The Friar Podcasts - preaching prayer and spiritual reflections

Homily given at Saint Dominic Priory, Saint Louis, Missouri. Readings for Today. Listen to our other homilies.

Gardening for Jesus

I don't know when it happened. I don't remember where it happened. I asked myself, "How did it happen?" I'm talking about those moments where I started to become my father. Well, and my mother to some degree, too. 

See, I used to make fun of her when I was a kid, when she was looking for her glasses that she was wearing. And then I found myself looking for my glasses that I was wearing. My father had a very, very big pet peeve in the winter. I grew up in Vermont, Namely, that the sidewalks when you shoveled should be bare. Absolutely bare. No ice, no snow, bare. And then I found myself as a priest, chopping ice out of the driveway because the driveway should be bare. 

I don't know how it happened, but all of a sudden I grew into my father. I grew into my mother. Now, there's much of me that's grateful that that's the case. My father was a wonderful man. He practiced his faith very seriously. My father, he is deceased. My mother is a wonderful, wonderful woman, a saint. 

It seems to me that so much of this gospel is about what we see and who we become. And while I think the temptation could be, "Well, I'm not in the first category, I'm not in the second category, I'm not in the third category," I think that's a wrong way of reading the story. I think at one time or another, we're in each of the categories. 

There are times where, indeed, "Blessed be God, thanks be to God," the Word does take root, and we drew growing faith. faith. But quite frankly, especially if you're here in November perhaps, you'll see that the cares and anxieties of life might get in the way of our student brothers as they work to complete their papers and projects. 

There are times when things are going really well that we might lose sight of the root and the foundation of our faith because it It doesn't seem we need God, everything's going well. There are other times where we are not vigilant in our prayer and we give the devil a foothold. 

But it's all about seeing. And that's really what we celebrate today with Padre Pio. The one time I'd been to Rome, I was there for a class and I was there for more than three weeks. One thing that struck me is I don't care where you go in Rome, what store you go into, what restaurant you go into, what shop you go into, there's a picture of Padre Pio. He's everywhere. 

It also made Cardinal O'Malley in Boston a hero when he was in Rome because they thought he looked like Padre Pio. And while it would be easy to focus on the stigmata, which certainly were a big part of his life and obviously caused him great suffering, I think the sign of his saintliness was his ability to see clearly God, not only in his own life, but in the lives of others. 

I've never been to confession to Padre Pio, but I can say that people who describe that experience describe it in a way that it was like he was looking right into their soul. And because he was given that gift, he could extend authentically the mercy of God. 

I'm told there was no hiding from Padre Pio, that his mercy was pervasive because he was a conduit for the mercy of God, which we cannot understand. I would take one exception, and I will say that it's dangerous to do this. So if lightning strikes me dead, at least you know I go into this in full measure. St. Paul says in his letter to Timothy that no human being has seen or can see the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. 

Now obviously in one very important way that's true, God's infinitely beyond our ability, etc. But I'd like to add an "unless." And I don't think this is heresy. I'd like to say that none of this is possible unless God extends to us the gift. God gives us the grace. 

See that's at the underbelly, the foundation of our Catholic faith. Everything we do, we do because, well not everything, every good thing that we do, we do because God gives ...

Homily given at Christian Brothers College High School, Town and Country, Missouri. Readings for Today. Listen to our other homilies.

Sinners, not Righteous

Transcript

This should be a hopeful gospel for all of us. Saint Matthew, the Apostle, was a tax collector. That put him in a very unpopular group, not just because of taxes, but more importantly because of his dishonesty. Tax collectors were well known to take more than the prescribed amount of tax. 

And it's not surprising that at a dinner at his house, Matthew would invite those he knew, namely tax collectors and sinners. It's a reminder to us that the big desire of our Lord Jesus Christ, the most important desire, is that all people be saved. That's what Jesus wants. 

He doesn't want almost everyone to be saved, or only this group to be saved, or only that group to be saved. He wants all people to be saved. And He calls all people to holiness. And of course, that includes you and me. 

One of the things that I think is important is to think in our own lives, how would we respond if the Lord Jesus looked at us and said, "Follow me"? Would we in fact be eager, like the Apostle Matthew, who got up from his tax post and and presumably left his livelihood and everything he knew to follow the Lord Jesus? Or might we be more like Pharisees who had all kinds of reasons to criticize Jesus for the company he kept? 

Let us ask the Lord today to help us to become generous so that when He calls to us "follow And for me, we may do so with enthusiasm.

Homily given at Christian Brothers College High School, Town and Country, Missouri. Readings for Today. Listen to our other homilies.

It's not just a bishop

Transcript

These readings we've been getting from Paul to Timothy are really about the right order of the church and of authority. Yesterday we heard about the need to pray for those who are in public office, for those who serve us. 

Today, the focus is on the structure and governance of the church, particularly on the office of bishop. Now, we know historically that the office of Bishop in this particular time was not like it is today. It would be much more akin to being a pastor of one church, hence the expression with dioceses and archdioceses of the local church. 

But the qualities that are listed are good qualities for any of us. Listen again how it is that St. Paul describes the office of Bishop for the one who is needing to be there. Irreproachable, married only once, temperate, self-controlled, decent, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not aggressive, but gentle, not contentious, not a lover of money. Those are rather interesting and kind of total qualities for any Christian. We could change ability to teach to ability to share our faith because that is such an important task in this particular day and age. 

We know, though, both in civil government and in the church, leaders do not always live up to this ideal. They fall short. And Paul mentions that as well, that when those things happen, the devil gets a little bit of a foothold. Because people begin to wonder, well, if the bishops can't live this way, if the civil leaders can't live this way, what's the point of our church or our state? 

But the point is made clear in the Gospel. This poor widow is losing her son and probably her source of livelihood. She obviously was mourning in such a way that Jesus saw something in her heart that moved him with pity. and he raised this man from the dead. Because that's what our faith promises us. That we too, when we are touched by Jesus, will be raised from the dead.

Homily given at Christian Brothers College High School, Town and Country, Missouri. Readings for Today. Listen to our other homilies.

Authority Properly FocusedTranscript

There is, I suspect, something that if any of you are lawyers, you might be aware of as it pertains to educational law. It is particularly important for Catholic schools. It's called the Ministerial Exemption. 

And what that means is that in a variety of ways, Catholic schools are not bound by the the same limitations that public schools are bound by, or by, for that matter, Catholic institutions are not bound by the same rules that other institutions would be bound by. And it's not just Catholic schools, it's any religious organization. 

Because the ministerial exemption is founded on the notion that everyone who works for an institution that has a religious nature is a minister. And the Supreme Court does not want to get into deciding who counts as a minister and who doesn't. 

Long before the Supreme Court established this precedent, in the 17th and 18th century, this idea was something that was quite familiar to St. John Baptist de La Salle. Because he, in a way-- while he didn't have a ministerial exemption, he was very strong on the notion that everyone involved in this fledgling endeavor of schools was a minister. 

Everyone did what they did out of a call by God and a concern for the salvation of those children they taught and educated. And perhaps also it's important to know that any vocation, given to us by God, is given to us for our own salvation. 

So when a husband and wife get married, ideally being called to the vocation of marriage, they see in that vocation the very means to their salvation, each one of them. When I became a priest, that is a way in which I live out my salvation offered by God. And that's what De La Salle picked up on when he founded his schools. 

That everything that was being done was not frivolous, it was for a divine purpose, the salvation of the students. And what was important to know? What were the important things that were necessary? Well, certainly they needed to know the faith. They needed to ultimately know Jesus, but they also needed opportunity. 

These kids were running wild all over the streets. They didn't have a purpose or a direction. And De La Salle recognized that if they didn't have the skills necessary to improve their lives and ultimately to provide for families, then they were at risk of being lost in every way one wants to think about that word. 

Today's readings really focus on the idea and the notion of authority. But it's not authority for power's sake. It's an authority for a different sake, namely for service. There was a while, probably because of Thomas Sergiovanni, who is an educator and talked about servant leadership or leadership from the heart. That was really a popular notion for a while. 

But the point is that all service in the context of ministry, when it's centered on God, comes from the heart. It is service because true authority happens because it has an end or a purpose that comes from God. 

Think of how little could be accomplished if we didn't have the right authority of the rules of the road. If everybody just kind of drove whenever they liked and however they liked, some days it may feel like that. But the reality is that we give up certain things that may appear to be less important for the sake of something really important. 

The first reading is such a powerful reading that I think sets the tone, I hope, for you, the board, who are involved in service. Because what he asks us in this first reading to do through the letter to Timothy is to pray for those who are given a particular authority, leaders in ... 

Nicene Creed: God the Father

Most of the Nicene Creed is about clarifying how Christians can believe in one God, while at the same time claiming this one God is three persons. This is no small task. As many priests might confess, most homilies on the Trinity fall into one heresy or another.

A small look at the early Christian controversies concerning God, seem to have little to do with the first person of the Blessed Trinity, the Father. More than likely this is due to the Jewish roots the Christians inherited. God the Father was easy to understand as God. 

The controversy stemmed more from the relationship of the Son, Jesus, to the Father, and ultimately the relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Thus, the Nicene Creed is fundamentally about  articulating what might seem quite familiar to us. 

But in the early Church, this was not such an easy question to work out. They had fundamental questions about God. Who is God? What is our relationship to God? How does God act in the world? 

So how is it we begin in reciting the Nicene Creed? With a brief statement about the Father. "I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible." As mentioned, the controversy was not really about God the Father. This was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is the God of the Jewish people. 

But there are some things that are contained that need to be fleshed out. The first is the need to address what some have done in the name of inclusive language. You may have heard the phrase, the Creator, the Redeemer, the Sanctifier. Referring to God in this way is wrong on many levels, but there are two primary reasons I would like to mention.

First, we believe in three persons, not three functions. While God does create, redeem and sanctify, God does more than this. God is more than this. Think of it this way. While we may see the job we do as a major way we identify ourselves, it is not the only way we identify ourselves.

I am a priest. But I am also a son. I am a brother. I am a friend. I am a cousin. So while I might say, in answer to the question, "Who are you?", that I am a priest, that is not the only way I am identified. Notice the other ways I could identify myself all have to do with relationships. 

And the same is true withy God. We are not called to a relationship with functions, but with persons. If the stress is on God as a function, then by extension we could come to view humans, made in God's image and likeness as functions.

But our inherent dignity does not come from what we do, but rather comes from who we are. I do not reach out in charity to help another because of what they can do, for me or others, but because Jesus, especially in Matthew 25, tells me that to be a disciple means I must reach out to help others in a whole wide variety of ways. 

And so our goodness comes from the fact we exist. And it is good that we exist. This is because we can only exist if God creates us. But God creates us ultimately for a relationship with him. For those of a certain age, we might recall the answer to this question in the Baltimore Catechism. What did God make us? "To know, love and serve him in this life and live forever with him in the next" was the answer.

The second reason concerns the problem of assigning only one function to each person of the Blessed Trinity. The Son is also the Creator, the Holy Spirit is also the Redeemer, and God the Father also sanctifies. God the Father redeems, the Son sanctifies, the Holy Spirit creates...

Nicene Creed: An Introduction

Before we get into exploring the Nicene Creed, it seems important to consider a few questions. Why do we have a creed? What point does it serve? What is the history behind it? Giving consideration to these questions will be helpful as we start our series on the Nicene Creed.

Background

When we consider the Trinity, it can be the case that it is so familiar to us that we cannot imagine it to have been a significant source of controversy in the Church. And yet, given that Christianity arose from the monotheistic nature of Judaism, there is a fundamental belief in one God. Deuteronomy 6:4 says this: "Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!" Determining the relationship between the Father and the Son posed an interesting dilemma for the early Christians, even as far as the fourth century. 

Moreover, the Incarnation is equally something we can take for granted. We tend to accept that Jesus was fully God and fully human. The errors tended to stress the divinity of Jesus only or the humanity of Jesus only. The challenge can be summed up in the quote from The Catholic Digest sums this up well:

In the first few centuries after Christ, Christians strove to find precise language to coherently express the truth that Jesus was truly God and truly man. Some proposed theories that bounced between extremes. Docetists claimed Jesus was really God and only seemed to be human. Ebionites thought Jesus was only human but denied his pre-existence and divinity. The Church, by the pronouncements of bishops and local councils, condemned these ideas as false, and slowly developed language to express the true belief — and to combat the many heresies that were arising. ⁠The Catholic Digest⁠

The biggest heresy to arise at the Council of Nicea was Arianism. The controversy was stirred by a priest whose name was Arius, and those who agreed with him were known as Arians. The Council was convened by Constantine, the emperor and occurred from May to August in the year 325.

The challenge was reconciling Jesus who came in human form (and thus appeared to have a beginning) with the concept of an eternal Father who has always existed, without beginning or end. To put it simply, the problem could be stated like this:

1. There is one God. 

2. If God is divine, he must have always existed without beginning or end. 

3. If both the Father and the Son are divine, there would be two gods, but there are not. There is only one God. 

4. So, the Son came from the Father, as a creature of the father, even though the Son exceeds all other creatures.   

And so the question concerned the divinity of Jesus Christ. If Jesus was created by the Father, he could not have been divine. If Jesus was divine, how is it we can claim one God? The solution was to condemn Arianism. It did so by teaching that Jesus was one in substance (the Greek word is homoousios) one substance with the Father. Jesus, the Word, shared the divine substance with the Father, and was equal to the Father.

To make fully clear its condemnation of Arianism, the Council of Nicaea formulated a creed to state explicitly its condemnation of the Arian position. This Nicene Creed was edited in 381 to add more of what we believe about the Holy Spirit, stating the Holy Spirit, too, was co-equal with the Father and the Son.  The Creed we say at Mass today is based on the revised Nicene Creed and is called the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.

Why it is called a Creed

The word creed comes from the Latin verb, credere which means to believe. The creed is placed essentially at the middle of the Mass, as the end of the Liturgy of the Word and a transition to the Liturgy of the Eucharist. 

Why does the Church believe it is important for us to recite the creed? Because the Mass is primarily about a work. We get the word liturgy from the Greek word which means "the people's work." But this work arises from foundational beliefs we share ...

Readings for Today. Listen to our other podcasts.

Our Lady of Sorrows

Transcript (A New Feature!)

Each time we record something, we will provide a transcript of the recording. Enjoy!

Hello and welcome to Spend Five with Jesus for Friday, September 15, 2023. I am the friar and I am delighted to have you with us today. 

Today we celebrate our Lady of Sorrows. It can be easy to think that Mary didn't suffer much. The pictures we have of Mary sometimes only reinforce this. She doesn't look in some pictures of Mary or statues of Mary as one who is even capable of suffering. 

But truth be told, when we look at her life, there are many instances where first we know overtly that Mary suffered. And secondly, we can surmise in others that there was probably some difficulty as she sought to understand what her relationship with her son was about. So when did her suffering begin? 

Well, right from the very beginning, would say of when we encounter her. The Angel Gabriel comes to her and announces that she is going to be the Mother of God, but she's not going to have intercourse. That's a pretty difficult thing to wrap your head around, to understand. 

Moreover, she has to think about now how is she going to explain this to her husband to be Joseph? We know that Joseph had some difficulty with it because he was going divorce her quietly. She goes to help her kinswoman Elizabeth, a journey as any journey in that time that was probably not easy. And we see in the very moments of the birth of Jesus, the difficulty of traveling to Bethlehem while she was pregnant, the need to escape to Egypt to avoid being killed by Herod. 

Those moments in life where she had unbelievable sorrow, like when she was looking for Jesus when he was lost in the temple. There are so many instances where we can see this, but probably none more profound than the Blessed Mother at the foot of the cross. 

The cross is not a popular concept today, I think. We tend to forget the cross. This is true even among those of us who are priests or religious or sisters or profess brothers or anybody of faith. 

When we are challenged to do something that is hard or difficult, that we don't want to do, how easy is it to say, "No, I'm not going to do it." But Mary stayed at the foot of the cross. Mary embraced the cross in the midst of her sorrow and suffering. 

She's a model for us in that regard, for we too need to stay at the foot of the cross. We need to remember that in the midst of all of these difficulties, we are never alone. Jesus is always with us, and Mary has a special compassion for us because of her suffering. 

Have you ever noticed that some people find it difficult to understand hardship, and when you examine their life, it appears that they've had no suffering? There's been no cross. 

Today, as we express deep gratitude for the presence of the Blessed Mother in our life, let us ask the Blessed Mother to turn our sacrifices, our sufferings, into the way of salvation that she did. Let us ask the Lord today to help us to understand that suffering brings us closer to Jesus just as the Blessed Mother experienced a closeness to God. And let us ask that her compassion be felt when she answers our prayers to God.

On the friar, you can listen to our homilies (based on the readings of the day) and reflections. You can also ask us to pray for you or to pray for others. You can subscribe to our website to be informed whenever we publish an update.

Homily given at Christian Brothers College High School, Town and Country, Missouri. Readings for Today. Listen to our other homilies.

That SerpentTranscript

We have to read the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, from the eyes of the New Testament. Because as Catholics, what we believe is firstly that salvation was offered to the Jews, and then we were grafted onto the vine of salvation. 

It's not that everything that God said in the Old Testament is now something we don't have to worry about. We do. But we believe that we have found the fulfillment of the first promises of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

And so when we hear in this reading, this first reading about Moses lifting up a serpent, the serpent should catch our attention. The serpent was the source of our sin. The source of the salvation for the people was a serpent mounted on a pole. 

The source of our salvation is the Lord Jesus mounted on a cross. Jesus dying a death of really very great evil. dying a death that represented all of our sinfulness, taken upon himself. But as the gospel reminds us, all done because he loves us. He doesn't go around seeking to condemn us, he goes around seeking to love us, to offer us again and again the gift of salvation. This is the reason why we celebrate the feast of the exaltation of the cross, because in seeing what it is that Jesus has done for us on the cross, it becomes not a sign of shame, but a sign of our salvation.

Homily given at Christian Brothers College High School, Town and Country, Missouri. Readings for Today. Listen to our other homilies.

That Serpent

Transcript

We have to read the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, from the eyes of the New Testament. Because as Catholics, what we believe is firstly that salvation was offered to the Jews, and then we were grafted onto the vine of salvation. 

It's not that everything that God said in the Old Testament is now something we don't have to worry about. We do. But we believe that we have found the fulfillment of the first promises of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

And so when we hear in this reading, this first reading about Moses lifting up a serpent, the serpent should catch our attention. The serpent was the source of our sin. The source of the salvation for the people was a serpent mounted on a pole. 

The source of our salvation is the Lord Jesus mounted on a cross. Jesus dying a death of really very great evil. dying a death that represented all of our sinfulness, taken upon himself. But as the gospel reminds us, all done because he loves us. He doesn't go around seeking to condemn us, he goes around seeking to love us, to offer us again and again the gift of salvation. This is the reason why we celebrate the feast of the exaltation of the cross, because in seeing what it is that Jesus has done for us on the cross, it becomes not a sign of shame, but a sign of our salvation.

Readings for Today. Listen to our other podcasts.

From AboveTranscript (A New Feature!)

Each time we record something, we will provide a transcript of the recording. Enjoy!

Hello and welcome to Spend Five with Jesus for this Wednesday, September 13th, 2023. I am the Friar and it is wonderful to have you with us today. 

Today we celebrate Saint John Chrysostom, who really was just an eloquent speaker. In fact, the name Chrysostom really means golden tongue. He was that effective, that engaging, that convincing. 

And I think today's reading kind of speaks a little bit about what his task was on one level and reminds us of what our lives need to be about as well. It's a tough thing sometimes to keep our attention focused in the right direction and on the right things and that's what Paul is talking about today in his letter to the Colossians. 

"If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above." Now what does that mean to be raised with Christ? Well, namely, it is to be baptized, to be a beloved son or daughter of Jesus Christ, which raises us, elevates us, to become beloved sons or daughters of God. 

And that is something that is really good. We need to be raised with Christ. It's an important characteristic for us because Christ is seated then at the right hand of God. And so we're challenged then to focus our attention not so much on just the day-to-day stuff that we do need to do, but more importantly to direct our eyes, to direct our attention, to focus our life on what is above. As a matter of fact, this contrast between above and below is one that is quite familiar, particularly in the Gospel of John. 

You might remember that stretch where Jesus and Nicodemus are talking about being born again, whereas Jesus is talking about being born from above. Now I don't speak Aramaic, but I'm told that the words for "above" and "again" are very similar in Aramaic, and so it's kind of a play on words. 

But it is really interesting to us because in that same gospel, when the temple curtain is torn in two, it's torn from above to below. It's oftentimes translated from top to bottom, but it really is above to below. And it's an indication that the death of Christ was so powerful it ripped us under the connections between heaven and earth, and then ultimately restored them. And that's what we celebrate. 

So where are your eyes today? Well, if you need some kind of way of measuring, well how am I doing with looking from above? Paul doesn't leave that to chance. In fact, he He talks about the things that we need to put away, those earthly things that are not helpful to us in developing this relationship with Jesus. They're not the kinds of things that are in fact going to be effective for us. 

So what does he mention? Immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, an agreed that is idolatry. We also must put away anger, fury, malice, slander, and obscene language. need to stop lying to one another, and we need to take all these old practices and remove them. And that's really the challenge, isn't it? I don't know about you, but at least some of those things on the list I find kind of continue to be a part of my life again and again, even though I have been raised in Christ because I've been baptized. 

The beauty though of our relationship with Jesus is that it is not just that we need to avoid these things and Jesus will love us. Jesus will love us. And precisely because we often don't avoid these things, and because Jesus loves us, we have the invitation to God's mercy and forgiveness. When we sincerely desire to allow Christ to change our lives, we receive His mercy and His forgiveness. And that is absolutely beautiful. It is absolutely tremendous. 

Maybe today, spend a little bit of time just thinking about the love and mercy of God. And ask God to change your lives, to change your hearts, to change your soul, so that you can have a loving and powerful relationship with Him.