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Christian Witness, Homilies,

Reflection for the 7th Sunday of Easter 2025

“I made known to them Your name and I will make it known, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them and I in them.”

Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Over the past month we have focused on the ways Jesus reveals the Father. Jesus reveals the Father so that we might know Him and most particularly know His great love.

As we discussed several weeks ago, the Father’s nature and character is love. It is love expressed in relationship with the Son and Spirit. It is love expressed in the extension of that relationship to us, and our participation in it.

St. John captures this revelation so well (why it is called the Book of Revelation) in recording: The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let the hearer say, “Come.” Let the one who thirsts come forward, and the one who wants it receive the gift of life-giving water.

Today, we see Adrianna with her parents and godparents doing this very thing. She will be asked through her godparents: What do you ask of the Church? The answer: Baptism. In all its fullness the answer is: I want to come in, to receive, and to have a share in the great love the Father offers.

Throughout the Easter Season in the Asperges, the blessing with Holy Water at the start of each Sunday Holy Mass we are reminded of our own baptism. In Polish this Easter Rite is known by the title of the hymn that is sung: Widziałem Wodę, in Latin: Vidi Aquam, in English: I Saw Water.

Consider that the sight of water flowing from the right side of the Temple as in the vision of Ezekiel (Ez. 47) and from Jesus’ right side on the cross is not just something to be observed, looked at from a distance, but rather something we must run toward and enter so that it touches each part of us. Let us enter that washing and filling where love is made new each day.

The gift of God’s love resides in us both now in an imperfect sense and in eternity perfectly. The gift is new for Adrianna today and will abide in her as it does in all of us. Let us together ensure we live out that love and help her do so. 

Christian Witness, Homilies,

Reflection for the 6th Sunday of Easter 2025

“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”

Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Last week we discussed Jesus’ continuing revelation of the Father, His nature and character, and the interrelationship of the Father, Son, and Spirit.

In a few short weeks we will celebrate the mysteries Jesus is revealing to us as we encounter Trinity Sunday, Sunday in the Octave of Corpus Christi, and the Solemnity of God’s Word.

Today Jesus is discussing that fruit of the Father’s love which is peace. We who are the object of the Father’s love are given the gift of peace – a peace greater than the world can give.

Jesus’ offer of peace is given before His arrest, crucifixion, and death. Facing this, Jesus tells the Apostles to be untroubled and unafraid.

We know in retrospect that they did not immediately listen. Most ran away and hid behind locked doors in fear. Jesus literally had to break through those locked doors with His risen body to show them the truth of what He had said. Finally, with the gift of the Spirit they lived in His peace, unafraid.

The Apostles had something so powerful, so wonderful. They had an assurance of peace flowing from love. What is equally excellent is that we have the exact same thing.

In our Offertory/Secret Prayer we will hear: Grant that we may be ready to receive the peace and love of Your risen Son.

How important it is that we do, that we continually revive our trust in Jesus’ promise of peace and that we live unperturbed, unafraid, untroubled lives.

It is incumbent on us to live in trust.

Brothers and sisters, it is evident. Look at our parish, its situation fourteen years ago. We together decided to trust in God and move forward without the worrying and handwringing that destroys many communities. I could point out many parishes that do the same and those that unfortunately are hiding behind closed doors in trepidation and fear.

To trust and have peace is Jesus’ command and our choice. Let us live that way as we do His work. 

Christian Witness, Homilies,

Reflection for the 5th Sunday of Easter 2025

“This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

As we have been journeying through this fifty-day celebration of Easter, we may have noticed one theme that re-emerges week after week. That theme is Jesus’ revelation of Who His Father is.

That revelation was made clear from the cross, where obedience to the Father’s will caused His very Son, Jesus, to give Himself up to death to save us.

From the empty tomb we learned that the resurrected Lord appearing in glorified body had opened the gates of heaven to us. We will be like Him in that same glory for all of eternity.

Last Sunday we heard Jesus tell us that the Father, upon His throne, holds us in His hands. The Father declares that we are His and no one can take us away from Him.

Today, Jesus speaks of the Father’s powerful love. Love is what motivates God, love is His character. God is the perfection of love.

The perfection of love calls us to love, calls us to move our love from imperfect to perfect.

God’s perfect love is now in the Church by Jesus’ very command: “I give you a new commandment: love one another.”

Jesus speaks of glory: “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.”  What we might understand of glory is far removed from God’s self-understanding of what glory entails. Glory is simply perfect love.

Glory is not crowns or treasures or power in the earthly banal sense, but rather a treasury of love that we can draw from. As we draw from it, we have cause to share, grow, and perfect love (by God’s grace) in ourselves and in our interactions with others.

St. John in Revelation shares his vision of the new heaven and the new earth. That reality is very much dependent on our cooperation with God and our work in building His Kingdom.

We will not get it done through earthly power nor riches or special wisdom. That work is completely dependent on how well we love.

Christian Witness, Homilies, ,

Reflection for Good Shepherd Sunday 2025

“My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.”

Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

The eternal creating God, the just God holds us like this.

Jesus calls out a very key point we sometimes fail to grasp. We may miss it because of images like that of Jesus cradling the lamb. In calling Himself the Good Shepherd, it is natural to focus only on the image of Jesus as Shepherd. Yet, what Jesus calls us to today is focus on His Father in heaven holding us. 

The Father, upon His throne, holds us in His hands. The Father declares that we are His and no one can take us away from Him. 

We could liken this image to that of a father or mother holding their infant in their arms as they rock away in a chair. We, through our experiences, have all seen that image of perfect love and care, of defense and protection. Love when poured out before our eyes, is naturally understood.

Today we are called to see our Heavenly Father doing that for us. His magnificent, overwhelming, and unconditional love is poured out on us as He holds us. 

Some smarty-pants people when talking about our faith, and they are usually ‘insiders,’ make ridiculous statements like love is more important than doctrine. That is because their definition of doctrine is corrupted. In this 1700th year of the Nicaean Creed which we will profess in a few moments we declare a doctrine the tells us who God is.

And this is Who He is: A Father sending His beloved Son into the world and to the Cross for us; A Father with love so great that He spent it all to bring us into His arms.

If we live what we believe we live love. If we are one with the Father and Son in the Spirit, we bear the image of our loving God.

Yesterday, we experienced the ordination of a new shepherd in the model of Jesus. Fr. Sean. Toward the end of the Holy Mass, after pledging his obedience, the Prime Bishop leaned over and gently kissed him on top of his head. The shepherd’s love in the model of the Father exemplified. I cried because God opened my eyes to see that He loves us like that.

Christian Witness, Homilies,

Reflection for the 3rd Sunday of Easter 2025

“Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”

Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

There is an amazing amount of material and symbolism contained in today’s gospel message.

Seven of the remaining eleven Apostles have gone back to their former way of life, and their former failures. As when Jesus first called Simon, James, and John their nets were empty.

Jesus tells them to try again – meaning not just the fishing, but the ministry they were called to.

Jesus is not big on going back or backsliding. He wants us to, through the power of His resurrection, move forward, to persevere in the ministry we have been given.

After the catch and their recognition of Jesus, Peter finds himself undressed and quickly covers himself and then swims toward the Lord. Peter takes the first step in recovering himself with grace, putting on not just clothes, but the Lord.

Jesus reasserts His resurrected humanity at the campfire by the lake where He eats with them. During that meal, they are reminded of that supper they shared with the Lord before His death, and they are recalled to the ministry of that supper.

Jesus calls Simon Peter aside to reconcile his betrayals. Jesus questions him about his love. In the original Greek, Simon Peter says he loves Jesus as a ‘brother.’ Jesus is asking him if he loves Him with his whole self – just as Jesus loves us.

Even though Simon’s answer is weak, Jesus still calls him to feed and tend His followers, recalling him to ministry.

Finally, Jesus tells Peter that he will have to forego his sense of self-determination and self-control. Jesus tells him that he will learn to let go, even to the point of sacrificing his life for the life Jesus offers.

Like the Apostles that day let us hear Jesus’ call and offer Him all our love. Allow Him to take control of our lives.

Christian Witness, Homilies, ,

Reflection for Low Sunday 2025

Many signs and wonders were done among the people at the hands of the apostles.

Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

We all may have heard of the term ‘shock and awe.’ That term first emerged as a military strategy based on the use of overwhelming power and spectacular displays of force to paralyze the enemy’s perception of the battlefield and destroy their will to fight. While as a concept, the term and strategy had been around for some time, it came into the public lexicon during the Gulf Wars against Iraq. 

We might perceive the day of the resurrection and its following week as a time of shock and awe. The overwhelming power of God was fully on display as the resurrected Jesus appeared to His followers over and over. God’s might was spectacularly displayed.

We would all like to think that if we were there we would get it, understand. But, that’s unlikely.

In the first hours after the resurrection Mary Magdalene understood. John the Apostle got it. The disciples on the road to Emmaus had their eyes opened and Simon Peter finally understood. The rest, well, it took them time.

As we proceed through this season of joy, we will arrive at that moment when Jesus is taken up into heaven, the Ascension. Even there, some of the Apostles did not believe. Scripture records in Matthew 28:17: When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.

Jesus had appeared over and over, He ate and drank with them, built a campfire, helped them with their catch, and repeatedly offered them peace.

My brothers and sisters, it is ok to be like Thomas, like the others who  still doubted. The problem comes when we persist in doubt and when doubt turns sour.

Jesus’ direction is very clear. It starts with the peace He gives us, a peace beyond the absence of conflict. It is a grace of peace that allows us to stand in the midst of conflict and still be at peace – because we have Jesus. So let us take Jesus’ command to heart: do not be unbelieving, but believe.”

Christian Witness, Homilies, ,

Reflection for the Solemnity of the Resurrection 2025

He saw and believed.

Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Today we encounter the greatest image ever, the empty tomb.

That image is the one, beyond the cross, that God wants us to remember most.

God envisioned that empty tomb for us. It is our hope, it is our comfort. Most importantly it is our assurance, the vision God has for us resurrected and with Him forever.

On that Easter morning, Jesus encounters His faithful in varieties of ways. He greets Mary Magdalene as the Gardener. He walks with the disciples on the Road to Emmaus. He enters the upper room. In each encounter we see God’s image of how life should be, lived with Jesus’ resurrected reality and in the family of faith. There is truly nothing better than to be loved to the extent God loves us.

We concluded on Palm Sunday by remembering the totality of God’s gift of love, great grace, restoration, and His amazing promise. Today we see the reality of that fulfilled promise at the empty tomb. As the Apostle John did,  let us see and believe it.

Christian Witness, Homilies, , ,

Maundy Thursday 2025

“I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”

This evening, as on this evening about 1992 years ago, we gather around the table of the Lord. We take time to commemorate the great things He instituted for our benefit.

In the washing of the Apostle’s feet, Jesus instituted the sacrament of penance. As Jesus washed their feet before they gathered around the table, so we too do the same, engage in the Sacrament of Penance at the beginning of every Holy Mass.

At the table Jesus not only celebrates the annual Jewish Passover meal but He more importantly reconfigured the sacrifice and consumption of the Passover lamb around His own passion and death. He institutes a new Passover memorial. Jesus identifies Himself as the new Passover Lamb Who will be sacrificed for the redemption of the new Israel in a new exodus.

We have the privilege of living in this new exodus. We are headed across the dessert of this earthly life to God’s eternal kingdom.

As with the Israelites in the dessert, our journey to the Kingdom is a protected journey. As God went with the Israelites as a pillar of fire and pillar of cloud. This dual theophany (manifestation of God) guided the Israelites through the desert during the Exodus from Egypt. The pillar of cloud provided a visible guide for the Israelites during the day, while the pillar of fire lit their way by night.

The pillars of cloud and fire are first mentioned in Exodus 13, shortly after Moses leads the Israelites out of their captivity in Egypt. When Pharaoh brought his army in pursuit of the Israelites the pillar of cloud intervened to keep the army from approaching during the night. The pillar positioned itself behind the Israelites, casting light upon their camp while leaving the Egyptian army in darkness.

As I mentioned, we have protection, and it is a far better protection than a pillar of fire and cloud. We have a lasting memorial in Jesus’ body and blood, His real physical presence with us always. The dessert of life is a far better place with the assurance and protection we have in Jesus’ eternal presence. 

In penance we are reconciled over and over and work to change what negatively affects us. We are spiritually healed and brought back. Jesus assures us of his mercy and compassion for us.

In the Holy Eucharist and in receiving His body and blood in communion Jesus remains in and with us. He is always present here, in the church where we may receive Him and adore Him, where we may just sit with Him and converse with Him is a very special and privileged way because He is truly physically present just as He was this night about 2022 years ago.

The worst part of life’s dessert, of our exodus journey, is feeling alone and abandoned. Like a child, we all feel afraid of that kind of solitude. Jesus Himself cried out from the cross when He experienced it: My God, My God, why have You abandoned me!?! Jesus did not and does not want that for any one of us. So, we have tonight, and the gifts of awesome assurance, gifts so we are never alone and always protected.

Christian Witness, Homilies,

Reflection for Palm Sunday 2025

It was now about noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon because of an eclipse of the sun. Then the veil of the temple was torn down the middle. Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”; and when he had said this he breathed his last.

God uses imagery so we might clearly understand His intent for us, the picture He envisions for us. May God’s imagery help us to achieve the vision He has for us.

This week God provides more than just images, but rather a whole movie filled with a cast of characters illustrating exactly what Jesus came to save us from.

Brandon Lake appeared on the Grand Old Opry last night. He is a Christian artist and his song; Daddy’s DNA carries this refrain: ‘all I’ve given you is trouble all you’ve given me is grace.’

Certainly, true for each of us. In big and small ways.

Jesus came to solve those troubles we offer God and most particularly their consequences. As St. Paul reminds us In Romans 6:23: the consequence of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We could spend some time here recalling the big and small sins of all the characters in the Passion, we could see ourselves in those sins, think about the ways we have bought in to wrong, but let’s not do that.

Instead, let us focus on our Daddy’s DNA – the image of God that He has placed into each of us. Let us look to the beauty we have in God’s eyes and give thanks for what Jesus has done to make us beautiful. Let us further exhibit in worship and praise our gratitude for God’s outpouring of grace that renews us when we fail and fall, grace that restores our beauty.

All God gives us is love, great grace, restoration, and an amazing promise. All the proof we need of what God gives us is in our bibles and on that cross.

Christian Witness, Homilies,

Reflection for Passion Sunday 2025

Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”

God uses imagery so we might clearly understand His intent for us, the picture He envisions for us. May God’s imagery help us to achieve the vision He has for us.

This week God’s set of images call us to self-reflection and a merciful attitude toward all.

As many of you know, and occasionally see, I get emotional when I proclaim certain of the gospels. I mentioned this last week, and those who were at our Seniorate Lenten Retreat may have picked up on that as I led the Seven Last Words devotion.

We call this conviction. Conviction is the work of the Holy Spirit where an individual is confronted with what God sees. We face the guilt we know we have and realize we are unable to save ourselves. Further, we get overwhelmed as we consider our guilt in light of God’s tremendous mercy. His love overpowers the sentence we deserve.

In the Passion we see Jesus telling the good thief that he will be with Him in paradise. The good thief’s effort to seek forgiveness is enough for Jesus to welcome him. In the parable of the Prodigal, we see both sons’ sinfulness set aside by a father whose forgiveness and mercy is limitless. We see the image of our heavenly Father waiting for us as we return.

Today we see two sets of sinners standing before Jesus. The prostitute, obviously being manipulated as sex workers so often are, is used here to trap Jesus. That does not discount her sin, but it is minor compared to the allegedly righteous who brought her there. The others, they are masters of manipulation, deceit, and an inner anger that causes them to hate God Himself. A stark reminder that we must not judge.

Jesus attempts to break through. By ignoring the accusers, He points out His knowledge of their evil. In His mercy He attempts to convict them of their sin, but they will not accept that conviction. They merely walk away. What a loss!

For the woman Jesus does indeed break through. He doesn’t question or interrogate her. She does not make excuses. Rather, she accepts His mercy and His instruction: from now on do not sin any more.”

Over this Passiontide, listen and allow Jesus in. Then accept His mercy. Finally, like St. Paul, forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead.

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