Divine Mercy Sunday

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/042714.cfm

          Today we celebrate not just the Second Sunday of Easter or the end of the Octave of Easter.  Today we celebrate a special feast day called Divine Mercy Sunday.  This day was officially put on the Church Calendar by St. Pope John Paul II, who was just canonized today in Rome.  This day is associated with the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, which is prayed on ordinary rosary beads.  St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, a young Polish nun who lived in the early 1900’s, received visions of Jesus Christ who gave her a mission to tell others about Divine Mercy.  She taught others the Chaplet and encouraged them to have a devotion to the Divine Mercy.  She also had a painting commissioned that is today called the Divine Mercy image, and was instrumental in having the Second Sunday of Easter declared the official feast day for the Divine Mercy.  One Polish nun (who died at the age of 33 by the way) did all this work to help others understand that Jesus is most loving and merciful person we could ever have.  He truly is Divine Mercy.  

          So what do we mean when we talk about Divine Mercy? It means that this is a mercy that comes from God and it is unlike any mercy that we may experience for humans.  Mercy is about forgiveness.  It's about being forgiven of whatever sins or wrongdoing we may have done and any and all punishments for those sins have been removed.  When it comes to Divine Mercy, then, all our sins are forgiven and the punishment that is being pardoned is eternal death.

          Our human experience of mercy is nothing compared to Divine Mercy.  It isn't like the game that boys might play in which they inflict pain on each other until someone calls “mercy” or “uncle”.  It isn't like when we humans try to forgive each other.  As Christians, we try our best to forgive those who have trespassed against us.  We know from experience, however, that this is not always that easy.  Sometimes we have been hurt so badly, we find it difficult to reach forgiveness.  We keep working at it because it is the right thing to do, but it's still hard.  We may experience this in another way as well in which we have sinned against another and then we seek forgiveness from them, but they find it hard to forgive us.  In addition to all this, even if we are forgiven by another or we learn to forgive someone else, the trust that was once there may be gone.  Forgiveness is one thing; learning to trust again is something completely different.

          Fortunately for us, Divine Mercy is nothing like our limited human ability to have Mercy.  As I already said, Divine Mercy is the whole package.  Forgiven of all sin; acquitted of any punishment.  God is even able to continue to trust us after forgiving us; not like a naïve child who keeps falling for the same practical joke several times is a row.  He knows what He's doing.  He even knows what we are going to do, including all the sins that we will commit in the future, and He still trusts us.  By trusting us, He allows us to make our own decisions.  By trusting us, He leaves Himself open to be saddened by our sins again and again.  But He also allows us to freely choose to love Him and serve Him.  So, He trusts us because He loves us and wants us close to Him.  He forgives us and has mercy on us because of that love. 

          Today's Gospel is a great example of Divine Mercy in action.  We are all familiar with the sins of two of the Apostles during Holy Week: Judas' betrayal and Peter's three denials of knowing Jesus.  Today, however, we hear about another of the Apostles: St. Thomas, otherwise known as “Doubting Thomas”. 

          I have to admit, I always feel kind of sorry for Thomas whenever this reading comes up.  He reminds me of that poor guy who misses that one meeting where all the decisions are made and then ends up with all the jobs that no one else wants.  “Hey Tom!  Sorry you couldn't make that last meeting.  By the way, we elected you as chair person, hope you don't mind.  And we're putting you in charge of planning the company picnic next month.  Have fun!”   So he misses out of being able to see for himself that Christ is risen, which is unfortunate for him.  All joking aside though, he had at least ten of his closest friends (maybe a few others as well) telling him that they saw Jesus alive again.  Even with something as extraordinary as hearing that someone has risen from the dead, I would think that ten or more witnesses telling you that this has happened would be quite convincing.  We can debate all we want about why he refused to believe.  The point is that he doubted.

          Our focus for this Sunday should not be simply on the doubting of Thomas.  Our focus should rightly be on Jesus' response.  His response is not in anger or frustration over Thomas' lack of faith.  He doesn't berate him for what he did or didn't do.  I think we sometimes paint this picture of God in our minds of someone who is in Heaven with a lighting-bolt in hand, poised to smite us for the slightest infraction.  God loves us to much for that, as I have been saying.  So His response to Thomas' unbelief is not of wrath, but of mercy.  He simply tells him, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”  We don't know exactly what tone of voice Jesus used when He said that, but however He said it He didn't dwell on it.  He simply said, “Here is your proof, now start believing”.  In His never ending love and mercy, He is saying “Your sins are forgiven, now go in peace.”

          We may or may not have had to struggle in our faith life with whether or not Jesus truly rose from the dead, but like St. Thomas we have all had to struggle with sin and know we could have done things better.  Today’s feast day of Divine Mercy Sunday reminds us not to dwell on the negatives, but on the fact that Jesus is ready to forgive us and show us mercy.  Believe in this, my brothers and sisters, and ask for his mercy.

Easter Homily

Here is my homily for the Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday.  Because the Lectionary gives the option of using the Gospel Reading assigned for the Vigil at Masses on Sunday as well, I chose to preach on the Vigil Gospel (Matthew) at all the Masses.  For those interested, here are links to the readings on both days.  Christ is Rise!  Alleluia!

Vigil: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/041914.cfm

Sunday: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/042014.cfm

Some of you know that the sport that I like to watch the most is football. You may also know that the team that I like to watch are the Minnesota Vikings. Though for the last several seasons I have to admit that I feel more like I am a “recovering” Minnesota Vikings fan. Even though their last few seasons have been less than spectacular however, I continue to hope, like other Vikings fans that we will be able to get a good head coach who lead them to victory… And a descent quarterback who can both run and throw the ball … And some good running backs that can work well with the quarterback… And some good offensive linemen to protect the passer … a good defense that can stop the pass and the run … Oh! And a good place kicker who’s consistent … a descent punter that can kick the ball way back … a great coaching staff that can bring them all together as a team. If we could just get those few things – and a good stadium – we’ll be doing alright!

Anyway, despite my love for the Vikings, one of my favorite coaches from the history of the NFL is Vince Lombardi, coach of the Green Bay Packers. In 10 years as head coach of the Packers, he led them to five league championships and won the first two Super Bowls. Today, the trophy that is awarded to the Super Bowl champions is called the Vince Lombardi Trophy in his honor. Now I don’t know that much about Lombardi, but I do know that he was a very tough task-master. My junior high football coach and various professors I had in college liked to refer to “Lombardi Time”. Coach Lombardi had a rule that the players and coaching staff had to be at practice and ready to work 15 minutes before the scheduled time for the team meeting. If you’re on time, you’re late. I’m sure he had that rule because he wanted to light a fire under his players and staff. He didn’t want to waste time while he waited for people to get to practice. He wanted to get right to work. That readiness to work at practice would also translate to a readiness to work at games.

I also remember a drill that my football coaches in junior high made the team do. I don’t remember what they were called, but they were inspired by Coach Lombardi and I remember that I was tired and sore by the end of them. All the players would run in place, moving our feet very quickly. When the coach would blow his whistle, we all had to fall down on the ground and then quickly get back up and continue running in place. The idea was to help us get used to moving quickly and learning to get up quickly if we fell or were hit down. We weren’t going to be doing much playing of football or winning any games if we were going to be taking our time just getting back up.

I obviously don’t know what it’s like being a professional football player, but as a teenage boy, I know we needed those reminders of being on time and that training to keep us quick and working hard. As young boys, we thought we could do anything. We thought we were quicker and stronger and smarter than we really were. The coaches had to help us realize what we really needed.

The Easter account that we hear this year is from Matthew. The thing that stuck out to me about this account is the urgency that we see throughout. First we hear about the two Marys coming to the tomb “as the first day of the week was dawning”. Remember, Jesus was put into the tomb late Friday afternoon. The Jewish Sabbath starts at sundown on Friday and goes until sundown on Saturday, which means no work on that day. So they really couldn’t do much for Jesus’ burial until Sunday morning. So these women came the first chance they had at dawn. Then the earthquake happens and the angel appears. But you can see there is no time for small talk with this guy. “Do not be afraid” they are told. After being shown that Jesus is not there and being invited to see the burial cloths, the angle gives more instructions. “Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.’” These two women have just been given the biggest shock of their lives and they don’t even have to time stand in wonder at the fact that the tomb is empty. Then we are told they quickly go, “fearful yet overjoyed”, when the run into Jesus himself. They pay him homage and He tells them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” Again, no time for small talk, barely even a greeting and they are already being told, go and tell my disciples what has happened. Jesus doesn’t use the word “quickly” there, but you can still sense the urgency: there is no time to loose; Go!
The reason for this urgency should not come as a surprise to anyone. The word needs to get out! Jesus Christ has risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia! In my own weird sense of humor, I like to picture that on that first Easter Sunday morning, Jesus rose, stretched His arms, looked at the angel sitting there and said, “Alright. Now it’s time to get some work done around here!” He started by sending this message via those two women: meet me in Galilee. It is there that He tells them even more. “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

Much like a good coach or a good leader is going to light a fire under his staff or players to get them to work hard and be on time, so also Jesus is getting his Apostles into top gear. We too are being sent forth with this great Easter celebration. There is no time to loose, let us tell the world of our Savior.

Good Friday

My Good Friday Homily.  Like Palm Sunday, I tried to keep it simple while giving time for personal reflection.

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/041814.cfm

          Last Sunday, I asked you to take something with you from the reading of the Passion so that you could reflect on it throughout Holy Week.  I encourage you to continue doing that. 

          Today we hear from the Passion according to St. John, which is the most unique of the four Gospels.  This Passion account also contains themes and sayings that we hear nowhere else.   A part that always gets my attention is when Jesus and Pilate have a philosophical discussion on the meaning of truth.  “Jesus answered, ‘You say I am a king.  For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’  Pilate said to him, ‘What is truth?’” 

This truth that Jesus is talking about is absolute truth.  The idea of an absolute truth that is true for everyone can seem very strange and foreign to a society like our own that is becoming increasingly relativistic.  “Well, that might be true for you, but not for me.  That’s what you believe, but not me.”  This truth is about the love that God has for us; a love so great that He gave up His only begotten Son that we might be saved.   May we be able to express our belief in this truth as we observe this day of our Salvation.

Holy Thurday: Mass of the Lord's Supper

Here is my Holy Thursday Homily.  If you would like to see the commercial that I refer to, click the following link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flThllGVZEw

Readings:
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/041714-evening-mass.cfm

          There's a TV commercial that you may have seen, unless of course you are one of those lucky people who have successfully disconnected yourself from watching any television.  This commercial talks about various companies and inventions and other innovations that all started out in garages.  As they list these they show various pictures and videos of garages.  I don't know enough about the history of these various innovations to know whether they are the actual garages where these events took place, but the images help set the tone of what they are trying to get at. 

          It starts out with a man's voice saying “The Write Brothers started in a garage”.  And they show a large garage with a windsock and an empty field.  The voice continues that “Amazon started in a garage” and we see a garage attached to a nice suburban home with a basketball hoop.  The voice continues to list how Hewlett-Packard, Disney, Mattel, and the musical group The Ramones all started in garages.  Their point, they explain, is that “You never know what kind of greatness can come out of an American garage”.  As the voice over says this, a brand new Cadillac pulls out of a rather futuristic looking garage.  Not only does the commercial try to play off of the viewers' patriotism by mentioning “America”, but they try to entice people to buy a Cadillac by suggesting that they too can share in greatness because this car came from a garage as well. 

          Whether or not you like Cadillac or agree with what they are saying in their commercial, the company is trying to play off a popular idea that small and humble beginnings can result in huge success.  This seems especially popular in this country as the media loves to talk about people who have a “Cinderella Story” or about people who go from rags to riches seemingly overnight.  It might not always turn out that way, but there are certainly plenty of examples of people or groups starting out small and growing into something big.

          Every year, in the evening of Holy Thursday, the Church celebrates the Mass of the Lord's Supper, commemorating the night of the Last Supper.  I had an opportunity a couple years ago to take a trip to the Holy Land.  One day the group I traveled with visited the “Upper Room” where this Last Supper took place.  Many artists have tried to depict this event.  Many of them, including the famous work by Leonardo da Vinci, make it appear as though this took place is a rather large room with beautiful view of the countryside in the background.  In reality the Upper Room is larger than a typical dinning room, but it isn't quite as spacious as Renaissance painters would have us believe.  If you do a search on the Internet for “the Upper Room in Jerusalem”, you can see what it looks like.  In my opinion, the look is not all that impressive.  Several Christian and Islamic groups had control the space at different times in history, so now it has an odd mix of different types of pillars and arches and architectural styles.  The color in the room is mainly gray, white, and brown except for a couple of blue and yellow stain-glass windows that are left over from when it was a mosque.  The room itself is nothing fancy to look at.  It's what happened in there that is really amazing. 

          Today, the Church encourages us to focus on three things about this day: The institution of the Eucharist; the institution of the Priesthood; and the call by Christ to brotherly love.  We remember that first point every time we come to Mass and the priest says aloud the words of Christ, “This is my Body … This is my Blood.”  Today the priesthood and call to brotherly love are added, making this truly a solemn day of celebration.  We remember how it all started from a simple room is the middle of the old city of Jerusalem.

          In looking deeper at the Institution of the Priesthood, we can consider it in a couple of different ways.  On one hand we can look at the starting of the Ministerial Priesthood.  Christ tells the Twelve Apostles to “Do this in memory of me”, commanding them to continue celebrating this most Holy Eucharist as a memorial of how He died for all of us.  So He establishes the Eucharist and the Priesthood to celebrate this sacrament on the same night.  On the other hand we can look at the starting to the priesthood of the baptized.  In a few minutes from now I will wash the feet of six individuals; just as Christ washed His Apostles' feet.  Christ said, “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”  This was not directed only to the Apostles but to all of us.  We are to show an example of love by serving each other.  So a priesthood of all believers is established to continue Christ's work of showing God's love to the world. 

          No matter how you want to look at it, however, Christ established the Eucharist, the Priesthood, and the call to love and serve on the same night for a very good reason: all three work together.  There is no Eucharist without the Priesthood.  One could also add that there can be no Priesthood without love and a willingness to serve.  The Eucharist is about love; the love Christ has for us and as we receive the Eucharist from the priest, we learn to love. 

          The Eucharist, the Priesthood, and our call to love are some of greatest things about our Faith.  They weren't started is some dingy garage like an expensive car or a billion dollar company.  But they did all start is a single room in Palestine.  And they are still helping us to grow in holiness.  Let us not forget that we are truly called to love and serve for Christ.

Palm Sunday

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/041314.cfm

          The reading of the Passion is such a powerful reading that there is very little that I can say that could possibly add to what we have just read and heard.  Our Lord’s Passion speaks for itself.  But because we are so familiar with this story, as we hear it every year, it’s easy for us to more or less “glaze over” when it comes to recognizing the importance and significance of what Christ has done for us.   

          So instead of the usual homily, I would like us to take a moment to reflect on the Passion here at Mass.  I would like to invite everyone to find detail or a person or something spoken or some other aspect that you can take with you and reflect on for the rest of this Holy Week until Easter.  Maybe you want to reflect on something Jesus said to his Apostles at the Last Supper.  Perhaps you want to reflect on St. Peter’s promise not to deny Jesus or on his denial later on.  Maybe Judas’ remorse captures your attention.  You could also focus on what it was like for Simon to be pressed into service to help Jesus carry the Cross. 

          My point is very simple.  Do not let Palm Sunday pass by like another ordinary day.  Take something with so you can focus on the Passion this week.  Then Easter will be all the more joyful.

Fifth Sunday of Lent

Sorry for the delay on this post.  Here is my Sunday Homily:



http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/040614.cfm

          There is a saying that goes, “If you want to make God laugh, just tell Him your plans”.  It’s a short and rather pithy statement, but it has a lot of wisdom in it.  God is the only one who really knows what is going to happen.  He can do whatever He wants; He is in charge.  We ourselves are free to make all the plans we want and we can talk all we want about the things that we want to do, but just because we want to do this or plan on doing that it doesn’t mean that it is actually going to happen that way.  

          Imagine if our prayers consisted only of us demanding that He do all the things that we wanted.  It would probably sound like the most lopsided contract negotiation we ever heard.  “Okay God.  Here’s the deal.  No more of this getting up before eight business, alright.  I know you like to get up early, but some of us some need their beauty rest.  Now about work, I’m planning on getting that nice big promotion and raise that I’ve had my eye on for the past few weeks.  Yeah, you know the one.  I know I haven’t been working that hard, but I totally deserve this more than those losers who are applying for it.  I mean, why should they get it?  And if you could get to work on that house on the lake that I waiting for since last summer.  I know you got a lot to do, but come on: buyer’s market.  Chop, chop!  I’ve even been working on getting to Mass on time more.  Last weekend Father wasn’t even half way up the aisle yet.  I was totally on time.  That’s got to count for something.  Oh!  One last thing, Lord: I’ve got to talk to you about the weather situation down here.  I think your snow machine is on the fritz.  When we had snow in late March that was kind of funny.  When you sent snow on April Fools day, that was cute, but close to a foot on April 4^th?  Come on God, get with the program.  I got places to go, people to see.  Well, talk to next week.”

          Sometime we might find ourselves asking a lot of God.  We might even say we are demanding of God at times.  But I seriously doubt that anyone is quite as demanding or as self-centered as that caricature I was just describing.  I think, for the most part, Christians understand when we ask something of God and it doesn’t turn out the way we expect it to.  God knows what we need better than we can comprehend right now.  What is harder to accept and harder to understand is when bad things happen to ourselves and to our loved ones.  Then we do get demanding as we insist on an explanation from God for what just happened.

          In the Gospel today about the death and rising of Lazarus we see the sorrow of Martha and Mary at the death of their brother.  We also see their frustration as they both say, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died”.  There is a certain amount of faith in that statement.  Both women know that He certainly has the ability to heal people.  Martha even adds, “But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.”  She knows that Christ’s power comes from God.  This puts her far ahead of the crowds who have trouble understanding who Jesus even is.  That phrase, “If you had been here”, however, also mirrors the statement of part of the crowd, “Could not the one who opened the eyes of the blind man have done something so that this man would not have died?”  The phrase become a bit more accusatory:  Lord, if you would have come, you could have saved his life.

          How many times in our lives do we say to God, “Lord if you had been here”?  Lord, if you had been here, my mother would not have gotten cancer.  Lord, if you had been here, my son wouldn’t have left the Church.  Lord, if you had been here, my sister wouldn’t have started using drugs.  Lord, if you had been here, my husband would have gotten that job.  Lord, if you had been here, my father wouldn’t have died.  All of these phrases and other version of them can also come in the form of a very pointed question: “Lord, why weren’t you there?  Where were you at that time?”  We may be tempted to accuse God (or Jesus, or the Holy Spirit) of not being there when we needed Him most.  We may even want to blame Him for not trying to stop it.

          Martha and Mary, and the crowds in Bethany, didn’t quite understand that even though Jesus wasn’t physically there when Lazarus died, He is there now and will still work wonders.  Likewise, when we are overcome with sorrow or grief over bad things that can happen to our loved ones and ourselves, we can forget that God was there when it happened and is still here with us, even in the hurt.  He was with us in those dark times, even though we didn’t know it, and will continue to carry us as we live our lives here on earth.  He will be with us even unto death.  Trust that He is with us.

          Death is a very scary thing for many of us.  What happens after death?  Will I be with loved ones when I die?  Will I get to be with God when I die?  It is in death that we truly have to put our trust and hope that God will be with us until the end and will bring us to the Resurrection. 

          The readings today point both to Christ’s Resurrection that we will celebrate in just two weeks, and to the Resurrection from the dead that we all hope to be a part of some day.  The Gospel shows how Christ has the power to raise us up again, calling us out from the tomb.  Our first reading from Ezekiel speaks of how God will open our graves and have us rise from them.  Our second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans teaches us that it is through the Spirit of God dwelling within us that will raise our mortal bodies to life.

          We cannot demand, brothers and sisters, that God give us everything we want and make our lives always perfect.  But when we put our trust in Him, we will know that He will be with us in all our difficulties and we will have hope that He will raise us to new life.  Death will be conquered.