Homily preached for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time - January 29, 2017 - St. Kateri at St. Margaret Mary

Today's scripture proclamations:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/012917.cfm

I can still recall the conversation pretty clearly, happened almost thirty years ago.  I had been looking for a new job.  A first interview at one company, then a call-back and second interview with the company owner.  Seemed to go pretty well, and now I was getting pretty cocky, thinking this is a slam dunk.

Couple days later, waiting to hear from them, waiting for the offer I’m expecting, I’m reading the want ads (this was long before monster.com), and I focus on this job description.  I read a couple lines – sounds good.  Read a couple more – sounds familiar.  Read the last - hey wait a minute - this sounds exactly like the job I just interviewed for twice.

So I call the headhunter.  I say I read your ad – is this so-and-so company?”  “It is,” she said, “how did you guess?” 

“Because it sounds exactly like the job I just interviewed for over there.”  “I’m really sorry, that’s too bad.” she says.  “They called us yesterday and said they wanted more candidates.”  “Bummer,” I said, and wrote off that opportunity.

Happy ending, though, for eventually I did get the offer and spent a few good years at that company.

Today’s Gospel proclamation, from Our Lord's sermon on the mount, presents us a bit of a job description, too, doesn’t it?  These eight beatitudes, which means blessednesses, or graces, these eight are kind of like the Lord’s job description for anyone who would be His disciple, His follower.

I must confess, I’ve never been all that fond of these beatitudes, they’ve always made me feel a little uncomfortable. I’ve always found them challenging.  Certainly never wanted to preach about them. 

Why?  Because unlike that job I’d interviewed for, with its every requirement one I thought I was a perfect match for, truth be told I’ve never necessarily thought of myself when presented with, or thinking about, these eight beatitudes.  No.  I’ve always squirmed a little.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, meaning those unattached to the things of this world.  Me? 

Blessed are the meek, meaning not weak, but controlled strength and humble.  Does that describe me?  Or would overbearing and obnoxious be a better description, at least a lot of the time.

Blessed are they who mourn, yes meaning those who have lost loved ones, but also meaning those who decry the vast evil in the world, like those who traveled to Washington Friday for the 44^th March for Life.  Am I always mournful, unsettled by the world’s evils and injustices?

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for justice, who will not be silent in the face of injustice.  Like Cardinal Tobin of Newark, close friend by the way of our pastor, who this week spoke out against the new President’s immigration actions, saying that our welcome to immigrants is one of the things that made America great in the first place.  Am I like that?  Is my life about hungering and thirsting for justice?

Blessed are they who show mercy.  What humility it takes, doesn’t it?  To put aside self and ego to give forgiveness and mercy.  What grudges do I cling to?  And do I spend my time doing the works of mercy, corporal and spiritual?

Blessed are the clean of heart.  Is mine clean, or is it smudged by greed, or pride, or lust?

Blessed are the peacemakers.  Do I seek to bring about peace in the situations of my life?  I can too easily recall being an agent of conflict and divisiveness.

Blessed are they who are persecuted for justice’s sake.  Am I OK with being persecuted, or do I dwell on what others think of me, yearning to be accepted, fearing I won’t be liked?

If you’re like me, going through this list, you might find it pretty uncomfortable, too.  And I’m pretty sure Jesus meant it to be just that – dis-comforting - shaking us out of our comfort zones.

But here’s the thing – I’m also pretty sure that the same Jesus who is telling us today – this is what it means to be my disciple – I’m pretty sure He also will give us the grace to live the beatitudes out.  Give us the grace to desire to live the beatitudes out.

You see, as we grow in faith, becoming more sure of His love, He places within us the seed of desire to more and more live this way.  He places within us a desire to know Him better, to live more like Him.  And these beatitudes are what it means to live like Him.

Imagine the difference we would make in the world if each of us were to live the beatitudes, if the world saw the beatitudes in each of us, in all of us.  The would see Christ in each of us.

For these are not only our job description.  They’re also a pretty darn good description of what Our Lord Jesus was all about, too, huh?  Meek, not weak.   Humble and poor in spirit.  Mournful of the sin, the evil around Him.  Yearning for righteousness and justice.  Showing incredible mercy.  Making peace.  Pure of heart.  And willing to suffer persecution and yes, even death, death on a cross. 

That describes Jesus to a T.  And with His grace, with the help of His sacraments, especially Eucharist - His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity we receive into our bodies and souls here at the altar, yes you and I can live more and more a beatitude life.

Now Our Lord’s job description doesn’t come with a promise of competitive pay but it does promise great benefits.  It promises peace and joy in this life and the best retirement.  Just look what you and I are promised, and what we have to look forward to – you and I will be comforted, shown mercy, we’ll inherit the land, we’ll be satisfied.  You and I will be called children of God, will see God and inherit His Kingdom of Heaven, for all eternity.

Now who could ever turn down an offer like that?

Homily - Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, January 22, 2017 - 8a/10a St. Margaret Mary / Christ the King

Today's scripture proclamations:   http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/012217.cfm

Today is an anniversary.  A joy-filled anniversary!  The 61st anniversary, the 61^st birthday, of our pastor, Father Paul English.  A day to celebrate and give thanks for the gift to all of us that this joy-filled priest is and has been to our parish, to each of us.

But you may be aware that today is also another anniversary.  A rather dark, tragic anniversary.  For it was 44 years ago today that our Supreme Court intervened in time and law and without precedent lifted virtually every legal protection afforded to our smallest and most vulnerable sisters and brothers, the unborn, when they legalized abortion in all fifty states, for all nine months of pregnancy.

This has brought a darkness over our land, a gloom that persists to this day.  We probably don’t think about it very much – out of sight, out of mind.  Two years ago 137 people died in the Paris terrorist attacks.  Last June 42 at the airport in Istanbul and another 49 at the night club in Orlando.  About 3,000 persons perished on 9/11.  I could go on.   All made international news, and rightly so.

But what if we lost 3,000 people a day, every day, in terrorist attacks?  Imagine the news stories.  That’s the toll from legal abortion just in our nation.  Every day.  About three every minute.  40-50 million worldwide, according to the world health organization, every year.  Mind boggling? Out of sight out of mind.

But abortion isn’t the only darkness, not the only threat to life, not by a long shot.  In our own state, there’s a movement afoot to legalize physician-assisted suicide, a grave evil that has led to out-and-out euthanasia in some European countries.

And while tremendous advances have been made in our lifetimes to reduce starvation, hunger is still the #1 threat to global health, as the World Food Programme estimates that 795 million people worldwide, about 1 in 9, don’t have enough food to eat. 

In His encyclical Evangelium Vitae (the “Gospel of Life”), Pope Saint John Paul II spoke of the “extraordinary increase and gravity of threats to the life of individuals and peoples, especially where life is weak and defenceless.” He continued – “In addition to the ancient scourges of poverty, hunger, endemic diseases, violence and war, new threats are emerging on an alarmingly vast scale.”

Calling to mind the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, the Holy Father condemned in the name of the whole Church, including you and me, declaring that every upright conscience must agree, he condemned "Whatever is opposed to life itself…any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or wilful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where people are treated as mere instruments of gain rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others like them.”

It’s a dark list indeed.  Four weeks ago, we celebrated the Light that the Father sent into our darkness, Jesus Christ Our Lord.  He came to preach a gospel of repentance, the good news of the kingdom, a gospel of life.  As His disciples, you and I are called to be lights in the darkness of our times.

As people of light, we are called to be people of life.  People who, by our baptisms are called to be prophets, to proclaim Our Lord’s Gospel of life.  Called to proclaim, and celebrate, the God-given dignity of every human life, from conception to natural death. And to defend human life against every threat.

These matters are too often reduced to a matter of politics.  I belong to Hillary.  I belong to Donald.  I belong to Bernie.  We let our political views color our religious beliefs, rather than the other way around.  Is either party, is any politician (public servant as they prefer to be called) authentically and consistently representing the Gospel of Life?  Perhaps in different ways, but we can see the culture of death in aspects of each of our major parties’ platforms.  Our new president promised a “pro-life” position on abortion, but also promised he’d punish terrorists by killing their families.

You and I, brothers and sisters, are called to declare “I belong to Christ” and let our consciences be formed by Him and the teaching of the Church He founded.  By the successors to those apostles He called on that seashore.  Indeed it is critical that we examine and re-inform our consciences.  Saint John Paul spoke to this, declaring that our consciences have become darkened and conditioned by our secular society, and that we are “finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish between good and evil in what concerns the basic value of human life.”

Imagine the change we could bring about in our nation and world if you and I were to consistently and brightly shine our deep reverence for every human life into every dark corner of our society.  If we were united in our beliefs about the need to protect and nurture and care for every human life.  If we were statistically any more pro-life than society at large.  Sadly, we are not.

But being truly pro-life is not merely a matter of participation in the public political arena.  It happens right here in our Church building, it happens right here in our hearts.  I know a family, long-time parishioners, who don’t come here to church anymore.  Their teenage daughter got pregnant.  She, with the support of her parents opted to take the difficult road, giving birth, keeping and raising her son.  Had him baptized, brought him to church. 

And somehow they felt eyes of judgment on them here.  Yes she got herself in a bad situation.  But rather than to take the easy way out, the one the secular culture advocates and even pays for, they chose the difficult road.  And those eyes of judgment chased them away, such that they now go to Mass in a neighboring parish.

I know that the vast majority of our parishioners would celebrate this family’s choice for life.  But it only takes a few, doesn’t it?

As to those women who’ve chosen abortion, do we sit in judgment of them?  We pray that they come to know the great love and mercy Jesus Christ Our Lord has for them, that He so wants to heal them, but aren’t we also called to be people who show that same love, mercy, compassion?

Do we who call ourselves pro-life care for and support poor or unwed mothers choosing to keep their babies?

Do we care for the hungry, the starving?  At three of our masses this weekend, another Father Paul, from Florida, is here on behalf of Food for the Poor, a wonderful organization which houses, feeds and provides water to the poor in seventeen countries, right here in our own hemisphere.

So let us each examine our hearts.  Ask ourselves – do I respect and reverence every, single, human life?  Or are some more important than others?  Am I open and welcoming to every one?  And will I speak out, and pray, and work for a more just, more truly pro-life nation and world?

Saint John Paul closed Evangelium Vitae with these powerful words and this prayer to the Blessed Mother:

“Mary is a living word of comfort for the Church in her struggle against death. Showing us the Son, the Church assures us that in Him the forces of death have already been defeated.  The Lamb who was slain is alive, bearing the marks of his Passion in the splendour of the Resurrection. He proclaims, in time and beyond, the power of life over death.

“As we, the pilgrim people, the people of life and for life, make our way in confidence towards ‘a new heaven and a new earth’, we look to her who is for us ‘a sign of sure hope and solace.’  So let us pray:

“O Mary, bright dawn of the new world, Mother of the living, to you do we entrust the cause of life. Look down, O Mother, upon the vast numbers of babies not allowed to be born, of the poor whose lives are made difficult, of men and women who are victims of brutal violence, of the elderly and the sick killed
by indifference or out of misguided mercy.

“Grant that all who believe in your Son may proclaim the Gospel of life with honesty and love to the people of our time.

“Obtain for them the grace to accept that Gospel as a gift ever new, the joy of celebrating it with gratitude throughout their lives and the courage to bear witness to it resolutely, in order to build, together with all people of good will, the civilization of truth and love, to the praise and glory of God, the Creator and lover of life. Amen.”

Homily - Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A - January 15, 2017 at 5p/9a, St. Cecilia Church

Today's Scripture Proclamations:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/011517.cfm

I was on my way to work this week, listening to Catholic radio as I’m wont to do, and heard a fundraising promotional spot which I hadn’t heard before.  It was a tape of the Chili fire department radio, middle of the night, January 1, two years ago.  It was only a snippet  I heard on the radio, but I found the complete radio call on youtube.  Went like this –

Beep-beep.  Company number 3 – automatic alarm activated…St. Pius Tenth Church, thirty-ten Chili Avenue, Box 3604.  4332 responding.  4332 be advised we’re getting additional alarms from the alarm company – front foyer, east smoke, front office, north smoke, south and west – smoke.  4332?  Go ahead.  Firefighter on location reporting heavy fire in the building – St Pius the Tenth Church thirty-ten Chili Avenue.  Got heavy fire from the church.  4332 on location – we have water.  32 on location – they have water.  4332 has command in front of the building and he has a fully-involved structure.

If you’re a fire-fighter with one of our local companies – Ridge Culver, Sea Breeze, Point Pleasant, Laurelton, St. Paul perhaps – you might find that kind of interesting, and you’d certainly appreciate those who get up in the middle of the night to risk their lives to go put out a fire.  For doing that, for making yourselves available like that, let me say “thank you!”

But why did I listen to that and repeat it today?  Well what really caught my ear when I first heard that this week were a couple of lines – “got heavy fire from the church” and “he has a fully-involved structure.”  Got heavy fire from the church. Fully-involved structure.

And I said to myself, isn’t that sort of our goal?  I mean, we don’t want to see our church buildings literally on fire.  But isn’t it our goal as a parish to be on fire as a church, to have a fully involved church?

These readings today seem to me to have one thing in common – a calling to action, a calling to apostleship, a calling to action.  And, it seems to me that our call is to be fully involved, fully on fire.

It is too little, the Lord says to the prophet Isaiah, to be His servant.  Rather, the Lord says “I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

The psalmist responds “Here am I, Lord, I come to do your will.”

And the beginning of his first letter to the people of Corinth, St. Paul writes to a people “who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be holy, with all those everywhere who call upon the name of the lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.” 

And we heard two callings in this evening’s (morning’s) Gospel – the calling of John to baptize with water and testify that Jesus is the Son of God – and the calling of Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

For us who testify that we are His disciples, we, too are called.  It is too little for us, too, to serve Him – rather you and I – we the Church – are called to be a light to the nations that His salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.  Some, of course, may be called to literally go forth and be a light to the nations – just yesterday/Friday we buried a parishioner, a dentist, who without fanfare went on dental missions to a couple nations in South America, taking vacation time to do much-needed dental work for the poor in those countries.

But even if we aren’t called to go to other nations, we certainly are called to be His light to the ends of our town, from the river in the west, lake in the north, bay in the east and city in the south.  That is our calling, that is our mission. It is our vocation!  It is right there in our statement as a parish – To invite and welcome people of all ages, backgrounds and walks of life to embrace and celebrate our vocation – to be Christ to the world.

We are still at the beginning of a new year – I would encourage everyone to pray and consider – how can I, how can we, be more fully involved?  How is He calling me, right now, to more fully live out that vocation?  What is my role in building up His Kingdom?

One idea – volunteer firefighter!  We assume someone will come and come quickly when we make that 911 call.  What if there were no “someone” willing to give of their time, willing to sacrifice and take risks, to come?

Another idea – hospice worker.  Our local hospice, Sunset House, has had a number of very long time volunteers retire.  Might the Lord be calling you to bring your talents and big heart to help those in the last days and hours of life?  Just a thought.

Other ideas – children’s liturgy, Good Samaritan transportation, visiting the homebound, teaching a faith formation class, and I could go on and on.

Maybe you’re at a place in your life where you can do no more than pray – but how important, how vital, is prayer!  To use your time to pray, for the Church, for its ministers, the faithful, that we may together continue to build His Kingdom right here in Irondequoit – that is a beautiful and necessary thing!

So as we begin this new year – we’re only half way through January after all, let us pray that 2017 may be a year in which we as a parish are fully on fire for the Lord.  And as we behold the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, let us implore Our Blessed Lord to send His Holy Spirit to us to fan the flames of the fire in our hearts, so that we may burn ever more brightly, and truly be a light to the nations.  

That’s homily #1.  Homily #2, briefly:

One other way of building the Kingdom and being Christ to the world is through the CMA.  I know you’ve heard a lot of pitches for the CMA, and hopefully this will be the last for this year.  We’re nearly at our goal, 95% at last count.  I urge you, if you haven’t donated to the CMA, please prayerfully consider doing so. 

I stand here as a beneficiary of the CMA – except for the cost of books, my entire 4-1/2 years of masters-level education and formation for deacon ordination was paid by the Diocese out of CMA funds.  For that, I promised to give back my service, without pay, through retirement, to the diocese and my assigned parish.  That is my vocation, that is my calling, and indeed it is my great joy – to serve Him and His people, and in my own way try to be a light to the nations.  But it was made possible through generous gifts to the CMA.

So please, if you haven’t yet given, please consider doing so.  Thank you and may God richly bless you.

Homily for the Marriage of my daughter Erin and Ben Bovenzi, Friday Dec.30, St Kateri at St. Margaret Mary

Ben – dude - you saw her before the ceremony.  Bad luck, they say.  Missed out on the big moment, when those doors swing open and there she is.  Bad, bad luck.

And both of you – escorted down the aisle in a liturgical procession.  Instead of bride coming in on daddy’s arm and being given away.  More bad luck, I’m sure someone from the superstition police would tell you.

Well since we’re in the mode of breaking the rules here, or at least superstitions, I’d like to break one of my own.

Congratulations.  To both of you!

Wait! - bad luck!  You say “congratulations” to the groom and “best wishes” to the bride.  Or something like that.

Hogwash.  Congratulations.  To the both of you.

Four congratulations, actually.

First of all, congratulations on your courtship, which has been very different, counter-cultural.  And on your marriage – on getting married.  More and more this world will tell you it’s just a piece of paper, what do we need that for if we love each other.  I will tell you that getting married is counter-cultural, and becoming more so by the day.  So congratulations on trusting in each other’s love enough to commit to loving each other for a lifetime.

Second – congratulations on getting married before God and His people.  If you were paying close attention to the lyrics of the wedding song, which Matt and Julia so beautifully sang at the beginning of our liturgy, the opening stanza was “He is now to be among you at the calling of your hearts. Rest assured this troubadour is acting on his part. The union of your spirits here has caused him to remain for whenever two or more of you are gathered in His name, there is love.”

You could be exchanging vows and rings on a beautiful beach someplace, a destination wedding.  All the vogue these days.  But you have chosen to come here to give your consent, say solemn vows and exchange rings before God and all of us. 

This says something – something powerful.  It says that your faith is important to you.  Like Tobiah and Sarah whose prayer we heard in our first reading, you desire a lifelong covenantal marriage with God at the center.  That you seek God’s blessings and graces as you set out on your married journey together.  That you want Him to accompany you all along that journey.  And He will.  The meaning of the feast we celebrated only five days ago is “God is with us” – Emmanuel.  And God will be with you.  For that – congratulations!

Third, congratulations on your marriage here.  Not only in Church, but in this Church.  For here we recognize that yours is more than a relationship, more than a marriage. It’s a sacrament.  Sacrament – what’s that?

There was a question posed in that song Matt and Julia sang - “Do you believe in something that you’ve never seen before?”  A sacrament is a solemn, visible sign of something unseen, of a spiritual reality.

You see, since the beginning of time, God has been revealing Himself to His creation, to us.  The ultimate way He has revealed Himself to us is in the person of His only begotten Son, Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Jesus became the sacrament, if you will, of the Father.  The physical manifestation of our unseen God with us.

Our Lord ascended to heaven, and what did He leave behind? A ragtag group of disciples, inspired by the Holy Spirit, led by twelve apostles – He left behind the Church!  The Church, then, is the sacrament, the physical manifestation, the ongoing presence, of Jesus Himself.  To carry on the mission of Jesus Himself. 

And why?  For the same reason He came to earth – for our salvation!  The Church is His instrument, His sacrament, for the salvation of the world.  And He graciously left the Church seven special ways in which He continues to manifest His presence to us – seven special sacraments – of which holy matrimony is one.

Put in this perspective, your marriage sacrament, which will begin in a few moments and last your entire lives together, is part of Our Lord’s plan for the salvation of the world.  Your vocation, your mission, as a couple, as a family, as a little church, is to make visible, first to each other, and to every person you ever encounter, the loving presence of Jesus Christ.

Your love, the way you speak to each other, look at each other, sacrifice for each other, forgive each other – is to be a physical and very real sign of something – some One - you’ve never seen before – Our Blessed Lord.  So that every single person you meet, but above all each other – will get a glimpse of His amazing love for us, by the way you love each other.

Your sacramental love will then flow out from your relationship to, God willing, your children, and your family, friends, community, our world.  You two together will comfort the mourning.  Be peacemakers.  Show mercy.  Seek justice and righteousness. Most especially with each other, but overflowing to your family and world around you.

That is what we mean by the Sacrament of Marriage.  It’s a mission – a vital mission He’s giving you, you’re accepting.  It’s vital especially in our time, in a world that thirsts for His presence.   Thirsts to know His love.  His tenderness.  His mercy.

For taking on such an important mission, I say “congratulations!”

Finally, congratulations on being married in front of this altar, where soon after we will celebrate His real presence in the ultimate Sacrament, the source and summit of our faith, Holy Eucharist.  You trust in His word when He says “unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you shall not have life within you” and you want that life always in your marriage.

You will receive the very Body, blood, soul and divinity of our Blessed Lord into your own bodies, and into your marriage, and unite yourselves in communion with each other, with all of us who partake with you, and in a very real sense with all those who have gone before us, those loved ones we wish could be here today, and with all those who will come after us.

You recognize the importance of this sacrament in your own lives and now in your marriage.  Always, always, keep Eucharist at the center of your marriage. 

So to conclude, forget about bad luck.  With Jesus in His Blessed Sacrament at your center, and under the protection and intercession of His Blessed Mother Mary and foster father Joseph, the Holy Family whom we also celebrate this day, you won’t need luck.

For you will have grace – He will shower you with an abundance of grace, and give you the strength and meekness and mercy and every other good gift you will need on your married journey together.

You will have holiness – you will lead each other to ever deeper faith in Jesus Christ.

And you will have joy.  Not necessarily always happiness, but always joy.  Joy in knowing you are exactly where He wants you, fulfilling exactly the mission for which you were created.  Until that day when together you experience the eternal joy He promises to all His beloved.  And make no mistake – you are His beloved.

So I say it again - Erin and Ben – Congratulations!