Homily – 5th Sunday of Easter - Vine and Branches

Acts 9:26-31

1 John 3:18-24

John 15:1-8

 

This weekend’s readings are a gold mine for missionaries.

When we travel to faraway lands to bring Christ to the poor, amazing things happen if we heed Christ’s words,

“I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit.”

We see this with St. Paul in his mission to spread the Gospel to the world of his day.

We witness St. Paul’s debut as a disciple in today’s first reading from Acts of the Apostles. Eventually, the disciples will Saul-Paul has a deep connection to Christ.

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.”

You see for missionaries these words drive mission. These words turn worlds upside down. These words can change lives and how we see the world forever.  St. Paul understood that.

I am praying these words as we form our parish’s Guatemala Mission team. I’m praying we will have a life-changing experience in San Lucas Toliman in the Lake Atitlan area of Guatemala this summer. I’m praying our hearts will be touched by what we experience and the doors of the Kingdom will open to our young people, their parents and grandparents.

Young people today need a mission experience to see the face of Christ. They need to unplug from this comfortable culture and experience life without their Smart Phones, without their social media, without their constant connectivity to a less than divine source.

When we unplug from this world and plug into Christ’s work with the poor and marginalized, we are branches connected to the true vine and we produce much fruit.

 I want to thank all of you who donated to our Guatemala mission trip at Mass a few weeks back. You are helping to bring Christ to a broken world. You are helping to extend branches from the true vine. You are helping to forever change the lives of your fellow parishioners.

For a young lady about the age of several of our Guatemala missionaries, a senior year trip to Uganda changed her life forever and turned her world upside down. Christ called her into mission.

Katie Davis was born and raised in Brentwood, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville.  She was senior class president, homecoming queen and preparing for graduation and college.

But her journey to Africa opened her eyes to a world so different from her own and put a face on the plight of the poor that would seer into her soul and plant a seed of mission.

She said, “Slowly but surely I began to realize the truth: I had loved and admired and worshipped Jesus without doing what He said.” Without taking care of the “least of these” our sisters and brothers.

But in Uganda, she was faced with the overwhelming need and her heart ached to do something to be Christ to these people.

So, after returning to the United States to finish her senior year, Katie started planning to return to Africa after graduation. She promised her parents she would only for one year before returning to go to college and fulfill the dreams they had for her life.

 She told friends she was quitting her life.

But she promised it would only for a year.

Early on, she admitted to being, as she put it, “overwhelmed by the magnitude of the need and the incredible number of people who need help.  Many days I see the destitute, disease-ridden children lining the streets in the communities I serve and I want to scoop up every single one of them, take them home with me, and feed and clothe and love them. And I look at the life of my Savior, who stopped for me."

Blessed Mother Teresa said, “Intense love does not measure, it just gives.”

That’s just what Katie did.

She started out as a Kindergarten teacher, but saw so many children unable to attend her school in Uganda because their parents didn’t have the money for school fees.

For those able to attend school, many were hungry because their families had little to eat. And most of them were filthy because they had no place to get clean.

So, she prayed for guidance and asked Jesus what to do. Christ planted in her heart a desire to give more.

First, she used her life savings to rent a house near her school.  There, she opened its doors to over a hundred children providing a daily meal, a place to get clean and started fundraising to pay school fees for many left out of the educational system.

As Katie was running her burgeoning ministry, she had the help of some young Ugandan women who had hearts as big as hers. They introduced her to children who had no parents, no guardians and no home to live in.

Katie slowly began to adopt these children and make them her own. She became their “mommy.”

By the time her year was coming to an end, Katie’s ministry was helping 150 children go to school and taking care of their needs.

She was 19-years-old and was now running a thriving non-profit. She chose the name “Amazima” which means truth in the native language of Uganda (Support Amazima Ministries).

As the first Letter to St. John reminded us today,

“Children, let us love not in word or speech, but in deed and truth.”

Katie says, “People are people. They all need food and water and medicine, but mostly they need love and truth and Jesus. I can do that. We can do that. We can give people food, water, medicine, love, truth and Jesus. The same God created all of us for a purpose, which is to serve Him and to love and care for His people. It is universal. We can’t do it in our own strength or out of our own resources, but as we follow God to wherever He is leading us, He makes the impossible happen.”

I’d like to share a story that captures Katie’s heart for the children of Uganda:

“The night in 2007 was cold and rainy. I was walking out of the supermarket on Main street … on my way home. Then I saw him. Huddled on the street corner, drenched and shivering, was a little boy. At that moment, all I really wanted to think about was getting home, getting dry, and crawling into my warm bed. But a voice inside told me to stop.

I took the little boy inside the supermarket to dry him off a bit and bought him some biscuits and juice. I gave him my sweatshirt, a small wooden cross I carried in my pocket, and some change so he could get a ride home.”

As he left, he called out, ‘What is your name?’

‘Katie’ I responded, ‘Auntie Katie.’

‘Me, I am Daniel,’ he shouted and disappeared into the wet chilly night.

About a year later, I walked into the supermarket to buy food for my family and got caught in a big hug. Two small … arms wrapped around me as a child’s voice excitedly proclaimed, ‘Auntie Katie!’

I looked down to see Daniel. Beaming.

‘Wait,’ he urged me.

He hurried to the nearest street vendor and bought me a Popsicle with the little pocket change he had. He then dug his little hand in his pocket and pulled out the small wooden cross. Looking at me with a wide grin, he spoke words that pierced my heart. ‘I have never stopped praying for you every day.’"

Katie writes, "To this day, I think of that story and stand amazed at the goodness of our God and the enormous things He can accomplish if I am obedient to his command. To stop and love the person in front of me. That rainy night, I really just wanted to … go home. But I stopped, because that’s what my heart told me to do. I only gave him a sweatshirt… I only gave him some cheap biscuits… I only gave him enough money for his ride home… But Jesus gave him hope that night. And he remembered. He didn’t just remember my face; he remembered my name. He prayed for me. He prayed for my safety and for the opportunity to see me again. I blessed him just one cold night, and he blessed me every day after that for an entire year.”

 Katie did come home to fulfill her parent’s wish to go to college, but only attended one semester before returning to her thriving ministry in Uganda.

Today, Katie helps over 500 children to get an education, cooks them a daily meal, offers them a place to get clean and most importantly she gives them hope.

You can read Katie’s story in the New York Times selling book “Kisses from Katie” or support her ministry through her popular blog.

 “I am the vine, you are the branches.

Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing…

By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

Pope Francis is calling on all Catholics to be Missionary Disciples.

26-year-old Katie Davis is a textbook example. She’s become the Mother Teresa of Uganda.         

But we don’t have to go to Uganda to be missionary disciples. We can be missionaries right here in our own parish if we follow the Holy Father’s lead and take care of the poor and marginalized in our own community.  Just stop and love the person in front of you.

Katie was raised a devout Catholic and is living out our Catholic Social Teachings in amazing ways.  And because she is a branch connected to the true vine, she bears much fruit.

May we bear much fruit this summer as we travel to Guatemala to be Christ to others. May our lives and our hearts be changed forever.  Thank you for keeping our efforts in your prayers.

 

Homily – 3rd Sunday of Easter - Open Wide The Doors Of Mercy

Acts 3:13-15, 17-19

1 John 2:1-5a

Luke 24:35-48

 

Are our Church doors opened or closed?

Are we a house of mercy or a house of judgment?

Are we welcoming and accepting to all our struggling sisters and brothers? Or do we drive people away with our unkind words or gestures?

Pope Francis is officially calling for a jubilee, a Holy Year of Mercy. It begins later this year.

Mercy is shocking. Mercy is beautiful.  Mercy can take your breath away.

Perhaps you saw the story this week about the CNN news anchor who wrote an article about how her faith has been reawakened by Pope Francis.

Carol Costello started by sharing her story about how the doors closed on her faith.

“I remember the day I stopped praying. It was the day after my little brother, Jimmy, died of cancer. He was 25. I was so angry at God. 

I was 27 at the time, and, like most young people I had stopped going to church. But, on that day -- that terrible day -- I desperately needed to understand why God took my brother. I called the nearest Catholic church, looking for a priest. A lady picked up the phone. ‘Can I talk with Father?’ I asked.

I wish I could say her answer was ‘yes.’

Instead, she asked me if I was a member of that particular parish. ‘Does it matter?’ I asked (At the time I lived far from my home parish). I don't remember how she responded, but the answer about my being able to see Father was clearly no.

I cried for a bit, then decided I would never ask God for anything. Clearly, his conduits on Earth did not have time for me -- a lifelong Catholic -- and sinner -- so why would he?”

But it was a conversation with a Catholic Cardinal about people who may feel outside the doors of the church that changed everything for Costello.

“’There is room for everyone. The door is open,’ Canadian Cardinal Gerald Lacroix insisted. (The Cardinal says there are hard truths in the Gospel and in Church teaching) But that doesn't mean we reject.’”

Costello said, “That last sentiment – ‘that doesn't mean we reject.’ -- did it for me.

I finally understood why Pope Francis reawakened my faith. I always felt my church would reject me for committing the smallest of sins. Like calling a priest at a church that was not my home parish. Like not covering my head with a traditional veil at Easter. Like accidentally eating meat on Holy Friday…

(Cardinal) Lacroix likened … Pope (Francis)'s approach to Jesus. ‘Jesus didn't judge. Jesus did not come as a judge. He came as someone who preached and talked about the love of God… Jesus walked with sinners until the very end. He did not banish them to fires of hell, for He refused to give up on anyone.’

I can't wait to go church next Sunday. And, yes, I will bow my head and pray for forgiveness, and if I'm worthy, Christ's love.”  

The words of CNN anchor Carol Costello.

Pope Francis officially detailed this week the upcoming jubilee,  a Holy Year of Mercy.

“The time has come for the Church to take up the joyful call to mercy once more… It’s a time to return to the basics and bear the weaknesses and struggles of our brothers and sisters… Mercy is the force that reawakens us to new life and instills in us the courage to look to the future with hope."

That’s exactly what Peter is talking about in today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. He’s just healed a crippled beggar in the streets of Jerusalem.

The beggar asked only for alms, and Peter said,

“’ I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, [rise and] walk.’ Then Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles grew strong. He leaped up, stood and walked around... walking and jumping and praising God.”

The beggar was expecting alms. What he got was “the mercy of God in the form of liberation from his lameness.” 

Peter had just performed his first miracle and all were amazed. But Peter used the moment to tell the people of Jerusalem of the Glory of God through his own Son’s resurrection, reminding them of their culpability in the brutal death of Jesus Christ.  

This all happened outside the doors of the Temple.

Then he called on them to “repent… and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away.”

I love that line, “that your sins may be wiped away.”

These words echo in something you may not know about.

When a deacon or a priest reads the Gospel at Mass, he ends the reading by saying the following silent prayer: "Through the words of the Gospel may our sins be wiped away."

This prayer is for all of us. Yes, even those we may shoo away from the closed doors of our Church.

Speaking of closed doors, Jesus appears through closed doors in today’s Gospel reading.

For context, the courage shown in the first reading in Acts is now replaced by the cowardice of the Apostles hiding behind closed doors.

They’re listening to the amazing story of what happened on the Road to Emmaus, when Jesus appeared. The apostles were “startled and terrified and thought they were seeing a ghost.” 

But an even more amazing sight was Jesus in the resurrected flesh requesting something to eat.

Then Jesus in his glorified body said to them, “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning with Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”

So how are we witnesses of these things?  Are we preaching repentance for the forgiveness of sins?  Or are we focusing solely on justice, the law and condemning people for their sinfulness?

Pope Francis is asking us to be a people of mercy. Jesus is asking us to be a people of mercy.

So, how do we do that?  How does our Church become an open “Door of Mercy” called for by Pope Francis?

In a few weeks, this placard will appear in the pews of our two churches.  It’s entitled, “All Are Welcome – How to be a Church of Open Doors.”

It reads:  “Each of us can make our parish a more welcoming place to newcomers, persons with disabilities, and persons with special needs.”

It even offers a few ideas:

“If you see a parent struggling with a child’s behavior, offer a friendly smile, a sympathetic nod, or a helping hand.” 

Here’s another idea from the placard:

“If you see a person exhibiting unusual behavior, understand it might be a sign of a disability. Embrace the person as a child of God and understand that each of us has different ways of receiving and communicating love.”

And there’s this one that should come in handy when we are uncomfortable with someone’s behavior during Mass:

“If you see someone who is disheveled or out of sorts, consider that he or she might be in dire straits. Act with compassion.”

And always remember this final idea:

“A warm smile, a nod, or a small kindness can make all the difference.”

This is the behavior our Holy Father is calling us to show as we open our Doors of Mercy and become a more welcoming, non-judging, non-condemning Church.

Pope Francis says the Church’s “very credibility is seen in how she shows merciful and compassionate love.”

“The Lord asks us above all not to judge and not to condemn,” adds Pope Francis, saying “If anyone wishes to avoid God’s judgment, he should not make himself the judge of his brother or sister.”

The Holy Year of Mercy begins on the feast of the Immaculate Conception in December.

We have eight months to get our house in order as we prepare to open our Doors of Mercy.

I pray we will be ready with open hearts, too. 

Homily – 5th Sunday in Lent - We all sin, We all need forgiveness

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Hebrews 5:7-9

John 12:20-33

 

I’m afraid this weekend’s homily may anger some people.

For this fact, I offer my sincere apology. I’m sorry my words may make some people mad.  That is not my intent.

My intent is to show none of us is immune to sin.  None of us.

When we humans do things that are not in accord with the Gospel, we must all take pause, acknowledge our sinfulness and ask for God’s mercy and forgiveness. That’s the ONLY path to redemption. 

This is what the Prophet Jeremiah is reminding the people of Judah. The only option for their survival from the Babylonian Empire is to repent their sins and seek God’s mercy and forgiveness.

Bible experts call Jeremiah’s new covenant prophecy heard in today’s first reading, “the Gospel before the Gospel.”  

As we know, ONLY in Jesus is there mercy and fullness of redemption.

With this weekend’s Gospel reading, we’ve come to the end of Jesus’ public ministry.

“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”

This grain of wheat is about to fall to the ground and die. And Jesus is troubled by this.

Just like His experience in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus’

troubled heart is given voice.

In His moment of anguish He hears the Father’s voice for the first and ONLY time in the Gospel of John. And it gives Him comfort.

Jesus knows His own destiny.

And Jesus explains to His disciples, “Now is the time of judgment on this world.”

But why must the world be judged?

Because ALL of us do things that are not in accord with the Gospel.  ALL of us. 

Take for instance this week’s revelation from the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

As a way of dealing with the severe homeless problem at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Archdiocesan officials had sprinklers installed in the doorways where the homeless sleep.

These sprinklers were programmed to turn on every 30-minutes and douse sleeping homeless people with water in hopes they would not congregate in the doorways of the Cathedral.

This hosing the homeless is no joke. It actually happened.

The Archdiocese now admits it was a mistake and has disabled the sprinklers, issuing a formal apology, saying:
“This kind of system was being commonly used in the Financial District as a safety, security and cleanliness measure.”

Really? Is this what Jesus would do?  

The Prophet Jeremiah has these beautiful words about the New Covenant God will make with his people:
“I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

If the law is written on our hearts, how is it that we continue to do stupid stuff as disciples of Christ?

It’s because we are all sinners. Each and every one of us.

Yes, even deacons, priests, bishops and other Church officials.

And it is ONLY through Christ our Savior that we find mercy, forgiveness and redemption.

I love the picture of Pope Francis from a year or so back giving his confession to a priest stationed in one of the open confessionals at St. Peter’s Basilica. It’s a lesson for us all.

As the greatest prophet ever Jeremiah says,

“All, from the least to the greatest, shall know me, says the Lord, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.”

Then there’s this: Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory said recently he’s selling a controversial multi-million mansion that was his residence. Instead he’s moving into a modest home.

He called it “a strategic mistake that perhaps I should have seen in advance.” 

Archbishop Gregory said he moved into the mansion a year or so before Francis became Pope.

Francis has changed much in our Church today.

Pope Francis reminded us in a homily this week, “the Church ‘is the home of Jesus,’ a house of mercy that welcomes all, and therefore not a place where Christians should close the doors to those seeking to enter.” 

In fact, Pope Francis declared this week that the year 2016 will be an extraordinary jubilee, a Holy Year of Mercy.

Now I know, when Pope Francis starts talking like this, some get nervous, maybe even a little angry. The same was true when Jesus spoke of mercy in his day.

With one week left until the start of eve of Holy week, what sin do you need forgiven? What evildoing must you bring before the light of Christ to start the healing process and find true reconciliation?

One of the biggest sins in our Church today is whining. 

One of my favorite Catholic contemporary singers, Grammy award winner Matt Maher had “the quote of the week” for us all to reflect on today:

“The enemy has taken MOST of the Church and turned them from prophets into a bunch of complainers – myself included. We spend MORE time complaining about life than prophesying the love and grace of God over it. It’s an interesting thing when we silence all our prophets and turn them into complainers because it mutes the voice of God, in a way, in a world that really needs to hear it.”

Did you know that “when we complain, our brains release stress hormones that actually harm neural connections in areas used for problem solving and other cognitive functions? This also happens when we listen to someone else moan and groan. (Experts say) ‘It’s as bad as secondhand smoke.’"

In today’s Gospel, Jesus refuses to complain about his pending Passion, “Yet, what should I say, ‘Father, save me from this hour?’

 Complaining is sinful, but confession is divine.

We have one week left to ask God to create in us a clean heart before Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord.

In a moment, we will ALL partake in the new covenant spoken by Jeremiah. It was made reality at the Last Supper when Jesus spoke these words, “Take this, all of you, and drink from it; this is the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven.”

May the Body and Blood of Christ cleanse us from all our sinfulness and help us to better hear the voice of our God whose law is written on our all our hearts.

Help us, Lord, be ready for you this Easter.