The kingdom of heaven belongs to Annie the little Tiger

Homily

Funeral Mass for Annie Koester

31 July 2026

St. Ann Catholic Church  - Prairie Village, KS

AMDG

The kingdom of heaven belongs to Annie the little Tiger.

In 2012 I was recruiting priests for the Archdiocese as vocation director.  I knew of 6'8" kid at St. James Academy who was a 5 star basketball recruit.  He was the tallest altar server I ever knew.  He served at Mass regularly, just like Annie, though he was a giant compared to her.  Connor died at age 17 before he could become a priest or a national champion for KU!  Everyone was so devastated.  Nobody understood why this had to happen.  The KC Star wrote an article saying this remarkable young man with so much potential had lost his battle with cancer.  I reposted the story, wanting to share the news of this incredible young man who just wanted to glorify God with his life.  I got ripped by his classmates for reposting that article.  His classmates were so upset that someone said that Connor had lost his battle, and was lost.  In the comments they reminded me instead that his cancer was his cross, and that the cross of Jesus is never where life ends, it's where life truly begins.  The cross is never where we lose; it's only where with Jesus we win.  

Mark and Katie, you told me that Caroline was the first one to remind you that we have to forgive whoever did this to your family and your dear Annie.  Caroline is right.  There is something greater than the tragedy that has beaten you all up in every way so badly.  Forgiveness is a power greater than evil and death.  If anger or despair are the only things that result from Annie's death, evil wins another victory it never deserved.  It's when Jesus had no reason to forgive that he said from his tragedy, his passion - Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.

So many of us prayed as you did for a miracle, for Annie's life in this world to be spared.  For reasons we will never know, it wasn't meant to be.  Katie you asked if we will ever know why this happened.  We won't.  That answer is hidden from us on this side of heaven.  We are all devastated that this nightmare is your reality.  We love you so much, and we will miss Annie so much, but not like you will.  If we could bring her back, we all would..  We will be forever sorry and heartbroken for your loss of a little one so dear, so full of life and spunk and potential.  It's not fair, and it shouldn't have happened. We all feel so guilty and heartbroken and helpless.  These feelings are our honest prayer to God for consolation.  

Today we are simply with you in this mysterious space that was experienced by Jesus in his passion.  Surrendering to the way things are, while living in hope that the kingdom of heaven is built by those whose lives are conformed to Jesus' mysterious cross.  This mysterious passion is at the heart of our faith.  The heart of Jesus, bleeding and burning, and the heart of Mary, purified and pierced by suffering, remind us that only as we suffer and die together, do we live together.  It's precisely in experiencing the evil of pain and loss that truth and goodness and love shine ever more brightly.  In this mystery, the worst of times become the best of times.  In this mystery, our tears of sadness become tears of joy.  In this mystery, the moment of greatest loss is also the moment of greatest triumph.

As Jesus teaches in the Gospel, when His passion touches little ones the kingdom of heaven shines ever more brightly.  It is in the light of this tragic loss that the spunk, curiosity, faithfulness and tenacity of little Annie the Tiger shines ever more brightly.

Annie reminds me so much of Therese of Lisieux, one of the famous little girls of our faith.  Therese suffered so many things but that made her heart ever more tenacious.  She had a heart that yearned for victory like Annie's, a heart that was spunky and curious and tenacious. Therese wanted to be the greatest saint that ever lived.  Already as a young girl, she wanted to be a red rubber ball that Jesus threw around with reckless abandon. She wanted to delight Jesus with her spunk and curiosity and devotion and tenacity.  Her little way, doing little things with great devotion, made her a great teacher of the faith, and earned her the nickname the the flower.  Taken to heaven as a young girl, she spends her heaven doing good on earth.  

With Therese the little flower it is Annie's destiny.  This saddest day imaginable for Annie, as we grieve the loss of so much, is also her day of greatest victory and triumph, when her spunk, curiosity, devotion and tenacity shine more brightly in death than even in life.  Annie is forever our little Tiger.  On this day that our grief says life will never be as good without her, we say mysteriously as well that we are all happier and closer to heaven because of her.  

Through the intercession of Annie the little Tiger, let's honor her beautiful life by building the kingdom of heaven as only children like Annie can, through our spunk and curiosity, and devotion and tenacity.  Annie our little Tiger teaches us the way to build the kingdom of heaven. She played her part perfectly, and it will not be taken from her.  Amen. Alleluia!

+mj  

What do I want?

Homily

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time A2

26 July 2026

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village, KS

AMDG

What do I want?

Add this to the list of terrifying questions.  I've preached on them quite a bit.  Father, how are you?  Father, how can I help you?  Father, what are you afraid of?

They're all terrifying if you don't know the answer.  Add today's pivotal question to the list.  What do I want?  Does anybody really know the answer to this question?  If not, add it to the list of terrifying questions that we would rather avoid than answer.  

What do I want?

Why is this such a pivotal question for people of faith?  Because God asks it constantly.  It's the question asked of Solomon in a dream in today's first reading.  What do you want?  It's the question Jesus first asks his disciples in the Gospel of John - what are you looking for?  Jesus tells his disciples over and over and over - ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you!

The problem is that I don't know what I want!  The question is terrifying because if God is good and wants to give us good things, it's a question we can't afford to get wrong.  What if I ask for the wrong thing?  What if I ask for nothing compared to the everything God wants to give me?  

What do I want?  I want to be left alone and not asked this question! That's what I want!

In light of the Koester family's accident this week, a lot of us would ask for more protection.  It's a dangerous world out there, fraught with all kinds of evils.  Many of us would pray for safety.  It's not a bad prayer, yet we also know it's not ultimate.   Jesus embraced the worst evil happening to the most innocent person.  The cross teaches us there is something greater to ask for than preservation of our bodies.  

Many of us would ask for more comfort, for life to get easier.  Yet we know this isn't right either.  The hardest tough somehow becomes the best stuff, the most pivotal and transformative parts of our story.  We are not made for comfort, but greatness.  

The saints knew what to ask for.

Mother Teresa asked to thirst to hear the cries of the poor.

Thomas Aquinas asked not for intellectual gifts but only Jesus Himself

Solomon asked for an understanding heart.

The Blessed Mother asked for God's will processed through a pure and pierced heart.

St. Paul asks for the theological virtues - faith, hope and love. 

John of the Cross asked for suffering.

John Paul II asked to totally belong to Mary.

The list goes on and on and on.  Every saint could answer this question.  If I'm not a saint yet, I still don't know and the question terrifies me.  The parables of Jesus teach us that we get to will and choose and desire only one thing, and that is what we will receive.  It's too much pressure! And yet it's a choice we are born to make, a risk of faith that is salvific for those who make it.  It's the heart and most pivotal and dramatic moment of our story.  Our answer to the question - what do I want?

Jesus taught us to pray the 7 petitions of the Our Father, and told us that the Father will give the Holy Spirit to whomever asks.  In the Holy Spirit, we get 7 gifts in one - wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, courage, fear and awe.  

In the Holy Spirit we get everything, and to ask for anything else or less is nothing.  

I desire the will of God which is to have the Holy Spirit dwell richly in me.  The will of God is to give the Holy Spirit so that I will always know what to ask for.

What do I want?

+mj  

 

What's the best kind of prayer?

Homily

16th Sunday of Ordinary Time A2

19 July 2026

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village

AMDG

What's the best prayer you have ever said?  

The ultimate prayer we offer is the sacrifice of the Mass.  It is the obedience to worship God the way in which He wants to be worshipped.  The command is clear.  Do this in memory of me.  Do this.  There's nothing greater than offering the sacrifice of yourself through, with and in Jesus Christ, the sacrifice that is infinitely pleasing to God, that unleashes the transformative power of the greatest love that has conquered all things.  There is nothing more powerful than the Mass.  It's ultimate.  It's the greatest prayer.

Yet is it the best?

We know the Our Father to have been given as the perfect prayer.  It's 7 perfect petitions, 3 for God and 4 for us, complete Jesus' response when asked to teach His disciples how to pray.  It's hard to beat the Our Father.  It's perfect.  Yet is it the best?

Thursday over 500 people gathered here for the rosary.  It's an incomparably beautiful prayer.  We prayed for the Koester family, especially for our 5th grader Annie Koester, who is in grave danger due to injuries suffered unjustly in a car accident Wednesday morning east of St. Louis.  Everyone felt so devastated and helpless.  So we prayed the mysteries of our faith, by which God brings the greatest good out of the most tragic circumstances, through the heart of our Blessed Mother, who gave birth to J

Didn't you sow good seed in your field?

rest of homily incomplete

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