What if you knew the cheat code?

Homily

4th Sunday of Advent A2

1 February 2025

St. Ann Catholic Church  - Prairie Village, KS

AMDG

What if I handed you the winning ticket to the Powerball?  Would you accept it?

I would if it were handed to me.  Even knowing the Gospel, and knowing that taking that ticket could cost me my soul, I would grab it.  I would grab it in a second.  How about you?

You know who wouldn't grab it?  My archnemesis, the Little Sisters of the Lamb.  You would think that religious sisters would be my friends, not my enemies.  But they make me uncomfortable, and I avoid them as much as possible.  

My love has a price.  My faith can be bought. Theirs can't.  They beg from the violent and poor everyday. They are true peacemakers.  They have the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and they wouldn't sell it for anything.  

They know they are not the exception to the rule.  I think I am.  Because of that, they are happier than me.  And there's something that I just can't stand about that.  In fact, I despise it.  

The reality is that the winning combination to true happiness is right in front of us.  We just heard the Beatitudes anew at this very point of our lives.  The Beatitudes are the cheat code to happiness.  They are the secret recipe, playbook and script for someone who desires a happiness that cannot fade.  

It's as simple as this.  If you have a choice of being hungry or satisfied, choose hunger.  To be poor or rich, choose poverty.  To be in pain or in comfort, choose pain.  To lose or to win, choose loss.  To be empty or full, choose emptiness.  To be a sinner or righteous, be a sinner.  To have little sex or a lot of sex, choose little.  To be in danger or safe, choose danger.  To be rejected or chosen, choose rejection.  To be hated or loved, choose to be hated.  To be humble or proud, be humble.  To fast or to party, choose to fast.  

There it is.  Plain and simple.  You have the cheat code to happiness more than money can buy.  

If only you don't think you're the exception to the rule.

+mj  

How do I create more unity in the Church?

Homily

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time A2

Word of God Sunday 

25 January 2026

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village

AMDG

How do I contribute to the unity of the Church?

Why is there still division in Christianity?  It's a question for the Church that existed long before the Orthodox schism in the 1100s or the Protestant reformation in the 1500s.  St. Paul rants about it in the early part of his letter to the Church at Corinth, that was filled with cliques and rivalries since its beginning?  This last week was a week of fasting and prayers, for racial reconciliation, for the legal protection of all human life without exception, and ultimately, for Christian unity.  Why are there still divisions in Christianity?

It's my fault.  Mother Teresa reminded us often that the thing that most needs to change in the world is me.  That's true in the Church as well.  A church that is on the way to holiness, on the way to fulfilling its mission entrusted to her by Christ, is one completely committed individually and together to repentance and conversion.  Why is there division in Christianity?  Because I have not completed my contribution to the unity of the Church.  It's because the Catholic church has squandered the incomparable gift of goodness, truth, beauty and unity, along with all the means of mercy and grace, that Christ has given to HIs bride, and has not given a compelling witness to the communion that we have.  

It's why people are becoming Catholic, by the way.  It's our unity.  It's our community, and our lived experienced of the communion that Christ has given us.  People become Catholic for many reasons, but it's ultimately because they see Catholics showing up for God and each other with authenticity and love.   Jesus teaches and prays that His Church be one, that the world may believe in Him.  Settling for anything less than the unity Christ has given us is unacceptable.  

The Mass is the source and the sign of the Church's unity. That's why I have to show up every week, to make my contribution to the Church's unity. From the beginning, the Church gathered regularly for the teaching, the communion, the breaking of the bread, and the prayers. That's the structure of the OCIA, the process by which people enter into our unity by marrying the Church in faith.  This is Word of God Sunday, a day to highlight the third luminous mystery, and the beautiful liturgy of the Church, through which we come to understand the revelation of the Bible, the written scriptures, in light of the lived experience of the Church's tradition.  The Mass and the Magisterium, represented by the priest, are the ultimate interpreters of the written word of God, a word that takes on flesh in Jesus Christ and through His sacraments, especially the Eucharist.  We can read the written word of God apart from the lived experience and living authority of the Church, but the Bible can't be separated from the Word made flesh.  The Church has always understood this, that the Bible fulfills its role in salvation especially when it is proclaimed at Mass.

You get to make a contribution to the Church's unity in faith and morals.  You have to by what you say and do.  Your options in the Gospel are plentiful!  You can fish, or hunt, or farm, or shepherd, or teach, or heal, or witness, etc. etc. etc.  Jesus hired fishermen first because of their patience and perseverance.  Most of us fish at the grocery store because it's easier to shop than fish.  

But the Church isn't a store you buy things from.  It's where you make a meaningful contribution to the Church's unity in faith and morals. 

After another tough week out there, I'll remind you of what I've said a thousand times.  There is no technological, political, legal or economic solution to the evils that surround us.  There is only your contribution to building the kingdom of heaven.  That's what we gather to do, as we gather every week for the teaching, the communion, the breaking of the bread, and the prayers.

+mj  

You kn

Is this the year?

Homily

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time A2

18 January 2026

St. Ann Catholic Church Prairie Village

AMDG

Is this the year?

You know what I'm talking about?  Will 2026 really be any different?  Will this be the year when my hopes are realized, and my resolutions are more than just wishful thinking?  Will my desire to be more alive, and to truly love the will of God, find real traction?  Or will it be another year that slips through my fingers, when I'm afraid of what it takes for real transformation to happen in my soul?

I'm not sure why there's a viral trend to post pictures from 2016.  Maybe it's a good thing, to remember what has changed in the last 10 years, and what has not.  Maybe it's a reminder especially that there is much I hoped for in 2016 that remains unfulfilled, and to wonder why.

Again real change is more than wishful thinking for circumstances to magically change in a new year.  I'm fond of having a word of the year, and sharing it with my friends, as a small means of my being accountable to the gift and responsibility of my life.  My word this year is joy, the fruit of a memorable conversation I had with a parishioners who said the parish needs to see me having more fun, for if the priesthood is not a joyful life, no mother would ever want her son to be a priest.  I have a superabundance of good things that have been poured into my lap, so much so that it is very ungrateful for me to be obsessed with what I don't or can't have.   My resolution is to fully enjoy the life I have chosen and been given. We will see if it really makes a difference.

I like to think that so long as I am faithful to prayer, exercise, spiritual direction and therapy, that I will grow in health and holiness, and that 2026 will be my best year yet.  Yet I'm not always convinced that this is more than wishful thinking.  

How about you?  Will 2026 be any different for you?  Is this the year?

The Church has us reflecting on baptism two weeks in a row to start ordinary time in 2026.  Why the redundancy?  It's because the promise of our baptism is our greatest opportunity for holiness, greatness and the fullness of life.  No other resolution could compare to us fully knowing the dignity and destiny of my baptism.  

Yet in our fallen condition, our greatest desire and potential is met with by the greatest fear.  It's the fear of letting go of our sins that makes the quest for real greatness so scary.  It is the total eradication of sins from our lives that free us to ultimately live heroic lives of courage, loving the will of God with incredible strength, and making a total and sacrificial gift of ourselves within the paschal mystery of Christ.  Anything less than the total eradication of sin from our lives is lukewarm, weak sauce, and tentative.

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!  This shocking, revolutionary proclamation of John the Baptist is meant to shock us out of complacency and back into the promise of our baptism, into a real, total and uncompromising desire for a holiness that is new and different and more.  The unique proclamation of John the Baptist is repeated at every Mass, at a penultimate moment, to bring us clarity as to what is really at stake, the complete removal of any sin in my life that keeps me trapped in fear.

There could be no greater resolution in 2026 that to respond to the grace of my baptism, fed by the Eucharist, the Lamb of God who completely frees me from all sin by the inner working of his mercy.

How's that for a 2026 resolution?  Is this the year?

+mj  

Did my Christmas make any difference?

Homily

Baptism of the Lord

11 January 2026

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village

Did my Christmas make any difference?

What time is it anyway?  It's day 11 of the calendar new year, but as you see around you, the Church still thinks it's Christmas.  But is it?  Is it Christmas still or Ordinary Time?  If the former, how do I keep celebrating Christmas - I'm out of gifts and out of ideas.  If the latter, then is it time to get back to my normal life?

The answer is yes. The answer is both, which is often the case when dealing with questions of faith.  The Church blurs this second manifestation of Epiphany of Jesus - the proclamation of who He is by the father at His baptism, with the beginning of his public work, his first day on the job as it were.  The blurring is intentional.

Yes today is the official culmination of Christmas, and the beginning of ordinary time, but just as this Christmas was meant to be celebrated in a way that makes new things possible, so we return to our lives at the end of Christmas, just as the Magi did, by another way.   

The whole point of Christmas, and the Incarnation, is that Jesus wants to visit His world in ever more dramatic ways, where the world is most in darkness.  That includes your heart, your family, our Church and this world  There are these smallest and weakest points, where fear and doubt are most threatening, where the Lord has desired to come and make all things new.  Your Christmas depends on your reception of this visit, and whether you will remain in this grace of being loved and cherished at your weakest point.

Christmas culminates then with Jesus identifying with sinners, those who need visited by the Lord's mercy in that exact spot where we cannot change or save ourselves.  

There is a reason the Church baptizes infants, though they cannot be guilty of personal sin.  It's because they too need to be visited at that point of original sin that we all inherit, at that point where our destiny is sin and death, not holiness and life.  Baptism transforms us inwardly, making us first of all children of God and the His favorite dwelling places.  

Yet from our baptism on, the battle against sin rages.  Baptism gets us into the game, and gives us all the saving grace we need to respond with faith and courage to the gift and opportunity of our lives.  Yet the effects of sin are still all around us, and the temptation to cope with the pain of life with fear and doubt remain. 

There will be a time for extreme training in the desert during the holy season of Lent.  For now, it is time for us to begin testing if Christmas made any difference.  With the Lord of my baptism always ready to visit me and remain with me at my weakest point, will I move forward in my life by another way?  

Did this Christmas make any difference?