November 26, 2006
Posted in Homilies
at 9:00 am
Nov 26, 2006
Has anyone seen the movie “An Inconvenient Truth”? . . . Former U.S. Presidential candidate Al Gore does a convincing job of persuading us of the real threat of global warming, and calls upon us to change the way we live.
I don’t want to get into a discussion about climate change, but apply this phrase to the truth of our faith, specifically, the truth of the moral teaching of the Church – is it an “inconvenient” truth or the truth that will set you free?
In today’s Gospel, Pilate asks Jesus, “So you are a king?” Out of all possible responses relating to kingship, Jesus chooses to speak about one thing – the truth, which is my theme today. He replies to Pilate, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.” Not to bear witness and die for an opinion or for A truth, but for THE truth. “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice,” says the Lord.
Christ the King bears witness to the truth, and He is king of an eternal and universal kingdom, in the words of the Preface of today’s Eucharist, “a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace.” The kingdom of Christ, or the kingdom of God, will be fully revealed only at the end of time. In this secular world, this kingdom, like the truth itself, is often ignored, because it seems small and insignificant, like a mustard seed (Lk 13:19) or hidden, like yeast in dough (Lk 13:21). And as the world treated Christ the King with contempt, crowning Him with thorns, so too the Church’s claim to absolute moral truth is often mocked by relativists and skeptics.
I was one of these skeptics as a rebellious teenager, but God in His mercy brought me back to the Christian faith of my baptism, and eventually to the Catholic Church, how? . . . through a love of truth. God had given me an intense desire to know the Truth – the truth about the purpose of life and the meaning of the universe, the truth about who I am before God . . . a very poor sinner. I went to university originally to study philosophy, which means “love of wisdom” (philosophia), love of truth.
And I remember in the summer of 1993 after graduation, still passionately seeking after the truth, I was reading from this copy of the New Testament, an older English translation, and I put a star beside these words that spoke to my heart: “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.” (a nice poetic translation)(Jn 18: 37-8). I was impressed because here was the so-called Son of God (I was still a skeptic) speaking like a true philosopher, a lover of the truth, a man after my own heart.
How badly do you want to know the truth? Do you want to know the truth even if it is inconvenient? In the documentary An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore comments that many good politicians hold this issue (of global warming) at arms length, because if they acknowledge it and recognize it, then “the moral imperative to make big changes is inescapable.” Could the same be said about us and the moral teaching of the Catholic Church, holding it at arms length because we don’t want to change our lives?
At the same time that I was discovering with joy the truth of Christ and the Church, in the summer of 1993, John Paul II was working on his encyclical, The Splendour of the Truth, in which he re-emphasizes the truth of all the moral teachings of the Church in the context of our relativistic age.
He reminds us that “the Catholic Church is by the will of Christ the teacher of truth” (#64). But much of the Church’s teaching on morals, sex, marriage, divorce and annulments, homosexuality, pornography, contraception, abortion, natural family planning are rejected by the modern world and many Catholics because such teachings are either “inconvenient” truths or dismissed with the relativistic self-justification of “I can make up my own truth,” or “I can choose for myself what is good and evil! Like Adam and Eve in the Garden, when they listened to the voice of . . . the devil . . . and disobeyed God . . . and died . . .” (See Splendour of the Truth #35).
Yes, it is a serious matter to reject the truth, but we should choose and embrace the truth not because of fear or coercion, but because we are drawn by the loving witness of Christ, and by the beauty and splendour of the truth itself, including the moral teachings of the Church.
Did you notice that Jesus did not yell at Pilate about the truth? That He did not condemn those who crowned Him with thorns and rejected His witness to the truth? Because the good news of the truth is a message of love. And the Church doesn’t condemn anyone today; rather, she suffers with love, crowned with thorns, because the truth is so frequently ignored and despised.
The truth is only apparently inconvenient; it is actually quite attractive. Remember Jesus’ other words about the “inconvenient” truth: “and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn 8:32) — free from sin, so that we can live as beloved children of God, so that we can live as kings — the priests, prophets and kings that we have become in baptism.
Next Sunday is the start of Advent, and a beginning of a new liturgical year, soon to be a New Year with our traditional resolutions. I mentioned this at the beginning of September, and I will not tire of reminding you of it throughout the year — let us live the truth, and the promises of our baptism which we renew every Easter. The members of our RCIA group are enthusiastically learning about the truths of our faith and preparing themselves for that day when they will publicly state, “I believe and profess all that the Catholic Church believes, professes and proclaims to be revealed by God.”
The rest of us expert and experienced Catholics (I’m going on my 12th year) also have a lot to learn about our faith. It’s amazing what you can learn on your own if you really want to know the truth — by reading the Bible, the Catechism, on-line research, looking at our pamphlet rack (or website), talking to a friend, praying, and so on. The truth is out there . . . (and in here) . . . if you want to know it . . .
Jesus came to testify to the truth, and He founded the Church as the teacher of truth. If we are humble, open, trusting, we will discover that those moral truths of our faith that seem so “inconvenient” are the same truths that will set us free (if we follow them), and lead us into true and lasting happiness.
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November 19, 2006
Posted in Homilies
at 9:00 am
Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, November 19, 2006
These days, we seem to frequently hear or read about someone predicting that we are living in the beginning of the “End Times”. There are a number of authors who have written books interpreting the Bible, particularly focusing on the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation, because of their rich imagery, as indicating that the end of the world is close at hand. World history over the past hundred years has seen major and minor wars, wars that some of our parishioners and relatives fought in, and are still involved in, so that we may enjoy the freedoms of our society. And with the continuing political and military situation in the Middle East, there are many opportunities to make comparisons between Biblical prophecies and where current events are leading. War, famine, earthquakes, disease, hurricanes, religious persecution – is the end of the world really coming soon?
Even in Jesus’ time, there were signs like these. And although we are told that certain things will happen, what else does Jesus say to us? “But about that day or hour no one knows”. It is not for us, or anyone else, to try to interpret what is happening throughout the world, and then try to determine if the world is soon coming to an end. It is our responsibility to focus our efforts on our relationship with God, for the end of our own personal world as we know it, our death, will come at a time that we are unlikely to foresee.
Although the first reading and the Gospel start out on sombre notes, they both contain messages of hope, as do the Psalm and the second reading. The point of these teachings is not to frighten us, but to encourage us to be alert and attentive disciples. We are not to be taken in by false prophets, or false ideas, which are certainly prevalent in our world. We are not to despair. We should not fear tomorrow, or the end of the world, or our death, because God is faithful and has promised us salvation. Do we truly believe, deep in our hearts, that we belong to God? Through the unity of our parents, He created us as eternal beings from our very conception, and we are His forever. That is an awesome reality. As Catholics, we are claimed for Him at Baptism. Our eternal life does not begin after we die – it has already begun. Our life will change after death, but it will not be a different life. We will still be ourselves, albeit in a new form. We will continue to live, hopefully in God’s presence.
So we are encouraged to live with that hope for the future that comes from knowledge of God’s love for us. This is not a hope like, say, “I hope I win the 6/49 soon”, or “I hope the Senators actually make the playoffs this year”. Wishing is not equivalent to the hope we have. From the scriptures and the teachings of the Church, we look forward with confidence to the life that is to come. It is then that, as Jesus says, “we will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory”.
As the events of the world unfold, constantly changing, creating uncertainty and confusion, we are called to joyfully hold fast to our faith, our hope. With happiness, we should be attempting to live our lives in holiness, and asking God’s forgiveness when we do sin. As our second reading tells us, Christ has offered for all time the single sacrifice for sins, our sins. In the Mass, we offer that same sacrifice again. Unlike the ineffectual sacrifices of the priests in the temple, the sacrifice and celebration of the Mass brings us into unity with the life, and the death, and the resurrection of Christ. Through our participation in the Mass, may we be strengthened to live the sacredness of our lives everyday, so that we may be prepared to live eternally in heaven.
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November 12, 2006
Posted in Homilies
at 9:00 am
Thirty-second Sunday, Year B, Nov. 12, 2006
Each month I have a specific amount of money I give to the Church and to charity. After I had already given that pre-planned amount, I became aware of someone in need. At first I thought, “What can I do? I’ve already made my charitable donations for this month.” But I knew I could afford to help more, so I made the donation, saying to God, “Lord, this is for love of you . . . this may hurt, but I am doing it for love of you . . . and you see everything, right?”
And guess what happened? . . . Two days later, I get a message from Action Life, the pro-life awareness group, saying, “Fr. McCauley, I’m calling to let you know that we held the first draw for our raffle, and you won! So I’m writing you a cheque for $1200.” By the way, next week I will be away in Cancun . . . on urgent business, but don’t worry, you’ll be fine! And with the shortage of vocations to the priesthood, there’s no one to replace me, but you’ll be fine, don’t worry! Just talk amongst yourselves!” If we apply this to Church donations, it means that if you put in your whole wallet into the collection plate, you will probably win the lottery next week! Right?
Although that month I gave more to charity than usual, I still contributed out of my abundance. But the poor widow in the Gospel “put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury . . . she out of her poverty . . . put in everything she had, all she had to live on” (Mark 12: ).
They say that God cannot be outdone in generosity. Surely God provided for the poor widow in the Gospel, just as He miraculously provided for the widow in Zarephath through the prophet Elijah, especially since this poor widow gave God everything she had.
What do we give to God, not only in terms of money to the Church, but also in terms of our time and our love? Do we give God everything? Today I would like to talk about what we offer to God, specifically, in the Offertory part of the Eucharist, and how this self-offering is expressed in our daily lives, in our care for others, for the equivalent of the “poor widows” of our times.
Two themes:
1) The offertory at Mass – do we “put in everything we have”? Offer God our lives and are generous with money?
2) The offertory and Mass must have an effect in our lives (Deacon Tom). Example: who are the poor widows of our times whom we are called to help?
The following is a quote from “Holy Mass – The Testimony of Catalina”:
A moment later the Offertory arrived and the Holy Virgin said: “Pray like this: (and I repeated after her) Lord, I offer all that I am, all that I have, all that I can. I put everything into Your Hands. Build it up, Lord, with the little thing that I am. By the merits of Your Son, transform me, God Almighty. I petition You for my family, for my benefactors, for each member of our Apostolate, for all the people who fight against us, for those who commend themselves to my poor prayers. Teach me to lay down my heart as if on the ground before them so that their walk may be less severe. This is how the saints prayed; this is how I want all of you to do it.”
1. Thus, this is how Jesus asks us to pray, that we put our hearts as if on the ground so that they do not feel its severity, but rather that we alleviate the pain of their steps. Years later, I read a book of prayers of a Saint whom I loved dearly, Jose Maria Escrivá de Balaguer, and in that book I found a prayer similar to that which the Virgin Mary taught me. Perhaps this Saint, to whom I entrust myself, pleased the Virgin Mary with those prayers.
Suddenly some characters whom I had not seen before began to stand up. It was as if from the side of each person present in the Cathedral, another person emerged and soon the Cathedral became full of young, beautiful people. They were dressed in very white robes and they started to move into the central aisle and, then, went towards the Altar.
Our Mother said: “Observe. They are the Guardian Angels of each one of the persons who are here. This is the moment in which your guardian angel carries your offerings and petitions before the Altar of the Lord.”
At that moment, I was completely astonished, because these beings had such beautiful faces, so radiant as one is unable to imagine. Their countenance was very beautiful with almost feminine faces; however, the structure of their body, their hands, their height were masculine. Their naked feet did not touch the floor, but rather they went as if gliding. That procession was very beautiful.
Some of them were carrying something as like asource golden bowl of gold with something that shone a great deal like with a golden-white light. tThe Virgin Mary said: “They are the Guardian Angels of the persons people that who are offering this Holy Mass for many intentions, those who are conscious of what this celebration means,. tThey have something to offer the Lord..”
“Offer yourselves at this moment… offer your sorrows, your pains, your hopes, your sadness, your joys, your petitions. Remember that the Mass has infinite value. Therefore, be generous in offering and in asking.”
Behind the first Angels came others who had nothing in their hands; they were coming empty handed. The Virgin Mary said: “Those are the angels of the people who are here but never offer anything. They have no interest in living each liturgical moment of the Mass and they have no gifts to carry before the Altar of the Lord.”
At the end of the procession came other angels who were rather sad, with their hands joined in prayer but with their eyes downcast. “These are the Guardian Angels of the people who are here but do not want to be, that is to say of the people who have been forced to come here, who have come out of obligation but without any desire to participate in the Holy Mass. The angels go forth sadly because they have nothing to carry to the Altar, except for their own prayers.”
“Do not sadden your Guardian Angel. Ask for much, ask for the conversion of sinners, for peace in the world, for your families, your neighbors, for those who ask for your prayers. Ask, ask for much, but not only for yourselves, but for everyone else.
“Remember that the offering which most pleases the Lord is when you offer yourselves as a holocaust so that Jesus upon His descent may transform you by His own merits. What do you have to offer the Father by yourselves? Nothingness and sin. But the offering of oneself united to the merits of Jesus, that offering is pleasing to the Father.”
That sight, that procession was so beautiful that it would be difficult to compare it to another. All those celestial creatures bowing before the Altar, some leaving their offerings on the floor, others prostrating themselves on their knees with their foreheads almost touching the floor. And as soon as they arrived at the Altar, they would disappear from my sight.
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November 5, 2006
Posted in Homilies
at 9:00 am
Thirty-first Sunday, Year B, Nov. 5, 2006
(Children’s homily at 9 & 1030)
I have something very serious to show you today . . . This skull belonged to a man named Yorick who lived a long time ago and is forgotten now by everyone except God who has welcomed him into heaven. He suffered, died, and was buried. And this is his skull. Actually, it is only a model; it is not a real human skull, so don’t be afraid!
Why am I holding this skull in my hands? Hallowe’en is over! That might have been a cool decoration to put at your front door next to the Jack-o’-lantern for Hallowe’en, but why bring it into Church?
Because this is the month of November, (the month of All Saints Day and All Souls Day) and during the WHOLE month we remember those who have died – that’s why we have the Book of Remembrance in front of the altar – we write the names of our loved ones who have died and we remember them especially during this month.
Besides remembering our loved ones who have died, is there anything we can do to help them? . . .
It is important to remember that the souls of those who have died, who are not yet in heaven, are in a place called Purgatory. And they cannot help themselves to get into heaven. They can only be helped by God, the saints, and us. They are like little babies who cannot walk and have to be carried everywhere. They have to be carried into heaven by the strong arms of Jesus and lifted up on the wings of our prayers. But they are so grateful for our help that they also help us by their prayers.
This skull is a reminder of death. It is said that St. John Fisher ate each meal with a skull on his table, so that he would remember death each day. The skull is a reminder that we’re all going to die, and that heaven is our true home. So we should spend some time thinking about death, heaven, hell, purgatory and judgement, and making some preparations by the way we live our lives. It’s nearing the end of the year, and the leaves are falling from the trees, and the days are growing darker and colder, so it is a good time to remember the end of our lives.
I have another question for you: should we be afraid of dying? . . .
It is normal to be afraid of dying,(I’m afraid of dying), but when you think about it, Christians should not be afraid of death. I can understand people being afraid of dying and going to hell, but why should we be afraid of dying and going to heaven? That’s the purpose of our lives!
Let me ask you a question: How many of you want to go to heaven? . . . OK. We’re all agreed that everyone here wants to go to heaven? . . .
This reminds me of a joke from Ireland . . . There was a priest at Mass one Sunday telling the men how disappointed he was because he had received many complaints that they were spending long nights drinking beer in the pub when they should have been home with their wives and families, to be good Christian husbands and fathers, so that they would have a long and happy life in heaven when the time would come.
All the pubs in their town were supposed to close at 11pm. Late one night the priest took a walk through town, and he could hear laughter and singing from one of the pubs. He looked at his watch and saw it was 11:30pm so he marched into the pub and shouted to O’Toole, “O’Toole, don’t you want to go to heaven?” O’Toole replied, “Oh, yes, Father, I do, I do.” “Well, step over here,” said the priest.
He did the same with each man in the pub, asking him, “don’t you want to go to heaven?” And they all answered, “Oh, yes, Father, I do, I do.” And the priest had them stand with O’Toole. But then he spied Murphy at the end of the bar with a pint of Guinness in each hand, and asked him, “And you, Murphy, don’t you want to go to heaven?” Murphy answered, “Oh, no, Father, not me, not me.”
The priest was shocked and said, “Murphy, do you mean to stand there and tell me that when you die you don’t want to go to heaven?” to which Murphy replied, “Oh, yes, Father, when I die, I want to go to heaven; I thought you were leaving right now!”
This joke may be funny, but it is also sad. Yes, we all want to go to heaven, but not now – not when we are still healthy and can enjoy all the pleasures of this world! We only want to go to heaven when we’re dying and our time is up and we have to choose – heaven or hell. Then we want to go to heaven.
This joke, which describes the human condition, actually reveals how little we human beings love God our Creator. Jesus reminds us in the Gospel of the First and Greatest Commandment: “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). But if we don’t really want to go to heaven to be with God as soon as possible, then we don’t really love God, do we?
Imagine if you had a friend who kept saying, “you and I are best friends!” But whenever you invite him over to play he always says, “Nah . . . I want to stay home and watch T.V.” And you invite him over on your birthday or a sleepover, and he says, “Nah . . . I want to stay home and play video games.” Every time you invite him, he says “nah . . . “ but he still says “you and I are best friends!”
What kind of friend is that? But that’s how we are with God. We say, “me and God are best friends! I love God!” But we would rather watch TV on earth than see God face to face in heaven. I think it’s very sad that we only love God this much (a millimeter space between two fingers) when God loves us this much – Jesus opening his arms on the Cross.
The second reading today tells us that Christ our High Priest “offered himself,”(Hebrews 7:27) in his death on Calvary, “the place of the skull.” He offered himself in sacrifice to God for love of us. He gave us everything, his whole heart, crowned with thorns and cut open with a spear. Could we give him just a little bit more of our love? (A few millimeters space between two fingers).
In this month of November, let us promise to pray each day for those who have died, and to pray for all of us gathered here today: that we will remember death, grow each day in our love of God, and that God will give us a desire to be with him forever in heaven.
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