How do you like the Sanctuary now? The Tabernacle is now restored and in place behind the Altar. Our Lady of Guadalupe is no longer covered with a reflecting glass. And, as a community, we chose together our primary image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and it is now permanently hung behind the altar.

Now, I have a challenge for all parishioners. We are not here to be entertained, but to become disciples. Each of you has a personal faith story, probably related in some way to the Holy Eucharist. We need to become comfortable sharing our faith story with others, our own children and family members and friends. There is no “right” way to do this. No two stories would be alike, and we would probably surprise each other with our personal stories. Our symbols are meant to help us communicate our faith. We would simply ask the Holy Spirit to guide us in our faith story, and for the courage to tell it.

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One of my favorite experiences is to watch families entering the Church. Who knows what was going on before they came in. However, a beautiful reverence comes over them when they enter. Upon entering the Church, parents often take the time to teach their children how to put their hands into the Holy Water font and then bless themselves making the sign of the Cross. Once in a while I will see a father with both arms full of children, who doesn’t have a hand free to bless himself. Frequently, his wife may have a free hand and she will put her hand into the Holy Water font and then make the sign of the Cross over her husband, first, then over her children in his arms, and lastly over herself. Sometimes I see the same thing with a person being pushed in a wheel chair, when their family member and caregiver crosses them with Holy Water.

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That Gospel from Matthew is the last paragraph, in the last chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. The entire Gospel of Matthew has been aiming toward this paragraph, the commissioning of the Apostles and the sending of the Church.

Were all the disciples on board? What we hear is this,

The eleven disciples went to Galilee,
to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.
When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.

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Easter is such a grand and overwhelming mystery! It takes time, meditation and prayer to begin to grasp the mystery of Easter. Even an entire lifetime cannot grasp all of the mystery. Easter is the mystery of Life. Easter needs to be seen from God’s perspective, a Father’s perspective.

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Jesus shows himself as both the Shepherd and the Lamb. Remember how, at Mass, we say of Jesus’ Body and Blood, “Behold the Lamb of God”. He is the sacrificial lamb offered for our sins.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us he is the shepherd and the sheep know his voice. He is also the gate, the gate of heaven and eternal life.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep.”

Jesus wants to lead us and guide us to eternal life.

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What is darker? The night? Or, Death?

What is brighter? Light? Or, Life?

We all live in fear of darkness, real darkness. Few things are as frightening as total darkness, like the darkness of the grave. And there is nothing darker than death and sin.

We live in the hope of life. There is no greater hope than Eternal Life. There is no light brighter than the Hope of life.

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“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

That was Jesus’ preaching. Jesus is God. Heaven is where God is present. God became man and called us to Himself, in heaven. But we cannot have heaven unless we repent.

In many people’s thinking, if there is a heaven, then we should all be going there, regardless of our relationship with God. Perhaps you have heard the child’s question, “Can dogs go to heaven?” It is an innocent child’s question. We should know how to respond. It is a wonderful, teachable moment.

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What is a Parishioner?

What is a parishioner? The Psalm says,

“Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.”

Before we were baptized, we were under a death sentence. Without baptism we cannot hope for eternal life. Eternal life is only possible with God. Adam and Eve rejected God, and as a result, their children were shut out of Heaven. Because of our baptism our sins have been forgiven and we are admitted to life with God, life with the Sacraments, eternal life. Baptism makes us citizens of God’s Kingdom, citizens of Heaven; citizens of His Church. [Read more…]

Jesus’ birth was the greatest event in the history of mankind. The event was so great that all historical time is now counted as time before Jesus’ birth (“B.C”) and after Jesus’ birth (A.D., or “anno domini”, year of our Lord. The time before was when Death ruled the world. In the time after Jesus’ coming, Death was defeated. What other human event could be the center of our time?

Jesus’ birth was not a “surprise party”. God did not sneak up on men when he became a man. [Read more…]

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary. For thousands of years our faith has recognized that some feasts are of a higher order than others. We use the word solemnity today to indicate the fact that the feast of the Motherhood of Mary, Mother of God, is of the highest rank for the entire Church. Easter Sunday is announced as the solemnity of solemnities, as it is the feast that has the highest rank over all other Sundays and feast days.

Today is a major solemnity. [Read more…]

Seven hundred years prior to the birth of Jesus God revealed through his prophet Isaiah,

“The Lord himself will give you this sign: virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.”

Today we hear Matthew recount how the birth of Jesus came about. Our God comes to us. Unlike every other religion in the world, our God comes to us. Our God reveals himself to us over and over again. And He comes to us.

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Faith changes everything. It doesn’t take much. But it requires action. When I was finishing my MBA at the University of Dallas, I was offered several times to go to work with the pioneer company making birth control pills. I was newly married, and my wife and I had experienced a courtship full of shared faith experiences. Our first child was on the way. I needed a job.

But, I knew I didn’t need this job; I couldn’t sell birth control pills. My faith prevented this.

Further, together we had experienced working in the missions in the mountains of Michoacan, in Southwest Mexico. Our shared mission experiences had stirred into flame our faith. We wanted to work in Latin America.

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Last year I preached to you, “Stop Stealing Paperclips”. If you cannot be trusted with small things, you cannot be trusted.

“No servant can serve two masters.
He will either hate one and love the other,
or be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve both God and mammon.”

Mammon is an Aramaic word meaning property, money, possessions, or that in which one puts trust.

You know as well as I do that we will spend most of our lives struggling with the master “Mammon”. We will each say to ourselves that we are not mastered by money and possessions. Nevertheless, we will all be jealous of someone else’s money, car, clothes or house. Still we will tell ourselves that we are free from slavery to mammon. However, in our hearts we will know that is simply not true. To be honest, it is a struggle to be free from the master “Mammon”. This struggle cannot be overcome without prayer and God’s grace.

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