Fr. Brian Soliven Sermons

Last Wednesday, we added a new Mass time during the weekdays, 6:30am. The hope is to provide an opportunity for people who would like to receive Jesus in the Eucharist before they go to school or work. With our old Mass schedule, this made it difficult if you had a busy morning. I looked up the local Catholic churches, from Dixon to Fairfield, and the situation was the same. If you wanted to make it to work or school on time, going to Mass was not an option. I had no idea if anyone would come to church that early during the week, but I wanted to at least provide an opportunity for you to go, if you choose too. When Wednesday came, I wondered if it was a bad decision. When the clock hit 6:20am, the church was practically empty. I dropped my head in disappointment. I finished getting vested anyway, thinking if at least 15 people showed up, it would be a good start to a new Mass time. When we rang the bell to signal the beginning of Mass, I was shocked. The number of people in the church had suddenly jumped to 46! It was the first day!  Why did these people make the sacrifice to wake up early and lose sleep? LOVE. That’s the only reason why we do hard things for the sake of another. Every parent who’s had to wake up in the middle of the night to attend to a crying baby knows this. Every parent who gets up early to go to work in order to feed the family knows this. There’s no love without sacrifice. 

On the cover of the bulletin this weekend, we have pictures from the mission trip to Peru that some of our youth went on. Thanks to the generosity of many of our parishioners who bought desserts during the fundraiser that we had a few months ago, they were able to pay for a huge percentage of the plane tickets. Why would a group of our young people take time out of their busy schedules, fly to a strange country where they do not speak the language, and help complete strangers? LOVE. There’s no love without sacrifice. 

In the second reading today, St. Paul encourages the Christians in Rome, “‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no evil to the neighbor; hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.” (Cf. Romans 13:10). This is the heart of the deepest meaning of life. So often we search for purpose, we search for meaning, we search for more. The culture often tells us the meaning of happiness is buying things or bodily pleasure. I dare say no. The meaning of a fuller life will only be found in more radical love. To love the Christian way, is to lay down our life for the good of the other. This will always require me to die to myself. But that’s ok. There’s no love without sacrifice. Now do you see why there’s no greater act of love then Jesus dying on the cross for humanity?

The woman foretold by God after the fall of Adam and Eve is now born (Cf. Genesis 3:15). The mother from whom Christ would come forth has arrived. The ancient serpent seethes in anger, knowing his days are numbered. His dark kingdom will soon crumble, not through strength of arms but through the humility of a young maiden who will courageously whisper, "I am a servant of the Lord; let it be done according to your word." (Cf. Luke 1:38). 

This morning in the Gospel reading, Jesus gets into Peter's boat. This has always been seen as God's invasion into our lives, despite our ugliness. He wants us. Often times we wrongly think that we have to be put together, perfect, and ready to encounter God. The opposite is true. It's all God's initiative. 

This morning we kicked off our inaugural 6:30am Wednesday daily Mass. It's my hope to serve the needs of the people who desire to receive Jesus in the Eucharist before going to work or school. I thought if we could get 15 people, it would be a good start. To my shock, 46 came! Glory to Jesus Christ. 

We are blessed to have many marriages take place here in our parish. Not just our own parishioners, but people from neighboring cities as well. It’s a very photogenic church, from the fountain courtyard in the front, the long aisle, and the Spanish-style sanctuary. It makes a beautiful backdrop to any wedding. As anyone who has been involved in the planning of a wedding, they know it takes a lot of effort to make sure the ceremony and the reception go smoothly. Even after the big day is over, the hard work of building a family together now begins. How do we create a happy marriage? This is a huge question for any married couple. We first need to appreciate that marriage will always be hard. Always. Even if you have the greatest couple on earth, it will always be difficult. Marriage brings a man and a woman together, with different life experiences and upbringings, different values and outlooks on life, attempting to weave their lives into one. Even more so, they are both broken in some way. Like all of us, we are “fallen.” We have the stain of Original Sin in our hearts that we hear about in the Book of Genesis, when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of good and evil (Cf. Genesis 3). From that moment on, I have a proclivity to choose the bad.

We must return to a biblical view of marriage if we want to see healthier families. In 1983, Sister Lucia, the last surviving visionary of the Marian apparition of Fatima in Portugal, famously wrote in a letter to an Italian cardinal, “a time will come when the decisive battle between the kingdom of Christ and Satan will be over marriage and the family. And those who will work for the good of the family will experience persecution and tribulation. But do not be afraid, because Our Lady has already crushed his head.” Forty years later, her words have become true. How are we called to build a “Civilization of love”? The answer is in today’s Gospel reading: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.r For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” We must kill our ego. That is the secret to love. We must lay down our lives for our loved ones. Put their needs before our own. If we do this, we will be following the path of Jesus Christ.

Without God, our lives have little lasting meaning. We're told life is about the pursuit of things and pleasures, with no reference to the deeper aspects of our hearts. Even so, we intuitively grasp that were made for more. Follow that instinct. 

If someone asked you, “Why are you Catholic?” How would you respond? It’s an important question

Growing up in a Filipino household, if someone were to ask me that question, “Why are you

Si alguien te preguntara: "¿Por qué eres católico?" ¿Cómo responderías? Es una pregunta importante sobre la cual debemos reflexionar. ¿Por qué somos católicos y no de otra religión? Si conduces por Vacaville, hay muchas otras opciones para asistir a servicios el domingo. Si vas por la calle, probablemente habrá un predicador mejor y más divertido. Otra iglesia puede que tenga un grupo de jóvenes más animado, o que toque música contemporánea más pegajosa. Incluso puede ser que encuentres actividades más divertidas, sillas más cómodas en lugar de las duras bancas de madera e incluso, hasta una cafetería cuando entres. ¿Por qué sigues viniendo a la Iglesia Católica todos los domingos? Después de todo, la Iglesia católica puede parecer extraña. En el momento en que cruzas la puerta principal, el interior huele a incienso. El coro canta palabras extrañas en idiomas antiguos, como el latín y el griego. Y lo más extraño es que sus sacerdotes visten extrañas vestimentas coloridas y fluidas, en lugar de traje y corbata, camisetas ajustadas o jeans ajustados.

Al crecer en un hogar filipino, si alguien me hiciera esa pregunta: "¿Por qué eres católico?" Probablemente simplemente me habría encogido de hombros y habría dicho: “Mis padres”. Para la mayoría de nosotros, nuestra familia nos transmitió la fe. Somos católicos porque generaciones anteriores a nosotros eran católicas o venimos de culturas y países que han sido profundamente moldeados por la Iglesia Católica durante siglos. Por eso debemos estar agradecidos. En nuestro actual clima de opciones, debemos profundizar nuestra respuesta a la pregunta “¿Por qué eres católico?”. Tiene que ser más fuerte que “Porque fui criado como católico”.

El Evangelio de hoy nos proporciona una de esas respuestas a esta importante pregunta. Soy católico porque Jesús fundó la Iglesia Católica. Hablando directamente con Simón, hijo de Jonás (el nombre de San Pedro antes de que Jesús lo cambiara), Nuestro Señor le dijo: «Feliz eres, Simón Barjona, porque esto no te lo ha revelado la carne ni la sangre, sino mi Padre que está en los Cielos. Y ahora yo te digo: Tú eres Pedro (o sea Piedra), y sobre esta piedra edificaré mi Iglesia; los poderes de la muerte jamás la podrán vencer. Yo te daré las llaves del Reino de los Cielos: lo que ates en la tierra quedará atado en el Cielo, y lo que desates en la tierra quedará desatado en el Cielo.» (Cf. Mateo 16:18). A partir de ese momento, Pedro se convertiría en el primer Papa. Nuestro Papa actual, el Papa Francisco, es el sucesor directo número 266 de este momento en las Escrituras. Nadie más puede reclamar una línea de sucesión ininterrumpida. Sólo desde el punto de vista humano, 2,000 años de pedigrí continuo son impresionantes e incomparables. Para los judíos del primer siglo, al escuchar las palabras de Jesucristo al nuevo Pedro, inmediatamente entendieron el significado profundo. Está evocando Isaías 22, el único pasaje del Antiguo Testamento donde se menciona la palabra “llave”. La clave para “atar y desatar” tiene un significado técnico muy específico en la Biblia. Quien tiene las llaves, tiene la autoridad para determinar los asuntos de la halakah (en hebreo significa “comportamiento” o “cómo se comporta uno”), que es la aplicación práctica de la ley divina. En otras palabras, Jesús da a Pedro y a sus sucesores su autoridad en la tierra para guiar a la Iglesia. Sin las “llaves”, cada uno se convierte en una autoridad en sí mismo. Yo determino lo que es verdad. Que es correcto. Al final lo que nos queda es una plétora confusa de opciones. ¿Por qué soy católico? Porque Jesucristo fundó la Iglesia Católica. Prometió que esta Iglesia nunca será destruida. ¿Por qué iría yo a otro lugar?

Believing that Jesus is God in human flesh is a hard sale. I get it. He looks like a man, talks like a man, and seems oddly like a man. When Nathanial in our Gospel reading today hears about Jesus, he rightfully scoffs, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" (Cf. John 1:46). Despite he's initial hesitation, Nathanial will be the first one in the New Testament to see passed the surface and penetrate the audacious Christian belief, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel." This type of faith is ultimately a gift from above. Beg for it in your prayer, like a pauper in the gutter, crying out for bread. 

There will come a time in our life when our faith will be tested. It must be so. An untested faith is no faith at all. We will hear a quiet voice slithering into our ear, "You don't need to go to Mass anymore. You're tired. You deserve to rest. God understands if you need an off day. After all, he's merciful, remember." Reject those lies. Instead, our faith must be relentless like the Caananite woman in this Sunday's Gospel reading. She passes the test and remains unmoved, like a stubborn rock. Jesus looks at her and exclaims, "O woman, great is your faith!" (Cf. Matthew 15:28). We must be like her.