to go through and read a few of them. But as for cowards, the unfaithful, the depraved murderer is the young, chaste sorcerers, idle worshipers and deceivers of every sort. Their lot is the burning pool of fire and sulfur, which is the second death. Of course, there is referring to hell. The devil who had led them astray was thrown into the pool of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were There. They would be tormented day and night forever and ever there in hell. They would be tormented day and night, forever and ever. Then the Lord will say to those on his left, depart from you are cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, the eternal fire. Jesus also says, If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gahanna, into the unquenchable fire. And lastly, thus, it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. There are, of course, many other passages, but one of the things that is very consistent in our Lord's teaching about hell is an unquenchable fire that consumes you, body, and soul for all of eternity. And that's why we often picture the devil with flames right around him dressed in red or something of that sort. So, fire, of course, is an essential element. We know. And the idea that Christ is presenting what we call or what they called shale, right. It comes from a very actual place just outside the city of Jerusalem. I don't know how many people actually know this. You can imagine for large cities or towns, they usually over the years and decades and centuries, collect a lot of trash and so one of the things that the ancient world used to do was they would have these large trash piles and they would burn them because it was the easiest way to get rid of a lot of human waste and filth and refuse whatever it was, you know, broken pottery that they couldn't use anymore. So outside of the city of Jerusalem, there was a small valley on one part, and that was the trash heap for however many hundreds of years the Jews had been living there and it was always on fire because new rubbish was always daily being thrown into it. Any time of day or night you would walk by that area. It was always on fire. There were always red-hot coals, always stench again, human waste and everything was thrown there just to consume it so it wouldn't grow too large. This was called shale, and this is the imagery that our Lord is evoking and teaching about hell, where the refuge goes to burn. That's why he's using this imagery. Now, are there physical flames in hell? We don't know. But whatever it is, it is like standing in a fire. Body and soul. Forever. Forever. Just as heaven is forever.
Hell is forever. It's one of the heresies among Christians that God in his mercy is going to eventually either let everybody out of hell or just blink them out of existence so they don't have to suffer for eternity. No, it's doctrine. It's the teaching of Christ that hell is forever. The demons that are assigned there, the humans that will go there will suffer forever and ever and as I think is appropriate, that should scare the hell out of you. Obviously, nobody wants that right? Nobody wants to go to a place of torment. You know, a lot of people don't realize that when somebody is either tempted or seeking or accomplishes suicide, you think they want to end their life. They want to cease to exist.
This is actually not true psychologically. They want to end their suffering. They don't want to stop existing. It is impossible for anyone to want to cease to exist. It's actually psychologically impossible. If you do, then there's something mentally wrong with you. We know the statement of Satan when he was cast out of heaven. I would rather reign in hell than serve in heaven. He didn't want to stop existing. He would rather suffer for the rest of eternity and still do what he wanted to do than to live peacefully, forever doing the will of God. In essence, that's why anyone goes to hell. Its following that same mindset. My will over the will of God. I once heard years ago a great phrase that in the end, when you're judged only one thing will be said.
Only one thing will be said. Either God will say it, or you will say it, and that will determine where you'll go. If you say thy will, be done to the Lord, he'll be able to save you. But if he says Thy will be done to you, you are lost forever. That's really the determining factor. Are we striving to conform our will to Christ, to the Lord, or do we want His will and others around us to conform them to ourselves? This eternal punishment, I've spent years and years reading, studying and meditating on this and trying to ask the Lord to understand it. Because one of the things I've struggled with the most personally is a very simple question. If God is as good and loving this merciful as He claims to be, as we believe Him to be, how could well be a good.
You have to understand everything that God makes is good. Everything that God does is good. Even when He dams a soul to hell, it is good. That's just theologically true. How could it be good? How could an eternity of suffering in hell be good? And for years I struggled with this because I knew there had to be an answer. Not that I had to understand it, but I wanted to. And I don't know if this was an inspiration of God or if this is just me trying to figure it out on my own. But I want to share with you how I understand it. God doesn't need us. Never has, never will. We know fundamentally, He made us for our own benefit just out of his largesse, his, his love, his goodness angels, humans. He doesn't need any of us. He just wanted to create something so that it could share in his life and holiness. Pure gift. God doesn't lose anything when anyone goes to hell. This is also an important point. God doesn't suffer when anyone goes to hell. Why? Because he's not happier when anyone goes to heaven either. God is perfect and unchanging.
How could his happiness increase when it's already perfect? How could he suffer when he's perfectly happy? He can't. How can God? Who teaches us? Who reveals himself to us as true goodness and love and compassion not suffer over the damned? How is that possible? It's because hell is good. You can picture over the gates of hell. This place was created out of love.
Now, why might it say that over the gates of hell. And this is what I think the Lord showed me. Because for God to force any of the demons or any human who is going to be damned to go to heaven, that would be a worse hell for them. It would be more agonizing for Satan to be forced to go to heaven than to reign in a place of eternal torment. It would be worse for any human being to enter into heavenly glory than to go to hell. If that was ultimately God's judgment. Because there's only one will in heaven. There is only one will in heaven, and that is the will of God. But I want you to think in your life how many times you have encountered somebody else who had a different will than yours, and you disagreed with them because you wanted it your way and you didn't care whether they were right or wrong. We do this all the time. You didn't care whether they were right or wrong. It's just not what I want. You can see this oftentimes with children, they do something wrong. They get caught. Mom and dad say all you have to do is say you're sorry and you can have your dessert. No, they could get dessert. They could get everything they want. All of their suffering would end. All they have to do is say that they're sorry, and yet they refuse. They're willing to suffer more just so that they can do what they want. Do you think those children are any different than us as adults? Do you think we've really changed that much just after a few decades in this world? We do it all the time. How many times do I make a choice knowing it's going to cause me pain and suffering, whether it's sinful or not, just because I want it?
You know, I've had a problem with caffeine my whole life. It's like an allergy. And so whenever I would eat anything with caffeine or drink anything with caffeine, I'd get sick. The problem is chocolate exists. And growing up, I did not always have the strength of will to stay away from it. And I knew exactly what's going to happen when I eat it. I knew exactly what was going to happen. I didn't care. I wanted that chocolate. I was willing to take the suffering to get what I wanted and that's a small thing. You know, there was no sin in that necessarily. It didn't cause any real damage or harm to my body. It just gave me a lot of pain and made me sick. And that's just a small way in which we do this every time a creature angelic. We're not the angels and the demons are already their decision is or have already been made. But any time a human, any time they make a decision, you always have to weigh the pros and cons. Is is this worth it to me? And that's what it comes down to. It doesn't matter if it's worth it to anybody else. Is it worth it to me? And how many times have I? Have you made a decision knowing it was wrong and knowing you would suffer more because of it?
That is hell. That's all hell is. Did you know God did not make hell to be a place of torment. He didn't designed hell to be a place where the people that go there are the demons, and the humans will suffer just because of how he. He set it up right. God is the one who lit it on fire.
No. All hell is, is a place where the will of God doesn't exist. That's it. Everybody in hell gets exactly what their will wants. Why do you think it's a place of torment? Because most of the time, when we get what we want, we suffer. And so does everybody else. I don't think for a moment God created hell to be a place of torment. He simply gave to his creation what they wanted. A place to exist for eternity without him. We know that broke the heart of Christ. But if God the Father had a heart, it would have broken as well. But that's part of the beauty of God. He loves us so much, even after he made us and offers himself to us. All we have to do is what he made us for and what we're told. It's not that big a deal. He will reward us for the eternity. And even when we refuse again, justice demands will. You know there are consequences. But he's not going to go out of his way to. To make your life wretched or miserable. Do you really think it makes God happy when anyone goes to hell? No, because it also doesn't make him sad. God is unmoved by such things. This is a very important theological truth. God is unmoved. Nothing you and I could ever do could move God. Because if he's perfect and infinite, how can perfect infinite nature be moved in any direction? It's all worked already, everywhere. So this place that he made, it's just a place without him, without goodness and whoever goes there seeks and obtains whatever they want. Now, there are plenty of people who say, hey, that doesn't sound too bad, right? I mean, there are plenty of simple things I like, and if I can get that for the rest of eternity, I'd be okay with that. Sure. Okay. Send me to hell. But there's a very simple, obvious problem. When you ever you look at a person, especially in regards to addiction, who is getting exactly what they want, it's ruining their life. Not only do they love the thing that they're addicted to, but they hate it at the same time. Not only do they love with that thing does for them, but they also hate all of the consequences of using it or having it.
Whenever you study addiction, the majority of time, especially if it's a chemical addiction of any level, they say it takes the person to finally hit as they hit rock bottom before they can make the choice to begin to turn away from it. They have to lose everything, and it's devastating to see. I can't tell you how many lives I have seen go through that and yet even that is a mercy, because on some level our Lord is allowing them to taste damnation so that they can reject it and be saved every time we choose what we want, regardless of the consequences, suffering to us or suffering to others, that is hell. That's all healers and the demons and the damned humans that go their torment themselves and torment each other. There is a fascinating idea for the triad. Rebecca believes that one of the one of the qualities of Satan's damnation is that his personality was split into three squares. Personal theory. No teaching on this. But he's probably right. He believes that Satan has three personalities, basically all fractured, none of them whole. One is Satan, one is Lucifer, one is Beelzebub. They're all the same person. And the reason that this is the perfect hell for him, the perfect suffering, is because it's exactly what he wanted. He wanted to be God. I'm sorry, Satan. God is three persons. You can't do that by yourself. He didn't care. I want to be God in the justice of his torment with this fractured personality. He is exactly what he wanted to be. That's the beauty of it. God gives us exactly what we want. But if we want him above all things, then that's what we get. But if we choose ourselves before him or before others, if we don't love our neighbor as ourselves as we're taught, then we get that I truly believe the damned get everything they want and they hate it. I'll end with this. It's it’s a very interesting analogy for the difference between heaven and hell. Hell is like a great banquet with all the richest food you could ever want or imagine. Unending. The problem is, all of the forks and knives and spoons are ten feet long, and so you can't ever reach your mouth. Heaven is actually the same place.
A giant banquet table. All the richest foods you could ever imagine. Forks, spoons, knives, ten feet long. But everybody's serving everyone else what they want. Everybody gets what they want. In the end, that is the goodness of God. And how could a single damned soul resent God for getting what they wanted all along? They do. That's the disordered nature of evil, because when it comes right down to it, damnation is when you love and hate the same thing. But that is intrinsically contrary to God. God never loves and hates the same thing. He loves certain things, and he hates other things that are contrary to the things that he loves. Looking to your own heart, think about the ways in which you make decisions. The choices you make in this life that in essence are are small acts of damnation might not go to hell for them. They're not gravely immoral, but it's still a taint of imperfection within us. My will. I must have my will, no matter the cost. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
Homily begin at 15:33
Tuesday Feb 06, 2024
Reflection-Judgment
Tuesday Feb 06, 2024
Tuesday Feb 06, 2024
Earlier today and last night, I spoke to you about the first of the four last things death, the first experience that all of us will share whenever the end of our life comes, whether it's the end of time itself, when Christ comes again and glory, or if it's just most likely our particular death that that individual day and the church teaches correctly, as our Lord has revealed, that there are two judgments and that's the tonight's topic. Judgment after death, every one will be judged by the king. And there are two judgments. The one that we hear today in the gospel is called the universal judgment. This is after Christ comes again in glory when he he will gather all the nations for him of all of time, and he will judge them all in the presence of all. That will be the final judgment. But we also have a particular judgment that belongs to each individual. That means when I die, when you die as an individual, you will have to go before that same judgment seat, before the king, before the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and your life. My individual life will be judged and I will receive a sentence. Now, what our Lord is telling us in this gospel is a begin a particular explanation of the final judgment or the universal judgment. But this also applies to anyone's particular judgment. It's not like our Lord is going to maybe change some of His decisions in the final judgment. There will be many souls who are already in heaven or already in hell because their particular judgment has taken place, but they will still all be gathered again at the end of time so that everyone will be judged in the sight of all. But we can still learn from this that the nature of what we would call our particular, our individual judgments. This is why being ready for death is so important, right? We need to always be ready because the moment my soul separates from my body, I will be taken before the judgment seat of God. The moment that happens, do not pass. Do not collect 200. Right. You're there and if God has anything against you at that moment, at that final moment, it will be brought forward. I thought I would begin by telling you a story.
Some of you may have heard this before, but I'd say I think it was maybe the second year I was ordained. I got called to the hospital and a man was dying and so I go there, I don't know this man. I just get called. I go. and when I when I get to the floor and I'm heading towards the room, there is a police officer standing outside the room. I'm like, That’s a little strange. That's a new one for me. I go inside the room and the gentleman, probably in his thirties, was handcuffed to his bed and I thought, that's another new one. Okay. So, what I realized was he was a prisoner who was in jail, but he was dying and so they had rushed him to the hospital, and he had called for a priest. And so, of course, he was handcuffed to the bed because they didn't want him trying to escape. The moment I walked into this room again, I was a little unsettled by the police guard and the handcuffs and everything. But I'm a priest. I'm here to give them the sacraments. From the moment I walked into that room and looked into this man's eyes, I could see that he was going to hell. It was obvious there was such a darkness and despair in his eyes that if he had died at that moment without the sacraments, he would have been damned. Just like that. Maybe it was the Holy Spirit. I don't know. But it was so clear to me he hadn't even said anything. All I had to do was look into his eyes. So I sat down beside him. And of course, I'm praying Hail Mary’s to myself in my head. Blessed Mother, tell me what to say. This is a strange situation. This is new for me. And he proceeds to tell me, you know, he's dying and he knows he'll be lost. He knows he'll be damned because of the evil things he's done in his life. And he's never repented of it. He's never gone to confession for it. And he's terrified. He is absolutely terrified. And I will tell you, that was an appropriate terror.
He should have been afraid and he was right. But I could see there was something deeper. There was something more, because he kept kind of furtively looking around the room. It was just the two of us. Right? The police officer was outside. There were no nurses or doctors in there. I asked him, what do you see? Then he looked quickly back at me. You could tell by his expression he was surprised that I noticed he says, there are these three dark figures like living shadows, pacing around this room I know they're waiting for me to die. That, again, was a new one for me. Never experienced that before. Still praying. Hail Marys in my own head. Blessed Mother. What do I say? I had an inspiration, and in that moment, I realized it must have been the Holy Spirit who these three demons were. I just knew and I said to him, I'm assuming that you would need to confess this, this and this pointed out the three demons connected with three specific grave sins that he must have committed in his life again, you should have seen the surprise in his face. How did you know? I don't know how the Holy Spirit must have told me, but it's just obvious to me. And he hung his head, and he was like, I don't I don't deserve to be forgiven. So of course, you don't deserve to be forgiven. Nobody does. But if at this moment right now, when God has provided to you a priest before your death, he's offering you forgiveness. Our Lord didn't have to let me be here. He could have let you die in sin. But I'm here. And he wants me to prepare you for your judgment. And I can fix this as a priest if you tell me your sins. And if you are sorry, I can absolve you and these demons will leave. And you could see the hope in his eyes. He wanted to believe me. But again, he was scared. He was very scared. I began to help him through a confession. It wasn't a short confession. You know, he's born and raised Catholic, but a very young age as a teenager, clearly taken a bad turn in his life drugs, alcohol, all that stuff, and turned to crime and had done many, many serious evils in his life. Obviously, three in particular, those three demons that were waiting for him. And the moment I gave him absolution, that darkness that I could see in his eyes just disappeared. This peace came over him and he said, they’re gone. The demons aren't here anymore. I proceeded to again anoint him, give him the holy anointing. I gave him Holy Communion, which he hadn't received in decades and then I gave him the apostolic pardon, which is the removal of all temporal punishment due to send. Basically get out of purgatory free card. He was perfectly ready to die at that moment and go to heaven. We talked a little more. I encouraged him to pray, gave him a rosary, and then I left. Now, at the end of our life again, when it's time for our death, when your soul separates from your body, there will be people waiting for you to take you before the judgment seat of God.
Who these people are is dependent upon what your final judgment is going to be. For most Catholics and Christians that I've been with at their deathbed, they will often see not all the time, but most of the time they will see deceased relatives present in the room with them. Basically, our Lord, what he does is to help you pass from this life to the next. He sends your loved ones who are already with him in heaven. He sends them back to you so that when you pass, you're comfortable. You don't have to be afraid. Because I'm with family. These people know me. I remember this one woman who was dying, and she kept talking to her grandfather, who had died when she was very young. But he was very old, and she kept saying, wow, you look so young. I've never I don't remember you ever looking so young. Now, some of the family just thought she was crazy and hallucinating. But I told them, no, he's probably here right now because our Lord is preparing her for this crossing. He's showing her. You don't have to be afraid. Come to me. I will judge you mercifully. But this criminal, when he was on his deathbed, who was there waiting for him? The demons that he had served in his life. And do you know what they would have done if he had died at that moment? They would have grabbed his soul and carried it to the throne of God and say he deserves to be with us. We own him. And they would lay out all the reasons why, and then our Lord would pronounce judgment. And if that soul was worthy of damnation, he would hand them over to these demons and they would drag him to hell for the rest of eternity. It's a terrifying truth, but because of the love and mercy of God, this young man no longer had to fear his judgment. But it will come to each one of us. Now, our Lord tells us very clearly in the Gospels that the ultimate way in which He is going to judge us worthy or unworthy of salvation is not. Which are you Catholic? Are you Christian? Are you a Muslim or Buddhist? Right. Which church or denomination or religious belief system do you belong to now? How did you treat the least of my brothers and sisters? That is the final arbiter of where we end up Heaven or hell. How do you value the weakest and most lowly of persons? How have you treated them? The ostracized those that the rest of the world places no value in. Do you see their value? Have you treated them the way you would want to be treated if you were in their place? That is the final judgment for each one of us. Yes, believing in Jesus Christ is important and necessary, but our church teaches very clearly that that our judgment, if through no fault of your own, you never came to believe in Jesus Christ. But if in God's mind you had learned about Jesus, you would have been baptized. He can save you.
Our Lord knows everything when he judges. Again, that's an important phrase. If through no fault of your own, you are not baptized. Our Lord will do everything in His power to save you. But He will still judge you based on these parameters, as he said, separating the sheep from the goats. The goats? Where do they go? As Matthew records our Lord, saying to eternal hellfire, eternal punishment. We'll talk a little more about hell tomorrow night. But the sheep to everlasting life, to peace, joy and happiness in God's presence. All of us have sin. And unless we die right after receiving the last rites and the apostolic pardon, we're probably going to have some sins that come up during our judgment. Our Lord is merciful. He wants to forgive our sins. Look at how much he was willing to do in order to bring about that forgiveness. What would he not do to save you from the eternal punishment? But he needs to see some effort on your part. He needs to see that, at least on some level, each one of us is trying to love and not just love anybody or any way to love the way God loves. The reason our Lord judges us based on how we treat the least of the people around us is because of a very simple theological reason. Our Lord has created human beings in His image and likeness. So how you treat human beings reflects on your belief in God and your belief about human dignity. If you treat them poorly, then you clearly don't think highly of God in whose image these creatures were made of. You treat them well. You do that obviously, out of respect for God, not because they deserve it themselves. I mean, if somebody is in prison for a good reason, they should be in prison. But our Lord says, visit them, visit them. Imagine always imagine yourself in their shoes. If I was in their shoes, what would I want you to do for me? Do unto others as we're taught, as you would have them do unto you. The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. The degree to which you love and show mercy and kindness is the degree to which you will receive the love and mercy and kindness of God Himself. This is what you have to know about God. He is always just. Even when he's merciful, he's always just. He says, look, I will show you all the mercy you need so that in your judgment, you need not worry. However, since he's just he demands that you then show that same mercy to others who don't deserve it. That's fair. It's a simple rule. I try to remind you all the time. You don't love your neighbor. You don't show mercy to your neighbor because they deserve it. You do it because God deserves it. He shows you love and mercy when you didn't deserve it. You have an obligation. Which means when I show mercy and love to you, it's not actually an act of mercy and love. It's an act of justice. That's one of the beautiful things about our Lord. Everything he does is just. And everything he does is merciful. It doesn't always look that way to us, but it's true. And the more we're conformed to Christ, you'll begin to see that in your own lives when you do the right thing. Because it's the right thing. Because it's just. You'll learn that that was the most loving and merciful thing you could have done. I want to read you one more passage from the Scriptures. This is an important one in regard to our judgment. Saint Paul. In his letter to the Corinthians, he tells us, quote, if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay or straw, the work of each will come to light for the day and the day is capitalized. The day will disclose it. It will be revealed with fire. And the fire itself will test the quality of each one's work. If the work stands that someone built upon the foundation, that person will receive a wage. But if someone's work is burned up, that one will suffer loss. The person will be saved, but only as through fire, but only as through fire. Whatever Saint Paul uses the word day or the day. He's always talking about the day of judgment, basically the day of death. Whether that's your own particular death and particular judgment or the final judgment, the final death of the world itself. So on the day of judgment, that's what he's saying. Again, Christians in the early world just said the day everybody knew what they meant. On the day your deeds as a follower of Christ will be judged and how will they be judged by fire? He says. Now, whether he's speaking literally in some type of mystical sense, or this is just figurative language, we don't know. But he says, our deeds will be judged by fire and the quality of your deeds, the quality of the actions you performed in the name of Jesus Christ throughout your life will be determined by what survives the flames and what gets burned up. Whenever Saint Paul talks about building, right, he's always talking about building the body of Christ because we are the living stones, he says. And as living stones, the things we do in our life either build up the body of Christ, the Temple of God, the church, or they tear it down. But if you know anything about this language and how Paul describes it, there are different kinds of building materials, right? I mean, if you're going to build a house, especially one for God, you want to use the best materials. Now, if I was going to tell you that I was going to test the construction of your house by burning it, what kind of materials would you use? You're going to use wood, straw? No way. And I huff and puff and I blow that house down and so Paul is telling you, what do you what do you aim for in the Christian life? What are the best materials that you could build a house worthy of God that would survive fire itself? He tells us gold, silver, precious stones. If you know anything about how fire works with gold, silver, and precious stones, it is it purifies them more. It makes them more precious. The longer and the hotter the flame. That's how they purify these precious metals, as we call them. You put them in the fire, in the crucible, right? That's an actual physical object that you use to put metal in and heat up until it melts. This this time of fire after death corresponds to the judgment. Now, I have a personal theory, but don't know if this is true or not, but on some level, this is what seems to be, at least in my eyes, what purgatory is like. This place of fire in the traditional imagery of the church. After you've been judged and you are worthy to go to heaven, your deeds will then be tested. Now, why is that most likely the interpretation? Well, Paul tells us, but if someone's work is burned up, meaning its wood, its straw, It doesn't pass through the fire intact, one will suffer loss. Let's say all the good things you tried to do were just tainted by selfishness and self-centeredness and complaining and a lack of virtue. Well, there may be a tiny little bit of gold and silver that will get through, but there's a lot of wood and straw there that's going to burn up. Does he say you're going to go to hell for that? No. He says that person will be saved. They will be saved, which means they have followed the Lord. They have either been baptized, striven to to to be a sheep in his flock, but only as through fire he's not talking about the damned. This fire is not going to test the deeds of those who were judged to go to hell. They don't need the fire. They're unworthy. So they're just sent down with the demons to hell. But those who are worthy by the first judgment, which is, Are you a sheep or a goat? The cheaper than going to be tested by fire. This is, in a sense, still part of your judgment. Now you've been judged as saved, so you're going to be saved. You don't have to worry about that. But there's a further judgment, so to speak. There's a further point that we have to consider. That's why I like to view this as purgatory. Basically. I've got to pass through the flame.
Now, I personally like to think of this fire as purgatory itself, but also as the gate of heaven. You know, traditionally we say that Saint Peter is there with the keys of the kingdom, Right? And he opens the gate of heaven and lets you in or says, No, you're not allowed and locks it on you. I like to believe that this gate is not made of precious stones or silver or gold or metal. I think it's made of fire. It's the fire of God's love. And you are worthy to enter into God's presence. But your love has to be tested. Is it pure love or is are there impurities? So you have to walk through this wall of fire. Now, anything in us, even after we've been judged worthy of salvation that is not worthy to enter heaven has to get burned up. You can't take that with you. It's not pure and holy enough in the presence of God. And so this firewall that you're going through, I like that technology example to this firewall that you're going through is going to purify, polish you up, so to speak. So that you're shiny and perfect for the Lord. If there's a lot of wood and a lot of straw in my building process, it's clearly going to take longer to burn, isn't it? The more wood or straw you have, the longer the burning process, the less you have, the faster it burns. So when the church talks about length of time in purgatory, I believe that corresponds simply to that fact. This fire, if you've got a lot of wooden straw, which you can't take with you, it's going to take a while. Church says the average length of time in purgatory is 40 Earth years. That's a long time. 40 Earth years. So that means 40 years after you've died and been judged, the average Catholic is going to need 40 years to get through purgatory. That's why we pray for the poor souls in purgatory, to get them out as quick as possible. Nobody wants to be stuck there, but the Saints even have to pass through this fire. In essence, on some level they have to pass through, at least if my interpretation is correct, purgatory. But if their deeds have already been purified to a perfect degree in this life, they don't even feel the flames, Right. They just walk right through. Not affected at all. Not slow down at all. You go right into heaven. They're good to go. Purgatory is, in fact, part of the judgment. It's important that we consider this because it's not just about going to heaven or hell. Yes, that's the big question. Am I going to be a sheep or goat? That's far more pressing than the purgatory question. Definitely. But for those of us who do strive to follow Christ, to follow his teachings, to love as he has taught us, to love right, to receive his sacramental grace, to pray, we have a greater surety that we are going to be judged as sheep. We shouldn't presume upon it. We have more surety. Now, you have to ask yourself, What kind of sheep am I going to be? Am I going to be a glorious one? Great, because I've built so much out of love for God in this world throughout my life and the things that I've done, I've done them with the mind and heart of Christ, truly selflessly enduring every cross patiently without complaint. Offering all things to God through Christ our Lord. I mean, that's a tall order, but that's the goal for us.
Once you've answered the question of saved or not saved in regard to your judgment, you do have to ask What will my degree be in heaven? Now, most of us will say, rightly so, that, hey, look, as long as I get there, I don't care. Right. Isn't that really the point, though? You know, if I get through the gates, eventually I'm going to be happy. That's 100% true. Definitely no doubt whatsoever. Yeah. So that's okay. However, you have to ask yourself this question when you're aiming at a target, depending upon the point at which you aim, you're probably going to miss the target a little bit at least, right? It's possible. But if you're aiming at the wrong point, what if you miss that? You miss the target altogether. And that's why the church has always used the word sin to refer to things done that are not pleasing to God. Go against nature, go against his laws and his teachings. So the word sin, as you should remember, is actually an archery term. It's an archery term. It's an ancient archery term, thousands of years old, archery. You know, bow and arrow was the first real weapon along with spears. If you want to be good at using a bow and arrow, you have to practice. They would set up a target and they'd put a middle, you know, like a dot in the middle of the target. Call that the bull's eye, right? And the goal was you aim at the bull's eye. Now, depending on how good you are, you know, you may get close, you may hit somewhere around the outside of the bull's eye. But let's say if you're not even aiming at the center, at the bull's eye, let's just say you're aiming for the edge of the target. I'm just trying to get the edge of the target, just on the target at all. Well, what if you miss there's actually a greater percentage that you're going to miss the target altogether. And guess what? Fail. You know, if if our focus if our goal if the thing we're aiming at in our lives of faith is just scraping by, just trying to just make it into heaven, you might miss the mark. You might sin with that kind of goal. then you actually don't even get judged as a sheep. You're found to be a goat and cast out. The fire is then meaningless to you in regard to purgatory. You go to the eternal fire. There's a reason that our Lord Jesus Christ sets up for us in the church. This is why the church encourages us to what?
To achieve or to strive for sanctity, holiness of life. Not. I'm just going to make it, you know, mediocre as long as I can skirt by the skin of my teeth. No, the higher I aim, the higher my goal in my life of faith, the more likely I'm going to not only achieve greater holiness, a greater position in heaven, but just getting into heaven. It's just the prudent judgment that each one of us should make. If just getting into heaven was the job, then Jesus wouldn't have given us all of these high expectations, like the Beatitudes, Saint John Paul, the second used to speak of this so frequently. He used to encourage us to strive for greatness, not just, okay, nice, decent, nice, barely minimal mess, but greatness. Calling us. You should want to be sick. You should strive to be a saint, even if you never get declared a saint in this world. That's okay. That is the only goal we should strive for. That's why Purgatory matters. That's why, in the end, don't just set that minimal goal in your life because, you know, you're probably not even going to hit that. It's unlikely I'm going to hit the bull's eye, but that's okay. That's the goal because that's the goal that Christ set for me. He says, Don't just strive to be saved. Strive to be a perfect saint. And that's important because on the day of your judgment, when our Lord judges you, he is not going to take you and compare you to the rest of the people you knew in your life your parents, siblings, coworkers, that that person who sits beside you at church that costs so much and irritates you. Our Lord is not going to take you and say, okay, well, you're not bad as her or you're not as bad as him. So clearly, you're okay. No. On the day of your judgment, there is only one person to which you will be compared, and that is Jesus Christ. Heavenly Father will look down on you on the day of judgment and He will look at his son. He will look at you. And then he will determine, based on how much you imitate, how much you look like, how much you have striven to conform to his perfect boy. What parent would do differently? You know, as parents, if you had a perfect child, you judge the rest of your children by that person, even if you tried not to. If you had a perfect child, you would judge all other children by this child. What else do you expect other father to do? He's got a perfect kid. So he's going to compare us to Christ himself. Every single one of us falls short in regards to that judgment. So if I'm going through life saying, well, at least I'm not as bad as him, or at least I'm not as self-centered as her, what does that matter? That's irrelevant. God doesn't care. God only cares. How do you compare to his son? And that is a weighty judgment. Because even the blessed mother herself, who was perfectly conformed to the image of her son, is certainly not equal to him. But there is something important that she shows us in her perfect conformity to Christ that in regards to degree, no one can be like the Son of God, not in regards to quantity or degree, but qualitatively.
She is equal to his son. Why? Because Jesus gave all of himself in love. Now that all was divine, as well as human, so infinite. Mary gave all of herself in love, comparatively small in comparison to Jesus, but it was still all of herself. Qualitatively, it was the same amount. Jesus teaches us this when he calls his apostles over one day in the temple and he says, do you see all these wealthy people putting large sums of money into the Treasury, into the Temple Treasury? You know, you can imagine the wealthy people walking up these big bags of gold and silver shaking them everybody here is dropping them loudly into these containers. Everybody see, look how virtuous they are. Look at the large amount of money they gave. And she says, no, no, don't pay attention to them. You see that old lady? You see how she walks up so humbly and drops two small coins. Smallest coins. They were like half a penny, like two small coins. Nobody even noticed her. And Jesus says she has given more than all of the others combined. How is that possible? I mean, I'm sorry. Jesus. Don't you know math? Right. Have you ever, you know, worked with money before? Lord, clearly more is better, right? That's not how God judges. God doesn't judge based on amounts is the amount that I loved. The same amount that you loved. That's irrelevant. It's qualitative, meaning these rich people that gave hundreds, thousands of dollars at a time were so wealthy that amount of money was meaningless to them is what chump change? I think they call it chump change, right? There's no big deal. This was the only money this poor old woman had, and she gave it all for those wealthy people to qualitatively equal her gift. They would have had to sell their homes, all their property and possessions, give all of it to the temple. That's the nature of judgment for God.
We don't have to worry about the quantity. God doesn't care. Don't compare yourself to anyone else in your family, at work, at church. None of those matters. It's the quality of the gift that matters based on your particular life, your circumstances, what God is asking of you, only in comparison with his only son. That is the judgment we're preparing for and I can, by the grace of God, through prayer and the sacraments, get to a point at which I can learn to give all of myself in love to God and my neighbor the way Christ does, the way Mary does. My gift may be much smaller in comparison to them, but God doesn't care as long as it's all of me.
When you reflect and we should do this often upon your particular judgment, whenever that may come, keep in mind the, shall we say, parameters of judgment. You need to keep in mind how you will be judged, to whom you will be compared, and what exactly Christ is looking for when he judges you. Because if you can keep that in mind each day, you're going to find it much easier to motivate yourself to love the way Christ loves.
Now, I wanted to wrap up tonight with a beautiful quote. Took me a little while to find it online. I didn't have time to go get it from my my own books. So many of you should know of C.S. Lewis. Not Catholic, sadly, but amazing Christian writer. If you don't know him, I'm sorry, but he wrote the Chronicles of Narnia and tons of other awesome things as well if you're familiar with The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and that's the first one and the rest of them in the last book called The Final Battle, it's a long story. I'm not going to go into it. The main characters die, and they go, don’t worry, I'm not rooting for you. And they go to Aslan's country now. Aslan in Narnia is a giant lion that can talk. He's a real person, but he's a lion. He is the embodiment, according to see us, Lewis's explanation of Jesus Christ himself. So just think. Aslan. Jesus Christ. Okay, so that means Aslan's country is heaven. The good main characters have gotten into Aslan's country, right? They were good. Aslan blessed them and rewarded them, so they get to go to heaven. All of a sudden, this soldier goes through the gates of heaven and is amazed by this beauty and glory. Now, this soldier, very importantly, is called a tell Marine soldier. Now, tell me there was another nation in Narnia, but they were the baddies. Okay, Tell Marines where were the baddies? They worship to God named Tash. He was basically humanoid with a with a with an animal head, like a bird head. And he was not good. He was a demon, but he did not inspire virtue and holiness and people. This Marine soldier had striven to follow Tash his whole life, but here he is walking into heaven and suddenly he encounters Aslan, who is Christ for all intents and purposes.
And this is the encounter, as C.S. Lewis describes it. And one of the most beautiful things about this imagery, this language that he uses, and this particular text helps us to see how Christ judges, especially those who do not know him by name, especially those who do not know him by name. So again, this is from the The Last of the Chronicles of Narnia, the Last Battle. This is the Marine soldier speaking. Then I fell at his feet and thought, Surely this is the hour of death for the lion who is worthy of all honor, will know that I have served Tash all my days and not him. Nevertheless, it is better to see the lion and die than to be tis rock of the world and live and not have seen him. But the glorious one bent down his golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son, thou art welcome. But I said, Alas, Lord, I am no son of thine but the servant of Tash, He answered Child, all the service thou have done to Tash, thy account as service done to me. Then, by reason of my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear and questioned the glorious one and said, Lord, is it then true, as the ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The lion growled, so that the earth shook, but his wrath was not against me and said It is false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites.
I take to me the service which thou have done to him, for I and he are of such different kinds that no service, which is vile, can be done to me and none which is not vile, can be done to him. Therefore, if any man swears by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not and it is I who reward him. And if any man does a cruelty in my name, then though he says the name of Arslan, it is Tash, whom he serves, and by Tash, his deed is accepted dust. Well, understand child, I said, Lord, thou knowest how much I understand. But I said also for the truth constrained me. Yet I have been seeking Tash all my days, Beloved, said the glorious one, unless thy desire had not been for me, I would not have sought so long and so truly for all, find what they truly seek.
There will be many people you meet and know in your life that seem to serve demons because of their ignorance of Christ the Lord. Don't be afraid for them. Just pray for them. In the end, our Lord himself will judge. And that's not our job. We should be concerned only with our own individual judgment. Even the judgment of our spouses and our children is not within our power. Ours alone is our worry and concern. The rest of the world, even the ones that you love and trust them to the merciful judgment of God. As you hear C.S. Lewis put it so clearly, as long as they seek the truth, even if they never find it in this life, as long as they continue to persevere in following to the best of their knowledge, the Lord, even in their misguided on his true name, you don't need to worry for them. Our Lord desires the salvation of every one of His creatures. He desires no one to be lost. Why should I worry about your salvation when God loves you more than I ever could? Never underestimate, know, never overestimate your importance in the salvation of others. Trust me, you're far less necessary than you realize. They only need the Lord. They don't need you, your spouse, your children, your friends, your siblings, your pastor, your parishioners. They don't need you. They need Christ alone. But if us as individuals are humbly seeking our own salvation, humbly trying to follow Christ, then what you'll find is our Lord will be able to use you more effectively for their salvation. Put that in his hands. Strive for holiness yourself and the rest will be taken care of by the Lord.
Monday Feb 05, 2024
Reflection-Death
Monday Feb 05, 2024
Monday Feb 05, 2024
The name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Seeking our Lady's Intercession. Let us pray.
Hail Mary, full of Grace.
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
Good morning, brothers, and sisters. As you know, this Tuesday is the solemnity of our patron saint, Dorothy. We'll have a special mass Tuesday evening in her honor. And we're having adoration. Of course, we started Friday night and it's going to go until Tuesday evening. And normally, of course, we do 40 hours, but this year we're doing over 80 hours because it's our 80th year of being an official parish and more in regard to adoration is usually better. So, I just want to begin by thanking those of you who signed up to spend time with the Lord so that we could accomplish this, but also those of you. And there are many of you who sign up for multiple holy hours. So again, thank you all very much. I was a little concerned that I was going to have to spend a lot of time in adoration over the next few days if we didn't fill up all those hours. So not that that's a bad thing. But so, because of the way in which we're preparing ourselves for our solemnity, I've decided to preach on four topics over the next few days. These are what the Catholic Church calls the four last things. Like, you should all know what this is the four last things death, judgment, heaven, and hell. These are always called the four last things, because all of us are going to experience death and judgment, and some of us will experience heaven and some will experience hell.
That's why the church kind of has this saying, and that's why they're often preached together. So, at the Sunday masses that I started last night, and for the two masses this morning, I'll be preaching on death. It's always the first of the four tonight, if you want to come back to church. During adoration at 6:00, I'm going to preach on judgment. Monday night we'll have masses six. I will preach on hell. And then Tuesday night for the solemnity of Saint Dorothy's, I will preach on heaven. I thought we'll save heaven to last, since that's Dorothy's feast. I don't want to preach on hell, on solemnity. So, but today I'm going to be preaching about death. And, you know, in my sermons, I often talk about death because it's something that all of us are going to experience. I can say with some confidence that I'm 99% certain in 100 years from today, all of us will be dead again. It's very possible that some of the babies may live over 100 years, but it's highly unlikely in a hundred years from today, none of us will exist in this world. That's a very important and sobering thought.
Now, last night at Mass and, you know, a lot of times the older parishioners will go to the vigil mass. I had to curtail that and say in the next 30 years. But, you know, they understood for the most part, I can honestly say in 100 years, all of us have will have experienced death and ultimately judgment. It is coming and on a natural level that should concern us. You know, people who are afraid of death or are afraid of suffering have a reason to be afraid of these things. Why? Because when God created human nature, when he created Adam and Eve, they were immortal, not just in their souls, but in their bodies. They could not get sick, and they could not die. Sickness and death are a direct consequence of sin. We were never meant to experience these things. They weren't made for us and so it's obviously painful and difficult to experience that sickness and death. They always go hand in hand. However, even though on a natural level, it's understandable that we don't like these things and we can even fear these things on a supernatural level. It is irrational for a Catholic, a Christian, to be afraid of sickness or death. It is irrational. I find it to be one of the most scandalizing things when someone claims to be Christian, and yet they're terrified of death. You know why that scandalizing is? Because Jesus already conquered it. What are you afraid of? It's. This is the main message of the Christian faith. This is the gospel. Christ has conquered not only sin, but death itself and those of us who come to Christ and seek to live within his life, in his church, we share in those graces already. We know that, yes, we will die one day. But we don't have to be afraid of that because it's just temporary. Now, the main reason for a Christian to fear death is they're fearing their judgment. We'll talk about that tonight at six. But there's a very simple reason why you shouldn't fear your judgment. The sacraments. Have you heard of the sacraments? Baptism forgives all Sin removes original sin. If you commit sin after being baptized, confession or reconciliation, that removes to. What are you afraid of? Our Lord has won the grace to forgive all sins for as long as you exist in this world.
I often tell people, especially in confession, that there are two paths to heaven, two paths to holiness and salvation. The first is this. This is the ideal way. Never, ever, ever sin again and always do what God tells you to do. So, if you do that, you're assured of salvation. If that was the only path to heaven, give up and go home. You know that there's. There's no hope for us. That's why we have the second path. And it's not really a separate path. It's just, so to speak, the other side of the coin. And that is if you fail in the first way, repent. That's it. If you fail in the first way, meaning you sin and you don't always do what God tells you, then repent. If you can't be perfectly virtuous and following Christ with His grace, at least be perfectly repentant and he can still save you. Again, we know this, we know this, but we don't act on it. We don't respond in this correct way. We have such weak faith that sickness and death still causes us fear and anxiety. And it's not just our own sickness and death. This even happens when we're afraid of the sickness and death of our loved ones. No, Christian has the right to be afraid of these things. Death is not our enemy. Death for us is a blessing because it is the gateway through which we go to live in heaven with God. We should be looking forward to death. We should often think about death. Remember death not only so that you're ready for it when it comes, because that's really important. But keep in mind the glory, the life that is offered to us in heaven with the Lord. When you have that on your mind, you can't. You can't fear these things.
Some of you know, probably many of you know I'm a huge science fiction geek, nerd. I don't know what the right term is. I love science fiction. Loved it my whole life. Science fiction, books, movies, whatever it is. Right. Love them all. You must be careful. They're not all good or moral. So, you know, be careful when you choose them. But I love Star Trek. Huge Trekkie. Okay, I'm not like the cosplay Trekkie where I get the pointed ears and go around and, you know, 99 or whatever it is but I still love just the science fiction of it. Now, in the original Trek universe, there is a race of warriors called the Klingons. Everyone loves the Klingons. They are warriors to the core. All they dream about is conquest and honor in battle. And for them, the greatest death is a death in battle. And they prepare their children from a very young age to have this goal in mind.
If you want real glory, lasting glory, you must die in battle. It's a shame for a Klingon to die of old age in later Trekkie universes. There was also another race in another galaxy, and they were called the Vashti. If you really know them, I'm impressed. Don't worry if you don't. Really liked them because they had a lot in common as a totally different race of aliens. But again, they were very battle oriented. They were all about war and conquest. And they had a tradition that every night with their children while going to bed, they would help their children come up with a new way that they could die in battle. That's the kind of bedtime stories they had with their kids. You could get your head chopped off. Imagine that. You know, somebody swinging a sword, or you could get shot with a laser gun, right? Whatever it is each night you're putting your children to bed with the idea of thinking about their death, keeping their death in mind so that they could never fear it. Because that's an important thing about being a soldier, right? If you're afraid of death, you're not going to be a good soldier because a soldier has to approach death in regard to their occupational responsibilities. Now, I'm not saying we should necessarily follow this trend with our own children. It's not necessarily the perfect way to do it, especially when they're little. However, there's something important about that. One thing that we see in so many of the great saints is their desire for martyrdom. They don't just want to die. They want to die for Christ. One of my favorites is Saint Francis of Assisi. He always wanted to be martyred. He wasn't, but he really wanted to be martyred he got permission to go to the Middle East and to find the sultan, the head of the Muslim empire, and to preach Christ to him, to preach Christ to him, because he knew he would probably be killed for it. and that's what he wanted. So, he goes there, and he gets an audience with the sultan. He's telling them, you’re all pagans and you need to convert and come to Jesus Christ, you know, and be baptized and so he's hoping he's going to get martyred, but the sultan's not ready to martyr him, Francis says, I'll make you a deal. You build This is a true story. You build the biggest fire you can, and you choose some of your most faithful and holy imams, or like priestly leaders among the Muslims. And we will all walk into the fire together and whoever comes out alive has the true God. He actually said this, and the sultan was like, okay, I'd like to see this. We had this giant fire built. Francis was standing there waiting to walk in, but the imams that were chosen were so terrified that they ran away, they wouldn't walk into the fire and Francis turn to the Sultan. He goes, That's okay. I'll do it by myself. And he turns around and begins to walk into this this giant bonfire and the sultan sends his soldiers to tackle Francis and to drag him away. And then he has his soldiers send him away from that land. And Francis was like, why just let me walk into the fire? He goes, no, because if you come out alive, I'll have to convert. But that was the zeal that Francis had. He had he was fearless in regard to suffering and death. I'm not saying you have to be that fearless. Okay. Right. You don't have to kind of go after martyrdom the way we see some of the saints do. However, you need to be ready for it. We should always be ready. Christ, who has given his life for me, deserves at the very least that I be willing to give my life for him. I can't even think about that if I'm afraid of death. You are going to die, and many of you are going to die far sooner than you think. And for those who aren't in Christ trying to prepare themselves for death, Jesus tells you what's going to happen. You call yourself a Christian. You're not ready for death. You're not ready for your judgment. You know what's going to happen. I'm going to come to you. You will die when you least expect it. We have no excuse for not being ready to die at any moment. Jesus has warned us if we're not always trying to get ourselves ready through prayer, right through confession, then he's going to come when we're not ready. But if I'm striving to stay in the state of grace. Going to confession, praying, especially my rosary. If I'm doing these things, he won't surprise us. We will be ready and even if something happens where it seems like, you know, we can't get sacraments like the last rites before we die, our Lord will find a way. Like he wants to save everybody. If you're trying to stay in his good graces and pray and be ready for this inevitability, he's not going to surprise you. That's why I always love this story. A priest told when I was at seminary in Philadelphia. There was a huge snow snowstorm in Philly one winter, 30, 40 years ago. And the priest, who was the chaplain of the local hospital in downtown Philadelphia, could not get to the hospital because the snow drifts between the buildings were like 20, 30 feet high. It was impossible. Nobody could even leave their homes. He gets a call in the middle of the night is a Catholic who's dying. They need last rites. He can't even get out of his door. And he's devastated. As a priest, you want to be there, but he can't be there. And he says, I'm sorry. There's just no way for me to even get the few blocks. I can't even walk. And he just goes to the chapel and starts praying that God, you know, provide a priest. This person is dying in the hospital. Obviously, there's a lot of commotion with nurses and doctors coming in and out. And the man in the next room, an elderly man who was bedridden, he couldn't sit up even was woken up because of all of the noise and he calls to one of the nurses coming by and he says. What's going on? And the nurse said, Mr. So-and-so, you're Mr. Smith from the next room is dying. And because of the snowstorm, the priest can't come and give him last rites. And this old man, bedridden old man, says, That's okay. I'm a priest, and I always keep my oils and my stoles with me. But the nurses didn't even know he was a priest. Now he couldn't walk into the other room, so they unhooked his bed and wheeled his bed into the other room. They lined up the bed beside the dying man, and he was so frail and elderly, this priest that he couldn't even, like, reach over or sit up himself. So, the nurses had to, like, tip him over so he was close enough to anoint him. He gives them the sacraments that all of the sick, the apostolic pardon, his forgiveness sins, and within a short time that man dies. God knew the hour of death, and he knew it would happen at a time when the normal priest and chaplain could not get to the hospital. So, you know what? He arranged that a sick old priest would be assigned to the room right next door so that when the time came, this child of his that he loved would have the graces that Christ had won for him. This is one of the reasons why, as Catholics, we pray the Hail Mary prayer because what do we say at the end of the prayer? Right. Pray for us now and at the hour of our death. It's that last hour that's so precious and important. Yes, I need grace throughout all my life. But that last hour is the most important because it's that moment that determines ultimately how I will be judged. That's why praying to our lady is so important and to any of the saints and angels that they not only help us always be ready for death and judgment, but in the end that we know that Christ will be there with his his loving hand in his mercy. So, again, death is imminent, and it will be challenging for most of us in one way or another. But at the very least, Christ doesn't want you to fear it. Don't underestimate his love for you. Don't underestimate his desire to save you. But don't wait on his mercy. Seek it today. Today may be the last day. The last day of your life. In the name of the Father and of the Son. And of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
Homily begins at 18:46
Tuesday Jan 30, 2024
We believe in Providence, not in coincidence
Tuesday Jan 30, 2024
Tuesday Jan 30, 2024
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Seeking our Lady's intercession. Let us pray.
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of the womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
Good morning, brothers, and sisters. This past Thursday, as you know, we usually have a holy hour from 6 to 7, and once a year we choose one particular holy hour. And we did it this past Thursday to be our holy hour for life, where we come, and we spend time with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. We pray especially for, you know, the conversion of the people of this country and of the world for a greater love and respect for human life, the dignity of human life, right from conception to natural death. And it was really a great turnout. I was very happy to see all the families and kids here Thursday evening. And then afterwards everyone went into the hall, and they had a bunch of activities and some food, you know, for them to share so they could continue the message. But one of the nice things was this year, for the first time, we had a mobile pregnancy care ultrasound unit come. It's just, you know, huge truck thing with generators and an ultrasound equipment in it. And they came and they volunteered to do this to come. And they did free ultrasounds for any pregnant mothers here at the parish. And there were a number of ladies who got to see these ultrasounds and the kids, and the rest of the family got to see these living children in their mother's womb through the power of this this technology. It's a very special event. And it was going very well initially. And then you might have heard, but all of a sudden, the hope, all the power at Saint Dorothy's flashed off just like everything's shut down and then turned back on shut down and turn back on it, shut down and turned back on. And then it shut down and didn't turn back on. There was no power anywhere. Now, luckily, the ultrasound unit had its own power source. Right? It's, it's, it's mobile. It took care of that. There are no lights anywhere, no electricity. Like everything was shut down and I didn't think much of it, but we found out that one of the main transfer, former blue. So, some of the parishioners had seen it started sparking and then basically just kind of exploded. And obviously we you know, called the fire department and called they called the electrical company, whoever's in charge of that. And they tried to come over to fix it. But for the rest of the time that we were in the hall and that this event was going on, there was just no power at St Dorothy's. So, at some point, of course, the electrical company got here and put a new transformer in and when Meg Barrett was closing the hall after everybody had left and gone home, no one is here. Meg locks the door, and the power comes back on. So now if you know anything, Catholics don't believe in coincidence, right? We don't believe that. that's interesting. Or that was strange, how did that happen? Why did that happen? Right. We believe in Providence or what I like sometimes people say is instead of coincidence, we believe in God incidents. So why would this have happened at such an event? You know, why didn't this happen some other time during the day or night when we weren't using the church? You know, what was going on here? And it makes sense. And I'll explain why that it was probably some type of demonic entity that didn't like what we were doing right this this beautiful night in support of the dignity of life and encouraging the love of life, especially in the womb to the young children of this parish. So, they were trying to shut it down. Now, that should lead you to ask the question, how could a demon affect a transformer? Right. How does that work? You know, demons are spiritual beings. Transformers are metal and glass and electricity. What's the connection here? Well, something that The Exorcist have taught us for the last 60, 80, 100 years is that demons have a great proclivity for technology.
For some reason, demons have a great ability to manipulate, to work in and through all technology. Anything that runs on electricity, whether it's, you know, radio, television, Internet, doesn't matter what it is. They have this unique ability now that doesn't mean there's something intrinsically dangerous about technology. Demons can technically work through any physical thing in this world. Now, we don't. We know that demons can't possess things. Demons can't possess things. They possess people, right? They can possess people. But the word that Catholics use that the church uses is demons, can infest physical things, meaning dwell in and work through. So, it's not like they're controlling your TV or your computer or the, you know, transformer out by the road, but they can infest an effect and alter it and this is something that it's important for us to be aware of and that's why I'm sure many of you have heard before that. Now, I recently heard it was Saint Catholic and Seton who initially prophesied this in the 19th century. But also, I've heard that our Lady of Fatima prophesied this in 1917 to the children of Fatima that in the future Satan would have put a black box in every home through what went through which he would speak to the people.
Now, this was, if not a century, certainly decades before the television or the computer was invented. There was not even an idea of this black box and its usefulness. They didn't even know what it meant. But clearly, our Lord, through Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, through the Blessed Mother herself, was trying to get us ready for this. I think we can assume that that would include televisions and computers because typically they're black and they're shaped like a box you know, it seems the most logical interpretation. Now, again, this doesn't mean that television, the Internet, computers are intrinsically bad. They're just tools. That's all that they are. But because of the great evil that's done with them and through them at times, the lies and distortions, the power the demons have to work through them is actually strengthened.
Now, how does this work? Okay. When you look at Genesis, one of the things that God said to Adam very clearly is that I give to you dominion over the earth. Dominion simply means the power to rule and govern. Mankind was given by God the power to rule everything in this world, literally the whole world. But when Adam and Eve sinned, they surrendered that dominion to Satan. This is something that the fathers teach very clearly. Basically, they hand it over to Satan by doing his will instead of God's will, their power and authority over the world. And so ever since then, for however long we've been on this planet, Satan and the demons have been in charge of the physical world. And because of their dominion that they took from us, that we gave to them. They're able to rule and affect it in a very powerful way. Obviously, that was true then. It's still true now, but it's also true when a specific individual uses an object in a in a way that is not pleasing to God, you know, against the commandments and his teachings, they are actually increasing the demonic power over the thing that they're using. Like, we know that the number one thing that the Internet is used for is pornography. That is the number one thing. We also know that if pornography wasn't used on the Internet, you probably couldn't afford Internet in your home. That's what's paying for your Internet. Now, if that's the number one tool that the Internet and radio waves and television waves and all this is being used for, it's very demonic, right and so it's not surprising that demons have a great power over things like the Internet, like computers, like televisions and so we have to be on guard and careful about these things. Again, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with having one, but how you protect yourself and your family, how you use them is very important because they're easily accessed by demonic powers. One of the things that the church teaches us to do is say certain prayers in rejection of any demonic temptation or influence that could be coming upon us or our family. And we call them cattery prayers. It's just an old Latin word. It means to avert. Either to avert, to cast out, to get rid of evil, evil spirits in particular.
Now, every baptized Christian has the power and the authority to pray to prefatory prayers, you don't have to be a deacon, you don't have to be a priest, you don't have to be a bishop. You can pray these prayers any time throughout the day in your life for yourself and for those over whom you have authority. So, spouses, children, your own property. You can pray these prayers all the time. If you think, there's some type of demonic spirit or influence trying to affect you or your family or your home. And these prayers that you can go online for the repercussions. Got a great book on these prayers for laypeople. There's lots of ways you can get these prayers. But the simple way of saying a predatory prayer is this in the name of Jesus Christ, I reject and then you name the thing that you reject. It could be the demon of pornography. It could be the demon of lust or the temptation of murder. You know, you could choose any sin or any name of a demon. I'm not saying research the names of demons, but, you know, if you happen to know them, you know, you can use that prayer and if you are in the state of grace, since you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you not only have the power, but also the authority to do that and the demons must flee. They have to flee. Now, what happens if you're not in the state of grace? Well, it's the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of Christ within us, through the grace of Christ that enables us to overcome the demonic attacks in these situations. So, if I'm not in the state of grace, it's not going to work. Now, this is a problem. That's why when I fall from the state of grace, I need to rush back to confession as soon as possible and get back in the state of grace so that I can protect and defend myself and my loved ones against these attacks of the enemy. Many people often think, well, if I'm not in a state of grace, what's the point of praying at all? Right. It's not going to benefit me spiritually. I'm not getting grace for it because I've lost the Holy Spirit. So, so many people, when they're coming to me, say, you know, I keep falling to the sand and then I just what's the point of praying at that point? and this is where you make a grave mistake. You should still be praying, and you even should be using the prefatory prayers, even if you know they're not going to work. And why is this why being it so important that we do this? The church teaches us that there's a very important aspect of how the power and grace of God works in our lives, and it always works according to our nature. Our nature. Thomas Aquinas said it this way. He says, Grace builds on nature. Depending on the nature of the thing that is receiving grace or the person that is receiving grace, the grace will work in conjunction with that nature. Now we have not only sinful, sinful nature, right? Can composable nature, but because of that it's weak and it's frail. The graces that we receive oftentimes don't seem like they're working. Because you say, I pray every day, Father. You know, I've got a confession in mass, but I keep falling into sin. Well, that's not the grace is fault. That's your fault. That's our fault. And it means I need to learn to discipline my nature master and control my nature so that the grace can be more efficacious. So, the way you improve your nature is good habits and self-discipline. And the number one good habit that every believer should have been daily and frequent prayer. You see, even if I'm not in a state of grace and therefore don't receive grace in my prayers, if I'm keeping up with my prayers every day, I'm actually building a good habit in my nature and this habit of prayer makes it much easier to receive grace. Once I go to confession because I've got the habit I built up, the habit where I pray every day, whether I sin or not, I just keep praying. And prayer is so important. That's why the church says those who pray are certainly saved and those who do not pray are certainly damned. That's how important daily prayer is. If you're praying God can save you, if you're not, there is no hope for you. So, consistency, creating a habit of prayer in your daily life, whether that's the rosary, the act of contrition, whatever prayers you like, or predatory prayers, that is a very good and noble habit to have in your nature. So, when you are faithful to that and you build that up, that when you get back into the state of grace, the grace is going to work even more powerfully through you. But there's another rule to understand about prayer in general, especially directory prayers. So, the prefatory prayers are like a weapon you're using to fight off and defend yourself from the attacks of the enemy.
Just imagine for a moment, Let's say I gave you a sword. You've never wielded a sword before, but I've given you the sword and the shield. So, you've got these weapons of war, and your enemy is coming to attack you. But he has been wielding his sword and shield for thousands and thousands of years. He's probably better than you, isn't he? I would assume. So, you've now got these powerful weapons sharpers than his, stronger than his that you could defeat him with. The problem is you really don't know what you're doing. You just flailing around and, you know, terrified as he's coming at you. Your sword is ten times as big as his, but he's just better at it than you are. The deprecatory prayers are very powerful. They work because of the Holy Spirit dwelling within you in the state of grace. And yet if you are weak in spirit or weak in faith and not well practiced in using those prayers and trusting in the name of Jesus Christ, then guess what happens? You seem to still falter and fail. The enemy still seems to win. You fall back into sin. You can't blame the weapons that you're using. You're just not skilled in using them yet. And the adage is very true here, practice makes perfect. So just keep praying them. Keep using these prayers, keep praying all your prayers, even if they don't seem to you to be working because the more you use them, the more you pray them, the better you get at it right. Practice makes perfect and you'll get to a point in your life in which, hey, it's working now. the prayers just suddenly started working. No, they've always worked. You have just finally mastered them in a way that they're able to work through your nature even better than before. This is why these habits of prayer are so essential in the spiritual life, regardless of the state of grace, regardless of whether in mortal sin or not.
That doesn't matter. Pray your prayers. Always say these prayers. Now, in the Gospel today we have this account in which Jesus easily casts out this demon. He performs an exorcism and of course, the people who are hearing him speak are already amazed by the way he speaks. Whenever you hear in the Gospels that Jesus speaks as one who has authority and not as the scribes, what this means is that when Jesus speaks, he doesn't quote Moses all the time, or Abraham or Elijah. He simply says, I tell you, I say to you, So Jesus is speaking on his own authority with the scribes in the Pharisees would usually say, Moses teaches you right, they would quote other people. So, Moses is authority. They invoke not their own. But Jesus speaks as if he himself has authority to tell us what to do. I'm telling you; it doesn't matter what Moses said. I'm telling you to do this. Do it because I have said so. And then he proves his authority by casting out a demon. Right. That's always something concrete. You need to see that the authority is real. So, he cast out this demon in. Everybody's amazed. Like, not only does he speak with authority, but he also actually has the power and authority to do it. Now, you, as lay men and women, even I as a priest, do not have the authority to perform an exorcism that's casting out a demon, that's possessing a person. We don't have the authority to do that. But did you know you have the power to do it? Every baptized Christian who's in the state of grace has the power of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, which means they can cast out demons.
They could technically perform exorcisms, but we're not allowed to do it. I'm not even allowed to do it because I don't have the permission. Basically, I need the Pope and the bishop's permission to do that. So, I've got the power, but not the authority if I attempted to cast out a demon from a person to perform an exorcism without Bishop Julius giving me permission, the demon can laugh at me. You can't hurt me. You can't do anything. You have no authority here. Your power is useless. So that's why we should never attempt to do exorcisms. Whether we have the power or not is irrelevant. You also need the authority. But one of the things I do every week here at Saint Dorothy's on every Friday is I do the exorcism prayers from Pope Saint Leo.
Pope Saint Leo wrote the most recent version of the Prayers of Exorcism and the prayers that I say again once a week as pastor of Saint Dorothy's and the whole parish and all the land and people and families and homes and everything that belonged to it is I pray these prayers which are exorcism prayers not for people, because I'm not allowed to do that, but for every other thing. I am weekly exercising to the furthest extent of my authority, every object within the parish, every object in your home, every object that you own, and everything within the geographic area that encompasses our parish. I always include not only, you know, fit, you know, clearly physical objects, the land, the water, cars, buildings, clothing, gasoline, you know, whatever it is, physical stuff. But I also include electricity, internet, radio waves. I include all of them because they're all physical. And again, demons they don't possess, but they can infest these things very easily and each week I do this just as a kind of a weekly cleaning of all your property and possessions in Saint Dorothy's parish. Just kind of making it a little easier doesn't mean they don't keep coming back in. Any time a human does some grave evil or sin, they're inviting the demon back in and I got to go and clean house every week, and that's okay. I'm happy to do that. But even in your own homes, you have the right and authority in your homes and with your own property. It's very important that you pray these two deprecatory prayers.
Parents should be doing this over their children. If you see one of your children struggling with anything, not just a sin, it could be something like depression or anxiety. In the name of Jesus Christ, I reject. I cast out the demon of anxiety from my child. You can do this again. You might not be great at it when you start, but you just have to keep practicing it and as you grow, the power begins to flow more easily through you, and you'll see the effect in your family and in your homes. That's why I like to bless or exercise bells and candles, salt, and water. Because when you use those in your home again, they cast out demons when you use them with your children. It's an old tradition that if you ever find that there's a lot of kind of angst and resentment building in the house and people are starting to get on edge and fight, you bring the exercise bell and then the demon that's associated with those evils and temptations must leave. You must leave. That's why those things are so powerful. So, it’s not just the objects that we can exercise and use, but these prayers that we should learn and always have in our tool belt ready to help defend ourselves against the constant, the daily attacks of the enemy. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
Homily begins at 15:08
Monday Jan 22, 2024
Virtue
Monday Jan 22, 2024
Monday Jan 22, 2024
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit seeking our Lady's intercession. Let us pray.
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen
Good morning, brothers, and sisters. As Catholics, all of us should know the words virtue and vice, virtue having to do with good thoughts and good actions that are in right order with our nature and with God's plan and design vices or bad thoughts and bad actions that go against God's plan and design and our nature. So obviously, sin is a vice, right? Whatever way we sin, that's vicious behavior. That's where the word comes from, from the word for vice. So in our first reading from the prophet Jonah, we hear as we know, the story of Jonah, he gets swallowed by the whale, gets spat up on shore, and then he has to go throughout Nineveh preaching that 40 days more and God will destroy you because of your vice, because of your sin, So because of your vicious way of living, you're not in conformity with God.
God has decided to destroy you and this city. And again, it takes them three days to walk through the city. But even at the end of the first day, everybody in Nineveh is ready to repent. They put on sackcloth, they sit in the ashes and they fast. They don't eat food and don't drink. And when God sees their change of heart, he repents of his intention to destroy them. Right? This is what it says when God saw by their actions and by their actions how they turned from their evil way He repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them. He did not carry it out. And this this is one of the essential Christian messages that it's not enough to have faith in Christ. It's not enough just to have faith. We have to act on that faith. That faith has to be put into practice in our lives by how we think and what we choose to do. And so, the life of Christ, as the church explains it to us, is a life of what we call virtue. There are many different virtues. We have to work on all of them and grow. Some people are better, and one virtue as opposed to another. And yet some of us are weaker in one virtue or another. And so, we have to strive harder in that virtue. It doesn't matter what the virtue is. I'm not going to go into all of them today. There's too many. So, but it's actions, right? It's actions that God is looking for from us, his people, because it's our nature. God created us with these bodies through which we live and interact. And so, if my faith, if my trust in Jesus Christ is only a matter of my mind and heart, and it doesn't do anything to change my way of life, then clearly, it's hollow, it's empty. But we live in a culture that no longer encourages virtue in its people. Right. You can call it the woke culture. You can call it the victim culture, whatever you want to call it. Instead of holding up what we call virtuous actions as the goal that all people of our society should strive for, right? Even just natural virtue, let alone the supernatural virtues. Instead of doing that, it's lauded and praised. When somebody claims that they a victim, they see that as a mark of pride. I'm oppressed, I'm broken. That's not a mark of pride. There's nothing good in that. It doesn't mean we condemn them for their brokenness. Right? Christ teaches us we love all especially the poor and the weak and the vulnerable the most.
But we don't praise them for their vulnerability and weakness and vice. There's nothing good in that It needs to be repented of. And then that person needs to strive for virtue. But we don't get that culturally anymore. And so, our culture, our country, just like Nineveh, is, is on the path to destruction. Hopefully we get a little more than 40 days, you know, but in the end, you know, if we can't turn things around, then destruction is the inevitability, because Vice always requires, in the end a response from God. He has to stop it when it's so far spread throughout a country. So how do we as individuals affect the national problems that we have in this country and throughout the world? Well, that's the key. We simply do it as an individual. You just work with yourself trying to grow in virtue and with those closest to you, trying to help them grow in virtue. And ultimately, it begins at home. Right. All of you know, all of you parents in particular, how you act, how you speak at home is how you are raising your children. They absorb everything, even if you don't realize you're teaching it simply by the way you talk and act you are. And so, we as parents have a responsibility to live lives of virtue, especially in our homes. And yet that's one of the hardest places to do it, right. The people you live with usually fight with the most or most resentful of hateful towards at times disobedient to where's the virtue If you can't change your own heart with the grace of God and help to change your family, then there is no hope for this culture. Absolutely no hope. And for how long have each of us individually striven to try to grow in holiness and virtue. And yet we fail? Time and time again, it's because we can't really do it as individuals. Like we need each other to help grow in virtue. That's why Christ, in instituting his church, made sure it was a community gathered together, working together, praying together to help all of us not only repent of our sins and believe in Christ, but then, by His grace, grow in virtue.
So one of the things we are doing at Saint Dorothy's in union with Saint Aloysius is we're starting up a group called Fraternus . There's another group called Fidelis that I'd like to start up to, but we don't have enough female volunteers. So, the whole point of this group called Fraternus, or the one we'll eventually start called Fidelis, is to help men and women grow in virtue. That's it. And it's not done in any academic like setting. It's not like catechesis, right? We have to sit down, like at school and learn stuff that we know it's far more natural and practicing and conversational. They play games, they eat food together. They have a meal together, right? It's a very good environment. It's not a class, but for fitness. It's where fathers and sons work together in this program, it's a great Catholic program to help them grow in virtue. Now, we fathers clearly need to grow in more virtue, but if we grow in virtue, we can help our sons grow in virtue, vice versa with Fidelis, which is for mothers and daughters, for women, again, it's to help them grow in virtue. Because, you know, young ladies, you're going to learn to be a woman based on the life of your mother, how she lives and acts. Young men. You're to learn to be a father based on his actions and his words. We as parents have a great responsibility to strive for virtue, but we need other men to help us. Lives need other women to help them. And that's what these groups are designed to do. You don't have to do it on your own. You're not supposed to do it on your own. We're supposed to work collectively together. So like I said, we're starting later this month for attorneys. We're not going to be able to start Fidelis right away. We again, ladies, you got to volunteer. We need you to step up and volunteer because it's run by you, the people. Right. So the men run fraternus. The women run Fidelis. But later this month, on the 29th, on Monday, the 29th, it's going to start up at Saint Louis, just in Hickory. They have a great hall with lots of extra rooms underneath the church. If you're not familiar, just drive up there. You'll find it's easy. It's my home parish. And so for the first four meetings of fraternities is for the men and the young men. It's just basically a come and see experience. There's no commitment required. You don't have to. There's no cost. They'll feed you while you're there. It's from 6:30pm to 8:30pm on Monday nights, starting every week on January 29th and again for four weeks, or just come and check us out and see what you think. I really strongly encourage you men, either with your sons or even without your sons, right to go in and try this. I think you'll be impressed by the program, and it'll help you personally grow in virtue and lead your sons to grow in virtue again. Ladies, I need to encourage you to step up so we can start Fidelis for the ladies as well. Some of our parishioners have already been doing this at other parishes. They've been driving out to other parishes just to have their kids in these programs. And not only the parents, but the kids, them, the kids, I shouldn't say the young men and women, they rave about it. They absolutely love it. It's really fantastic. So, again, I would just strongly encourage you to consider this because how often have we failed in our lives of virtue trying to do it on our own? The whole point of this program is you don't have to do it on your own anymore. You're going to have the support of other men and young men, other women, and young women. And it's us working together to help all of us collectively grow. So again, please just pray about that. Consider it after mass today, some men will be out in the foyer to answer any questions you have about fitness.
I'm sure you can ask about Fidelis because they're similar programs. But please, you know, take a moment, stop talk with them, at least be open to the idea. Now, there is a cost in the end to pay for the program if you're joining it permanently. But if there are some of you who aren't interested in getting involved and maybe don't have any kids that you could bring, you can still come in and help out. That's not a problem. But, you know, if you want to give a financial donation to help families and young men and women attend these things without, you know, having the burden of the cost, I don't remember what the prices are. You can talk to them about it. There's kind of one set price yearly for the program and then you just break that down between the members.
But again, please consider this. It's really a phenomenal program ultimately for ourselves. It's going to take sacrifice, as we know, to grow in virtue sacrifice like the nine invites wearing sackcloth. If you know anything about sackcloth, it is very uncomfortable. You don't want to wear sackcloth sitting in the ashes. I'd rather sit on the couch. So, sitting in ashes is penitential, right? Not eating food, not drinking. That's certainly very painful to the body, you know, and lifting up my mind and heart to God in prayer. You know, it's these actions where we sacrifice things in our lives, where we actually choose to suffer the loss of good things so as to show God, we are repentant, and we do want to change our ways. So, yes, these kinds of events will be sacrificial. Even getting up for mass on a Sunday morning, the sacrificial, you know, I mean, I'd like to sleep in too, so but when we are willing to give things up for the Lord, not only does it please him because he sees our desire, but it enables us to receive all of the graces to grow in virtue that he pours out upon us, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
Jon 3:1-5,10; Ps 25: 4-5,5-7,8-9; 1 Cor 7:29-31; Mk 1:14-20
Homily begins at 17:49
Tuesday Jan 02, 2024
The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
Tuesday Jan 02, 2024
Tuesday Jan 02, 2024
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Seeking a lady's intercession, let us pray.
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
Good morning, brothers, and sisters and Merry Christmas. Remember, we celebrate Christmas for the entire octave, and then we continue with the season of Christmas. So tomorrow I will end the octave of Christmas with the solemnity of our lady. But today the Church gives us the Feast of the Holy Family. This is the day we celebrate this particular feast. Why in particular? Because this isn't just the Holy family, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, in the sense that they're the holiest family, obviously their holiest family. So, you know, you've got the son of God, you've got the immaculate Virgin, you've got his foster father, Saint Joseph, that these are like the three these are the three best people ever. Clearly, their family is always perfect and holy and they're the model for each one of our families. If we really want to be holy ourselves and have a holy family, then this is this is our model. But there's a deeper theology here, a deeper mystery that's important that we contemplate. And we need to ask the question why, when Christ came into the world did, he choose to come into the world through a family? I mean, he could have done it any other way. He's the Lord, right? He could have simply created a new body for himself, like he did with Adam. We might take some dirt, some dust, some clay from the earth, form a new body, give it a soul, and then become incarnate with it. He could have done that, but he didn't.
Everything the Lord does, everything he does, has an important meaning for us. If we can meditate and if we can learn to see it. There is a very important reason why Christ the Savior came into the world in a family. And it's for one simple reason because individual humans don't exist. We should think about that for a minute. Individual humans, persons, they don't exist in the sense that individually, separate from all others, all human nature, all human nature designed by God, is communal, is technically familial or a family. Right? When Adam was first created and he was the only human on earth, he was lonely. He wasn't complete, he was missing something, and he didn't know what it was. Of course, he should have been lonely and incomplete because no individual can stand on their own. They weren't created to, and God made him Eve. Now he wasn't as lonely anymore. But that still didn't complete the image because the very first command God gave to Adam and Eve was fruitful and multiply. Make a family. The family, the three essential members of the family, the father, the mother, and the child. You can have more than one child, but ultimately, it's that three basic paradigms of persons. They embody God himself. They embody that's an important word embodied in their bodies. They reveal God himself. And since we know through Revelation that God is a Trinity, a trinity of persons, He's not a solitude, he's not an individual, he's a trinity of persons.
Saint John Paul the second said very rightly, that God, in the depths of his mystery, is a family. He is a family because it contains within himself fatherhood, sonship, and the essence of the family, which is love. That's what Saint John Paul, the second said. Since God is eternally Trinitarian multiple persons, then when He created us individual persons, he had to do so in a Trinitarian way because he's a trinity and so he designed the family. He designed the father to embody his fatherhood. He and he designed children to embody his son. And he designed woman to embody the Holy Spirit, the love of the Father and the Son. This is the model, the model for each one of our families and in this embodiment of that Trinitarian dynamic, that Trinitarian reality, we have God revealing Himself to us. God does not just reveal himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Yes, he does that, but the person of Jesus Christ never comes alone, right? Either He comes with his mother and his father, or he in the person of his father is the bridegroom of the church. And the church is the mother, and the people are her children. It's always trinitarian. It must be because everything in creation was designed by the Trinity himself. And you know, if you're going to make something, you're going to make it like yourself, right? If you're perfect, if you're completely perfect, then anything you would create would reflect to some degree that perfection. All persons, all persons, all human persons must embody the Trinitarian image and we can't do it alone. We can only do it as a family. That's why in every relationship we ever find ourselves, you will always fit into one of those three roles. You will either be a father, a mother, or a child. It doesn't matter how old you are, it doesn't matter whether it's spiritually or physically. And every relationship, you're going to embody one of these three roles because those are the only roles any human could ever be, because that's who God is. The Father obviously is the origin of fatherhood. The son is the origin of being a child, and the Holy Spirit is the origin of what we call maternity or love. This is why whenever Satan wants to attack humans, he always attacks the family. Because if you can break down the family, then you can break down the image of God in his people and once the image of God no longer exists, then you can recreate it into anything that you want. You can pervert it and twist it. I recently heard and I agree completely that you can tell the health of a culture by how they treat the family, by whether they protect the essential nature and roles of the family as created by God, or whether they perverted and twisted.
We are so perverted as a culture that not only is the family twisted, unrecognizable from God's creation, but individuals themselves can decide which gender they're going to be. I mean, if anything is demonic, that is demonic because now creation has no meaning, embodiment has no meaning. My body doesn't mean anything because I can be a woman if I want to be. That's insane. That's insane. We are what our bodies manifest, right? Little boys grow up to be men, fathers, little girls grow up to be women mothers. There is no choice in this. Why? Because I didn't make this body. I don't get a decision and my feelings are irrelevant. I follow my creation; my creation comes from the creator. Again, you attack this most fundamental nature of human existence. The family itself. You attack the Trinity, the image of God. And this is why conformity to our nature and to the teachings of Christ in this regard is so essential to save the culture. The only way to turn this society around is to save the family. The only way and the only way most of you can save the family is if you individuals that you are fulfill your roles in the family the way Christ intends, and this is ultimately what Saint Paul is saying to us in our second reading from Colossians. He says something. He says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. The word of Christ, the teachings of Christ is the word. But let this word dwell in you richly. When you think of the word rich, think of abundantly overflowing, right? When we think of wealth or riches, that's what we think. It's not a little money. No, we're tons of money, overflowing money, wealth. This is the word of Christ. He says, let it fill you and overflow and you are richly. Why? Because the word teaches us how fathers are supposed to act, how mothers are supposed to act, and how children are supposed to act. The word is very clear. It doesn't confuse at all what we are supposed to be doing as Christians. And if this word fills me and overflows in me, then I will be trying to live that out in my life, in my family life. And if I'm following these teachings, this word in my individual life, then it will begin to positively affect the people in my family. If I'm a father, it'll affect positively my wife and my children. If I'm a mother, it'll positively affect my husband and my children. If I'm a child, it will positively affect my mother and my father. Either way, it will benefit and bear fruit in your life and the lives of that immediate family around you. And once your family becomes a holy family, then that family can go out. Once those children grow and make more holy families, then their kids can make more holy families. And then what happens over time? Couple of generations. Society is then corrected. Until the family is renewed in the image of the Holy Family, in the image of the Trinity, there is no hope for this culture. None. You should put no hope in it. But this is true throughout history, not only in Old Testament times, but even over the last 2000 years in the history of the church. Whenever society has become so perverted that it perverts the individuals that make up the family, there is no saving that society. Usually, God can do anything. But what God must do is destroy the society and then start over. I don't mean start over like he did with the flood. You know, he promised not to do that again. But whatever good people survive, the Lord recreates Holy families again and they then rebuild a new culture based again, hopefully on our Lord's design. But when Saint Paul tells us to have the Word of Christ well, as dwell in is richly, we need to study. We need to meditate on this word. Otherwise, we're going to forget in the moment our role in the family. And Saint Paul has great teachings on this in the New Testament, in particular Old Testament as well. But there are very clear teachings on how fathers should behave, how mothers should behave, and how children should behave. And he summarizes it here in Colossians quite well as Chapter three cautions Go read it. You can just memorize this stuff and then you're good to go. This is a good summary of everything God tells you to do. That's it. Okay. This is this is the summary, brothers, and sisters. We are speaking, all of us put on as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, be compassionate kindness, be kind, humility, be humble, gentleness and patience. Be gentle, be patient with one another, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another. That means putting up with the people you live with, putting up with them, you know, being patient with them and forgiving them their offenses. When they offend you or sinned against you, always be ready to forgive. That's a good summary of the entire Christian life. But he goes on as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do so? Why do I forgive my spouse? Why do I forgive my children and my parents? Because God has forgiven me, not because they deserve it, not because I want to. It has nothing to do with my desires or my feelings because Christ has forgiven me.
That is why I am compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, and patient and forgiving with them, because Christ is that way with me. And over all these put-on loves, Paul says. That is the bond of perfection. You do these things and ultimately that will be loving. You will put love upon your life in your way of acting and let the peace of Christ control your hearts. This is probably one of the keys to following the Word of God to following the commands of God is the peace of Christ. He says, let that control your hearts. Why? Most of us, when we sin, most of us, especially in our relationships, is because our feelings get hurt, our emotions get stirred up and we react instead of thinking and acting. But if my heart is always at peace, if the peace of Christ is always controlling it, then I never lose control. I'm always making the right decision in the right moment because I can think clearly and peacefully. But if the peace of Christ isn't controlling my heart, what happens? It gets fearful and afraid and upset and hurt. And then it inclines me to act in an imperfect and unloving way. How is it that the peace of Christ controls my heart? Ultimately, the peace of Christ is given through the forgiveness of sin, and that comes primarily through the sacraments, baptism, and confession. You want the peace of Christ to grow up in your heart and your home. Go to confession. That's where the peace comes from. When you know that you're forgiving of all your sins, you'll be at peace when you're not at peace, probably because you've got some sins that you need forgiven to go to confession and get forgiven. Then he again goes on to say, the word of Christ may dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom. You teach and admonish one another, saying psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Again, a very good point there. The singing of songs. What kind of music do you listen to? What kind of songs do you sing in your spare time? Not just on Sunday or during Mass? Obviously. Make sure we have good music here, you know, good songs, but are you singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs Throughout the day? The word of God tells you to. Are you doing this? no. I just turn on the radio. yes, because that's great music. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Do everything for Jesus in the name of Jesus giving thanks to God and then Paul summarizes his teaching on the family again. It's explained in more detail in other passages. Ephesians five is one. But he says Wives. What is the role of the wife? The mother in the home to be subordinate to her husband, as is proper in the Lord subordinate under the ordination or authority of another place. Both Peter and Paul say wives obey your husbands because your husband represents Christ who is head of the church the husband is the head of the home, the head of the family. Next, he says, husbands love your wives and avoid any bitterness toward them. You know, this is really the surprising line here in the Scriptures that husbands should love their wives and avoid any bitterness towards them because in the entire history of the church and throughout the known world, even to this day, everyone has always recognized that the husband is the head of the family. It's always been known. But what hasn't always been known is that this headship should be one of love and service and not lording it over those over whom he has authority.
That's what Christ teaches us. There's never been a different teaching in any culture, in any religion. The husband is always head of the family, the home he always is. When Paul reminds wives to be subordinate to their husbands, they would have been, yeah, okay, fine. Yeah. That's what's expected of us. No surprise there. But the husband should love his wife and avoid any bitterness towards her that would have shocked them in another place. He explains. Love your wives as Christ loved the church. That's what that looks like. He's saying Husbands be willing to die for your wives. How many husbands throughout every religion and culture would be willing to do that? That's the surprise. Children are told to obey their parents in everything and everything. Not in some things or in most things’ children and so as long as you are under their authority, so presumably. Well, because of the laws of this country, that means if you are under their authority or even if you're 18 years old or 19 years old and they're still paying your bills or for your college, you're under their authority until you get out from under them, pay your own bills and lead your own life. Obey them in everything and everything. Absolutely everything they say. And then lastly, he ends with another teaching for us fathers. Fathers do not provoke your children. Do not provoke your children, so they may not become discus urged. We have this ability as fathers because of our sometimes-unrealistic expectations to provoke our children and cause them discouragement. We're commanded not to do this or commanded not to do this. Basically, fathers be kind, be gentle, be humble, be patient. Now, again, this is the let's call it quick and dirty summary of the Holy Family. One of the reasons we don't understand this design and why this is the only and correct way to live in the world in any type of family life is because we don't understand God. I'll just kind of try to tie it up with one more reflection based on this, why men and women are so different and why our roles in society and in the family are so different. God created men to embody again in their physical bodies to manifest his power and his authority. That's what masculinity was designed for, to represent God's power and authority. That's why men within God's design of the family, they're the ones with the greatest power and the greatest authority. And even biologically, clearly, they have more power. Anyone who has power has authority, they go together. Whatever anybody tells you, there is an intrinsic difference between biological men and biological women. Women were designed and created by God to embody God's love and God's humility. Now, from what we know about the Lord, what is more important to him? Power and authority or love and humility in God's own mind and teachings? Does God say I'm the God of power, I'm the God of authority? No, He doesn't identify with those attributes. He says, I'm the God of love. I am love. Which means if you had to choose between men and women who embodies God's nature and its highest perfection, it's the ladies. It's the women, not the men. So why would God put men in charge of the family when they don't embody his love in the same way that women embody it? You see, our Lord intentionally made a distinction in these two expressions. Does that mean mean that men don't have to be humble in love because they don't embody it? No, of course they must. It's part of being like God. Does that mean women don't have authority and power because they're women? No, of course they do. We're told that they have authority and power over their children, but that's not what they embody or express within their bodies, in their roles in the family. Our Lord intentionally separated these two attributes between masculine and the feminine because there is an order to reality. In order to reality, well, you get a little more theological for just a moment. Try to follow in God in the eternal God, who is the first person? It's the father. In the name of the father, he's always the first person. And the father. Surprise, surprise. With that name, right. The father of the Trinity embodies, if you will, the power and the authority of God. Now, the son, which is the second person, is the image and likeness of the father. On some level he reflects that power and that authority as well. But the third person, the last person of the Trinity, so to speak, is the Holy Spirit. He is the love between the Father and the Son in God himself. The third person of the Trinity is the person that embodies the whole Trinity in its most perfect way. Since God is Love and the Holy Spirit is the love of the Father and the Son. That means the last person of the Trinity, again, so to speak, is the one who manifests or embodies what God sees as his greatest attributes, his love. Since that is what we know to be the truth about God. Then when He created human beings in his image and likeness, he had to embody in them the same truth and it doesn't mean that we're not all called to love. Of course, we are. That's the highest of goods. But that doesn't mean that's each of our roles. We all embody a different role, and together we complete the Trinitarian image in being a family. This is what we are defending as Catholics by our very lives. It's the truth of the trinity of our God. This is something worthy to die for, to die for Christ. Clearly, the highest of deaths, but to die for any of the truths of Christ is just as noble. For whatever sacrifice God asks of us regarding living out this truth, we need to pray for the grace to be willing to offer it. And most of the time God is not going to ask you to physically die, to embody this truth, to be a father the way God expects you to be a father, to be a mother, the way God expects you to.
To be a mother, to be a child, the way God expects you to be a child. But you must die to yourself, to your pride, to your way of wanting to do things. You have to die to that. That's the only way. And again, if you want to save this country, this culture, this is the way you sacrifice yourself by allowing the Word of God to dwell in you richly, to fill you up and overflow from you so that everything you do each day within your relationships is an imperfect conformity to the teachings of Christ.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
Homily begins at 22:26
Wednesday Dec 27, 2023
Jesus was born
Wednesday Dec 27, 2023
Wednesday Dec 27, 2023
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Seeking our Lady's intercession. Let us pray.
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee
Blessed art thou among women
and blessed is the fruit of the womb, Jesus,
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen
Merry Christmas, brothers, and sisters. In this great day in which we celebrate our salvation, our savior coming into the world, it's very important that we take time and consider the manner in which he came. Now we all know the story. Like the back of our hand, right? Jesus was born in Bethlehem, even though Mary and Joseph were living in Nazareth. The reason is because Caesar had declared a census in the Roman Empire, in order to count all of the people to accumulate the census, it was required that you had to go back to your family, your tribe's original city, and be counted there. There was a lot of traveling throughout the Roman Empire at this time, especially in Judea and since Joseph was of the House of David and David's original city is Bethlehem, here is Mary nine months pregnant, and Joseph on their way to Bethlehem. And imagine it was a, a several days journey already. And it made it even more challenging that Mary is ready to pop, as we say. They get there, and they have to be getting there probably later than the rest of the people returning to Bethlehem. It's not surprising that all of the ends, all of the spare rooms were full. Now, I just want you to imagine that your Joseph, your responsibility is to take care of the mother of God and Jesus Christ. The Son of God. Like your one job is to get them a nice, warm room where he can be born and you fail miserably, right? I like to picture him literally going from house to house. Just please. Please. My wife is ready to give birth. I just. We just need a place. Just any little corner of a room up sorrowful. Try the next house down. Right. And probably 4 hours he went on searching until finally, clearly, there's no room left some Good Samaritan soul says, well, I've got a barn in a cave out back. You know, besides the animals, nobody else is in it if you'd like. Joseph, of course, realizes this must be the place. Clearly wasn't his plan. Right. He had no intention of the mother of God giving birth to the son of God amongst animals in the stable. It wasn't his plan. He failed at his one job and he brings them to this stable. I can only imagine the apologetic look on his face to Mary. Sorry, but you have to know something about Saint Joseph and the Blessed Mother, because they, among all believers, understood the Divine Providence. They understood that the will of God is not our always our will. That God has plans, greater plans than we can imagine. I know I absolutely know for certain that he and the Blessed Mother accepted this as the will of the Father. Clearly, they both did everything they could to find some room or house, and they failed. It's not like they failed because of some lack of effort on their part. They didn't even try. Their failure was part of God's plan so that his son would have to be born in a stable and laid in a manger, a feeding trough for animals. It was always the divine plan. And this is a such an important lesson for us as believers as well to learn. Most of the time we don't even do our best in life.
But even when we do so often, we fail, and we're tempted to think God has abandoned me. Where is the Lord? He clearly can't be found here in this stable. That couldn't have been his plan. Don't underestimate God's plans and don't underestimate his providence. We who share in the life of Jesus Christ in his body, the church share in that same divine providence.
There are no mistakes in our lives. Not with a God like ours. We have to remember this. Knowing that helps us rejoice that even in circumstances where it seems that we've failed, we can trust that the will of God has been accomplished. In hindsight, it's obvious why God wanted His son to be born in this stable and laid in a manger. All you have to do is known a few things. What does Bethlehem mean? House of Bread. That's the name of the city. The house of bread. And what is a manger? It's a feeding trough where animals eat. And who was laid in that manger? The bread of life. All of this was planned. All of it was arranged beforehand. Our Lord wanted to show us his humility, how much he was willing to humble himself to draw near to us. In essence, his birth in Bethlehem is a precursor to his gift of to us in the Eucharist. He becomes the bread of us mere animals. He gives us his body and his blood. And he begins to reveal this mystery from the moment of his birth. All of this arranged by his divine providence. And if we can learn to recognize the power of the divine providence in our own lives, especially in things that we can't control, we will begin to see the works of God more clearly and understand his will for us. But it takes tremendous faith, as Mary and Joseph had. Don't worry about succeeding or failing in anything that you attempt. Consecrate everything to our Lord and allow His will to govern, whatever happens. And from that he will bring good. Because he said to us very clearly, all things work out to the good for those who love God in our called according to His plan.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
Homily begins at 39:40
Wednesday Dec 27, 2023
His Kingdom will have no end.
Wednesday Dec 27, 2023
Wednesday Dec 27, 2023
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Seeking our Lady's intercession. Let us pray.
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
Good morning, brothers, and sisters.
Usually on this fourth Sunday, this last Sunday of Advent, because Christmas is rapidly approaching, especially this year. It's just a few hours away. You know, we preach about, you know, this advent preparation, that the preparation has worked. We're about there and all that kind of decent and appropriate messaging at this time of year. But out of, I think, more necessity. I have to change the topic of the homily today, because of all of the fear and hoopla and controversy surrounding the Holy Father's new encyclical, Fiducia Supplicans comes. We had all been following any of the supposed news or media on this topic. A lot of people have been worried and up in arms. You've even heard bishops and priests talk out against it and all of these things. And I'm here to tell you there is nothing wrong with the document. It's completely and totally orthodox. And I have been doing what it says for years. More often than not, whenever you watch the news or you know, somebody who's proposing to offer the news officially or unofficially, especially on church matters, one, you can almost never trust the title of the article or the title of the YouTube or the title of the podcast to You always have to be skeptical whenever you listen to them comment on something that the Pope has said or done or written. There is nothing wrong with this document. It is completely orthodox. All you have to do is read it. Now, Monsignor Winslow, our judicial vicar, wrote a great article for our Catholic News Herald. You can get it online as well. It's just called Fiduciary Supplications. What is all the chatter about? And he gives a very short and clear explanation, quoting the document itself about its fundamental teachings. And this is what the document says. It says that there are two different types of blessings that the church can give, one type of blessing, the sacramental. The other type of blessing is pastoral. Sacramental blessings can only be given to those things that are either intrinsically good or, you know, natural and therefore can be blessed and made even better. For example, you bring a rosary to me, you know, basically it's some string, maybe some metal and some beads of different, you know, plastic or wood or something. And you ask me to bless it. Now it's just made of normal natural materials. There's nothing intrinsically holy or virtuous about it, but humans have created this to be a tool to help them pray the rosary, since it's a tool for that purpose and the rosary is a good thing, I can give it a sacramental blessing now. It's not a sacrament. It's a sacramental meaning. It's an extension of the blessings of the sacraments. So sacramental blessings do include sacraments, for example, marriage is a sacramental blessing, right? When a man and a woman come to the church seeking God's blessing on their marriage, they get married in the church right? They receive the sacramental blessing when a blessed rosary to sacramental blessing, where the blessing candles or bells or salt or water, sacramental blessings, because those things are either made by God or they're naturally ordered towards holy things, pastoral blessings are far more liberal by nature. They don't follow the same type of strict regulation. What that means is if somebody comes up to me, regardless of their state of sin or not, whether they are perfectly following Christ or not, even if they're not even Catholic and they ask for a blessing, I can give them a blessing because it's pastoral. It's an act of love. This is someone who is searching for God, who is asking for grace and intercession. How many times did Jesus Christ himself reach out to those that are morally far from him? Right. He was accused during his day, rightly so, of eating with tax collectors and prostitutes. These are people who are clearly not following God's law and covenant, and yet Jesus associated with them out of pastoral love. Why? To condone their sin? No, to call them to repentance. This is all the Holy Father is talking about when he says it's okay to bless homosexual couples because he makes a clear distinction. You can't bring them into the church and bless their rings and wear vestments when you bless them Of course you can't do that. That's sacramental. That's wrong. That's forbidden. It's always been forbidden. But if they come to me and they're struggling, trying to grow in their relationship with Christ, maybe striving to be more chaste and to follow the gospel, and they ask me for a blessing. And it's a private little moment, maybe in the sacristy or in public. as if it's some type of ritual, you know, asking God's blessing on their sinful relationship. I can bless them. I always have. It's just an act of charity. Are they perfectly conformed to Christ? No, you're not. I mean, do you really want me to bless you? Only when you're perfectly conformed to Christ because that means at the end of mass, when I bless all of you, some of you, I'm not blessing. One of the things that so many in the church have constantly criticized our Holy Father about is this clearly pastoral love and zeal he has for those who are not yet following Christ faithfully and yes, he doesn't always right or speak with the clearest language. And yes, people misinterpret this all the time and use it to justify the heretical or their sinful behavior. Yes, there are bishops and priests in the world blessing homosexual marriages because of this document, but that's not what the document says. They're heretics, but heretics always use whatever they hear to justify their behavior. Whether it says that or not, don't listen to a single bishop, priest or layperson who is claiming that there's anything wrong with any of the official teachings of Pope Francis. He has never taught heresy. And you know why? Because he's the pope. He can't. It's one of the essential aspects of the church, the gift of infallibility. To help you understand this a little better,
I'm going to tell you a true story. After I receive the sacrament of confirmation as a young man in the church, St Louis and Hickory continue to offer faith formation classes, kind of continuing education classes for those of us who wanted to continue to go. And I, of course, elected, you know, I wanted to continue to go and study more. The Lord and his church and her teachings and our teacher, a good man. I still know and love him very well. He asked us one day just it was only like five or six of us. He said, what would you do if the Holy Father came out and officially declared some heretical teaching as Catholic Church teaching? What would you do? And he kind of went around the room and asked each of us our opinions and views, and I was just waiting for him to come to me. I knew exactly what I would do. He got to everybody else. He comes to me last. He says, David, David, what would you do? And I said, well, I thought a lot about this. I would probably commit every hedonistic sin and desire that my heart could come up with rob banks, rape, pillage, and murder. And then if I ever got caught and arrested, I blow my brains out. Now, that, of course, put him and the rest of our little class in shock that they were a little confused why I would go to such a wild extreme. And I said, because if infallibility isn't real, then the Catholic Church is not the Church of Christ. And if the Catholic Church is not the Church of Christ, then Jesus Christ is not the Son of God and of Jesus Christ is not the Son of God, then there is no God, there is no morality, there is nothing good, there is nothing evil. There's no heaven or hell. And who cares what I do? What does it matter? We're all just apes now. They were all surprised. But you must understand something about the most essential teachings of our faith. Something like infallible. If it's not real, then nothing else is real because it's an essential aspect. Even the words of the angel to the Blessed Mother in the Gospel today speak very clearly, in essence of this fact. He says that your son, who will reign right on the throne of his father, David, his kingdom will have no end. Christ Kingdom is his church. It will have no end. Every human endeavor ultimately dies and falls apart. All purely earthly governments eventually fall apart and are replaced. This always happens because of sin, because of Cupid. Since the only way Christ Church, Christ kingdom cannot fall is if Christ is maintaining it with His power and one of the ways He does that is the power of infallibility. Let me explain how this works. Infallibility doesn't make the Pope say the right thing because the Pope can say whatever he wants, whenever he wants to write whatever he wants. But when he speaks officially as the pontiff on issues of faith and morals like and in this cyclical, he cannot that's infallibility. He cannot teach anything wrong, anything that goes against the church's tradition or Christ teachings. He is unable to do. He doesn't have the freedom to do so. In essence, by becoming pope, he has surrendered part of his will. And even if he tried to do it, God can find a way around that. When you look at the history, I'm sure there have been popes that had sudden and surprising deaths, you know, massive heart attack or stroke. Why? Because they were going to publish something the next day that was wrong. He's the God of life and death. He's like, okay, it's time for you to come home. Come on, come on. You know, I got to stop this before it starts. Is Christ really the king of this church or is he not? If he is, then why are you worried? What are you afraid of? The Pope can't go against him. He cannot. It's an essential teaching of Christ. And one of those passages that so many people always misinterpret is something Jesus himself said, that the gates of hell should not prevail against you. Now, 99.9% of Christians and Catholics misinterpret this passion. They have no idea what it means because they think that means when hell attacks the church or attacks Christ or Christians, they won't prevail. Where are the gates of hell? Are they surrounding the church? If you have a fence and a gate around your house, it's around your house. The gates of hell or around hell. They're erected to keep everybody in hell in hell. What our Lord is saying that those gates can't even stand against you, meaning you'll be able to break down those gates and, in essence, steal people from damnation. I don't mean pull them out of hell. Literally, that's not possible. But those who basically at this moment, if they died, would go to hell. His church will be able to save them before death by his power, by his teachings, by her sacraments, by her love, steal them from the very clutches of Satan himself. You see, evil can have no power over the Church of Christ, Satan, and the demons they try to infiltrate, and they do on various levels. And throughout history there have been a handful of very terrible popes. Francis is a saint compared to the bad popes, a saint. Now, he may be a saint for all I know. I don't know. But compared to them, he's a saint. Now, some people will say to me, yes, but is he the real pope? Right? I mean, come on. I mean, what if he wasn't elected rightly? I mean, what if he's not the real pope? We're all set of a contest because there is no pope. The seat is empty. They'll say, Father Miller, don't you remember reading about the conclave and how that bunch of the bad liberal cardinals got together and decided to elect him because they knew he was immoral and they kind of influenced everybody else, which is against church teaching, as if for some reason, Christ couldn't have foreseen that and the Holy Spirit couldn't have worked with that. Again, it's such a lack of faith for anyone who calls themselves Catholic to think that God is so weak, the Holy Spirit so foolish that He can't use sinful men to bring about His will. And if you had any knowledge of church history, you could only go back a few more decades and remember how John Paul the second got elected. Because if you know anything at that time, we had plenty of liberal bishops and cardinals and the reason they all voted for him when his name came up is because they thought he was liberal, too. They thought Cardinal Voight was liberal. You know why? Because he's one of those liberal bishops who celebrates mass outside and goes on hikes and ski trips with the youth. He's got to be liberal. They thought he was liberal. Now, the conservative bishops knew he was conservative, and so they voted for him. And he got in. That's how the Holy Spirit works. And it wasn't different for John Paul than Francis. God doesn't make mistakes, not with his church, because without his church firmly established on Earth, there is no salvation for us or for anyone. We have to stop giving in to these sensational clickbait titles for articles or YouTube videos or whatever. You know, before the invention of the printing press, laypeople never got into media because the only media that really existed was books as the only media that existed before that. And the only books that existed were handwritten. Most people couldn't read and write, and almost all 99.99% of theological text were written by the Catholic Church, by her priests and by her bishops. That was it, because they were all trying to read and write, and they were all trade theology and philosophy. And they would write the theology books, they would write the scripture commentaries, they would write these things. There weren't a lot of them, but they would do it. And the nice thing about that is whenever there was a pope, whenever there was a bishop, a priest who wrote something that was heretical or wrong, since they always had somebody above them in the hierarchy of the church, they would just suppress it. You're not allowed to copy that. You must burn it. It's heretical, it's not true. And heresy was very difficult and getting spread throughout the church during those times. But once the printing press was invented, guess what? Common laypeople realized they could make a career of this. You know, I can. I can now write books and get them published cheaply compared to handwritten ones and possibly make a living at doing this. And ever since then and this media has developed, we have now, you know, audio and visual media and all of these things, theologians, lay theologians, lay theology or scriptural, common terrorists have been trying to make a living doing this. There is a problem because when you're trying to make a living in anything in that regard, you know, books, movies, art, whatever it is, the one thing that often gets the most attention is something that's new, something that's a little different than the same old, you know, we call it clickbait nowadays. You have to find some sensational title or angle in order to get your stuff sold. And ever since then, this happened with the printing press. More and more heresies have been spread throughout the world because it's easy to do so, and because the church doesn't have as much control over the laity who write or publish as her bishops and priests. You can't trust most of what you see, read or hear, especially if people are doing it because they need to make a living. That's one of the nice things I get paid, whether I preach the truth or not, so it doesn't hurt me. We be so careful about this. The devil is always trying to divide the church between the extremes. Of course, what we would call liberal Catholics or conservative Catholics. You can think of that in the same sense. Politically, the demons are always seeking to divide us. If you if you hear any commentary on something the pope has said or done or written, and it doesn't bring peace to your heart and you feel resistance and that kind of intrinsic division, don't ever go back to that news site again, especially if it's Catholic. Don't ever go back again because it's not truly Catholic. They're not truly Orthodox because no saint in history would ever recommend that a single Catholic ever speak bad about the Holy Father or think bad about the Holy Father. They would always tell you, just obey him. Don't worry, God will judge him. You obey him. That's what they would say.
If anybody else says you says otherwise. They are not one of Christ's sheep. They are not a member of his flock. They're wolves in sheep's clothing. That's what they are. I don't care how traditional Catholic they claim to be, because Jesus Christ is very clear on this point. My sheep know me. They hear my voice, and they follow me. If you cannot hear the voice of Christ through his minister, his shepherd, the Pope, then you are not one of his sheep. And you should worry about that. Our Lord will always, always speak to us through the Holy Father. We just have to learn to understand Him, right? To not judge him, and to try to look at the real underlying message, which for Pope Francis is caring for the most marginalized, the most sinful, the most broken. His heart goes out to them. And he wants us as a church to find every way to show them love and kindness so that we can call them to repentance. Again, if a homosexual, a couple would come to me asking for a blessing, I would say, well, when was the last time you went to confession? Have you thought about confessing and, you know, praying and trying to work on keeping this relationship chaste? Have you thought about separating one of you moving out? I talked to them about that, but I'd still give them a blessing if they ask for one. Nothing formal, of course, condoning their sinful actions. That would be inappropriate. The document says you can't do that. But to extend some hand of charity and love for them as Christ did, that's what we're all called to. But there's so much fear and insecurity in so many of your hearts. And Jesus says to you the same thing He said to his own apostles, of little faith. In the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
Homily begins at 23.22
Monday Dec 11, 2023
The Fruit of Love
Monday Dec 11, 2023
Monday Dec 11, 2023
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit seeking our Lady's intercession. Let us pray.
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Good morning, brothers, and sisters.
One of the things that you hear from parents all the time is that becoming a parent changed them, right? That the moment they realized that this little life had depended upon them, it placed upon them this great responsibility, and it changed them as a person. Now the change is different, or at least it happens a little differently for the mother as opposed to the father.
So, for example, I'm reminded of a story slash joke that a comedian once told about becoming a father, and he said, I wasn't really prepared for it. Like, what happens to you when you hold your child for the first time? And he goes, I'll never forget the day my first child, my son, was born. And there in the hospital I held him, and he goes, For the first time in my life, I thought to myself, I would die for him because I never would have died for anybody else before that moment. But having this little boy, it changed me. And he goes, I never thought I could change more than that. He goes, something happened when I had my second child, something I did not expect. It was a little girl. And he said that first time I held her in my arms. He goes, I realized I was a changed man because I thought to myself, I would kill for her. He's like, I became a murderer. You know, I'd go to jail for you. So having children in this way changes you now, for a man, for the typical father, he must really see that child and hold that child to really be transformed in that way. But for a mother, it happens before birth, right? The moment the mother can really experience the child growing in her womb, she is changed by it. She's altered in her perception of self and responsibilities. And she changes her whole way of thinking. Now, the man, when he the reason he can't make that change when his wife is pregnant is because he can't see the baby. He can't experience the baby. It just looks like his wife is getting a little fatter right. So, you know, he knows there's a baby in there, but he has to have that visual connection to really affect that change in his way of thinking. But mom, she experiences the child in her body in a way that no man can, can experience, can comprehend. And because of that concrete experience, she changes as well. The way she thinks. Now, this change comes because, again, it's an alteration of perception, the way you see life, your life, your responsibilities has changed you. Now, this is important because according to the church, the greatest form of prayer is meditation. Why? Because meditation changes the way you think. It alters your perception of reality, and it can do it for the good or the bad. If you constantly meditate upon sad, depressing, and fearful things, guess what? You're going to become a sad and depressed and fearful person. If you meditate upon good and holy and virtuous things, guess what? You're going to become a better, holier, and more virtuous person.
Now, what does any of this have to do with Christmas and Advent? Well, advent as a season is all about preparing for the coming of the Christ child. Right. And in essence, this this month that we spend in preparation is like our ladies nine months of pregnancy. Once she conceived our Lord in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit, you can imagine that became a profound change in her because she went from being a woman to being a mother. And she realized that even though it was God incarnate who she had in her womb, he was going to be born a baby and dependent upon her for so many of his needs. For those nine months, you can only imagine what our lady would have been thinking about. You know how you mothers are. You like all the things you have to get ready for the baby because its baby's coming, right? All the changes you must make to the home, all of the things you have to buy and purchase and prepare for. And our lady must have been going through these things in her mind. Now you can say to yourself, Well, yeah, but I. I'm not the mother of God. Yeah, fair enough. And, you know, I can't meditate on that the way she did. And this is where. Yes, on one level, you're right. But on another level, you're wrong. And I offer it to you this way. After our Lord gave us the Holy Mass at the Last Supper and after His resurrection, when our Lady began to receive Holy Communion, I want you to think about this. Imagine her meditation every time she received Holy Communion. It must have reminded her of Jesus being in her womb for nine months. Now, if you if you do the math, that's a lot of holy communions, like nine months of pregnancy. I don't know how many it is, but just say on average, our Lord Sacramental stays within you for about 10 to 15 minutes. So 10 to 15 minutes divided by nine months, that's a lot of Holy Communion. But for us, we have this opportunity, like our lady, to reflect in that same way. Now, again, this is easier for you mothers because you've been through this. You've experienced it. You can make that connection. But for those who have no children, or especially for men in general who can't get pregnant, I know this is a debated topic culturally right now. Let me just clarify this for all of you. Men can't get pregnant. Okay. So. Okay, good. That's over. So, you know, for those of us who can't experience that on a natural level, on some level, we need to go to our lady after we receive Holy Communion and try to meditate as she did. Now, yes. We don't have to care for Jesus in the same way that a mother or father would as Joseph and Mary did. Right. Because Jesus was actually a little baby then, and he really needed to be changed and fed and burped and all of those things. Okay. I'm sure he was a perfect baby, but still, he needed to be cared for. And you might think, well, Father, Jesus doesn't need me. Right. He's the glorious risen one. He's already conquered sin and death. He doesn't need me in those ways. And this is where you would be wrong. Because one of the things Jesus says very clearly to his disciples is what you do to the least of these you do to me. The way we treat others, especially the weakest, the poorest, the frailest, the sick, the imprisoned, all of these, the way we treat them is how we are caring for Christ. Because in their weakness and vulnerability, they need help. Just like a baby, just like a baby would. And so that's why this kind of meditation is important for us. And it's not just an advent meditation. We should be meditating like our lady every time we receive communion, because the reason Christ is giving himself to you, Eucharistic Lee, is so that you can bear fruit in your life just like the mother bears fruit by giving birth to her child. That new life that's the fruit of love. And that same fruit is supposed to be born in each of our lives as disciples of Christ. In essence, all of us are called to be like the mother of God. We won't be the mother of God, but we'll be like her in this. And it all comes about through Holy Communion. And so what do you think about after receiving communion? When you go back to your pew, kneel down, fold your hands, what do you meditate on? Again, meditation, the highest form of prayer. Because it alters you. It changes you, ideally, supposedly for the better, but it only changes you for the better if you're meditating rightly on good and holy things.
Thinking like our lady with our lady, just imagine men and women alike. Imagine as any mother would, you have this life dwelling in you. I recently heard another comedian say, you know, that women get weird when they get pregnant for the first time. And she said that this one woman came up to her, and when she found out she was pregnant, she started whispering all the time.
And she's like, why are you whispering? She goes Because I have a living being inside of me. And she goes, what did you eat them like, what are you talking about? You know? She is it just seemed odd. But again, that idea of it changing you, because for us, we do eat them, and we do have a living being inside of us. Whispering kind of seems appropriate on some level. Just the quietness that helps you to really think about what's happening, what's going on at that sacred moment. And for us, it only lasts for a few minutes at a time. So yes, we don't have the nine months of meditation the Blessed Mother did. But in the lifetime of a Catholic, it's very possible you would exceed nine months of all the communions that you could possibly have. And in that sense, again, we are being conformed as the perfect disciple of our Lord. And that perfect disciple has always been the Blessed Mother. She is the model for each one of us, men, and women alike. So please, in this communion today and in your future communions, I want you to really go to the pews. Kneel, close your eyes, fold your hands, and just imagine the Blessed Mother with Jesus growing in her womb. And in that sense, again, we are being conformed as the perfect disciple of our Lord. And that perfect disciple has always been the Blessed Mother. She is the model for each one of us, men, and women alike. So please, in this communion today and in your future communions, I want you to really go to the pews. Kneel, close your eyes, fold your hands, and just imagine the Blessed Mother with Jesus growing in her womb.
Imagine this life, and in this case, this divine life of the Lord within you, at least for the few minutes that you have Him in this sacramental way. Just meditate. Just think on that and you'll notice over time it will change you. It will simply help you to be more patient, more loving, more generous with those in need, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Homily begins at 20:29
Monday Nov 27, 2023
Be obedient of authority
Monday Nov 27, 2023
Monday Nov 27, 2023
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Seeking our Lady's intercession. Let us pray.
Hail Mary, full of Grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Good morning, brothers, and sisters. Today we celebrate the great solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the universe. It's really a beautiful title, King of the universe. And we know he is the king because he said to the apostles before he ascended into heaven, he said, you know, I go to my father and your father, and I will sit on a throne at his right hand as God is clearly king and ruler of all things. Jesus Christ has obviously, as God has, that role, that kingship. But even as a man has been anointed and established as king over the universe, now his kingdom is established. It's done. His kingdom reigns in the hearts of those who follow him. So, it's in the church and it's in the hearts of those who follow Christ. In a sense, it's in the hearts of the people he describes in the Gospel today. Those who care for the least of these the sick and imprisoned, the hungry, the naked, the homeless, those who take care of these kind of people, Jesus calls them his brothers. Then that means the Kingdom of Heaven is in your heart and you will have a share in his kingdom when he comes in glory. That's what it means, of course, to go to heaven. But at the end of time, when Jesus Christ comes, we know that He will judge the heavens and the earth. And the best parallel to this, that Jesus gave us in his own words was when he talked about himself as a king. He said there was this king. And, you know, he had some servants and he told them to do some stuff. Then he went off to take authority because he wanted to reign over another place as well. So he goes, Any wars on this other nation? As a king, he wants to rule over all things. He wants to rule over all hearts. And in the end, he will. The nature of his kingdom, though, is that initially, even though he's king and can dictate to you the rules, he doesn't. Then he went off to take authority because he wanted to reign over another place as well. So he goes, Any wars on this other nation? As a king, he wants to rule over all things. He wants to rule over all hearts. The nature of his kingdom, though, is that initially, even though he's king and can dictate to you the rules, he doesn't. He asks. He shows you how much he loves you. He dies on the cross for you. He's like, what more could I have done for you? Please obey me. And if we freely, by his grace, submit to his kingship, if we make him our king, then he will judge us and mercy. And we will go to live and be joyous and happy in his kingdom.
If we don't, then what does he say he will do? Right. In the Gospels, he says very clearly, those rebellious people, I will go and crush and kill. That's what I will do to those who refuse my kingship. Again, we easily fall into this mistaken assumption about our Lord is that he's always so gentle and merciful. Everybody's going to go to heaven, or he's very vengeful.
And, you know, it's black and white with God. You know, most people are going to be damned to hell. He's both. He's not one or the other. He is both in perfect measure. He's perfectly just always going to condemn everybody who deserves to be condemned. He's going to punish everybody who deserves to be punished. He's going to damned to hell anyone who refuses his kingship. Of course, he's going to do that. But he's also perfectly loving and merciful, which is why he gives us time, which is why he lovingly invites us to obedience as opposed to command it. You know, Saint Paul has an interesting thing. He says to one of the communities to whom he was writing one of the letters in the in the New Testament. He says to them, basically, as an apostle, as your bishop, I have the right to command you to obey me. But I would rather beg you. I would rather plead with you. Please obey me. Please. I don't want to have to command. And that's the nature of Christ's kingship. He pleads with us. He does everything in his power to convince us that he is good. And he does love us. And he'll do anything necessary to redeem us just so that we will obey him. Right. What did he say? You are. You are my disciples. If you keep my commandments, if you obey me, if you obey me. Obedience is necessary to be a friend of God to share in his rule and His kingdom. Now we can struggle with the idea of a kingship in a kingdom, especially as Americans. Right. Because we have this idea of governance that is very different from traditional, traditional, especially biblical governance. But we like this idea of like a democracy or a democratic republic. We get to vote, we get to elect, you know, we have different branches of government and this nice division of powers. We think that is the best because that's what we've been taught. That is the best form of government. United States has the best form of government. That's how we were raised, which is, of course, as a Christian, completely ludicrous because you would think that Jesus Christ, God would have established in his kingdom the best form of government. You just assume his governing form would be the best and you'd be right. But does he call his church a democracy, a republic? No, it's a dictatorship. That's what you must remember. A kingship is all the power and authority of the government is in a single man, one head. Now, he will have advisors if he's wise and other people, to help him administer the kingdom, administrate the kingdom?
Right. That's what Jesus did. That's why he appointed the pope and the bishops. That's why they're there. And that's why the bishops appointed the priests. They help them administer the kingdom. But you must understand the governance of God is a dictatorship. That's what a kingdom is. And that is the perfect form of governance, because that's what God would have chosen. Now, the reason we especially don't like dictators is because they're not always as loving and virtuous and good as Jesus, because they don't always ask you to follow the rules. They simply throw you into jail and control your lives. We have a distaste for the idea of a kingdom or a kingship who has a dictator, a single ruler who governs over all things in the kingdom. But that distaste is wrong. It's not Christian. It's not virtuous or holy. Jesus Christ is our dictator. He's the best kind. But first and foremost, he's the king. He's the ruler. Yes. The ideal of kingship that Christ shows us is one who sees himself as a servant to the people. Right. That's the idea of authority. I come among you as one who serves.
That's what he taught the Apostles. That's what the Pope and the bishops and the priests are supposed to be. They're supposed to be kingly servants. But we're still kings. Like St Dorothy's is not a democracy. You don't get a vote. Like I'm the king of this little castle. Now, I'm not the high king. The bishop Jugis is the king of the little castle of the Diocese of Charlotte. But he's not the High King. If there's a high king in this world, it's the Pope. The Pope is the high king. Now Christ is the high king of the church. In the end, he governs all things. But the Pope is his right-hand man who uses his power and an authority to rule over his kingdom on earth. Again, this is a dictatorship now, a good king imitating Christ would do so gently and lovingly. At first, they would begin with gentleness and love and compassion and mercy. But if that didn't work, then they would use all their power and authority to crush their opponents. You know how in the news, you know, we talk about Putin and in the Russian government and supposedly he's elected and he's an elected president or official now. He's a dictator. Right. He's the king. That's what he is. And we get up in arms when we hear that he does things like crush his political opponents. How undemocratic. I'm sorry. And how many tens of thousands of years of human society have the king crushed their opponents? It's called rebellion. It's called, you know, refusal to be obedient to the authority.
I mean, the U.S. government does that. Right. What do you think happens in every country throughout the world? You question those who govern, you get squashed. I'm not saying you can't try to rebel, but don't complain when you get crushed. It's the same with Christ. When we rebelled against him. In the end, he will crush us and cast us into the outer darkness, or there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Now, why is all of this so important? Now, a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to preach on it. Last week I wasn't here, but it worked out better this weekend. Right. A couple of weeks ago. I don't know how many of you keep up. I'd rather you not, because honestly, it just breeds confusion and people get frustrated.
The Holy Father removed the bishop of Tyler, Texas, and this was like a big controversy in the church. no. This holy and conservative bishop has been removed by this liberal and sinful pope. Scandal. Terrible. We need to riot. We need to, if not, write, protest. Go out and march. Prayer. Rosaries. God, give us a good Holy Father. That's so foolish. It's so ignorant. Anyone who would think that way has no idea who Jesus Christ is and what his church really is. Again, it's a dictatorship. Our Holy Father doesn't need a good reason to remove anyone. He's the Pope. He can just decide. I don't like your haircut. You're no longer Bishop of Charlotte, and there's no one in the church that can stop him. Now, you may say he doesn't have a good reason to remove the bishop of Tyler, Texas. Well, how do you know? Did the Holy Father tell you, his reasons? No, he did not make public his reasons. But you don't have a right to the reasons. I'm not saying it would be wrong to share them with you, but it's the same in your in your household.
You know, when parents tell their children to do this or that, they don't have to give a reason. It's nice if you do, but let's say you do give a reason. None of the ten times your child is going to say, I disagree with you. That reason does not follow in my head, which is why it doesn't matter whether you have a reason, because children are to obey, because you're the king of the castle.
It's a dictatorship, kids. The family is a dictatorship. Ultimately, Dad is the high king. Mom shares in that kingship. And that's the way it goes. Now, yes, God wants them to be a loving king. A loving dictator, but they don't have to be. When they spank that little bottom, you deserve it. What's the old military phrase? Thank you, sir. May I have another? All right. That's what they want from you. When they say jump, you say how high. The nature of authority, the nature of authority is very important. If we don't understand this, it's very easy for us to go against Jesus Christ himself. And so, I'm going to tell you this. Jesus Christ, the king of the church, one of the bishop of Tyler, Texas, removed. He wanted it. Why does he want it? I don't know. I'm not Jesus. He didn't tell me. I have some theories, some ideas, but. But it's speculation until the king lets me know. All I know is that he wanted it. You know. I know you wanted it because the Pope wanted it. Why did the Pope want? I don't know. He wanted it. Why does he want it? I don't know. I'm not Jesus. He didn't tell me. I have some theories, some ideas, but. But it's speculation until the king lets me know. All I know is that he wanted it. You know. I know you wanted it because the Pope wanted it. Why did the Pope want? I don't know. He wanted it. Why does he want it? I don't know. I'm not Jesus. He didn't tell me. I have some theories, some ideas, but. But it's speculation until the king lets me know. All I know is that he wanted it. You know. I know you wanted it because the Pope wanted it. Why did the Pope want? I don't know.
We can speculate. I will tell you this and I only point this out after doing my research, is that that Bishop had been disobedient to the Holy Father directly disobedient on several occasions before he was removed. And you could say, well, he was justified. The Holy Father was wrong in trying to get him to do that thing or that thing. I'm sorry. What? How do you know the Holy Father was wrong? Well, because in my mind, that's not what Jesus wants. You're the sheep. You're the child trying to tell the shepherd how to govern the flock. How many times do your own children make that same mistake against you and think they don't have to obey?
And yet God's going to punish those disobedient children just as much is going to punish you because you disobeyed. You went against the lawful authority that he has established in his kingdom, in his church, and that Bishop disobeyed the Holy Father directly even after he had been commanded to do something. If I was the Pope, I would remove him now? Yes. Are there other bishops in the world that we would like to see removed more than that, Bishop? Sure. Do I think it would be wonderful if the Holy Father removed all of them? Absolutely. But I'm not the Pope. I don't make those rules. You can't be more Catholic than the Holy Father.
You just can't be more Catholic than him. Now, before the pope formally removed this bishop, he sent him a formal letter. And in this formal letter, he kindly requested that he resign his office as bishop of Tyler, Texas. The Holy Father made this request. Now, those of you who understand authority. Was he asking him to step down? Was he saying, would you please consider this when somebody who has authority asks you to make your bed, are they just asking, like if you want you know, if you feel up to it, you know, please do the dishes. Well, I mean, you said please, but I just don't feel like it. No. When your parents, when your priest, when your bishop, when the pope asks you to do something, it's a polite command. It's what Saint Paul did. I could command you. I'd rather ask you. I'd rather beg you to obey. The Holy Father was giving the Bishop of Tyler, Texas, a way to bow out gracefully without losing any of his respect.
That's what he was doing. That was a good thing. This is what Bishop Julius does. Our new whenever we have new seminarians, it's always at least one of them that makes this mistake. They'll get a letter from the bishop saying, I kindly request your presence at this event, and then one or two of the seminarians won't come for me to recall them. Why weren't you there? I didn't think I had to be there. Why did you not think you had to be there? Well, because the bishop just said, I request your presence. You didn't say I require your presence. Okay. Don't do that again. When your bishop kindly requests your presence. That's a command. It's just a polite way of doing it. Why? Because he's the dictator. He's the king. You don't refuse the king. You don't refuse the king anything. If you can help it. That's the same with the Pope. Honestly, I'd like to even say that's the same with your pastor. But again, supposed to be a kindly king. I request I don't command. I could not go to, you know, let God judge you in the end.
I'll just, you know, suffer the consequences. When the Holy Father asked him to step down, he was giving him a polite and gentle way of saving face. But he refused his commander. He refused his king, the representative of Christ on Earth. And what did the king have to do? What did the pope have to do? He had to formally remove him. Right. What other recourse did he have? I didn't want to do it this way. I tried to do it the nice way. You refuse the nice way. Now I'm going to crush you. And yet, is this Bishop humbly accepting this removal? No. He's still in public media, and he's still causing discord and disharmony and disunity in the body of Christ.
And he's doing it with all the most polite and gentle words justifying his behavior for this reason for that reason. Just like any child would do to justify their disobedience. And I would generally never correct a bishop. However, he has made this public, right? I must correct it because remind you, my people, that we are faithful to the Holy Father, whether I understand him or not. Why? Because we are faithful to Christ, whether I understand him or not. Why? Because he is the king. That's why he is the dictator. And we must submit to him in all things. We always have to be careful with this. Never allow this American political philosophy to cloud our understanding of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Yes, he is good and loving and merciful, but he is a king. And if you don't submit to that love and that mercy the way he has asked you to, he will cast you into the outer darkness. He will separate the sheep from the goats and only the sheep will share in his kingdom. The goats will suffer for the rest of eternity.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
Homily begins at 20.27
Tuesday Nov 14, 2023
Mass Etiquette
Tuesday Nov 14, 2023
Tuesday Nov 14, 2023
You may watch the Mass in its entirety on our YouTube channel. Homily begins at 20:21