Am I boring?

Homily

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time A2

12 July 2026

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village, KS

AMDG

Have I let myself becoming boring?

This is always the question I ask myself when hearing the parable of the sower.  Parables are exciting.  Mysteries are confounding.  The ways of God are surprising.  There is no adventure that compares to growing in the likeness of God, being driven with great compunction by the Holy Spirit that wants to dwell richly in you, and to participate with all your heart in the redemption mission of the Lord, the ultimate victory of life over death.  

It's scary exciting.  That's why I shy away from it.  There are many things more comfortable, and less scary than the pursuit of holiness.  There are many things cheaper and easier. There's nothing better.  

Jesus speaks in parables because He wants those who think they get it to not get it, and those who think they don't get it to get it.  The mysteries of God are inexhaustible.  They cut to the heart, revealing the presence of God and the real meaning of life.  They are no surface level, but for those who want to go deep so they can go high in the great adventure of glorifying God.  

The only way to grow rich in these mysteries is to study and pray and worship.  Those who do these things will grow rich. Those who don't will have stolen what they only superficially possess.  

The whole point of life is to approach the mystery of God with childlike awe.  It's to realize that you could just be dust, but through the Spirit of God breathing and nourishing the life of God in you, you are not a mere mortal.  You are meant to pursue the glory of God.  

It's to recognize the Word of God as Jesus Himself, who planted Himself in the ground in humiliating love, to reveal the ultimate source of life, a life that He nourishes not only in word but in sacrament, nourishing your two-fold unity as soul and body!

Parables are mysteries, showing when we have traded the glory of God for boring things that can bring life, be it our complicity with sin, or our fear of anything deeper than the superficiality of our temptations and distractions.  

We're not supposed to get them.  If we think we do, we are boring.  If we don't, the great adventure which is God Himself lies open before us!

+mj  

How dominant am I?

Homily

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time A2

5 July 2026

Independence Day weekend 250 years!

St. Ann Church - Prairie Village, KS

AMDG

How dominant am I?

The word dominant comes from Dominus - the term used for kings and lords in antiquity.  The be dominant is to have power.  To be dominus is to have supreme power.  How much power do I have?  How dominant am I?

For 250 years now, the United States has been kicking ass so to speak!  We are undefeated, never having been vanquished or occupied.  That's quite a winning streak of kicking ass.  The fireworks shows should be bigger than ever, a sign of our firepower as the most dominant and powerful nation on earth.  Happy 250 years USA! What an incredible run and an incredible experiment these United States are.  A government of, by and for the people it governs.  No people in history have enjoyed the liberty and prosperity Americans enjoy, no matter whether you like the current politics or not.   No matter how you slice it, we are the most blessed people of all time.

Does being a citizen of the most powerful country that is by and for the people make me dominant?  What makes someone dominant?  We should take our clue from the ultimate Dominus Himself, the most powerful person ever to cross the face of the earth, our Lord and King Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ has a different way of kicking ass.  He rides on an ass, making an ass his chariot, a cross his throne and taking thorns as his crown.  This is what domination really looks like.  Having ultimate power, and using it to give life instead of take it, to serve rather than to use.  Whoever wishes to be dominant among you will be the be last of all and servant of all. That is true domination.  

Even if the most powerful country on earth, our heroes are not the killers but those killed. No one has greater power than this, than to lay down one's life for one's friends.  That's domination.  Nobody is truly free unless he has overcome the fear of death.  That's domination.  Jesus is pre-eminent in this.  He has power to lay down his life and take it up again.  This is ultimate freedom, not merely freedom from tyranny nor the freedom of choice.  It's the freedom to love to the end, to glorify God by choosing to sacrifice for one another in the same manner that He has first loved us.

That's why Catholicism is the ultimate and dominant religion, and why it is meant to flourish in these United States more than anywhere.  Under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception, we have a chance to live our faith anew on this land.  A religion is a shared rule of life, in common pursuit of a highest good which is God Himself.  Catholic worship is based in sacrifice, a making things holy by giving life instead of taking it.  It is the building up of a Kingdom that attain peace not through war, but by mercy.  Its ministers participate in the sacrifice of the King who established an eternal and universal kingdom from sea to shining sea by taking a donkey as His chariot, thorns as His crown and the cross as His throne.  That's domination.  

The dynamite of this true Lord is how to win the ultimate victory over evil without a shot being fired.  Nobody else has found a way to do it.  

Our great country exists to preserve the freedom of religion, the right according to one's conscience to pursue the ultimate and common good which is God Himself.  The best and ultimate use of one's freedom is to glorify God alone, and to be dominant just how Jesus Christ the Lord is.

Freedom from the yoke of tyranny is meant to embolden the freedom to easily lay down one's life according to one's conviction.  Let's use our freedom in awe and wonder and in courageous pursuit of what it truly means to be dominant!

+mj  

What is ultimate in your life?

Homily

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time A2

28 June 2026

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village, KS

AMDG

What is ultimate in your life?  We can only answer this question if Jesus Christ, who reveals you fully to yourself, says something provocative and exclusive.

Jesus easily answers this question.  It's hard and complicated for the rest of us.  It's a question I ask couples on the brink of marriage. I ask it like this.  What is the key to a fruitful marriage?  Some get it, some don't.  A lot of them say communication.  A lot of them saying letting nothing get between them.  A few of them say going to Mass, which is the source and destiny of their married love.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is always absolute.  It never panders to any interest.  It is clear.  There is only one proper end to man, made in the image of God.  It's to love God with all your heart, mind and strength.  It is to glorify God by loving His will above and in all things.  It is to die to self in order to love God for His own sake, which is the very definition of love.  

When I interview people for funerals, I ask the remaining family what they learned from the deceased. What was ultimate in their life?  Occasionally I get love of God's will, but not that often honestly.  I usually get family as the ultimate meaning, and what a person lived and died for.  Yet today's Gospel will not accept that as a final answer.  The best way to love your family, if we are truly listening to Jesus, is to love God and His holy will alone.  Only then will you be free to love your family.  Many of us say that our family is our world.   Of course we mean that they are very dear to us.  But to love them in front of or in place of God is idolatry, and it will crush them to make them our ultimate concern.  

What do I want St. Ann's to be known for?  It would be easy for me to say community.  We are relational beings, called into communion by God here at St. Ann. I want St. Ann to be a place where everyone wants to know everyone!  I want us to be known as the very best place to show up and do life together.  Even this according to the Gospel would be idolatry.  

St. Ann's can only fulfill it's purpose if each and every person loves God and worships Him as He deserves and has asked to be worshipped.  By making Mass the heart of my week, and my participation in the sacrifice of Christ and the mystery of His cross as first and ultimate in my life.

What is ultimate in my life?  The Gospel only admits of one answer, if we're being honest.  The Lord God is God alone.  Him alone shall you serve.  This is not a master commanding a slave.  It's a savior inviting a friend to embrace the cross, where true love that endures and conquers all things is made perfect.  It's from the cross that Jesus gives the new and ultimate commandment.  Love one another just as I have first loved you.

In a few weeks I'll make my annual retreat.  I'll have a room with minimal furnishings, just like Elisha had on the roof of a Shunamite woman.  My spiritual director will ask if I have everything I need.  I'll reluctantly say yes, and nothing more.  But it needs to be this way.  If I'm going to have any chance to focus on the ultimate question while being detached from any idols or replacements.  

What is ultimate in my life?  It's to love God alone exclusively with all my heart, and to love His will in all things.  Nothing less brings with it the gift of eternal life.

+mj  

+mj  

What's the most dangerous thing I do?

Homily

12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

21 June 2026

St. Ann Catholic Church Prairie Village, KS

AMDG

What's the most dangerous thing I do?

I admitted a few weeks ago that I am afraid of heights.  No bungee or cliff jumping for me. Definitely no sky diving or taking a trip to outer space. Verticality is not my strong suit.  And that's the problem.  Anyone playing it safe has already lost.  We are meant more for vertical living, not necessarily physically through sky scrapers, but spiritually through our sense of adventure, our exploring with courage our capacity to glorify God by fulfilling our vocation to love.  

As is clear from today's Gospel, Jesus believes you are the most courageous person in the world.  Three times in a few verses He tells you his missionary disciple not to be afraid.  It's the heartbeat of the Gospel.  They are the first words of the most courageous person I have ever met, John Paul II. Do not be afraid.  

If you're paying attention here at St. Ann, the most dangerous thing we do together is go to Mass.  Many of you remember the decision a year and a half ago to have armed security in our school building.  Those security measures extend into the celebration of Mass.  Why did we do that?  It was an admission that going to Mass, especially with our children, is the most dangerous and courageous thing we do.  We are always working on security, so that St. Ann is the safest place or the family of God to gather.  Yet going to Church is never playing it safe, at least it shouldn't be.  

First of all, there is an evil one trying to kill the life of God in you.  Jesus says be afraid of that person, and no one else besides God.  One tactic of the evil one is to scare you out of going to Mass, where you feed and strengthen the very life of God in you.  Evil knows where to strike, precisely at the point of our deepest commitment to explore a love stronger than death, with our children.  If evil makes us scared to worship, it has won.  

Yet an even better tactic is to make us comfortable going to Mass, to make you think going to Mass isn't dangerous.  Whenever we are comfortable, we stop pursuing a love strong as death.  When comfortable, we don't put our life on the line through the sacrifice of Jesus, we stop choosing to fear the Lord for love of His holy will.  We just sit on the sidelines, complacent and distracted.  Or out of complacency we don't show up at all.

Jesus knows we all need resistance training to grow in courage.  Blessed are you when they insult and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.  In order to be the most courageous people in the world, we can't hide our faith.  It should be clearly evident in my life and yours that we know a love stronger than death, and would die in an instant for what we believe.  Acknowledging this through a worthy participation in the Mass is the most courageous and dangerous thing we do.  

Dads too are meant to do dangerous things.  Dads have an irreplaceable role in leading a family courageously to overcome those evils that threaten to discourage us. Dads have a role in teaching a family to live vertically.  Everyone should know what Dad lives and dies for, and where He is going to show up with courage.  If a dad doesn't show up with courage, there is no substitute.  

That includes at Mass, the most dangerous place we can be.  The biggest predictor of Mass attendance is whether dad shows up.  The other  is whether it's easy or hard to go to Mass.  Whenever it's easy, nobody goes.  Whenever it's hard, even in danger of death, the place is packed.  Do you know why that is?

This doesn't meant that we should be reckless, nor that we shouldn't take every precaution to make our Masses safe, and to defend against and deter evil.  But Mass can never be complacent or comfortable.    Mass is never less than a place to put your life on the line, to live the vertical dimension of your life through worship, and to participate from the heart in the exploration of a love stronger than death.  

If Mass isn't the most dangerous thing I do, I'm not doing Mass right.  

If not Mass, what is the most dangerous thing you do?

+mj  

How's your royal priesthood going?

Homily

11th Sunday in Ordinary Time A2

14 June 2026

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village   

AMDG        

How's your royal priesthood going?

I've told you many times one of the most terrorizing questions is this - Father, how are you?  A close second is this - Father, how can I help you?  It can be so threatening to receive the care and help of others.  So many of you worry about my burning out.  You ask about my time away, and my vacations.   You ask me all the time when I'm going to get more priestly help.  You ask me how I'm holding up in the midst of scandal.  

The sheep care deeply about the welfare of the shepherd.  I thank you for that.

What do I need mostly from you though?  How can you help?  I need you to exercise your priesthood!  What are you talking about?  I am not a priest!  But oh my would you be so wrong!  You are a priest.  By virtue of your baptism, you are a member of Christ who is priest, prophet and king.   The promise first made to Israel through Moses, that you would be a chosen people, a kingdom of priests, has fallen to you through Christ.  

So I need to flip the terrorizing question back to you!  How's your priesthood going?  My priesthood serves yours.  The best way you can help me is to fulfill your priesthood.

That's not all.  You are also royalty.  Last weekend I baptized the only grandson of a very royal family, the grandson of a Royals Hall of Famer.  Maybe some of you saw it.  It was glorious and a dream come true.  I've been a Royals fan since I was 7 years old.  Never would I have dreamt I would baptize the grandson of the bluest of blue Royal.  

Here in Kansas City we should know more than anyone what it means to be Royal.  It goes deeper than fandom in our baseball team.  You are a royal nation, and a kingdom of priests.  Your deepest identity is your royal priesthood, sealed, deepened and strengthened by the anointing with chrism at your baptism and confirmation.  

I hope this new royal grandson is a future Hall of Famer.  Yet I know even moreso that you share in the same destiny, to be a royal and holy priest in the ultimate Hall of Fame, the communion of saints in the Kingdom of Heaven.

It's why we are going to improve our church here at St. Ann.  It's why we must.  There can be no question when you drive by St. Ann or come into the royal temple of God, that your deepest identity and mission is to be a royal priest.  Until we leave no doubt of this, our mission remains unfinished.

What do royal priests do?  Look at what Jesus says in the Gospel!  They pray for shepherd kings like David and the promised Son of David with hearts that move.  They fight against evil so that people can experience healing and fullness and newness of life.  They let themselves be called by name into God's lineup to win eternal victories for the glory of God and the building up of the kingdom of heaven.  

That's your royal priesthood.  Be ready the next time you ask me how my priesthood is going, for me to fire the terrorizing question right back at you.

How's your royal priesthood going?

+mj  

Do I know my role?

Homily

Solemnity of Pentecost

24 May 2026

St. Ann Catholic Church in Prairie Village, KS

AMDG

Do I know my role?

It's been three years since Travis Kelce screamed into a microphone - shut your mouth and know your role, you jabroni!  I didn't know what a jabroni is, cause I'm not a WWE wrestling fan.  I guess a jabroni is a fool, one who talks but can't back it up.  In the drama of wrestling, it's always the villain who shows bravado but is overcome by the hero.  Kelce directed it toward the Cincinnati mayor, who had nicknamed our stadium 'Burrowhead' and hinted that Patrick Mahomes should call Joe Burrow his 'daddy.'  The Chiefs got the narrow win, and went on to win the Super Bowl.

Do I know my role?

We all know that love is more than words, more than feelings.  Love is action.  Today the Church celebrates the windy and fiery action of the Holy Spirit, the love at the heart of God and all reality, bringing the Church to birth and launching Her mission with power!  Pentecost is ultimate - the culmination of our 50 days of celebrating a love stronger than death, a love that has been poured into your heart and mine.  A love that obligates us to know our role, and 

The power that conquers the evil of the world is not a technological, or economic, or military, or political power.  It is the power of the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead.  It is a power that has been entrusted to you, made His dwelling with you, and that burns within you until you accomplish your purpose.  

Do I know my role?  

As the Father has sent me, so I send you.  Out of everything that Jesus ever did or said, this one bothers me the most.  The salvation of the world depended upon Jesus knowing His role, and accomplishing His purpose.  Now it depends on me.  Now it depends on you.  What was Jesus thinking?

He wanted to show how much He believes in you, by assigning you a participation in His paschal mystery, a critical part in the ultimate victory over evil and death, that only you can accomplish.  He trusts you as much as His Father trusted Him.  Try to talk him out of it.  He's really bad at taking no for an answer.

So Pentecost is my Christmas and Holy Week.  As the Father has sent me, so I send you.  The same Spirit that created everything out of nothing, life from non-life, that breathed an immortal soul into every human person ever conceived, who conceived Jesus in the womb of the Immaculate Virgin, who raised Jesus from the dead, and forgives your sins, now dwells in all His fullness in you, so that you can know and accomplish your purpose.

As the Father has sent me, so I send you.  

Do I know my role?  Will I play my part? 

+mj  

Am I scared of heights?

Homily

Solemnity of the Ascension

17 May 2026

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village

AMDG

Am I scared of heights?

You bet I am.  It's probably my #1 fear.  Most of my nightmares end with me falling!  Thank God I sleep alone, so no one else hears my screaming!  Airplanes are fine.  Hiking 14ers is ok - unless there are ledges and high winds.  But cliffs?  Hate 'em.  Bungee jumping - negative!  Skydiving?  No way in hell.  Rock Climbing - no thanks.  I watched Alex Honnold, the famous free solo climber, in preparation for this homily.  Are you kidding me?  That guy is insane!  I'm too chicken even for trampolines.  This white man does not dunk.  

Am I afraid of heights?  It's the pivotal question of the Ascension.  You bet I am.  Aren't you?

They worshipped on the mountain, but they doubted!  Sounds like me.  I trust the rule of gravity more than the rule of the Ascension.  Everything that goes up, must come down.  I worship, raising my heart and soul to God, but then I come down.  I doubt.  Yet the rule of the Ascension is just the opposite, and it is more true than gravity.  What is the rule of the Ascension? Whatever goes down, must go up!

Jesus has completed for us the greatest free fall of all time.  From the heights of heaven, crashing down to his own death, descending even to the gates of hell.  His ridiculous condescension of mercy to save us in unbelievable.  Jesus knows how to take a dive for someone He loves.

Yet today He shows that He's even better at going up . . at climbing.  He told us before it happened so that when it happens we would believe.  The Son of Man must suffer and die, and then rise and be lifted up!  Today Jesus takes everything encompassed in his free fall of mercy  - every second of salvation history and ever ounce of his saving mysteries - he takes it all UP in his glorified and redeemed human body to where He started, to the heights of heaven.

Man did you and I make out good on this deal!  At the Ascension, my humanity which at first was only an outer glimpse of the glory of God, now has a new home and destiny in the inner heart of God, on the throne of His glorious Kingdom, in the fullness of relationship and love that is greater than anything I could imagine.  

Jesus now works from home - but not only his, but from mine.  He dares me to follow, to climb, and to ascend in the Holy Spirit to my true home.  He who once was happy to descend to where I am now, dares me to climb through His Spirit to where He is.

Mind you, it's not in a galaxy far, far away.  Don't stare at the sky, the angel says!  Jesus promises He will come to us again in an even more dramatic free fall that is the descent of the Holy Spirit.  It is through this power from on high that I will know and observe all His commandments which are victorious over death, until He comes again in glory!

Jesus works from home, but home is not in a galaxy far, far away.  Home is right here, in the heart of this liturgy, where earth is taken up into a new dimension in a greater ascent that our first fall from Eden.

In the Ascension, we see how love and life work.  For death, what goes up must come down.  For love and life, what goes down must go up.  Love is not only a condescending compassion and mercy strong as death, love heals, lifts up, inspires, enlivens, ennobles and elevates the beloved.  The law of the Resurrection and Ascension is what prevails.  Life is stronger than death.  What goes down, must by lifted up!

So, am I afraid of heights?  I've had the worst Easter if the answer is yes.  For today's liturgy dares me to conquer my fears through love and to attempt the most dangerous climb of my life.  It's my ascent through the Holy Spirit to the very heart of God, into the fullness of relationship.  For the Ascension has more to do with a person than a destination.  

This fearless climb marks the life of a real hero, and a real disciple of Jesus.  To live less by fear and doubt, that what goes up must come down, and more by the Holy Spirit, who commands the rules of the Resurrection and Ascension to prevail, that what goes down must go up!

The great solemnity of Ascension near the end of Easter dares us to answer the pivotal question. Am I afraid of heights?