St. Thomas the Apostle Parish

Homily for the Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena

Love is central to 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 shows His love by giving us His Son. Jesus shows His love for us by laying down His life for us and telling us all He has learned from the Father. We show our love for Jesus by keeping His word and living according to His teaching, which is 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 to keep bringing Jesus' outlook and perspective to our minds. The Holy Spirit helps us keep Jesus' word and love one another as He has loved us. That gospel passage gives a whole vision of the Christian life: God's relationship with us as Father, Son, and Spirit and our loving relationship with God and each other.

 

Homily for the 5th Sunday of Easter

There is a story about a woman who attended a parish retreat. One of the evenings, the topic was forgiveness.

At the beginning of that evening, everyone attending was given a beautiful rock. At the end of the evening, everyone could walk up to the front of the church and place their rock in a basket. It was a way to signify that they were forgiving everything and everyone negatively affecting their life.

Well, this woman couldn't do that that evening. Instead, she kept that rock in her desk drawer at work every day for the next year and a half.

She was struggling to forgive herself for one of her past sins. She had gone to confession and spoken to her priest, but she just kept beating herself up. She couldn't understand how she could have committed this sin. She kept wondering how God could really forgive her. Through all these months, she kept praying and trying to trust God.

Finally, one Friday afternoon, she was sitting at her desk praying yet again when a voice in her head said, "Go to confession again tomorrow." So she did: She poured everything out, received some comforting words from the priest, and, for some inexplicable reason, emerged from the confessional feeling like a new person.

The moment of grace had arrived.

She got in her car, drove to the nearby beautiful riverfront, took that rock out of her purse, and threw it into the river as far as she could.

Finally, after 18 months of spiritual battle, she had received the grace to let go of her guilt and fully accept God's mercy and forgiveness.

We are all like St. Paul, full of rough edges that God is gradually polishing down. If we become impatient, we will only get in His way and may even give up on Him altogether.

But being patient doesn't mean we just sit around and twiddle our thumbs. In today's Gospel, Jesus makes it clear that we have to do our part for our lives to bear the fruit He wants them to bear.

One key way to do that is through loving obedience to God's will. St. John refers to this in today's Second Reading: "Children, let us not love one another in word or in speech, but in deed and truth."

It's easy to say pretty words and talk about being a good Catholic. But that talk has to translate into actions and the strength of virtues, into honesty, purity, faithfulness, courage, self-sacrifice, and obedience to Church teaching. Otherwise, we are no better than actors on a stage, making a show out of looking like Christ's followers but not really following Christ.

This loving obedience to God, our wise and all-powerful Father, in big things and little things, is the surest sign of humility, and humility is the shortcut to holiness, wisdom, and lasting happiness.

Homily for Saturday of the 4th Week of Easter

As Paul saw it, when he and Barnabas were thrown out of the synagogue and banished from the territory, what appeared to be a failure actually helped to spread 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 approach is a good one in any crisis or change, trusting that the whole process is under the loving providence of our God.

His approach is one that we should take as well, especially during uncertain times.

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

Homily for Friday of the 4th Week of Easter

At the Last Supper, Jesus tells the Apostles that while He is leaving them, He is returning to the Father from whom He came. He promises that He will return one day to take them with Him into His Father’s house; that is our destiny. Jesus came among us to show us the Way to the Father, His whole mission.

The many rooms in His Father’s house symbolize universal hospitality. The kingdom of Heaven is not a place for a select few; it is a place of welcome and peace for the many. All people are called to follow Jesus because He is the Way to the Father for all who follow Him. He promised that, when raised from the earth, He would draw all people to Himself.

So, let us pray that we will follow Jesus as the Way from this life, with all its challenges and trials, to the life of Heaven, a life of eternal joy and peace.

Homily for the Feast of St. Mark, Evangelist

We know little about St. Mark. He was not one of the original Twelve Apostles but knew them. There is a strong suggestion that, as a young boy, he witnessed Jesus’ arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Mark’s Gospel is the first of the four New Testament Gospels and is shorter and more to the point than the other three.

Today’s passage from St. Mark’s Gospel recounts the story of the Apostles embarking on the continuation of Jesus’ mission on earth. This mission is not exclusive; Jesus commissions every one of us to step forward and spread His message of love and mercy to all people. Through our Baptism, we are all entrusted with the role of being ambassadors of God’s action in our world.

Let us pray that we, like the Apostles, will take the command to preach the Good News earnestly by our words, actions, and attitudes.

Homily for Wednesday of the 4th Week of Easter

In the Church at Antioch, the Holy Spirit inspired prophets and teachers to send Barnabas and Saul on a special mission to spread the message of Jesus to the wider world.

The Church continues to seek to unite all people as one worldwide family in Christ. Each local church is called not just to maintain itself but to serve other groups, whether near or far away. We seek to be as generous with others as God has been with us.

May our prayers and actions, as ambassadors of God's love and providence, spread the knowledge of God's love and help others with their needs.

Homily for Tuesday of the 4th Week of Easter

What a contrast to the reception of the Apostles in the areas surrounding Jerusalem that we hear about in our reading from the Acts of the Apostles today. Despite being in fear for their lives, especially after the death of Stephen, they are out and about spreading the Good News. And despite the threats against those who converted to Christianity, the Apostles were winning them over.

What was at work was a sense of joy and commitment. Despite all the dangers, they conveyed commitment by risking their lives to spread the Good News of Jesus; they exuded joy in their faith in Him. This joy was so evident and powerful to the people they preached to that many couldn't help but joyfully and wholeheartedly accept faith in Jesus Christ.

As we know, all of us are called to preach the Good News of our salvation in Jesus. Do we do so with a sense of joy or a sense of fear? Do we do so with an understanding of the freedom of God's children or with a sense of obligation? Do we do so with a spirit of the letter of the law or with a spirit that embraces the commandments of Jesus to love God above all things and our neighbor as ourselves? Do we do so with a sense of judgment, or the mercy and compassion Jesus showed when he ate with the sinner?

Let us strive for a commitment and joy that will draw others to our faith. Let's be the beacon of light in the darkness, just like the Apostles were in their time.

Homily for Monday of the 4th Week of Easter

In our Gospel reading, Jesus compares Himself to a shepherd who protects and holds the flock together. The message is crystal clear: we need Jesus in our lives. We require the influence of Jesus in our lives to follow God's will and live a life of faith, hope, and love. If we disregard Jesus in our lives, we fail to access these wonderful gifts God has bestowed upon us. As a result, we will be unable to share them with others, and we will be unable to complete our mission of spreading the Good News to everyone we encounter.

Homily for the 4th Sunday of Easter

The story of Adam and Eve teaches us that their lack of trust in God led to their fall. However, Jesus came to restore that lost trust and lead us away from our self-centered, fear-filled, and sinful lives back to His flock. He gave up His life to atone for our sins, demonstrating that the Father deserves our trust.

He is the Good Shepherd, the One who cares more about our lives than we do, and the One who came to serve and give His life as a ransom for ours. We can find forgiveness, protection, and guidance toward a fulfilling life through Him.

Trusting in God is not always easy, but it is always possible.

We have been given the gift of faith; we must have the courage to use it.

After he was elected Pope, Pius XI visited the study of his predecessor, Pope Benedict XV, who had attempted to bring an end to World War I. Pope Pius began to feel the immense weight of his new position, so he fell to his knees in prayer. When he looked up, he noticed a framed picture of Jesus on the desk, in which He was calming the storm at sea and speaking the reassuring words, "Peace, be still." From that moment on, the new pope kept the picture on his desk as a constant reminder of Christ's calming presence.

St. Paul of the Cross wrote: "Stop listening to your fears. God is your guide and your Father, Teacher, and Spouse. Abandon yourself into [Him]. Keep up your spiritual exercises and be faithful in prayer." Christ, our Good Shepherd, deserves nothing less than that.

We all trust Jesus, but we can learn to trust Him more. If we trust Him more completely, we will follow Him more closely, and He will fill our lives more fully with strength, grace, and joy. 

There are two easy ways to grow in this life-giving trust. 

First, through prayer. Every time we pray to God to thank Him for His blessings, ask Him for help, or praise Him, we connect with His goodness. That connection strengthens our trust because knowing God better makes it easier to trust Him.

Second, through telling others the Good News of Christ's Gospel. Just as in today's first reading, Peter explained that Jesus is our Savior, our Good Shepherd, so we are called to share with others the treasure of faith we have received.

We all know someone who is facing difficulties in life. Now is the perfect time to extend our support and reach out to them. We can remind them that Jesus rose from the dead so that he could be their strength and guide them through life's struggles so they don't have to face these struggles alone.

When we share our faith and spread the light of hope, we help others find the strength to overcome their difficulties. Our trust in God grows when we help others, as the light of a thousand candles brightens a room far more than the light of just one candle.

Homily for Saturday of the 3rd Week of Easter

Today's Gospel passage revolves around the conversations that followed Jesus' statement that whoever eats His flesh and drinks His blood will attain eternal life. However, this statement was too much for some of His followers, who left. In leaving, they were like the seed that fell on the path, the rocky ground, or among the thorns. Their faith wasn't strong, and they lost interest in Jesus' message.

After this incident, Jesus questioned the Twelve if they would also leave Him. Peter, in response, made a powerful statement of faith, saying, "Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God."

For someone with such a strong faith, there would be no reason to leave Jesus, despite the challenges, distractions, and difficulties that come with being His followers, for in Christ, we have everything we truly need.

A prayer of St. Julian of Norwich might also be ours. I often begin my day with this prayer, and I have shared it before:

"God, of your goodness, give me yourself, for you are enough for me, and I can ask for nothing which is less which can pay you full worship. And if I ask for anything else, always I am in want; but in you do I have everything."[1]

 

[1] Julian of Norwich, Showings, 1978, Paulist Press, New York, NY, p. 184.