Fr. Brian Soliven Sermons

If you want to make a good living, open a psychic storefront. When I lived in Sacramento, my normal driving route took me past a popular "psychic" with a red Porsche parked in the drive way. I didn't realize it could be so lucrative. It dawned on me, this is nothing knew. There will always be a ready market of people willing to consult soothsayers and palm readers to get answers when life becomes difficult and God seems to be too slow. The temptation to short-cut his will is real. That is why in today's Gospel, our Lord praises the child-like and encourages us to be like them. Children trust their mom and dad wholeheartedly. We must do the same with our relationship with our Heavenly Father. If every Christian had this, that red Porsche would be a red Toyota Corolla. 

Think of the person who hurt you the most. It's often the people we love. That's the heavy, piercing edge of entering into a relationship with another person. We give them access to our fragile hearts. Sometimes, they sadly can take this gift and smash it over and over again. To this, St. Peter asks Jesus, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him?" (Cf. Matthew 18:21) His answer? Forgive like God. 

Let's be honest, gossiping is fun. It makes us feel good, strong, and part of the in-crowd. However, in today's Gospel, Our Lord tells us to resist this fallen desire within. The Christian must strive higher. He gives us the way. 

Why are we so drawn to nature? Something in us longs for it, like the proverbial moth to a flame. With the eyes of faith, the answer becomes clear when we ponder the simple question -- who made it? Our Heavenly Father did. Everyone implicitly or explicitly, I dare say, who treks through Yellowstone, Glacier National Park, the Grand Canyon or the beaches of Hawaii, is fundamentally looking for God on some level. Psalm 19:1 is even more blunt, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands."  In other words, nature points above our daily grind to the transcendent destiny we were created for. On this day the Church celebrants the Assumption of the Blessed Mother into Heaven, she reminds us like that ocean sunset, we are made for life with the Triune God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 

If tomorrow morning you saw headlines on the news, “Pastor of St. Mary’s Arrested For Bank Robbery”, many of you would be rightfully shocked. Some of you may even think, “I knew that priest was weird!” or “It doesn’t surprise me. Something was always off about that guy”. Many Catholics and non-Catholics may even say, “See! That’s why the Church and religion are horrible.” While all these sentiments are understandable, it reveals a great mystery about the nature of faith and the question we all intuitively wonder about: How can people do evil things while they profess to be Christian? It’s an age-old question reaching all the way back to the Old Testament and even to our very day, especially here in the United States. As you’re well aware by now, the failures of priests and other leaders in the Church are laid bare for all to see. This blatant hypocrisy can scandalize the faithful and at worst, keep those who would otherwise convert, away from Jesus Christ.

How are we to make sense of this? The Gospel reading this Sunday tells us how. It comes from Matthew 13, where Jesus tells seven parables about the nature of the Church and Heaven itself. They are important for us to ponder because they can teach us how to respond to life’s difficulties. My old roommate grew to despise the Church due to the presence of sinners in her ranks. In the Parable of the Weeds and the Wheat, Jesus explains that our Heavenly Father allows the good, the “wheat” in this analogy, to grow alongside the bad, the “weeds”. In other words, in the Church you will always have saints and sinners sitting next to each other in the pews. He does this to give us sinners a chance to change our lives and repent. Our Father is patient with his stubborn children. We should not be surprised when people in the Church fail to live up to the high standard of Jesus Christ. As the great Fulton Sheen once said, “Judge the Catholic Church not by those who barely live by its spirit, but by the example of those who live closest to it.” Let’s continue to hold one another up in prayer. Pray especially, that none of us end up as a news headline. 

In the Biblical world, names mean everything. In the first reading from Exodus that we hear this morning at Mass, the creator of the universe reveals his Divine Name, "I AM WHO AM". This cryptic response would have far reaching implications.  

Please pray for our parishioners who are leaving for a missionary trip to Peru today. Their task -- reveal who God is. 

As part of our devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, every first Friday of the month, Eucharistic Adoration follows directly after the 8AM Mass.  Our Lord is exposed for prayer from morning all the way until the evening 7PM Spanish Mass. St. Mary’s becomes an oasis of profound prayer in the midst of a frantic world. The picture on the cover of the bulletin was from last Friday. As we began, this young mother reverently knelt on the bottom step leading into the sanctuary. Her young son clinged to her sweater, resting his tired head against her arm, as they both prayed silently directly in front of Jesus. At that moment, the memory of my own mother came flashing back. When I was his age my mother did something very similar. She would drag me to church during the middle of the week to join her at our parish in Elk Grove. I always went kicking and screaming because she interrupted my video game playing time. Nevertheless, mom always won. 

It's hard for us Americans to imagine being persecuted for our religious faith. We live in a country with relative freedom. Regrettably, the same cannot be said in other parts of the world. The number one, most persecuted religion on earth is you. As shocking as this might be, we should not be surprised in the least. Jesus himself warns his followers in today's Gospel: "Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.... You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved." (Cf. Matthew 10:16-23)

So often in our modern world, we like to reduce Christianity to being "nice". This version of soft religion risks nothing. It requires no conversion of life or death to my ego. It's a domesticated lion with no teeth, caged, and safe to pet at our leisure. However, the Christianity that St. Paul proclaimed is much more dangerous. In fact, he calls the message of Jesus Christ "dynamite".