Homily L1-B Lent, First Week, cycle B

I remember the water. I don't remember why we were so late, but I remember the water. It was pitch dark when we arrived at the camp. It was literally one of those “cannot see the hand in front of your face moments”. In the 60's an hour west of Portland, there was no light pollution. We could not take a step without flashlights. I remember that it was hot. We were all hot and sticky from the car ride. As soon as we arrived, we all headed down the steep slope to the lake, stripped to our shorts and jumped in the water. It felt like cool silk on our skin. It cleansed us and restored us, but I'll never forget that feeling on swimming in cool silk.

Today's readings talk about Noah and the flood and Jesus in the desert; too much water and too little water. The flood in Noah's time washed away all that was bad in the world and allowed a fresh start. We see in our sacrament of Baptism, the same cleansing. Our original sin is washed away along with any other sin we may have committed. (I feel compelled to remember our adult RCIA candidates who will be baptized here.) But Baptism does more that that. It joins us into this family, this community of Christians. If you glance around the church, you will see your brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all united in Christ in our baptism. Those you see here are just a small part of the family. All the baptized in the world are our brothers and sisters in Christ. We remember the washing away of Original Sin, but sometimes we forget that we are here together with Christ, still alive and with us, every day.


When you came into Church today, is was still winter. In a few short weeks, it will warm up and we will see the beginning of the spring rains. Do you remember how everything can be a bit grimy and dusty after a winter? Then the spring rain comes and cleans everything up so nicely. The sidewalks are clean and there is a wonderful fresh smell in the air. Then, as God promised, he sends a rainbow for us and Him to see. I know what I do when I see a rainbow. I always look around to point it out to somebody. I want to share the vision with those around me, my community. I'm always a bit disappointed if I am alone and cannot share the rainbow with somebody.


Picture Sunday Mass with me, as a spring rain. Our lives have gotten a little grimy and dusty. We step away from those lives for just an hour and turn our focus to God. His Word and His Eucharist cleanses us. We join our brothers and sisters in the community of the baptized and praise our God in word and song as he washes the dust from our souls. The priest (or deacon) combines water and wine. Wine to represent Christ, water to represent us. We partake in His communion and sit and reflect afterward in the rainbow of God's love. If more Catholics saw the Sunday Mass that way, we'd be building an addition on the Church to seat them all.


Sunday Mass can help us stay clean, but once in a while, we get filthy dirty either from work or play. You know the kind of dirty that I am talking about. The kind where your mother would hose you off before she'd let you come in the house. She'd make you leave your closes in a pile by the door and run you right into the shower. Physical dirtiness can be taken care of pretty quickly. We've all removed that kind of dirt. Spiritual dirtiness takes just a little more effort.


Jesus was in the desert being tempted by the devil. We can only presume that Jesus did not have a lot of life giving water in the desert. He was probably thirsty. As any human being would be, Jesus was tempted. Because of this, He knows our struggles and how hard temptation is to resist. When we succumb to temptation, Jesus wants to reach out and heal us. He wants to help us out of that personal dessert where we feel dirty and dry and dusty and wash us again in those waters we first saw in Baptism. Reconciliation can be that hose that washes us off before we come into the house. Every Wednesday night this Lent, priests will be available for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Come and let the healing waters flow over you once again. Hear those words n the absolution: “You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”


Water cleanses and unites us in Baptism, Water represents us in the Eucharist, Water cleanses us again in Reconciliation. Come to the water...the silky refreshing water.

Ash Wednesday at the seminary

It is Ash Wednesday... Will you leave the ashes on when you leave church?

Here at the Seminary, it is a day of recollection.  We are in silence until after dinner. Our former rector, Bishop Uglietto, will be leading us through this day of reflection.

May this Lenten season be a time of reflection and preparation for us all.

Homily OT7-B Ordinary Time, Seventh Week, cycle B

My friend Irene cannot say “no”. As a result, she is in crisis several times a week. I know this because she sends me an online message of “Chris!!!!” with four exclamation marks. The next line is always “I did it again”. What she did is this: She accepted an invitation to a party or an event or a concert and then another invitation came along for something “better”.

She asks me for advice. I tell her the same thing every time. “Learn to say 'No':. Honor your commitments.” This results in a slew of messages appearing on my screen telling me that she did say no, but they were persistent and this is a really cool concert.

In the years that I have know her, this has happened hundreds of times. Irene has trouble staying faithful to her commitments.

In today's second reading, Paul is being accused of not honoring his commitments. It is doubtful that any of us got that message among the multitudes of “yeses” and “nos” in that reading so some explanation may be in order. Paul had written to the Corinthians and told them he was coming to visit. Then he became ill and did not show up. The Corinthians were upset. The beginning of this reading is the end of the explanation saying, in effect, I am not wishy washy. I did not flip flop. In his words “yes and no”

Paul goes on to explain that he is always faithful to God and God blesses him for it. He suggests that the Corinthians should also be faithful to God so that God will bless them as well. This message echoes the words heard in our opening prayer today. “Grant, we pray, almighty God, that, always pondering spiritual things we may carry out in both word and deeds that which is pleasing to you.”

We see this theme echoed in the Gospel in the faith of the four men who carried their friend to Jesus. They were a bit unorthodox in the approach of removing the roof and lowering their friend down, but their faith was strong. Jesus rewarded their faith by healing their friend of his sins and of his paralysis.

How do we reconcile the faithfulness and commitment of Paul and the four men compared to Irene? Well, Irene is not alone and she is a product of our culture today. We live in a culture that puts a lot of emphasis on instant gratification and little emphasis on faith and commitment. We live in a culture that measures success by how much money we make and not by how happy we are in our lives.

We cannot change our culture with a snap of our fingers, but we can change ourselves. We can choose to be faithful and committed to God. For mot of us, our parents made a promise for us that we would be faithful to God at our Baptism. We made our own promises at Confirmation. But for many, we did not do much more with out faith after that. It occurs to me that this might be a good time to consider a change.

On Wednesday of this week, the Church will observe Ash Wednesday. While it is not a Holy Day of obligation, attendance at Mass is encouraged. Leaving your ashes on for the day is a sign of faith and commitment to God. Practicing the fast and abstinence on this day is also a sign of faith and commitment.

For Lent, many of us will continue the practices we learned in our youth. We 're going to give something up. That is a wonderful thing, but we can do more. How about doing something positive this year. Something that only God knows. Don't tell anyone else, just do it. In past years, I have tried these positive ideas.

Attend daily Mass (before I was a priest, of course). Even if a day is missed, try.
Put a few dollars aside each day and at the end of the week sent it off to a worthwhile charity.
Purchase a gift card each week and give it to the homeless.
Find an extra 15 minutes each day to pray and read a good book related to our faith.
Take some time each day and read a gospel. Spread the readings out over 40 days to complete it.

Again, don't tell anyone, just make a secret promise to God and do it.

Lent is a wonderful time to renew our faith and commitment to God. I pray we all find a meaningful way to make this time a season of growth in our faith.

Misconceptions of the Seminary

I touched on this on Facebook, but I can get into more depth here.

I'm in a seminary, not a monastery.  We have no fences. 
The only walls we have keep our roof up.

I can have visitors, in fact I have had several in the last few weeks.
I can come and go most days without any problems.  We are encouraged to get out of the building on a regular basis.
I do have certain mandatory attendance events that limit my availability.
It is best to think of it as graduate school, you'll have a pretty good feel for it.

(Rereading this section, it sounds desperate. It is not, just factual)
>Care packages are allowed (hint hint).
>Your cards and letters are most welcome and read again and again.
>Your phone calls are anticipated with joy.
>Lunch and Dinner invitations are the highlight of my week.

Homily OT6-B Ordinary Time, Sixth Week, cycle B

He reached out and shook my hand, looked me straight in the eye and said, “Thank you for treating me like a human being.” I was shocked. I blurted out, “How else would I treat you?” He said, “In here, nobody treats us as humans.” I really needed to get away and think about this, but when you are visiting inmates in prison, there are not a lot of options for escape.

I found myself on a team leading a three day weekend for the inmates after a long journey. I had not planned on working with inmates, but the Deacon was very convincing. He brought up all the scripture passages, “I was in prison and you visited me”, “To proclaim liberty to captives”. Most of all, he played the Catholic guilt card, hard and often. I finally said, “Yes”.

The weekend was filled with wonderful moments. The inmates were genuine and open with us. They shared their stories with us and listened to our stories with respect. More than a few tears were shed. The other members of the retreat team were amazing - deeply faithful men and women. On the last day, the inmate thanked me, shocked me and shamed me. I had written off an entire section of society as not worth my time.

Prisoners are isolated and ostracized in today’s society. In the time of Jesus, lepers were in a similar state. They were required to stay one hundred yards away from others and shout, “Unclean, unclean” to keep people away. They were shunned and excluded from society.

And yet, in the gospel passage, a leper approached Jesus and asks to be healed … if it is Jesus’s wish. He does not request or demand healing. He asks Jesus if He wished to heal him. Jesus demonstrated something that we tend to forget today. He loves us more than we can ever understand. When we come to Jesus and ask, He will respond. When we ask Jesus what He wishes, He will answer.

Jesus responded to the leper with great love. Jesus reached out and touched the leper. We know that Jesus could have healed the leper from a distance. He healed others without touching them. Jesus did not need to touch the leper to heal him, but He did. He touched the leper to show His disciples that they did not need to be afraid. They could safely reach out and cure the sick.

But there is more. The Church views sin as a spiritual leprosy. It tarnishes our souls. It moves us further away from God. Jesus did not just heal the leper of leprosy. Jesus healed the leper of his disease AND his sin.

Sin, like leprosy, starts small but grows over time to envelop more and more of our life. If I have a sweet tooth, and I do, I can have a little something from time to time. If I let it grow, it will. I’ll start having sweets for desserts, pastries for breakfast, candy between meals, handfuls of stuff while I watch TV. It grows from a sweet tooth to gluttony, if I let it. Sin grows so easily, we can miss its effects in our lives. 

I used sweets as a real example in my life, but there are many other examples that may be present in our lives. I know there are more in my life that I have struggled with in the past and some I still struggle with. There are mostly legal things that we get wrapped up in and lead us to sin: Alcohol abuse, cursing, gambling, lying, gossip and a sharp tongue. There are illegal things that can take us down the path even easier: Drug abuse, stealing, murder. When we hold up a mirror to our lives, what do we see that might not look good and pure to God? What might God see that we may be ignoring?

We are all sinners. We all need the healing touch of the love of Jesus. We can and should confess our sins to God every night, but we can do more. Every week, there are men waiting to share the healing touch of Jesus in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Men who have felt the power of sin in their own lives and have felt the healing of Jesus. Men who want to tell you that Jesus loves us. Men who want to help us all find our way home to God.

Remember those inmates on the three day weekend? Two priests came in on that weekend and offered Reconciliation. Every single inmate went in to talk to a priest. 

Where is the leprosy, the sin in our lives? Will we come to Jesus and ask him for His healing touch?

Homily - OT5-B (Ordinary Time, 5th Sunday, Cycle B)

 I met Frank when I was volunteering in prison ministry.  He frequently told the inmates that he had a degree in Knee-ology.  He would tell them of the many struggles in his life and how there would always be an answer when he got down on his knees. The graces that God blessed this man with convinced me that prayer restores us.

Like Frank, Job is having a hard time.  I suspect many of us have had times like his. “months of misery”, “restless nights”, “I shall not see happiness again”.  On December 6^th, 2009, I could relate to Job and how he was feeling.  I had told my wife of 30 years that it was OK, she could leave, and I’d be OK.  Within hours, she went home to the Lord.  I had never felt so alone, so miserable in my life.

My friends and family gathered around and spent time with me.  They sent meals.  They sent hundreds of cards and letters.  Some made me smile, some made me cry, but none brought me out of my misery.  The only relief that I had was my prayer life.  I could talk to God.  I could yell at Him.  I could ask Him why he took her from my life.  After enough prayer, I thanked God for sharing her with me for 30+ years. I knew that she was happy and that I would see her again.  Prayer released me from my misery.

Prayer was a part of my married life.  She always said she knew if I had prayed that day or not just in how I was handling things.  It is funny, I never noticed unless I missed two or 3 days.  Now, I notice when I miss any of my usual prayers in my day.  It has become so much of my normal day that it’s like forgetting to shave or brush your teeth.

The gospel could be titled “24 hours in the life of Jesus”.  We see glimpses of Jesus through a day, night and the next morning.  It is interesting to not what Mark chooses to tell us.  We pick up the story on the Sabbath after Jesus has taught in the synagogue and removed an unclean spirit from a man there.  

Peter’s mother-in-law is ill with a fever.  Now in those days, fevers were serious business.  They did not have our knowledge of medicine or drugs.  Approaching or touching a person with a fever could easily spread the disease.  Jesus does not hesitate.  He grasps her hand and heals her.  Like many of our mothers, she then jumps up and tries to feed the guests.

That evening Jesus heals many people who are searching for him.  We can easily picture him getting tired after a long day and getting some rest.  Early the next day he gets up to pray.  Jesus, the son of God is praying. …  Jesus is God! Why is He praying?  What could He be praying to his Father about?  If Jesus, who is God, feels the need to pray, why aren’t we down on our knees all day long?

We are told to “pray always”.  Many of us believe that is a difficult thing to do.  So many of us pray when we have a problem or pray at Mass, but outside of that, not-so-much.   How do we pray always?  We just need to be more conscious of the times we can pray.  

When we wake up, we can thank God for a new day and pray that it will go as He plans.  When we brush our teeth, we can thank God for the health we do have and pray that we make good choices to improve our health today.  When we eat, we can thank God for the food and pray for those that grew it and brought it to our table.  When we get into a car or bus or train, we can pray that God watch out for our trip and make it safe.

There are dozens of opportunities for prayer every day.  If the day is going well, pray and thank God for the gift of a good day.  If the day is not going well, pray and thank God that He has not given you more than you can bear and thank Him for the strength He has given you to make it through the day. 

 The Church has many chances for prayer available to us.  There is benediction and adoration, the rosary, holy hours, just to name a few.  However, we do not need to go find something special to do.  We should just follow the example of Jesus and pray.