am I guilty for George Floyd's death?

Homily

Solemnity of Pentecost A

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

31 May 2020

AMDG +JMJ +m

Am I guilty for George Floyd's death?

The quick answer is no.  It's not my fault.

The right answer is yes.

There's a piece of the evil that fell on George Floyd's neck,

that could have fallen on mine instead.

Beyond all the takes, angles, politics and emotions surrounding another horrible part of 2020,

there's a piece of the evil that fell on George Floyd's neck,

that is meant to be suffered by me instead.

Let's get right into it, then.

There's an portion of the evil that is in the world,

that is destined to fall on me.

An evil that sometimes I don't choose, 

but other times I do.

an evil that is just part of the way things are.

An evil that I cannot ultimately avoid.

Many evils I can avoid, and should. - by being careful, safe and prudent -

Jesus escaped a few times himself, living to fight another day.

Other times he spoke up and called evil out!

There were times he confronted demons and healed natural evils,

fighting back with force.

But the greatest evils? The moral ones?

It was those that he suffered.

The greatest evils are defeated by victims,

those who take in and absorb evil willingly,

who transform it by mercy,

by drawing closer to enemies,

by forgiving those who persecute,

by enduring wrongs with love and perseverance.

The greatest evils are defeated in just this way.

Jesus shows me how, then trusts me to do likewise.

This is Jesus' paschal mystery,

defeating evil with mercy,

brought to fulfillment in His Church at Pentecost,

It's Jesus mission, and His way,

sealed and strengthened in His mystical body the Church,

by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit

Does anybody out there think that 2020 needs a fresh outpouring of God's Holy Spirit?  I sure do!

Come Holy Spirit, come!

In your 7-fold gift descend!

This Pentecost more powerfully than ever!

For 2020 has me not knowing what to do or how to live!  This year is crazy. It's awful.

I need wisdom, understanding, knowledge and counsel to see, feel, think and decide as God does.  I need to receive and celebrate life and relationship with God through piety and wonder.

But most of all I need a new, big refreshing mammoth dose of courage to live dangerously.

Because Jesus' Spirit kicks me out of the locked room of my fear

and dares me to go into the heart of evil and transform hate with love.

Come, Holy Spirit of courage, come!

This Pentecost refresh my frightened heart!

There's nothing wrong with being careful, safe and prudent instead of reckless.

Yet it does not replace the necessity for living courageously!

If there's anything we've learned in 2020,

it's that distance and isolation may preserve existence,

but in the end they define death.

For separation is unequal, and avoiding each other is what ultimately kills.

The Holy Spirit beckons us to draw closer,

for only reconciliation, togetherness and relationship beget life!

There's an evil inherent to life that we cannot avoid.

There's a danger inherent to life that we reject to our own peril.

So Jesus calls his disciples beyond being careful and safe.

And sends His Holy Spirit in the hope that we,

his mystical body, would be the most courageous heroes the world has ever seen.

the willing victims of an evil,

that can only be defeated and transformed

by Divine Mercy.

Is there a piece of the evil that fell on George Floyd's neck,

that only I can suffer, swallow up and transform by love?

The easy answer is no.

The right answer is yes.

Come Holy Spirit, give me the courage to seal and strengthen this witness that Jesus has entrusted to me!

Come Holy Spirit, Come!

am I scared of heights?

Homily

Solemnity of the Ascension

24 May 2020

St. Lawrence Catholic Center at the University of Kansas

AMDG +JMJ +m

Am I scared of heights?

You bet I am.  It's my #1 fear.  Most of my nightmares end with me falling!  Thank God I sleep alone, so no one hears my screaming!  Airplanes are fine.  Hiking 14ers ok - unless there's are ledges and high winds.  But cliffs - hate 'em.  Bungee jumping.  negative!  Skydiving?  No thanks. Rock Climbing - hell no.  I watched Free Solo last night in preparation for this homily - Alex Honnold - free soloing El Capitan in Yosemite?  Are you kidding me?  That guy is insane!  I'm too chicken to even like trampolines.  This white man neither jumps nor dunks.

Am I afraid of heights?  It's our pivotal question for the Ascension.

Heck yes I am!  Aren't you?

They worshiped on the mountain, but they doubted!  Sounds like me.  I trust the rule of gravity completely.  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.  Whatever goes down, must go up!

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

Today He shows that He's even better at going up - at climbing!  Jesus takes everything encompassed in his free fall - every second of salvation history and every 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, in the middle of the relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Jesus knows how to make a climb for someone He loves.

Jesus now works from home - but not only his home, but also from my dream home!  He dares me to follow, to climb, and to come to my true home.  He who once was happy to descend to where I am, now dares me to climb where He is.

Don't stare at the sky though, the angel says.  Jesus is still with you, closer than ever actually, for his Ascension paves the way for an even more daring free fall that is the descent of the Holy Spirit.  Every second of salvation history and every ounce of Jesus' saving mysteries taken up in the Ascension will in 9 days descends even more radically from Heaven once again into the mystical time of the liturgy and the mystical body of the Church and Her sacraments.

Jesus works from home, but home is not in a galaxy far, far away.  Home is right here, at this liturgy, where earth is taken up into heaven in a greater ascent than our first fall from Eden.

And this is how love and life works.  For death, what goes up must come down.  For love and life, what goes down, must go up.  Love is not a one-way street, where the lover simply lowers Himself in death, compassion and mercy, but even moreso love heals, fills up, inspires, enlivens, ennobles and elevates the beloved!  The law of the Resurrection and Ascension is what prevails - life is stronger than death - that what goes down, must be lifted up!

So, am I afraid of heights?  I've had the worst Easter if the answer is yes.  For today's liturgy is nothing if it is not my willingness to embark beyond my fears on the most dangerous climb of my life - to use the descent of the Holy Spirit to give me clear vision of my highest destiny.  Our veterans who went to die for our country didn't die so that we could sit scared at home.  No, we honor them by living like Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati taught us -by going verso l'alto - to the heights!  If Mass doesn't make me nervous, if it's not the biggest risk of my life to ascend, then I'm missing the point.

The climb in front of us is into the very heart of God, into the fullness of relationship.  For Eden from whence we fell is less of a place and more of a relationship.  So too heaven, to where now we are invited to go up, is less of a destination and more of a person.  This climb, surely the scariest one that defines my life, is to dare to become like Him, more capable of relationship with Him as his child, more courageous in pursuing my highest destiny.  

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 faith, hope and love, by the rules of the Resurrection and Ascension, that what goes down, must go up!

The pivotal question thus stares me in the face, and cuts me to the heart, at this pivotal moment of Easter.  Am I afraid of heights?  The only answer for a disciple is no.

how will you dare to stand out?

Homily

6th Sunday of Easter

Graduation Sunday

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

17 May 2020

AMDG +JMJ +m

Congratulations Catholic Jayhawks! On your virtual/pseudo graduation.  I am so glad that at least some of us can be here in person!

Class of 2020, how will you dare to stand out?

KU Catholics aren't like everyone else.

At least I hope we aren't.  That would be so boring!

With all bias confessed, I think KU Catholics are the best.

My dream is that Catholic Jayhawks are the most courageous people the world has ever seen.

COVID 19 Class of 2020, how will you dare to stand out?

And I don't mean by infamously having your graduation canceled during a pandemic.

I don't mean missing your chance to walk down the hill.

I mean that I dare you to take more risks that I have.

Not reckless or selfish ones, but the risks inherent to your faith!

Yes, I dare you to go farther in faith than me.

To go beyond that impressive legacy of KU Catholics who have already borne great fruit.

I like to think of St. Lawrence as the Napa Valley of campus ministry.

I want you to be the best vintage in history

You got next.  Starting today.

And I dare you to fly higher, Catholic Jayhawks.

The best gift St. Lawrence can give you,

is our faith that you can, and you will.

COVID Class of 2020.

Your last semester was a raw deal.

The world your are entering is being torn apart.

I am sorry. It's not supposed to be this way.

Yet what makes you different,

is that absurd hope beyond hope that is in you precisely when life is going to shreds.

St. Peter says that when everyone else is predicting the worst and playing politics,

real Christians dare to stand out.

They show mercy to anyone who doesn't understand them.

And they give reasons for the hope that is in them.

Real Christians know the story and history of salvation,

that God never abandons His creation or his covenants,

but draws near and does his best work in the face of adversity.

My dear KU graduates, if you have made it to this holy Mass,

it's because you have already grown in learning the power of your faith,

and a love that conquers all things,

at a time when you were most at risk of discarding it.

All the moreso now, a world that is hurting, needs your class

to give reasons for the hope that is in you.

What hope do I mean?

I mean the hope of the family you belong to and the worldview you hold.

Your hope that as a disciple of Jesus your best story will be passionate like His, through suffering that comes from conflict and adversity.

Your hope that the crimson of KU reaches its deepest hue in the blood flowing from His sacred Heart, flooding your soul and all creation with mercy.

Your hope that you will only wave the wheat at the end of your life insofar as make a gift of your life, as that grain that falls to the ground and dies.

Your hope that the vision engraved on your KU diploma, of a bush that burns but is not consumed, is sealed even more by the fire of the Holy Spirit dwelling in you.

Your hope that under the mantle of our Blessed Mother, the ultimate alma mater, your life will always tower toward the blue of heaven.

I mean that hope that is within you.

Class of 2020, fueled by that absurd hope against hope,

how will you dare to stand out?

I don't mean to get too sappy today, but I want to see your Rock Chalk Chant rising far above the phog of witnesses like me who have gone before you.

Thank you for trusting St. Lawrence to guide your story.

Your family the Church loves you and believes in you.

May the wonderful work God has begun in you be brought to fulfillment.

I hope at St. Lawrence we have given you more than a Catholic identity.

I pray that we guided you to a new capacity for writing a great story with your life.

I trust that the commandments of Jesus which you embrace,

are the launching pad of heroic journey.

So it's time to dare you, to take more risks than I have.

I dare you Catholic Jayhawks, to fly higher.

Our best gift is not the champagne and donuts waiting for you after Mass,

but it's our faith that you can, and you will.

COVID-19 Class of 2020,

our dear KU Catholics,

show us now - how will you dare to stand out?

how would you describe God?

He looks at me.

It's my favorite line from Mary's great hymn - her Magnificat.

He looks at me.

It's what St. John Vianney, the greatest priest says about prayer.

He looks at me.

It's my favorite way to describe God,

which is our pivotal question for this week.

How would you describe God?

He looks at me.

I got this from my mom - Mary.

Do you think it strange that Mary never goes looking for her Risen Son?

In the Gospels, we haven't heard from her since Good Friday - since the cross.

Five weeks of Easter now, and no mention of Mary in the Easter story.  How strange.

She has to be the key disciple of Easter.

She's always the best disciple.

Where in the heck is she?

Doesn't she have FOMO regarding the Resurrection?

Mary was the first eyewitness of so much.  The Anunication, Visitation, Nativity, Presentation, Finding. 

Jesus' first and last signs - Cana and the Calvary.  She saw it all.

But the Resurrection and Ascension - where the heck are you mom?

Did you go into hiding?

Hardly - Mary is the worst at hiding.

If she's not searching, it's because She knows God is searching for her.

He looks for me. He looks at me.  .

She always lets God find her.  She always lets God look at her.

That's who She is.

It's the work that makes her the greatest of all time.

So our mother waits to be found by the Resurrection of Her son.

She is not an eyewitness.

Instead she is one better - she is the one Jesus means when He says Blessed are those who have not see but have believed.

Mary did her seeking early on - getting in her question long before the Resurrection - at the Annunication.

How can this be?

The Holy Spirit will find you.  He will look at you, and through that look you will become the dwelling place of God.

Deal.  You can look at me. I will let you find me.  Let it be done to me.

Mary doesn't need to see to believe - she walks by faith.

He sees me.  That is enough for me.

Mary teaches that to be seen is the key to seeing.

Being known is the key to knowing.

He looks at me.

Mary is the key disciple of Easter, even though she is not an eyewitness.

For she receives the Risen Christ just like you and I do.

By faith more than by sight.

By letting God look at her, then make His dwelling in her,

just like we do in the Eucharist that is our Easter duty.

What is more, Mary receives the Risen Christ better than any eyewitness disciple.

She outwardly missed the resurrection and ascension,

but is the first to receive these mysteries in faith.

For the same Holy Spirit that first conceived Jesus in her,

at Pentecost delivers the Risen Christ to his best disciple.

Strangely, the one who does not see,

is the first to rise bodily with Him through Her glorious assumptoin,

and receives her crown in the place prepared by Him for his mom

in His Father's house.

I can't blame Thomas and Philip for straining their eyes to see.

Prove it Jesus.  Show us Jesus.

But Mary has chosen the better part.

For the key to seeing is to let yourself be seen.

He looks at me.

Nobody will have a better Easter than Jesus' best disciple.

Or a better Mother Day for that matter.

By letting God gaze on her lowliness,

Mary accomplishes the greater work of which Jesus speaks today.

She does something Her son never will.

She becomes a mother.

He looks at me,

and through that look exalts Her to be the Mother of God. 

In Easter, and on Mother's Day, Jesus certainly says.

Look at my mom.

We know how she in turn describes God.

He looks at me.

Mary, my mother, pray for me.

That your way will always be my favorite way to describe God.

He looks at me.

where next?

Homily

Wednesday 4th Week of Easter AII

AMDG +JMJ +m

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

Where do I go next?

A tough question for our graduates to answer.

What a crummy year to graduate.

Very little closure, very little sending off.

The economy is tanking.

20+20=40.  It's a long Lenten desert journey for this year's class.

Yet transitions come what may.

We have to try make them as best we can.

Transitions take discernment, detachment, faith and courage.

The community at Antioch used fasting and worship.

Seems to me the best place to make decisions is at Mass.

Paul and Barnabas were part of a great community at Antioch.

One that they worked tirelessly to build.

But it was time to hit the road.

That time comes for every disciple

for every disciple is also an apostle.

Our Samuel Group here at St. Lawrence is dedicated

to helping discern where to go next.

Transitions come what may.

They're not often easy.

Yet avoiding them leads to frustration and confusion.

So let's instead embrace the question in faith.

Where do I go next?

what are you eating?

Homily
Monday of the 4th Week of Easter
4 May 2020
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
AMDG +JMJ +m


What am I eating?
Who am I eating with?

What am I eating?
Who am I eating with?

What am I eating?
Who am I eating with?

These are questions I can never ask enough.
For I am what I eat.
I am the sum total of the people that I eat with.

It's at the heart of Catholicism.
I am the bread of life.
My flesh is true food.  My blood is true drink.

It's at the heart of all God's covenants,
which are always prescribed by what to eat and with whom.

It's at the heart of Jesus' ministry
so many of his signs involved food.

Finally, as Peter is reminded today,
relationship through food is at the heart of evangelization too.
You can eat what the Gentiles eat.

 May I never tire of asking myself the question.
What am I eating?
Who am I eating with?
And why?

who is the loudest voice in your life?

Homily
4th Sunday of Easter - Good Shepherd Sunday AII
World Day of Prayer for Vocations
3 May 2020
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
AMDG +JMJ +m

Who is the loudest voice in your life?

Let's see.  How about a morning trip around my phone?  I always start with gmail and calendar.  Then my weather app.  Then onto social media - twitter, instagram, facebook, youtube and tiktok - yes, sorry, tik tok.  Then sports apps - ESPN, the Athletic, Jayhawks, Royals, Chiefs and Sporting.  Then the news apps - Topeka Capitol-Journal, Lawrence Journal-World, Kansas City Star, CNN.  It takes two hours and a pot of coffee to scroll through it all.

Even in my holy hour that comes next I use my phone for my daily prayers and devotions.  Thankfully I put the phone down for adoration, the rosary and Mass.
Only to pick it up again for another lap around the social media apps at lunch.
I'm on gmail and calendar all day.
Finally before bed a final lap around the social media apps, then if time some entertainment - YouTube TV, Amazon Prime, Netflix (but no Tiger King), Kindle - and on a good night, the phone mercifully gives way to a hard copy of a book.

Who is the loudest voice in my life?  That's the pivotal question on this Good Shepherd Sunday.
The largest voice in my life is surely my phone.
The loudest voice is FOMO.  Why else would I give in to this dopamine drip of distraction that is my life, unless I was ultimately afraid of not knowing something.

That's a lot already about voices.  What about this gate that Jesus speaks of?  We know Jesus to be the most unique voice in history, and Himself the Good Shepherd who becomes like the sheep and lays down His life for them.

Yet in today's passage from John He calls Himself none of those things - not the voice, not the lamb - not the shepherd.

I am the gate. I am the gate.  I am the gate.  He says it three times!

Jesus presents Himself today as a mechanism for discernment.  The gate is the instrument that reject the noise of fake news that robs and destroys, and admits voices that cut to the heart and give life in abundance.

I am the gate.  Time with Jesus in prayer is thus a gate that can filter what voices I admit or reject.    What if I applied this filter of prayer to my phone?

More specifically, the Eucharist which is Jesus Himself, is the gate of discernment for the moves of my life, when to enter in and when to leave.

As vocation director, I always told seminarians to only make big decisions on where to go next in the three minutes after they receive Jesus fully in the Eucharist.  Why?  Because He wants to be the gate through which we move safely into life in abundance!

 At this gate of course I hear the voice of the Good Shepherd - this is my body broken for you, my blood poured out for you.  But even moreso today, I am invited to fall in love with the standards enforced at this gate!

Of all the loud voices in my life, only the voice that knows me, desires life in abundance for me, cuts me to the heart, and will lay down its life for me is admitted. All other voices are filtered out at this gate that is Jesus Himself in the Eucharist.

So if the loudest voice in my life is FOMO, I'm invited precisely at this gate to trade the dopamine drip of distraction that is making me deaf and killing me, to listen only for a voice that tells me what I really don't know - the way that leads to abundant life.

It is at the Eucharist that I want to answer the question anew.

Who is the loudest voice in my life?

whose side am I on?

Homily
Saturday of the 3rd Week of Easter AII
+Athanasius
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
2 May 2020
AMDG +JMJ +m

Whose side am I on?

Should Mass remain closed or be reopened?
Is Jesus man or God?
Can we gnaw on Jesus' flesh and drink His blood or not?

Whose side am I on?
Things can get political really quickly!  And they almost always do.

They did for St. Athanasius. He as bishop was thrown out of his diocese 5 times during the Arian controversy.  How's that for Church politics?  Athanasius was on the conservative side, on defense.  Trying to preserve the orthodox teaching of Nicaea.

Arius was on the liberal side, and was winning the popular vote in a landslide.

But Athanasius never went away.
Because He was on the Holy Spirit's side.
Thank God for him, who preserved true faith in Jesus by which the Father draws us.

The Holy Spirit is the one who transcends politics.
Who's right, who's wrong?  Who's left, who's right?
The Holy Spirit preserves the both/and principle of Catholicism.

Jesus is both human and divine.
So is His Church.
She is both liberal and conservative.
Her Eucharist is both sign and reality.
She both has the truth and grows in Her understanding of it.
She is both holy and in need of purification.

Most often, the truth, the virtue, the grace - they're in the middle.
The Holy Spirit draws us to them.

St. Athanasius is on the side of the Holy Spirit.

Whose side am I on?