Wednesday 3rd Week OT @ CCFW-West & Legatus

HOMILY - WEDNESDAY OF THE THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
JANUARY 30, 2019
4:30 PM, 6:00 PM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASSES



It’s always a bit of a challenge to preach on a Gospel passage where following a lengthy parable – a wisdom story, of sorts – Our Lord, Himself, provides an explanation to His disciples. The preacher gets left holding the bag trying to explain the explanation of the Son of God – the Word made flesh – as if Jesus didn’t do it well enough Himself.

Indeed, Jesus Christ is always a hard act to follow.

But there is a bit of an ‘exit strategy’ in todays readings; since they quote from a variety of sources.



In His explanation of the Parable of the Sower, Jesus quotes the Prophet Isaiah – specifically Isaiah chapter 6 verses 9 and 10. In answering the question: What’s up with all the parables? Jesus says:

The mystery of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you.But to those outside everything comes in parables, so thatthey may look and see but not perceive,and hear and listen but not understand,in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.

This certainly sounds “exclusive.” Which begs the question, has Jesus gone “rogue” and is now looking to build a wall to keep people out? Next thing you know, he’s going to do something crazy like:

… drive out those selling and buying [in the Temple, and] overturn … the tables of the money changers …

But seriously. Let’s dig a little deeper.



The quote from Isaiah immediately follows the prophet’s call. Isaiah describes a vision of the throne room of Almighty God, surrounded by six-winged seraphim, who are crying out “Holy, holy, holy!” The door frame shakes, and the place fills with smoke … and Isaiah freaks out. He figures he’s going to die because he’s seen God … and that’s what’s supposed to happen to you when you see God. You die.

But God meets him halfway. He sends a seraphim with an ember from the altar … touches Isaiah’s lips, and “[his] wickedness is removed, [and his] sin is purged.”

And then God gives Isaiah a prophetic message for the people:

Listen carefully, but do not understand!Look intently, but do not perceive!… Lest [your] heart understandand [you] turn and be healed.

In other words, this is hardly exclusive – it’s a warning to repent.

Isaiah is confronting a corrupt and self-assured people. They have no time for prophets. And they have no interest in messages from God.



“The mystery of the Kingdom of God” which Jesus wraps in parables and stories is certainly not difficult to understand. John 3:16 tells us:

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.

Ten chapters later in John’s Gospel, Jesus quotes this same section of Isaiah … right before He washes the disciples feet at the Last Supper.



And Peter, quick to jump to conclusions, refuses.

It’s Peter who pushes Jesus away. It’s Peter who puts up the wall. And it’s Peter who doesn’t want to come inside.

And is it any different for any one of us?

The mystery of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you.

Look and perceive. Hear and understand.

The Kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent. And believe in the Gospel.

3rd Sunday OT @ St. Apollinaris Parish

HOMILY - THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
JANUARY 27, 2019
9:00 AM, 5:30 PM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASSES



The Pennsylvania System – as applied to prisons or penitentiaries – arose in the early 19th Century in Pennsylvania and New York.

Prior to this penitential novelty, individuals could be imprisoned in work houses for idleness or vagrancy. Other petty crimes were punished by fines, whippings, or public humiliation.



The unique feature of the Pennsylvania System was that the punishment for ones’ crime was to sit in a room waiting out ones sentence in solitary confinement. Sort of like a giant “time out.” The idea was to place a criminal in a situation free from the temptations of the world, and to allow him to contemplate the moral lessons he had previously ignored.

Current prisons, it would seem, combine features of workhouses, humiliation, and the idealism of first penitentiaries.

Today is the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time.



The first reading comes from the Book of Nehemiah, which is an historical record of the return of the Babylonian exiles to the Promised Land after 70 years of captivity in Babylon. Ezra the priest reads the entirety of the Law – that is, most likely, the Five Books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) – as they seek to re-establish their historical form of worship and re-learn their national and cultural identity.

The Psalm spoke of God’s Word being Spirit and life – while praising God’s Law (and decrees, precepts, commands, and ordinances) in the verses.



God’s Law is not meant to be a penal system – or a punishment. Rather, it instructs us in freedom – freedom from slavery … or captivity to sin, the flesh, or the world.

Sin is not necessarily merely the breaking of an arbitrary rule. Sin is a disordered act or affection – in other words something out of order with God’s Will for us.

To live in God’s Will is freedom – an opportunity to live in God’s grace in this world, and abide in His glory for eternity.



This is the the “liberty” and “freedom” that Jesus is speaking about when He reads from the Prophet Isaiah in the Gospel.

Of course a mere eight verses later in Luke’s Gospel,

[The people] rose up, drove [Jesus] out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong.

Nobody likes to be held captive. Or worse, to find out that what they thought was freedom is in reality bondage. As Americans, I believe, we all take great pride in our freedoms and liberties. But despite the civil order, the spiritual reality is, “all have sinned” … yet the promise is that we “are justified freely by [God’s] grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus”



We are given a choice every moment of every day: death or life … freedom or captivity.

Freedom is found in Jesus Christ – He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life … Freedom is found in living a life for Christ – through, with, and in Him … Freedom is found in a life of grace – abiding in Faith, Hope, and Love.

As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ – let us come to Him seeking to receive true Freedom as children of God, redeemed in Christ, and filled with His Holy Spirit.

2nd Sunday OT @ St. Apollinaris Parish

HOMILY - SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
JANUARY 20, 2019
9:00 AM, 5:30 PM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASSES



A hat trick in ice hockey is when a player scores three goals in the same game.

Currently, when a player scores a hat trick - that is three goals - fans toss their own hats onto the ice.

The origins are a bit murkier lost in the history of the early 20th century.

Multiple sources in different cities claim that local haberdashers - that is hat-makers - would make a gift of a fedora to any player who achieved three goals. While this appears to be the official story upheld by the Hockey Hall of Fame, which places the occurrence in Chicago in the 1940s. Toronto, Montreal, and Guelph all claim to have been the origin.

Yet, the term was in use already in the 1930s. And the term “hat trick” was so well known by the 1940s that the Amateur Hockey Association was giving away small silver derbies – sort of like the Monopoly playing piece – by the mid 1940s.

Wayne Gretzky holds the record for the most career hat tricks – with 50 under his belt. The first hat trick was scored in 1917, while the fastest “perfect” hat trick – that is, three scores in a row – is 21 seconds.

A humorous variation, named after a Detroit Red Wings player, is the Gordie Howe hat-trick: scoring a goal, getting an assist, and then getting in a fight.

Wherever it came from, it is part of the language of ice hockey to this day.

Today is the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time. 

Our Gospel reading is from the second chapter of St. John’s Gospel – the Wedding Feast at Cana.

The Wedding at Cana is sort of third piece of a “hat trick” of Gospel events known as “theophanies.” A theophany is a visible manifestation of God. 

As John tells us, this is Jesus’s first miracle, and yet it is the third theophany.

The other two have been played out over the past several weeks in the Epiphany – when Jesus is first recognized by the Gentiles as “king and God and sacrifice;” and in the Baptism of the Lord – where as Jesus comes out of the water, the Trinity is shown forth in the Father’s voice, the Son – in Jesus himself – and the Holy Spirit descending like a dove.

In St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he points out a sort of “hat-trick” to remind us that:

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God …

In Paul’s time, as in ours, there were divisions among Christians – not just what we might consider denominational differences – but even with individual communities. St. Paul wants to emphasize that no matter what your role, we are called to unity in the Trinity. There is one God, one Lord, and one Spirit. And if the we acknowledge three divine Persons united in the Trinity – then through the grace and power of that same God – we should seek to resolve and remove any and all divisions among Christians.

In the first reading from Isaiah, we hear that God will not be silent until Israel is reconciled to Him, and until all nations are reconciled through, with, and in Him. 

As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, and as we will shortly profess the Creed – our belief in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – that we might be united in Christ Jesus, by the power of God … so that as we are filled with the Spirit of God, we might make manifest in the world the saving power of the Most Holy Trinity – in whom we have been baptized.

Epiphany @ St. Apollinaris Parish

HOMILY - THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD
JANUARY 6, 2019
4:30 PM (SAT), 7:30 AM, 9:00 AM, 5:30 PM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASSES
12:00 NOON EXTRAORDINARY FORM (LATIN) MASS



Henry Van Dyke - a Presbyterian minister, author, and statesman - was born in 1830 in Germantown, Pennsylvania. He taught English Literature at Princeton University and lectured at the University of Paris. President Woodrow Wilson appointed him Minister to the Netherlands and Luxembourg. He also wrote the lyrics for the hymn “Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee,” which many of us are familiar with.

Van Dyke wrote two Christmas stories: The First Christmas Tree - in 1897; and before that The Other Wise Man - in 1896.



In the story, The Other Wise Man, Van Dyke writes about a fictional fourth wise man who it would seem was always a little bit behind schedule.

On his way to rendezvous with the three magi, he stops to help a dying man - and so is late. By the time he arrives, their caravan has set out across the desert. He is forced to sell 1/3 of his treasure to finance his own journey to Bethlehem.



When he arrives in Bethlehem, it is in the midst of the slaughter of the innocents by King Herod. The Holy Family has already fled to Egypt; and this wise man again uses 1/3 of his treasure to save the life of a child by paying off the troops sent to kill the children.

For thirty-three years he travels around - always just a few steps behind Jesus - living his life as a pilgrim and as one seeking for Jesus. When he finally finds Jesus, it is in Jerusalem ... on Good Friday. He is again distracted, using the last 1/3 of his treasure to ransom a young woman from being sold into slavery.



At the death of Jesus, the sun is darkened, and the earth shakes. Our fourth wise man is trapped under a falling stone at the temple. He feels that he has failed in his life’s quest - having never met Jesus ... and spending his treasure which was intended for the Christ Child, the newborn King, so many years before.

As he is dying - filled with remorse - he hears a voice that tells him:
 Verily I say unto thee, Inasmuch as thou hast done it 
 unto one of the least of these my brethren, 
 thou hast done it unto me.

That is, despite what appeared to be failures to achieve his own life’s goal, he had lived out the Beatitudes in his acts of mercy and charity. And in that sense, had not only met Jesus - but had served as the hands and feet of Christ in the world.



For ourselves, especially around this time of year, we make “New Year’s Resolutions.” To lose weight, or read more, or work harder, or be nicer. Whatever they may be. And more often than not, it only lasts a couple of day or maybe weeks.

At the end of the Gospel reading we hear that the Magi did not return the way they came, but that they “departed … by another way.”

There is a significance to this final line. To truly meet Christ Jesus in the flesh means to be transformed … to be changed. As Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen noted,

No one who ever meets Christ with a good will returns the same way as [they] came.

And so, as we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ; let us pray for the graces to truly be renewed by Christ’s presence among us. May we discover Him always in our daily lives … and be His hands and His feet … His mouth and His ears … out and about … in the world.

Mary, Mother of God @ St. Apollinaris Parish

HOMILY - THE SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD (OCTAVE DAY OF CHRISTMAS)
JANUARY 1, 2019
8:00 AM ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASS
12:00 NOON EXTRAORDINARY FORM (LATIN) MASS



Several years ago, my sainted mother asked me around this time of the year:

What happened to the Feast of the Circumcision?

Now, I’m sure there’s no other word that can cause a grown man to cringe physically – except maybe “Romantic Comedy” – just kidding … but indeed, what happened to this feast?

Looking online at a liturgical resource, we have the Feast of the Circumcision going back into the 13th and 14th centuries; and it is recorded in the Missal before the Tridentine reforms in 1568, and continues to exist until 1955 when it is called quite simply “The Octave Day of Christmas.”



Which is strange, since it is quite biblical, and this is read at Mass today:

When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Fifteen years later, in 1970, to make things even more confusing, the feast was renamed for a Roman feast day celebrated in the time of the Fathers of the Church called the “Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God.”



Historically, for the Chosen People, circumcision was the very physical sign of their covenant with God. The entirety of Chapter 17 of Genesis is devoted to this covenant. In the 1962 liturgy it is not read at all in any Mass, and in the 1970 liturgy (no pun intended) it seems we get a cut-and-paste version of Chapter 17 in our Lectionary readings (if at all) on the Friday of the 12th Week of Ordinary Time every other year; and on the Thursday of the 5th Week of Lent every year.

So what’s it all about?

Oddly, or interestingly, the 500 plus year old prayers associated with this day are unchanged. So, whatever we call it, it’s basically the same Mass.

Circumcision has multiple purposes in the ancient world.

One consideration is hygiene. Even in today’s modern era, it seems to provide protection against some diseases.

Another was as a sign of membership in a tribe. This is still seen in parts of the Middle East and Africa.

It could also be a sign of defeat or submission. Ancient warfare often had all men of fighting age slaughtered after a surrender. This was considered a less brutal way of marking a defeated tribe or nation.



So what does this have to do with Jesus?

First, this “marked” Jesus as a descendent of Abraham and the prophecy in Genesis 17 that Abraham (at the age of 99) would father a son Israel who would bring about an enormous family of descendants, one of whom – the anointed one, the Messiah, would save Israel and be a blessing to all nations.

So, Jesus, through the Circumcision becomes of the tribe of Abraham.

Also, Abraham, at the age of 99, took this mark as a sign of submission to God. And it was passed on for thousands of years to all of his descendants. It reminds us of the earliest covenant with Abraham and the anticipation of Israel for thousands of years.



Finally, it is a foreshadowing of Christ’s ultimate sacrifice on the Cross. Because in fulfilling this Jewish ritual, His most Precious Blood was spilled for the first time. For indeed, there is but a short distance between the wood of the Creche and the wood of the Cross.

And so, Mom, what happened to the Feast of the Circumcision? It’s still here. But the names have been changed – perhaps out of a mid-century prissiness, perhaps out of a hyper-historicity – I’m just not sure.

But the Feast of the Circumcision reminds of us Jesus’s connection to Abraham, as well as His total submission to the Will of His Father, and commemorates the first shedding of His Blood as a foreshadowing of His Passion.



As we approach this altar to receive the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, let us – in looking at the Creche see a foreshadowing of the Cross. And on this the eighth day – the day of Jesus’s Circumcision – may we circumcise our hearts, as St. Paul says, surrendering them to the power of God Almighty … and as a sign of our kinship to God in Christ.