On behalf of the Pastor, the staff and all of us here at St. Catherine's, please accept our deepest condolences on the loss of your wife, your mother, your friend. It is always a sad time to say goodbye and this goodbye is bittersweet.
I lost my own mother to Alzheimer's and I can appreciate the slow sense of loss of Marjorie that you must have experienced over the last six years. As the Alzheimer's progressed, I'm sure that you saw less and less of the woman you loved and more and more of a stranger. Those lucid moments followed by times of confusion are painful to watch. The woman that you saw most recently in the nursing home has little resemblance to the woman of your cherished memories. If we looked only at those facts, we would be living in a depressing world indeed, however we look at life with the eyes of faith.
Behind me today is the Paschal candle, burning bright with the light of Christ. It is a reminder to us of the suffering, death and most importantly, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have in Christ a God who suffered. We have in Christ, the light of the world, an image for us of the first fruits from death. We believe that Christ rose from the dead and He promised us everlasting life with Him. This is our hope. This is our strength to go on. There is more to our existence than these few years here on this world.
St. Paul asks us in the second reading. “What will separate us from the love of God”. He answers the question immediately, “neither death, nor life will be able to separate us from the love of God”. God's love for us is beyond our ability to comprehend. It is a perfect, complete love for all of His people. Through her Baptism, Marjorie joined God's family. She became God's daughter. The white pall on the casket reminds us of her spotless baptismal robe and those baptismal promises that brought her into God's chosen people.
Through our faith, we have confidence in life after death. Through God's mercy, we believe that Marjorie is even now on her way to her eternal reward, completely sound of mind and body. As we heard in the gospel today, “everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day”. We know that Marjorie believed, so we know that she will have eternal life. She may have died to this existence, but she lives on in the life of Christ.
Our belief in this continued life can comfort us, perhaps not fully today, but in time. Today's first reading reminds us that “The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces.” Nobody expects today to be a time without tears, but the time will come when the tears will subside. Not because we love Marjorie less, but because we have come to accept our loss and realize that she is likely waiting for us to be reunited with her in the place God has prepared for us all. I am sure that with some time, today's loss and pain will be replaced with your best memories of the woman you all loved.
If we remember Marjorie's life long love of music, we can just picture her playing and singing with the heavenly choirs, keeping them in tempo and helping them to sound their best.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Homily Change
For the next four weeks (with a week off for Easter break) I will be departing from homilies based on the current Sunday's readings. The current assignments are funeral and wedding homilies. There will be two of each.
Friday, March 23, 2012
Homily L5-B Lent, Fifth Week, cycle B
Every time I enter the house of some good friends of mine, I stop and read the plaque on the wall of the kitchen. It is a hand made, cross-stitched message that reads, “Anyone can count the seeds in an apple...but only God can count the apples in a seed”. I'll repeat that. “Anyone can count the seeds in an apple...but only God can count the apples in a seed”. They know that I like that plaque so when it was missing from its usual spot one day, I looked around and they said, “It is in the living room.” I went into the living room, and sure enough, there it was. They made me a duplicate plaque when I entered the seminary. It hung in my seminary room for 4 years and hangs in my bedroom today.
We can take an apple seed and plant it in the ground. With our care, watering and fertilization and God's miraculous gift, it grows into a seedling and then a sturdy tree. Eventually crop after crop of apples can come from this one tree. Each crop bearing hundreds of apples each with another handful of seeds. Those seeds can start the process all over again. The simple message of the plaque is made manifest in the actual planting of a single seed. Our one seed produces more apples that we will ever know, but God knows.
Today's gospel speaks of another seed, a grain of wheat. “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain if wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” In the same manner of the apple seed, this grain of wheat can produce a whole stalk of wheat if it is planted. That stalk can then produce more stalks until an entire field is planted and the harvest feeds an entire village for a year.
It took me many years of hearing this passage before I realized that Jesus was not talking about wheat. He was talking about His own death and the results of His death. Unless He (the grain of wheat) died, Christianity (the fruit) would never be able to spring to life. Later in the same passage, Jesus says “It was for this purpose that I came to this hour.” Jesus knew that His Father had a plan. That plan ended with Jesus dying on the cross to redeem us and give us life. That life started as seedlings named Peter and Paul and grew into the millions of believers today.
Last week, we heard the famous passage from John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son”. God gave us His Son knowing full well that Jesus would be crucified. God planted Jesus as a grain if wheat, His seed, there on the cross and in the tomb. Is there a parent here that could give their son or daughter away knowing that they would be killed? I trust that the answer is “no”. How can we possibly understand God's action? God's ways are not our ways, but we do know from that passage that God loves the world. God loves us. Everyone of us, just as we are, warts, flaws, sins and all. We must never forget that. We must never allow anyone to talk us out of that. God is love and God loves us all. He showed us His love by giving us His only Son.
That plaque that I like so much, it is not about apples and seeds. It is about the power of God to see what we cannot see. It is also about how God works through us. In our lives, we plant seeds again and again. We plant seeds of faith, seeds of love and seeds of hope. Those seeds sometimes die where they are planted. Often, those seeds bloom where they are planted and new faith, new love and new hope is born and thrives. Those new seedlings frequently bring more faith, hope and love into the world. We will never know how much faith, hope and love results from our seeds, but God will know. This is our legacy, not our wealth or possessions, but how much love we leave behind in the world.
What seeds have we planted today?
We can take an apple seed and plant it in the ground. With our care, watering and fertilization and God's miraculous gift, it grows into a seedling and then a sturdy tree. Eventually crop after crop of apples can come from this one tree. Each crop bearing hundreds of apples each with another handful of seeds. Those seeds can start the process all over again. The simple message of the plaque is made manifest in the actual planting of a single seed. Our one seed produces more apples that we will ever know, but God knows.
Today's gospel speaks of another seed, a grain of wheat. “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain if wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” In the same manner of the apple seed, this grain of wheat can produce a whole stalk of wheat if it is planted. That stalk can then produce more stalks until an entire field is planted and the harvest feeds an entire village for a year.
It took me many years of hearing this passage before I realized that Jesus was not talking about wheat. He was talking about His own death and the results of His death. Unless He (the grain of wheat) died, Christianity (the fruit) would never be able to spring to life. Later in the same passage, Jesus says “It was for this purpose that I came to this hour.” Jesus knew that His Father had a plan. That plan ended with Jesus dying on the cross to redeem us and give us life. That life started as seedlings named Peter and Paul and grew into the millions of believers today.
Last week, we heard the famous passage from John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son”. God gave us His Son knowing full well that Jesus would be crucified. God planted Jesus as a grain if wheat, His seed, there on the cross and in the tomb. Is there a parent here that could give their son or daughter away knowing that they would be killed? I trust that the answer is “no”. How can we possibly understand God's action? God's ways are not our ways, but we do know from that passage that God loves the world. God loves us. Everyone of us, just as we are, warts, flaws, sins and all. We must never forget that. We must never allow anyone to talk us out of that. God is love and God loves us all. He showed us His love by giving us His only Son.
That plaque that I like so much, it is not about apples and seeds. It is about the power of God to see what we cannot see. It is also about how God works through us. In our lives, we plant seeds again and again. We plant seeds of faith, seeds of love and seeds of hope. Those seeds sometimes die where they are planted. Often, those seeds bloom where they are planted and new faith, new love and new hope is born and thrives. Those new seedlings frequently bring more faith, hope and love into the world. We will never know how much faith, hope and love results from our seeds, but God will know. This is our legacy, not our wealth or possessions, but how much love we leave behind in the world.
What seeds have we planted today?
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Another seminarian leaves us
Wow...
That's all I can say. Less then 2 months left in the semester and one of my brothers in the class of 2015 has packed up his room and moved back home. It was not a complete surprise, he'd been away for a week or so dealing with some issues at home.
It is a discernment process. We started with 16, we're down to 13. We have to trust that God calls us to be in the correct place at the correct time.
That's all I can say. Less then 2 months left in the semester and one of my brothers in the class of 2015 has packed up his room and moved back home. It was not a complete surprise, he'd been away for a week or so dealing with some issues at home.
It is a discernment process. We started with 16, we're down to 13. We have to trust that God calls us to be in the correct place at the correct time.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Homily L4-B Lent, Fourth Week, cycle B
Imagine for a moment, that this church is closed. Some of our brothers and sisters in this diocese could imagine that very easily as their churches were closed in the last decade . But imagine with me some more, every church is closed, plundered, torn down and we were all moved 500 miles away. That is the plight of the Israelites in today’s first reading and the psalm.
Israel had many gathering places to hear the Word of God, but only one Temple and altar to offer sacrifice. All this was taken away from them when they lost the war with Babylon. As a result of that loss, the temple was destroyed and the people forcibly marched to Babylon as slaves. In this new land, there was no Temple and the Israelites found it difficult to worship. Perhaps the words of the psalmist mean a bit more now: “How could we sing a song of the Lord in a foreign land?”
For 50 years, the Israelites were once again slaves, wandering in a spiritual desert. How wonderful the news that we heard in the first reading must have been. Persia defeated Babylon and released the enslaved Israelites to return to Jerusalem. The king of Persia even provided help in rebuilding the Temple. Surprisingly enough, after only 50 years removed from their religious practices, many Israelites did not want to return to Jerusalem. Many did return and for the next 500 years or so, Israel would worship at the Temple in Jerusalem and there would be some semblance of the norm in their worship of God.
What does this history lesson from 2500 years ago mean to us today? Nobody is plundering and burning our churches. We are free to worship here. I believe the war, this time, is much more subtle. In the last 50 years, the attack on the values that our Church has taught for 2000 years have increased. We must remember that those values were handed down by the unchanging God. We have changed and see things differently, but God has not changed and His laws and values have not changed.
In many of our lifetimes, we have seen changes in abortion law, assisted suicide law, contraception law and practice of religion in public spaces law. We have taken step after step to remove ourselves from the Ten Commandments and replace them with the will of the majority. We’ve removed Christ from Christmas. Outside of the Church they don’t even acknowledge that the 12 days of Christmas are AFTER Christmas day. God forbid that we put up a public display of the nativity on anything other than Church property. We’ve removed God from schools. Public prayer is banned unless it is just a moment of silence. We’ve had battle after battle about removing God from our Pledge of Allegiance and our dollar bill. Atheism is growing in leaps and bounds. The enemies of God would have us worship God in our own little private spaces for one hour a week and never utter a peep about God outside that hour. If we don't see the hand of Satan in this, then we're just not paying attention. We are more like the Israelites in Babylonian captivity than we might care to admit. Our worship is hollow if we cannot live it fully in our lives. We need to ask God for His strength, His courage and His wisdom to combat this trend in our increasingly godless society.
In our Gospel today, we heard: “And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil.” Living in the darkness is not a new problem in our world; it has been with us for millennia. The question we must ask ourselves is: “Are we going to sit by idly and live in the darkness?” If we just accept the changes in the world that move the world away from God, we are part of the darkness. God has been calling humanity for millennia to turn to Him and follow His ways. Now is the time to turn and follow Him into the light as we heed the words of the Gospel: “Whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.”
Israel had many gathering places to hear the Word of God, but only one Temple and altar to offer sacrifice. All this was taken away from them when they lost the war with Babylon. As a result of that loss, the temple was destroyed and the people forcibly marched to Babylon as slaves. In this new land, there was no Temple and the Israelites found it difficult to worship. Perhaps the words of the psalmist mean a bit more now: “How could we sing a song of the Lord in a foreign land?”
For 50 years, the Israelites were once again slaves, wandering in a spiritual desert. How wonderful the news that we heard in the first reading must have been. Persia defeated Babylon and released the enslaved Israelites to return to Jerusalem. The king of Persia even provided help in rebuilding the Temple. Surprisingly enough, after only 50 years removed from their religious practices, many Israelites did not want to return to Jerusalem. Many did return and for the next 500 years or so, Israel would worship at the Temple in Jerusalem and there would be some semblance of the norm in their worship of God.
What does this history lesson from 2500 years ago mean to us today? Nobody is plundering and burning our churches. We are free to worship here. I believe the war, this time, is much more subtle. In the last 50 years, the attack on the values that our Church has taught for 2000 years have increased. We must remember that those values were handed down by the unchanging God. We have changed and see things differently, but God has not changed and His laws and values have not changed.
In many of our lifetimes, we have seen changes in abortion law, assisted suicide law, contraception law and practice of religion in public spaces law. We have taken step after step to remove ourselves from the Ten Commandments and replace them with the will of the majority. We’ve removed Christ from Christmas. Outside of the Church they don’t even acknowledge that the 12 days of Christmas are AFTER Christmas day. God forbid that we put up a public display of the nativity on anything other than Church property. We’ve removed God from schools. Public prayer is banned unless it is just a moment of silence. We’ve had battle after battle about removing God from our Pledge of Allegiance and our dollar bill. Atheism is growing in leaps and bounds. The enemies of God would have us worship God in our own little private spaces for one hour a week and never utter a peep about God outside that hour. If we don't see the hand of Satan in this, then we're just not paying attention. We are more like the Israelites in Babylonian captivity than we might care to admit. Our worship is hollow if we cannot live it fully in our lives. We need to ask God for His strength, His courage and His wisdom to combat this trend in our increasingly godless society.
In our Gospel today, we heard: “And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil.” Living in the darkness is not a new problem in our world; it has been with us for millennia. The question we must ask ourselves is: “Are we going to sit by idly and live in the darkness?” If we just accept the changes in the world that move the world away from God, we are part of the darkness. God has been calling humanity for millennia to turn to Him and follow His ways. Now is the time to turn and follow Him into the light as we heed the words of the Gospel: “Whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.”
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Homily L3-B Lent, Third Week, cycle B
Sorry, no homily this week, we're on spring break.
Let me offer a single sentence to reflect upon...
"Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up"
Let me offer a single sentence to reflect upon...
"Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up"
Friday, March 2, 2012
Homily L2-B Lent, Second Week, cycle B
In 1995, I was part of a musical group that performed Marty Haugen's “Song of Mark”. This was a 2 hour musical production with band, adult and junior choirs and several soloists. Just before intermission, the song “So Good to be Here” is performed. The song wonders what James and John and Peter may have been thinking up on Mount Tabor as they witnessed the transfiguration. It is a bit whimsical and tongue in cheek, but always made me wonder.
What was going through the apostles minds as they saw this amazing sight on the mountain top? Would the apostles be thinking, as the song suggests, “no people to feed”? “Had it to here with your neighbor” “Just kick back and write the Good News?” or “So good to be here with Jesus” as they were setting up the tents for Elijah and Moses?
No matter what they were thinking, the actor that played Jesus then sings, “We must walk down the mountain to the valley below”. Unfortunately, that is true. Every time that we have an experience on the mountain, we must return to the valley. Our mountain top experience may have been a spiritual retreat, a quiet time in the woods, or some other experience, but eventually we have to leave the mountain and come back to reality. But what do our lives look like in the valley?
That very question was asked of me when I was on a retreat. If I was videotaped for a week and the tape was played back, could people watching tell that I was a Catholic? Does my life in the valley show that I am a Catholic? I'm afraid to say that they probably could not tell then. The question haunted me. As I went about my life I saw the sin and poor choices I was making. I realized that my videotape did not look much different than any atheist. I do believe that I changed my behaviors to reflect the life in the valley that I wanted to live. Looking back, one consistent high point of my videotape was my Mass attendance.
Some find that Mass is their mountaintop experience. This is not really surprising to me. We have just heard the word of God. In a few moment we will be partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ. We are in the presence of God here, just like Peter, James and John were. A former parish had rugs at all the doors to remind us of this. As we entered, we would read “Enter to Worship”. As we left we would read “Leave to Serve”. This is a good example of the mountain/valley experience. We spend an hour praying and worshiping God and then leave to spend the rest of the week in the valley. But this begs the question again. What do we do with the 167 hours a week that we are not in Mass? We keep doing the good things that we are doing. We re-examine our choices to make sure they are good choices. We let the world see the Christ in us that we recharge every week here at Mass.
I wonder if our life in the valley can help bring our fellow Catholics back into the pews. For every one here in the pews today, there are 6 other Catholics who rarely, if ever, enter a church. Many believe that it is the job of the priests to bring these people back to our Church. It is the job of all the priesthood, and by our Baptism, we are all part of the priesthood. If the job is left just to the ordained, we are leaving the job to less than 0.5% of the possible workers. If by our example we can get people to once again say “See how they love one another”, they will come back.
In that musical, at the end of the song, as the apostles leave the mountain top, the choir sings... “From the peace of the mountain to the trials down below. You are called now to labor, be the seeds God will sow. Bring new hope, bring true healing to that world of woe. Walk on, walk on into the valley. Walk on, walk on into the valley.”
What was going through the apostles minds as they saw this amazing sight on the mountain top? Would the apostles be thinking, as the song suggests, “no people to feed”? “Had it to here with your neighbor” “Just kick back and write the Good News?” or “So good to be here with Jesus” as they were setting up the tents for Elijah and Moses?
No matter what they were thinking, the actor that played Jesus then sings, “We must walk down the mountain to the valley below”. Unfortunately, that is true. Every time that we have an experience on the mountain, we must return to the valley. Our mountain top experience may have been a spiritual retreat, a quiet time in the woods, or some other experience, but eventually we have to leave the mountain and come back to reality. But what do our lives look like in the valley?
That very question was asked of me when I was on a retreat. If I was videotaped for a week and the tape was played back, could people watching tell that I was a Catholic? Does my life in the valley show that I am a Catholic? I'm afraid to say that they probably could not tell then. The question haunted me. As I went about my life I saw the sin and poor choices I was making. I realized that my videotape did not look much different than any atheist. I do believe that I changed my behaviors to reflect the life in the valley that I wanted to live. Looking back, one consistent high point of my videotape was my Mass attendance.
Some find that Mass is their mountaintop experience. This is not really surprising to me. We have just heard the word of God. In a few moment we will be partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ. We are in the presence of God here, just like Peter, James and John were. A former parish had rugs at all the doors to remind us of this. As we entered, we would read “Enter to Worship”. As we left we would read “Leave to Serve”. This is a good example of the mountain/valley experience. We spend an hour praying and worshiping God and then leave to spend the rest of the week in the valley. But this begs the question again. What do we do with the 167 hours a week that we are not in Mass? We keep doing the good things that we are doing. We re-examine our choices to make sure they are good choices. We let the world see the Christ in us that we recharge every week here at Mass.
I wonder if our life in the valley can help bring our fellow Catholics back into the pews. For every one here in the pews today, there are 6 other Catholics who rarely, if ever, enter a church. Many believe that it is the job of the priests to bring these people back to our Church. It is the job of all the priesthood, and by our Baptism, we are all part of the priesthood. If the job is left just to the ordained, we are leaving the job to less than 0.5% of the possible workers. If by our example we can get people to once again say “See how they love one another”, they will come back.
In that musical, at the end of the song, as the apostles leave the mountain top, the choir sings... “From the peace of the mountain to the trials down below. You are called now to labor, be the seeds God will sow. Bring new hope, bring true healing to that world of woe. Walk on, walk on into the valley. Walk on, walk on into the valley.”
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