Homilies by Msgr. John Cihak

Jesus asks a simple question of St. Peter, the one who denied him three times during His Passion- not to shame him, but to meet him at this spiritual place of failure and heal him. Will we let Him ask the same of us?

St. John Vianney, perhaps the Church's single greatest confessor, once said that "If I am a good confessor, it is only because I am a great sinner." But this great sinner found still-greater mercy in Jesus, and so can we today.

The human heart cannot help but crave freedom. Jacques Fesch spent his entire life desperately grasping at freedom on his own terms. But only when he finally despaired of this sort of freedom did the freedom offered by Jesus- as to every Christian in the Resurrection- present a new way.

We've heard the phrase so often that we take it for a mere platitude. Maybe we even doubt that it is truly possible at all. But in ministering to the woman caught in adultery, Jesus is firm: we must both love the sinner and hate the sin.

The Parable of the Prodigal is perhaps the most beloved of all of our Lord's lessons. Whether we are the older or the younger, it is the same Father who offers us his merciful hand here and now.

"I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!" Our Lord's words can seem shocking, even terrifying. But we must recognize this saying too as Good News that offers eternal happiness.

What Peter, James, and John saw on that mountain was not simply a pretty light show: in the Incarnate God-Man, they saw the godliness that they- and we- were always meant to possess.

We are so used to the stories of Scripture that we can forget what an odd thing it is for God to send His people into the desert over and over. Jesus's own 40-day fast in the desert shows us what it really means to live Lent.

"We are part of something larger than our parish. In fact, we only exist because the successor of St. Peter has sent a successor of the Apostles to us . . . We are all part of his mission in this locality, the Church’s mission of bringing everyone in western Oregon into the saving relationship with Jesus through His Church. There are many aspects of the mission that are beyond the parish level but which need parish support."

Thumbnail image courtesy of Ed Langlois of the Catholic Sentinel. Used with permission.

War is upon us. What can we learn from history- and from our Lord?