What does my heart break for?

Homily

5th Sunday of Lent A

March 22, 2026

St. Ann Catholic Church Prairie Village, KS

AMDG

Would you rather experience a confession or a resuscitation?  Most of us would say the latter.  I avoid confession but would love to see a loved one come back from the dead.  My mom will have been gone 25 years this March 30th.  It still breaks my heart.

I don't really want to hear 1000 confessions this week.  It's hell week for priests.  Penance services non-stop.  It could easily be 1000 confessions by Easter.  I'm not complaining.  I have the best job in the world.  But there's 5000 of you.  Hearing 1000 confession would only be 20%.

What would Jesus rather see?  A resuscitation or a confession?  You know the answer.  It's written all over today's Gospel.  

It breaks his heart that his friend Lazarus experienced physical death.  It breaks his heart 1000x more when I don't use confession.  

Physical death is not supposed to be that scary or threatening to faith.  But it is, for all of us.  Take it from two saints, Mary and Martha, who give voice to my experience of death.  Lord, you could have done something.  Why do you stay distant is the face of physical death.  If you had been here, my mother would not have died.   Jesus is the worst first responder in history.  When he finds out that his best friend is dead, he freezes.  He remained where he was for two days.

But physical death is not threatening to God.  He can make something from nothing.  He can create from dust.  It's nothing for him to resuscitate or resurrect.  He was ridiculed for saying the daughter of Jairus and the son of the widow in Nain were merely sleeping.  He gets perturbed when people are so fearful of death.  He is the resurrection and the life.  For him physical death is nothing.  He asks the Marys if they trust this.  If they believe it.

So why does Jesus weep?  Why does he let his heart break?  It's to show how devastated He would be if my life ended in spiritual death.  It's to show what it will cost Him to forgive my sins.  It's because of my stubbornness of heart and slowness to believe that His heart is broken.

Which is to say he weeps when I don't go to confession.  Which is the converse of His rejoicing more over one sinner who repents than over 99 people who skip confession.  He cries that I try to hold on stubbornly to my bios when He wants only to restore my zoe, the Spirit of God dwelling in me.  

As a sign of how much He wants to forgive my sins, He call Lazarus out of the tomb.  This sixth and penultimate sign in John's Gospel is about the forgiveness of my sins.  Lazarus goes into the confessional stinky dead; he emerges from the tomb alive again in the Holy Spirit.

My heart breaks for what breaks Jesus heart.  When you settle for bios when you are meant for zoe.  

Which means I'll see you in confession this week.  It's not really hell week, but confess to beat hell week.  

What does your heart break for?  Is it for your friends who have lost their bios or their zoe?  Would you rather see a resuscitation or a confession?

+mj  

Why do you exist?

Homily

4th Sunday of Lent A2

15 March 2026

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village

AMDG

Do you need to have your eyes checked?  The Jayhawks certainly do after shooting an ungodly 24% last night in the Big 12 tournament.  

I certainly do as well. I've had bad nearsightedness my whole life.  I live in fear of a detached retina from my eyes being so drastically corrected so many times. In the area of visual intelligence, I am special needs.  My mind doesn't take pictures and it's hard for me to remember faces.  I would be the worst witness to a crime. I'm the worst at spatial relations and seeing how things like puzzles fit together.  It's torture for me.  

I need to have my eyes checked.  How about you?

How about the meaning of my life?  Do I see it clearly? Let's see. 

Why did God make me?

The Baltimore Catechism took a good crack at it.  God made me to know, love and serve Him in this life and to be together with Him in the next.  

Today's Gospel has a better answer I dare say.  Why do you exist?  You exist for the glory of God. You exist to be transfigured by His light.  You exist to make God visible!

It's why the man in today's long Gospel was born blind.  It's the reason you were born blind, without the light of faith in you. It's so that the glorious works of God might become visible in you!

The glory of God is you being fully alive.  The shame of God is you remaining dead in your sins.  Whoever has the light of Christ given in baptism, deepened by Confirmation, fed by the Eucharist and restored by confession is a new creation.  Which means you are a unique and unrepeatable star in the constellation of heaven, a reflection of the invisible glory of God that can only be visible in you.  

You are an image of God, destined to grow in His likeness.  That's why you exist.  To make God visible.

Whoever sees this in faith sees the most dramatic and glorious thing that has ever transpired in human history, you being reborn in baptism and coming back from the dead to new life.  Whoever does not see this is blind.

Why do I encourage everyone to have their babies baptized at Mass?  It's so we have a chance to know each other, in a spousal way, as those who become the intimate adopted family of God by baptism.    

But there's another reason.  It's because you keep forgetting the dignity of your baptism, and why you exist, and the most dramatic thing that has ever happened to you and is being made more visible at this very liturgy.  

If you don't see the glory of your baptism being illumined by the light of the Gospel and fed with the food of the Eucharist, you are blind.  You need to get your eyes checked.  My sight on its own is very limited in its perspective.  Yet I walk by faith and not merely by human sight.  If I walk in the bright light of the Holy Spirit dwelling within me, I see the big picture, and my place in the most brilliant story ever written.

We baptize children so that we can see clearly that unless the light of the Holy Spirit dwells within us, we are simply existing not living.  We put ashes on our forehead to make visible that unless we walk by faith not by sight, we are dead men walking.

Why do you exist?  To reflect the glory of God!

The devil tempts in threes

Homily

1st Sunday of Lent A

22 February 2026

St. Ann Catholic Church

AMDG

Why does the devil tempt us in threes?

It's because to divorce us from God and to kill us, he has to attack the unity that God is, as a communion of three persons.  God is a unity of three.  We are meant to grow in his likeness.  We relate and are joined to God most directly by the three theological virtues of faith, hope and love.  So Satan devises a threefold attack against us, as clearly seen on the first Sunday of Lent, when he tempts the new Adam the Son of God in the desert.

Watch out.  Be on your guard. For the evil one, the most cunning of all creatures, will attack you as he attacked our first parents, and tempt you as he tempted our Lord, in threes.

You know how it works.  Satan appeals to your individual ego, your identity apart from God, through the deadly sins of pride, greed and lust.  He will tempt you with ways to escape, avoid and hide.  He will throw things that are quick, cheap and easy in the form of shortcuts, hacks and cheat codes.  He will tell you that if you can only get away, get along and get by, through your privacy, choice and control, that you will be happy.  He will appeal to your desire for power, pleasure and honor through by asking you to steal from what your heavenly Father is already waiting to give you.  

Beware of the threes!

In letting himself be tempted in the desert, Jesus shows us that these temptations can be overcome by patience, perseverance and prayer.  Only after forty days of fasting, only when His power has been made perfect through weakness, does He readily engage the personal attacks of the evil one.  Because of his patience, because He knows sin is found in the quick, cheap and easy, He is able to recognize the lie of the evil one immediately and to reject it easily.  

How are the three fold attacks of the evil one overcome?  Through the weapons of self-restraint  Through sincere prayer, fasting and almsgiving, and through the evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience.  This is the way to conquer sin that Jesus accomplishes not merely for us, but through us, with us and in us.

Sincerely deny yourself what is quick, cheap and easy.  Go for the more.  Don't trust me, look at the example of Jesus.  It's worth it.

+mj  

Can my life be lightly salted?

Homily

5th Sunday of Ordinary Time AII

8 February 2025

AMDG

Am I lightly salted?

I got away for a couple of days this week.  Two conversations stood out.  Both were about the church and money.  One was an Uber driver, the other a good friend.  Both of them had the impression that the Catholic Church hoards lots of money.  I tried to dissuade them, but noted that for them this is what the church is most known for.  

What do I want the church to be known for?  Whatever it is, I have to become this myself, for I am a living stone on the church and so are you.  As much as I'd like to complain about others in the church, the reality is that I need to be the change that I want to see. 

Jesus gives me no other option.  You are the salt of the earth.  You are the light of the world.  So what would others say about your Christian faith?  Are you lightly salted?

Salt and light don't exist for themselves.  They exist to enhance something else.  Salt and light are reminders to me that my true life exists in gift form.  Whoever hoards this gift loses it, and whoever loses the gift saves it for eternal life.  

St. Paul and the psalmist talk about the foolishness of lavishly giving to the poor.  Yet this is what reflects the glory of God, who always gives more than is required and deserved.  This is the foolishness of the cross, which is the wisdom and power and glory of God.

If salt doesn't enhance the flavor of other food it is worthless.  If light fails to reveal something hidden, it is worthless.  In the same way, if you're a hoarder, you're worthless. If the Church is known for hoarding, it is worthless.

The most powerful and wise thing you can do is to give your life to enhance others, especially those who can't pay you back. 

If you do this, you are wise and powerful. You are salt and light.  You are what the Church is meant to be known for.  You reflect the glory of God.

Are you known for being lightly salted?

+mj  

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