Homily – 4th Sunday in Lent – Shadows or Light

                                                                                                  2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23

Ephesians 2:4-10

John 3:14-21

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I had the blessing to spend last weekend at our deacon Lenten retreat led by our new Bishop Daniel Mueggenborg.

What an energetic, affable guy, and gifted storyteller.

Hopefully, we can have him in our parish community soon.

Bishop Daniel shared an interesting story about his time in Italy serving as Vice Rector of the North American College. This is where many of the priests from our archdiocese are formed in Rome.

His story was about the seedy side of our human nature when met with the light of Christ.

The Vice Rector’s role is similar to a Chief Operating Officer at a corporation. The CEO is the Rector, his boss.

One day around Christmastime, Bishop Daniel was invited to lunch by one of the contractors doing construction work on campus. It was a thank you lunch for the opportunity to do business with the college. The two went to a fancy restaurant and had a nice meal and conversation.

As they were saying their goodbyes, the man told the now Bishop how he looked forward to working with him more in the future, then handed the Vice Rector what he thought was a Christmas card as they parted.

When Bishop Daniel later opened the envelope, he found 15-thousand dollars in cash inside.

Bishop Daniel didn’t hesitate. He immediately reported what had happened to his boss, the Rector, who pulled out stationary to write a thank you note to the man for his very generous public donation.

What was meant to be something done in the shadows (a bribe) was brought into the light of Christ. 

According to stewardship experts there are three kinds of Catholic donors:

“The first, and the largest, group consist(s) of those Catholics who love the Church and simply want to assist in its mission. The second group is more or less interested in the Church’s mission, but they really value the acclaim…, the picture with the Bishop, their name on some building. They, too, are not really problematic. The third group does not give, it seeks to buy. They want control. They will make a bishop’s life hell.”

I have no doubt we’re all in the first category of givers. Right?

Not sure where the Italian businessman’s bribe fits on that scale. But thankfully, due to the integrity of our new Bishop, the man's secret action was brought into the light of Christ.

And shouldn’t all our actions come into the light of Christ, never ever remaining solely in the shadows of our own human hearts? 

How many of us feel convicted when all of our actions are held up to the light of Christ?  

The time we got angry in traffic and raged against the motorist who cut us off? The time we scolded a teenage waitress for getting our order wrong? The time we said or did something hurtful or rude to someone we love, or a colleague, or even a total stranger? 

The evil side of our human nature is getting the better of us these days. In fact, unethical behavior, nastiness and rudeness seem to be in vogue.

Perhaps we should ask ourselves, Why? Why do we feel free to be this way?

Last week we heard about Jesus overturning the tables of the money changers outside the Temple in Jerusalem. Maybe some of us justify our actions by saying, “Look, even Jesus got angry.”

Yes, but Jesus got angry only once in the Gospels. His anger was measured and appropriate, and directed at those polluting the Holy Temple experience. 

Every time we take Holy Communion we become a Holy Temple of the Lord. Do we not pollute this Temple when we do such sinful things?

This is what the second Book of Chronicles is addressing -- infidelities leading to exile into slavery and destruction of the Temple. We pollute the Lord’s Temple with such abominations. 

And this is what Jesus is talking about, too, when he said, “everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed.”

But God gives us an abundance of second chances. In God’s eyes, we’re all works in progress.      

In the dark of night, Nicodemus comes to Jesus, the light of the world.

Nicodemus is a member of the Pharisees and many of his brothers are not fans of this man called Jesus. Hypocrites rarely like the person who points out their hypocrisy.

Nicodemus is also part of the Sanhedrin (the court of Jewish law). They’re not happy because Jesus is calling them out for their sinful behavior, deeds done many times in the shadows, in darkness.

But Nicodemus sees in Jesus’ teachings a bright light of wisdom, and in His healings an amazing connection to God. He’s curious about the man and comes in the dark of night when no one can see him for a personal chat.

Nicodemus refers to Jesus as rabbi, or teacher, but is still missing a key fact about who He is.

In this conversation, Jesus is talking about second chances, about being “born again.” Nicodemus appears to be missing the point.  Jesus is talking about a spiritual rebirth, not a physical one, but Nicodemus is still confused. So, Jesus reveals his true identity.

It comes in one the most-quoted passages of the bible: John 3:16

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish, but might have eternal life.”

This passage sums up God’s loving plan for the world. 

God calls us to follow the example of Jesus; to love God with all our hearts, minds and souls, and love our neighbors as ourselves -- as we follow the Holy Spirit and live in the light, not in the shadows.

The words “faith” and “belief” never appear as nouns in John’s Gospel. These words always appear as verbs. Our faith and our belief in the Son of God must always be put into action.

So as we take Holy Communion and turn our bodies into Holy Temples for the Lord, let us ask ourselves. Are we modeling Christ?

I read something recently that hits on this point.

Here’s what it said,

“Being rude is easy. It does not take any effort and is a sign of weakness and insecurity. Kindness shows great self-discipline and strong self-esteem. Being kind is not always easy when dealing with rude people. Kindness is a sign of a person who has done a lot of personal work and has come to a great self-understanding and wisdom.”

So, who do we choose to be? 

Followers of Christ who let their lights shine before others?

Or Christian who prefer the shadows and darkness, afraid to expose everything they say and do to the light of Christ?

Are we, as St. Paul said, “dead in our transgressions”?  No, we are not. 

On this Laetare Sunday, let us rejoice and thank God for His abundant Mercy.

Lent means spring, and spring is a time of new life and the promise of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

What a blessing to be focused on our repentance in this Lenten season.  What a blessing to have the Sacrament of Reconciliation and rediscover God’s forgiveness. What a blessing to practice prayer, fasting and almsgiving to keep us connected to our salvation.

May the light of Christ permeate our every action, our every thought, and our every word. May this light transform us, and conform us better to Christ.

Homily–2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time–Welcome Home

                                                                                                        Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46

1 Corinthians 10:31 – 11:1

Mark 1:40-45

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I spent last weekend in Monterrey, Mexico, helping bring a deacon classmate to his final resting place.

Deacon Jose Alfredo Blakely-Perez was born in nearby Ciudad Madero, Mexico. He got his Bachelor’s degree at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and went to work at a local company in Monterrey where he met the girl of his dreams. The two eventually married and moved to Canada, to pursue advanced degrees. Jose eventually attained a PhD in Computer Science, and even taught for a time at Indiana University in Bloomington.

24-years ago, Jose went to work at Microsoft as a software architect and later became a senior executive. He led a brilliant career there. In fact, he holds 19 patents for his work at Microsoft.

He was a faithful, practicing Catholic, but wanted to do more for his Church.

So, he became involved in, and eventually a leader, in the Cursillo Movement of adult retreats. There, he felt called by God to the diaconate and entered the long, grueling five year formation.

Once ordained with our class, Deacon Jose served at St. Brendan’s Catholic Church in Bothell for five years until his death in early January. 

On January 12^th, his Memorial Mass was held before a crowd packed to overflowing at St. Brendan’s. Archbishop Sartain presided, along with concelebrants Bishop Eusebio, and a few close priest friends of Deacon Jose and his wife Luci, and over 30 deacons, including most of his classmates.

Father Steve Sallis and Jose’s 29-year-old son Alfredo (himself a PhD candidate in Genome Science and Technology at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville) both gave beautiful, moving eulogies about an amazing man who died way too young.

Our deacon class wanted someone to be present to Deacon Jose’s wife Lucinda, son Alfredo, and their family as they took Jose home to his final resting place. After much discussion, I was asked to go.  

At first, I must admit to being a little fearful and nervous about traveling to northern Mexico. The area is under a U.S. State Department travel advisory for dangerous criminal activity. But what I found in Monterrey was nothing like what I expected. I found a sprawling city of eight million people, a modern city, a proud city, known as being the heart of industry in Mexico.

I think we’re fearful of a lot in our country. Fearful of people who are just like us, but who live south of the border. There’s even talk of building a wall between our two countries.

We are so fearful of the world, a fear that mostly comes from ignorance.

Fear is what drove the Israelites to create special rules for people with leprosy. They were to declare themselves “unclean” and were banished from the community. The Israelites believed the disease was a divine punishment by God for a sinful life.

Jesus knew this was nonsense – and broke the rules to heal the man with leprosy. Jesus saw beyond the reality created by His society, to the real human dignity of a man standing before him who believed in a miracle.

Imagine the fear of the Apostles, and the crowd around them, as a leper approaches Jesus and asks to be “made clean.” Jesus did not fear. He even did what was forbidden by the rules of his Jewish faith. He reached out, touched the man and healed him. 

Do we sometimes insulate ourselves from the suffering of others out of fear? What would Jesus say about how we treat others we consider outcasts in our society? Are our actions or inactions driven by our fears?

Ever heard of Denver Moore? Denver was a homeless man living in the streets near the Union Gospel Mission in Fort Worth, Texas. 

He was born in Louisiana in the 30s and lived a hard life as a boy in the cotton fields of the Jim Crow South. Denver once tried to help the mother of a friend, a white woman, whose car had broken down. Some white men came upon the scene, tied a rope around Denver and dragged him around for several miles. He survived and left town on a train, hoping to find a better place.  But he didn't.

Denver became an angry man, a scary man, a homeless man known for violent outbursts, usually while carrying a baseball bat.

But one woman saw beyond her own fears to the heart and soul of a man needing Jesus’ healing. She imitated Christ with her life. In fact, in a dream, Debbie Hall saw this very man and knew he would do something miraculous to change what people thought about homelessness in her city.

Debbie Hall and her husband Ron volunteered at the Union Gospel Mission feeding those experiencing homelessness.  Debbie was an eager volunteer, her husband Ron, not so much. He was scared to even park his car in the neighborhood.

When they both met Denver for the first time, he broke into the feed swinging his trademark baseball bat, breaking glass windows and smashing tables, angry because someone stole something from his encampment.

Debbie told Ron, “That’s the man from my dream!  That’s the man who is going change everything!”

So, Ron reluctantly went after him. Afraid and cautious, he asked the man his name: Denver Moore. He then asked Denver if he could be a little friendlier at the shelter feed. To which Denver said, “You wanna be my friend? I’m gonna have to think about that.”

Over time, Ron and Debbie got to know Denver, and Denver began to change. He was no longer scary or angry or violent. He started dressing and acting differently.

Denver warned Ron to keep an eye on Miss Debbie. He said she was very precious in the eyes of God, and the devil was making her his target. Shortly after that conversation, Debbie was diagnosed with incurable cancer. But she kept coming to the Mission several times a week and led a community transformation of the neighborhood and mission.

Debbie died just two years after meeting her homeless friend. For her funeral, she had one request of her pastor, that Denver be allowed to speak.

During his eulogy, the overflow crowd of rich and poor witnessed a miracle transformation come to completion and Debbie’s dream come to fruition.

This is what Denver Moore said, in his own words, 
“I didn’t meet Miss Debbie. She met me. I didn’t want to know Miss Debbie or any other white woman for that matter. But ever since I known her Miss Debbie wants to be my friend. I’m sure she was a friend to every soul in here. I still haven’t figured out why she wanted to know a fella like me. I sure wasn’t nothin’ to be proud of.

I was captive in a devil’s prison most of my life. Many folks see me there locked up and pass me by. I don’t blame them. I was not nice. Dangerous. I was probably just as happy to stay in prison.

 She was different. She seen me behind them bars. And reached way down in her pocket and pulled out the key God gave her to set me free. She’s the only person to love me enough not to give up.

Now I stand here a changed man. A free man.

I just spent a lot of time worrying I was different than other people -- even all the homeless folk. But after I met Miss Debbie and Mr. Ron I worry I was so different than them that we was never going to have no kind of future. But what I found out was everybody's different--same kind of different as me. We are all regular folks walking down the street God done set in front of us.

Miss Debbie, she’s a whole nother kind of different. Miss Debbie, she dream of a better place for the homeless.  And I ain’t talkin’ about heaven now. I’m talkin’ about right here… in your town.

Now I’m gonna pick up Miss Debbie’s torch and I’m going to carry it well.  And it would make Miss Debbie real happy if you will make her dream come true, and pick up her torch and carry it around, too.

Whether we is rich or whether we is poor, or something in between, we’s all homeless. Every last one of us. Just working our way back home. Welcome home, Miss Debbie. Welcome home.”

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Welcome home, my dear brother Deacon Jose. Welcome home.

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                   (Here's a preview of the movie about Denver Moore's life. Peace)

Homily – 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time – Come and See

                                                                                           1 Samuel 3:3b-10, 19

1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20

John 1:35-42

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“What are you looking for?”

These are the first words Jesus speaks at the beginning of John’s Gospel. They are directed to not only these two disciples of John the Baptist, but to all of us.

As our new Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Meuggenborg shared in his book Come Follow Me, “First words are important words.”

Jesus asks, “What are you looking for?” This question is posed to the eventual Apostle Andrew and an unnamed person some scholars believe is the beloved disciple John (author of this Gospel).

 “What are you looking for?”

Why do we come to Mass?  Are we here because it’s an obligation? Or are we here to grow deeper in our relationship with Christ and better hear his voice urging us to serve others and Him.

“What are you looking for?”

Are we open to deepening our understanding of what Christ is teaching us or do we have it all figured out?

“What are you looking for?”

Jesus speaks these provocative words for a reason. He wants us to reflect on why faith is important in our lives and to learn how to better share our witness with the world. 

Jesus then invites the disciples, and us, to, “Come, and … see.”

After spending a short time with the one John the Baptist called “the Lamb of God,” Andrew is so excited about what he’s found he can’t wait to share the good news with his brother Simon Peter and bring him to Jesus.

Bishop Mueggenborg says, “The story of the first disciples is not complete until we are told they go out and introduce others to Jesus… The Gospel of John is trying to tell us that discipleship necessarily involves missionary outreach to others inviting them to share in the relationship we have with the Lord.”

The Calling of Andrew and Peter - Caravaggio

This is an invitation to an even greater journey. When we follow Jesus, we learn to follow him everywhere. We follow him to hospital rooms and to prisons, to the homeless on the streets and to the poor in faraway lands. We follow Jesus to where ever he calls us to follow him, and “Come … and see.”

And this isn’t always a comfortable place. But he always calls us to deepen our understanding and awareness of Him as we serve our neighbors, no matter who they are.

This is not a place of opinions about what we think about people and how they live their lives, but a place where love and mercy can blossom, a place where others can find Christ.

            We were blessed to see these transformations in understanding and awareness in our young people and older parishioners who spent time in the poorest parts of Guatemala in the summer of 2015.

            We built houses, built stoves, built roads and left behind thousands of dollars donated by each and every one of you to contract local carpenters and artisans to finish the work started by our parishioners.

            In addition, we learned from the women of the village how to do laundry the old fashioned way with water and wash board. We learned how to carry large, heavy bundles of firewood sticks using our foreheads and our backs. We even were invited to play our new friends in a fun game of soccer and held our own thanks to the athletic talents of current medical student and parishioner Elizabeth Reed who served as our goalie. In each of these experiences, we built relationships with the people of the community.  And most importantly we walked in their shoes.

            If you care to hear about these transformational experiences, I suggest you talk to Liz or parishioners Brian Thomas and his granddaughter Gabriel. We all experienced something amazing and it deepened our relationship with Christ as we entered into relationship with those living on the margins. These missionaries listened to His words to, “Come, and … see.” We will listen to His words again this summer as our parish heads to Haiti. 

            We are blessed to see these transformations in understanding and awareness in the many parishioners who join us each week on the streets of Snohomish County as we build relationships, provide the ministry of presence, and serve the medical, mental health and spiritual needs of our sisters and brothers experiencing homelessness.

            These doctors, nurses, mental health counselors, social workers, and spiritual care servants are following Jesus’ call, and invitation to “Come, and … see.”  

             Our team has been described by Everett city officials as an “integral part” of the effort to respond to the homelessness crisis. We were even shown as a model of giving responsibly in a recent video unveiled by the City’s Safe Streets initiative just before the Christmas holiday.

            Led by Jesus each week, our team is building medical and mental health clinics in places where wounded souls gather, and spiritually ministering to our neighbors on the streets in desperate need of a relationship with Jesus.     

  If you want to hear more about how Jesus is made manifest in our efforts, please to talk with (Judy and Dr. Tim McNamara. Or Jennifer Olszewski. Or Dr. Jim Bommarito. Or Michael Koontz. Or Sue and David Stoeckel. Or Laurel Cheap. Or Rich Menzel. Or Francis del Rosario.)

When we follow the call of Jesus to “Come, and … see,” we deepen our relationship with Christ, forge an even deeper understanding of our neighbor, and do our part to bring Jesus’ healing to the world.

This outreach is being done in ministries all throughout our parish community, from our wonderful corps of disciples who bring Jesus to hospitals, nursing homes and hospices, to the committed group of volunteers who run St. Vincent de Paul and our two food banks, to those working with pregnant women and young mothers through Prepares.

God called each and every one of these trustworthy disciples to serve in the ministry of Jesus, just as God called Samuel to be a trustworthy disciple of the Lord.

Sometimes we too may be like Samuel, confused when God comes calling us by name.

Let us pray we will all learn to better hear God’s voice and respond to God’s call with “Here I am Lord"… "your servant is listening.”   

 In Evangelii Gaudium, or Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis encouraged us all to do our part, saying, “Every Christian is a missionary to the extent that he or she has encountered the love of God in Christ Jesus: we no longer say that we are ‘disciples’ and ‘missionaries,’ but rather that we are always ‘missionary disciples.’ If we are not convinced, let us look at those first disciples, who, immediately after encountering the gaze of Jesus, went forth to proclaim Him joyfully: ‘We have found the Messiah!’ (John 1:41).” 

So, I ask you again. “What are you looking for?”

Perhaps it’s time to follow Jesus’ call to “Come, and … see,” and join in as we bring others to Christ.