The Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
November 9, 2008
Today we celebrate the dedication of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran. You may wonder why the Church sets aside the usual Sunday in Ordinary Time to celebrate a church in Rome.
It dates back to the time of the emperor Constantine. On November 9 in the year 324, Pope Sylvester consecrated the first public Christian church in Rome and it was called the Church of the Savior. In the 11th century its name was changed to the Basilica of Saint John Lateran and it continues today to be the cathedral for the Bishop of Rome who we know better as the Pope.
But it is much more than an old building with historic and sentimental value. It is the mother of all church buildings. And it stands as a physical sign of the promise of Christ that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against” the Church. The Church is the Body of Christ, so since Christ is indestructible, so is the Church.
I joked last weekend that you could find anything you wanted to buy in the narthex after Mass. Every time we sell things, the Gospel about money changers in the temple somehow comes to mind. But the point was not about buying and selling but the effect on true worship and cheating.
The scene was Passover and Jews from all over came to the Temple to remember God’s salvation. The Temple was alive with visitors and the money changers were right there waiting to charge the Temple tax on every person over nineteen. And the sellers were there to offer unblemished oxen, sheep and doves for the sacrifices. And the Temple prices were sometimes twice what the same lamb would cost from a local shepherd.
Into this mix comes Jesus. Each of the four Gospels tells about His prophetic outburst driving home the point that God cannot be used and places of worship ought not to exploit the poor and humble. Turning over the money changers’ tables was the beginning of something new. It was a sign that God could not be contained in a stone building built by human beings. The Temple, even though it was built to help people’s relationship with God, was limited. Then there is the quote from Jesus: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” He invites them, and us, to stop thinking literally about a temple to hold the presence of God and see that He is the temple of God’s presence and all who are joined to Him hold the presence of God.
The anger of Jesus is worth considering. Some of us have never gotten comfortable with anger while others are much too used to it since it is a constant companion. Anger gets a lot of attention in psychology, theology and sociology. And it should since anger can block the soul from the joy of relationships. Anger that blocks, hides, attacks or takes revenge is always destructive and needs to be tamed by practice and tempered with forgiveness.
But here we see another kind of anger, prophetic anger. It pays attention to human suffering and injustice. It sees when governments or institutions take away freedoms or pay no attention to the poor. It recognizes that often the dominant culture, what is accepted, is wrong and needs change. It is prophetic anger that is at the root of peace movements, that moves for racial equality, lobbies for the poor, defends the rights of the innocent such as those before birth and the handicapped and the sick and elderly near the end of life. Society and the Church need temple purifiers, voices that cry out for those who cannot take care of themselves and people who turn over tables of injustice. They are the ones who are the whistle-blowers in large corporations, in governments, and even in churches when things are not as they should be. And, like Jesus, they announce something new, something different from the status quo and give a voice to those who have none. They announce a better world. And we need to remember that the new world cannot come without the end of the old.
So who are these people who speak for God, sometimes motivated by prophetic anger? Listen, again, to Saint Paul, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” We are those who are to speak for those with no voice to speak for themselves. In the power of the Spirit, we are the ones who need to be angry over injustice and oppression. We must be the water that flows from the temple making fresh all it touches. We flow out of here, strengthened by Christ, to purify and make things new according to the will of God. We are those people, the disciples of Christ, His Body.
The material in this homily has already been copyrighted and so may not otherwise be published or copied. It is for personal use only.
Rev. Gerald F. Mullally
Saint Patrick’s Church
Milford, Pennsylvania
Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls’ Day)
November 2, 2008
On November 2 of each year, the Church celebrates the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, better known as “All Souls’ Day.” On this day we remember our departed loved ones and offer prayers for them.
Anyone who has lost someone very close knows that the grief is a lifelong process. Just when we think we have turned a corner toward healing, something comes our way that seems to bring us right back to the beginning. Learning to live our lives without the physical presence of the ones we love is difficult. We may even find ourselves wondering if it will ever get better or whether we will ever find peace again.
All those of us who are beyond a certain age know what it is to have a broken heart and to long for healing and some reassurance from God that everything will be all right and those we love are OK. In the midst of the pain, it is difficult to discover this comfort and doubt and fear can lead us in the opposite direction. Let the words from the Book of Wisdom echo in our minds, “The souls of the just are in the hand of God and no torment shall touch them…But they are in peace.”
In the First Letter of John we read that God is love. This deep insight has the power to change the way we look at our life and our death. Our ability to love comes from God. It is not something we conjure up ourselves. Think for a moment of all those you remember today, those you pray for, maybe your grandparents, your parents, a brother, a sister, a loved friend or teacher. The love that you have for them is real today. It is not just a memory of the past or of times long gone. It is true and it continues.
Without love we would be shallow and empty. Life would have no purpose and no meaning. Most importantly, love is eternal and has no limits of time or place. Love connects one real person to another. The love you have for those you remember today is real because they are real. They are not just past memories or something we hold in our hearts. The only difference is where they can be found.
The process of grieving is learning how to relate to those we love in a different way. It is not about learning to live without them but learning to live with them in a different way.
The biggest decision we have to make in dealing with death is in regard to faith. Either we believe in God’s promises or we do not. Most of the difficulty we have with death and grieving is due to a war we wage between doubt and faith. Once we embrace faith and stop the battle with doubt we can begin to accept God’s vision of death. Then our loss can be changed into a longing for the day or reunion. And that longing can become a longing for God in whom our souls alone will find rest. Then we know we can go on living and that it is all right to laugh and find joy and that does not decrease our love for those already gone.
Faith allows us to see that God causes our salvation, not our death. We must not fall into the trap of linking tragedies and untimely deaths with God’s will. Those things are better placed with human error, imperfections or sin. God does not take lives to gain “angels” in Heaven or take people from this life for some unknown “heavenly purpose.” Those kinds of ideas do not help to bring us nearer to God.
This day also reminds us that our love should compel us to pray for those who have died. Why pray for them? Because at the moment of death, none of us is fully prepared to receive God’s promises and needs to be purified. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. The Church gives the name purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned” (CCC #1030-1031).
This day gives us the opportunity to connect with those we love, and even with those who might be forgotten. As we celebrate the Eucharist, let us remember that this holy sacrifice opens the door to Heaven for us here on earth and brings us to the eternal, that place where God and all those who have gone before us now live.
The material in this homily has already been copyrighted and so may not otherwise be published or copied. It is for personal use only.
Rev. Gerald F. Mullally
Saint Patrick’s Church
Milford, Pennsylvania
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time A
October 26, 2008
You often hear the call to post all sorts of biblical quotes, like the Ten Commandments, in public. Isn’t it strange that the call is never made to display what we find in today’s readings: “You shall love the Lord your God….and your neighbor as yourself” from Matthew or “You shall not molest or oppress an alien…you shall not wrong any widow or orphan…you shall not act like an extortioner…by demanding interest” from Exodus.
In the Gospel for today, Jesus packs all the wisdom of the world into two short commandments. Jesus, the Son of God, is giving us the meaning of life, the way to fulfillment and the secret of happiness. But it is likely that we have heard it so often that we have to make a special effort to squeeze the juice out of it.
The key word, of course, is love. But usually we associate this word with some pleasant feelings, intense and delightful emotions. But the word that Jesus uses means something much deeper. It is the word “agape,” and it refers to the love that means desiring union with what is loved. If we love a person, it means we love spending time with them, getting to know them, sharing experiences of life with them.
But using the word agape isn’t quite enough. Jesus wants to make completely sure we understand. So He explains how love applies to our two key relationships: with God and with other people.
We must love God with all our heart, mind and soul. We must desire what God desires; this is the heart. We must value and understand all things the way God does; this is the mind. And we must actively live according to those desires and that understanding, choosing what God would choose in our place; this is the soul. Then, we must love our neighbors as we love ourselves, treating them as we would want them to treat us regardless of how we feel. This is Christian love: not some passing, self-indulgent emotion, but a way of living that requires the courage to put God first, others second and self third.
Learning to love like this, like Christ, is a life-long project. It is the primary adventure of the Christian life. It starts and continues with God’s grace but also requires our cooperation. And one of the reasons that we have not made more progress has to do with a wrong idea we may have. If we correct this idea, Christian love will have much more room to grow and fill our lives with meaning and lasting joy. What is this wrong idea? We tend to think that loving God and loving our neighbor are two separate things. As if we love God with one spiritual muscle, which gets exercised when we pray and worship, and that we use a different spiritual muscle to love our neighbor. But that is not true.
The Pharisee asked Jesus for the single most important commandment, and Jesus answered with two commandments. He was saying that they are really the same thing. There is only one muscle that we use to love God and neighbor, the heart. That is why it is impossible for us to treat our neighbor that includes family members, friends, classmates, the way we should unless we have a life of prayer. Christian love for our neighbor requires seeing them the way God sees them, but we can only do that if our mind and heart are full of God’s perspective and that happens in prayer. That is why the Catechism can say that “we live as we pray.”
Along with prayer, we need to work. The first thing we need to do is tell God that we sincerely want to follow His commandments. This is how we love God by wanting what He wants. At Mass is the perfect time to renew that commitment. Then, after having decided to love as God does, we need to be sure there is nothing blocking God’s grace because without the help of His grace we can make no progress. So the second step to loving like Christ is a good confession to be sure no sins stand in the way.
Then we are ready for the real work and it starts by treating the people closest to us with sincere respect. We need to start with our family, our coworkers, friends, our classmates. It is easy to put on the appearance of loving like Christ with people we don’t deal with all the time. But we are not interested in keeping up appearances but in true Christian love. And that is the only path to life.
The material in this homily has already been copyrighted and so may not otherwise be published or copied. It is for personal use only.
Rev. Gerald F. Mullally
Saint Patrick’s Church
Milford, Pennsylvania
Anniversary of the Dedication of the Church
October 12, 2008
“Can it indeed be that God dwells on earth?”
“Do you know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
We are the temple of God, God’s building, God’s Church. And it is the mission of God’s Church, of the members of the Church, to announce God’s love and mercy. In order to announce God’s love and mercy, we have to first realize in the depths of our hearts that God loves us. I need to be able to say deep within myself with conviction, “GOD LOVES ME.” This message of love and mercy is the only thing of value that we have to give to others and to our world.
Consider how desperately that message of being loved is needed, perhaps especially in the midst of the financial crisis engulfing the world. In California an unemployed accountant killed his wife, his three children, his mother-in-law and himself apparently in despair. There are people living entirely without hope for all sorts of reasons. And, we, who have been given the gift of hope, have the mission to spread it.
We spread the hope that comes from faith in God’s love and mercy by first moving to Jesus and then moving from Jesus. We move to Jesus in the Eucharist, in knowing God’s generous mercy in Confession and in our private prayer. Then we move from Jesus out to those who need to know the good news and the hope that the Gospel brings.
Our moving to Jesus, our hearts touching His heart, in the Eucharist, the sacraments and prayer should lead us to “Be not afraid.” It should strengthen in us trust in God. But first we acknowledge what it is that we fear. What causes us to keep our faith to ourselves making it a private and personal matter while we are surrounded by people who so desperately need the message of hope?
I want to suggest that Saint Paul can help us.
On the road to Damascus, Saint Paul had some extraordinary experience which is usually called his conversion. It was the decisive moment in Paul’s life. There a complete turnabout took place, a total change of perspective. After that, everything that he had considered important was now “loss” and “rubbish.”
You probably know some of the details of Paul’s experience such as light from the sky, his fall to the ground, the voice that called, his blindness, the curing of that blindness and his fasting. But all the details point to the heart of the event: The Risen Christ appeared as a splendid light and spoke to Saul transforming his thinking and his very self.
In the early Church, Baptism was called “Illumination” because this sacrament gives light. It allows us to really see. Paul was not transformed by changing his thinking but by an event, by the irresistible presence of the Risen Christ. And this did not happen at end of his own reflection but of an intense event, an encounter with Christ. This is the fundamental point: The Risen Christ spoke with Paul, made him an apostle and gave him a mission to preach the Gospel to the pagans. But at the same time, Paul learned that even though he had met the Risen Christ, he had to enter the community of the Church, be baptized and live in unity with the other apostles. Only in this communion can he be a true apostle. This whole change came, not from within Paul but from outside, from an encounter with the Risen Christ. This enlarged his heart and opened it up. He did not lose anything that was good and true in his life.
Now let’s consider our own situation. What does this mean for us? It means that also for us, being Christian is not a new philosophy or a new morality. We are Christians ONLY if we encounter Christ. Of course He does not have to show Himself in the same amazing and irresistible way as He did to Paul. We can encounter Christ in the reading of the Word of God, in prayer and in the sacraments of the Church. We can touch the heart of Christ and feel Him touch ours. Only in this personal relationship with Christ, in this encounter, do we really become Christians.
Pray to the Lord that He will enlighten us, that He will grant us the encounter with His presence and give us a lively faith, an open heart and the love that is necessary to share the Gospel.
That is what it means to be the temple, the Church of God and to recognize that the Spirit of God lives in us.
The material in this homily has already been copyrighted and so may be otherwise published or copied. It is for personal use only. Much of the material in today’s homily comes from the Catecheses of Pope Benedict XVI on Saint Paul.
Rev. Gerald F. Mullally
Saint Patrick’s Church
Milford, Pennsylvania
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time A
October 5, 2008
A PASTORAL LETTER FROM BISHOP MARTINO
Respect Life Sunday
My brothers and sisters in Christ,
The American Catholic bishops initiated Respect Life Sunday in 1972, the year before the Supreme Court legalized abortion in the United States. Since that time, Catholics across the country observe the month of October with devotions and pro-life activities in order to advance the culture of life. This October, our efforts have more significance than ever. Never have we seen such abusive criticism directed toward those who believe that life begins at conception and ends at natural death.
As Catholics, we should not be surprised by these developments. Forty years ago, Pope Paul VI predicted that widespread use of artificial contraceptives would lead to increased marital infidelity, lessened regard for women, and a general lowering of moral standards especially among the young. Forty years later, social scientists, not necessarily Catholics, attest to the accuracy of his predictions. As if following some bizarre script, the sexual revolution has produced widespread marital breakdown, weakened family ties, legalized abortion, sexually transmitted diseases, pornography, same-sex unions, euthanasia, destruction of human embryos for research purposes and a host of other ills.
It is impossible for me to answer all of the objections to the Church’s teaching on life that we hear every day in the media. Nevertheless, let me address a few. To begin, laws that protect abortion constitute injustice of the worst kind. They rest on several false claims including that there is no certainty regarding when life begins, that there is no certainty about when a fetus becomes a person, and that some human beings may be killed to advance the interests or convenience of others. With regard to the first, reason and science have answered the question. The life of a human being begins at conception. The Church has long taught this simple truth, and science confirms it. Biologists can now show you the delicate and beautiful development of the human embryo in its first days of existence. This is simply a fact that reasonable people accept. Regarding the second, the embryo and the fetus have the potential to do all that an adult person does. Finally, the claim that the human fetus may be sacrificed to the interests or convenience of his mother or someone else is grievously wrong. All three claims have the same result: the weakest and most vulnerable are denied, because of their age, the most basic protection that we demand for ourselves. This is discrimination at its worst, and no person of conscience should support it.
Another argument goes like this: “As wrong as abortion is, I don't think it is the only relevant ‘life’ issue that should be considered when deciding for whom to vote.” This reasoning is sound only if other issues carry the same moral weight as abortion does, such as in the case of euthanasia and destruction of embryos for research purposes. Health care, education, economic security, immigration, and taxes are very important concerns. Neglect of any one of them has dire consequences as the recent financial crisis demonstrates. However, the solutions to problems in these areas do not usually involve a rejection of the sanctity of human life in the way that abortion does. Being “right” on taxes, education, health care, immigration, and the economy fails to make up for the error of disregarding the value of a human life. Consider this: the finest health and education systems, the fairest immigration laws, and the soundest economy do nothing for the child who never sees the light of day. It is a tragic irony that “pro-choice” candidates have come to support homicide – the gravest injustice a society can tolerate – in the name of “social justice.”
Even the Church’s just war theory has moral force because it is grounded in the principle that innocent human life must be protected and defended. Now, a person may, in good faith, misapply just war criteria leading him to mistakenly believe that an unjust war is just, but he or she still knows that innocent human life may not be harmed on purpose. A person who supports permissive abortion laws, however, rejects the truth that innocent human life may never be destroyed. This profound moral failure runs deeper and is more corrupting of the individual, and of the society, than any error in applying just war criteria to particular cases.
Furthermore, National Right to Life reports that 48.5 million abortions have been performed since 1973. One would be too many. No war, no natural disaster, no illness or disability has claimed so great a price.
In saying these things in an election year, I am in very good company. My predecessor, Bishop Timlin, writing his pastoral letter on Respect Life Sunday 2000, stated the case eloquently:
Abortion is the issue this year and every year in every campaign. Catholics may not turn away from the moral challenge that abortion poses for those who seek to obey God’s commands. They are wrong when they assert that abortion does not concern them, or that it is only one of a multitude of issues of equal importance. No, the taking of innocent human life is so heinous, so horribly evil, and so absolutely opposite to the law of Almighty God that abortion must take precedence over every other issue. I repeat. It is the single most important issue confronting not only Catholics, but the entire electorate.
My fellow bishops, writing ten years ago, explained why some evils – abortion and euthanasia in particular – take precedence over other forms of violence and abuse.
The failure to protect life in its most vulnerable stages renders suspect any claims to the ‘rightness’ of positions in other matters affecting the poorest and least powerful of the human community. If we understand the human person as ‘the temple of the Holy Spirit’ – the living house of God – then these latter issues fall logically into place as the crossbeams and walls of that house. All direct attacks on innocent human life, such as abortion and euthanasia, strike at the house’s foundation [emphasis in the original]. These directly and immediately violate the human person’s most fundamental right – the right to life. Neglect of these issues is the equivalent of building our house on sand. Living the Gospel of Life: A Challenge to American Catholics, 23.
While the Church assists the State in the promotion of a just society, its primary concern is to assist men and women in achieving salvation. For this reason, it is incumbent upon bishops to correct Catholics who are in error regarding these matters. Furthermore, public officials who are Catholic and who persist in public support for abortion and other intrinsic evils should not partake in or be admitted to the sacrament of Holy Communion. As I have said before, I will be vigilant on this subject.
It is the Church’s role now to be a prophet in our own country, reminding all citizens of what our founders meant when they said that “. . . all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” The Church’s teaching that all life from conception to natural death should be protected by law is founded on religious belief to be sure, but it is also a profoundly American principle founded on reason. Whenever a society asks its citizens to violate its own foundational principles – as well as their moral consciences – citizens have a right, indeed an obligation, to refuse.
In 1941, Bishop Gustave von Galen gave a homily condemning Nazi officials for murdering mentally ill people in his diocese of Muenster, Germany. The bishop said:
“Thou shalt not kill!” God wrote this commandment in the conscience of man long before any penal code laid down the penalty for murder, long before there was any prosecutor or any court to investigate and avenge a murder. Cain, who killed his brother Abel, was a murderer long before there were any states or any courts or law. And he confessed his deed, driven by his accusing conscience: “My punishment is greater than I can bear. . . and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me the murderer shall slay me” (Genesis 4:13-14)”
Should he have opposed the war and remained silent about the murder of the mentally ill? No person of conscience can fail to understand why Bishop von Galen spoke as he did.
My dear friends, I beg you not to be misled by confusion and lies. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, does not ask us to follow him to Calvary only for us to be afraid of contradicting a few bystanders along the way. He does not ask us to take up his Cross only to have us leave it at the voting booth door. Recently, Pope Benedict XVI said that “God is so humble that he uses us to spread his Word.” The gospel of life, which we have the privilege of proclaiming, resonates in the heart of every person – believer and non-believer – because it fulfills the heart’s most profound desire. Let us with one voice continue to speak the language of love and affirm the right of every human being to have the value of his or her life, from conception to natural death, respected to the highest degree.
October is traditionally the month of the Rosary. Let us pray the Rosary for the strength and fortitude to uphold the truths of our faith and the requirements of our law to all who deny them. And, let us ask Our Lady to bless our nation and the weakest among us.
May Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Lord of Life, pray for us.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Most Reverend Joseph F. Martino, D.D., Hist. E.D.
Bishop of Scranton
September 28, 2008
Unfortunately, it is not uncommon to find Catholics who openly disagree with teachings of the Church. We probably all know people who say they are Catholic but don’t come to Mass on Sunday. And rather than just admit they sin, they claim it is not necessary to be a good Catholic.
In this election year, we are also aware of politicians who claim to be practicing Catholics who publicly support positions and laws that go directly against some of the most important moral teachings of the Church.
And, if we would be honest, we should recognize this tendency in our own lives. We present ourselves as practicing Catholics but we spend little or no time working a life of prayer. We spend hours learning to be good at our jobs but little in learning the faith. We hold on to hidden habits of selfishness and sin while criticizing others for their more visible faults.
If we think about it a little bit, we have to admit that this contradiction between what we believe and how we live is not a good thing.
It is like the second son in the parable. He impressed his father with the right words and a good show of obedience. But underneath it all, he was still living for himself and not for the greater good of his father.
When we settle into the contradiction, we should not expect to grow in our experience of Christ’s love and grace. And it is not wonder that we do not grow in wisdom, inner peace and the deep Christian joy we long for.
Faith, when it’s real, has an impact on every aspect of our lives. When it doesn’t, our spiritual growth is stunted.
Jesus told this parable near the end of His life, the week before the crucifixion. And He tells it for the leaders and scholars in order to break through their blindness. The one who will soon arrange for His death are those who serve in the Temple, study the Scriptures, preach to the crowds and rule God’s people. They claim to be following God’s commandments better than all others. Yet they do not recognize Jesus as God’s Chosen One.
Why are they unable to see the truth? Why do they, like the second son, say there are God’s followers but refuse to obey? This is an important question for us since we are here at Mass, the ones who at least appear to be following the Lord.
We are in danger of falling into the same blindness of thinking we are doing God’s will but actually not doing it. What happened to them can happen to us. And what is the cause? In a word, hypocrisy. The danger of keeping up the appearances of being good Catholics but compromising on the substance.
The surest way to banish any hypocrisy is to adopt as our personal motto the line from the Our Father: “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done.” God’s will is dependable and true and when it is our highest priority, we will also be dependable and true.
The material in this homily has already been copyrighted and so may not otherwise be published or copied. It is for personal use only.
Rev. Gerald F. Mullally
Saint Patrick’s Church
Milford, Pennsylvania
Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary
Time A
August 24, 2008
Who do
we say Jesus is? Who do you say Jesus is? Walk into any Catholic church and the
most prominent image will be one of Jesus. It would be clear even to an alien
from outer space that whatever happens here has something to do with Him. But
the question of who He is remains to be answered.
We know
what the Creed says: “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of
God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God
from true God, begotten not made, one in being with the Father.” A very long
sentence that basically says Jesus is unique in history; He is “Lord” and
“Christ,” the anointed One of God; as well as the “Son of God,” with a special
and personal claim to God as His Father. “Eternally begotten,” there was never
a time when He was not or came into being. “Not made,” Jesus is not simply a
creature like the rest of us, but “one in being with the Father,” sharing God’s
own life and substance.
The
Creed goes on to profess that He was born of a mother, the virgin Mary, and
became flesh like all of us. And that He was crucified by human power too,
“under Pontius Pilate,” the only other name mentioned in the Creed. He rises,
ascends and He will preside over the judgment at the end and the Kingdom He
announced will last forever!
This is
who we say Jesus is. But saying isn’t believing and believing isn’t behaving as
if it’s true. Like Peter, we can come up with the right answer, “You are the
Christ, the Son of the living God,” and still get it wrong in all the ways that
really matter.
Peter’s
profession of faith is a stellar moment that Jesus describes as coming from the
inspiration of God. Because of it, Peter was given a special share in the
ministry of Jesus. He would be “Rock,” and he would have the keys that would
open doors for others to enter and share in the blessings of salvation.
But
every moment in Peter’s life was not so stellar, the darkest was probably when
he denied knowing Jesus and swore to it three times. He was the same man but
different. What had happened to Peter? Fear had happened. He was afraid of the
consequences of knowing and believing Jesus. But Peter did not remain in fear;
grace would take hold of him again, finally allowing him to die for love of
Jesus.
Like Peter, we have some moments that are better than
others. Some that might cause us to hang our heads in shame. Like Peter, we
have fears that cripple and corrupt us. But like Peter, who was humble enough
to tell us his story, we are also offered countless gifts of grace for the
times when our words and work do not reflect our faith. For those moments, God
has created grace; for our part we have to lay hold of it and allow it to lay
hold of us. In the grip of grace we can be sure that God loves us in the
stellar moments of our lives and maybe even more in the moments that bring us
shame.
Here is
the connection with the first reading where authority is taken from Shebna and
given to Eliakim, “placing the key of the House of David on his shoulder.” The
“key” is a symbol of authority giving the power both to open and to shut.
Jesus
uses these words as he gives Peter “the keys of the kingdom of heaven,” saying
“whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on
earth shall be loosed in heaven.” This response of Jesus to Peter’s confession
of faith is a God-sized vision for Peter’s future.
Jesus
sees ahead to the creation of a new community, the Church. This community of
believers will carry Jesus to the world and continue His mission. It will be a
community of faith with Christ Himself as the Head. But Jesus chooses to share
His authority with Peter and those who follow him. Jesus gives Peter the keys,
the symbol of authority, to rule the Church in His name.
When
Pope Benedict visited the
We
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. We also believe
that the Son of the living God has given His Church the pope. And this is not
the only evidence of that in the New Testament.
Jesus renamed Peter, meaning “rock,” in John’s Gospel. His name had been
Simon. Renaming in the Bible means giving a new mission. Jesus prays especially
for Peter at the Last Supper and gives him a unique position after the
resurrection. Finally, curiously enough, Peter’s name always comes first on the
list of the Apostles.
There
is one Lord, Jesus Christ. And He founded a Church to continue His mission to
bring God’s love and the power of grace to all people. And the keys of that
Church are in Peter’s hands.
The material in this homily has already been copyrighted and
so may not otherwise be published or copied. It is for personal use only.
Rev. Gerald F. Mullally
Saint Patrick’s Church
Eighteenth
Sunday in Ordinary Time A August 3, 2008
If I were to announce that the homily today is about
tithing, there would be many initial reactions. We will leave those for the
moment. But you would also likely expect that my main point, whenever I got to
it, would be that we should to it, right? But what if instead, I said, tithing
is just a concession to how far we have fallen from how God intended us to be?
What would you think then?
Actually, my main point is not about tithing (you can breathe
now). It’s not about money or the parish budget, though you might want to apply
it that way. But I do want to start with tithing and I do mean to say that it
is a concession to our sinfulness.
Consider the Garden of Eden before sin. There is no mention
of tithing and God certainly did not tithe. He put Adam and Eve in a wonderful
garden and said, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden.” God went on to warn them away from one tree,
“the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” but that was not because God
wanted it for Himself but because it was not good for them, “ for in the day
you eat of it,” God said, “you shall die.” God gave generously, not withholding
any good thing.
But one result of the sin is that generous spirit does
not flourish in people; it seems more natural for most of us to consider first
how much we can keep for ourselves. So, God gave the instructions about tithing
so that when we are calculating how little we can give away and still consider
ourselves to be good, we have a figure to work with.
And we need a guideline because in our world there are
very serious issues of supply and demand. 100, 000 people die every day from
lack of food and malnutrition while others spend their days trying to figure
out how to avoid too many calories. The rising costs of food staples, rice,
wheat and corn, has made it almost impossible for millions of people in about
40 different countries to get what they need daily while we talk about
converting thousands of tons of corn into ethanol to save on gas prices for our
SUV’s.
It is today’s Gospel where Jesus says, “Give them
something eat yourselves,” that has gotten me here. So let me provide the
context.
We know about starving around the world. Each night on
the evening news there are disasters, the political scene, the
unending war in
In the Gospel, we look into the eyes of Christ who
embraces the His people with pity and sees them like sheep without a shepherd.
In that we catch a glimpse of the evening news through God’s eyes. “Who will
feed them?”
And we should be led to ask how we can make the abundance
of God seen in the miracle happen now. What do we have today that can be
multiplied just like those five loaves and two fish? May it is compassion which
literally causes us to “feel with” another.
The response of Jesus to the ignorant, the hungry, the
blind, the lepers, the widows and all those who came to Him with their
suffering flowed from the compassion of God. We need to pay close attention to
His words and actions.
It is tempting to become cynical. “This is a deserted
place and it is already late; dismiss the crowds so that they can go to the
villages and buy food for themselves.” What can one person do?
Compassion requires getting moved from our comfort zones;
it requires prayer. And the starting point of compassion is to respond to the
others with kindness, forgiveness, generosity and love, even if that person is
someone we live with or the grumpy neighbor next door or the rude person in the
store.
The evening news can become the time when we go into the
deserted places with Jesus and look at the crowds with compassion.
I started by saying that tithing, giving 10 percent of
what we have, is God’s concession to our sinfulness. But is we join the crowds
at the seashore, we see God’s way with us is not one of bargaining but of
abundance and generosity. And when we see what Christ can do with even the
little we offer, we realize there is no need to bargain anyway.
The only thing that is needed is to not to figure out how
much we can keep for ourselves, but how generous we can be.
The material
in this homily has already been copyrighted and so may not otherwise be
published or copied. It is for personal use only.
Rev. Gerald F.
Mullally
Saint Patrick’s
Church
Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time A
July 6, 2008
Here
we are on the Fourth of July weekend. It always reminds me of my grandmother
who used to say that on July 4th the summer was almost over! I
prefer to believe that is not true. But a holiday weekend is a good time to
consider rest.
It
has been said that rest is “an un-American activity.” Americans, generally, are
highly motivated doers, eager beavers, “can do” people. Productivity is taken
for a virtue and success a high value. These often result in a driven,
pressurized way of life. And there is a price to pay for this. It does not lead
to wholeness of life.
It’s
fair to say that at no time in human history have people been so busy. The idea
was that modern technology would help and give us more free time but it has
actually gotten worse. All this rushing around has made health problems such as
chronic fatigue, stress and anxiety a fact of everyday life. We even take
Sunday and holidays and make them into opportunities “to get things done.”
We
all need to take time out from our busy schedules to rest. Just as rest is
important for physical health, it is absolutely necessary for spiritual health
and well-being. We can recognize immediately when our bodies are tired because
we lose energy, our muscles ache and we get sleepy. But, do we know when our
soul is tired? Among the symptoms
of a tired soul are boredom, loneliness, irritability and anxiety.
And,
where do we turn when our soul is empty and our spirits need a lift? Too often
when we feel lonely or anxious, we turn to TV, alcohol, food or to other empty
ways of wasting time. The result is we can feel emptier than when we started.
This is especially true if you turn to sinful ways of finding comfort.
Jesus
said: “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I
will give you rest.” These words have given consolation and strength to people
in all sorts of circumstances. The rest that Jesus gives is healing and
transforming. It reaches into our depths, gets to the heart of the matter, and
begins the rebirth that leads to hope. In times of stress, physical rest is
usually a necessary part of recovery. Sleep can be almost miraculous. We have
ancient wisdom on this, Psalm 127:2 says, “It is in vain for you to rise early
and put off your rest at night…..God gives to his beloved in sleep.”
The
Bible’s understanding of rest does not mean just physical rest. Physical rest
is necessary, of course, but in the Bible rest is first mentioned in relation
to God. At the end of the work of creation, God rested. It was not “physical”
rest. Sabbath rest was God’s gift to people and it affects us physically,
psychologically, emotionally, relationally and spiritually. Rest restores,
replenishes and renews.
While
Jesus appreciated the importance of physical rest, the promised rest of which
He spoke was also spiritual in nature. Much of our physical weariness has a
spiritual cause. When the spirit is renewed, the body responds. From Jeremiah:
“Stand besides the earliest roads, ask the pathways of old which is the way to
good, and walk in it; thus you find rest for your souls” (6:16).
In
fact, both our restlessness and our rest are deeply spiritual. We can
understand the prayer of
The
invitation of Jesus to rest involves a change of “yokes.” “Take my yoke upon
you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find
rest for your souls.” When we take the yoke of Jesus, we find the focus of our
lives shifting from ourselves to others. This is often the beginning of
overcoming weariness and depression.
Finally,
in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, there is grim vision of eternal
separation from God; “The smoke of the fire that torments them will rise
forever and ever, and there will be no rest day or night for those who worship
the beast….” (14:11).
And
rest in the Bible often refers to our eternal life with God, “O that I had
wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest” (Ps.55.6). And we pray,
“Grant them eternal rest, O Lord…” This does not mean we should picture eternal
life as empty, endless lack of activity. God’s promised rest involves peace as
the world cannot give it. This “rest” is the fulfillment of our longing to at
one with God, the goal of our journey.
We
are to rest in the Lord, not only then, but now.
The material in this homily has already been copyrighted and so may not otherwise be published or copied. It is for personal use only.
Rev. Gerald F. Mullally
Saint Patrick’s Church
Saints Peter and Paul June 29, 2008
If you
went into your bathroom, closed the door and stared at yourself in the mirror,
who would be looking back? Do we really know who we are? Some people do this
regularly as a kind of reality check to stay grounded.
Father
Richard Rohr once told a conference that after they ask themselves who they
are, they might also want to ask themselves “whose” they are. Who do we belong
to? Who do we follow?
Keep
that question running in the background for today.
This
feast celebrates the greatness of two very different men who received God’s
call and God’s grace and became living pillars of the Church. Aside from their
shared faith in Jesus, there is little else that would have brought Peter and
Paul together or made them partners in the building of the
As
different as night and day, they found a union in Christ that continues to call
others to a similar communion. Shared faith has the power, or should have the
power, to bring together the most unlikely people making them complimentary and
effective partners. The fact that Peter and Paul could overcome their
differences for the cause of Christ is a challenge to each of us to be willing
to do the same.
With
Peter, we are invited to answer that ultimate question on which all other
questions and their answers depend. Like Peter, we need to answer: You are the
Christ, the Savior, our hope, our model, our way, our open door, our teacher,
our friend, our life our brother, our God. With Peter, we are to shake off all
chains that bind us and walk in the freedom that Jesus has won for us.
Standing
with Paul, we remember that all our life can be offered as a sacrifice, an
offering poured out in praise of God. Paul reminds us that Jesus stands by to give
us the strength and encouragement through all ups and downs, through every turn
and detour we may meet along the way.
Christ
chose Peter as the “rock” on which He would build His Church. This is the same
Peter who denied the Lord three times on the night of His betrayal and arrest.
Hardly the dependability you would expect from a rock. It is said that Peter
wept for his sin at least once a day for the rest of his life until the tears
word two pale tracks down the skin of his face.
Paul
started out as the leader of a violent persecution designed to crush the Church
at the beginning. But he was chosen to announce the Gospel all over the ancient
world. God did not choose
How did
these two, so flawed, so human, become the two unshakeable pillars of the
Church? What made them saints and martyrs? God’s grace. The same grace that has
kept the Church alive and growing for twenty centuries; the same grace we all
received at Baptism.
It is
clear that the ability of Peter, traitor turned saint, to work miracles and
stay faithful to the end was not from his own power but from Jesus. In the
Gospel for last night (tonight), Jesus asks Peter three times, “Do you love
me?” Three times Peter answers but he needs to learn that loving Jesus is not
enough, he must act on this love, “Feed my sheep.”
And
Paul, persecutor turned apostle, was able to preach the Gospel fearlessly even
to the point of losing his life by the power of God’s grace. He had to freely
choose to be faithful to Christ and the will of Christ for his life day after
day, year after year. It was not Paul achieving things on his own; it was God
working through him.
All
they had to do was believe, cooperate and obey.
We do
well to take a good look at these men. They were fully human in every sense of
the word and also belonged totally to Christ. By imitating them, we might one
day be able to say with
The material in this homily has already been copyrighted and so may not otherwise be published or copied. It is for personal use only.
Rev. Gerald F. Mullally
Saint Patrick’s Church
Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time A
June 22, 2008
An
elderly woman had worked all her life and finally had saved enough money to
fulfill her lifetime dream of visiting the
The
flight attendant tried to calm her by assuring her all was well and the pilot
could fly safely back to
Now
that is humorous. But it hinges on a very serious aspect of being human, fear.
And fear can sometimes gain the upper hand.
What is
it that you are afraid of? What makes you catch your breath and causes your
heart to race? For the woman, it was flying. For some it’s speaking in public.
Some are afraid of heights; others of thunder storms. Some fear the insecurity
of losing a job. Some are afraid of snakes or spiders or rats. Still others
fear growing old, sickness and dying which comes to all of us.
Aware
of all that can cause fear to rise up and strangle human strength and life, in
the Gospel Jesus speaks to all our fears, reasonable and unreasonable, “Do not
be afraid.”
Jesus
offers strength in the face of fear by reminding us of God’s careful, loving
presence. Everything is known to God. Knowing that, we are not to nurse our
fears but allow faith to help manage it and finally to conquer it altogether.
But to
be more specific Jesus is talking about fear it very clear to His disciples
that, if they are to follow Him, persecution will follow. When Jesus says, “Do
not be afraid of those who kill the body,” those who are hearing the Gospel of
Matthew were well aware that most of the Apostles, as well as many other
Christians, have been killed for the faith. But still Jesus assures them, “fear
no one.”
Sometimes
you will find preachers who say that if only your faith is strong enough, Jesus
will take away any suffering. Jesus not only did not promise that, but He said
that if we would follow Him we have to take up our cross every day and walk in
His footsteps. He told His apostles not to be afraid of those who kill the body
but He didn’t say that no one would try to kill them.
The
warning of Jesus remains into our own day. All over the world people are
persecuted for being Christian in such places as
So how
do you live the Catholic faith with courage, perseverance and faithfulness?
By
never hesitating to announce that you are Catholic and that you not only
believe in God but that you love the Lord. That means that you do not
appreciate the wrong use of God’s name or jokes that degrade human sexuality or
are racist. That you do not join in gossip.
It
means that you do an honest day’s work for your pay or that you pay your
employees an honest wage. That you stand up for the dignity of all human life
even if it’s unpopular. Certainly we should never fear upsetting someone by
defending what is right.
It
certainly means exercising our God-given right to worship by being at Mass
every weekend remembering especially those millions of Catholics who would love
to be able to join us. And it means sharing what we have with the poor and for
the upkeep and the works of the church.
If from
any of this there comes some suffering, we wear it like a badge of honor for
having been faithful and living without fear.
The material in this homily has already been copyrighted and so may not otherwise be published or copied. It is for personal use only.
Rev. Gerald F. Mullally
Saint Patrick’s Church
Most Holy Body and
Blood of Christ A May 25, 2008
We
celebrate today the mystery of the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of
Christ in the Eucharist. And so the readings from the word of God aim to help
us to reflect on the meaning of this Gift that God has given to us.
Taking
Communion into our bodies can do little to feed our souls unless we take that
Bread of Life into our hearts. Making Communion is God’s work. Whether it makes
a difference requires our cooperation.
I
often wonder what has become of our Sundays. Despite the remarkable efforts in
the last 40 years after Vatican II to make the Mass easier to understand and to
invite the participation of all, less than 30% of Catholic in the United States
are at Mass on any given weekend.
More
seriously, though, we may ask what has become of the Eucharist. If a majority
of Catholics are not participating in Sunday Mass, could it be that the
Eucharist has become uninteresting, boring or irrelevant to their lives? Of
course, we all agree that Mass should not be a matter of an “obligation” or
done because of social pressure.
Could
it be that in our extremely busy schedules there is no matter or reason to
gather to give thanks to the God? Or that we are so right living and strong in
and of ourselves that we do not need the grace and strength of the Lord?
Moreover,
in the same context of our craving for communication and always being in touch,
I wonder how and when we are going to be able to connect with Christ and
remember Him. After all, the primary reason we celebrate the Eucharist is to
obey the command of Jesus to “Do this in memory” of Him, to hear His Gospel, to
be full of thanksgiving and to renew our commitment to live faithfully.
We
cannot answer for those who are not here, but we can and we should answer for
ourselves.
Let
me say this as I begin. There are good and valid reasons for not receiving
Communion. In fact, in some circumstances, NOT receiving Holy Communion is more
faithful than receiving. For example, if your life is not lived in communion
with Christ, if you are aware of serious sin or lack the necessary reflection
to do it well.
I mean to invite all
of us to a renewed appreciation of the Eucharist and Christ present there, but I
do not mean to cause unnecessary guilt in those who are faithful to Sunday Mass
but for whatever reason cannot receive Communion. But to those who can receive
Communion and don’t, I am talking to you. And to those who might receive Christ
in Communion but live sinful lives, who have mortal sins that have not been
confessed, or who do it without the necessary reflection, I am talking to you.
We show our faith by
our reverence. Of course that applies to reverence in church and how we receive
but it should not be seen so narrowly. Reverence also applies to what should
happen as a result of receiving the Eucharist. That means cooperating with the
liberating, protecting and nourishing Lord in how we live outside the church
walls. And ultimately how reverent we are answers the question of whether we
believe or not. Lack of reverence, lack of reflection, lack of preparation is
rooted in lack or weakness of faith.
Let’s make our prayer,
“Lord I do believe, help my unbelief.”
In the Gospel of John,
Jesus asks the crowds to “remember” their “ancestors who ate and still died.”
They are to remember the strength and power of God when He “guided you through
the vast and terrible desert,” that God brought forth water for you from the
flinty rock and fed you in the desert with manna.”
Jesus then pushes
beyond anything even dreamed of by the crowds with words impossible to
understand. Just as the manna in the desert was “a food unknown to your
fathers,” Jesus offers a new food that is unknown to the people of His day.
Jesus offers “bread that is His very flesh.” He is not saying that the bread
symbolizes His flesh; He’s saying it is His “flesh for the life of the world.”
Is it any wonder that they quarreled among themselves? They asked how this
could happen. Can you hear the echo here of Mary’s question to the angel? She
asked how could this be possible. How could she
conceive a child? Gabriel answers that it is through the power of the Holy
Spirit. Now the question is how can Jesus become food and drink? And the answer
is the same: Through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Gospel tells us
everything we need to know, provided we listen, understand and act on it.
“Whoever eats this bread will live forever.” There is no doubt that Jesus
intends to give Himself to us completely so that sinners might have faith and
faith might lead to eternal life. Jesus gave Himself in his
life, in His ministry, in His total surrender to the Father, and ultimately in
His death. But most of all, He gives Himself as real food and drink so
that we might have life because of Him.
And just when you
think there could be no more, there is.
Communion with the
Body and Blood of Christ must lead us to communion with one another. Together
we walk to receive Communion while joining our voices in song. Having received
the Body of Christ, you return to your places as the mystical Body of Christ.
We are one Body. As
We are one with all
who have gone before us, our loved ones, our ancestors and all the saints. We
are also one with those yet to come, our children, grandchildren and
generations to come. In God time is collapsed in the moment of Communion!
No wonder that the
Second
This is the mystery,
the Gift, brought before us this day. May it change our minds, deepen our
faith, move our hearts and bring to eternal life. Amen.
The material in this homily has already been
copyrighted and so may not otherwise be published or copied. It is for personal
use only.
Rev. Gerald F. Mullally
Saint Patrick’s Church
Pentecost A May 11, 2008
Today
we reflect on the guiding force of the Church and of our lives, the Holy Spirit. As baptized Christians we are supposed to
open ourselves to be used as the Spirit wills. But how do we know that the Holy
Spirit is acting in our lives, that we are being transformed into the image and
likeness of God? The answer is found in the type of fruit our lives are
producing.
First,
we need to remember that we are talking about divine power that is within us.
Of course we find such a thing hard to believe. But consider the effect on
those who first received the Spirit. With the Spirit, they discovered that they
could not contain themselves; or perhaps better put, they could not contain the
Spirit within them. They were overflowing with God’s love for the world. The
Scripture tells us they were “driven out into the streets of
Before
the Spirit, they had doubts about who Jesus was and confusion about His
mission. Afterwards they began to understand and were able to set aside their
own disappointed expectations and accept the surprising ways and will of God.
Before the Spirit’s fire and light, they were eager for power, prestige and
good places at the table. After the transforming Spirit, they began to put
others first and exercise their power as service. Before the Spirit came on
them, they were suspicious of foreigners and their differences. With the fiery
transformation their horizons were broadened and their vision was widened.
If all this
and more could happen to them, what might happen to us if we let the Spirit
move within us?
Our
spiritual lives are like gardens; we need to tend them by pruning back
branches, pulling the weeds, tilling the soil and fertilizing the plants. We do
this by keeping check on the influence of our weaknesses and sin on our
thoughts and actions, developing an active prayer life, enlightening our minds,
pursuing the presence of God and trying to live by the Gospel. By doing these,
we make space for the Spirit to work.
But how
do we know that the Spirit is working? If our “fruit is good” and that we are
really drinking of the one Spirit? The presence and continued growth of virtue
is the evidence. But what are some of the virtues that will be seen in a person
of prayer who is moved by the one Spirit? They are faith, hope, love, humility self-forgetfulness, sensitivity to the
needs of others and zeal for the
glory of God and for extending the God’s Kingdom.
As a
person develops a relationship with God and relies on the presence of the
Spirit, faith will deepen. You will
begin to trust in God’s presence active in your life. It is not that doubts
will disappear but that you will see reality more clearly and grow in
confidence.
The
First Letter of
In
secular circles, humility is not seen
as a virtue. We tend to think of humble people as mousy, timid, nervous and
quiet. But to be humble means to recognize our sinfulness, to see we share the
same weaknesses and quirks as others. Humility empties us of all arrogance.
Growth
in the Spirit makes us begin to think
less of ourselves and more about others and what is happening around us. We
know the Spirit is working when concern for others is first.
Finally,
we develop zeal for the glory of God,
for spreading His Kingdom and we participate in the work of the Church.
This is
the feast of Pentecost. It is our duty as Christians to continue to drink fully
of the Spirit, to allow our spiritual gardens to be refreshed, renewed and
watered, and to examine our lives for evidence of the good fruit of the Holy Spirit.
The material in this
homily has already been copyrighted and so may not otherwise be published or
copied. It is for personal use only.
Rev. Gerald F. Mullally
Saint Patrick’s Church
Third Sunday of Easter A
April 6, 2008
The
encounter with Jesus on the road to Emmaus is one of the best stories in the
Gospels. And it is literally full of material for reflection and offering
consolation and hope. There is no way that I can do it justice in the time we
have here, but I hope we can all leave with something more than we came with.
The
core truth is that the risen Christ comes to us in the “breaking of the bread,”
that is, when we celebrate the Eucharist. So we might begin by asking whether
we sometimes do not recognize Christ. Many of us spend lifetimes receiving His
Body with our eyes unopened.
There
is the case of Peter of
For us,
we likely have to hope that the story can make our hearts burn with faith.
The two
disciples head out for Emmaus, a distance of seven miles from
It’s
important to remember that they have all the details, they know the whole
story. Now the body is missing. They have heard talk of angels and such stuff.
But they see no sign of life, no reason to hope. Their grief and disappointment
are too much. Listen to them.
“We
hoped He would make things better, that He would set the people free. We hoped
He would save us but He couldn’t even save Himself.” It’s easy to understand
their disappointment.
Sometimes
even those we trust and love can let us down. Sometimes our friends are not
there when we need them. Sometimes family doesn’t care as much as we think they
should. Even the people of the church can leave us disappointed. And the
greatest disappointment may not be from friends, family or the church. It might
come from the One in whom we place our faith. Sometimes even God can
disappoint.
We
expect God to be our protector and our savior. We expect Him to do something
about pain, illness and disease. We expect Him to do something about poverty
and suffering in the world. What of disasters and war and violence? Yet peace
does not come, wars continue and disease never ends.
“He let
us down,” the travelers say. “He should have done something.”
“I’m
not so sure,” the stranger says to them. “Let’s keep walking.”