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Episodes
Homilies from Saint Bernadette Catholic Church, Prospect, KY
Episodes
Monday Apr 09, 2018
Sunday Mar 25, 2018
Sunday Mar 25, 2018
Palm / Passion Sunday B’18
“Here We Go Again”
March 25, 2018
{Processional Gospel Homily}
Liturgically we only do this re-enactment once a year, but its fingerprints are on every Mass we offer. Just after I summon your undivided attention telling you to “lift up your hearts to the Lord,” when we are about to enter the Eucharistic Prayer by which the miracle of God’s Presence will again take place, we become like these crowds welcoming Jesus into their midst.
Echoing the Prophet Isaiah’s angelic vision of the heavenly liturgy in chapter six of his writings, as if with a huge exclamation point we will cry out “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Hosts!” Then, echoing the words of the Four Living Creatures in the Book of Revelation who bow down in worship before the Lamb, we will say “Hosanna in the highest, heaven and earth are full of your glory, Hosanna in the highest!”
In this way at every Mass we welcome the coming of Jesus anew. Let us now join with the crowds hailing the coming of our Savior…
{Passion Gospel}
Preachers of prosperity would have us escape the cross. Knowing our fear of it, they dangle all kinds of enticing promises before us like the words of Peter after Jesus’ first prediction of his own cross (“Surely it cannot be that way for you.”) You’re too special for a cross; too loved; too unique… GET BEHIND ME SATAN!
Jesus clearly teaches that if we want to be his disciple we must take up our cross and follow him. Jesus no more promises to save us from the cross than he was saved from it. Rather, Jesus saves us THROUGH the cross. Through the cross our suffering is transformed from being our downfall into being our means of salvation through our communion with God who is Emmanuel, that is, “God with us.”
And how does He do this? By offering himself as the sacrificial lamb. Jesus is the Prophet Isaiah’s Suffering Servant who will shed his blood for the many who will in their freedom embrace God’s New Covenant.
As the Book of Revelation, chapter 19 attests, Jesus is the sacrificial lamb who comes to us on our altar as our bridegroom. Echoing Revelation’s angelic invitation, “Blessed are those who are called to the supper of the Lamb,” I will shortly call you to walk this aisle as the bride ready to become one with the Lord in communion.
Thus, just as ancient Israel would sacrifice an animal and then partake in a communion meal so as to seal a covenant union with one another and God, so you and I will do so again today. Offering the sacrifice of the Lamb Jesus, and partaking in this communion meal, we will know the marital union of the two being one - Jesus and you - the groom and the bride… one.
Think of this image as you walk the aisle today. And in the silent prayer following, share with Jesus your most intimate thoughts for you and He will be one.
Monday Mar 19, 2018
Monday Mar 12, 2018
Monday Mar 12, 2018
4th Sun Lent-B’18
“Nicodemus and The Light”
March 11, 2018
Today we see two characters: Jesus and Nicodemus. Who’s who?
Jesus clearly tells us who he is: The Son of Man lifted up so everyone who believes in him may have eternal life… Jesus is the Light come into the world.
What about Nicodemus? On the surface he is a leader in his community, a teacher, a member of the ruling class. But we are suppose to see more. John uses the Greek word “anthropos” for Nicodemus, a word that means “humanity.” So Nicodemus is suppose to represent more than just himself in the story; he represents humanity. But how?
Look at the story…He first shows up on the scene after Jesus has gotten frustrated with people who were only following him because of the good show. These people were only around for the show. This by association links Nicodemus with these people. Puts him in a bad light, so to speak. Also, Nicodemus shows up on the scene at night; never a good thing in the Gospel of John. In John’s Gospel Jesus is the Light and those who choose darkness over light are in trouble. This is where Nicodemus dwells. Indeed, Nicodemus is a fence-sitter. Not ever willing to commit to Jesus publicly, he tries to satisfy his curiosity secretly. But he never gets it. After a couple of questions he fades back into the night only to resurface a brief moment in chapter seven; and then only again in chapter nineteen after Jesus is dead. Oh he shows up in nineteen with a ton of burial incense with which to bury the now dead Jesus, but this is only because he can wrap his head around a dead Jesus - a historical curiosity, an exemplary past example, a non-threat to Nicodemus’ current position and lifestyle.
The bottom line is this, Nicodemus never steps into the Light and this is his tragedy, for the Gospel of John is clear on this point: when it comes to Jesus you are either in the Light or not. There is no in-between.
As intentional disciples of Jesus Christ today, we must be Light Tenders. One part of our Mass in particular today highlights this to me: the Penitential Act, the Confidior in particular. Let’s look at the Confidior…
The Confidior is a good examine of our conscious done at our coming together to offer the Mass. Note the part in it where we pray “in my thoughts and in my deeds; in what I have done and in what I have failed to do.” So often all our focus is on our sins of commission (the bad things we have done), whereas our sins of omission (the good things we failed to do) are overlooked. Yet, I believe we must remember that we are created by God TO DO GOOD. When we fail to do so we turn in on ourselves; we begin to be the center of our own universe when Jesus Christ should be.
We are called by our baptisms to do more than just “co-exist” with others in our world, we must be a force for good. Remember what Peter teaches in one of his letters… “love covers a multitude of sin.” To fail to do good for others (sins of omission) places a bushel basket over the Light entrusted to us at our baptisms when we are suppose to be lighting up the world with it.
Here is the hard truth I believe our Season of Lent would have us hear… it is extremely tempting to hang back in the shadows like Nicodemus. In the darkness we can play-pretend we are partners with Jesus Christ as we watch from afar. We’ll hang out with Catholic Christians but never risk being crucified with one; we’ll worship in their midst but never join their parish; we’ll intellectually agree or emotionally empathize with a Catholic teaching or position, but not act upon it. Yet, hear this… doing nothing is doing something! It is choosing to stay in the safe shadows of anonymity, not the light of discipleship. There is a reason Lent begins with Jesus preaching, “The Kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the Gospel!”
But today is Laetare Sunday (Rejoice Sunday), so hear this good news: Every new journey starts with a single step. If you find yourself in the shadows here are a couple first steps you might try…
If you have been worshipping among us for awhile, but never actually joined, stop by our New Member table in the Narthex and explore becoming a parishioner of St. Bernadette. We would love to have you step into the light and publicly become a part of our wonderful family.
Here’s another small step Archbishop Kurtz, our Shepherd and the chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty, has given all of us this week: In a joint statement with Cardinal Timothy Dolan (chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities) we are asked to flood Congress with emails and calls asking for enactment of the Conscience Protection Act as part of the 2018 funding bill and to pray for this outcome. [Read Statement]
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As far as we know Nicodemus chose to remain in the background, the shadows, while others carried Jesus’ message to the world. What about you? Remember what Jesus tells Nicodemus today, “Whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.”
Come; Live in the Light; We are called.
Tuesday Mar 06, 2018
Monday Mar 05, 2018
Monday Mar 05, 2018
When I visited my family last month I stayed with my brother and one day my nice wanted me to read a story for her. She is two-and-a-half years old. I found that, when I read her picture-book stories, she would not simply look on passively. She would interrupt and ask for example: “What is the moon doing in the sky?” Or “What is the mouse doing in the field?” In other words, her responsive, enquiring mind was not limited by the set story in front of her; and she was wanting to engage in a learning conversation. In that way, she will gain in understanding, expanding her horizons.
I was reminded of this experience when I read the Gospel story of the Samaritan woman’s encounter with Jesus at the well. She certainly did not follow the conventional script of Jesus’ ministry. He had come from a Jewish family, had surrounded himself with Jewish male followers and his ministry had hitherto been to the Jewish people. And then he encountered a non-Jewish (Samaritan) woman. And she was a woman who had lived an eventful life, having had five husbands and who was then cohabiting with a sixth man. Yet, crossing all barriers, in their weariness, in the silence of the noonday, Jesus and the woman sat awhile and talked together.
And what she showed was a responsive, enquiring mind, not limited by the conventions of her time, and that she was wanting to engage in a learning conversation. She was unafraid to ask Jesus a series of questions and to make a series of comments. And through this she expanded her horizons, growing in understanding of who Jesus is. She asks Jesus to give her his gift of living water, springing up into life everlasting. She sees him as the Christ, the one who tells all things. She then leaves Jesus. Symbolically, she also leaves behind her jar, representing her old way of life. She goes to tell her own people of what she has encountered.
In thinking of a modern-day parallel to the Samaritan woman, I came across the story of the American Rosaria Butterfield. Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, a former tenured professor of English and women’s studies at Syracuse University, converted to Christ in 1999 in what she describes as a train wreck. Rosaria earned her Ph.D. from Ohio State University, then served in the English department and women studies program at Syracuse University from 1992 to 2002.
She prided herself on being a leftist, atheist academic, and on being in a lesbian relationship. She said that “the word Jesus stuck in my throat like an elephant tusk. Those who professed the name commanded my pity and wrath”. But through her dialogue with Christians and her open, responsive, repeated reading of the Bible, she came to a radical conversion. Her life was uplifted to more than she had been. She reflected:
“The Bible got to be bigger inside me than I. And it absolutely overflowed into my world. Sometimes in crisis, we don’t really learn lessons. Sometimes the result is simpler and more profound: sometimes our character is simply transformed”.
So as we continue our Lenten journey, let us retain that child-like openness to learning and to developing that my niece shows and that has characterised unlikely converts to Christ’s way. We all have our burdens, our weariness, and our hunger for something greater. Christ is there waiting to raise us up to more than we have been
The story is told of a generation ago when an old farmer brought his family to the big city for the very first time. They had never seen buildings so tall or sights so impressive. The farmer dropped his wife off at a department store and took his son with him to the bank- the tallest of all the buildings. As they walked into the lobby, they saw something else they had never seen before. Two steel doors opened. A rather large and elderly woman walked in, and the big doors closed behind her. The dial over the door swept to the right and then back to the left. The doors opened and a beautiful young lady came walking out. The farmer was amazed. He turned to his son and said, “you wait right here. I’m going to get your mother and run her through that thing.”
At the rapture, we will be taken up. But we will be transformed and come back with resurrection bodies.
Samaritan woman brought people in her village to the life-giving water. In the first reading we heard Jewish people were thirsty in the desert and Moses brought life giving water to them. Are we giving life giving waters of God to others especially those around us? Are we like woman in the well running around to bring people to Jesus. Are you sharing love of God with others?
Song: Fill my cup Lord by Wanda Jackson 7/8/2014, 2.43 min/y tube. Reflective song
Tuesday Feb 27, 2018
Tuesday Feb 27, 2018
Tuesday Feb 27, 2018
2nd Sun Lent-B’18 Words of Institution
“The Sacrifice”
February 25, 2018
God puts Abraham to the test. God calls to Abraham, and Abraham answers, “Here I am!” Not “Yes Lord?” or “What do you want now Lord?” Abraham essentially said, “I’m ready.” Abraham had learned to respond unhesitatingly to God’s will. But ready for what? Hear the story beneath the story….
“Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a holocaust on a height that I will point out to you.” Early the next morning Abraham saddled the family donkey with Isaac and set out for the place God directed.
On the next day, when the great crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took palm branches and went out to meet him, and cried out: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel.” Jesus found an ass and sat upon it, as it is written: “Fear no more, O daughter Zion; see your king comes, seated upon an ass’ colt.”
On the third day of their journey Abraham caught sight of the place from afar. then he said to his servants: “Both of you stay here with the donkey while the boy and I go on over yonder.”
As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve aside by themselves and said to them on the way, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”
Thereupon Abraham took the wood for the holocaust and laid it on his son Isaac’s shoulders while he himself carried the fire and the knife.
Pilate said to the crowd, “Shall I crucify your king?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” Then he handed Jesus over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and carrying the cross himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, in Hebrew, Golgotha.
As the two walked on together, Isaac spoke to his father Abraham: “Father!” he said. “Yes son,” he replied. “Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for the holocaust?” “Son,” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the sheep for the holocaust.”
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, grant us peace.
When they came to the place of which God had told them, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it….
Arriving to the place called the Skull they crucified Jesus and the criminals there….
Next Abraham tied up his son Isaac….
Next Jesus was stripped of his tunic….
And placed him on the wood of the altar….
And placed him on the wood of the cross….
Abraham reached out and took the knife….
The soldier reached out and took the hammer…
{said together!} HE RAISED IT IN THE AIR TO STRIKE…
“STOP!” God cried out to Abraham, “STOP!”
Abraham’s relief (not to mention Isaac’s) was palpable. Still… a son of Abraham would be offered, only not the one Abraham expected. God the Father’s own son would become the sacrificial lamb of the holocaust.
Now we might ask what all this says about our God. Do we have a vindictive God who demands a pound of flesh for a pound of sin? Some bible thumpers would have us believe so embracing a vindictive image of God to justify their own evil acts, but not us. We catholics do not believe in a vindictive God. We believe an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.
So why Calvary? Why the cross? If God’s son did not have to die to appease some big loan shark in the sky, then why? Well the crucifixion is best understood as the result of a collision between two opposing forces: humanity’s sin and God’s will. The collision of the cross happens when God’s will and our sin crash into each other… a collision made possible because of the freedom God gives us even to turn away from him; a freedom for which God sacrifices Himself; a collision whose final outcome is the victory of resurrection for all who place themselves on God’s side.
This sacrifice of God and resurrection victory is what we remember with every Mass offered… not just remembering it as a past historical happening, but representing it as if we were there… transcending time so we are actually sacramentally there!
You see, the cross is not the result of some vindictive God’s extraction of punishment; the cross is the result of humanity’s refusal to embrace God’s kingdom… when our sin runs into God’s love.
So much of our faith comes down to this: we have the freedom to choose to follow God or not. God gives us this freedom so we can make a gift of our lives to him. It is this God-given freedom and our use or abuse of it that we are called to reflect upon in this season of Lent.
As we see with Abraham, each step taken with God leads to another and another and another. Yet, with each step taken we receive a promise, a promise that we will discover new life both now and at the end of our journey. Abraham chose to say, “yes” to God’s will in his life, and was blessed with countless descendants. Jesus chose to say, “yes” to his Father’s will and was raised up on the third day and exulted. Now is our time to exercise our freedom of choice. God wants us to walk as children of the Light. The choice is our’s to make.
Tuesday Feb 20, 2018
Tuesday Feb 20, 2018
Lent B I Sunday, Feb18, 2018
“Covenant”
A mother camel and her baby are talking one day and the baby camel asks, “Mom why have we got these huge three-toed feet?” The mother replies, “To enable us trek across the soft sand of the desert without sinking.” “And why have we got these long, heavy eyelashes?” “To keep the sand out of our eyes on the trips through the desert” replies the mother camel. “And Mom, why have we got these big humps on our backs?” The mother, now a little impatient with the boy replies, “They are there to help us store fat for our long treks across the desert, so we can go without water for long periods.” “OK, I get it!” says the baby camel, “We have huge feet to stop us sinking, long eyelashes to keep the sand from our eyes and humps to store water. Then, Mom, why the heck are we here in the Toronto zoo?” Modern life sometimes makes one feel like a camel in a zoo. And like camels in a zoo we need sometimes to go into the desert in order to discover who we truly are. Lent invites us to enter into this kind of desert experience.
The first reading from the book of Genesis (Gen.9:8-15) speaks about the Covenant. The word 'covenant' means agreement, pledge or promise. Covenant is always between two or more persons. Here we speak of the covenant/agreement between God and man. There are 3 covenants in the O.T. and one in N.T.; and at every covenant there is a sign and a promise from God. In all these covenants we find God takes the initiative and this shows His love for man.
1) God made a Covenant with Noah in O.T. after the great deluge/flood. The sign of the covenant was rainbow and the promise He made was that He would never destroy the world through water/flood.
2) God made another covenant with Abraham (the second). Abraham became the father/head of a nation through which the Saviour of the world is to be born. God made two promises with Abraham: a) He would give to Abraham a son (Isaac) through his wife Sarah, and through whom a great nation would come into existence. b) He would give the Promised Land to his descendants. He gave a sign: to cut an animal into two halves and God would walk in between the two halves. This would happen to people who do not keep His word. The sign of the covenant was circumcision of all male children. God also wanted Abraham to have total trust in Him.
3) God made the third covenant with the people of Israel and Moses; Moses representing the people of Israel. God will be always their God and they will be His people; and He will protect and lead them if they fulfil all the Ten Commandments. The sign of the Covenant was blood of an animal that has to be sprinkled on the altar {altar represents God} and on all the people.
In all these covenants we find that God had been always faithful: there was no deluge/flood. A son (Isaac) was given to Abraham and the land of Palestine was given to the descendants of Abraham. He led the Israelites and protected them through the desert, gave them manna and worked so many wonders. Noah, Abraham and Moses remained always faithful but people broke the covenant, grumbled against God and abandoned God many times and worse, turned to idols and idol worship.
Now, God entered into a New, Perfect, Eternal and Everlasting Covenant with man. The person He chose for this was His own Son Jesus Christ Himself. There would not be any more of the covenant. All the covenants in the O. T. prepared for this new one. The purpose of it was, to make everyone His children. Thus He Himself became man {God became man = Immanuel – God-with-us}. He established this in the evening of Holy Thursday before He died. It is signed by His Blood on Good Friday.
Jesus at the Last Supper took bread and wine and said, “Take and eat 'This is My Body', take and drink, 'This is My Blood' of the New and Everlasting Covenant, shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven”.
The Eucharist is the memorial of the New Covenant. Jesus completed when He shed His Blood and died on the Cross. When He said this He meant it. “This is My Body, This is My Blood” not a sign or symbol, but He really and truly meant it. Jesus said, “If anyone eats of this Bread will live forever” and again “Whoever eats My flesh and drink My Blood has Eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day”. (Jn.6: 51f).
There will be no more covenants between God and man. The Eucharist is the Perfect, Eternal and Everlasting Covenant and this is the reason Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of Me”. {He insists whenever we gather in His name to have the celebration of the Eucharist. That’s why the Eucharist is celebrated every day at different times in all the Churches in the Catholic Church.
When we receive Him worthily at the Eucharistic celebration, we experience, ‘I in Him and He in us’ experience’- a real encounter with the person of Jesus Christ. Those who receive Jesus worthily in the Eucharist will say like St. Paul, “It is no longer I live, but Christ lives in me”. This is what Jesus solemnly declared, “If any one loves me, He will keep My Word and My Father will love him and We (the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit) will come to him and make OUR (the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit) HOME (dwell) in him” (Jn. 14: 23).
Therefore, we need to receive Him worthily every time we go for the sacrament. Let us be faithful to the Eucharist the new Covenant of God.
Tuesday Feb 20, 2018