Homily – Fourth Sunday of Easter – Goodbye

Acts 13:14, 43-52

Revelation 7:9, 14B-17

John 10:27-30

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As we heard in our first reading from The Acts of the Apostles, Peter and Barnabas are on the move -- leaving one community for another.  

And so, too, am I.

After seven years serving Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Perpetual Help, this will be my final homily as your deacon.

As many of you heard last week, the Archbishop has assigned me to serve as pastoral leader of two parish communities in downtown Seattle.

To say I am nervous would be an understatement. This request came as a total shock and required much time in prayer, and discernment, in order to hear God’s voice and follow Him to places outside my comfort zone.

Today’s Gospel provides a beautiful image for discerning God’s voice in the difficult decisions we all make in our lives. The first thing we need to do is listen, listen closely for His voice. 

Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice; I know them and they follow me.”

Let’s use the Archbishop’s request as an example of how to better hear God’s voice when discerning His will and follow His call in our lives.

For me, this was a most difficult discernment. The past year has been a blessing balancing parish ministry, Maryknoll ministry and MercyWatch ministry. I told the Archbishop this was the most painful decision of my lifetime.       

When discerning God’s voice, we must listen closely to the voices of those around us, pray continuously, and ask that God’s will to be done.

            Catholic author Joe Paprocki has the following prescription for discerning God’s voice when making big decisions in our lives: 

Talk to Someone You Respect

God often speaks to us through the wisdom of others. Seek out the wisdom of at least one and perhaps several people who YOU feel have the gift of wisdom and ask for their advice.

Find Some Solitude

It's good to talk to other people when making important decisions, but at some point, it is crucial to make some time to be alone with your thoughts and with God. Invite God into your decision-making process.

Start with What You Know

Lay out all of the facts in front of yourself so that you can deal with the known before you delve into the unknown!

Tell God What It Is That You Desire and What You Fear

Be honest and tell God what your deepest desires and fears are in this situation. Before you can say the words, “thy will be done,” be sure you are truly in touch with your own will; otherwise it will come back to bite you!

Let God Speak to You

Most of us don't actually hear a voice when God speaks to us. However, pay attention closely to the ways that God is speaking to you. What kinds of thoughts, feelings (especially love, joy, and peace, or a lack thereof), and memories might God be stirring within you to help you make your decision?

Know That God Has a Plan for You

Remind yourself that you are not on your own and that you don't have to yell and scream to get God's attention to help you in this matter. On the contrary, remind yourself that God has a plan for you and that His plan is driven purely by love.

Pray to Do God's Will

As difficult as it may be, pray the words, “Thy will be done,” asking God to give you the strength you need to continue to discern His will and to follow it.

Wait

If circumstances allow, wait before making your decision. Continue to pay attention to your feelings to see which direction you are being drawn to.

Prayerfully Commit

At some point, you need to act. Knowing that you have sought God's will, set forth to do the loving thing.  (PAUSE)

Now back to the Archbishop’s request…

It all started a year ago when I got a phone call from Vicar of Clergy’s office and told my name had been put forward to become pastoral leader for Christ Our Hope in downtown Seattle. Would I be open to consider it and meeting with the Bishop? I told them I’d pray on it and get back to them. A few days later I called back to say I’d be open to talking to the Bishop.

Hours before our meeting, I got a call from the Vicar of Clergy’s office with word that a priest would be taking the assignment instead.

"Good!," I thought.  I was already in conversations with Maryknoll and would eventually take a wonderful part-time job with the Mission Society. God was clearly in charge here.

Fast forward to a few months ago and there’s another phone call from the Vicar of Clergy’s office with an official request by the Archbishop to consider taking over the same parish. But there was a twist.

Christ Our Hope is being paired with St. Patrick Parish. The priest personnel board had recommended one pastoral leader for both parishes.  

That’s when discernment went into overdrive.

You see, St. Patrick is where my wife and I were married 33 years ago.

Christ Our Hope is my mother’s parish where she serves as volunteer keeper of sacramental records. But it’s also the parish where I served as celebrant for her sacramental marriage with my stepfather in 2013 (after 35 years of civil marriage).  Her Catholic faith came alive again during my formation to become a deacon.

God’s voice was sounding louder and clearer.

Christ Our Hope is located one block from the Pike Place Market and St. Patrick is on the North end of Capitol Hill. Both have strong commitments to those experiencing homelessness in downtown Seattle (an issue near and dear to my heart).

Christ Our Hope was built a decade ago on the first floor of a Catholic Housing Service low income housing complex and is a unique blend of affluent and those living on the margins (a reflection of early Christian communities). Outside the parish on the streets of Seattle is a beautiful statue of a homeless Jesus asleep on a bench. 

St. Patrick does a monthly feed at a woman’s homeless shelter where I spent several years doing the annual homeless count in downtown Seattle with its director and staff a decade ago.

In addition, the parish priest I’ll be working with is someone I know well and have worked with closely over the years.

Also providing solace in this discernment is the fact our parish community has two deacon candidates who will likely be ordained one year from this December. I am grateful knowing you will be in their capable hands moving forward.

In talking to the Archbishop last week, I told him I saw God’s fingerprints all over this decision and gave him an enthusiastic “yes.”

            In stepping into this new assignment, I want to take this chance to personally say, “thank you” to each and every one of you. These past seven years have been a blessing.          
            We will miss this community and all the deep friendships forged here over many years of service together.

I love you all. My life has been forever transformed by your presence in it.  Please know I will hold you in my prayers for the rest of my life and ask for your prayers as well. 

I will continue my ministry of service with MercyWatch in Everett.  And look forward to being invited back for weddings and baptisms in the parish.  So, we’ll probably see each other from time to time. 

I leave you with this quote from a favorite TV show on PBS: Call The Midwife.

“Landscapes shift in sunshine and in shade. There is light. Look for it. Look for it shining over your shoulder on the path. There was light where you went once. It is light where you are now. It will be light where you go again.”  

          May God bless you and keep you always. 

Homily – Palm Sunday – St. Oscar Romero

Luke 19:28-40

Isaiah 50:4-7

Philippians 2:6-11

Luke 22:14—23:56

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          Today we are witnesses to the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ,

The Greatest Story Ever Told. 

         Jesus knew what the future held.

          To get to the Resurrection he must endure betrayal, denial, torture, and crucifixion.

          Jesus knew there’s only one path to the Resurrection and it involves sacrifice, and suffering and death. It’s the same for us all.  None of us is getting out of here alive.

          Jesus knew his suffering would come from speaking truth to power, pointing out hypocrisy, and asking people to turn away from evil.

          In the 20^th century, the world experienced a man go through the same suffering, speak the same truth to corrupt power, point out the same hypocrisy, and ask people to turn away from evil.

           His name: Archbishop Oscar Romero.  Educated in Rome, Romero was seen by other priests in his home country as someone who would serve only the rich and powerful in El Salvador. He was seen as too conservative. There was much anger among the priests of El Salvador when he was named Archbishop.

          But just a few weeks after ascending to the position, one of his priests was gunned down by a government death squad. 

          Jesuit Fr. Rutilio Grande served one of the poorest parish communities, in the tiny towns of Aguilares and Paisnal, El Salvador. His preaching lifted up the people from their suffering and despair. By sharing a message of salvation to peasants, Grande angered the status quo and it marked him for execution.

         When Fr. Grande was shot dead on a deserted road between his two parishes, Archbishop Oscar Romero immediately drove to the site, and his life would be changed forever.

         He knew what was happening in El Salvador was wrong (the deaths, the massacres, the disappearances). He knew the rich would never stand for peasants rising up to take power away from the wealthy and privileged. He knew he must do something.

         He had to choose sides. He chose the poor and marginalized. He chose the oppressed, the families of the disappeared. He chose to follow Jesus to Jerusalem and to death.

         On Sunday, March 23^rd, 1980, Archbishop Oscar Romero preached his own death sentence.

          In a homily broadcast nationwide, Romero implored the military with the following words, “Thou shalt not kill! No soldier is obliged to obey an order against the law of God … in the name of this suffering people, whose laments rise to heaven each day more tumultuous, I beg you, I beseech you, I order you in the name of God, stop the repression.”

          The next day while doing Mass at a Hospital chapel near his humble San Salvador home, a gunman took Oscar Romero’s life as he was preparing the altar after preaching his final homily.

         That was March 24^th, 1980. 

         Romero predicted his own death, saying, “If they kill me, I will arise in the Salvadoran people.”

          This year on March 24^th, we had the honor to be in El Salvador co-leading Maryknoll missionaries to celebrate the first official Feast Day of St. Oscar Romero, Bishop and Martyr.

          Last October, Oscar Romero was officially recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church. 

          Our group was blessed to march with thousands of Catholic El Salvadoran faithful through the streets of San Salvador to an open-air, evening Mass to mark the occasion. 

          St. Oscar Romero was criticized by many during his lifetime -- the rich and the powerful, some in the Church in Latin America, in Rome, and, yes, here in the United States.

            Now, he’s basking in the glow of heaven.

            Today our eyes are open to the consequences of speaking out in righteousness. Our eyes are open to the realities of scorn and persecution. Our eyes are open to the truth about the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.

           And through His Passion, the light of Christ now shines through the life, death and now sainthood of St. Oscar Romero.   

          This is the Good News we can all share with the world.

Homily – 1st Sunday of Lent – Lead Us Not Into Temptation

Deuteronomy 26:4-10

Romans 10:8-13

Luke 4:1-13

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Today Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit. And He’s being tempted by the devil in the desert, seduced by three temptations: pleasure, power and prestige.

Jesus is tested -- all the way to the Cross. And, as we know, He passes the tests.

The antidotes to the temptations of pleasure, power and prestige are the three pillars of our Lenten journey: fasting, prayer and almsgiving. These are the firstfruits of our relationship with God.     

Fasting helps us to conquer the sin of pleasure. Prayer to God helps us to conquer the sin of desiring power or control. Almsigiving (without anyone noticing) helps us to conquer the sin of prestige. Lent is a time to call us back to these disciplines and enter our own desert.

Jesus is fasting and praying as he walks in the desert, facing the devil’s temptations, and all the while discerning a new ministry: a total focus on serving (giving alms) to the poor, the outcast, the despised, the disposed. 

In Luke’s Gospel we see a bunch of scenes of Satan trying to regain control of the world by taking away the word of God from people’s hearts.

Luke’s Gospel ties nicely to today’s first reading from Deuteronomy. Each of His temptations was faced by the Hebrew people during their 40-year Exodus in the desert.  They were tempted to believe that God had abandoned them or that they were being punished by God. 

Do we feel that way sometimes as we wander through our own personal deserts?  A closeness to Jesus helps us to conquer this feeling of despair. 

How is the devil tempting us today?  

Truth is some people are uncomfortable talking about the devil.  The concept smacks of ancient superstition for many.  But whether or not you believe in the devil, we can all agree evil is real. 

So, what evil is tempting us today?

Perhaps we need some perspective to see the temptations before us more clearly. 

You’ve heard that if you drop a frog into a pot of boiling water, the frog would jump out immediately and live.

But put a frog into cold water, slowly turn up the heat to boiling and the frog will die.

Isn’t it a little like living in today’s culture?

St. Pope John Paul the Second declared our culture was in a battle between the culture of life and the culture of death.  The challenge for all of us is to choose wisely between good and evil. 

I’m reminded of something I heard on the radio many times over the years.

In my days in broadcast journalism, I was a huge fan of Paul Harvey, both his daily News and Comment, and The Rest of the Story.

One of the greatest honors was meeting and spending time with Paul Harvey on his visit to the KOMO newsroom 30 years ago this year. What a great guy!

He was in town for a special “Salute to America” event at the Fifth Avenue Theater benefitting KOMO.

There’s a picture of our meeting where I look like I’m about 12. It may surprise you, but I had a baby face and bright red hair in my late 20s. Paul Harvey told me he was also a ginger in his youth, too. 

There’s one Paul Harvey broadcast that always stuck with me.

His “If I Were The Devil” broadcast first aired in the mid-1960s, and was updated in the mid-90s.

Here’s what Paul Harvey wrote and broadcast then:

          “If I were the devil … If I were the Prince of Darkness, I’d want to engulf the whole world in darkness.

          And I’d have a third of its real estate, and four-fifths of its population, but I wouldn’t be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree — Thee (You and me).

          So I’d set about however necessary to take over the United States. I’d subvert the churches first — I’d begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: ‘Do as you please.’

          To the young, I would whisper that ‘The Bible is a myth.’ I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what’s bad is good, and what’s good is ‘square.’ And the old, I would teach to pray, after me, ‘Our Father, which art in Washington…’

          And then I’d get organized. I’d educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting, so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. I’d threaten TV with dirtier movies and vice versa. I’d pedal narcotics to whomever I could. I’d sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I’d tranquilize the rest with pills.

          If I were the devil I’d soon have families at war with themselves, churches at war with themselves, and nations at war with themselves; until each in its turn was consumed. And with promises of higher ratings I’d have mesmerizing media fanning the flames.

          If I were the devil I would encourage schools to refine young intellects, but neglect to discipline emotions — just let those run wild, until before you knew it, you’d have to have drug sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door.

          Within a decade I’d have prisons overflowing, I’d have judges promoting pornography — soon I could evict God from the courthouse, then from the schoolhouse, and then from the houses of Congress.

          And in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion, and deify science. I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls, and church money.

          If I were the devil I’d make the symbols of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle.

          If I were the devil I’d take from those who have, and give to those who wanted until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. And what do you bet? I could get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich?

          I would caution against extremes and hard work, in Patriotism, in moral conduct. I would convince the young that marriage is old-fashioned, that swinging is more fun, that what you see on the TV is the way to be.

          In other words, if I were the devil I’d just keep right on doing what he’s doing.

          Paul Harvey, good day.”

Feeling a little like that frog in the boiling water?
          Powerful, prophetic words from one of the greatest broadcasters of the 20^th Century. They first aired over 50 years ago in 1964.  
          Isn’t it amazing how much of what he said has come true. If Paul Harvey were still alive today, what would he add to the list of his “If I Were The Devil” commentary. Excellent food for reflection this Lent.

As we walk through the desert on our own 40 day Lenten journey, what temptations are we facing? What temptations already consume us? What temptations do we say “yes” to instead of “no?”

Temptation always offers an alternative to the perfect love that only comes from God.

It supplants God with worship of idols of our own making. It lulls us into thinking what’s bad is good and what’s good is bad. It warps our souls and brings about death and destruction.

Seattle Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Mueggenborg calls, “Lent … a very important time when we are invited to spend these forty days in prayer with Jesus so that we can recognize and reject the presence of evil (in our lives).”

My prayer for us all is that we will open our eyes to these evils that surround us in our culture, and do as Jesus did: respond with a firm “no.”

We can show our adoration of Jesus through fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. These Lenten practices are the path to salvation, and antidotes to the temptations of pleasure, power and prestige.

Christ shows us today how to effectively rebuke the devil and turn away from his evil ways.

Jesus shows us the way. It’s up to us to follow His example.