OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST THE KING - Homily

My dear friends:

Leadership is a tricky business. We’ve all experienced someone put in charge who abuses power and takes advantage of his or her special position.

It takes an extraordinary person to lead people well.

‘You shall shepherd my people Israel.’ God’s words to David were a divine promise, but also a call to be a merciful, loving servant to the people of God.

As we have seen time and time again throughout history, absolute power corrupts absolutely. But God’s WILL can be accomplished even through weak, sinful human beings.

God did not give up on the House of David for God knew from the roots of Jesse’s tree his most perfect being would spring forth onto the human stage and change the world.

In Christ, we see both the Good Shepherd and the supreme leader of the universe. In Christ, we have an icon, an image of the invisible God, God’s own presence in human form. In Christ, we understand true kingship through his actions of love, healing and forgiveness and his humility.

As St. Paul put it so beautifully, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” This portion of St. Paul’s Letter to the Colossians is considered “one of the most important theological statements about the person of Christ in the New Testament.”

But Christ knew what the apostles could not understand until they could see His ministry in hindsight.

In order to inherit His kingship, Christ knew He had to be killed on the cross and raised up to new life. Through His death and resurrection, Christ would open a new door to our eternal salvation.

If we believe in Christ, follow His example in life, and ask for forgiveness for our sins, through the mercy of Christ, we can walk through the door. As some have written, “The gates of paradise have been reopened by the obedience and faith,” of Christ our King.



Funny that the first to truly understand was a remorseful criminal hanging on the cross next to Christ. Through the taunts of his fellow criminal, the “good” criminal asks Jesus, by name… by name… “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” In Luke’s Gospel, the “good” criminal recognizes his own need for conversion and puts all his trust in Jesus.

Don’t we all get that? I think that’s what brings us back here every week.

When we fully dedicate our lives to Christ amazing things can happen.

The most magnificent example in our lifetime is the ministry of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

As a teacher in India for 20 years, she could never shake the poverty she experienced everyday. Surely, something could be done for these poor souls? On a train to a spiritual retreat, Mother Teresa had an encounter with Christ that changed her life forever.

She started the Missionaries of Charity with the sole intent: to save soul’s through mercy and compassionate service. Be the very model of Christ in the slums of one of the poorest cities on the planet.



Her servant leadership was legendary and through the good works of her many followers, the Missionaries of Charity spread around the globe to help the poorest of the poor.

But, all the while, Mother Teresa quietly struggled with her faith. She felt abandoned by the very Christ who guided her decision to start the Missionaries of Charity. She took this abandonment as the Cross she was destined to bear and trudged forward with her work. In her words, “The darkness is so dark - - - and I am alone. The loneliness of the heart is unbearable. Where is my faith? If there be a God, please forgive me. Trust that all will end in Heaven with Jesus.”

Like the “good” criminal, Mother Teresa put all of her trust in Jesus Christ always. And miracles happened.

That’s leadership, my brothers and sisters. That’s what God intended to show us when he sent Jesus Christ into our earthly experience, to show us the way and lead us home by His example.

But leadership comes in all different forms.

I can think of no better example of leading others to Christ than the suffering of a hospice patient named Michael. Michael has a disease that robs the body of the ability to fully control movement or speech. It’s his cross to bear and he does so with dignity and grace and with great joy. It is his joy in the face of such a struggle that shows people the way to Christ.

Michael is Catholic and prays often by himself and with his family. His favorite thing to do with people he encounters is to share a joyous hug. His hugs leave a lasting impression on all who receive them. But they also enliven Michael because it’s his only way of communicating love now. I felt especially honored after visiting with Michael recently because I was graced with not one, but four hugs on that day. We shared Eucharist and prayer. Easy to see how Michael helps us all see Christ more clearly.

Michael is in the hospice because his earthly life is coming to an end, but Michael has put his trust in Jesus to lead him to new life. Where his spirit will be unrestricted by disease. Where he will dance again.

Yes, leadership is a tricky business. And guess what, my brothers and sisters? We are all called to lead others to Christ in our own special way. We are all leaders. We're not asked to be Mother Teresa or Michael. Just ourselves and lead by our own example. So one day we all can stand in the presence of the Lord in paradise and be embraced by Christ Our King himself and be told “Welcome Home.”

My First Homily

Delivered after the reading at Saturday evening's Vespers during last weekend's deacon formation weekend...
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My Brothers & Sisters:

When I was a boy, I was afraid of my own shadow. Bullies seemed to gravitate to me like moths to a flame. One bully in particular stalked me for several years when I was in my early teens. His name was Damien (name changed to protect the innocent and the guilty). Damien was an oversized kid who loved to taunt anyone who he considered wimpy. I was just that kid. I had red hair. As many of you’ve seen from pictures of that era, I looked like a girl.

One day, I was fishing at a local lake when I heard Damien was coming to beat me up. My dad heard the threat at a brother’s baseball game and came to my rescue. He placed a can of mace in my hands and told me to spray it in Damien’s eyes when he started to pound on me. I was scared to death.

Then came Damien. There was screaming. There was punching. Then out came the mace and with all of the fury, hate and rage in my heart, I let him have it. It was an ugly seen. One I’m not proud of now.

Damien and I encountered each other numerous times after that. The hate in my heart never faded.

Fast-forward 35 years. I’m on Facebook and I see Damien make a thoughtful comment on a friend’s Facebook page. Fear swelled up inside my heart. Then came the hate and the rage. I was 13 again and there was my nemesis glaring back at me in the light of a computer screen.

"O Lord, Do not turn my heart to things that are wrong, to evil deeds with men who are sinners" (Ps 141:4). My trust is in you and your example.



I’ve always felt that sin is like a broken record stuck in a groove it cannot get out of. There are moments in our lives, or things in our past that chain us down and won’t let us go. There are feelings, unresolved issues; the old selfish you that still haunts the you striving to be humble and selfless. Only by the grace of God are we able to get unstuck from this often times sinful behavior: anger, hate, fear, lust, greed, pride… the list goes on.

We believers in Christ know there is a Judgment Day, a day when we will be called to account for all of our sins.

But that day is not today. We hope.

We believers also know how to interpret the delay of this judgment. It’s called forbearance, and it is the gift of time to repent and be saved.

We all sin. We all need to repent. We all can be graced with forgiveness.

"I pour out my troubles before him; I tell him all my distress while my sprit faints within me" (Psalm 142:3).

Forgiveness is a beautiful thing. Forgiveness is a gift we not only give others, but we give to ourselves.


After seeing Damien’s Facebook post, I took a bold leap of faith. I ignored old feelings and wrote him a message requesting his friendship and forgiveness for the terrible things we did to each other oh so many years ago. He responded almost immediately, admitted it was time to let go of the past and be friends.

A giant weight lifted off my shoulders. I had been bearing this hatred, this grudge for over a quarter of a century. And just like that, it vanished.

God works in beautiful and mysterious ways… "How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!" (Romans 11:33).

As many of you know, I love the musical group U2. There’s a song that I’m reminded of called “Stuck In A Moment That You Can’t Get Out Of.”

It opens with a line that can be taken as a motto for life to all followers of Christ, “I am not afraid of anything in this world. There’s nothing you can throw at me that I haven’t already heard. I’m just trying to find a decent melody. A song that I can sing. My own company.”



Judgment Day will come. For those unprepared for the day due to human hubris, Judgment Day will INDEED be Judgment Day. But rejoice. The gift of time allows for us to ask God for his loving and healing grace to wash away all of our sins. Then every knee will bend in the presence of our Lord and Savior.

On that day, Judgment Day will become a day of rejoicing as we sing songs of praise and celebrate as a community of believers with the Lamb who saved us from the pit of destruction. And proclaim, “Jesus Christ is Lord!” (Phillipians 2:11)

A Deacon Named Phoebe

Reprinted from Deacon Greg Kandra's blog Deacon's Bench...
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She pops up in one of Paul's epistles, and now an Anglican priest has blogged about her.

While debate continues about female deacons (or deaconesses), here's some interesting context:

As is often the case with these first century saints, we do not know much about them, outside of their names being mentioned in Paul's epistles or their names appearing ion the martyrologies of that time. Phoebe is mentioned in the letter to the Romans, and different translations list her as either a deacon, a deaconess, a minister, or a helper, from Cenchreae, a city near Corinth, in Greece. The actual Greek text uses the word diakonon; there is no distinction between masculine or feminine forms in that word. Some have tried to say that a woman deacon was not a member of an actual holy order, unlike a male deacon, but I don't agree, because Paul's list of qualifications for deacons in 1 Timothy chapter 3 mentions both men and women: Deacons likewise must be serious, not double-tongued, not indulging in much wine, not greedy for money; they must hold fast to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And let them first be tested; then, if they prove themselves blameless, let them serve as deacons. Women, likewise, must be serious, not slanderers, but temperate, faithful in all things. Let deacons be married only once, and let them manage their children and their households well; for those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and great boldness in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. I read that as applying to both male and female deacons, but I know that the Roman Catholic church still thinks that the term deacon in this context means co-worker in the missionary enterprise. Phoebe is also described as a helper of Paul and many others, and it is quite possible that she was a Patroness of the house-church in Cenchreae; she may have owned the house in which the Christians of Cenchreae met, and that she took legal responsibility for the activities there. Some scholars believe that Paul's mention of her in the epistle to the Christians in Rome was a letter of recommendation to the Christians in Ephesus; perhaps Phoebe was moving from Cenchreae to Ephesus.



The office of Deaconess was mentioned by St. Paul in the letters to the Romans and to Timothy, but we also have evidence of the office in a letter from Pliny, a Roman governor who was writing to the Emperor Trajan for advice on dealing with Christians. He mentions two women ministers among the Christians in Bithynia. The office of Deaconess is also mentioned in the Apostolic Constitutions of Hippolytus, and the office developed greatly during the third and fourth centuries, although it is quite different from the office Phoebe held. The Council of Chalcedon, held in the year 451, legislated that women could become deaconesses at the age of 40. A deaconess was to devote herself to the care of sick and poor women; she was present at the interviews of women with bishops, priests, or male deacons (so that the clergy wouldn't be alone with strange women) and kept order in the women's part of the church. Her most important function was the assistance at the baptism of women. For the first five centuries of the Church, people were baptized naked, and so, for the sake of propriety, male deacons couldn't baptize women. When adult baptism became rare and was eventually replaced by infant baptism, he office of deaconess declined in importance. The office was actually abolished by the Council of Epaon in the year 517, but in the Nestorian Christian communities in Syria, and later in India and China, deaconesses administered Holy Communion to women and read the scriptures in public.
You can check out more at the link, though it's worth noting that his approach is from an Anglican point of view. But the history he expounds is compelling.




It's worth remembering that, while the Church has closed the door on ordaining women as priests, that door remains ajar on the possibility of women deacons.








Read more:http://padremickey.blogspot.com/2010/09/feast-of-phoebe-deaconess-at-cenchreae.html?spref=fb