St. Thomas the Apostle Parish

Homily for Monday of the 7th Week of Easter

Jesus knew ahead of time that those closest to Him would abandon Him after His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. Rather than following Him and supporting Him, the disciples would go their own way, leaving Him alone. Yet, in today’s Gospel passage, Jesus speaks with the conviction that He is never really alone because God His Father is always with Him. Even as He hung on the Cross, God the Father was with Him, supporting Him.

Jesus wants us to share this same conviction. There can be times when we feel very alone in life. This applies especially to those who have never married, or people whose spouses have died and whose families live at some distance. Yet, even when we experience loneliness, we can say along with Jesus, “I am not alone.”

God the Father is with us as He was with Jesus. The Risen Jesus is also with us, as is the Holy Spirit who has been poured into our hearts. Even when we are alone, we are always in the presence of God; we are living members of that wonderful family of God’s love. Awareness of this fact can bring us a deep peace — a peace this world cannot give. Only in Jesus will we have true and lasting peace.+

Homily for Saturday of the 6th Week of Easter (Deacon Matt)

The Gospel this morning from St. John is an example of Jesus preparing his disciples for when he is no longer with them; when  He will ascend into heaven and will send the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to be with them and to guide them in their work of evangelizing and establishing the Church. Jesus is preparing them for a time of change, a new beginning. What they knew and were comfortable with will be different.  Jesus will no longer be with them in human flesh but rather will send the Holy Spirit, to be with them always. Their world is seemingly being turned upside down again, just as it was after Jesus’ death on the Cross.

However, Jesus reassures his disciples that just as they have come to know him through the Father, they will know the Father through knowing him. Jesus is clearly revealing the relationship between him and the Father as the disciples prepare to receive the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. For us, and for the disciples, we see and learn from Jesus about the relationship between him and the Father and then we come to understand the relationship between both of them and the Holy Spirit. This relationship reveals to us the great mystery of our God: The Trinity.

Much like the disciples our world also seems to be rather upside down right now with changes in everything we do, how we live, and how we worship God. This is our new reality. We are in a time of waiting, unsure of what the future holds. However, as we prepare for Pentecost and as we begin to worship together, in person, as the Body of Christ, we are reassured by Jesus’ words that we are loved by God and that we are not alone. God gave us his Son Jesus to save us and the Holy Spirit to be with us in the days, weeks, and months to come, as we establish His Church anew here on earth, just as the disciples did.+

Homily for Friday of the 6th Week of Easter

In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus speaks to His disciples knowing that they will experience grief and sadness after His death. But he also assures them that these feelings won’t last forever. Their sorrow will turn into joy, a joy that no one will take from them because Jesus will see them again when he rises from the dead.

If we trust Jesus, whatever sorrows we endure will not last forever. Because He is present to us here and now in the power of His risen life, this transformation of sadness into joy can ] be experienced now and not just in the life beyond death but all during our life journey. This was something the disciples on the road to Emmaus discovered, and that we can all discover for ourselves.+

Homily for the Solemnity of the Ascension of the LORD

Nine-year-old Charlie lived with his family in New York City.  One day Charlie and his father boarded a train at 111th Street to go downtown to his father's office.  When they got on the train, the father took Charlie over to the map and traced his finger along the blue line that showed the route of the train downtown.

Charlie's father explained how they would transfer at Delaney Street and how they would cross a bridge and then go underground.  Finally, he explained how the train would skip certain stops during rush hour.  Soon they arrived at the office. 

Charlie spent most of the morning meeting his father's friends and looking at magazines in his father's office.  Then just before noon, his father said to him, "Charlie, it's time for you to go home now."  Charlie's eyes widened.  His mouth dropped, and his face turned pale.  The thought of going home all by himself frightened him half to death.

His father walked him over to the station, put him on the train, patted him on the head, and said, "you'll be fine, Charlie.  Just follow the directions I gave you earlier."

Charlie was excited as the train leaped forward and roared out of the station.  But his excitement turned to fear when he noticed that the train skipped certain stops.  But then he remembered what his father said earlier about rush hour.  Soon the train disappeared underground.  Charlie's heart beat faster when he noticed how it twisted and turned.  He didn't remember doing that earlier.  Finally, the train emerged from the darkness and roared over the bridge.

Charlie was so nervous by now that he almost missed his transfer at Delaney Street.  But he managed to get off just in time.  Minutes later Charlie breathed a sigh of relief as he began to recognize familiar street numbers and finally, he saw 111th Street.  The train stopped, the doors opened, and Charlie stepped off.  He was so proud and so happy.  He had actually made it home all by himself.

What Charlie didn't know, however, was that his father was in the next car on the train, watching over him all the way.  He had been with him every foot of the trip, just in case he needed help.

The story of Charlie and his father bears a striking resemblance to the story of Jesus and His Church.  Before departing on Ascension Thursday, Jesus gave His Church all the directions we need to journey through life to our heavenly destination.  Like little Charlie, however, we sometimes notice the Church taking unexpected twists and turns.  And this sometimes alarms us.  When this happens, we should recall the story of Charlie.  We should also recall the promise of Jesus to be with us always on our journey through life.  Even though we can't see Him, we know Jesus is there, ready to help us, just in case the need arises.

And so, the Solemnity of the Ascension is a challenge and a consolation.  It's a challenge in the sense that it encourages us to follow the directions that Jesus gave us for the journey to our heavenly destination.  It's also a consolation in the sense that it reminds us that Jesus is with us every foot of the way, just in case we need help.  This is the message of today's solemnity.  This is the assurance that we celebrate today.  This is the good news of Ascension Thursday.  Jesus has not left us. Jesus is with us; His presence is abiding; His presence is forever.+

Homily for Wednesday of the 6th Week of Easter

In our gospel reading today, Jesus uses the metaphor of the vine and its branches to refer to Himself and to His people, and He refers to the practice of pruning away those branches that don’t bear fruit. This pruning can refer to many things because there are many things that we need to prune, not only from the vine, but from ourselves the branches. We need to be pruned of those things that keep us from those two important commandments: to believe in and love God and to love one another as Jesus has commanded us. We need to be pruned of those things that keep our faith from coming to fruition in our lives and in our souls.

For each of us, those things that need to be pruned will be different but, make no mistake, all of us, by virtue of our human nature need to remove things, perceptions, prejudices, judgments, and attitudes that keep our faith from its fruition.

 So, let us take some time to honestly ask ourselves what it is that keeps us from keeping those two most important commandments and let us resolve to sincerely seek to prune from our lives those things that keep us from becoming the people that God made us to be.

Tuesday of the 6th Week of Easter

When the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, comes, He will show the world how wrong it was about sin; about who was in the right and about judgment. Those who approved of Jesus being crucified thought He must have been a sinner to have died in the way He did – for this form of death showed that God had judged Him. They believed they were right to put him to death, for leading Israelites astray from the law of Moses.

Obviously, we consider their judgments completely mistaken. Jesus was not a sinner; He was not judged by God; His judges and executioners were not in the right. What an enormous incongruence between God’s perception and human perception! The One whom God looked upon as a beloved Son, others looked upon as a sinner. The one whom God sent was considered by others as condemned by God; the Sanhedrin were completely wrong.

Human judgments can be very much off-target. We need to keep seeking God’s perspective, to see others as God sees them. It is the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, who gives us God’s perspective. It is He who enables us to see as God sees, to know as God knows, to be wise as God is wise. That is why we need the Holy Spirit to keep filling the hearts of the faithful.+

Homily for Monday of the 6th Week of Easter

When he first arrived in Europe, St. Paul was faced with many new challenges and many new possibilities as well. While working in Asia Minor (now Syria and Turkey), he had been beset by Jewish Christians who challenged his credentials as an Apostle and contradicted his understanding of the gospel. After crossing to Macedonia (now northern Greece), he began a peaceful chapter in his ministry. On reaching the city of Philippi, St. Paul was kindly welcomed by a wealthy businesswoman named Lydia, who offered her home to the missionaries as a working base of sorts.

St. Paul fell in love with the Church he founded in Philippi. His later epistle to them is one of the heartfelt of his writings. He wrote: “I give thanks to my God at every remembrance of you, praying always with joy in my every prayer for you… For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus!”1 His willingness to use Lydia’s house as his base during his stay in Philippi helps to correct any notion that Paul was a misogynist, unable to relate to women. One could say that the first house-church in Europe was presided over by a woman and that Lydia should be acknowledged as a saint.+

Homily for the 6th Sunday of Easter

St. Martin of Tours lived in the 300’s and became one of the key founders and pillars of Christian civilization. He started the first two monasteries in France, each of which thrived for 1,200 years until the Protestant Reformation destroyed them.  

He became a bishop and converted thousands through his preaching and miracles. He repeatedly put his life in jeopardy to defend the faith. But his most famous action was his very first Christian deed.

As the son of a Roman military officer, he was forced to join the army when he was 15. He was stationed in France, where he heard about the Christian faith. When he was about 20, he reached a turning point: He was coming back into the city after a hard day's patrol. It was winter and bitterly cold. As he approached the city gate he saw a starved, half-naked man shivering and begging. People were laughing at and insulting the poor man; no one gave him anything.

Martin sensed that Christ wanted him to do something. But all he had was his magnificent military cloak and his armor. He stopped his horse, dismounted, and removed his cloak, and, taking his sword, cut it in half. He wrapped one half around the poor beggar and put the other half back on his shoulders. The onlookers laughed at him.

That night, in a dream, he saw Jesus wrapped in that half cloak he had given away, and heard him say, "Martin, not yet baptized, has covered me with this garment."

After that, he retired from the Emperor's army, joined Christ's army, and changed the course of history. Martin had learned what being a Christian means: loving one another as Christ has loved us.

But being like Christ may seem like too much for us. He was truly human, but he was also truly God - something that is beyond our limited reach.

If we depend just on our strength, intelligence, and personality, we will never be able to fulfill the commandment that Jesus has given us - not all the time, not every day. We have only so many cloaks in our closet, we have only so much time, money, strength. If we try to fulfill this commandment solely by our isolated efforts, we risk becoming bitter, frustrated, burned out, angry, or depressed.

But we were never meant to do it alone. Jesus knows we can't do it alone. That's why he gave us the Sacrament of Confirmation, the sacrament of supernatural strengthening by God’s Holy Spirit.

In our reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Philip preaches the Gospel in Samaria and baptizes a huge number of converts. That's the beginning of their Christian lives; that's their decision to become Christ's followers. But when the news gets back to the Apostles in Jerusalem, Peter and John make a special trip out to Samaria to call down the Holy Spirit upon them - to administer the Sacrament of Confirmation. 

This is what Jesus was speaking about when he promised that after he returned to heaven - an event we will commemorate this week on Ascension Thursday - he would send us an Advocate, to be with us always. The Advocate is the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, who resides in our hearts.

This is Christ's greatest gift to us: our inner source of supernatural light and strength to live out the great commandment of Christian charity. That same Spirit will make Christ present again in this Mass, and, when we receive Christ in the Eucharist, let us thank the Lord for this great gift, and let us ask for the grace to live by the power of this Spirit, just like Christ, loving one another as he has loved us.+

Homily for Saturday of the 5th Week of Easter

Jesus predicted many things, among them, was the fact of the world’s hatred for Him and His followers. All four Gospels show that Jesus was realistic about the hostility that would be directed at Him and His followers. However, Jesus told His followers to relate to the world, not as the world related to them but as God relates to the world.

Jesus said, “No slave is greater than his master.” He meant this in a number of ways. In today’s Gospel, He indicated that if the world was hostile to the Master, the servants should expect the same. It also meant that if the Master washed the feet of the servants, they should expect to do the same for others.

That statement of Jesus, “No slave is greater than his master” gives us much to consider. It also underscores our dependence on the Holy Spirit, if we are to be like the Master in every way.+

Homily for Friday of the 5th Week of Easter

When I was a kid, we lived in a neighborhood with a good mix of people and a number of families with kids. Our next-door neighbors on one side were Mike and Jean and their five kids. Jean and my mother were close friends over the years. At one point, Jean gave my mother a decorative sign that she hung in our kitchen. It said, “Neighbors by chance; friends by choice.”

Friendship is a great blessing. Deep friendships don’t simply happen; people choose each other as friends based on mutual attraction, common interests, a common way of looking at things. Once a friendship is strong and well established, friends can really be themselves and share how they feel about things more openly.

Jesus calls his disciples friends, and He says to them, “You did not choose me, no, I chose you.” He has also chosen to befriend us. He shows his friendship by sharing genuinely with us; He has revealed to us His own relationship with the Father. He shows His friendship by laying down his life for us. He has done His part, but for the friendship to bear fruit, we must do our part as well. We need to choose Jesus just as He has chosen us. We need to remain in His love and friendship. We do this by loving one another as He has loved us; by befriending others as He has befriended us.+