What's my superpower?

Homily

7th Sunday in Ordinary Time C

23 February 2025

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village, KS

AMDG

What's my superpower?

Well, there are a lot of things I'd like to be good at.  I'm sure you know the feeling.  I'd like to be in better shape, to be able to play baseball like Bobby Witt, to know what it takes to get everyone to Mass, to be a world-class organist . . the list is endless.  I'm grateful for all the gifts and talents I have, but never satisfied.  

Yet today's Gospel says that I already possess the greatest superpower the world has ever seen, a superpower that far surpasses any I could ever achieve, hope or ask for. 

I have the superpower of mercy.  I can forgive.  There is nothing greater.  So says Jesus.  Because I have received this superpower, Jesus commands that I use it.  In case you didn't notice. the Gospel of Jesus admits of no exceptions.  As I have been forgiven, so I am to forgive. It's what distinguishes a real Christian from a fake one.  It's the ultimate thing that makes us children of God, not children of this world.  It is what heaven is made of - forgiveness.  It is what hell lacks - forgiveness.  Hell instead is ripe with judgment.  Jesus says to stop it, lest that be my destiny.

Pope Francis, who needs our prayers by the way, reminds us as the world's superpower, the most prosperous and free nation on earth, that our greatest power is not to dominate or control, but to serve and to forgive.  Those without status among us are more than problems or criminals, they are the children of God whom the Lord wants us to redeem with His merciful love.  Pope Francis reminds us that if we ever fail to see God and ourselves in the most desperate and vulnerable, we have lost our souls, and the path that leads to the kingdom of heaven. Even as we can applaud efforts to restore order and end dysfunction, we must grow even more in mercy and compassion, for that is who our Father in heaven is - merciful to all without distinction.

The world is moving fast, and it's only picking up steam.  The Pope is sick, our Bishops are suing the United States for overdue contract funding for the legal settlement of refugees, while reminding the Administration that babies are great, but IVF is immoral, and while applauding efforts to restore the rule of law and ending dysfunction, while urging that all people be treated with dignity and compassion.  The Gospel needs to be applied to the signs of our times, and those times are dramatic and explosive indeed!

Yet the most urgent reminder of today's Gospel is that you and I have been forgiven; therefore, the greatest superpower we ever will have is the capacity to forgive.  To be a real Christian, no matter what the circumstances we find ourselves in, is to launch a pre-emptive strike into the world, and to echo the self-sacrificiing and merciful gift of Jesus.  Nobody takes my life from me.  I freely give it.   Those who live the law of the gift know that the grace and mercy of Jesus conquers all things, and there is no fear of any enemy.  For all is already given and forgiven.  

What's my greatest superpower?  It's the supernatural mercy of God that I have received, a mercy that turns the wisdom of the world upside down, the superpower that alone build the kingdom of heaven.

My greatest superpower is to forgiven even when I don't want to or have to.  My greatest superpower is to always forgive, as I have been forgiven.

+mj

What's my favorite story of all time?

Homily

26 January 2025

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time - Word of God Sunday

St. Ann Catholic Church  - Prairie Village 

AMDG

What's my favorite story of all time?

When I was featured in the Archdiocesan Newspaper The Leaven upon my ordination to the priesthood, I was asked about my favorite things.  I said that my favorite book was Death Comes to the Archbishop by Willa Cather, a curious choice for a new priest just ordained by an Archbishop.

That was 2004.  I wonder what I would say today.

On the 10th Anniversary of the Royals beating the Mets in the World Series, I'm tempted to say that team is my favorite story. The Jayhawks have won a Natty, and the Chiefs three Super Bowls since then, so there are other candidates.  A lot of us are rooting for the unprecedented story of three straight Super Bowls to be written.  If so, will that be my favorite story of all time?

I love it when athletes begin their postgame interviews by thanking and praising their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Most all the time it is genuine, that these athletes who do incredible things and win amazing victories that inspire so many, attribute their success to the story of Jesus Christ, who won the ultimate victory over sin and death, and who thirsts to share this victory with all his disciples.

The athletes get that as glorious as is it to win sports victories, unless those victories participate in the redemptive mission of Christ, they are doomed to extinction as history inevitably fades into oblivion.  These athletes get something, that unless their story participates in the greatest story of all time, glory is fleeting at best.

This is true for you and me too.  That passion that is proper to your human nature, to write a heroic story of love with your life, to dramatically win the battle for faith over doubt, good over evil, and life over death, has been invited to play a pivotal role in the redemption of the world and the building of the kingdom of Heaven that will never end.  Remarkably, St. Paul says God has so written the play, and involved the actors in the body, that those with lesser roles mysteriously have the greater importance.  For the kingdom of Heaven is built from the inside out, from least to greatest.

This is the great story of salvation that we begin telling again on Word of God Sunday. For the next 34 weeks of Ordinary Time, we will see how St. Luke tells the greatest story of all time.  Most dramatically and importantly, you will get to pray through how you play a pivotal role in the story, as the story of redemption is meant course right through your heart, your body and the precise circumstances of your life.

What could be more dramatic than this, that you play a pivotal role in the greatest story of all time, and that the fulfillment of the story is riding on your response?  No other story, not the Chiefs, not politics, not the movies, not the economy, nor even the countless dramas being played out in every corner of the human experience, is more important than your story.

Chew on that as you meditate on Luke's Gospel throughout this new year.  Remembering always, that although we are a religion of the book, we are even more so a religion of the Word made flesh, who runs His story through the hearts, minds and bodies of His mystical body the Church.

What is my favorite story?

+mj

Who is pursuing your heart?

Homily

Solemnity of the Epiphany

4 January 2025

St. Ann Catholic Church Prairie Village, KS 

AMDG

Who is pursuing my heart?

It's what I desperately and deeply want for Christmas.  It's also what I'm most afraid of, that someone is pursuing my heart.  Remember that at Christmas, we reflected together on the most primal human need and desire of every newborn baby. Will you hold me?  It's what Jesus asks of us for Christmas.  It's what I most deeply want as well.

How about for Epiphany?  What does Jesus want, and what do I want?  As I age, I no longer need as much physical touch; still, I want to be pursued, recognized and cherished by someone.  I want what Jesus receives from the wise men.

Is anyone pursuing my heart?  This question lies at the heart of all reality.  Why is there something rather than nothing?  Why is there me instead of not me?  Why does there seem to be so much mind, truth and meaning embedded in creation, and a person, a love story, at the heart of it all?

You guessed it - all of reality exists so that someone who is radically in love with you can pursue your heart.  It's the most glorious, and scariest thing imaginable.

On Epiphany I get to choose whether to greet this reality with joy, or fear.

The strange magicians from nowhere couldn't have known that the God of Israel was pursuing their hearts.  Yet thank God they were seekers, not skeptics.  These foreign scientists were interested in the why of everything.  So God was able to bait their hearts by teasing their minds.  You're familiar with this God, I pray.   In order to slip by my fear and elite defenses, He puts on disguises, playing tricks as it were, so that He is not trapped by our skepticism.  He teases these astrologers from timbuktu with a star, betting Epiphany on their curiosity, and winning big!

The magi set out on a courageous expedition that every person is made for, to pursue with passion the real meaning of all things!  The Magi stand in stark contrast to Herod, who was supposed to be the most powerful man in the region.  Instead, He is incredibly scared, paralyzed and terrorized by any revelation beyond his control, privacy and choice.  Herod represents all of us skeptics, who hide behind our controls, rather than setting out in faith to live on new edges of truth.  This fear of Herod, to refuse to engage or worship anything that would draw in beyond myself into the heart of things, is why there is so much boredom and depression among us.  It's why none of our kids go to Church.

Thankfully, there is plenty of room at Epiphany for hope.  God seduced the wise men into the truth that He was pursuing their heart.  He can do the same for me and my loved ones.  The magi make the conversion from skepticism to seeking, then from seeking to worship. They make the incredible conversion of letting the truth beheld by their eyes descend deeply into their hearts.   They gave Christ what He wants for Epiphany - pursuit, recognition and worship.  In giving this, I let my heart be pursued, recognized and cherished by the Lord.  

This was true at the first Epiphany, but will it be true at the next?

Who is pursuing my heart?

+mj 

What do I want for Christmas?

Homily

Solemnity of the Incarnation

25 December 2024

St. Ann Catholic Church Prairie Village, Kansas

AMDG

What do I want for Christmas?  For the 5th year in a row now, it's equal part scandalous and pitiful to admit.  I want someone to hold me. When I first confessed this during COVID, people thought that celibacy and social distancing were getting the best of me.  I got a lot of pity hugs.  

Yet I'm not ready to give up on this Christmas wish just yet.  It's still what I want.  I know it's what you want to.  It's a primal need and desire for every baby born into the world.  I guess I'm still a baby, and so are you.  Jesus told us that unless we constantly turn around and become like newborn children, we will forget where we came from, what it means to be human, the meaning of life, and ultimately, our soul.  When we come into this world what we need and what we want are the same, and this never fundamentally changes.  I want and need someone to notice me, to choose me, to help me, to hold me.   

It's what you and I will always want for Christmas, if we're not too proud to admit it.

Most importantly, it's what Jesus wants for Christmas.  Today we celebrate Jesus' desire to share the human experience with you and me, and to redeem it.  He's just like you, and His first desire and need are the same, just like yours.   He comes into the world as a baby, just like you.  He comes at Christmas precisely to ask you a very intimate, personal question, the original, precise and ultimate question of Christmas.  Will you hold me?

The first Christmas turned on the answer of Mary, Joseph and the shepherds.  This Christmas turns on yours.  

If Jesus asked me what I truly wanted for Christmas in any other way, I would be afraid to answer him.  Fr. Mitchel, can I hold you where you are must afraid, alone, frustrated, rejected, numb, and skeptical?  Can I heal the place where you are the most vulnerable?  Of course my answer would be thanks Jesus but I'm good.  I can take care of myself.  I'm used to my fears and doubts, and I can manage them.  I'm spent my whole life trying to not need or want anything, but thanks for asking anyway.

In order to get past our defenses, which are elite, Jesus has to don a disguise.  He has to trick me.  He has to disguise his desire for me as need, or I'll get scared.  So He finds me by hiding, trusting my faith to find Him.  He loves me by begging my love.  He shows His power to get past my defenses by becoming powerless - cold, poor, naked, and homeless.  He makes sense of my life be becoming an absolute joke.  Instead of asking me the scary question of what I want for Christmas, He simply asks me to hold Him.

How does He ask me this question?  It's through the most surprising disguise of all.  In just moments, the cave of Bethlehem will give way to this altar, the manger to that place in your soul that only the Eucharist can reach.  You're about to put the Mass in Christ's Mass you see.  Your answer to His question comes precisely when you take His body into yours.  It's at that moment that you answer the original, precise and ultimate question that Christ asks you at Christmas - will you hold me?

I have no idea how your answer will save the world.  I just know that's what Jesus wants for Christmas, and that you were born and made for this moment.  The fate of Christmas turns on your answer, and your touch, if only you're not afraid.  

Do not be afraid, Mary, to hold me.  Do not be afraid, Joseph, to hold me.  Do not be afraid, little ones of St. Ann, to hold me!  It's my decision to bet Christmas on you, and it's all I want.

If you've ever held a newborn baby, you know that you're the one being held.  If you're scared to hold a baby, you've scared of Christmas.  You've forgotten who you are, and the meaning of your life.  

Jesus appears as a baby tonight just in case any one of us will not be afraid of the original, precise and ultimate Christmas question - will you hold me?  If any one of us dares say yes, a Christmas miracle will happen here tonight, and what you want for Christmas, and what Jesus wants for Christmas, will really come true.

+mj 

Must I be joyful?

Homily

3rd Sunday of Advent C2

Gaudete Sunday

15 December 2024

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village, KS

AMDG

Must I be joyful?

The Church on Gaudete Sunday, Pink Sunday, Rejoice Sunday, forces the issue more than a little.  Everywhere we turn in this liturgy, there is a command.  Rejoice! Did you hear me?  Rejoice or else!  Rejoice no matter what!  Hey I'm talking to you, and I'll say it again, rejoice!

What gives?  Can the Church demand that I be joyful? Is that how this works?  What if I don't feel joyful this Christmas?  What good does it do to shout at me and demand that I rejoice?

Trust me, I wish it was this easy.  Sometimes when I come to Mass, I don't feel joyful.  I can be tired, skeptical, anxious.  Sometimes I wish I didn't have to bring the faith and energy every time.

Yet in commanding joy, the Church is simply asking me to live in reality.  I am here to recognize the truth that my Savior is near.  The command to rejoice is never asking you to feel differently than you do. Feelings can't be commanded.  It's not wishing upon a star, for joy is not a shifting emotion nor a naive optimism.  Joy must be something else.  It's an objective reality.  It is a truth.  It's a fruit of the Holy Spirit, a love that endures and conquers all things, that is dwelling near me and indeed in me.

Must I be joyful?  Only if I want to live in reality, the reality that I am wheat, not chaff.   Must I be joyful?  If I embrace the truth of who God is, joy will certainly result.  For if God was not closer to me than I am to myself, I could not exist.  Still more, if there is not a mercy greater than sin, evil and death, that is coming to visit me, then I am doomed.  My days are numbered.

John the Baptist is the greatest true prophet, announcing the good news of reality!  Jesus wants to be born for you and in you, precisely as you are on Christmas, 2024.  The shifting circumstances and cocktail of emotions you are experiencing are as nothing compared to this truth.  If Jesus is asking you intimately and personally to hold Him in your heart this Christmas, you have nothing to fear.  Living in this reality, has only one response, which the Church command on Gaudete Sunday.

Yes I command you, because I have to tell you the truth, and I say it again, rejoice!

+mj

What have I learned from my worst travel mistake?

Homily

2nd Sunday of Lent

8 December 2024

St. Ann Catholic Parish - Prairie Village

AMDG

What did I learn from my worst travel mistake?  My Christmas may depend on my answer.

I have too many mistakes to count.  I'm a terrible traveler.  I arrive at the airport usually just 30 minutes before my flight.  I run my tank on empty a lot of the time, and yes I do occasionally run out of gas.  Everyone wishes me a safe trip, but I'm never as careful as I need to be.  I drive all night sometimes just so I can maximize my time.  I need to tip my guardian angels big time!

Yet two mistakes trump the rest.  I've been caught in blizzards twice.  The first one was before smartphones, in 2001.  When I left Hoxie for Colorado Springs, the sky was blue.  When I got to Goodland, Kansas the Interstate was closed, but I had no idea why.  I hadn't listened to any forecast.  I though maybe it was just a detour and took a country road until I could get back on the interstate.  

Before I hit Limon, I was in big trouble.  My life was perhaps saved by a truck that jackknifed in front of me, blocking the interstate.  I had to stop, which was good for my two-wheel drive car.  Thankfully I had a cell signal so I could stay in touch with my dad by phone, and enough gas to idle the car every once in awhile so I could stay warm.  I sat on the interstate for 8 hours until the blizzard passed and the road cleared. making a 3.5 hour trip in 14 hours.  

Why I was going to Colorado Springs that day is another story, and one that you'll have to try to get out of me by persuasion.  Suffice it to say it was a trip motivated by pride that made me rash and blind!

I didn't learn my lesson from that blizzard though.  In early 2020 I took an epic trip through Phoenix, Vegas, Zion, Salt Lake, Palm Desert, San Diego, LA, Sequoia, Yosemite and Napa Valley in my two-wheel drive Ford Fusion.  All was well until I needed to pass through the Sierra Nevadas and Tahoe on my final way home.  An atmospheric river was heading east but I thought I would be ahead of it.  Stuck for hours in traffic while dropping a friend at the Sacramento Airport, the atmospheric river got ahead of me.  I had to drive in torrential rain until I got to Tahoe, where the rain turned to blizzard conditions.  I had been warned I would never make it home on this epic journey in January in a two-wheel drive car, and I was too proud to admit defeat or spend an extra four days or more in Tahoe that I didn't think I had time to give.  So I put myself and others in danger, white-knuckling through the chain law signs until I got on the other side of the blizzard infally.  Again, my pride go the best of me.  I heard later that several people died in avalanches while skiing the massive amount of snow I had just driven through.

Today's Advent scriptures beg us to learn from our travel mistakes.  Please learn better than I have.  Your Advent depends on it.  If you are going to have your best Christmas, there has to be a smooth and level highway to your heart, so the Lord can arrive and find a place to be born there..  You need to improve the travel conditions to your heart, and you can.

The valleys are my sins.  The mountains are my pride.  The rough and windy roads are my stubbornness, my insistence on controlling things my way instead of following 'the way' that Jesus marks out for me.

What have I learned from my worst travel mistake?  My Christmas depends on the answer.

+mj

Who is knocking at the door of your heart?

Homily

1st Sunday of Advent C1

1 December 2024

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village

AMDG

Who is knocking at the door of your heart?

It can be terrifying when someone knocks on the door by surprise.  Actually very few of us get excited for a surprise visit.  We are scared that we are not ready, and that we might be vulnerable and out of control.  One of my most depressing days as chaplain at KU was when at an evangelization meeting, we asked how many students knew their neighbor, or the person sitting next to them in class.  We were talking about the art of relationship, and the best ways to introduce one's self and to start a conversation.  Very few college students knew the persons they were in close proximity to, so I asked them why.  They told me it was dangerous to introduce yourself, for once someone knows who you are, they can stalk you and harm you.  It's safer to be anonymous, they said.

The conversation broke my heart.  I get what they were saying.  We live in a dangerous world, and you have to be careful who you interact with. So many people get harmed by situations when they assume the other person is safe, and they're not.  Yet still, our ultimately security is knowing the people around us, and building trust. Social distancing, and avoiding, escaping and hiding from each other, is certain death.  For we are made for relationship, and the deepest problems we all face can't be solved by self-reliance.  We need each other, and a relationship with God.  Our deepest security, and best chance for new life and more life, is if someone want to know and love and serve us, if someone is knocking on the door of our heart.

Advent announces the best news ever!  Our Lord is coming to save us, and is knocking on the door of my heart!  The one who alone brings new life, new hope, and can make all things new by the greatness of his mercy, is coming. He has come, is coming now, and will come again!  The Lord our Savior has come in history, is coming in mystery and will come in majesty, to redeem my past, my present and my forever!  Of all people knocking at my heart, his visit is the most urgent, the most powerful and the most hopeful.  How do I respond to this incredible news?  This is the great question of Advent.

The scriptures today name where my heart is, and perhaps yours as well!  I am afraid.  I am desperately afraid.  I am terrified of this Jesus who is knocking on the door of my heart.  My Advent prayer is rarely to beg Jesus to come closer, and to come sooner, and to actually mean it.  Instead, it is a constant plea that I am not ready, and that He is a threat to my control and self-reliance.  My prayer is usually to tell Jesus not now, and to leave me alone!

The one thing I most need to break out of the way I am now, and to live for more, is the thing I most fear.  Jesus is standing at the door of my heart, knocking on this first day of Advent.  How will I respond to His coming anew this Advent?

+mj