St. Thomas the Apostle Parish

Homily for Memorial Day

For many, Memorial Day Weekend is more than just a three-day break; it marks the unofficial start of summer and serves as a time for solemn commemoration. For those who have lost family members in our nation's wars or military efforts, this day holds even greater significance.

My first visit to the National Mall in Washington, DC, and Arlington National Cemetery occurred in the mid-1980s, shortly after the Vietnam War Memorial, a monument dedicated to the American soldiers who died or went missing in the Vietnam War, was erected. I was deeply moved by the seemingly endless rows of grave markers at Arlington and the nearly 60,000 names inscribed on this powerful memorial.

It's essential to remember that behind every marker and name lies a real person who made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation and the hope of peace in the world. We owe a debt of gratitude to these brave individuals. Each death altered the course of history for individual families and their communities, who stood in grief with them and continue to remember them today.

This day also serves as a time to honor all our beloved deceased. Many people will visit cemeteries across the nation today, bringing a physical presence as they remember their loved ones. It's a time for personal reflection, a moment to contemplate the impact of loss on our lives and the hope that sustains us.

Let us pray today for all of our beloved deceased and for ourselves, as this day reminds us of both our mortality on earth and our hope for immortality in heaven. This hope, this belief in heaven, is what uplifts us and gives us the strength to carry on.

Homily for the 6th Sunday of Easter

Fr. Stephen Verbest tells a story about a four-year-old girl who heard that Jesus lives in the hearts of those who love Him. Struggling to grasp what this could mean, she climbed into her mother's lap one day and pressed her ear tightly against her side. "What are you doing?" her mother asked. The child placed her index finger across her lips and whispered, "I'm listening for Jesus inside you." Enjoying her closeness, she let her daughter listen for a while and then said, "Well, did you hear Jesus within me?" "Yes, I did," she replied, "it sounds like he's making coffee." 

What a wonderful way to contemplate this remarkable mystery. While Jesus is not making coffee, this little girl has the right idea. His presence in our hearts is as natural as sharing a cup of coffee with someone we love or sharing a hug with them. The Book of Revelation expresses it this way: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, [then] I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me." Whether you liken intimacy with Jesus to sharing a cup of coffee, a hug, or a meal together, the reality is the true presence of Christ in the hearts of those who love Him.

Jesus made a profound promise to His disciples during the Last Supper in the large Upper Room: "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him." This intimate gathering is a powerful symbol of Jesus' loving presence within our hearts. Similar to the Last Supper, our relationship with Jesus is intrinsically communal. At its core, it is a communion with the Trinity, as Jesus brings the Father and the Holy Spirit with Him, inviting us to partake in their divine love.

There is a second reason intimacy with Jesus is always communal, like the Last Supper: All who receive the Body and Blood of Jesus become one body with Him and with each other by the power of His Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwelling within us teaches us all things, especially to grow in greater and greater love for everyone. When God dwells in the upper room of our hearts, we become tabernacles for the world, bringing the loving presence of God wherever we go. 

Homily for Saturday of the 5th Week of Easter

Jesus predicted many things, including the world's animosity toward Him and His followers. All four Gospels emphasize that Jesus understood the hostility He and His disciples would encounter.

He said, "No slave is greater than his master." This statement carries profound implications. In today's Gospel, He explained that if the world is hostile toward the Master, His servants should expect the same treatment. This also means that if the Master humbled Himself to wash the feet of His servants, they should be prepared to do the same for others, exemplifying humility and servitude.

Jesus's statement, "No slave is greater than his master," encourages us to reflect deeply on our relationship with Him. It highlights our dependence on the Holy Spirit to model our lives after the Master.

Homily for Friday of the 5th Week of Easter

When I was a kid, my family lived in a neighborhood filled with a diverse mix of people, including several families with kids. Our next-door neighbors, Mike and Jean, had five children. Over the years, Jean became close friends with my mother. At one point, Jean gifted my mother a decorative sign that hung in our kitchen. It read, “Neighbors by chance; friends by choice.”

Friendship is a tremendous blessing. Deep friendships don’t just happen; people choose each other as friends based on mutual attraction, shared interests, and similar perspectives. Once a friendship is strong and well-established, friends can be themselves and express their feelings more openly.

Jesus refers to His disciples as friends, saying, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” He has also chosen to befriend us, demonstrating His friendship by sharing His true self with us. He has revealed His relationship with the Father and showed His friendship by laying down His life for us. While He has done His part, we must also fulfill ours for the friendship to flourish. We need to choose Jesus just as He has chosen us. To remain in His love and friendship, we must love one another as He has loved us and befriend others as He has befriended us.

Homily for Thursday of the 5th Week of Easter

The Scriptures are filled with passages about joy and rejoicing. St. Paul teaches that joy is a fruit of the Spirit. In the Gospel, Jesus expresses His desire for His joy to be within us. At the heart of the Gospel, this joy is a beacon of hope and positivity, as " Gospel " means "good news." On the eve of His Crucifixion, Jesus longed for His joy to be present in His disciples, demonstrating the enduring power of joy in the face of adversity.

It may seem strange to experience joy in such a daunting situation, where hostility and violent death loom. However, Jesus' sense of joy comes from His unwavering knowledge that He is beloved by His Father. This joy also arises from His sharing of that love with His disciples and all of humanity.

Joy is the natural outgrowth of genuine love, which originates from God's love for us and extends to our love for one another in His Name.

Homily for Thursday of the 5th Week of Easter

In today's Gospel reading, Jesus describes Himself and His followers using the metaphor of the vine and its branches. He speaks about pruning away the branches that do not bear fruit. This pruning can symbolize many things, as there are various aspects of our lives that we need to trim back.

We need to eliminate those things that hinder us from following the two essential commandments: to believe in and love God, and to love one another as Jesus commanded.

It is important to prune away anything that prevents our faith from flourishing in our lives and souls. Each of us has different areas that require pruning. This might include our pride, selfishness, materialistic desires, negative thoughts, or unhealthy relationships. We can be certain that, by our very nature, we must remove perceptions, prejudices, judgments, and attitudes that obstruct our faith from bearing fruit.

Let us take some time in prayer to reflect on what prevents us from adhering to these two fundamental commandments. Together, let us commit to pruning those distractions from our lives.

Tuesday of the 5th Week of Easter

In today's Gospel passage, Jesus offers comfort and courage to His disciples, who are anxious about His impending death. He tells them, "Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid," a message that recurs throughout the Gospel. This reassures us of Jesus's unwavering love and support.

As disciples of Jesus, there are times when we need to be challenged and times when we need encouragement. Jesus and St. Paul understood how to provide that encouragement when a renewed heart was necessary.

Today, the Risen Lord continues to uplift His disciples. When we feel discouraged about our options, it can bring us down and hinder us from taking action. The Lord desires to instill fresh enthusiasm in our hearts, which the Gospel describes as a peace that the world cannot give. This peace is not the absence of conflict, but rather a deep sense of tranquility and security that comes from strong faith in Jesus.

Therefore, it is fruitful to invite Jesus to renew our enthusiasm so that we can joyfully live out our faith. He strengthens us through the Holy Spirit, often called the "Comforter" or "Consoler." So, we turn to the Holy Spirit and pray for the refreshment and renewal we need.

Homily for Monday of the 5th Week of Easter

Love is at the heart of today's Gospel passage. It speaks of our love for Jesus, His love for us, and the Father's love for us. God the Father demonstrates His love by giving us His Son. Jesus shows His love by laying down His life for us and sharing all He has learned from the Father. We express our love for Jesus by keeping His word and living according to His teachings, which can be summed up as, "Love one another as I have loved you."

Jesus promises to send us the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's role is key, as it continually brings Jesus' outlook and perspective to our minds. It's comforting to know that the Holy Spirit is there to assist us in keeping Jesus' word and loving one another as He has loved us. This Gospel passage presents a comprehensive vision of the Christian life: it highlights God's relationship with us as Father, Son, and Spirit, as well as our loving relationships with God and each other.

Homily for the 5th Sunday of Easter

Fr. Brian Cavanaugh tells a story about "a kind (elderly) gentleman (who) used to stop by occasionally at an antique shop in New Hampshire to sell furniture. One day after he had left, the antique dealer's wife said she wished she had told him how much she enjoyed his visits. The husband said, 'Next time, let's tell him so.'

"The following summer, a young woman came in and introduced herself as the daughter of the (elderly) gentleman. Her father, she said, had died. Then the wife told her about the conversation she and her husband had after the old gentleman's last visit. The young woman's eyes filled with tears. 'Oh, how much good that would have done my father!' she cried, 'He was a man who needed to be reassured that he was liked.' 'Since that day,' the shopkeeper said later, 'whenever I think something particularly nice about people, I tell them. I might never get another chance." [1]

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus gives a final command to His disciples and to us. He says, "I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another." [2]

This command sounds very simple, but it is not. The simple part is to love those who love us. It is very easy for us to look past the faults and foibles of our friends and family.[3] While we might be critical of them for different things, it takes a lot for us to turn our backs on them.

The kind of love Jesus talks about is very difficult because for us to truly love one another as Jesus has loved us means that we have to love those that society says are unlovable or undeserving of our love. For each person, the people who fit into these categories are different. Perhaps those we have difficulty loving are criminals, the poor, the rich, the mentally ill, those of other races and cultures, those who are sick through their lack of care for themselves, angry people, mean people, people who hold different values than we do, people who seem arrogant, or people who have a whole host of personalities that rub against our own.

Suddenly, Jesus' command to love one another as He has loved us doesn't seem so easy. Yet, Jesus loves all of these people as He loved the same kind of people when He walked this earth, just as you and I do today.

Each of us is called to walk as Jesus did if we wish to enter the kingdom of God at the end of time. And Jesus tells us that whoever wishes to come after Him, that person must deny himself or herself, take up their cross, and follow Him. [4] We must follow Jesus' example of selfless love and charity. We must reach out to those in need, those who are suffering, those who are lonely or oppressed, and, through our words and actions of compassion, convey to them the loving presence of God in our midst.

God made each of us to share His love with others. Each one of us is called to be an instrument of God's love, and this includes those who may do us wrong, those we find annoying or irritating, those with whom we disagree, those we find repulsive, and those with whom we experience discomfort, or even those who find these things in us.

As we move forth from this celebration of the Eucharist, let us be ever mindful of God's call to love. And, when we struggle to love certain people, let us turn to Christ, who gave us this call. Let us look at His life on earth and the selfless way that He loved even those who did not love Him. May the life of Christ be our model, and may His call to love be at the forefront of all we do as the children of God. Let us pray to God for the strength to answer that call with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our soul.[5]

[1] Cavanaugh, Brian, The Sower's Seeds, "Tell Them, Now", Paulist Press, New York, NY, 1990, pp. 45-46.

[2] John 13: 34

[3] Knowles, Desmond, Voicing a Thought on Sunday, Twenty-third Publications, Mystic, CT, 1991, p. 300.

[4] Matthew 16:24

[5] Matthew 22:37

Homily for Saturday of the 4th Week of Easter

When Paul and Barnabas were expelled from the synagogue and banished from the region, what seemed like a failure actually contributed to the spread of the Gospel. Paul quotes Isaiah: "I have made you a light to the Gentiles, that you may be an instrument of salvation to the ends of the earth."

Paul's perspective offers valuable insights during any crisis or transition, emphasizing trust in God's loving providence. We should also adopt this approach, particularly in uncertain times.

Let us pray for a deep trust in God's goodness, confident that He will guide us and provide us with strength and wisdom if we open our minds and hearts to His grace.