St. Thomas the Apostle Parish

Homily for Wednesday of Holy Week

The early Church was very aware that Jesus was betrayed by one of His closest associates. Although this was a very uncomfortable truth for the early Church, there was no attempt to gloss over the disturbing truth that, in the words of today’s Gospel, Jesus was betrayed by someone who dipped his hand into the dish with Jesus, someone who was an intimate.

The Gospel declares that when Jesus announced that one of those sharing at table with Him would betray Him, everyone present was “greatly distressed.” To be betrayed by someone you trust is very distressing for the one betrayed and for all those associated with Him.

Some of us may have had our trust betrayed by people close to us. We confided in someone and they used that information against us.

This week tells us that such betrayal need not have the last word. God the Father had the last word by raising His Son from the dead. He brought good out of the evil of betrayal and the many other evils that Jesus endured. Divine Providence can also bring good out of the negative things we sometimes have to endure from others. The Passion of Jesus bids us trust that God can work in life-giving ways even after the darkest experiences.+

Homily for Tuesday of Holy Week

What a variety of responses to Jesus in the final days of His life! Judas slinks off into the dark, while the beloved disciple reclined next to Jesus, literally “upon his chest.” In his opening chapter, the evangelist described Jesus as “upon the chest of the Father” (or in the Father’s bosom). This beloved disciple seems to have a similarly close relationship with Jesus. He is an iconic figure, the kind of disciple we are all invited to become.

The beloved disciple is not given a definite name, because we are all invited to put our own name on him. We can identify with him and seek to be like him. We are called to the same relationship with Jesus as the beloved disciple had. That is why Jesus goes on to say, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; remain in my love.” We can share in Our LORD’s special relationship with his Father in heaven.

That is something to ponder, during this Holy Week.+

Homily for Monday of Holy Week

Most of the people who saw Jesus on that final week of His life were hostile to Him. But six days before the feast of Passover, during which Jesus was crucified, He experienced a very great kindness. Not only was He the guest at the table of a family that He loved, one member of that family, Mary, went to great expense to render Him a very thoughtful service. She anointed His feet with very expensive perfume and dried them with her hair. A little later in the same gospel, Jesus will wash the feet of His followers.

Mary, the sister of Lazarus, anticipated that servant-gesture of Jesus Himself. She offered Him a generous, loving service exactly like what Jesus would do for His disciples, and for all of us. Jesus interprets her generous act as preparing Him for His death and burial.

At the beginning of the last week of His life, He welcomed this act of kindness from Mary of Bethany. What she did for Him we are called to do for each other. On our own life journey, we may meet people who make things difficult for us. We will also experience people like Mary who support us on our journey, and, hopefully, we can do for others what Mary did for Jesus, a kind and generous gesture in an often-hostile world.+

Homily for Passion (Palm) Sunday

During the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959, Buddhist monks were the targets of many atrocities and cruelties in order to undermine the deeply-rooted spirituality of Tibetan society. As the Communist forces would invade each village, the monks would flee into the mountains, except in one particular village, where all the monks fled – except one.

On learning that one old monk dared to remain, the enraged Communist commander marched up to the monastery and kicked in the gate. There, in the courtyard, was the one remaining monk, sitting calmly, in prayer.

“Do you know who I am?” the commander screamed. “I am he who can run you through with a sword without batting an eyelash.”

The monk replied, “Do you know who I am? I am he who can let you run me through with a sword without batting an eyelash.”

The attitude of the brave monk mirrors the attitude of Christ in today’s Gospels. Jesus takes on the suffering, the humiliation, the anguish of the Passion fully aware that this will not be the end of the story. Jesus’ certainty of God the Father’s love and faithfulness enables Him to fulfill His role as the Messiah, the Redeemer.

This Holy Week calls us to Easter faith: faith that enables us to take on suffering for the sake of compassion; isolation for the sake of what is right and good; ridicule in the face of injustice and prejudice.+

Homily for Saturday of the 5th Week of Lent

In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus' name appears on a hit list: His Gospel of justice and compassion has become too much for the Sanhedrin, who rationalize a "prophecy" to justify Jesus' elimination.

Today's Gospel is relived in the lives of men and women who dare to speak the truth to power. Ridicule, isolation, rejection — even death — can be required of anyone for taking seriously God's call to be His prophets: to proclaim God's compassion, forgiveness, and justice to societies and institutions that are in determined opposition to the very idea of these things.

But the promise of the Resurrection belongs to those who dare to take up the cause of justice and reconciliation in order to proclaim that God has redeemed his people.[1]

 

[1] Cormier, Jay, Connections, Weekdays of Lent, 2007

Homily for Friday of the 5th Week of Lent

Both Jeremiah (from today’s first reading) and Jesus were persecuted because they upset those who placed rituals and rules over people. These people were not bad but were deeply mistaken. They knew their laws, but these had become so rigid and so primary that they no longer expressed God’s mercy.

When applied rigidly, religious rules become like idols. They can be misused as God’s judgment upon every action. Sometimes religious people find false security in fixed rules that are unchangeable.

Jesus tells us that the two greatest commandments are the love of God and the love of neighbor. It is in following these commandments that we are most like Christ and most assured that our lives are what God created them to be.+

Homily for the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the LORD

Today we celebrate the Annunciation of the LORD – the moment when Mary learned about the LORD’s call to her to be the Mother of His Son.

What a scary time for Mary – to be visited by an angel and to put her reputation, and that of Joseph, in the crosshairs of those who would accuse them of wrongdoing.

Yet, despite her fears, she answered the call of God with all her heart, all her soul, all her mind, and all her body.

Let us pray that the example of Mary’s selfless giving over of her will to the will of God may inspire us to seek to follow God with all our hearts, even when doing so is difficult, unpopular, or puts us at odds with those around us.+

Homily for Wednesday of the 5th Week of Lent

Jesus declares, “the truth will set you free.” A little later in John’s Gospel, He will say of Himself, “I am the truth.”

Jesus is a source of true freedom for His followers. He goes on to declare, “If the Son frees you, then you will be truly free.” It is through staying close to Him that we can enter into what St. Paul calls “the glorious freedom of the children of God.”

Our relationship with Jesus, and the Holy Spirit that He pours into our hearts, let us live as God wants us to live: in ways that correspond to what is best within us.

True freedom is the freedom to love, to give of ourselves to others as Jesus gave of Himself to us. It is for this freedom we pray during these final weeks of Lent.+

Homily for Tuesday of the 5th Week of Lent

“O LORD, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.”

I focus, once again, on our responsorial psalm for the day. Today’s Psalm begins with a pleading for God to hear the prayer of the psalmist and recalls how God has always heard the cry of His people.

In the end, the psalm seems to be reassuring that God hears our prayers made amid our struggles and that God keeps us from succumbing to our trials.

Of course, this last part of the prayer refers to the end times and to our belief that regardless of what happens in this life, there is joy and salvation in the next.

May we always trust that God hears our prayers and may we always trust in His promise of eternal life.+

Monday of the 5th Week of Lent

“Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side.”

Our psalm today is another one of those things that we hear often in Scripture, and which sounds nice, but we have to ask if we really take it to heart. When it seems like our prayers are not being answered – or at least being answered as we would like – do we despair or do we take to heart these words of the great psalmist? Do we trust that God’s love and grace are with us regardless of what happens to us in this life? That trust (or at least that hope) is what marks the faithful people of God.

May we seek to trust that God is with us at every step of the way – in good times and in bad – and that, walking with us, he will lead us to the everlasting peace and joy of heaven.+