Homilies

8.14.22: 20C
The month of October is a big month in the Church and the Archdiocese. Saturday Oct 1st is feast day of St. Teresa of Avila, it’s Catholic Charities Annual weekend, the CK school 5K run, the 2nd is the blessing of the animals. Oct 7 is our Lady of the Rosary, 15/16 weekend is the Cristo Rey High School Faith in Action talk, 22/23rd is the parish Stewardship Fair weekend, 30th is the Rite of Acceptance for people planning to come into the Church, it’s also our Fall Festival trunk or treat and it’s the all night prayer vigil to kick off the week of events before the blessing of the new Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine.

Those are just some of the highlights of October. September, November and December are just as full
but todays reading from Hebrews is a good reminder of how not to get overwhelmed when the days and weeks can feel overloaded.

Whether it’s a 5K, a business merger, family crisis or faith desolation, the wisdom of Hebrews shows us how to get us through it. Not over it but through it. We are told to first to rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us.

If I am trying to work on myself or my life situation whether it is emotional, spiritual, physical, or all of the above, the best time to make a change is right after receiving the sacraments. If I am in a state of holy humble grace, like we are after confession or like I should be just before receiving the Eucharist, my heart and mind is in a state of clarity and confidence that allows God to work more completely and purely in my conscience and decision making ability. That’s why it says to rid ourself of every burden and sin that clings to us. Otherwise It’s like trying to swim in cowboy boots.

When I keep wearing Resentment or fear or anger, that is like dead weight that keeps me from being buoyant and move forward in my life pursuits. It’s like when our students are training for sports or band
and the goal is to win or perform their best. To do that they have to stay focused on the objective. If I am in training or cramming for an exam, or preparing for a big event, then I am going to be very focused on my sleep and what I drink and eat and think because I have my mind on the goal, I just look up and keep my eyes on the prize. The best time to do my best is shortly after Ive trained and prepared and practiced and rested.

Hebrews says to be our best self we have to get rid of the things that weigh us down and persevere in running the race that lies before us. We just have to look up. To keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith. Jesus is the ultimate trainer. He tells me when my form is off and how to achieve the best results from my training because he wants me to win. He wants to perfect me. To be perfect means to be complete, to be made whole. Jesus means for me to have everything I need. Sometimes what I need is to have less. Less worry, less anxiety, less baggage in my life. Less obsession over the competition and less fear of not winning. So Maybe what I need is more fear of not seeing Jesus in the Eucharist.

When I fix my eyes on Jesus I see everything in its proper perspective. I see Him making me perfect. I see me winning, I see that I am enough. Maybe today when I come come forward to receive the Eucharist I can ask myself , what do I see in the Lord? Is it what He sees in me?

7.24.22: 17C
In the Lebanese Maronite Catholic Rite St. Charbel is celebrated tomorrow/Today. St. Charbel lived in solitude and prayer in northern Lebanon for 23 years to get to know the nature of God more deeply. In 1898 he became sick during Mass and died on Christmas Eve. Four months later bright lights emanated from his tomb and throughout the monastery so they exhumed his body which was still incorrupt. Many healings and miracles have taken place through his prayers of  intercession. Happy feast to our Lebanese brothers and sisters.

St. Charbel who once said “A man who prays lives out the mystery of existence, and a man who does not pray scarcely exists.” Most of us don’t have the luxury of quiet solitude in our daily lives like a monk or hermit. But we can still carve out some quiet time for reflection and prayer if we make it a priority. As the nuns say, if you're too busy to pray, you're too busy. 

Every day people from within and around our parish boundaries come to daily Mass at CtK as part of their daily prayer. Some people come early and sit and think in the early morning stillness as the sun comes up. Some stay after Mass and pray the rosary or Liturgy of the Hours or just sit with the Lord. Some people come into church halfway through Mass and then leave after communion. But at least they’re halfway there. 

Fr. Kirk Larkin of happy memory, was once asked why he always came to Mass or retreats or liturgies so early. He said, I just like to get the lay of the land. Which meant he was allowing himself to leave the world of time and space outside and enter into a place which is outside of time and space to be with the Lord. 

Instead of asking why some people leave mass early we should ask the people who come early and why they stay after. Why did the 11 disciples not leave earlier? What did they know that Judas didn’t?

What did St. Charbel mean when he said, that those who pray live out the mystery of existence and those that don’t scarcely exist? I think it means those that enter thoughtfully into the life of Christ enter into the eternal, and those that don’t, are choosing the things of life that don’t last. 

It’s a struggle we all battle. Everyday. Which is why the apostles had to ask Jesus how to pray. Almost all of them worked as skilled laborers. They were smart people.  They didn’t  have a high school diploma. But they knew enough to know what they didn’t know. In this case, they knew they were seeing something new and different in this Rabbi Jesus. There was a new “way” about Him. Like the Mandalorians say, this is the way. 

Before we called ourself Christians in the early days of following Christ they just called it, the Way.  Like the movie with Martin Sheen, called The Way, which is about a man making a pilgrimage walk from France to Spain. 

We have several parishioners who have made the Camino pilgrimage and are going to share their experience of this Camino de Santiago, or the way of St. James, this Sunday in the Garden Rooms at 7pm. Walking on a pilgrimage is a series of encounters. Some great and some intimate. But for the believer they all lead to the Way. To Christ. Jesus is the Way. 

In Jesus’ day you would walk to the temple to make your sacrifice and receive God's blessing. If you couldn’t walk it could mean you were cursed for something you or your parents did. So if you couldn’t walk you couldn’t make your sacrificial offering to God. 

St. John Bosco understood that there is another way to make a pilgrimage or a sacrificial way to God. It’s not just what we do but how we think and behave on the way. “Walk with your feet on earth but in your heart, be in heaven” - St. John Bosco   

So how do we do that? How do I stay grounded and integrated and remain in prayer? Or as St. Charbel says, stay in the mystery of life rather than in the passing trends that die? The Our Father prayer that most of us say or pray is the road map between heaven and earth. 

Pope Benedict XVI wrote, “The meaning of the Our Father aims to form our being, to train us in the inner attitude of Jesus.”  Let’s skip to the good part. 

1. Our Father is not just my father.  We don’t live in isolation but experience God's fatherhood as members of the Church, the family of Jesus. This reminds us that we recognize all those around us as children of God and treat them accordingly; as the school motto says, "where everybody is somebody and all live for God."                  
2. Hallowed be thy name, hallowed means holy and we are saying that God is Holy, His name is holy and not only do we want to use His name in a sacred context when we use God's name, but we want everyone in the world to know there is one true and holy God. 
3. Thy kingdom come, is asking that God's kingdom, where there is only goodness, honesty and love for one another, surrounds us in every day life. And we’re also praying that at the second coming of Christ He will grant us eternal life. 
4. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven is asking that God's grace move us to do His will throughout our life whether those things be small, great or difficult, we are asking for the grace to do whatever pleases God: taking care of an elderly parent, working at a homeless pantry, giving up a parking space or refraining from gossip. Committing ourself to Christ helps accomplish His will. 
5. Give us this day our daily bread means we recognize that everything we need comes from God and to please take care of us, especially with the bread of life, the Eucharist. 
6. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Much easier said than done. Forgiveness does not mean we will see justice done but it gives us the grace to move on with our own lives. 
7. Lead us not into temptation which is the first step towards sin, so we are asking God to please set up the road blocks to avoid the temptation. 
8. But deliver us from evil. Evil is a true reality but evil is not even close to being equal to God. 

So this is the way. To walk in the Kingdom of heaven and earth or on earth as it is in heaven. To walk the Way is to use more of our thoughts, to pray the words while we say the words. 

So where is my prayer on the Way?

Am I out of the Way? 
Am I in the way?
Or am I on the way?