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Homily

Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts. 12:1-11; Ps. 34:2-9; 2 Tim. 4:6-8, 17-18; Mt. 16:13-19

“But who do you say that I am?”  This question by Jesus to the apostles was answered by Saints Peter and Paul not just with words but with actions following in the footsteps of Jesus to lay their life down for their faith in him.  What is our action of faith that speaks louder than words in answering the question for ourselves?  True faith is reflected in our actions and our actions strengthen our faith that we may stand strong against the powers of the evil one.  Who Jesus is in our life is based on our relationship with him, our daily walk and talk to God in three persons, worship of the Father, love of Jesus and calling to the Holy Spirit to sanctify us. 

King Herod had “James, the brother of John killed by the sword” and now Peter is arrested expecting a similar fate.  What is also happening is that “prayer by the Church was fervently being made to God on his behalf”.  Intercessory prayer by the Church is a powerful source of prayer and God hears the prayer of the faithful.  God sent his angel to free him from the bonds of evil because his work was not done.  Peter is being formed in the image of Christ, just as Christ was imprisoned in Jerusalem during the feast of Unleavened Bread so is Peter imprisoned during this same season but for now the angel says to Peter to “get dressed” meaning it is not his time to die.  There will be a future time it will be his time to be martyred and others will dress him and lead him where he does not want to go. 

Peter would still be martyred but on God’s time after the early church had grown and established itself as a force under the authority of the apostles.  We too have a window of time in this world with a divine purpose called to give of ourselves for God’s greater good.  This is how we answer the question of who God is for us fulfilling what we are called to be. 

St. Paul gives us a beautiful literary farewell “poured out like a libation…competed well…finished the race…kept the faith…the crown of righteousness awaits me”.  It is so good and poetic that we can forget how much he suffered as he poured out his heart and ran a race to spread the word of salvation “rescued from the lion’s mouth” before being captured by those who were after him to kill him.  It is not generally good to use the word “I” in a homily but I believe the greater we surrender to the will of God the more we are rescued from the lion’s mouth, from those who would do evil in our lives. 

The words “let go and let God” and the prayer “Jesus I trust in you” answer the question “who do you say that I am?” if we put them in practice.  If we believe then we trust and if we trust then we fear not and if we fear not then letting go of that which we cannot change is welcoming the peace of God into our hearts.  Too often we say we believe but fear disrupts our trust and we fall into the desire to control even that which is beyond us leaving no room for God in those moments when we are under the test of faith.  Faith is not a lack of action but acting with trust in God seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit, being prudent by taking right action of what we can control and letting go trusting in the will of God to be our champion.   Jesus asks the question to reveal himself as God the Son in unity with the Father and the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus is our God who reveals to us the Father and delivers us to his love and mercy.  He does this through his own sacrifice on the cross.  He is our champion to carry us from death to life, from sin to sanctity and from purgatory to heaven.  He offers us his sacred heart, a heart that feels all our suffering, grieves all our sins, rejoices in our repentance from sin, heals our wounds and yet still bleeds for the sins of the world.  The sacred heart of Jesus reminds us that he remains fully human and divine in order to remain with us in our own journey of faith.  He desires to be our shepherd whose voice we hear and guides us in right paths. 

Saints Peter and Paul can be seen as having been the bridge that established the universal church.   St. Peter led the Jewish tradition of old into the truth of Jesus the anointed one who they had been waiting for while St. Paul led the evangelization of the Gentiles into the revelation of the “unknown God” revealed in Jesus.  It is our turn now to be a bridge for believers and non-believers.  We must ensure that believers don’t simply live by religious tradition coming to church for weddings and funerals and only major holidays but are actively engaged in their faith and that nonbelievers are drawn to the mystery of faith through what they witness in the church.  This is our calling so let our actions answer the question of who we say Jesus is in our lives. 

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Homily

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Gen. 14:18-20; Ps. 110:1-4; 1 Cor. 11:23-26; Jn. 16:12-15

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ is a celebration of the “living bread that came down from heaven” as a sacrifice to offer us life eternal.  The power of Jesus to transform five loaves and two fish into food to feed thousands is the miracle to understand the power to transform bread and wine into his own body and blood that we may believe and receive him so he may transform our lives.  This miracle was foreshadowed from the days of Melchizedek in the coming of Jesus, as Melchizedek blesses Abram, we the people are now blessed by Jesus our high priest as God Most High.

It is the belief of Jesus in the Eucharist that separates Catholicism from other Christian denominations.  How is it that Christians can accept and believe all the miracles Jesus did as well as his claim that he who sees him sees God but deny him when he says “this is my body, this is my blood” in the bread and wine.  Some even claim Catholics preach cannibalism just as in the times of Jesus when many followers also left him as we read in the gospel of John 6:66 “many of his disciples drew back and no longer walked with him”.  For those in search of the “mark of the beast” in the numbers 666, what could be a greater mark than to deny Jesus in the Eucharist.  It was “a hard saying, who can believe it” (Jn. 6:60) then and remains so even for many who claim to be Christian. 

Carlo Acutis, the teenage boy who used his computer skills to document many of the Eucharistic miracles prior to his death made this his life mission, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist.  Eucharistic miracles like in Lanciano (8th Century), Santarem (13th Century), and Buenos Aires (1990s) and show consistently blood type AB positive including the Shroud of Turin is believed to be AB blood.  They also show to come from cardiac tissue which spiritually unites our hearts to the heart of Jesus.  In these miracles Jesus reveals himself as present to us today as he was when he walked this earth.  What we also have in these miracles in an example of how science is not inconsistent with faith.  Carlo’s canonization as a saint is now set to take place September 7, 2025 having lived and died in his service to God at a young age. 

This leaves us still on this earth seeking that perfect sanctity, a work in progress, uniting our faith with reason but ultimately no one can save us with their faith.  It is up to us to believe and by believing to allow Jesus into a more perfect union with our own hearts.  Believe and let God be God for who nothing is impossible.  It is only impossible by our lack of faith as he created us with our own soul to act by free will and to accept or deny him.  We cannot accept him on our terms but as he has revealed himself to humanity, as he claims to be and in the way he has decided to reveal himself.  The decision is ours but eternity depends on the faith we choose to live. 

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Homily

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Prov. 8:22-31; Ps. 8:4-9; Rom 5:1-5; Jn. 16:12-15

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, one God in three Persons.  In God the Father we also celebrate the gift of Fatherhood as Father’s Day.  God the Father is above all things, God the Son is through all things, and God the Holy Spirit is in all things.  Father’s Day is a call to Father’s to also rise above all things with the love of a father in order to lead by witness and sacrifice his domestic church at home united in body to his family.  A father’s love of sacrifice is never done, so every day is a Father’s Day in heaven and on earth.

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity is a mystery which we cannot fully bear now but the “Spirit of truth (that) he will guide us to all truth” is already at work uniting us to this mystery of faith.  “When the Lord established the heavens, I was there”.  Who is this “I” who is like a child “playing before him”?  It is the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God who “found delight in the human race”.  It is the Holy Spirit that then glorifies Jesus because it guides us to all truth, the truth that Jesus is Lord.  It is the Holy Spirit that is our guardian through the gifts of the Spirit to lead us in right path. 

Jesus not only found delight in the human race but he comes into the human race to offer his sacrifice for us that we may be saved.  Imagine a time of war and the son comes to his father to join in the service and go to war knowing the possibility that this son may die in war as a sacrifice to a greater cause of freedom.  The love of the Father accepts the will of the son and gives him his blessing in the agony and sorrow that a sacrifice has to be done if we are to live in freedom.  We are at war against the sin of the world even as the Son has given his life for the love of humanity.  The battle continues calling other sons and daughters to offer themselves for the cause of freedom.   Who is willing to offer themselves up to serve God? 

An article on Catholicvote.org (Why young adults are finding the Catholic faith irresistible; June 9, 2025) was describing the rise of young people “flocking” into the Catholic Church, especially Gen Z and it is not just in the U.S. but also in Europe.   In a survey seeking to find out what is driving this movement two examples seemed stand out.  For a female it was the solemnity of the Mass with its music, architecture, and beauty that gave her a sense of “peace”.  For a male it was the “brotherhood” that sense of freedom to be men among men in what is our current woke culture where “masculinity is under attack”.  In other words, it is a sense of love of God being manifested in his church appealing to the senses of men and women in different ways but still the same God.  They are seeking something greater than themselves but it is not “something” but “someone”. 

Those coming into the church who seek will find that the call to love is also the call to serve and the call to serve is a call to sacrifice.  We all must grow from infant faith to mature faith, from believing to living daily the faith.   We are all at different stages on this journey but with the same Triune God at work in all of us.  Daily life is filled with sacrifice that builds endurance, character, and hope in the best and worst of circumstances.  As the Father has given the Son to humanity and the Son has sent us the Holy Spirit, we must all make an offering of ourselves as the greatest sacrifice of love to the Trinity.  The reward in heaven is greater than any sacrifice we make.  We live in the present with the end in mind for eternity. 

Can we say “The Lord possessed me” and we are doing the will of the Father?  If we can say the Lord has taken possession of us then we are living in the wonder and miracle of the Trinity.  With the eyes of faith, we can behold the working of the Spirit in our lives, in our relationships, even in our suffering there is peace because something greater is present in our lives and we have nothing to fear.  As is often stated, “when one door closes another one opens” and not just any door but the right door for our lives.  This is following in the spirit the will of the Father and gives glory to the Son who makes all things possible. 

We are justified by faith in Jesus Christ through whom we gain grace.  We are not justified by our own works but the grace that comes from Jesus which validates our justification in which we are able to accomplish our works.  In the love of Jesus we sometimes forget to call on the Holy Spirit who is the one at work to strengthen us by the gifts of grace ready to be poured into our souls.  Our prayer, “Come Holy Spirit, take possession of our hearts and strengthen us by your grace” is this intimate union with the Holy Spirit that transformed the disciples from student interns into apostles of authority through the gifts of the Spirit.  We too are to pray for these gifts that our lives may be transformed. 

The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is that we have but one God in three persons united by the same will that is bound in love.  Marriage is to be a unity of one man, one woman and one God bound in love to fulfill a greater good.  It is sacramental meaning sacred as two human hearts receive God in a covenant of love to do the will of God.  When we are open to the will of God then God reveals himself through each other in marriage.  God speaks the language of love to raise each other up and help each other get to heaven.  This is the closest to understanding the Trinity we can compare to for now until God reveals himself to us in eternity. 

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Homily

Pentecost Sunday Receive the Holy Spirit

Posted on by Deacon Joe

Acts 2:1-11; Ps. 104:1, 24, 29-31, 34; Rom 8:8-17; Jn. 20:19-23

Receive the Holy Spirit!  Pentecost Sunday is the gift of the Holy Spirit to each according to the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  What is our gift and how are we using this gift to serve God and the greater good?  For the apostles, the Holy Spirit is the “Advocate”.  In legal terms the advocate speaks for them but it does so through the inspiration it gives them.  It allows them to speak for Christ and not for themselves.   

The Apostles spoke as one voice through prayer, fasting, and discernment.  We too share in the gift of the Advocate by listening to the voice of God in prayer, fasting, discernment and by the voice of the Church.  Since the early days it was the one voice of the Church that addressed many of the questions of the people such as circumcision, ritual foods, or moral behavior.  This was a time when there was no “bible” to study only the word given to the apostles and the traditions carried forth and those left behind.  It was a time of major change in matters of “God” and Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit to guide this transition. 

Just today, I was walking through the grocery store and I heard two men discussing a religious matter when one spoke up with a louder voice saying “even the Pope said, ‘who am I to judge’” (a quote attributed to Pope Francis) making his final argument.  The moral clarity of the Church and for the Pope is not to pass personal judgment but to defend the judgment that has already been passed on from Christ to his people.  There are certain judgments that are not left for re-litigation but for enforcement through obedience.  The Lord has passed judgement on issues of life and death, right and wrong, truth and lies and these judgements are not hidden but defended so that ignorance of the truth is not an excuse. 

The Ten Commandments are a judgment that separates holiness from sinfulness.  Hell welcomes all sinners without conditions or exceptions “as is” but Christ welcomes all sinners to repentance “as called to be” for heaven.   The Holy Spirit comes not to affirm us as we choose to be but to purify us with the fire of holiness to be all that God is calling us to be.  The “call” is for transformation, renewal, and the fire to change the world by the change that starts from within the soul. 

In the first reading the Holy Spirit comes in the form of “tongues as of fire” but the “tongues” were different to each as evidence by those who heard them speak in different languages.  For some Christian groups the gift of tongues has become a litmus test as proof of being saved.  The gift of the Holy Spirit is not simply the gift to speak in tongues as a charismatic revival of the spirit.  For those who receive this gift they must still pick up their cross and follow in the footsteps of Jesus by the daily practice of the faith.  Even those who spoke in tongues spoke in different languages to be understood by various native people of different regions.  Speaking in tongues is just one of many gifts that the spirit produces according to God’s purpose. 

The Holy Spirit comes in many forms with various gifts to be a servant of the Lord and fulfill a calling.  The gift may be to step up as a martyr as did St. Maximillian Kolbe, or the gift of love for the poor as did St. Teresa of Calcutta, or the gift of defending life in all its forms from conception until natural death as a voice in public office, or the gift of raising a future priest, Nun, or Pope by faithfulness to the Church in the domestic church at home.  There are many gifts but the same spirit and the gift of tongues is just one gift.  Again, “What is our gift and how committed are we to this calling?”  The answer is in the fruit of the gift and taking time daily for a spiritual inventory is a good way in making progress for what we have done or failed to do. 

Receive the Holy Spirit and you shall live in the spirit as we bury the flesh.  We bury the flesh when we deny ourselves not what is good but what excess.  It is good and essential to feed the body but it works against the body and the spirit when excess is given to the body bringing sickness and disease.  We bury the flesh when we deny ourselves the pleasure of sexual temptation in all its form of lust but not the sexual union that comes in marriage.  We bury the flesh when we deny ourselves the pride of desire to be first but welcome the desire to be the best that God created us to be.  We bury the flesh when we deny the need to control others according to our will and allow God’s will to be done.  In this we set the spirit free to work its grace in our lives. 

The apostle also reminds us that “if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him”.  Suffering with the Lord begins with our self-denial of the flesh.  Self-denial is our invitation to the Holy Spirit to come and take possession of our hearts and strengthen us by his grace.  It is easy to question the Lord as to why our prayers are not answered without even giving a thought as to why we have not made a sacrifice of our own for the Lord.  It is good to ask but it is important to make an offering to the Lord.  The great sacrifice of the Lord was an act of love for humanity and thus our greatest act of love comes through sacrifice. 

We are one body in Christ but it is our many gifts from the Lord that allows us to love, grow and support each other called to serve one another, lift each other up and help each other get to heaven. 

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