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Homilies from Saint Bernadette Catholic Church, Prospect, KY
Episodes
Sunday Jun 11, 2017
Sunday Jun 04, 2017
Sunday May 28, 2017
Sunday May 14, 2017
Sunday May 07, 2017
Sunday May 07, 2017
4th Sun Easter-A’17
“The Gate”
Fr. Jeff Nicolas
We have been busy around here for the last few months. We have had preaching encounters, adoration, stations of the cross, night prayer, adult formation sessions, sung Eucharistic prayers, and loads and loads of confessions. We brought in 14 people into our Catholic faith at Easter, celebrated Confirmation for a church full of eighth graders and high schoolers, and welcomed another packed-church of second graders to their First Communion. We have been about many great things building up our parish and our Catholic Church. Which makes the question that today’s Gospel brings to my mind a bit weird…
Why be a Catholic Christian? There seems to be many other less taxing religions out there to from which to choose. On the scale of things we Catholics seem to have one of the most demanding list of expectations to follow. So why be Catholic?
Catholics seem to carry more obligations than other religions. We have more obligations to our community than others: priest are celibate; Sunday Mass is an obligation; we are responsible to the greater Church through our bishops, cardinals, and popes. We have more obligations to our relationships than others: when we marry, for instance, should the marriage end in divorce, before we can remarry it has to be shown that something essential was lacking in the failed marriage preventing it from being a sacrament in the first place. A simple “divorce and go to the next” approach is not an option for us. Additionally, we have more obligations to our faith life with God than others in that we live out our spiritual life through seven sacraments (not just two), and we are committed to the liturgical cycle of our worship. It is just tougher to be Catholic!
Now some may want to respond by saying that Catholicism is the only way to salvation and this makes all we do worth it. But truth be told (and taught by our Magisterium) this is not the case. In it’s Decree on Ecumenism, the Magisterium teaches that…
“Some, even very many, of the most significant elements and endowments which together go to build up and give life to the Church itself, can exist outside the visible boundaries of the Catholic Church: the written Word of God; the life of grace; faith, hope, and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, as well as visible elements… The brethren (sic) divided from us also carry out many liturgical actions of the Christian religion. In ways that vary according to the condition of each [ecclesial community], these liturgical actions most certainly can truly engender a life of grace, and, one must say, can aptly give access to the communion of salvation.” (Vatican II, 455-456)”
Catholicism is not the only path to salvation. St. John Paul II as well as both Pope Benedict and Pope Francis are huge advocates of ecumenical dialogue not because they necessarily want to convert everyone to Catholicism, but because they find God in the other’s experience and want to share their experience of faith with ours.
No doubt some among us might become upset with the notion that Catholicism is not the only path to salvation. They will want to say “the gate is small and few will pass through it.” But what is really going on here? Ever notice how the farther we get away from something the smaller it seems to grow? If we want to believe the gate of salvation is small we might be the ones who have moved away from it! Jesus Christ is the gate, not us!
St. Ignatius, a Patristic giant who was connected to St. Paul and taught St. Polycarp, once wrote, “Jesus is the gate of the Father, through which enter Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the Prophets and the Apostles and the Church.” The Gate is Jesus through which all the holy, in and out of our Church, pass. The Gate is bigger than us. We serve the Gate. We are the Body of the Gate, the Gate is our head. Our sacramental life gains us access to the Gate. But we are not the Gate, Jesus Christ is.
So again we are left with the question, “Why be Catholic?” If Catholicism is not the only way to access the Gate, why not choose another religion through which we could get by with less? Why not seek the minimum?
Because we don’t seek the minimum when we are in love! Providing the minimum is not the goal of a lover. Those in love want to give their all!
When you are in love, giving all is not a burden, but a privilege. When you are in love, the gift of self is not seen as a cost, but as an investment. When you are in love you enter covenants (all for all) and not contracts (tit for tat).
Our relationship with Jesus Christ, you see, is not first and foremost an arrangement we make through which we hope to gain access to heaven. If it were then we would be prudent to find the least expensive way to achieve the goal. We would be wise to be minimalists. But just getting to heaven is not what our relationship with Jesus Christ is all about. Our relationship with Jesus Christ is first and foremost a love affair! An extravagant, non-calculating, give-it-all-you-got love affair with our God who returns our love a thousand thousand fold!
Today we praise our God that we have been chosen to express our love through our Catholic Church life. Today we ask ourselves not “how much love do I need to get by?”, but rather “will I be able to love enough?”
Sunday Apr 30, 2017
Sunday Apr 30, 2017
3rd Sun Easter 2017
“The Painting For First Communion”
Fr. Jeff Nicolas
Set up an easel and pour out paint…
Today I want to try something I saw in Vegas once…speed painting! I will paint the Emmaus story. I have some notes of things I want to be sure to include.
(1) The two disciples are on a journey… after whatever kind of week they each were having they now have gotten together, and are in the same place at the same time.
(2) They are sharing their common story together concerning Jesus; recounting his wondrous deeds and moving preaching and healing… they listen, share, and respond.
(3) Being hospitable they pool their resources and share their gifts with each other and the stranger who has joined up with them.
(4) The big moment! They come to recognize resurrected Jesus in the breaking of bread at their table! It is the high point of the story!
{Tell story of my most unused room … the dining room! It is just an unused table just taking up space. It just becomes a place-holder for something I think I ought to value… a “just in case” space in my life. BUT only a table that is weekly used can actually shape me.}
(5) Knowing Jesus now they must race out to tell others…the good news sends them in the opposite direction that they were going before knowing it!
There, now my painting is finished; want to see it? {Show the portrait = mirror!}
WE ARE THE EMMAUS STORY!!
Sunday Apr 30, 2017
Tuesday Apr 25, 2017
Sunday Apr 23, 2017
Sunday Apr 23, 2017
2nd Sun. Easter / Divine Mercy 2017
“Who, What, How Are We?”
Fr. Jeff Nicolas
Still fresh from our Easter Sunday celebrations let’s ask three questions: Who are we as Church? What are we to be about? How did we get here?
Who are we? The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles reveals this. “They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.” We, like the first, devote ourselves to being Church. We are the Mystical Body of Christ. The Acts of the Apostles goes on to say, “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need.” We, like the first, strive not to be self-centered, but other-centered, a people of service to one another. This is who we are.
What are we to be about? We are to be about bringing the light of Christ, entrusted to each of us at our baptism, into all the dark crevasses of our lives and relationships. Specifically today this takes the form of mercy.
Pope Francis in an address to Rome pastors said, “I am sure that we are living in a time of mercy and have been for 30 years or more, up to today.” He said Jesus invites us as a Church “to grasp the depths of his heart, what he feels for the crowds, for the people he encounters: that interior attitude of ‘compassion.’” What are we to be about? We are to be mercy for one another.
In the year 2000 St. John Paul II canonized Sr. Faustina Kowalska and instituted the Feast of “Divine Mercy” saying, “What will the years ahead bring us? What will man’s future on earth be like? We are not given to know. However, it is certain that in addition to new progress there will unfortunately be no lack of painful experiences. But the light of divine mercy, which the Lord in a way wished to return to the world through Sr. Faustina’s charism, will illumine the way for the men and women of the third millennium.” As I teach our children in St. Mary’s Academy, “God gets to us through us.” So what are we to be about? We are to be mercy for one another.
Pope Francis describes the Church today as a field hospital writing, “Wounds needs to be treated, so many wounds! There are so many people who are wounded by material problems, by scandals, also in the church, … people wounded by the world’s illusions.”
What are we to be about as Church? Mercy!
And how did we get here? Let me show you. (Demonstrate the apostolic chain.)
We got here one soul at a time. In an unbroken chain from the apostles, through the Real Presence consecrated at our altar, we are here today because of holy men and women who have gone before us. On Easter this chain was strengthened with the addition of 14 men and women who were initiated into our faith. Today (This weekend) several more souls will be grafted to our chain, each called to be a conduit of mercy for God in the world. May each of us be a strong link in this holy chain!
Saturday Apr 15, 2017