St. Thomas the Apostle Parish

Homily for the Memorial of Saint Boniface, Bishop and Martyr

Our parents, grandparents, guardians are our primary teachers. The Church says that they are the primary teachers of the faith, and, in our school, we recognize the central teaching role of the parents.

We are formed first at home and then by teachers and friends, and supported by our worship in Church. St. Paul, in his Second Letter to Timothy, refers to this background when he says to him, “From your infancy, you have known the sacred Scriptures.” Earlier in the letter, St. Paul applauded the genuine faith of Timothy’s grandmother Lois, and his mother, Eunice. Indeed, a good example and teaching by his family prepared Timothy for his apostolic ministry late in his life.

Let us pray, today, for all young families: that they may be guided by the wisdom of the older generations and supported by our prayers and our worship together.+

Homily for Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

The Scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ time, as we know, were quite obsessed with a multitude of rules and were real sticklers on all the details of those rules. In a sense, you cannot blame them. From their perspective, if you knew all the rules and all nuances of the rules and kept them, it was, in their view, a guarantee that you were living according to the will of God. While it might require due diligence, there was something easy and comforting about it as well.

For whatever reason, the particular Scribe who approached Jesus in our Gospel passage wanted to know which of the commandments He believed was the greatest.

Jesus didn’t answer with any of the human-made commandments to which the Scribes and Pharisees often clung nor with any of the Ten Commandments. Instead, He indicated that love of God and love of neighbor were the two most important commandments, and He seemed to get through to the Scribe who answered with great understanding.

May we, too, understand that our love of God and our love of one another (all made in the image of God) must be paramount in our hearts and minds as we seek to do the will of God, and trust that, in so doing, we will be moving closer to our promised redemption.+

Homily for the Memorial of Saint Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs

The Sadducees, who put a question before Jesus in our Gospel passage, recognized the authority of only the first five books of the Old Testament. In them, they saw no indication of an afterlife. They questioned Jesus knowing fully that He taught something quite different. The scenario they described to Him conceived the afterlife as merely an extension of our earthly life. However, Jesus said that the afterlife will be something completely new.

The eternal life of which Jesus spoke is not simply a continuation of what we experience here on earth; it will be so completely different that we cannot even comprehend it. St. Paul says of the afterlife “We shall all be changed.” In that framework, he states that love will stand into eternity. Our love for God and for each other will not end in death but will be made perfect in heaven, fulfilling the purpose for which God created us in the first place.+

Homily for Tuesday of the 9th Week in Ordinary Time

Throughout His ministry, Jesus experienced growing opposition from the religious leaders as His popularity among the people grew. The leaders were afraid the people would mount a rebellion if they arrested Him. So, instead of attacking Jesus directly, they would go after Him with a succession of questions in an attempt to catch Him in a way that would discredit Him either with the people or with the Roman authorities. On the face of it, it appeared the leaders were sincere, but they had hidden agendas, including their own opinions about what the Messiah was supposed to do and what it means to be a part of His kingdom.

We, too, come to Jesus with our own agendas. Yes, all of us come to Jesus with things that we need or want in life, and that is good. But, so often, throughout the history of the Church, people have used our religion as an excuse for violence, hatred, bigotry, discrimination, and censure, simply to support and promote their own narrow and, sometimes, warped sense of world order.

Genuine prayer is always inspired by the Holy Spirit. It required setting aside our own agendas, prejudices, and fears, and letting the Spirit enter our minds and hearts and guide us in the way to live and to pray.+

Homily for the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church

Most of us who have grown up in the Catholic faith have always understood Jesus’ mother, Mary, to be our Blessed Mother. Today’s Gospel depicts the moment when Jesus proclaimed her to be the Mother of the Church.

As the Mother of the Church, Mary is very much a part of our relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. She answered the call of God the Father through her conversation with the angel Gabriel. She gave birth to and raised Jesus, His Son. She was present on the original Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon the first leaders of the Church.

When she stood at the foot of the Cross, just moments before her Son died, He proclaimed her to be not just the mother of His beloved disciple, but the mother of all His disciples, the Mother of the Church.

May we seek to live out our faith as did our Blessed Mother. May we be guided by her example, and may we rely on her intercession for us in heaven+

Homily for the Solemnity of Pentecost

In Scripture, we hear, "There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same LORD; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone; to each individual, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit."[1]

Soon after he became Bishop of our diocese, I had an opportunity to sit down and talk with the late Bishop John Marshall.  In the course of our conversation, Bishop Marshall began to talk about the many differences that exist between so-called liberals and so-called conservatives in the Catholic Church.  Bishop Marshall spoke about how people might lean one way or the other, but he cautioned that people who are entrenched in the extreme on either end of the spectrum run the risk of rejecting Christ. 

What Bishop Marshall meant by this, was that when people become so caught up in and focused on their own perceptions, opinions, and positions, they tend to reject people who have any other opinion that deviates even slightly from their own and, in turn, they reject the work of Holy Spirit who works through all people.

I thought of this conversation as I reflected on our Scripture readings for the day and on the events that we celebrate on this Solemnity of Pentecost. 

Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit is alive in and works through every person.  This doesn't mean that everything a person says or does is correct, but it does mean that every person has gifts of the Holy Spirit that can be used in positive and constructive ways in the Church and in the world.  It means that every person, imperfect as we all are, must be seen as a temple of the Holy Spirit; as an instrument of God's love and action in the world.  If we completely write off someone because we disagree with one particular aspect of the person's life or one particular opinion, then we ignore the many ways that the Spirit works through that person and, in so doing, we reject God and the action of God in our world. 

To say this in a more positive light: Everyone has access to the Holy Spirit and the Spirit has access to everyone.  This includes those who are very religious and even those who are not so religious.  John’s Gospel tells us, "The Spirit breathes where He will."  It is through the individual, with his or her unique gifts, that the Holy Spirit operates in our world. 

Everyone who lives has, at some point in time, experienced the promptings of the Holy Spirit.  We may not always recognize that these promptings have the Holy Spirit as their source but that is how the Spirit works: gently; quietly; unobtrusively. 

While all people experience the movement of the Spirit, recognition of the Spirit comes only with the eyes of faith.  But whether we recognize the movement of the Spirit or not, the Spirit is still alive and active in each one of us.

As Christians, we are called upon to recognize the presence of the Spirit in ourselves and in others.  We are called upon to work with that Spirit; to work with the gifts of others and to recognize our own gifts, to develop them, and to use them for the greater glory of God.  We do this by proclaiming our faith; we do this through our actions; we do this through our words; we do this through our attitudes. 

In making the Gospel a real part of our daily lives, we take an active part in the Church's mission of preaching the Gospel to all people. This is our call; this is what we celebrate on this Solemnity of Pentecost. We cannot answer that call wholeheartedly without the help of the Spirit, as God’s Spirit works in our prayer lives and in our interactions with one another. +

 

[1] 1 Corinthians 12:4-7

Homily for Friday of the 7th Week of Easter

After Jesus was arrested, Peter denied Jesus three times. After He rose from the dead, Jesus appeared to Peter and asked him three times, “Do you love me?” The question Jesus asked was not, “Why did you deny me?” but “Do you love me?” The question focuses not on the past but on the present.

The question, “Do you love me?” is one that Jesus asks us as well. The question calls us to make Jesus the focus of our love; He is to be our deepest love.

Earlier in John’s gospel, Jesus had said, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you, remain in my love.” That relationship of love between the LORD and us is the core of our faith; all else flows from that love and presupposes it.  

Peter could not be commissioned to feed the LORD’S flock until he first declared publicly his love for the LORD. Our own personal relationship with the LORD comes before any work we might do in His name. Our life of faith, our sharing in the LORD’S work of caring for His flock, for each other, is the living out of a personal relationship of love with the LORD.+

Homily for Thursday of the 7th Week of Easter

“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Remain in my love.” In today’s Gospel passage Jesus implores His disciples of every generation to be united with God and with one another. Just as the Father’s love for Jesus is unwavering, so Jesus’ love for us is unwavering. What is asked of us is to remain in his love.

Even those who were fortunate to be with Him at the Last Supper failed in remaining in communion with him through His passion and death. With the exception of the “Beloved Disciple,” all of them abandoned Him. It is no small detail then, that the first question that the Risen Jesus asked Peter was, “Do you love me?” giving Peter the opportunity to return to Jesus’ love, coming back into communion with Him.

Let us pray that our communion with the LORD may be strong and constant in every moment of our lives.+

Homily for Wednesday of the 7th Week of Easter

Jesus has guided His disciples and protected them. Now His prayer on their behalf continues His loving care. His intercessory prayer is an extension of the many ways He had served them since they first began to follow Him. In a similar way, our prayer for others is an extension of our care for them; it is another form of Christian service.

By interceding for His disciples, Jesus teaches us the value of all intercessory prayer. Praying for others has been at the heart of the Church’s prayer life since the time of Jesus. Paul often mentions prayers for his churches, and he called on his people to pray for him. Both Jesus and Paul, of course, were heirs to a Jewish tradition that greatly valued this form of prayer. The prayer of intercession is one of the ways we express our communion with others in Christ.+

Homily for Tuesday of the 7th Week of Easter

In our Scripture readings today, we hear some “famous last words.” They come to us from St. Paul and from Jesus. Each one proclaims that the bulk of his work is done. St. Paul is about to go to Jerusalem and prays that, if he comes out of the city alive, he will travel to Rome, and then bring the Gospel to Spain. Jesus states that He has completed the work given to Him by His Father and prays: “Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your Son.” St. Paul gives advice about the duties of pastors and religious leaders, and Jesus prays for them and for all who will join them in the work of ministry in future ages.

Both the sermon of St. Paul and the prayer of Jesus focus on the future with peaceful faith, and both openly say that they have done their best in their work. St. Paul says, “You know how I lived among you the whole time from the day I first came (here). I served the LORD with all humility and with the tears and trials that came to me.” Jesus affirms the identity of his friends, saying to His Father, “I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world. They belonged to you, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.” St. Paul faces an uncertain future, with the prospect of prison awaiting him in Jerusalem. Jesus does not foretell exactly what lies ahead; He simply prays that His disciples will continue to be faithful to Him and to His teaching.

Our situation today, as priests, religious, and committed lay people is no different. We, too, should face the uncertain future with faith and peace, for when we finish the work given to us by the Father, God will take us to Himself.+