May 27, 2007

Pentecost

Posted in Homilies at 9:00 am

Year C, May 27, 2007

What is the secret to success of the Ottawa Senators this playoff season? Were they the best team in the league during the regular season? No. Do they have the best players in the league with the biggest salaries? Not necessarily.

The general manager John Muckler explains that it’s “chemistry.” Well, what does that mean? Hockey players are not chemicals like carbon and oxygen; they’re human beings. So what does “chemistry” mean? It means the players “mix” well together; there’s a unity; there’s a certain spirit . . . a spirit that was lacking in the past. Conversely, sports writers explain that Buffalo failed because they were missing some spirit. It is said that they became full of themselves, believing they were indestructible, that players stopped trusting each other and became more self-centered and less of a team.

In every single human community, a sports team, a family, the Church, success depends on whether or not we are guided by the Lord, the Giver of Life who has spoken through the prophets – the Holy Spirit, AND what kind of spirit inspires us – the spirit of Babel or the spirit of Pentecost, as explained by Fr. Cantalamessa in his book The Mystery of Pentecost. The vigil Mass for Pentecost includes a reading from Genesis on the story of the tower of Babel — the scattering of humanity and different languages throughout the Earth. Pentecost with the gift of tongues reverses Babel and brings a new unity to the human race. Babel represents a spirit of self-centeredness in which everyone wishes to make a name for himself (Gen 11:4) like the disciples before Pentecost, who debated among themselves who was the greatest (Mk 9:34).

But the spirit of Pentecost, as we read about in the Acts of the Apostles, results in a community of one heart and mind (4:32) – to be decentered from ourselves and re-centered on God. Not to stretch the hockey analogy too far, but one might say that Buffalo competed with the spirit of Babel, with every player trying to make a name for himself, and the Senators have been playing with the spirit of Pentecost, as a team with one heart and mind.

Some people take their sports’ devotion too far. I came across a new version of the Lord’s Prayer that begins, “Our God who art in Scotiabank Place . . .” Isn’t that what used to be called . . . idolatry? But there is one good line in the prayer that reads, “Give us this day our Stanley Cup and forgive us our slashing, as we send out Neil for those who slash against us.”

I follow hockey, but I wish that the people who gather for a sort of “worship” at ScotiaBank Place would also come to worship in spirit and truth in the Church, where the Father and the Son give us their Holy Spirit of love and unity, and a joy that no one can take from us (Jn 16:22). Whereas the joy of victory in sports is not that deep, reliable or lasting. Just ask Buffalo Sabres fans.

The Holy Spirit gives us a certain “chemistry” or unity between persons, and above all a personal relationship with God. Today’s readings cover many different aspects of the Holy Spirit. The event of Pentecost highlights the gift of tongues and the spirit of prophecy that inspired the apostles to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Both Luke and Paul emphasize the charismatic gifts of the Spirit – gifts that God wants to give us as well – however, in practice these gifts seem limited to Pentecostals and Charismatic Catholics. Interestingly, John the Evangelist does not even mention the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit. Instead, he speaks of the Advocate, the Spirit of truth, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit – that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit will come and make their home with us (John 14:23). The Holy Spirit gives us a personal relationship with God. This must come first, before any charismatic or miraculous gifts.

Father Cantalamessa writes that “St. Irenaeus calls the Holy Spirit our ‘communion with God,’ and St. Basil says that ‘through the Spirit we become intimate with God.’ In the Holy Spirit we enter into direct contact with God without created intermediaries. We no longer know God ‘through hear-say’ or through go-betweens but ‘in person.’ Not from outside but from inside.” (The Mystery of Pentecost , p. 42).

“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” This is a question that St. Paul put to some people from Ephesus (?). And do you know what their answer was? “We didn’t even know that there was a Holy Spirit!” Would some Catholics say the same thing? “We didn’t even know that there was a Holy Spirit! We didn’t know that being Catholic meant we were supposed to have a personal relationship with God!”

Come, Holy Spirit, come! Come through the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well-beloved spouse! Come and teach us how to pray and enjoy a personal relationship with you and the Father and the Son! God wants to give us the Holy Spirit; Jesus is almost begging us, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn 20:22). And Jesus testifies saying to us, “If you who are evil know how to give good things to your children, how much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” (Lk 11:13). Do you want the Holy Spirit? Do you want a deeper, more intimate relationship with God? Then ask and you shall receive! (Mt 7:7)

God wants to give us the Holy Spirit TODAY! Did you already receive the Holy Spirit through the proclamation of the Word? That was God’s intention. The word of God does not merely recount a past event – the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost – but also makes it present today. Just as the words of institution of the Eucharist – “Take this all of you and eat it. This is my Body,” does not just recount the Last Supper but also makes the Body and Blood of Christ present today. It is similar to the words describing the event of Pentecost: it is not simply a recollection of a past event, for by this proclamation, we too, like the disciples 2000 years ago, are meant to be “full of the Holy Spirit” (Cantalamessa 5)

If you did not receive the Holy Spirit through the proclamation of the Word, it’s not too late because Holy Communion is also meant to fill us with the Holy Spirit. Father Cantalamessa offers this fascinating insight: the Holy Spirit gives us the Eucharist and the Eucharist gives us the Holy Spirit . . . does that make sense? : the Holy Spirit gives us the Eucharist and the Eucharist gives us the Holy Spirit. In the Eucharistic Prayer we say, “Let your Spirit come upon these gifts to make them holy” – the Holy Spirit changes the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.

Then, in the moment of eating and drinking the Body and Blood of Christ, the Holy Spirit is released within us – the Eucharist gives us the Holy Spirit, especially the Blood of Christ. Blood and wine, in colour and in heat, resemble fire, which is a sign of the Spirit. St Ephrem imagines Jesus saying to us in the Eucharist, “I give you wine to drink in which fire and Spirit are mingled” (Cantalamessa on the Eucharist, p. 49)

Even hockey players need the fire and “chemistry” of the Holy Spirit to be successful in sport. We also need the Holy Spirit of love in our families, the Holy Spirit of unity in our parish and our Church, and each one of us needs the gift of a personal, intimate and deeper relationship with God. So we pray, “Come Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of your love.”

May 20, 2007

Ascension

Posted in Homilies at 9:00 am

Year C, May 20, 2007

Are the first five years of marriage the best years or the most difficult? . . . I’ve been conducting an informal survey as I look back upon my first five years of priesthood. In any vocation, the first five years are crucial, and after that things seem to settle down. So now I can take off my work boots – as it were – and put on my slippers and simply ascend into eternal life . . . Don’t vocations like marriage or priesthood get easier with the passing years? . . . If not easier, then at least better?

I would like to share with you some reflections on my first five years of priesthood, and relate those experiences to today’s feast of the Ascension, because ultimately, every vocation is meant to help us ascend into heaven. A vocation to marriage or priesthood is not meant to de-humanize us, but divinize us, not to make us less human, but more human, and to raise us up to holiness of life.

In my first five years of priesthood, God has presented me with both gifts and challenges that I was not expecting. First, I was surprised by the burden of responsibility of being a pastor of souls. The Seminary prepares us very well to be priests, but gives us little training in being pastors and administrators of a parish. So I thank all of you for being patient with me as I have been learning how to be a father and a shepherd of souls. And thank you to all those who collaborate with me in my ministry — to every single person who works or volunteers in our parish. Without your help, I would have been overwhelmed by the burden of being a pastor, but with your collaboration and prayers, my ministry has been not only a challenge but also a joy.

And please forgive my mistakes and my sins. If ever I have been lacking in charity in my zeal for preaching the Gospel without compromise, forgive me. To anyone I may have hurt through what I have done or failed to do, please forgive me.

Something else that I was not expecting was the extent of the impotent but very real malice and fury of the devil. One way that God has made it more obvious to me how much he loves you and how precious to him is every single human soul is by revealing how much the devil hates you and hates priests especially. My brothers and sisters, believe me that Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat (Lk 22:31), and he has done everything in his power to strike the shepherd and scatter the sheep (Mk 14:27), to destroy the pastor in order to devour you, the sheep of God’s flock.

But the devil is like a chained dog who growls and barks but cannot harm us, as long as Christ lives in us through the sacraments, and we are kept safe in the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who from the first moment of her Immaculate Conception has crushed the devil’s proud head.

The burden of responsibility of being a pastor, and the fury of the devil have been two challenges of my first five years of priesthood. But the gifts and graces far outweigh any of the difficulties. I mention one in particular – the gift of freedom of heart, freedom from the depressing bondage of sin, the chains that weigh us down and prevent us from ascending to the Father. I’m not saying that I am entirely free, (I still struggle almost every day, and God in his gentle mercy provides for many people and events that remind me of my weaknesses almost every day), but I can honestly say that God in his infinite mercy has given me a greater freedom of heart than I can ever remember having in my entire life, because even as a little boy I can remember a dark cloud of sadness hanging over me.

Scripture testifies that God raises the poor from the dust, and from the ash-heap or dung-hill he lifts up the needy, to give them a place among princes (Psalm 113:7-8). I see in these words a reflection of my own vocation. As the letter to the Hebrews relates, in Christ we have a high priest who is holy, blameless, undefiled, separated from sinners (7:26). In this priest, you have one whom God has raised up from the ash-heap or dung-hill of his sins, to clothe him with the dignity of the alb, stole and chasuble of the priesthood. Why? So that all sinners might hope in God’s mercy, because he wants to free all of us from our bondage to sin, so that all of us can ascend into the sanctuary of heaven, where Christ our high priest is seated at the right hand of the Father.

In today’s preface we pray, “Today, the Lord Jesus, the king of glory, ascended into heaven . . . Christ is the beginning, the head of the Church; where he has gone, we hope to follow.” In our union with Jesus Christ, our Lord and King, we are already seated at the right hand of the Father – that is our destiny. But before we ascend, we must be set free from sin.

Today’s second reading from the letter to the Hebrews makes it very clear. How does Christ save us? First, “Christ offered himself to take away the sins of many” (9:28), to free us from sin. Then he ascended into the sanctuary of heaven to appear in the presence of God on our behalf (9:24), and through him we have confidence of entrance into heaven (10:19). It is very clear. Does anyone here want to enter one day the sanctuary of heaven? Then we must be purified and set free from the bondage of all our sins. As John of the Cross reminds us, a bird can be kept from flight by a tiny silk string — the smallest attachment to sin.

I want to address this exhortation to youth especially: Believe me, it is easier to walk around the pit than to climb out of it once you have fallen into it. It is easier to give the devil a wide berth than to remove his claws from your heart once you have come under his influence. It is easier to ascend into heaven if we do not first have to spend years climbing out of hell. In short, it is much easier to avoid sin than to suffer the pain and agony of purification from sin. Trust me. I know what I am talking about from personal experience.

To the youth especially I say: Do not compromise with sin. Do not shake hands with the devil. Do not be a lover of this world, (and idolize anything in this world) for if you do, as Scripture testifies, then you make yourself a slave of sin (John 8:34) and an enemy of God (James 4:4).

All our vocations, whether to priesthood or marriage, or the vocation of a baptized Christian, are meant to humanize and divinize us, to raise us up to holiness of life and so that ultimately we can ascend into the kingdom of heaven. May our Holy Communion today, our sharing in the Body and Blood of the risen Christ now seated at the right hand of the Father, continue to set us free from our sins and increase our longing for heaven. And may Mary the Mother of God and our Mother obtain for us all the graces we need to grow in holiness and happiness each day.

May 13, 2007

Peace I Leave With You

Posted in Homilies at 9:00 am

Homily for the Sixth Sunday Of Easter

May 13, 2007

We are heading into the final two weeks of the Easter Season, next Sunday being the celebration of the Ascension, then Pentecost the following Sunday. So, it is interesting that today’s Gospel is a passage taken from Jesus’ words to the Apostles at the Last Supper. Even though these were spoken before His death and resurrection, they speak to us of important truths as we anticipate His return to the Father at the Ascension.

At this point on Holy Thursday, Jesus has already washed the feet of the Apostles, and Judas Iscariot has left the group. In chapters 13 through 17 of the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks at great length of what is to come. These men He is gathered with are not just His closest followers, they are His friends. “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you. I do not give as the world gives.” The term Jesus uses is Shalom. This Hebrew word is generally translated into English as “peace”, but that is a simplistic rendering of a very rich expression. Shalom connotes completeness, wholeness, fulfilment – everything in life being as it should be. We tend to equate peace with the absence of war or conflict, but it is much more than that. Peace in our lives, in our souls, goes far deeper. It is a sincere peace that assures us we are truly loved by God. It is not the world’s peace; Jesus says it is His peace. The peace we search for is the peace that only comes from Christ. It is a peace the world cannot give us, and that we will never find if we look for it anywhere other than God. This is the peace that comes from His presence in our lives. It flows from Him. It is Jesus Himself, living and acting in us, and through us. Sometimes, it is us bringing Christ’s peace, being Christ’s peace, to others. The more we work, not for ourselves, but for the glory of God, the more we find peace. The more we keep Christ’s word because we love Him, the more His peace will live in us, and the less our hearts will be troubled or afraid. We see this in the lives of many Christians who go through trials and even tragedies. Yes, they suffer, and they grieve, but they do so with a level of peace that comes to them through their faith in and love of Christ.

Loving Christ means truly loving others as He loves us, helping us to resolve our differences justly. Creating world peace is not within our power. God gave all humans free will, and there are always some who will abuse that gift, and through their aggression either start war or require that others go to war to stop them. But, we can begin a move toward peace in our small circles of influence, even within ourselves. Are we at peace with our own conscience? Are we patient with ourselves, and others? Do we pray for peace, not just peace in the world, but peace in our country, in our community, in our family? In our efforts to bring peace, we must always realize that there is only one true peace giver, and that is the Lord, our God. It is only in cooperation with Him that we will achieve any peace.

Sometimes, we are shown ways to facilitate that cooperation. This weekend marks the 90th anniversary of the Blessed Mother’s first appearance at Fatima. Jesus sent His most Holy mother with messages for all humanity. On May 13, 1917, the Blessed Virgin appeared to three peasant children. She encouraged praying the Rosary and devotion to her Immaculate Heart, for the salvation of souls, and for peace. It is from the messages of Fatima that the First Saturday devotion originated. Beginning with the consecration of the parish to the Immaculate Heart last week, we have the opportunity to participate in this devotion on the first Saturday of each month.

I won’t spend too much time on the details of Fatima, but if you are not very familiar with those events, I highly recommend that you learn more about them. One excellent book is this one, “Our Lady of Fatima”, by William T. Walsh. I checked this afternoon and it is currently available online at Chapters. There is also a very good overview in this month’s Columbia magazine. Be cautious about what you read regarding Fatima. There are some gloom and doom interpretations of the Fatima messages out there from a few extreme elements. But, Our Lady came, not with despair, but with hope. It is a hope for all of us, her children, who pray for peace, and work for peace. Not peace as the world gives, but shalom that comes from Christ.

May 6, 2007

Pro-Life Sunday

Posted in Homilies at 9:00 am

Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year C, 6 May 2007, Children’s Homily

Children, on this Pro-Life Sunday I would like to begin by showing you some pictures. These are ultrasound pictures of a baby in the womb. The first was taken at was 21 weeks old and the baby’s heartbeat can be heard and the baby can “swim around” in the womb. The second one is taken at 32 weeks and you can see how the baby has grown: his/her face, nose and mouth fill the picture!

This is a baby of friends of mine that they were showing us at a baby shower last week. It’s sort of like a birthday party for the baby before he or she is born. And we should celebrate!

Pope John Paul II wrote in this book called The Gospel of Life, that we should sing “songs of joy, praise and thanksgiving for the priceless gift of life” (#83), and that we should bless God our Father who knitted us together in our mother’s womb and saw us and loved us while we were still without form (Look at pro-life banner) (#84, Psalm 139: 13, 15-16).

I remember hearing this story of Mother Theresa while she was working in India, how one day she found a baby in the garbage! She picked him up and brought him home and she and her sisters took care of him. Why would a mother throw her baby in the garbage? . . .

Maybe the mother was poor and the father of the baby left her alone, and she was afraid she couldn’t take care of the baby by herself. We don’t know. But we do know that far too many babies in our world are not even given a chance to live and before they are even born they are killed and thrown in the garbage.

In Canada every day, we throw 300 babies in the garbage. The population of the town of Russell is about 3500. Imagine if some mean giant would grab all the people of Russell and kill them and throw them in the garbage – and do that every 12 days! But in Canada, that’s what we do to many of our own children.

What can we do? Some people think that this is such a big problem that will never change so we might as well give up. But that’s not what Jesus would do – give up in the face of evil. No, we must pray and fast, love and sacrifice until evil is defeated and good wins out in the end.

In the history of our Church and society, there are many examples of long battles between good and evil, life and death. In the end, life always conquers death; good always beats evil.

For example, has anyone ever heard of slaves? Do you know what a slave is? It is a person treated like garbage, like an animal or a thing owned by another person. A long time ago, white people had black people from Africa working for them as slaves, and countries like England made a lot of money in the “slave-trade,” bringing slaves from Africa to America. And many Christian people and politicians said, “I don’t personally agree with trading slaves, but there’s nothing I can do about it.”

But there was one man in England named William Wilberforce who said, “Wait a minute! What do you mean, ‘there’s nothing I can do about it’? I thought Jesus said, ‘love one another as I have loved you’ – that means black people too! And ‘whatever you do to the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you do to me.’ So I am not going to rest until we change the laws in our country to put an end to the slave-trade so that black people will no longer be treated like garbage, but human beings.” After many years of fighting for justice, finally Wilberforce and his friends succeeded in changing the law in England, and the slave-trade was ended in 1807 – 200 years ago this year. We need pro-life heroes like Wilberforce today, to protect the dignity of human life from conception to natural death.

There’s an excellent movie about his life playing right now in Ottawa called Amazing Grace, which I highly recommend. Seeing that movie inspired me to get off my butt and go to the Hike for Life for the first time in years. I thank all those who sponsored me; we raised over $200 to promote the Gospel of Life through pro-life commercials and the other work of Action Life.
Has anyone heard of that hymn “Amazing Grace”? It was written by a man who used to be a slave-trader and then he became a Christian. In the movie, he talks with William Wilberforce and tells him, “we treated those black people like animals, but we were the real animals.” The same thing could be said about how we treat babies in Canada before they’re born. When we treat them like garbage and throw them away, we are the ones who become rotten and stinking. They are the ones who are now living in heaven; we are the ones living in a hell of our own making, whenever we refuse God’s greatest gift, the gift of life.

At my friends’ baby shower, my mother was there and she was telling me that the mother of the baby had a prayer book with a special prayer to say each day of her pregnancy. While she was reading one prayer, my friend, the father, started crying. A grown man crying! Why? Because he is so happy that God has blessed him and his wife with the greatest gift of all – the gift of a child.

So remember children, on this Pro-Life Sunday, that we must sing “songs of joy, praise and thanksgiving for the priceless gift of life” (#83), and bless God our Father who knitted us together in our mother’s womb and saw us and loved us while we were still without form (#84, Psalm 139: 13, 15-16), and never grow tired of shouting out loud from the street corners and rooftops, “that’s not garbage, that’s a baby, a human being, a child of God! Do not kill! Choose life!”

Children I will let you go back to your seats while I share one comment about Holy Communion by Pope John Paul II, and his prayer to Mary at the end of his encyclical The Gospel of Life.

We are about to begin the Liturgy of the Eucharist, in which we receive the Body and Blood of Christ. The blood of Abel and all the martyrs and all the murdered children cries out from the ground for justice, but the blood of Christ speaks more eloquently, crying out for mercy on us and on the whole world. John Paul II writes, “it is from the blood of Christ that all draw the strength to commit themselves to promoting life. It is precisely this blood that is the most powerful source of hope, indeed it is the foundation of the absolute certitude that in God’s plan life will be victorious” (#25).

I will end with John Paul II’s prayer to Mary:

O Mary, bright dawn of the new world,
Mother of the living, to you do we entrust the cause of life.
Look down, O Mother, upon the vast numbers of babies not allowed to be born,
of the poor whose lives are made difficult, of men and women who are victims of brutal violence, of the elderly and the sick killed by indifference or out of misguided mercy.
Grant that all who believe in your Son may proclaim the Gospel of life with honesty and love to the people of our time.
Obtain for them the grace to accept that Gospel as a gift ever new, the joy of celebrating it with gratitude throughout their lives and the courage to bear witness to it resolutely, in order to build, together with all people of good will, the civilization of truth and love, to the praise and glory of God, the Creator and lover of life.