Ascension Sunday @ St. Vincent de Paul Parish

HOMILY - ASCENSION SUNDAY
MAY 24, 2020
ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASS



William Randolph Hearst was born in 1863, and was a famous ... maybe infamous ... newspaper publisher whose journalistic holdings reached nearly 30 newspapers across the nation.

One of Hearst’s enduring legacies is Hearst Castle. Construction began in 1919 on 240 thousand acres of land overlooking the Pacific Ocean at San Simeon.

Each room is furnished with art and antiques brought over from Europe. Hearst was such a passionate collector of antiques and artistic works, that aside from his castle at San Simeon which was filled with all sorts of priceless treasures; he also had warehouses full of untold treasure.



Supposedly, while reading a magazine on art, he came across a photo of a reproduction of a particular work of art. He called his agent in New York to locate and purchase the original work. After several months, the agent had failed to locate the work ... and Hearst fired him on the spot; hiring a private detective to continue the search.

After nearly two years, and over $100,000 financing this search, the detective returned with good news and bad news.

The good news, of course, was that he had found the painting.

The bad news was, that it lay in one of Hearst’s warehouses ... having been purchased over seven years before. The treasure he had worked so hard to possess ... had been his all along. If only he’d known.



Today is the Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord. In two of the readings, we hear accounts of Jesus’ ascension 40 days after His resurrection on Easter.

In the Second Reading, St. Paul gives a theological account of what this should mean for Christian believers.



St. Paul prays that his readers might receive a “Spirit of wisdom and revelation” so as to gain knowledge in four specific areas so that Christian believers might be united with Christ in glory.

(1) The first is that we might know God, and His Son Jesus Christ. There are, of course, two sorts of knowledge. We can know “about” someone - facts and figures, measurements and statistics. But to truly know a person ... requires an experiential knowledge ... living with them, walking with them ... day by day. If we are to truly know God and His Son, we must work on that relationship every day. 

(2) The second is that we might know God’s call. Each of us received God’s call on our lives at Baptism. In this particular text, St. Paul uses the term “enlightenment” which in the early Church was synonymous with Baptism. Because we are baptized ... we are enlightened by Christ and the Holy Spirit. And each and every one of us, in our unique way, must live out the call ... as Apostles in our own time ... in our own day and age. This call is not some divine burden cast on our shoulders, but rather should give us hope. 

(3) The third is that we might know God’s riches - our inheritance, as sons and daughters of God ... brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. Additionally, because we are united to Christ as members of His Body, we have become God’s possession ... part of the abundance of wealth ... and sharers in His grace, love, and mercy. 

(4) The fourth, and final area of knowledge, is that we might know God’s power. As members of Christ’s Body, we are united to Him ... and He is united with His Father in glory ... and so, God’s power is active in us ... and through us. Through intercessory prayer, we are filled with “the surpassing greatness of his power” inasmuch as we are open to the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Without this knowledge, we might find ourselves wasting time and resources looking all over the world ... for the treasure we already share in Christ Jesus. The power and riches of God, which receive by believing in His Son and living out our Baptismal call.



As we continue in this Sacred Liturgy, offering the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ to God the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit ... let us pray for a deeper outpouring of the “Spirit of wisdom and revelation” that we may better know God, hear and live out His call for each of us, and share in the treasure of His divine love and mercy and grace ... which are poured out on us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

6th Week of Easter @ St. Vincent de Paul Parish

VIDEOS - SIXTH WEEK OF EASTER

MASSES

Our Lady on Saturday (Easter) 5-23-2020


St. Rita of Cascia 5-22-2020


St. Christopher Magallanes and Companions 5-21-2020


St. Bernardine of Siena 5-20-2020


Tuesday of the 6th Week of Easter 5-19-2020


Pope St. John I 5-18-2020


6th Sunday of Easter 5-17-2020


VI Domingo de Pascua 17-5-2020

6th Sunday of Easter @ St. Vincent de Paul Parish

HOMILY - SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
MAY 17, 2020
ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASS



 The modern polygraph, sometimes called a “lie detector” is a device that measures autonomic reactions on a person’s body

People subjected to a polygraph, are strapped up to all sorts of devices that measure skin resistance, breathing rate, heart rate, and blood pressure. The person is then asked three types of questions:

irrelevant questions - to establish a baseline,
comparison questions - which are indirectly related to the subject at hand,
and relevant questions - which are directly related to whatever is being investigated.

The idea, supposedly, is that the subconscious mind is tuned into to the truth, and causes the body to react to lies - even lies the person may consciously and intentionally be trying to hide something. In this, the subconscious shows an aversion to lies, and causes the body to react in various ways.

Today’s Gospel comes once again from Jesus’ “Farewell Discourse” at the Last Supper from John’s Gospel.

In one sense, it foreshadows the next three weeks in the Church’s liturgical calendar. That is, the next three Sundays.

What is coming up next week is the Ascension of Our Lord to the right hand of God the Father.

Followed the next week by Pentecost Sunday - the descent of the Holy Spirit on Our Lady and the Apostles in the Upper Room.

And the next Sunday is Trinity Sunday.



In today’s Gospel, Jesus talks about leaving ... about the Holy Spirit ... and about His relationship to the disciples ... as well as what their relationship – and our relationship– to the three Persons of the Godhead should be.

A key line here is when Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept.”

Which begs the question: Can we accept this?



The world cannot accept the deep abiding love that Jesus calls all His disciples to live. The world instead wants a shallow fickle lukewarm love that expresses nothing. No commitment. No depth. No intensity.

The Holy Spirit – what Jesus calls, the Spirit of Truth – empowers us to go forth and tell the good news ... evangelize about the Love we know through, with, and in Christ Jesus ... the Love of God the Father ... poured out on us in the Holy Spirit. These three relationships empower us to be true disciples and fully actualized Christians.

As we continue in this sacred liturgy, offering to the Father the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit ... let us pray for the openness ... the docility ... to accept the Spirit of truth - the Holy Spirit - and to receive in a new way today ... the deep abiding Love of God ... as shown forth in the Paschal Mystery – the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

5th Week of Easter @ St. Vincent de Paul Church

VIDEOS - FIFTH WEEK OF EASTER

MASSES

Our Lady, Queen of Apostles 5-16-2020


St. Isidore 5-15-2020


Feast of St. Matthias 5-14-2020


Our Lady of Fatima 5-13-2020


Ss. Nereus and Achilleus, Martyrs 5-12-2020


Monday of the 5th Week of Easter 5-11-2020


5th Sunday of Easter 5-10-2020


V Domingo de Pascua 5-10-2020

DEVOTIONS

May Crowning Sung Vespers 5-10-2020

5th Sunday of Easter @ St. Vincent de Paul Church

HOMILY - FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
MAY 10, 2020
ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASS



Today is Mothers Day.

To all mothers, grandmothers, and those relatives, friends, and neighbors who nurture and support in a maternal fashion:

Happy Mother’s Day.

To that end, on the porch of the parish office – at the corner of Liberty and Western – there are carnations for Mother’s Day. There are also Rosaries, medals, and prayerbooks – most of them devoted to the Blessed Mother, Mary – since May is the month that the Church dedicates to her maternal intercession for the entire Church.



Today is also the 5th Sunday of Easter.

Last week, the Gospel readings from St. John shifted from happening after the resurrection to now having happened at the Last Supper. Several chapters worth of John’s Gospel are spent on Jesus’s Last Supper discourses.

Our Lord speaks of his “Father’s house” – and we might be confused. Is His Father’s house this beautiful building? Is it the Vatican? Is it an ethereal, spiritual community?



We receive other symbols in today’s other readings as well. We hear of the first “argument” in the early Church in the first reading from Acts – something about food, and ethnicity, and language. Indeed, “nothing new under the sun.”

But something amazing is going on here. Even in our own culture, people tend to separate out by the languages they speak, or their ethnic history, or the country they came from. It’s a question of comfort … it’s easier. But already in the early Church, the Holy Spirit was reaching beyond human comfort. God continues to take us outside of our comfort zone, if we let Him.

In the early Church, and in our own community, what we’re seeing is the movement of the Holy Spirit within the humanness of the members … and despite the humanness of the member … “the number of disciples continued to grow,” “filled with the Spirit and wisdom,” devotion “to prayer and the ministry of the word,” “the whole community,” “the word of God continued to spread,” and on and on – regardless of human conflict or politics, the Church continued to grow through the Word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit.

So that, despite the human weaknesses within any Church community, as long as we “let go and let God,” the power of the Spirit of God – the divinity incarnated in us – keeps us “one” … and not in some lock-step, cookie-cutter way … but a true unity in diversity.



In the second reading from the First Letter of St. Peter, we hear:

Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beingsbut chosen and precious in the sight of God,and, like living stones,let yourselves be built into a spiritual house …

A key line here is “for you who have faith,” because without faith, St. Peter points out, none of this makes sense, and it becomes an obstacle – a “stumbling block” – to those who disobey God’s word.

By Faith, we are brought into relationship with God, and are “chosen and precious”. And he repeats that word, “chosen race,” going on to call us “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of [God’s] own”. This “holiness” is not of our own making, but rather because we have been “chosen” or “taken” by God, for God’s purpose.

And in the Gospel, when Jesus talks about “the many dwelling places” in His Father’s household, he is talking about the universality of His Gospel. As we heard in the first reading, already there were Greeks and the Jews were fighting over who got the most food.

The Gospel message is not limited by race, language, or ethnicity. Rather, it is meant for the whole world. And Jesus told the disciples to expect this – whether they understood it or not.



And this lack of understanding is made evident in the Gospel, where Thomas and Phillip don’t quite get it. Jesus calls them out for their lack of understanding, but he doesn’t condemn them. These are the Apostles – and they didn’t get it.

The Apostles weren’t perfect, or geniuses … Jesus didn’t give them a diploma and push them out of the nest. They were hard-headed, practical, working men … looking for answers – which they found in Jesus. But with each answer, there came so many questions. This should give us hope, that when we are sometimes lost or confused, we are in good company – the company of the Apostles.

And so, what is the “Father’s house” Jesus is talking about? It is the Church. And the Church is “like” a lot of things … the chosen of God, called to holiness by faith, united in Christ and by the Holy Spirit; a nation that transcends all nations, a race that trancends all races; a priesthood, a family, a fellowship, a school of prayer.

We acknowledge this in the Creed when we talk about the Church being “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic”.



The key is Faith, which we receive in Baptism and which is strengthened in all the Sacraments – and not just Faith, but Hope, and Love. The key is to “let go and let God,” to “get out of the way,” and allow the power of God to go beyond our human weaknesses and raise us up beyond our understanding, and beyond our abilities.

As we continue in this liturgy of prayer, offering the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ – the Son of God – as an acceptable Sacrifice to God the Father, in the Power of the Holy Spirit … let us be open to the transforming power of God to take us from where we are and who we are, and make us into living temples of His presence in the world.

4th Week of Easter @ St. Vincent de Paul Parish

VIDEOS - FOURTH WEEK OF EASTER

UPCOMING

May Crowning Sung Vespers 5-10-2020, 4:00 pm
Youtube Link, Facebook Link


MASSES

Saturday of the 4th Week of Easter
Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Easter


Friday of the 4th Week of Easter
Votive Mass of Mary, Mother of Divine Providence



Thursday of the 4th Week of Easter


Wednesday of the 4th Week of Easter


Tuesday of the 4th Week of Easter


Monday of the 4th Week of Easter


4th Sunday of Easter 5-3-2020


IV Domingo de Pascua 3-5-2020

4th Sunday of Easter @ St. Vincent de Paul Parish

HOMILY - FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
MAY 3, 2020
ORDINARY FORM (ENGLISH) MASS



Today is Good Shepherd Sunday.

The Fourth Sunday of Easter is always a reading about Jesus as the Good Shepherd. This is also the World Day of Prayer for Vocations.



Regarding vocations, everyone has a vocation. Vocation comes from the Latin word vocare which can mean - “to call” or “to be called.” All of us who are baptized are called to service in the Church and in the world ... each in different ways ... and in different modes.

The call I know best is my own, and so I’ll tell my story.

I’ve been ordained a priest almost 11 years.

I started this chapter in my life nearly 20 years ago. So you can see, it can take nearly a decade to become a priest.

Academically, priests are put through two areas of study: philosophy and theology.



There’s a reason for this. Philosophy is, as I like to call it, “thinking about thinking.” We all think, but do we really think about how we think and about what we think? In Philosophical studies one learns about the different philosophies that have come out of various times and places over the centuries – and the issues and ideologies associated with them.

Now the reason that priests need to be able to think about thinking is so that they can understand themselves and understand others.



The second course of study is in Theology. Theology is the study of God. And since God is beyond our understanding, it’s important to be able to articulate what we know about Him, how we know it, and what it all means ... as well as to be able to know what we don’t know about God … and the difference between the two.

But that’s just the academic part. Priesthood is more about being than doing – although there’s an awful lot to do, even in the middle of a pandemic lockdown.



The key to any vocation - be it Marriage, Single Life, Religious Life, or Holy Orders - is found in relationships. Most especially in one’s relationship with God ... and how that is played out in our relationships with one other.

Another area in any vocation is discernment – trying to figure out what you want to be and why you want to do it. Discernment can be broken into two questions – What are you running away from? And what are you running towards?

Motivation is very important. And you can’t run away from yourself – because, where ever you go … there you are.

And hopefully in any vocation – marriage or holy orders – we are running towards eternity … Christ … and God.



In my own journey to priesthood, I started out as the middle of five kids ... the second boy. One of my first memories of church is running up the middle aisle toward the altar ... I was probably about four years old ... during a Solemn Mass ... so I could get a better view of what was going on up there.

A few years later, I joined the parish music ministry, and eventually ended up leading a music group. While at the same time, I was going through High School, and college, and university.

I worked for a dozen or more years at General Motors, Robert Bosch Corporation, and Ford Motor Company in Engineering research and development. For six years I served in the U.S. Navy ... most of them overseas in Japan in Naval Aviation and Cryptology.



When I decided to start studying philosophy and theology, I did it on my own at night school - while tapping into the GI Bill. So what you see before you are your tax dollars at work.

It hasn’t always been easy. Seminaries are for younger men. And I was already in my 40s when I was going through seminary. It was at times frustrating - probably for those in charge as much as it was for me.

I remember one particular mentor - who recognizing that we were the same age, told me he wasn’t sure how to mentor me other than to “walk with me as a brother in Christ.” That was a period of great blessing.

By the time I arrived in mid-Michigan, I had already completed degrees in Philosophy and Theology ... bought and paid for by my own savings and the Navy College Fund.



In 2008, I was ordained a deacon; and in 2009, I was ordained a priest. The ordaining bishop is now the Archbishop of St. Louis. He’s celebrating 50 years as a priest. He called me a couple of weeks ago to thank me for my priesthood.

Four years ago, I came to northern California, and certainly hope that I am running toward God in all of this. I certainly miss my family who are all back in the midwest; but I am edified by being able to exercise my priestly ministry in a fruitful and productive way. I came out here to be busy, and I have not been disappointed.

This homily is ridiculously long; and I’m not sure I’ve really gone anywhere important, or made any significant theological points.



So, the bottom line in all of this is that vocation is about listening to God’s call, and making sure you’re running toward God. Any vocation requires sacrifice, but despite the sacrifices, doing God’s will comes with enormous blessings.

As we continue in this Holy Mass, offering the Sacred Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ to God the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit; let us listen for the voice of the Good Shepherd, and in hearing His voice … follow Him wherever he leads us.

May the graces flowing from this altar strengthen each one of us in our relationship with Almighty God … Father, Son, and Holy Spirit … and with one another … and with all Christians.