Homily Third Sunday of Easter April 13, 2024 St Austin Church, TX

 Homily   Third Sunday of Easter   April 13, 2024   St Austin Church, TX

 We have another post-resurrection appearance of the Risen Lord in our Gospel today.   But I’d rather talk about the ever popular topic of GUILT.   Anyone here ever feel guilty?   Good, because I am going to preach about GUILT.   I am against it. 

          At the conclusion of today’s Gospel we heard: “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.  And he said to them,
“Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

          Notice that what is being preached to all nations is “repentance”.  Repentance is different than guilt.  Nowhere in the Gospels does the Lord urge us to feel guilt.  Rather, Jesus calls us to repentance.

          At the very beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, in chapter 1 of the Gospel of St Mark, Jesus’ preaching is succinctly summed up as: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

          Likewise, in the first reading today we hear St Peter preach.  He culminates his sermon with “Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away.”

          The New Testament preaching is a call to REPENTANCE.

          What is the difference between feeling guilty and repentance?  They are very different.  Guilt is a feeling.  It is an emotion.  It is a hard and difficult emotion.  But that is not the worst part of guilt. 

Guilt keeps us focused on the past, on our failures, on how we screwed up.  And guilt keeps us beating ourselves up for how we made a mess of our lives and other’s lives. 

          But guilt does not help.  It does not, by itself, help us to do better.  It does not move us forward, but rather keeps us focused on the past.  Guilt looks backwards.

          Repentance, on the other hand, is very different.  Repentance is about change.  About movement in a new direction.  It is action.  It looks

forward.  Repentance is movement towards growth.  Repentance is openness to new life.  As St Peter proclaims in our first reading, “Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away.”      Repentance is about growth and life.

          In our second reading today from the first Letter of Saint John we heard: “But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one.  He is expiation for our sins,
and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.”

          Forgiveness is available to us.  But it requires a change of heart and it requires work.  That is what repentance is.  Repentance does include feelings of remorse, but it does not stop with the feelings.  The feelings are only the first step, or even only the prelude to repentance.  Genuine repentance involves action, involves change, and especially involves growth. 

          Growth usually does not happen instantly.  Growth takes time.  It takes effort.  It takes patience.  All these are involved in repentance.

           So, if you are burdened by guilt, recognize it, but do not dwell on it.  Rather hear the feelings of guilt as a call to repentance, to action and to growth.  Guilt looks back, but repentance looks forward, to a new and better way of thinking, of feeling, of acting, of being.  Let go of guilt to replace it with repentance, with a firm purpose of amendment, with action to repair as much as you can the damage you have done, to take the actions that will help you avoid this sin in the future, to grow in the way of life, not of death.

           The Lord is patient with us.  We need to be patient with ourselves, but also very honest, and ready to work at doing better.   We do not do this on our own, but rely on the help of the Holy Spirit.  As we heard in our second reading today: “But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one.  He is expiation for our sins, and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.” 

          The readings today are clear.  Do not waste your time and effort on feeling guilty.  Rather, strive to do the work of repentance instead, which leads to greater life. 

God bless!

Good Friday March 29, 2024 Cycle B

 Good Friday    March 29, 2024

The proclamation of the Passion this evening begins, of all places, in a garden.  We are told in the opening lines: “Jesus went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to where there was a garden, into which he and his disciples entered.”  

And our proclamation of the Passion this evening ends, of all places, in a garden. We are told: “Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried.”   “there was a garden???”   Hmm.   An odd place for an execution.    

Any gardeners with us this evening?    Gardens have special significance.  The garden is not just the place where these events happened to occur.  The garden has, I believe, a deep religious significance. 

Can you think of any other gardens in the Bible?  Well. The Garden of Eden, going back to the very beginning of the human drama, to the time of Adam and Eve, and especially the breaking of the relationship between the Divine and the human, fractured by human disobedience.  …   Remember?

Now that breach of disobedience, of willfully choosing our own Will over the Will of God for us, is rectified, healed, made whole by the obedience of Jesus.  In the Letter to the Hebrews, our second reading this evening, we heard, “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he because the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” 

This “obedience” is not about following the rules and doing what you are told.  Not at all.  Rather this obedience is an act of freedom, an act of will, a decision and a choice to conform your will to the Will of God the Father, out of complete and perfect trust in God’s love for you. 

TWO                    TWO                    TWO          Good Friday 03/29/2024

It is summed up in our responsorial psalm this evening: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

Jesus fully, totally, completely gave Himself into the loving hands of His Father, in spite of all the indications to the contrary.   And in doing so, Jesus healed the wound of disobedience from the earliest time of humans. 

In Jesus we are now able to live in the freedom of the children of God, in harmony with God, achieving who we most deeply and truly are: God’s beloved children.  All because of His obedience, in a garden.

AMEN.  

Palm (Passion) Sunday Gospel of Mark March 24, 2024

 Palm (Passion) Sunday Gospel of Mark     March 24, 2024

Clothes.  You probably wear them every day.  Clothes are important, giving us protection, modesty in most cases, and comfort.   Clothes are important.  Indeed, an ancient saying, going back at least to Erasmus in the 1500’s, and probably much longer before that, in Latin, is “vestis virum facit”.   Or, “Clothes make the man.”

That is true.  Any stranger walking into this service can, pretty quickly, determine who is the priest and presider of this service.  The vestments I am wearing pretty clearly give it away.  Clothing is important in how we view ourselves, and others.

Clothing plays an interesting and recurring role in the Passion we just heard.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus is arrested, we hear the peculiar incident of a streaker.  St Mark, and he is the only evangelist to mention this, states: “Now a young man followed him wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body.  They seized him, but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked.”    I believe this young man will appear again on Easter.  But we will have to wait for that.

At Jesus’ interrogation before the Sanhedrin, where the chief priests tried to trump up charges against Jesus that would stick, Jesus, in response to the question if He was the Christ, answered, “I am; and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.”   At that the high priest tore his garments.   Tore his garments?  Did you ever tear your clothes out of frustration and anger?  He must have been mightily worked up.  Tearing the clothes you are wearing is a pretty extreme sign of frustration and anger. 

Later, in the praetorium, the headquarters of the Romans, the soldiers dressed Jesus in a purple cloak and put a crown of thorns on his head.  And they mocked Him in false homage, deriding Him as the King of the Jews. 

And still later, at the cross, Jesus was forcibly stripped of his clothes.   Jesus was truly naked and defenseless before everyone.  He was rendered completely vulnerable.  And the soldiers “divided his garments by casting lots for them to see what each should take.”

Finally, when Jesus is taken down from the cross, they wrapped Jesus in a linen cloth, His burial shroud.  His final outfit on earth.   ….

And now we believe that Jesus is clothed with GLORY.       //

How do we clothe ourselves?  St. Paul in the letter to the Romans tells us; (13:14) “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ…”  And in Galatians (3:27) tells us “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ.”  And in Ephesians (4:24) tells us: “clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Do we adorn ourselves with faith and hope and love?  Have we put on repentance, and dressed in virtue?   Now is the time to adopt your Easter outfit.  Not the physical one you might wear to show off a bit next Sunday, but rather the outfit of faith and hope and love, that identifies you as a follower of Christ, as a Christian. 

Put on Christ, as St. Paul urges us, so that at the celebration of Easter, you will have no reason to be ashamed, and every reason to rejoice.   AMEN. 

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT CYCLE B March 17, 2024

 FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT   CYCLE B             March 17, 2024

 “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”  So proclaims Jesus in our Gospel today.

From the outside, in the sight of the world, what Jesus is subsequently to undergo and endure looks nothing like being glorified.  It is quite the opposite of glory.  In the view of the world it is betrayal, false condemnation, injustice, torture and an agonizing death.  And yet Jesus declares that the hour has come for Him to be glorified.

Either Jesus is delusional and is not connecting with reality, OR Jesus sees much differently and much deeper than the view of the world. 

So, the issue for us today is, how do you see?  How do you see your life, how do you understand the meaning and purpose of life?   What is most fundamentally real for you?   Is life all about getting stuff, owning and having, avoiding pain and seeking pleasure, taking care of yourself as best you can?  That is the message our society gives us all the time. 

But there is another, radically different way of understanding ourselves and what is the purpose of life. 

In our first reading this morning/afternoon, the Prophet Jeremiah gives us God’s promise of a new way of being in the world.   We heard: “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord.  I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

This is a law that comes from within us, not an external set of laws and rules that comes from without. 

We must be trained in this interior law.   In our second reading today, from the Letter to the Hebrews, we hear about Jesus,“Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered;’  This obedience is a very special sort of obedience.  It is not like the obedience a dog learns in obedience school, nor like military obedience which is all about carrying out orders.  Rather, this obedience is a choice to conform your will to the will of the one who gives the commands, because the one commanding is the beloved.  The motivation of this obedience is love. 

Jesus seeks His glorification not in getting and gaining and winning, but rather Jesus seeks glorification in being faithful to His Father’s Will.   Fidelity, not possessing, is the way to glory.

This was NOT easy nor simple for Jesus.  As we hear Jesus testify in the Gospel today: “I am troubled now.  Yet what should I say, “Father, save me from this hour’?  But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.  Father, glorify your name.”    //

 

We are members of the Body of Christ.  We are called to follow where He has gone: not necessarily to a cross and crucifixion, but rather to that interior obedience to God’s Will for us. 

It will not be easy.  It involves sacrifice, the sacrifice of my personal will to follow the Will of God the Father for me.  Everyone of us needs to die to our selfishness, to the part of our person that screams “me, me, me”, and accept that we are so deeply and completely and powerfully loved by God, that we can lovingly surrender our own will to follow God’s Will for us.

That is what Jesus did.  He has shown us the way.  And the way leads to Easter, and the fullness of life.       Thanks be to God! 

HOMILY FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT CYCLE “B” March 10, 2024

 HOMILY    FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT   CYCLE “B”                                  March 10, 2024

 

We have a very beautiful Gospel today, from John.  We also have a very interesting reading about how God has dealt in history with His chosen people in our first reading.   Both provide good material for a homily.  But, as a Paulist, I am fond of St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians because it is so surprising.  Therefore, today you get a homily on our second reading.  

          Unfortunately, Paul’s complex thought processes, and our blah translation, make it difficult to understand Paul, buried under mounds of dependant clauses.  So I have taken a red pencil to today’s second reading, parsed it down to the essential structure, and this is what I came up with for the first half: “Brothers and sisters; (all of us), God .. brought us to life with Christ ...., raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus.”

          That is the core of St. Paul’s message:  God brought us to life, raised us with Christ, seated us with Christ in the heavens, so that God might show his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.  WOW!

          Now what strikes me as rather ‘odd’ about this statement is its tense.  It is in the past tense.  St. Paul is talking about something that has already happened.  Not something in the future that we await, not an award at the end of our life, but rather a done deal, a present reality, something already accomplished.  

          So, ¿Have you noticed that you have been brought to life with Christ, raised up and seated in the heavens? 

          Maybe, a little bit, once in a while???  And yet Paul speaks of this as an already accomplished fact.  He states: “For by grace you have been saved through faith.....”   

He does not say, “At the last Judgement, or sometime in the future, you will be saved,” but rather he insists, “you have been saved.”  Because God has already made it happen.  Once God decrees it, it is as good as done.

          “And this is not from you;” St. Paul continues.  Not our doing.  “It is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast.”  

          We can never – by our own efforts - achieve our own salvation.  No matter how good and holy we try to be, no matter how much we fast and pray and go to church, we can never achieve our own salvation.  But that doesn’t matter.  It has already been given to us as a gift!  

          The one thing we most desperately want, the fullness of life, everlasting life, or in shorthand “salvation,” which we can never accomplish on our own, has already been handed to us.  It is already accomplished!

          And what do we have to do?  We just have to accept it.  As we heard in today’s Gospel:  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.”

          All we have to do is accept the salvation God offers, believe in Jesus as the Son of God, and give thanks.  As St Paul states in our reading today: ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God.”     GIFT. 

What should we do when we receive a gift?  If you have been brought up right, and have any manners, what do you do when you receive a gift is you say Thank you!  Gracias!  Danke!   Merci.  Graci.  

This past Summer, I learned that to say Thank you in Greek is efcharistó.

 Efcharistõ is the same root as the word “Eucharist.”  Eucharist is what we are gathered here to do.  We celebrate Eucharist, which means thanks.  We profess our faith in Jesus as our Savior, and we give thanks.  Because the heavy lifting and the hard work of securing salvation has already been done.  And it is all gift.

          Not our accomplishment.   Not our achievement.  Nothing we can claim by right.  It is simply pure gift.  Simply because God loves you.  And all we can do is give thanks.     //

          There is a song by a group called the Damiens that I heard many years ago when I was a new priest in Alaska: “Love that’s freely given wants to freely be received.  All the love you’ve poured on us can hardly be believed.  And all that we can offer you is thanks.  All that we can offer you is thanks.”

          God has already accomplished our salvation in Jesus Christ.  It is a done deal.  And it is pure gift, not our doing but God’s.  For, as St. Paul instructs us, “we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.”

          And all that we can offer back is thanks, is Eucharist.  

Thanks be to God!

HOMILY Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle B February 11, 2024

 HOMILY    Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time   Cycle B                                February 11, 2024

           LEPROSY held special terror and horror for people in the ancient world.  Not only was this disease disfiguring and fatal, worse, it cut its victims off from community, from family support and human interaction.  As we heard in the first reading from Leviticus, lepers had to rent their garments, they must cry out, "Unclean, unclean" and dwell apart ("outside the camp").   Ben Hur?

In this section of Mark’s Gospel we see Jesus performing a lot of healing miracles. We saw that in last Sunday’s Gospel.  St. Mark is showing us Jesus’ POWER.  And now Jesus tackles the difficult case of leprosy. 

          Our Gospel is somewhat confusing.  Scripture scholars believe that today’s passage from St Mark is a combination of two different stories that may have circulated about the same event.  At first in our Gospel Jesus is very gentle.  When the leper approaches and makes his request, Jesus is filled with pity.  The compassion of Jesus shows forth.  “Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, "I do will it. Be made clean."    

          But then Jesus suddenly becomes rather stern and abrupt.  We hear “Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.“  The poor guy just got healed of a terrible disease.  Why is Jesus so stern and impatient?   //   Scholars think this was part of an exorcism story, and Jesus is addressing, not the poor man who had leprosy, but rather the evil demon of leprosy, and casting it out.  In the Greek, to dismiss is to cast out.  This is exorcism language.  The order Jesus gives to keep silent is just like what Jesus tells the demons he casts out to not speak, to keep quiet.  So scholars believe it is with the demon of leprosy that Jesus is stern and abrupt.

The word translated as “warned him sternly” literally means to snort, like a warhorse in a battle.  It means to grunt with exertion.  The imagery is one of a fight.  Jesus groans, or grunts, in His struggle with the demon.  This is not a sham fight but a real struggle.  Jesus fights and overpowers the demon.  It sounds strange to our ears.  //

          God is angry at evil.  This is not a milk-toast God, but a champion who fights against oppression, death and evil.  God in Jesus is powerful.  As it is said of Aslan the lion in the wonderful book, The Chronicles of Narnia, “He is not a tame lion.”  

 

          The same is true for us.  Sin is very like leprosy.  It separates us from other people, puts us at conflict with others.  Sin destroys harmony and community.  Pride, greed, lying, selfishness, envy, licentiousness are all destructive of community.  Sin also eats away at us, destroying us.  Therefore, often in the Gospels leprosy is a symbol for sin.

 

          Just as Jesus approaches the leper in the Gospel today with compassion and pity, so Jesus also approaches us when we come to Him seeking healing, seeking forgiveness.  Jesus is also powerful enough to overcome the evil, to dismiss it, to cast it out.  Jesus both desires to heal us, and is strong enough to do so.  We sinners are the leper in the Gospel today.  

          Finally, there is a strange reversal of roles in the Gospel.  The leper begins the story separated from community.  He is condemned to “live apart”, outside of the towns.  

Jesus takes pity on him and heals him.  Now the leper is re-integrated into community.  He no longer has to live apart.  But Jesus, because of this healing, now is Himself forced apart.  St. Mark states: “ it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.  He remained outside in deserted places,…”   The roles are reversed.  Jesus must now dwell apart. 

          What had been the situation of the leper has now fallen on Jesus.  Is Mark alluding to the fact that Jesus saves us by taking on Himself our guilt?  I am not sure, but the shadow of the cross is always present, always lurking nearby in Mark’s Gospel. 

 

          What does all this say to us?  Well, the result of all this is: “God does not fit into our little categories.”  God is God, we are not. 

          However, unlike the evil demon of leprosy, we have not been told to keep silent.  Quite the opposite.  Jesus has now completed His salvific work and risen from the dead.  He has commissioned us to evangelize, to spread the Good News which is the Gospel.  By our words, and more importantly by our works, we are “to publicize the whole matter” of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.  AMEN. 

Homily Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time February 4, 2024

 Homily    Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time      February 4, 2024

 

I’m sorry if you came to Mass today in a rather good mood, and feeling kind of up, because our first reading is sure to bring you down.  It is really a bummer.  It starts: “Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery?  Are not his days those of hirelings?”  Notice that verse 5 has been left out, skipped over.  It is pretty gross.  It says: “My skin is clothed with worms and scabs; my skin cracks and festers;”  Ugggh!   And the reading ends on this ‘happy’ note: “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; they come to an end without hope.  Remember that my life is like the wind; I shall not see happiness again.”  …  This reading makes Eeyore look like a sparkling bon vivant!     //

          I think this downer of a reading is given to us at the beginning of our liturgy today as a reality check.   Always in the back of our heads is the terrible violence and suffering in Ukraine, in Jesus’ own homeland, in so many shootings and killings and violence in our own cities and neighborhoods.  The scourge of fentanyl and illegal drugs.  And as the national election creeps nearer many of us fear an increase in division, hatred, and violence.   This bummer of a reading is a reminder of the depressing seriousness of sin, and our situation left to our own devices, without the intervention of a savior.    //

          Skip now to the Gospel. Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law, and the result is “she waited on them.”   The healing not only saved her, but empowered her to be of service.  Salvation comes not just for our personal benefit, but so we can truly be of service to others.

          Then we are told something that I find interesting.  “When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.  The whole town was gathered at the door.  He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons…” 

          Obviously, Jesus is stronger and more powerful than illness and evil.  But notice the time.  When a Gospel writer tells you the time most often it means something.  And in this Gospel Mark tell us it was after the sun had set and it was dark.  It was dark.

          First century towns in Galilee were not lit up like Austin.  When the sun went down it was dark.  Very dark.  And that was the time of crimes, of evil.  It was the devils’ time.  

Jesus does not wait till it is dark to do His healings as a convenience to those who had day jobs and so waited until they were off of work.  No, Jesus cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons, to show His complete power over evil, even in the night, in the domain of evil.   Jesus is, in a sense, showing off.  He is flexing His muscle.  He is making it abundantly clear that He is stronger than evil.  Jesus goes into the devil’s home turf, in enemy territory, in the dark, to show that He is even stronger than sickness and death.  //

          In the midst of all that pulls us down, of all the bad and depressing news, of increased polarization and fracturing of our society, a time of ignorance and anger and maliciousness, we are called, like Job, to be realistic, to not make light of the problems and reality we face, to look clear eyed and soberly at the truth of our predicament.  But we do not give up.  We do not collapse.  We do not despair.  

           Instead, we put our hopes and our faith in Jesus Christ.  Christ has rescued us from sin and from eternal death.  He is our hope, our Savior.  He saves us from a meaningless and pointless life, and He saves us for service, for love, for a life of value and meaning now, and for the fullness of life hereafter.

[[ Today at this Mass Colette Lily, daughter of Lauren and Nicholas, will be Baptized into Christ, to share in His wonderful life.  All of us who are Baptized likewise share in Christ’s life and glory. ]]

          Following His way to Life is not easy, but He gives us the help of the Holy Spirit.          All of us, by Baptism and Confirmation, are blessed and empowered to carry on the fight of Jesus against evil and against sin, both in our own hearts, and in our society and world, even after the sun has set and it has grown dark. 

          Jesus is Risen!   Alleluia! 

Third Sunday of Ordinary Time Cycle B Called By Name Sunday

 Third Sunday of Ordinary Time    Cycle B    Called By Name Sunday

In the Gospel we just heard, Jesus calls Simon (also known as Peter), his brother Andrew, and John and his brother James, to come follow Him.  They became Apostles.  This is appropriately therefore “Called By Name Sunday” when we focus on the call to vocations, especially to vocations to the priesthood, permanent diaconate, and religious life as a religious Sister or Brother. 

This is really important, because we cannot do Church in the way we know it without people responding generously to the Lord’s call to serve the Church as priests, deacons, sisters and brothers. 

The Paulist Fathers, who have staffed this parish for over a century, have had a few men from St Austin’s respond to the Lord’s call to be a Paulist priest, but none for a very, very, VERY long time.  In the nearly 14 years that I have been here at St. Austin, we have had ZERO vocations from this parish. 

That is just not sustainable.  Next week I will be in New York City at a meeting of the Paulist General Council, and we will have to decide what foundations we need to withdraw from, because we simply do not have the manpower to staff all the commitments we currently have.  St. Austin’s, I am happy to say, is NOT on that list, at least for now.

Many religious communities and dioceses face the same reality.  For many diocese a solution has been to import priests from other countries, from the Philippines, India, Latin America and Africa.  This does help make concrete and real the sense that we all belong to a universal church, essentially the same throughout the world.   But it would be better if we could provide for ourselves the priests that we need.

 It is not clear to anyone why we have such a shortage of clergy in this country.  Certainly, the discipline of celibacy, and the very negative repercussions of the clergy sexual abuse scandal, play a large part in this.  But I suspect these are more surface issues, and that there is more that underlies these reasons.

And yet, having been an ordained priest for 45 years, I can truly say that I have been immensely blessed and truly happy as a priest.  And I hope that as you think about the Paulist priests you have known over the years at St. Austin’s, the Bob Scotts, the Stephen Bells, the Rene Constanzas, the Dick Sparks, the Bob Carys and the Rich Andres and Paolo Puccinis, the great majority of them seemed to you fulfilled and happy. 

Certainly, we all have our bad days and down times.  As Americans we cherish our God given right to complain and criticize.  But I hope that in the preaching, in the presiding, in the interactions you have had with Paulist priests, you have seen men with a sense of purpose, mission, and even contentment. 

For me it has been a truly wonderful life.  So, I am perplexed that more men are not drawn to this life of mission and significance.   A priestly vocation really does have great meaning and deep satisfaction.  I hope that shows.

So here is what I am asking you to do.   PRAY.  Pray for vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and religious life.  The situation in the world is not getting better.  It is getting darker.  One of the few bright spots is Pope Francis.  We need priests and religious who can proclaim in action as well as word the Joy of the Gospel.

Secondly, there are cards either in your pew or in the foyer where you can write the name of someone who you think would make a good priest, either diocesan or as a Paulist.  Put down that name and as much information as you have, and put it in the collection basket this week or next, or mail it in.   Bishop Joe will contact that person.

Third, if you know of someone who would make a good Paulist or diocesan priest, mention it to that young man.  You may be God’s instrument to help that man begin thinking about a priestly vocation.  And that would be a wonderful gift to the Church.

The Church of the future in this country will not be what it has been in the past.  That is pretty obvious.  Things are changing much faster than most of us realize.   Those who bravely answer the call of the Lord to follow Him in service to the church as priests, deacons and religious will be in for quite an adventure.  You will NOT be bored.

God bless. 

Epiphany 2024

Epiphany   January 7, 2024   St Austin Church

“Where is the newborn King of the Jews?  We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.”  Thus inquire the Magi; who were sort of a mix of astronomers and astrologers.  They were the men of science of their day, and today we give them their due. 

Through their study of the stars these Magi came to seek for the Christ Child. 

Well, people today are still studying the stars, and some are still being moved to ask deeper questions, just like the Magi did some two millennia ago. 

Have any of you been following the discoveries of the James Webb Telescope?   Have you seen any of the spectacular images that have been produced by this remarkable scientific achievement?

I have this gorgeous image of what is called a ghost galaxy.  It is really beautiful.  Sorry it is not larger.  But as the Magi were moved by the appearance of a star, so we too can be moved to wonder, and awe, and even be invited to recognize something real    beyond the physical.

Some people mistakenly believe that science and religion are antithetical, that they oppose each other.  But that is not at all true.  Rather, science and religion each have a different object of study, with different methodologies, but each join in a search for the truth.

And as they both have the same objective goal - to learn the truth - they sometimes come close to each other’s approach, but do not cross over to the other’s proper domain.  Or at least they shouldn’t. 

Unfortunately, way too often religion and theology have wandered over into the realm of science: for example the condemnation by the Church’s doctrinal arm, the Holy Office, in 1616 of Copernicus’ theory that the sun, not the earth, is the center of the solar system.  C. was correct.

And science has repaid the insult by making statements on matters that properly are religious, such as the ultimate destiny of the human person, or on the existence or non-existence of God. 

None-the-less, study of science can be a powerful reinforcement of religious belief, or even an inducement to come to a sense of awe and  wonder, that leads to spirituality and to religion. 

The gorgeous, mind-blowing, incredible images that are now coming from the James Webb Telescope for example, both entice and challenge us to yearn for an explanation beyond the purely physical / and mechanical / to seek a reason for the incredible scope, the amazing beauty, the intricacy and delicacy that demands a meaning and a significance for such splendor. 

Scientific study cannot produce religious faith, nor can faith produce scientific knowledge.  But the study of both, with the goal of seeking truth, entices and spurs on the seeking of the other.  Two different paths to truth, and truth is one.  Isaac Newton for example, wrote much more on theology than he did on mathematics and science.  Although, his science was much better than his theology. 

Like for the Magi in our Gospel today, study of the natural world can lead us to seek for the Christ.

Other human endeavors can do this as well.  Those who serve others in need, in soup kitchens, in the St Vincent de Paul Society or Thursday Outreach, or Habitat for Humanity, or in any other charitable way, not infrequently find something deeply religious in the gratitude and acceptance of the people they serve, and especially in the religious significance of service.

THREE                THREE                THREE                January 7, 2024

 Normal human relationships, especially in families and communities, can spark and hint at the presence of something greater in life, that entices and pulls us onwards to a religious sense, or even to a religious experience.

Teachers, medical people, parents, police officers and social workers, anyone who works with other people, can find in their service to others a glimpse of that star that leads to the Christ.

And I suppose the ways to be called to seek the transcendent are as numerous as the people on earth.  But for everyone it requires an openness and receptivity to that call.

Today as we remember and celebrate the Magi, and honor their journey of exploration and discovery of the Christ child, we are called, challenged, to get up off our metaphysical behinds, and get on the journey to seek the Daystar, the true light of the world, which is the Christ. 

Happy Epiphany!