November 28, 2004: Letting Your Soul Catch Up With You

The First Sunday of Advent


You may have heard of a Jewish rabbi and author by the name of Harold Kushner. His best-known book is called Why Bad Things Happen to Good People, and it’s the story of losing his young son to a terminal disease. Rabbi Kushner wrote another book entitled The Lord Is My Shepherd. In it, he tells an anecdote about a group of tourists on safari in Africa. The travelers hired several native tribesmen to carry their supplies during the trek. After three days, the porters told them that they would have to stop and rest for a day. They were not tired, they explained, but said, “We have walked too far too fast and now we must wait for our souls to catch up with us.”

Today we celebrate the beginning of Advent—the four weeks of preparation leading up to Christmas. The Church sets out this special and hopeful season to help us prepare for Christ’s coming. There is so much mystery and wonder to savor and consider…

But who has time? Only four weeks ‘til Christmas? Just 28 short days? We’ve barely made a dent in the Thanksgiving leftovers, and it’s time to hit the ground running. We face a full schedule of shopping, decorating, wrapping and baking… parties, cards to write, school plays and recitals to attend… maybe travel plans to make—which means packing, and stopping the newspapers and the mail and a million other details… and many of us have money problems or health issues to deal with, too—ho! ho! ho!—making this not a joyful, peaceful time of hope and anticipation, but a busy, stressful and sometimes frantic marathon that doesn’t stop until after New Year’s.

Not exactly great spiritual preparation.

So… before embarking on that same old path this year, maybe, like those safari porters, we need to pause and wait for our souls to catch up with us.

All of us, I think—I hope!—want to go to heaven some day. That’s a fantastic desire! Hold onto it, and pass it on to your children and grandchildren and friends.

But how, exactly, does a person come to be admitted into heaven?

Well… First, Jesus had to come to open Paradise back up after we lost it through original sin. Jesus’ first coming to earth to be born at Christmas, then, was actually the necessary first step for us to get to heaven. The season of Advent helps us to savor that first coming of Christ and to stir up our hearts with joy and gratitude over the meaning of this event.

This Wednesday, our parish will welcome Bishop Jenky and a large number of priests, parishioners, family members and friends to celebrate Father Motsett’s 70th anniversary of his ordination as a priest. Priests get ordained at age 26—making Father Motsett 96 years old. In fact, he’ll be 97 in January.

I don’t know about you, but I can scarcely get through a single day without getting myself into some kind of hot water… much less 97 years! How then can we regular human beings stay on the right path… avoid sin and do good… keep the commandments… be loving and compassionate towards each other… throughout our long lives so we can get into heaven after we’ve drawn our last breath? On human power alone, forget it! It takes God’s blessings, His grace—and we need a good, daily dose! We especially need the Lord’s Body and Blood—also every day, if we can possibly swing it! Well, this, too, is another daily Advent to keep us going. This blessed liturgical season reminds of us this need also.

And finally, when our heart stops beating and the breath and spirit go out of the bodies that now serve as our earthly dwellings, we are ready for still another Advent: the time for our final union with Jesus for all of eternity. During these weeks leading up to Christmas, the Church encourages us to stop everything we’re doing and think about that day. It’s not sad or depressing or macabre. On the contrary, it should be exhilarating! Imagine! No more pain, no more suffering, no more struggles, no more utility bills or car repairs or mortgage payments, no more doctor visits or speeding tickets or arguments with people… just heavenly bliss. Ahhhh…

I know that we’re all going to walk out of Mass today and it won’t take very long before we get caught up in the busy activity of the world around us. But that doesn’t mean that Advent has to be a total loss.

Pause from time to time to catch your breath and “let your soul catch up with you,” as the safari tribesmen put it. Remember with joyful hope the three Advents we’re celebrating over the next four weeks.

Is there any chance you can come to daily Mass at all this season? The liturgies of Advent are so beautiful and prayerful—such a soothing antidote to the hectic and numbing pace of the outside secular world where twenty-seven times a day we relive the experience of poor Grandma getting run over by a reindeer. Give the poor broken lady a rest! It’s peaceful and quiet and holy in here…

Don’t forget to figure in a time for your Christmas confession. It does the soul good to unburden itself of a lot of spiritual debris and make a fresh start during this new church year.

And by all means, remember to smile. Patience, good manners, civility, gentleness… how much we need these virtues today. One-half second before you speak or react is all it takes to throw cold water on your temper and let you come across as Christ to the next guy.

Lord, during this holy and privileged season of Advent, help us to await your comings with joyful and prayerful hope. Come, Lord Jesus! Amen.



Today’s Readings:
Isaiah 2, 1–5
Psalm 122
Romans 13, 11–14
Matthew 24, 37–44

November 21, 2004: What Kind of King Is This?

Feast of Christ the King
(Last Sunday in Ordinary Time)




Today we celebrate the last Sunday in the Church year, the Solemnity of Christ the King. For most of us, it’s not too hard to accept the statement that Jesus Christ deserves the title “King.” Every Catholic can rattle off lots of reasons why we should call Him a king—He’s God’s son, He sits at God’s right hand in heaven, everyone and everything obeys Him, He’s all-powerful... and so on.

But wait just a second: if Jesus Christ is really a king, what’s He doing nailed to a cross? That doesn’t seem very king-like. Why didn’t He come down off that cross and prove to all the doubters that He really was the Messiah? After all, can’t a true king do whatever he wants?

If you think this is a dilemma for us today, try to imagine what it was like to the Jewish nation of 2000 years ago. Back then, the people knew what a king was supposed to be like. They had the example of King David and King Solomon. These were real kings, successful kings. They made things happen. People listened to them, obeyed them, honored them. Our first reading today from the Second Book of Samuel tells us all about it. We hear that the king is anointed to stand in for God on earth. God chose His king and entrusted him to shepherd His people, command them, and have their respect... while he ruled in God’s name. That’s power! That’s what a king is supposed to be!

Even the disciples themselves kept waiting for Jesus to be this kind of king—a great military leader like King David. They thought Jesus was going to throw out the Romans and restore the Jewish kingdom. And were they ever proud to be close to the man of power himself!

But there’s Jesus on the cross at Calvary. The King of the Jews? Not likely! He looks so powerless. He hardly seems to be shepherding anyone. So “the people stood there watching...” says the Gospel—waiting for Him to save Himself and then save them. They were waiting for Him to start shepherding. They were giving Him a chance, like Superman, to put His cape on and do something dramatic and kingly. But it doesn’t happen.

Jesus doesn’t seem to be doing any commanding either. The Gospel tells us that the soldiers also made fun of Him. They taunted Him and offered Him sour wine to drink. And we all know that before they nailed Him to the cross, the soldiers also tormented Jesus by slapping Him, spitting on Him, whipping Him, dressing Him up in tattered purple robes to humiliate Him, driving spikes of thorns into his Head, and more. No commander-in-chief would put up with that for a second. A king? Not likely.

I don’t think we can say that Jesus on the cross had much in the way of respect from other people, either. Why, even one of the criminals crucified with Him made fun of Our Lord. “Aren’t you the Messiah?” he asked, probably with a chuckle. “Then save yourself and us.” This fellow was about to die and really could have used the king’s help!

The bottom line is that in the eyes of the world, Jesus Christ was no king. And He died on that cross, totally degraded. The only thing kingly about Him is that he seemed to be a royal flop.

But soon, an interesting thing began to happen. People started to see with eyes of faith. They came to realize that Jesus Christ really was a king; in fact, more people every day continue to see this joyful truth, this Gospel—the Good News of God.

No indeed, Jesus was not a king as folks expected—or even expect today! Yet He shepherds and commands like no other. Remember, a shepherd’s job is to watch over the flock and keep them safe. We are God’s flock, His sheep—cute but oh so dumb! We’re always wandering off and getting lost... following each other instead of the Lord... getting into jams of all kinds and needing to be rescued. Through our sins, we were completely off the right path, heading for the edge of the cliff, and there was no way we could ever save ourselves. So Jesus Christ, the king God sent us, did what He needed to do to bring us back to salvation. He took our sins upon Himself and sacrificed Himself in our place—once and for all, by suffering and dying on the cross. Through our baptism each and every one of us shares in this incredible gift of new life.

Jesus Christ is a king by being our commander, too. We often think of a commander or leader as someone who barks orders, perhaps even acting arbitrarily. A commander can do whatever he wants, because he’s in charge. But Jesus doesn’t rule this way. He commands out of pure love. He commands by serving others, not by indulging Himself at people’s expense. He commands by placing Himself before us in compelling generosity and goodness, and inspiring us to do the same for others. In fact, He left us His Church to remain a guiding light for people of every age and every nation.

As Catholics, how blessed we are to be drawn fully into this mystery of God’s love—into the kingdom of Jesus Christ. It should be a great consolation to know that we have such a king. Jesus is shepherding us. If we follow Him in faith—which simply means that we accept Him and His message with all our heart and mind and will—He will guide us and protect us always. Nothing can separate us from His love. So no matter how much suffering we may run into in life, it’s not wasted and it’s not useless. If you want proof, all you need to do is look on our crucified king.

Let it be our prayer today that all people will come to acclaim Jesus as Lord and King. May Christ be blessed forever!



Today’s Readings:
2 Samuel 5, 1–3
Psalm 122
Colossians 1, 12–20
Luke 23, 35–43

(School Homily): Friday, November 19, 2004

Our first reading today from the Book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible, is very strange. John, the author, wrote that he heard a voice from heaven. This meant that God was speaking to him. God told John that there was an angel holding a scroll in his hand. A scroll is a long piece of paper with writing on it, all rolled up. That’s what people wrote on before they had books.

And then—are you ready for this?—God told John that he should eat the scroll. It would taste as sweet as honey or candy in his mouth—but it would then turn sour in his stomach. In other words, John would get a bellyache.

What could this possibly mean? Why would something like that be in the Bible?

The Book of Revelation is a very special kind of writing with a funny-sounding name: apocalyptic. In this kind of writing, the message is written in a secret code that only Christians could understand. So the events in the Book of Revelation didn’t really happen. They’re just part of a story that’s meant to be decoded.

So let’s see if we can figure out what the message is.

First, John heard the voice from heaven—which we said meant God was speaking to him. Does God speak to people? You bet He does! As Catholics, we know that. He speaks to us in the Bible and at Mass… He speaks to us when we pray and He puts good desires in our heart… He speaks to us when our parents or teachers ask us to do something… and in many other ways, too.

OK, so we understand the first part. What’s next?

Well, God asked John to take the scroll and eat it. That’s still pretty weird, don’t you think?

But how about this: God sometimes asks us to do something—and maybe, He even sometimes asks us to do something that we wouldn’t normally think to do, or even want to do, ourselves!

I know that’s very true for me. I never thought about being a priest. But God asked me, so I thought about it and prayed about it for a long time and then I said “yes.” Maybe God gave you an opportunity to join a club or a team but you weren’t sure you’d fit in… or be a leader… or stand up and defend your faith… or have to say no to friends if they tried to make you do something bad. Maybe these are the kinds of things that we’d rather not have to do… like eating a book or a scroll!

Yet the next thing we hear is that God said that the scroll would taste sweet! That means that we would feel good about listening to God. It should always make us feel happy inside when we do what God asks us to do.

But then God says that the scroll would give John a stomachache. How come? Because in the early days of the church, when John lived, it was very hard to be a follower of Jesus. So if you did what God wanted, you’d be very special in God’s eyes and very blessed, but you might have to suffer… maybe even be a martyr.

Many of you have already learned that doing the right thing is sometimes not easy. It’s not always easy to listen to your parents when your friends are trying to pull you in another direction. It’s not easy to be the one person who stands up for someone getting picked on unfairly.

But thanks to our faith, we know that God will bless us for following His will. Yes, He reminds us that to be obedient to God, even when it seems hard, is the best thing we can do.

Some people think that obeying God is as bad as eating a rolled up scroll of paper! Why? Because they prefer to do what they want rather than what God wants. They think doing what they want gives them freedom, but doing what God or anybody else wants is like being a slave.

But actually, that’s not quite true.

Think about a bird. When a bird is in the air, flying around, it’s free. But if you put a bird in water, it has lost its freedom.

Now a fish, on the other hand, is free in the water, able to swim all around. But put it in the air on the ground, and he’ll die, because it’s out of the normal place a fish needs to be.

In exactly the same way, Christian people are free only when we listen to God and do what He tells us. This is as natural and necessary for us as water is for a fish, or air is for a bird.

The really wonderful thing about listening to God and doing what He says is that lots of times, He has great surprises for us. Some people might think they just got lucky when good things happen, but we know better. We know that it’s God who’s sending down His extra-special blessings on the people He loves and who love Him back.

So pray today that you will always listen for God in your life. And never be afraid to do what He asks, because He promises to take wonderful care of you always!

November 14, 2004: By Patient Endurance...

The Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time


One of the great adventures I had after college was buying a share of a 300-ton tramp steamer ship named “M/S Spica” and hauling all kinds of cargo around northern Europe. Two friends and I picked up the boat in Antwerp, Belgium, and then we headed up to Copenhagen, Denmark, which became our base of operations. We didn’t have any contacts, so we had to scurry to find work.

One of our first runs was to carry a full 300-ton load of loose grain from Denmark to a town on the Gulf of Bothnia in northern Sweden called Umeå. The trip began uneventfully enough, but after we passed Stockholm and left the Baltic Sea, we ran into a horrific storm—not quite a hurricane, but very close. The ship, of course, bobbed like a cork in the turbulent waters.

The three of us were in the wheelhouse, and it took every bit of our strength to hold onto the helm. We had to fight the waves and the current to keep the ship crossing the waves diagonally, because if the ship were to turn sideways, we would capsize and we would go down. It was that simple.

For just about 12 harrowing hours, we took turns at the helm with one single purpose in mind: to keep the boat upright. The ship pitched and yawed so badly that I really and truly believed we were going to die that day. I have never been so scared in my life—before or since. And I was never so relieved to see dry land when we finally pulled into safe harbor on the lee side of a small island.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus’ words—By patient endurance you will save your lives—sent the memory of this sea-voyage flooding back to me. Patient endurance, indeed! We held on to that rudder for dear life—literally—and there was nothing more we could do but than ride out the storm. Nothing else mattered. Our white-knuckle grip was our prayer that day.

To some extent or other, each of us lives our life like a boat on the stormy sea. As we sail from birth towards eternal life, we run into all kinds of rough waters. These are the very things that the Gospel lists: wars, natural disasters, persecutions and treachery, and abusive treatment and the worst sort of betrayal even by those friends and family members who are supposed to love us and keep us safe! To these we can add every kind of illness and suffering… humiliation and disgrace, both small and great… and countless setbacks and trials caused by our own foolishness, by other people or by Satan and his evil spirits. Sometimes, our difficulties are so great that we barely know how we can go on. But at the very core of our being, the Lord’s words resonate: By patient endurance you will save your lives.

By faith we know that God is with us always. We know that He disposes all things, good or otherwise, for our benefit. So we know that ultimately, with His help and blessing, we will arrive safely at our destination… if we have patient endurance. This all-important virtue helps us keep our hand on that wheel to steer the ship no matter how rough the waters get.

For many of us, though, patience is not our long suit. We want the troubles to pass quickly and be done for good. It sounds nice, but the Lord doesn’t usually work that way.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that we shouldn’t worry ahead of time about how we’ll defend ourselves if someone attacks us; if and when that time comes, the Holy Spirit will supply the defense we need. Do we believe this promise?

When we pray the Our Father, we ask God to “give us this day our daily bread.” In other words, we don’t ask for our cupboards to be filled so we know where tomorrow’s dinner will come from—but we simply ask for the blessings we need this day. Do we really believe what we’re praying, or are we just mouthing the words?

The point is, God wants us to keep turning to Him—every single day!—for the graces and material things that we need. And He is always very generous in answering our prayers.

If you think you can’t do that because you’re at the end of your rope, it’s good to remember that God has created us stronger and tougher than we often believe ourselves to be. Built right into us is an uncanny ability to expand our physical and spiritual limits.

Just when we think we have no more strength to get through another day, the strength we need emerges. Just when we feel that we have no more energy to deal with the pain and disappointments of life, more energy flows from us.

In fact, with patient endurance, we discover again and again that every problem we face has hidden within it an opportunity so powerful that it literally dwarfs the problem! We must turn to the Lord in confidence and ask Him to show it to us and guide us.

But patient endurance also means that we have to recognize that God’s time table may not be the same as ours—so we may have to wait a bit longer than we’d like. St. Monica had to pray for 13 years before her son, St. Augustine, was converted back to the Church. I’ve met good Catholic wives who prayed longer than that for non-Catholic husbands to join the Church. And why not? Don’t we work longer and more patiently for many other things in life?

I remember reading something about the country music star, Randy Travis. It took ten years for him to be discovered. During those years, he and his wife sold everything they owned for enough money to live on. Randy fried catfish and washed dishes by day and sang in nightclubs by night. And in fact, he succeeded faster than many musicians; the article said that the average time it takes for professional success in the music business is 17 years! Talk about patient endurance!

And the same goes for studying to be a doctor or a lawyer or another professional—it takes many years of schooling and often much impatience and frustration before you can even begin your career.

Wherever you happen to be in your life today — and whatever problems or difficulties or struggles you happen to face — don’t lose sight of the bigger journey… the journey to get to heaven.

I think that one of the biggest differences between people of faith and those who don’t have God in their lives is this: we all face the same trials and burdens in life, but the person of faith sees them as stepping stones on the journey to paradise rather than annoying and pointless detours. Isn’t it sad how easy it is to squander the trials that God sends us…

I encourage you to make a little quiet time for yourself this week to reflect on how some patient endurance can help you find some new peace in your own life today … and help secure your eternal life in heaven.

May our loving God bless you and keep you!





Today’s Readings:
Malachi 3, 19–20
Psalm 98
2 Thessalonians 3, 7–12
Luke 21, 5–19

(School Mass): Friday, November 12, 2004

This morning, I want to talk about something pretty simple: LOVE.

We know that God is love. He loves us, and He wants us to love Him back… and love each other, too.

That sounds simple enough. But what does “love” really mean?

Think about the people and things you love.

I love Mom and Dad… and my best friends, too.

I love Maggie.

You know what else I love? Chinese food! And really good pizza. And I can’t forget ice cream!

I also love some TV shows and movies and music… and my favorite books… and the color blue!

And I love the first smell of spring in the air after a long winter.

So: do you think that’s how God would like me to love him—like a pizza or a color or my dog or a smell?

No… not really. For God, love means something different.

The way we usually use the word “love,” we’re speaking about a feeling. I love someone or something because they make me feel good or happy inside. But that’s not exactly what God has in mind.

The reason for that is because you can’t really control your feelings. If your Mom tells you that you have to eat your spinach—and you hate the taste and look and smell of spinach… in fact, you hate everything about spinach!—then you’re just not going to feel good or happy about it.

Now, God commands us to love Him and each other. He says we have to love Him and each other. Just like you can’t force yourself to love spinach, God would never force us to do something that we find impossible.

That’s how we can know that the love He’s talking about is not a feeling.

So what is it?

Well, love is actually a decision that we make with our minds plus all the stuff we do to live by the decision we made. It’s like keeping a promise. Sometimes it may feel good, and sometimes it may not.

For example, we prove to God that we love Him by spending time with Him at Mass every Sunday. Lots of times it feels good to get up on a beautiful day, get dressed up nicely, come to church and pray and sing… but some Sundays, you may not feel like it at all. Maybe you’re really tired… maybe you’d rather do something else. But if you love God, you remember that you made the decision to come to Mass every single Sunday without fail plus you actually keep that promise unless you have a very good reason not too—like being sick or not having any way to get here.

You can see that real love, then, sometimes is a sacrifice. That means it takes a special effort. That means that sometimes it’s hard.

Your parents love you like that. Your Mom probably feeds you every single day—including the days that she doesn’t feel like it—because she loves you too much to let you go hungry! Now that’s how God describes love!

In our first reading today, we heard what God asks of us. Let me read one sentence again for you: “For this is love, that we walk according to His commandments.”

So what God says, then, is this: the way you should love Him—and love each other, too—is to keep His commandments. You all know the commandments.

Love, then, means: honoring God, keeping His name and His day holy, honoring and obeying our parents and teachers and church, being respectful and kind towards all people, staying pure, being honest and never lying or cheating or stealing, and not being mean or jealous.

When we break God’s commandments, we’re not loving God. We’re doing just the opposite. And as you know, another word for breaking God’s commandments is “sin.” So the opposite of love is sin—not a very good place to be.

In our Psalm today, we prayed a beautiful response: “Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!” Let’s make that our special prayer: that God will help us to love His commandments and do our very best to keep them always.

Amen.

November 7, 2004: The Life to Come

The Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time



In the popular devotion of the Church, the month of November is dedicated to remembering and praying for the dead. We began this month with All Saints’ Day, which honors all the people who have successfully made it into heaven… followed by All Souls’ Day, when we prayed especially for the souls temporarily in Purgatory on their way to heaven.

As Catholics, we are incredibly blessed and comforted to have such a rich and beautiful understanding of what lies on the other side of death.

Let me share with you a very personal experience. Most of you probably know that I was an adult convert to Catholicism. I grew up Jewish.

In February of 2002, my Mother passed away. Even though she was supportive of my choice to become Catholic and even a priest, she remained Jewish herself. So out of respect for her beliefs, we had a Jewish funeral.

At the funeral service, the rabbi gave a beautiful sermon and eulogy. He spoke of the things my Mother had accomplished in life… her love for her family, friends and strangers alike… her good works… and so forth. Then he went on to tell us how she would live on: not in actuality, but in our memories. As long as we remembered her and honored her memory, Mom would continue to live on through us.

“That’s it?” I came away from the service saying to myself, “Thank God I’m a Catholic and know the real truth about the immortality of Mom’s soul and that she’s still alive, even after her death!” I felt deeply and genuinely sorry for the impoverished understanding of death that the rabbi held and taught… and especially for so many generations of people who could have been much better comforted had they only known how much more there is!

I guess the branch of Judaism that nurtured my family came down from the Sadducees like the ones we meet in the Gospel today. They believed that our earthly life is our only life. There’s no heaven or hell. There’s just life—then at death, that life is extinguished… it’s over.

The Pharisees disagreed. Their belief is closer to our own in the sense that life does not simply end when we cross the threshold of death. There’s something more.

The Pharisees’ idea about the afterlife is actually very interesting. They don’t use the words or concepts of heaven and hell, but they get the main idea: anyone who forms and continues to deepen his relationship with God here on earth will continue to live and further develop that relationship in the next life for all eternity. This is the life of the just.

The unjust, on the other hand—those who refuse such a relationship—would simply die. There is no need to worry about a place of fire, demons and torture. Dying is punishment enough.

That’s what the fourth brother in our first reading from Second Maccabees means when he tells his killers, “It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope God gives of being raised up by Him; but for you, there will be no resurrection to life.”

Jesus, as He tries to teach the Sadducees, carries us along even more in our understanding of the next life. He reveals two wonderful truths. First, the just do indeed live even after death; and second, heaven is not just “more of the same” kind of earthly life but instead is something different… something better.

He shows that there’s real life after death by referring to the story of the burning bush. Even though Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had all died many hundreds of years before the Lord appeared to Moses, God speaks of their relationship in the present tense: “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” not “I was the God…” So the three must still be alive!

And then Christ shows that life will be a whole new experience when He explains that we will not marry in heaven. Certainly the beautiful fruits of love and marriage and other loving relationships will endure, but in some other way. Just as our resurrected bodies will be glorified, so will our new existence and relationships. What a mysteriously joyful and hopeful thought!

In the 3200 or so years since the time of Moses… the 2000 years since the time of Christ… the Church has continued to unfold for us the great riches contained in the promises of eternal life for the just. We know that while heaven is freely offered to each and every one of us, we must accept the offer. Just think how pointless life would be if heaven were automatic. Why go through the bother of living a good life, a moral life, a faith-filled life, a loving life if paradise were guaranteed? It wouldn’t make a bit of sense. There would be no incentive to sacrifice or struggle or stretch to be better people.

And yet, while heaven is not necessarily a slam-dunk, it is certainly and easily within our reach—thanks to God’s grace. It only makes sense to pray to God for ourselves, our loved ones, our friends—and for all our fellow human beings—that we may be given this grace and be received into the joys of heaven.

During this month of November, also please do not omit to pray for the dead who may be waylaid in Purgatory on their journey to heaven. May we always remember to stay focused on the prize, as our Psalm proclaims: “Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full.”



Today’s Readings:
2 Maccabees 7, 1–2 and 9–14
Psalm 17
2 Thessalonians 2, 16 – 3, 5
Luke 20, 27–38

School Homily: Friday, November 5, 2004

Citizenship in Heaven

This was an exciting week for us Americans, because we got to do one of the most important things in our country: we got to vote. As I’m sure you heard at home and in school, voting is one of our greatest rights and duties as citizens.

Did you ever stop to consider what it means to be a citizen? Citizenship means that we are free and that we are members of a nation. We owe our loyalty to that nation, and in return, we can expect protection from it. To be a citizen, then, gives us wonderful rights and privileges.

St. Paul wrote something very interesting in his letter that we just heard. He said, “But our citizenship is in heaven.”

Wow! That means that we’re citizens of the United States of America because we were born here or chose to come and live here… AND we’re also citizens of heaven because we were born again in baptism!

Now remember again what it means to be a citizen: we have wonderful rights and privileges and can expect to be protected… AND we also owe our loyalty and devotion.

Heaven, as you all know, is God’s home. It’s the place where the angels live… it’s the place where the saints live. Our job while we’re still here on earth is to love God and the angels and the saints… and to be loyal and devoted to them. And in return, they will help us and protect us—because we, too, are fellow citizens! We are all members of the same Mystical Body of Christ. We all share in the Communion of Saints.

The difference between the saints and us, of course, is that they are already in heaven, while we’re still on the outside. It’s almost as if we’re on a trip, traveling away from home. At the end of our journey, we will look forward to getting back home—getting into heaven.

The interesting thing is that everyone who’s already in heaven is perfect. You can’t get into heaven if you’re not perfect, even though you’re a citizen. It would be like your Mom telling you that you can’t come into your own home with your muddy shoes on. You’ve got to clean up first.

And that’s how it works with heaven, too. The difference is, it’s not dirt or mud on your body or your clothes that prevents you from getting into heaven… it’s dirt on your soul, which we call “sin.” Sins are the bad things that we do on purpose or carelessly.

Fortunately for us, we can still get into heaven even if we committed sins—even if we committed lots of sins—even if we committed terrible sins!

But first, you have to be made perfect. To be made perfect and be able to get into heaven, we have to be sorry for our sins… be forgiven for them… and the damage from our sins has to be fixed.

Picture this: you and your friend are playing ball in your backyard. You’re being careless and fooling around, and even though you should know better, you throw the ball hard so it goes over the fence and breaks a window on your neighbor’s house. You’re a good kid, so you’re very sorry for what you did. You go over to your neighbor’s and tell her what happened. Your neighbor is very nice and she tells you that she forgives you. You’re very relieved, of course, and you start to go back home.

“Wait a minute!” she calls after you. “What about the broken window?”

You see, even though you’re sorry and you’ve been forgiven, there’s still one more thing: the damage that needs to be taken care of—the broken window.

Your neighbor says, “Well, I’ll give you a choice. You can buy a new piece of glass and replace the window yourself… or, you can give me the money and I’ll hire someone to fix it… or, I can let you work it off by mowing my lawn and shoveling the snow off my sidewalk a few times… or, maybe you can pray the Rosary for me a couple of times and we’ll call it even. Any of those things will take care of the damage.”

God, too, let’s us repair the damage from our sins in different ways. We can go to confession and communion, we can do good deeds—like helping around the house or doing extra chores, we can say extra prayers or go to Mass during the week, and so on. These are all ways to make our soul “perfect” to help us get into heaven.

Just the same way we want to be good American citizens, we should also try to be good citizens of heaven. Look for ways to make your soul perfect—and God bless you today and always!

All Souls’ Day

November 2, 2004

Today, on All Souls’ Day, we pray for the dead. Praying for the dead is as old as the Church. In fact, archeologists have found early Christian graffiti on tombs in the ancient catacombs under Rome and elsewhere which attests to the belief of the Church in prayer for the dead and for the Communion of Saints. This kind of graffiti is found throughout the Roman Empire, so belief in prayer for the dead was not just a local belief, but a universal one.

And why should we pray for the dead? If a person is in heaven, the prayers obviously are not needed. If a person is in hell, the prayers aren’t going to do any good. It makes sense, then, that praying for the dead is testimony to the Church’s constant belief in Purgatory, a place where the souls of the just may be detained before they are worthy to enter heaven. These souls can no longer help themselves, but we can benefit them by means of our prayers.

But why would souls need a stopover in Purgatory? Because when our earthly life is over and we stand before the Lord, we see ourselves with total and stark clarity. We no longer hide behind our body or our ego or any number of earthly concerns, distractions and excuses. The soul knows that she must be squeaky clean—perfect—to look God in the face—to stand in His presence. If a person has unforgiven or unsatisfied venial sins from life, he will flee from God’s presence to clean up first. It’s like standing outside the door to a fancy party and realizing that you have a smudge on your face or a spot on your clothes; you’ll want to head for the washroom to fix it before going inside. It’s the same with heaven.

So while it’s true that Christ earned salvation for all of us, and more than made satisfaction for all of man’s sins, still Christ wills that in our individual lives, we share in penance to make satisfaction for sin.

As much as we’d like to believe that all our family members and friends who have died are safely in heaven, it is good and prudent and even holy to act as though they are in Purgatory. Prayers are never wasted. If, please God, our loved ones are safely in Paradise, then God will use our good prayers to benefit other poor souls in Purgatory. But if they themselves are there, wouldn’t it be tragic not to use our powerful prayers to help them get out faster?

All Souls’ Day is a good time to remind ourselves that only the perfect shall enter heaven. Let us strive not only for the avoidance of mortal sin, but for perfection in every aspect of our lives. If we leave this world with imperfections, with venial sins, and without penance for all our sins, we shall need the prayer of others.

While we are able, then, let us resolve to pray for the dead and do penance in this life so we may avoid Purgatory in the life to come.

School Homily: All Saints’ Day

November 1, 2004


There is a special reference book that you can find in some libraries called Who’s Who in American Business. If you see it, open it up to the B’s and you’ll find a listing for B.T. Belskis, the president and chief executive officer of a small company in Stockport, Ohio.

As you’d probably guess, you have to be pretty important to get into the pages of Who’s Who. You have to be a successful businessman. You must be a leader in your community. Involved in charities and clubs. You have to be a good and honest person. Respected and admired by your friends.

And in B.T.’s case, it didn’t hurt to be able to track down a raccoon or bark with some authority.

B.T.’s real name, you see, was Belle — and she was one of our blue tick coonhound dogs when I lived back on the farm before becoming a priest. B.T.: blue tick. Get it?

My brother, Greg, thought it would be a real hoot to try to get the dog listed in Who’s Who, so he made just a few changes in her list of important accomplishments. And we couldn’t believe it when it was published!

We had lots of laughs when a telephone salesman would call and ask to speak with B.T. One guy even said he had met B.T. on a business trip and was told to call and set up an appointment!

I guess this all goes to show that by being a little clever, ordinary folks — and maybe even dogs! — can make their way into a famous book like Who’s Who.

While it’s great that ordinary folks can get into an important book, it’s even more wonderful that ordinary folks can get into heaven and live forever with God! And that’s exactly what we celebrate today on All Saints’ Day.

I’m sure you can all name lots of saints who have been canonized or declared saints by the Pope: St. Michael, St. Elizabeth, St. James, St. Paul, St. Matthew, St. Katherine, St. Nicholas, St. Francis, and many, many others.

But there are loads more saints that just those! Heaven is filled with saints — men and women, boys and girls, and even tiny babies — who died and are now with Jesus enjoying the happiness of heaven — where they will be forever and ever.

Some people think that to be a saint, you can never make a mistake or commit a sin. If that were true, there wouldn’t be any saints at all! All of us do things wrong — every day of our life.

No, getting to be a saint means that we really have to love God a lot and try our best to show Him we love Him. So if bad things happen to us — like if we get sick or hurt, or if someone close to us dies, or if we don’t do as well on a test or in a game as we’d like — if these kinds of things happen, we try to remember that God is there and He loves us very much… so we can be a little bit more patient and not be too quick to complain.

Getting to be a saint also means that we always try to see other people the way Jesus would… and treat them the way Jesus would. That means that we try not to tease people or pick on them, especially our brothers and sisters. We don’t call people names or say bad mean things about them behind their back. We don’t hit them or throw things at them. We don’t lie to them or take things from them that don’t belong to us. In other words, we treat them just the way we’d hope they would treat us — and just the way we’d hope they would treat Jesus Himself.

Getting to be a saint also means telling God you’re sorry if you slip up and commit a sin by doing something bad on purpose. No matter what you do, God will forgive you immediately if you’re really sorry and promise to try to do better next time.

Did you know that everyone in this church today can be a saint? Jesus would love that!

What I’d like you to do at this Mass is to look at the people sitting next to you and offer a special prayer from your heart for them. Ask Jesus to make them saints one day — so we can have a whole St. Paul’s section in heaven! I can just hear Jesus now:

“Well done, good and faithful servants! Come into the joy of my Father’s Kingdom. Go Sabres!”