30th Sunday OT @ St. Apollinaris Parish

HOMILY - THIRTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
OCTOBER 28, 2018
7:30 AM, 9:00 AM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASSES



“The Jesus Prayer” or the “Prayer of the Heart” is an eastern Church prayer form consisting of repetitions of the prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner” oftentimes synchronized with ones breathing.

The 19th century book “The Way of a Pilgrim” tells the tale of a wandering pilgrim who travels through southern and central Ukraine, Russia, and Siberia.

The pilgrim’s journey begins when he is struck by the words of St. Paul in First Thessalonians to “pray without ceasing.” He visits monasteries and churches hoping to find someone who will explain to him … how … to pray without ceasing – but without much success.



He finally meets a wizened old religious, who teaches him the Jesus Prayer.

The remainder of the book details the progression of spiritual development of the author – amidst his own struggles – and how his practice of the Jesus prayer affects him … and those around him.

Today is the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

We hear in the Psalm Response:

The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.

Do we recognize the great things God has done for us? Are we filled with joy?



The first reading from the Prophet Jeremiah speaks of the same things that the verses of the Psalm speak of … restoration of the people of God … and the joy that they have experienced in response to that restoration.

In a sense, Israel has experienced a loss – and God has restored what they have lost.



The Letter to the Hebrews speaks of Christ’s priesthood – and His “offer[ing of] gifts and sacrifices for sin” in order to restore us – the members of His Body – to what our spiritual inheritance.

And in the Gospel, we hear the story of Blind Bartimaeus.

He cries out:

Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.

And despite the crowd telling him to stop,

he kept calling out all the more.

As Bartimaeus continues calling out, Jesus calls him.



He gets up. Throws aside his cloak, and goes to Jesus.

In a short exchange, Jesus asks him what he wants, he responds in the simplest of petitions, and immediately he received what he asked for, and followed Jesus on the way.

The prayer of Bartimaeus is nothing more than the prayer of the heart. He was single-minded in what he wanted. He threw aside the only thing he had to come when Christ called him, and in faith made his request, and received.



As we continue with our prayer in this Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; and as we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ … let us pray from our heart … in simplicity … and focused on Christ alone – who can save us … let us recognize the Great High Priest here before us, and crying out to Him:

Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner

May we recognize the great things God has done for us, and let us receive … and be filled with joy.

29th Sunday OT @ St. Apollinaris Parish

HOMILY - TWENTY-NINTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
OCTOBER 20 / 21, 2018
4:30 PM (SAT), 9:00 AM, 5:30 PM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASSES



Barbara Kellerman is a professor of public leadership at the JFK School of Government at Harvard University; and was one of the founders of the International Leadership Association. Forbes ranked her among the top 50 business thinkers, and she is considered one of the top 15 best minds on leadership.

Her recent works have focused on the role of what she calls “followership,” as well as bad leadership, and the waning of traditional models of leadership.



She enumerates seven categories of “bad” leaders: (1) incompetent, (2) rigid, (3) intemperate, (4) callous, (5) corrupt, (6) insular, and (7) evil. While enumerating five types of followers: (1) isolates, (2) bystanders, (3) participants, (4) activists, and (4) diehards – categorized by their levels of engagement and participation.

Dr. Kellerman has indicated that there is a lot a person can learn about being a good leader by being a good follower.

Today is the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time.



Our first reading is from the 53rd Chapter of Isaiah – one of the “Suffering Servant Songs.” Christians have considered this to be the Person of Jesus Christ as evidenced in its being referenced in the Gospels of Matthew and John, the Acts of the Apostles, and St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans.

The “Servant” is Jesus, and His offering to God is His Life, Passion, and Death.

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews portrays Our Lord’s self-offering into the role of High Priest, encouraging Christians (ourselves included) to approach the Throne of Almighty God through Christ Jesus, in order “to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.”



The short Gospel reading from St. Mark is part of an optional longer reading, where first James and John are looking for prime seating in the Kingdom – that is, they want to sit at Jesus’s left and right. He, however, calls them to a higher purpose – to share in His “cup” and in His “baptism.” And indeed, James was the first Apostle to suffer martyrdom in Jerusalem, and John lived a life of suffering in exile.

We see in succession how last week the man who approached Jesus “went away sad, for he had many possessions.” Instead of bringing him happiness, the things he owned ended up owning him … and holding him back from following Jesus.



And today, the disciples are lobbying and jockeying for power … focusing on defective, worldly models of leadership … instead of focusing on following Christ – who is right there, in front of them.

Jesus’s call to follow Him requires us to re-evaluate how, who, and what we are following. And in choosing to follow Christ, we must follow His example of service to God’s Most Holy Will. We must follow Him, and Him alone, so that we can share in His power … and can reign with Him in the Glory of the Kingdom.



When we hear the word “authority,” we should recognize our own need to surrender to God who is the “Author” of life and the “Author” of all things. Further reading in the Book of Hebrews, would bring us to reflect on our own self-surrender to Christ Jesus, who is called the Author “and Perfecter of our faith,” and how that should influence us in our daily life as followers of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ – let us pray to let go of worldly ideas of power, possession, and prestige – and surrender everything to God through Christ Jesus in the grace and mercy of the Holy Spirit. May we serve as Jesus served – through a complete self-gift and through a complete self-offering to God… in every thought, word, and deed.

27th Sunday OT @ St. Apollinaris Parish

HOMILY - TWENTY-SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
OCTOBER 7, 2018
4:30 PM (SAT), 7:30AM, 9:00 AM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASSES



On July 22, 1962 … the deep space probe Mariner 1 was launched. Due to a software glitch, the range safety officer ordered it to self-destruct less than 300 seconds after launch.

38 days later, on August 27, its successor probe, Mariner 2, was launched. 110 days later, on December 14, it became the first spacecraft to encounter the planet Venus.



No photographs were taken. Rather, its instrumentation consisted of a microwave radiometer, an infrared radiometer, a magnetometer, and a Geiger counter.

19 days later, it stopped transmitting radio signals; but remains in a solar orbit to this day.



Mariner 3 was launched 23 months later with the intention of encountering Mars. However, it failed to deploy its solar panels, and eight (8) hours into the flight, the batteries died.

Mariner 4 was launched 3 weeks later, and after 7 and a half months, reached Mars. Over the course of six hours, 22 photographs were transmitted (twice), and the data was hand drawn – like a paint-by-number – while waiting for the computers to digitally process the data.



In total, 634 kilobytes of data was returned, and after 3 years and 23 days, the mission was terminated.

Now, over 50 years later, the search for Martian life remains on-going, with a long-term goal of attempting to return samples from Mars to Earth for more in-depth testing.



Our efforts to encounter extra-terrestrial life continues, without success … yet.

Today is the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time.



Our readings focus on relationships – in particular marriage, children, and family.

Beyond mere interpersonal relationships – family relationships can cause great joy, or great stress. In life and in death, people oftentimes struggle to express the emotional and familial relationships in a positive way; while others experience deep and constructive levels of understanding, trust, and affection.



I have often wondered how – when it is so hard for so many to communicate within our own households and families … let alone between nations and ethnicities – how we expect to ever communicate with intelligent extra-terrestrial life … should we ever encounter it.

From infancy to old age, perhaps the best summary statement on relationships within families … and without … is that they are complex, often awkward, and many times difficult.



In the letter to the Hebrews, we hear that Jesus, in becoming “lower than the angels” for “a little while” is not “ashamed to call [us]” family. And that should give us pause.

The Sacrament of Baptism gives us new birth into the family of God; while the Sacrament of Matrimony makes husbands and wives sharers in God’s creative act, and presents the saving reality of Jesus Christ as a symbol of His love for the Church.



Our role, in all of this – whether in familial, parochial, or other relationships – is to unite ourselves with God in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit … so that we might manifest in all of our relationships the power of divine love as expressed in the relationships found within the Most Holy Trinity.

The Sacrament of the Eucharist gives us the strength to do that on a regular basis, while the Sacrament of Confirmation configures us for mission in the power of the Holy Spirit. And the Sacrament of Penance provides us with a means to bring God’s power into our struggles and weaknesses … so that we might better – day by day – put into practice the Faith we profess to believe.



In all the Sacraments, God has provided us the means to grow in Faith, Hope, and Love with Him … and to express His saving presence in our lives with those we encounter in our lives.

As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ – may we encounter the Divine Persons in an extra-temporal and extra-spatial way. Let us engage the saving power of the Cross in our every thought, word, and deed … so that in all of our relationships – both human and Divine – we may find an encounter with the living Christ … Jesus Christ … as Brother, and Savior, and Lord.