St. Thomas the Apostle Parish

Homily for Wednesday of the 6th Week of Easter

Learning life’s profound truths is a gradual process. Faith is not an instant revelation; rather, it is a journey that unfolds over time. In today’s Gospel, Jesus acknowledges He has many things He wants to share, but the disciples are not yet ready to receive them.

The Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth, will be sent to them in the future to reveal these truths and guide them toward complete understanding. The Holy Spirit, our divine guide, will lead us to a deeper understanding of Jesus, His Father, our world, and ourselves.

This journey is lifelong and requires humility. We will never attain complete truth in this life; we are always in the process of learning. We can never honestly say, “I know it all.” Instead, we must remain open to being guided by the Spirit as we move closer to the complete truth — towards the One who proclaimed, “I am the truth.”

Homily for Tuesday of the 6th Week of Easter

Authentic openness to the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, reveals misunderstandings about sin and judgment. Those in favor of Jesus' crucifixion believed that He must have been a sinner to suffer and die in such a manner, thinking that this type of death indicated that God had judged Him. They believed it was justifiable to execute Him because they felt He was leading the Israelites away from the Law.

However, their judgments were mistaken. Jesus was not a sinner, nor was He judged by God. This highlights a contrast between God's view and human perspectives. While God cherished Jesus as His beloved Son, many others saw Him as a sinner. The One sent by God was viewed by many as condemned by Him—a perspective that was entirely mistaken.

Human judgments often miss the mark, so we must continually seek God's perspective and see others as He sees them. The Holy Spirit provides us with this divine insight. He enables us to see as God sees, to know as God knows, and to be wise as God is wise.

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.