Who is knocking at the door of your heart?

Homily

1st Sunday of Advent C1

1 December 2024

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village

AMDG

Who is knocking at the door of your heart?

It can be terrifying when someone knocks on the door by surprise.  Actually very few of us get excited for a surprise visit.  We are scared that we are not ready, and that we might be vulnerable and out of control.  One of my most depressing days as chaplain at KU was when at an evangelization meeting, we asked how many students knew their neighbor, or the person sitting next to them in class.  We were talking about the art of relationship, and the best ways to introduce one's self and to start a conversation.  Very few college students knew the persons they were in close proximity to, so I asked them why.  They told me it was dangerous to introduce yourself, for once someone knows who you are, they can stalk you and harm you.  It's safer to be anonymous, they said.

The conversation broke my heart.  I get what they were saying.  We live in a dangerous world, and you have to be careful who you interact with. So many people get harmed by situations when they assume the other person is safe, and they're not.  Yet still, our ultimately security is knowing the people around us, and building trust. Social distancing, and avoiding, escaping and hiding from each other, is certain death.  For we are made for relationship, and the deepest problems we all face can't be solved by self-reliance.  We need each other, and a relationship with God.  Our deepest security, and best chance for new life and more life, is if someone want to know and love and serve us, if someone is knocking on the door of our heart.

Advent announces the best news ever!  Our Lord is coming to save us, and is knocking on the door of my heart!  The one who alone brings new life, new hope, and can make all things new by the greatness of his mercy, is coming. He has come, is coming now, and will come again!  The Lord our Savior has come in history, is coming in mystery and will come in majesty, to redeem my past, my present and my forever!  Of all people knocking at my heart, his visit is the most urgent, the most powerful and the most hopeful.  How do I respond to this incredible news?  This is the great question of Advent.

The scriptures today name where my heart is, and perhaps yours as well!  I am afraid.  I am desperately afraid.  I am terrified of this Jesus who is knocking on the door of my heart.  My Advent prayer is rarely to beg Jesus to come closer, and to come sooner, and to actually mean it.  Instead, it is a constant plea that I am not ready, and that He is a threat to my control and self-reliance.  My prayer is usually to tell Jesus not now, and to leave me alone!

The one thing I most need to break out of the way I am now, and to live for more, is the thing I most fear.  Jesus is standing at the door of my heart, knocking on this first day of Advent.  How will I respond to His coming anew this Advent?

+mj

Who is in control?

Homily

34th and Last Sunday in Ordinary Time B2

Solemnity of Christ the King

24 November 2024

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village, KS

AMDG

Who is in control?

We just had a dramatic election about who should be in control of this country.  As it goes with the things of this fallen world, the rhetoric was riddled with fear-mongering.  So many people are afraid the world is spinning out of control, toward destruction.  That's probably because it is, and always will be.  The world as we know it, though exceedingly good, is broken at its core, doomed to destruction, and there is an enemy determined to make all things end in death.  There is reason to be anxious, and scared.  It's not only in politics and the economy, it's in our personal lives all the more.  I doubt there are too many people in this room who feel in control, who feel absolutely safe.  I would bet instead that most everyone is fearful about something, and experiencing a lack of control.

So who is in control?

For the Solemnity of Christ the King, we have this dramatic encounter between a prisoner and a governor, between Jesus and Pilate.  So critical is Pilate in the economy of salvation, that he appears in the creeds of the Church.  Yes, that's right, the three persons of the Trinity, Mary and you guessed it, Pontius Pilate appear in the creeds.  This conversation we hear in the Gospel is critical.  Who is in control in this critical exchange?  Remarkably, it's not Pilate.  The one who has the power to crucify or release Jesus is the one scared out of his mind.  The one with all the worldly power, with an army to back him up, is the most scared person in the world in the face of a true King, even as that king is bound in chains, scourged, condemned and seemingly overcome with weakness.

Who is in control?

Jesus of course in His passion shows that real kingly power looks like.  The one who is in control, and who participates in the true and everlasting kingdom of heaven, is the Lamb that is slain, the one who can give His life away in self-sacrificial and suffering love.  Blessed are those, happy are those, in control are those who are persecuted for the sake of truth and righteousness, for theirs in the Kingdom of heaven.  

Jesus toys with Pilate in this exchange, necessarily mocking Pilate's power through subversive questions, exposing the fear of anyone who is desperately hanging on to control and power according to the ways of the world.  Jesus in his passion is the ultimate revolutionary, overturning the power of this and forever changing how the world truly works, by his self-sacrificing and suffering love.

So you too are His children, incorporated through baptism into His suffering and death, receiving the dignity of being a kingdom of priests!  Members of this Kingdom enjoy through Jesus our King the happiness of claiming thorns as our true crown and the cross as our true throne.  No one has greater love nor power than this, to lay down one's life on this altar with Christ, through Christ and in Christ.  We share in the power to forever change how the world works, and to build a kingdom where a love stronger than death reigns forever.

It's the last Sunday of this liturgical year.  Twelve months ago, when we started this journey of faith, did you want to participate more fully in a kingdom where thorns are your true crown and the cross is your true throne?  Twelve months from now, will I be more free to recognize where true power lies, and embrace my opportunity to lose my own control and to place my suffering and the sacrifice of my life within the priestly sacrifice of Christ, my true King.

Who is really in control?

How do I go to bed?

Homily

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time B2

17 November 2024

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village 

AMDG

How do I go to bed?

I'm really terrible at it.  I can't think of anybody worse.  I can't remember the last time I got ready for bed in a thoughtful way.  I usually complete my prayers much earlier in the day, as early as possible.  I usually limp home, after having worked as hard as possible, seeking some comfort and entertainment to cope with another day of exhaustion and survival.  Then I pass out, until I'm jolted by an alarm as early as possible the next day.

It's not a recipe for eternal life!

At the penultimate weekend of our liturgical year, it's of enormous importance for us to focus on how we end our days.  For in the new order inaugurated by the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ, the end is the beginning.  How we die determines exactly how we will live.  So how we go to bed is how we will wake up the next day.

You know this to be true. So do I, but I'd like to ignore it.  The end of our liturgical year, and our focus on the apocalypse and end times, however, remind us powerfully that it does no good to pretend that we will live forever.  It does no good to put off til tomorrow what must be done today.  It does no good to ignore the reality that we are what we eat, that our character and destiny is the sum of our actions, and that we live only as we die.

Christ couldn't have taught us more clearly, could he, by word and example, that only those who know what they are dying for will live forever.  The altar then, which is both a tomb and a bed, is the center of our faith, and our constant rehearsal and preparation for how things will be forever.  If we have died with Christ, and our life is now vertical, not horizontal, hidden with Christ in God, so we are confident we shall reign and live with Him, through Him and in Him forever!

This confidence is only ours if we know how to go to bed well!  I've never liked the vigil Mass on Saturday, for I'm a morning person not a night person, or at least I like to think I am.  

What way will I go?

Homily

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time B2

27 October 2024

St. Ann Catholic Church Prairie Village

AMDG

What way will I choose? My way, or THE way?

Jesus tells Bartimaus at the end of his Gospel to go on his way.  Bartimaus instead follows Him on THE way?  What way will I choose?

I can't stand beggars.  In fact, I'm terrified of them.  I bet you are too.  Beggars are incredibly annoying.  I'm rarely ready to encounter them.  I'm not sure how to help, yet haunted by Jesus' saying to give to everyone who asks.  I usually conclude that I will pray for them, while concluding that allowing begging is enabling and dangerous.

I'm really annoyed by people that beg for a living.  Monday night I was asked to celebrate Mass for the Little Sister of the Lamb, a religious community from France that have established a convent and monastery in KCK.  I don't like to go there, but I suppose I chant their liturgy better than some other priests.  They are also concerned for my soul, which is why they keep inviting me.  They are professional beggars.  I can't say no.

These mendicants are annoyingly humble and small.  Around their necks they wear a wooden lamb, engraved with the words 'Wounded, I will never cease to love.' What a crazy way to live.  They live the Gospel precisely as Jesus teaches it.  They compromise on nothing. They don't have real jobs.  Their favorite thing to do is to beg from the violent, and even for prisoners. They intentionally live in dangerous neighborhoods, and prefer to hitchhike, while remaining unharmed and creating peace wherever they live.  

Because of their faith and love and courage, they are more secure than you and me, living in the Prairie Village bubble.

It's annoying as all get out, and terrifying.  I told them as much while I was there.  I asked why they kept inviting me, since they know I hate it so much and am terrified of poverty.  The lead sister said "We know, Father,, and we love you.  You're scared of poverty because you're so deeply attracted to it?"

I was so embarrassed that she read my soul so easily that I wanted to throw a fit and storm out of the room.  I hated that she was right. There's nothing more attractive, free, compelling, disarming or magnanimous that living the Gospel.  It's THE way that Jesus taught.

Bartimaus threw off his old cloak of sitting by the roadside to spring up and go beg Jesus, as annoyingly as He could.  If only I could start Mass with the same fervor, asking Jesus three times as Bartimaus did, to have mercy on me, a sinner.

Instead my prayer is to leave me alone, to let me try to fix everything myself, to let me be the exception to the human experience of vulnerability.  I just want to do things my way, instead of begging Jesus and all of you to forgive me, and to help me.

I'm terrified of begging because I'm so deeply attracted to it.  Still, I'll do almost anything to keep from being one, even though beggars always the heroes of the Gospel, of THE way that leads to new life.  

What way will I go from here?  My way or THE way?

+mj 

Who has paid the price for you?

Homily

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time B2

St. Ann Catholic Church  - Prairie Village, KS

20 October 2024

World Mission Sunday

Who has paid the price for you?

I don't know if your life has ever been saved before, but mine sure has, over and over and over again.  I'm an inattentive driver, and always push the limits, and drive on an empty tank, so I know my guardian angels have had to work a lot of overtime.  I need to tip them well if I get to heaven!  The spend themselves for me, and pay the price for my life.

There are countless others, starting with my parents who sacrificed everything to have a family, and to give me life.  So many people have prayed for me and supported me and believed in me, especially when I haven't been worthy of it.  I'm alive and here today because of all of them, because of all of you.  Left to my own, I would have made different choices, but my life and my soul have been redeemed. So many people have paid the price for me.  

A few years ago, I was invited to play golf, but I turned it down because I had an important therapy appointment that I couldn't afford to miss if I wanted to stay healthy.  The guy who invited me initially poked fun, hinting that going to therapy was soft, and that the only therapy I really needed was an afternoon with the boys.  

The next day though, the guy called me and asked for the number of my therapist.  Not for himself, mind you, but so that he could pay for my therapy for a year.  His comment the day earlier bothered him a lot, for he had always been a friend who had asked what he could do to support me, and when I said what I needed, he had poked fun.  He realized that he now he had a chance to die to himself so that I could live.  He paid not only for that year, but for the next as well, a bill that totaled $10,000.  If you every wonder how much it costs to keep Fr. Mitchel healthy, now you know the number.

Who has paid the price for you?  I've confessed to many of you already that there was a time not that long ago that I was spiritually lost and morally dead, and I didn't care.  Yet the Lord had given me people who wouldn't quit on me, most notably my last two spiritual directors.  I've apologized to both for being so stubborn, so whiny, so hard to work with.  The first responded that if I was a faithful priest for just one more day, it was worth all the time we had spent trying to save my soul.  The second, after giving up his summer vacation to direct me in the spiritual exercises for 30 days, thanked me for having a front row seat to see how Jesus Christ fiercely ransoms a soul from death.

I've been ransomed from death.  How about you?  Who has paid the price for your life?

I wish St. Maximilian Kolbe was running for the next president of the United States.  Kolbe lived precisely as Jesus direct us in the Gospel, that whoever wishes to be first among us will join Jesus in taking the lowest place as a slave, and in giving his life as a ransom for many.  Kolbe like Jesus our high priest was able to sympathize with weakness.  He stepped forward to ransom the life of a young dad at Auschwitz by being executed in his stead.

St. Maximilian Kolbe is not on the ballot this year; still, each of us must vote to advance the common good and a more just society in the coming weeks.  It is a grave responsibility of ours to form our consciences and to make sure we are not voting to advance any fundamental or intrinsic evils, sins against the sanctity of human life or the dignity of human nature, marriage and the family.  In the absence of a great choice, we must be innocent yet cunning, and find a way to do the least harm.  To not vote or to vote wrongly is to give up on our neighbor and to despair of God's will being done on earth as it is in heaven. 

Still, the most urgent thing in the coming weeks will not change based on the outcome of a political election.  The most urgent thing is for me to know who has paid the price so that I can live, and to pray for the grace to give my life in turn through Jesus, with Jesus and in Jesus, as a ransom for many.

+mj  

What's my most treasured possession?

Homily

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time B2

13 October 2024

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village

AMDG

What is my most treasured possession?

I didn't really want to talk about sports this weekend, since I'm so heartbroken still about the Royals losing to the Yankees this week.  Yet something happened Friday that I have to tell you.  I saw a Holy-In-One.

Jon Arkin from our parish cut the corner on the 349 yard par 4 4th hole at Milburn Country Club on Friday afternoon, and did something that has never been done before in the 107 year history of Milburn He made a miraculous shot, and since a priest was there to see it, it may forever be known as the holy-in-one.

It was one of those incredible moments you never think you would see in 100 lifetimes.  It was an impossible shot, a camel through the the eye of a needle  kind of incredible.  A veritable albatross, double eagle, from 349 yards away.  I'm still incredulous.  No no no no way.

Chris Goodger was there, and he said something on the next tee that I'll never forget.  Chris said that this holy-in-one could not have happened to a better bunch of guys. At first. I thought that was such a silly thing to say, and I teased him for it.  It's was Jon's shot, not a group effort.  He's the only one who hit the ball.  But the more I thought about it, Chris said the right thing.  The best thing about this holy-in-one is that it happened within a group of guys who cared about each other, and were doing life and faith together.  Everybody felt so blessed to share the experience, and each of us was happier for Jon than if it had happened for one of us.

In short, the holy-in-one wouldn't have meant nearly as much if Jon didn't have someone there to share it with.  The holy-in-one couldn't have happened to a better group of guys.  Chris was right.  I learned a lesson from Chris - how about that?

What's your most treasured possession?  Jesus is clear in today's Gospel.  It's the people we get to do life and faith with, those we care about and show up for. A lot of us say our most treasured possession is our family, and that's a tremendous answer.  Yet Jesus is offering us 100x more family.  He says our true family is those we get to do faith with, the people who live together within the mystery of his passion.  Anybody that loves anything or anybody more than than the chance to do life together through Him, with Him, and in Him, is not worthy of Him.

Jesus calls us beyond our nuclear families into the family gathered around this altar of sacrifice, and around his passion.  As we suffer and die together, so we live together.  The guys I played golf with all said that going through the Journey retreat here at St. Ann has made the biggest impact on their faith, because it gave them people to do real life with through faith and through the passion of Jesus.  The guys have learned the lesson that Jesus was trying to teach the rich young man in today's Gospel?  What would it profit a man to have the whole world, but not have somebody to share it with.

What's my most treasured possession?  It's actually you, St. Ann, the people that I get to do real life and faith with.  Through you Jesus has given me 100x more than I could ever acquire on my own.  You are my most treasured possession, and Jesus' gift to me.  

What's your most treasured possession?  If we take Jesus at his word, it might be St. Ann.  How wise would we be if we really believed this?

+mj  

Can I be trusted to do my job?

Homily

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time B2

29 September 2024

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village, KS

AMDG

Can I be trusted to do my job?

Guess what?  Everyone here today has a job!  Everyone has a role, a vocation.  By virtue of your baptism, you are each and all a priest, prophet and king!  It is out tremendous dignity to offer the sacrifice of our lives in and through the passion of Jesus Christ our High Priest, to participate in and make visible his Kingdom so that many can belong to it, and to give witness to his truth and love that defeats great evils and serves our neighbor. 

There is more. Each of us is a temple of God's love, for the Holy Spirit dwells in us, and if you have been confirmed, that Holy Spirit has been deepened, strengthened and sealed in all its fullness within you.  You have a missionary and prophetic character stamped on your soul!

There is even more.  Each of us is an integral member of the body of Christ, and no member can say to another I do not need you.  Each of you is critically important.  Each of us matters infinitely.  Each of us has a job is the most amazing mission ever attempted, the final defeat of sin and death through the passion of Jesus Christ. As the Father sent me, so I send you?  Yes, that's right, He sends you!

So, can I be trusted to do my job?

I choose to trust each and every member of of St. Ann's to do their job, and I don't ever want to know any differently.  That's my choice, now and forever as your pastor, to not give up on anyone the Lord has given me.  I not only need you to do your job.  I trust you to do your job.  Jesus first believes in you, so how can I not?  As the Father has sent Him, so He sends you!  Who am I to tell Jesus he's trusting the wrong person?  I tell Him all the time that He has the worst plan, but He doesn't budget.  He asks me to trust Him as He trusts me.  So I will.

Ned Yost taught me in 2014-15 how to trust others.  I'm a Royals nut.  Thank God we can talk about their return to the playoffs instead of the Jayhawks this weekend.  When the Royals made the playoffs for the first time in 30 year sin 2014, I wore a blue vestment with a crown above a monogrammed 'M' on the Feast of our Lady of Victory, our Lady of the Rosary.  It was the all-school Mass and the Royals were playing that day.  I asked the students who the 'M' stood for - and a third grader yelled out - Moustakas!  He was wrong - it stood for Mary - but I'll never forget it.

Anyway, Ned Yost trusted every member of those Royals championship teams to keep the line moving.  I thought Ned Yost was a terrible manager.  I was sure he was always trusting the wrong guys, and putting them in the wrong roles.  I disagreed with almost every critical decision he made.  Yet I was wrong.  Ned trusted against all odds that everyone could know their role, and do their job.  The result was a series of miraculous come back from the dead victories, because everyone kept the line moving!

It's a great metaphor for St. Ann.  I choose to trust each of you to know your role and do your job.  It's really not that hard, but I can make it so sometimes when I only trust myself, or a select few favorites.  Yet Jesus against all odds trusts me, and you, so how can I not?  He couldn't be clearer. When we show up and encourage one another in faith, we build heaven.  When we cancel or fail to show up for each other, or give bad example, we build hell.

The precepts of the Church are so easy, it's embarrassing when we don't follow them. Show up for practice every time.  Put your life on the altar. Give your best.  Pray and fast together, and restore trust through confession when trust is broken.  If we do these very simple things, we cannot fail to defeat the worst evils of our times.  St. Ann will fulfill its destiny to be light for the world and to give the fullness of life we have through Christ Jesus our Lord to each other.

Jesus says do whatever it takes to know your role and do your job.  He believe we are all prophets!  Can I be trusted to do my job?  Jesus trust you, and so do I!

+mj

Is it really about the kids?

Homily

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time B2

22 September 2024

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village, KS

AMDG

Is it really about the kids?

For St. Ann's parish to fulfill its destiny, we must raise magnificent children.  It comes up in my prayer all the time.  It's our namesake legacy, for St. Ann was the mother of a child whose soul magnified the Lord!  St. Ann is the grandmother of Jesus, who gave us his little disciples, his children, the glory that He has with His Father in heaven.  What a compelling word - magnanimity - greatness of soul!  St. Ann's must not fail to raise the most magnificent children.  This includes children of all ages, for Jesus teaches so clearly, that unless each and all of us turn and becomes as a child - small, vulnerable and dependent - we will not enter the kingdom of heaven.  If we fail to see God and ourselves in our children, we will lose our souls.

It's easy to say it's all about the kids, but is this what St. Ann's is really known for, and what do we mean when we talk about raising magnanimous children.  It can't be about spoiling them, or only about insulating them from how life really is.  It has to be about teaching them courage by example, for greatness of soul, magnanimity, is the precise fruit of the passion of Jesus, His suffering and death.  The new, full, abundant and eternal life offered ultimately through Jesus Christ - true holiness and greatness - comes only through a tenacious participation in his paschal mystery.

Jesus is always inviting us his little ones into his passion.  But like the first disciples, we still don't get it.  We don't understand, and are reduced to silence in the face of His passion.  Instead of being meaner than hell, we too easily get scared to death.  When was the last time I faced adversity, suffering and danger with tenacity?  In our fallen world, everyone has to go through hell, one way or another, and nobody gets out of here alive.  So Jesus is always inviting us into His passion, and away from our attachments to wealth, power, pleasure and honor.  He begs us not to pass onto our children our politicking and judging, our ways of escaping, avoiding or hiding from life as it really is.  He teaches us courage, and invites us to be the martyrs of this generation, for true peace only comes when heroes are living dangerously, overcoming evil with good and hatred with love and despair with courage.

This is how a human soul is made magnanimous, through the passion of Jesus Christ.  If we dare to raise magnanimous children, we should protect them from as many evils as we can, but the safest thing we can do for them is to teach them to live courageously in the face of danger.  Only then can we say that St. Ann's is really about the kids.  

+mj

Do I play to win or lose?

Homily

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time B2

15 September 2024

St. Ann's Catholic Church - Prairie Village, KS

AMDG

Do I play to win or lose? 

The answer is yes!

In Jesus, every answer is yes!  Whenever his enemies try to trap him, Jesus escapes by turning questions on their heads, by exposing the one-sidedness of human politicking.  Jesus is a master teacher at how to see the fullness of reality, and to live in that fullness, rather than being trapped by narrow thinking.  He says to Peter - you are thinking way too small, as fallen human beings do, not as God does.

In Jesus the answer is always yes!  For us fallen creatures, its easier to make quick judgments based on what I think is fair.  Those judgments are always imperfect because my perspective is imperfect.  So I resort to politicking, quick judgments of who is in or out, who is right or wrong, who is better or worse.  I reduce reality to either/or and win/lose scenarios that are within my control. Yet reality is way more than this.  Jesus the master teacher instructs us in paradox, parables and mystery, for the fullness of reality is only approached in this way.

The paradoxes of Jesus draw us into His wisdom, the ability to see reality more deeply and fully, in color and in contrast.  What is more, the author of life teaches us how to lives; again, not according to what I can control but by how much mystery I can embrace.

Do I play to win or lose?  My grandpa always told my uncles after they lost a game that losing is a great teacher, that one learns more from losing than from winning.  My uncles were quick to retort that they wanted to be dumb, because winning is more fun!  That's all of us I'm afraid - all we want to do is win, win, win no matter what.  Yet this is not the attitude of our Lord.  He teaches instead that only those who know how to lose, for loss and suffering is an inevitable part of reality, will enter his paschal mystery, the process by which ultimate victories over sin and death are won.

Jesus teaches us to play with courage and unselfishness, but that doesn't always translate into easy wins. Yet it places our lives within his paschal mystery, so that only as we first suffer and die together, will we also live together.

So back to the question.  Do I play to win or lose?  The answer is yes!  Am I saved by faith or works?  The answer is yes!  Should I be poor or rich?  The answer is yes!  Should I cry or laugh?  The answer is yes!  Should I die or live?  The answer in Jesus is always yes.  Every yes finds its perfection in him.  

To win games, do you need to be good at offense, defense, or special teams?  The answer is yes!  Jesus plays offense, attacking sin with tenacity and venom, spurring us on to be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect.  Jesus knows how to play defense, fasting forty days in the desert so as to show us how to deny the evil one access to our souls!  Jesus is best at special teams, surrendering with mercy to the evil that has to be transformed by love into the energy and ground of the Resurrection.  

Whatever the moment requires, Jesus is ready to say yes to reality as it presents itself!  So should I fight or surrender?  You know the answer!  The answer is yes.  I see this is a priest all the time.  People will fight for their lives and for those they love with a fierce love. Still, there comes a moment for all of us to know what I will die for, and to choose death before it can choose us, saying precisely with Jesus - into your hands, Father, I commend my spirit.  

So at the same time, in real life, in the fullness of reality, we are fighting and surrendering, winning and losing, receiving and giving, crying and laughing.  Happy are those who can embrace reality, and what life requires at each moment, for they are truly children of God, and the kingdom of Heaven is theirs.  

Should I play to win or lose?  Don't think narrowly as human beings do.  In Jesus, the answer is yes!

+mj

Go for seven

Homily

Nuptial Wedding Mass of Max McElroy and Madilynn Charles

Our Lady of Sorrows, KCMO

7 September 2024

Saturday of the 22nd Week in Ordinary Time

+BVM

AMDG

Go for seven.

Normally, when I say go for seven, people think of football. Madi - I know you've been watching more football, since you're about to marry a sports nut.  Maybe even you think that going for seven is a football metaphor.  It could be, and that could be a great homily about how to win championships, but I'm not going there.  Not even on a college football Saturday, not even in Kansas City, where Patrick, Travis and Taylor are treated like gods.

Believe it or not, going for seven is not about how many kids the church wants you to have either. Seven would be a great blessing, and if that's God's will, then go for it.  But that's not what I mean when I tell you to go for seven.

Go for the seven sorrows of Mary.  That's the seven to go for.

For whatever reason, Max and Madi, you have chosen to celebrate what could well be the happiest day of your life in a place dedicated to the sorrows of Mary.  An interesting choice, as was the idea for Jayhawks to get married in Missouri, but maybe life is just a little bit harder in misery, and here's a good place to celebrate Our Lady's Sorrows.  But what do these have to do with a wedding?

The sorrows of Mary have everything to do with happiness.  You know the Beatitudes - Blessed and happy are those who are weeping, for one day they shall laugh. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.  It is in the devotion and tradition of our faith to pray through the joys and sorrows of life together. Only as we cry together do we also laugh together. Only if we suffer and die together, will we truly live together.

Jesus took on our flesh so that He could feel with us and for us everything contained in the human experience.  The passions of his sacred heart are reflected in his closest and best disciple, our Blessed Mother, and in the affairs of her Immaculate Heart.  So we embrace with devotion the suffering of our Mother in this Church, knowing that the fullness of life and happiness lies on the other side of a shared experience of suffering and death.  Here we mark the seven sorrows of Mary - the prophecy that her heart would be laid open for our sake.  We feel her anguish as a refugee, as one who lost her son for a time, as one who stayed with him in his scourging, crucifixion and being captured by death.  We celebrate here that although Mary's heart was pure, it was not sanitized from the human experience.

This is precisely that shared experience of life as it really is that you pledge to each other today.  In good and evil, for better or worse, no matter what, we are playing for keeps until I have nothing left to give.  That is the passion of Jesus, and the passion of our Lady, played out in the story of your passion for each other.  

Go for seven,  If you embrace the seven sorrows of Mary, and only if, you can be confident that you will also share in her seven everlasting joys.  The joy of conceiving new life, sharing the news with family and friends, seeing the face of God in your newborn child and God willing, in your children's children.  Seeing your child find the meaning of their life through their faith, and living a story where they too defy all odds and come back from the dead.  Receiving this fulfillment of all your desire in the kingdom of heaven.  

Blessed are those who mourn, for one day they shall laugh.  Today we celebrate the joining of your two hearts, knowing that the hearts that bleed and break and burn together, also play, and dance and sing together.  

How do your hearts become one?  That's right - by going for seven.  When you call down the seven-fold gifts of the Holy Spirit upon each other shortly, you do something so powerful even the Pope can't do it.  You are ministers of the sacrament, the sign, the mystery of marriage, by which two people become one flesh.  Four gifts for your head - wisdom, understanding, knowledge and counsel - that you may see and think about human and divine things as God does.  Three for your heart, that you might live with courage, reverence and childlike wonder.  Go for seven, for the love that is the who spirit is creative, and makes the two of you a new reality!

Go for seven.  Thank you for allowing us to see God's desire to be with us and for us in a nuptial way, through the celebration of your sacrament in the context of this Mass.  I speak on behalf of all of us, we are so fortunate to support you and be inspired by you, as you go for seven!

+mj  

 

Am I pure of heart?

Homily

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time B2

1 September 2024

St. Ann Catholic Church Prairie Village, Kansas

AMDG

Am I pure of heart?

Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God!

If you experience just one thing at today's Mass, I pray you will experience the mercy of Jesus cleansing and purifying your heart.  When we regard the heart of Mary, we name it Immaculate, or pure, or clean.  Our Lady is happy, and blessed, because she sees God from a pure heart.  Jesus came that your heart too might be cleansed from the stains that darken, and dull and harden our hearts.

Jesus' heart breaks for me often when He sees how scared I am to live from the heart.  When I speak about the heart, I don't just mean my feelings.  Jesus regards the heart as the inner core and soul of a person, where our senses, thoughts, will, memory and imagination coalesce.  The heart is where a person has a chance to become fully alive, spiritually, so much so that one can see God!  

Jesus sees, however, when I am a dead man walking.  He weeps when my heart is dull or gross or stubborn.  He knows how hard it really is for me to live from the inside out, with great honesty, integrity, vulnerability and courage.  He is always trying to write the laws of his love on my heart, so that I am free to love God and neighbor in purity of heart, just as He has first loved me.  

I broke my mom's heart once when I was afraid to live in purity of heart.  After my first year of seminary, at age 26, I was home for the summer since my mom's cancer had relapsed.  Yet when she most needed me to live from the heart, I got into a funk.  My heart grew cold.  I stopped going to daily Mass, and felt sorry for myself, wanting to go back to my old life before seminary.  Even though my mom would die nine months later, my heart wasn't there for her.  She had to tell me that if my heart wasn't in the priesthood, then don't do it!

Jesus has to say the same thing to us often.  If your heart isn't in it, then don't do it.  Don't pretend. Don't settle.  Don't let your fears get the best of you, so that you cope with life through sins that make your hearts dull, and gross and stubborn.

Though we have hundreds of rules that govern our common worship of God, as did the Pharisees, our Church has distilled them into just five precepts that free us to live from the heart together.  These are the minimum for a practicing Catholic.  Go to Mass together. Fast and abstain together.  Be reconciled to God and each other through confession.  Receive the Eucharist in purity of heart at least once a year during Easter.  Be a giver not a taker, or as St. James says today, be doers of the word not just hearers.  These five precepts suffice for reconciling us, that we can go through life together as Christ's body, in purity of heart.

These five precepts are easy, but because it's easier to live with pretense, from the outside-in, judging by appearances, I can struggle to fulfill them.  Because I am scared to let Jesus speak to my heart, and look into my heart, I can avoid them.  

Yet these five precepts save us from obsessing and judging about lesser things, so that our hearts are far from God. These five precepts save us from the twelve deadly sins Jesus lists in today's Gospel, that truly defile our hearts.

Go to Mass.  Fast and abstain together.  Confess your sins.  Receive the Eucharist in purity of heart at least once a year.  Be givers, not takers.

Blessed are we if we do these things.  For they will allow us to live together in purity of heart.

Happy are the pure of heart, for they will see God!

Am I pure of heart?

+mj

Who gets under my skin?

Homily

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time B2

25 August 2024

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village, KS

AMDG

Who gets under my skin?

I once played golf with a guy who wanted to shock me right off the bat.  On the first tee, he cursed God, then turned to me and said - Father, did that bother you?  Of course I said it did, very much so.  Then he yelled out for all to hear - Good! Get used to it!  It was his shocking way of saying everyone had permission to be themselves, even playing with a priest, and that he and I could tease each other.  Still, his approach got under my skin.  I'll never forget it.

There was a wrestler, my archnemesis in high school, that god under my mom's skin.  We will just call him LS.  I know you're not supposed to hate anyone, but to love and pray for your enemies, but I hope the Lord lets my mom slide on this one.  LS was so cocky.  He used to taunt me every match, and my mom hated him. She showed up once for my match with LS in the midst of her chemotherapy treatments when she had zero immunity, and was supposed to avoid crowds.  LS was definitely under her skin.

I have a lot of pet peeves.  Do you?  I can't stand people who sit on countertops or tables!  Why would somebody but their buttocks, from whence bad things come out, on surfaces where food is served?  I don't get it, and it gets under my skin.

Who gets under your skin?

Ladies, did St. Paul get under your skin today?  He said not once, but twice, that wives should be subordinate to their husbands.  To modern sensibilities, this can be quite insulting.  Yet it's not nearly the most offensive thing St. Paul says; in other place, he says women should be plain, quiet and out of the way.  Still, the most offensive thing he says in Ephesians 5 is toward husbands, who are told they cannot treat their wives or families as property, nor can they use them.  Husbands must bathe their families in the sacrifice of their own bodies, as Christ loves his bride the Church.  Guys, did St. Paul get under your skin?

You might recognize that our kicker, Harrison Butker, gave essentially the same speech at Benedictine College for graduation this May.  Boy did Harrison get under people's skin!  I'm not sure a graduation speech was the right time to talk about marriage, but he did, and boy did he make people mad!  Why?

It's because he reminded us that marriage is the most important thing in life, and unless we are good at marriage we will die.  Guess what?  He was right, and we know it.  At almost every funeral, when I ask people what the ultimate meaning of life is, the answer is family!  Mother Teresa says that if you want to save the world, go home and love your family!  That's all Harrison was saying.  We enter into life by promising to lay down our lives for each other.  It's our greatest accomplishment, serving the good and mission of our families.  Yet because of our addictions to privacy and choice, we are tempted to cancel anyone who dares point 

Will I cancel Jesus, because he says the same thing in John 6.  Unless you marry me, and unless you feed on me and we are faithful to each other in the Eucharist, you will die.  Jesus takes the original sacrament of marriage given to our first parents Adam and Even, and elevates it into the ultimate sacrament, the gift of his body and blood, through which we enter into a nuptial one flesh union with Christ.  The Eucharist is the ultimate sacrament of eternal life.  Jesus says unless you marry me here, and feed on me, you will die.

It's the most challenging, offensive and disgusting thing anyone has ever said.  Jesus says it in love, because he can't stand the thought of losing you to death.  He speaks it as your spouse, who wants to subordinate his life to your good.  He speaks it so that your decision today to say 'Amen' or to cancel him, is a matter of life and death.

He speaks it because He is the one who most desperately wants to get under your skin. 

+mj

Will we show up and go through it together?

Homily

Funeral Mass for Courtney Hartman Anderson

22 August 2024

Thursday of the 20th Week in Ordinary Time B2

Queenship of Mary

AMDG

Will I show up for my family?

It's a question we all have to answer.  Life can be incredibly hard, especially at a time like this.  People have to go through hell.  It's part of the human experience.  Things can be incredibly unfair, so much so that it threatens our faith.  Yet life is still too good to be true, and worth fighting for.  

We're in control of almost nothing.  There is a time for everything, even suffering and death, and we're not in control.  Except for one thing.  Will I show up for my family?

I want to be a part of Courtney's family. I hear she was passionate about her family, and her teams.  Thank God she's a Jayhawk!  As a fan you have to go through the ups and downs, the wins and losses, the pain and the glory, the good times and the bad.  If you're a true fan you'll keep showing up.  

The day of Courtney's funeral we celebrate the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  We crown her today, not because she is privileged royalty, but because she showed up for us. She said yes like Courtney to being a mother, so that Jesus could take our flesh and go through it with us.  We honor her most of all because she showed up for the hardest thing anyone is asked to do in this life, to be there when a child dies.  Steve and Courtney did this for Liesl.  Randy and Kathy do this today.  We're all so sorry things have to be this way, for reasons we can't yet control or understand.

I was so touched hearing how Courtney tenaciously showed up for Liesl's friends after her passing.  There's something good and beautiful worth living and fighting for, and that's what Courtney did.

Courtney showed up for her life, and for that we give thanks and celebrate her spirit, her joy and courage.  When I got to know her just for ten minutes, I could tell she had an ornery Hartman streak in here.  If the priest visiting meant it was time to give up, she would just rather than I get out.  She fought for every last second of her life, beautifully and courageously, sharing in the passion of our Lord to the end.  

Our faith can be summarized in two things.  Will I show up for my family - that's the Incarnation - us being fully present to each other in the moment.  Jesus showed up for us his family, and invites us to do the same.  Then he showed us the way - that's the Paschal Mystery.  That it is precisely through the crucible of suffering and death that new life is born.  This is our faith - if we suffer and die together, we live in confidence that we will live forever.  

Two things - will I show up, and will we go through it together, no matter what?

Courtney showed up and went through it, with love. We honor her be promising to show up for each other, and to go through whatever life may bring, together.

+mj  

How long should Mass last?

Homily

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time B2

18 August 2024

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village, KS

AMDG

How long should Mass last?

Most every Catholic has a very strong opinion on this question, and remarkably, there is great consensus.  The best Mass is the fastest Mass!  It's probably where Catholics are most united!  Mass should only be 45 minutes, and never under any circumstance more than an hour. Everybody remembers their fastest Mass ever, and what priest said it.

I know well the legendary status of Fr. Short Storey just a mile and a half to the south of us here at St. Ann, at our daughter parish Cure of Ars.  Fr. Storey is a classmate of mine. We're ordained only 30 seconds apart.  I have nothing but support, praise and thanks for the awesome work he does.  Yet he is best known for his short homilies, and quick Masses.   People love him for that.  One time I bet him that he couldn't finish a wedding Mass with 22 attendants in 43 minutes, which was his goal.  I lost the bet.

Still, is the fastest Mass really the best Mass?  How long should Mass take?

I'll give you a clue from today's Gospel.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood will love for how long?   That's right, not 45 minutes, but forever.

What's the longest meal you've ever savored?  Not the shortest, but the longest?  It's a critical question.  Mine was a Mass that took all day.  It was in Denver, CO when I was 19 years old, a World Youth Day Mass with St. John Paul II.  I reported for this Mass at 5am, and went through security at 7am for a noon Mass.  I was on stage with the choir, so I arrived especially early, but not as early as the other million people, who had camped all night for a vigil anticipation of this special meal with the Pope.  

The unofficial procession started with John Paul II flying over the crowd in a helicopter.  We should try an aerial procession here at St. Ann sometime!  The Mass lasted from noon to 3pm.  It took four hours to get home afterwards.  What was so special about the food that was being served, that I waited all day to get it, and loved every minute of it?

When we really crave something life-giving, or when we are truly in love, time doesn't matter. We stop looking at our watches.

I could have stayed at that Mass with John Paul II forever.  It was truly a foretaste of heaven, which is what Jesus says the Mass is.  To see the Catholic Church, Christ's bride, gathered from every corner of the world, a million of God's beloved children unified and eager to consummate her life with Christ her bridegroom, was something I can never unsee.  I know immediately that this food was the sole hope of the world.  I knew for sure  that this food was worth giving my entire life to.  I never wanted that Mass to end, and I still don't.

I could celebrate Mass forever.  That's the point. That's how long Mass is supposed to lsat.

Most of our families started with our mom and dad sitting down to dinner, their first date, and staying a lot longer than they imagined.  A couple newly in love loses track of time, the food giving way sacramentally to the deeper reality of a relationship and conversation.  For those in love, time is nothing.  Love perseveres, and waits, and endures all things!

What brings us life more than anything else?  It's when we eat in such a way that we wish the meal would never end.  Jesus says whoever feeds on me remains in me.  He invites us to 'trogein' on him - to chew or gnaw on him, and to swish his blood in our mouths, to savor this moment, and to linger in it.  This is not a meal to throw down or a drink to be gulped. Mass is not take-out, nor grab and go.  We know we are truly in love with God and each other, when we stop looking at our watches, and no one wants to leave.

Now I get it.  I'm not an idealist, lost in fantasy and lacking common sense.  I know that if Masses here lasted all day, you would all end up at Cure.  The Eucharist is also our engine of evangelization. An authentic, compelling and personal celebration of the Mass that serves the real life of your family need not take longer than an hour.  So when we've done what we need to do, you will hear Ite Missa est.  Mass is done, so get out of here and do your job!

Still, it would be a waste to believe that the fastest Mass is the best Mass.  With all due apologies to those who own fast food restaurants, too much fast food will kill us.  That's exactly what Jesus says.  If you eat just fast food, you will still die, and sooner rather than later.  Only the one who gnaws on my flesh remains in me. We will lose track of time together, and so passover through this meal to the gift of eternal life.  

So now you know how long Mass is supposed to last - forever!

+mj

What should I give my mom?

Homily

Solemnity of the Assumption

Thursday 19OT B2

15 August 2024

St. Ann Church Prairie Village, KS

AMDG

What do I get my mom?

No gifts for mom really seem adequate.  I guess it depends on what she likes, what's meaningful to her, and what her love language is - quality time, acts of service, actual gifts, or physical touch.  Maybe a combination of the above.  Still, nothing seems adequate to express appreciation for the very gift of one's life.  Whether it's Mother's Day, her birthday, your birthday, or Christmas .  . . is anyone good at giving gifts to mom?

My mom Yvonne always wanted me to do my best. She believed in my best.  I still feel badly for the ways that I let her down, when I got scared and lost faith and didn't do my best, whether in school, or wrestling, or just life, and for the times I didn't stay in touch.  I especially feel badly for the times I wasn't there when my mom was going through a rough time.  I wasn't always there with the gift of my presence or time.  I regret that very much. 

What did I get right?  Well, I was good at picking green beans, much better than my sibling.  I think that mattered to my mom - that I cared enough to do a great job picking green beans. She could count on me.

She could also count on me to be on time for prayer.  As we started school at St. Ann today, I remember fondly that my family always started our school day with prayer.  At 7:55am in the morning, without fail, every day, exactly thirty minutes before school, we said the Apostle's Creed, Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be together. Then out the door we went for the 10 minute walk to school.

It was the greatest offense in my family to be late for prayer. If you don't believe me, ask my brother Norman.  But late for prayer I never was.  I always gave my best there.

Maybe that's the best gift I can still give my mother, who has passed on.

It's a question for Jesus, to be sure.  Jesus knows how to give gifts.  The gift of his presence in the Eucharist, the complete gift of himself in the sacrament of his body and blood, is the purest of graces.  There can be no greater gift that him accompanying us so humbly, so beautifully, so perfectly, no matter what we have to go through.  His presence is his present, to His mom and us, and for that we are here always at Mass, to give ultimate thanks.

Regarding His mom, the four special graces She received from Her Son correspond to the four dogmas of our faith regarding Mary, and entail four holy days of obligation.  Why must be celebrate and honor Mary?  Because through Her we learn something essential about Jesus and about ourselves, truths essential for our salvation.

So we show up for her Immaculate Conception on December 8th, her perpetual virginity expressed in the miraculous birth at Christmas, for her title as Mother of God on January 1st, and today, the Solemnity of Her Assumption.  Today we celebrate that the pattern of our being raised from the dead follows the Resurrection of Jesus, and that His Mother, His closest disciple and highest member of our Church, is the first to fully participate in this new and eternal life through her Assumption Body and Soul into heaven.

I can't give the body of my mom a private one-way first class rocket launch into Heaven, as Jesus gave His mom in Her assumption.  But I can always be on time to pray that He will raise my dear mom on the last day.  I can always show up for Mass, that I can give the grace of my own participation in this saving sacrifice that is infinitely pleasing to Our Father in heaven, may help my mom arrive safely where our Blessed Mother has gone before in Her glorious Assumption.

I can always be on time for Mass and pray for my mom.  Maybe that's the best gift I can always give her.  Still don't know what to get your mom?  Remember to pray for your mother!

+mj

Who should pay?

Homily

Monday of the 19th Week in Ordinary Time B2

+Jane Frances de Chantal

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village, KS

AMDG 

Who should pay?   This question comes up a lot everyday, whether you're looking at your taxes, as Jesus was in today's Gospel, or looking at your budget and responsibilities.  

Normally, the person who is blessed with much is tasked with the responsibility to be generous, and to use his means to care for others.  The one who is responsible for the relationship is the one who pays.

Jesus rightfully says that since He is a Son of God, that church should be free, and that he has a right to be in the temple without paying.  Yet because his greater responsibility is to establish the new temple in His body, by getting Himself killed, he robs a fish who apparently didn't need money, and pays the temple tax.

The Gospel is sometimes very simple to understand.  Today it's about picking your battles, and having bigger fish to fry, so to speak!

+mj

What is my superfood?

Homily

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time B2

11 August 2024

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village, KS

AMDG

What is my superfood?

Take care how you answer this question, especially if you're a priest!  Many people assume priests are very lonely, and even more hungry, so people often want to know my favorite food so they can show affection and support.  I made the mistake in my first parish of saying pie was my favorite food, and I gained 20 pounds in 3 years!  I made the mistake of telling people my favorite drink when I was in Topeka, and I ended up with a lifetime supply of something that is not healthy for me!

During my 30 day retreat, when I was fasting and trying to be attentive to the word of the Lord, I ate mostly spinach.  And it worked!  I didn't exactly turned into the legendary character Popeye, but on this superfood I remained strong for 30 days.  Not 40 mind you, like Elijah in the first reading, but 30.  I'll take it!

I think my superfood now is tomatoes.  I can't get enough of tomatoes, and I feel refreshed and sharp every time I eat them. I don't know what nutrients are in a tomato, and I don't care.  I just know it's a superfood for me.

How about you?  How would you answer the question - what's my superfood?

I was asked my favorite food by a 2nd grader once, and I told them pizza.  I think pizza is up there among the greatest foods of all time!  Yet I was ashamed by this 2nd grader, who asked me this pivotal question. Shouldn't your superfood be the Eucharist?

Oof.

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood  has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.  Eat any other food, and you will still die, but whoever eats this food will live forever.

Wow. Talk about a superfood.  The 2nd grader nailed me.  Since that pivotal question, I'll never make the same mistake again.

If I am going to fulfill the purpose of my life, to become like God and grow perfect in faith, hope and love, I need to be drawn by God into a relationship where He can both teach and feed me.  I am a unity of body and soul, and my body needs a superfood and my mind a super-teaching, and my will and heart a super-courage, a super-compassion, a super-charity.  I receive all these at Mass, at the Eucharist. Jesus promises that it is here, and only here, that I will learn how to trust to the end, hope to the end, and love to the end.

Here is a superfood that is meant to last longer than 40 days, but is meant to last forever.

In John 6, we are in the middle of Jesus most challenging and annoying sermon.  The dude can preach, and he cuts us by his words all the time.  But never quite like this.  What if I was to tell you that I was born from heaven, and that unless you knaw on my flesh like a piece of jerky and drink my blood, you're a dead man?  Jesus says nothing less.  What if I told you I was from another dimension? What if I cut off my arm and told you to bite into it? What if I showed up with a pint of my blood and told you to drink it?  How many of you would remain.  Jesus says nothing less in John Chapter 6.

How many of us believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist?  The answer is easy.  None of us do, unless the Father draws us by faith into a relationship where He can teach and feed us.

It's Jesus who asks you the question today - what is your superfood?

+mj

Is it who it is?

Homily

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time B2

4 August 2024

St. Ann Catholic Church, Prairie Village

AMDG

Is it who it is?

Jesus in today's Gospel is trying to change the mindset into a new way of thinking.  St. Paul talks about his metanoia, this changing of the mind.  He says we have to stop thinking from our bellies, from our flesh, and the unruly appetites that destroy a person surely headed toward death and destruction.  He says the new man thinks from the spirit of the mind

Jesus is trying to redirect the minds of those who came looking for another sign from him - you who are thinking from your bellies will never stop grumbling, or demanding signs, or asking is it what it is?  Amen I say to you - you are not thinking from the renewal of your mind, which would have you ask a new question - is it who it is?

My poor mother had the hardest time getting dinner on the table for a family of eight every night.  We didn't have much.  My mom was a master at stretching a dollar to feed us.  She cut coupons like crazy, and if there were limits on the quantities of food that you could purchase on sale, she would give each of her six kids a list and send us to the store, with coupons in hand.  I was always mortified that the $20 she gave me wouldn't be enough for the entire cart of groceries I was responsible for getting.  But my mom was good. She was so good.  There was always money left over, like the superabundant feeding of the $5,000, mom stretched a little a long way. She was so good she was asked to stop shopping at our local IGA.  I'm not kidding.

Yet what did we do when dinner was served?  We grumbled like the Israelites.  I missed my first football practice as a freshman because I wouldn't eat my peas.  My dad stuck up for my mom, and all the love she put into dinner, and grounded me when I spit the peas into the backyard after I had been asked to eat at least one bite.  Because I was so focused on what I was eating, I lost track that my mom had put her heart and soul into that meal.  I didn't ask the more important question - who is for dinner.

The word 'manna' literally means 'what is it?' It's the question the Israelites asked in response to the mysterious gift of bread from heaven that rained upon them.  It was the wrong question, then, just as it is the wrong question now as you and I once again approach the Eucharist.  Jesus teaches that it is God himself who gives us bread from heaven, and it is God's deepest desires to feed us unto eternal life through the bread of life.  In response to the question - is it what it is - Jesus says 'I am the bread of life. The most essential question as I approach food is this - is it who it is?

It is the most natural human experience to have the needs of our body and soul met together through the breaking of bread, through the sharing of a meal.  You know you are doing dinner right when everyone is grateful for the food, but the conversation is even better.  It is why we have to give thanks at every meal, especially at this meal of the Eucharist that means 'thanksgiving' because the food we share is a sacrament of our relationship with the One who wants to deliver new and full and everlasting life through the gift of His Body and Blood.

This is how we see the sign of the Eucharist - by answering the question - is it who it is?

How much do I care?

Homily

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time B2

21 July 2024

St. Ann Catholic Church, Prairie Village

AMDG

How much do I care?

It's not lost on me that on my first weekend preaching as your new shepherd, the Church providentially contrasts the difference between good and bad shepherds.  I don't have to tell you the difference.  You already know.  Good shepherds show up. Good shepherds care.  Good shepherds give their lives.  Good shepherds smell like the sheep, as Pope Francis famously has sad.  Good shepherds govern in justice and in truth, bringing people into right relationship by speaking and acting with integrity.  Good shepherds share in the sacred heart of Jesus, a heart that moves with compassion and the desire to have a shared experience of suffering, dying and rising.

Bad shepherds get scared and run.

I beg your prayers that I will try my best in this sacred responsibility for your souls that has fallen to me.  Please pray I don't run away scared at the sight of danger.  I hope you will find me zealous in teaching the faith and witnessing to it with integrity, for I truly believe in its power to bring new life to all of us when taught with conviction.

Most of all, I want to be a pastor that cries with and for you.  In this, I want to be like my grandpa Leo, who cried both when all his family was together, and even more so when someone was missing.  I'll never forget his tears at my ordination, since my mom had already passed and was missing.  I remember the same tears at his 90th birthday, when all 47 of his kids, grandkids and great-grandkids, and their spouses, gathered for the Mass and celebration.  I'm not a crier yet, but I'd like to be by the time I'm done shepherding St. Ann's.  A good shepherd cries for his sheep.  A good pastor has a heart that moves.  Please pray that I will try my best for love of God and for you.

Our common pasture is our parish boundary, that extends from 63rd to 83rd, north to south, and State Line to Nall east to west.  Jesus wants us to smash any wall that separates us from each other within this boundary.  Jesus's heart for us will not stop moving until each and all of us are with and for each other, without exception, and no one is missing.  This is his beautiful prayer for St. Ann's - I have not lost one of those that you gave me.  

Here at Mass we worship the source of unity that is God Himself.  Each of the persons in God is with and for the other; hence, those of us who would dare to grow in His likeness must do likewise.  Jesus always loved his enemies first and best. He always smashed hostility through forgiveness.  If you are looking ultimately to create a lasting and meaningful unity apart from the Mass, you're wasting your time.  It is here alone that we consummate our relationship to the ultimate source of reconciliation that is Jesus Himself.

Psalm 23 is fulfilled right here at Mass, for here we are refreshed by the waters of baptism and confession.  Here our heads are anointed with both the oil for the sick and the confirming love of the Holy Spirit.  Here a table is spread before us, even in the sight of our foes!  Within the pasture of this parish, the Eucharist will always be the gate by which we come in and go out, and find true unity and the source of eternal life.

I invite you to pray for me, and cry with me whenever someone is missing.  May our hearts always move in compassion like Jesus' Sacred Heart until everyone is here.

May I be honest with the Lord right now as I answer this question:  how much do I care?

Is the world going to hell?

Homily

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time B2

14 July 2024

St. Ann Catholic Church

AMDG

Is the world going to hell?  Of course it is.  It has been for a long time.  It will continue to go that way.

You think an assassination attempt on the President is the sure tale sign that we have lost our way?  I'm sorry to say we lost our way a long time ago,  History is repeating itself.  We are reaping what we have sown for a long time.  And there's more to come.  A lot more.  I wish I didn't believe that.  But it's real.  Now is not the time to pretend we are all safe, and to play nice. There are evils that need to be defeated. Many of them!  And we are the ones who have to do the work.  Nobody is immune from the evils that are upon us.

Violence and killing are cries for help from a people who are lost, scared, alone, unhealthy, despairing, and in terrible pain.  This is the reality we have all created because we have divorced truth and love, justice and peace.  Worse yet, we have divorced our covenant with God and each other. We reap what we sow.  We don't deserve better than what we have, and it does no good to complain about what others aren't doing.

Jesus trusts His disciples to go out and defeat many evils.  For their own good, he makes them the solution, and he tells them how to do it. He gives them no economic, political or legal solutions.  Go out and tell people to repent of the ways we have divorced God and each other, and to return to faithfulness.  Go, and take only the things that will keep you moving, and nothing that will slow you down or distract you.

Sorry if that's not a nice, safe homily from the new shepherd from Hoxie, Kansas.  It's the same message Amos, the farmer from Judah, had to deliver to the self-absorbed city folks in Bethel.  It's not fun to hear.  It's not fun to say.  But prophecy has to always sting if it's going to do any good.

Am I the reason the world is going to hell?  Of course I am!  Yes, always!  The most urgent thing needed in the world right now is my repentance, and my own commitment to defeating evil by giving life, and not taking it!  

St. Paul teaches of this destiny and dignity we all have in Christ.  We are to pass away to this world that is going to hell, and pass over through Christ, and His passion and paschal mystery, into a new creation, the kingdom of heaven.  Fulfilling this destiny is so simple!  I defeat evil by suffering and dying with Him, and God will use this sacrifice to transform reality into something new, something other than the hell we are living in!

Go!  The first apostles defeated many evils, and became salt and light, simply by realizing that the greatest evils in the world are not political, they are spiritual and moral.  These evils are overcome by faithfulness to God and each other.  

Will you be tenacious?

Homily

Nuptial Mass for McKenna Reilly and Jacob Herbek

6 July 2024

Saturday of the 13th Week in Ordinary Time

+Maria Goretti

Cathedral of St. Mary, Grand Island, NE

AMDG

Will you come to Grand Island and marry Jacob and me?  Well, Kena, I've never been to Grand Island, but I'm from a farm, so how far and how foreign could it be?  As long as I get a steak, I'll be fine!  And I'll drive anywhere for a Jayhawk!

It's true there's no place I'd rather be, even if my car gets hailed on tonight during an epic Nebraskan thunderstorm.  Nothing changes the world for the better more than a holy marriage, and there is nothing more important than two people giving their lives completely away in faith, with a love strong as death.  Nothing bring more life or hope into the world, than what you're about to do, so of course I'll be here.  I'd love to be here.  Besides, who wouldn't want to visit an Island in the middle of Nebraska?  Where is it again, by the way?

Being from a farm community myself, I get why you wanted to be married here.  This is where people understand how things really work.  Life is received here as a gift, with a responsibility to give it away in faith and love.  It's a simple formula, but one that is increasingly misunderstood, by a world that wants the meaning of life to be relative, with the highest values being privacy and choice.  Yet there is no lasting happiness nor peace, nor fruit that comes from this worldview.  It's only when we use our freedom to choose to die and suffer for something more than ourselves, that our lives fulfill their true purpose.

My German ancestors had a simple formula that I inherited.  Put the wheat in the ground in September, then go to Church until June, then go see what God has provided.  It's not a life of privacy and control, it's a life of trust and sacrifice.  That's what you enter into today, McKenna and Jacob - this is the WAY that Jesus has invited you to live, according to His Gospel.

Congratulations to you both and everyone who has poured faith and love into you.  May the beautiful work God has begun in you, be brought to fulfillment.

Another important lesson you have learned is that love doesn't control!  I've noticed how free you both are to trust the other. Maybe that's the fruit of having known each other so long, and knowing that your friendship is a gift from God that you can put your trust in.  Jacob, most guys would freak out thinking McKenna might end up with a fancy frat boy at KU, but you knew yourself, and her, and your love for each other was worthy of trust.  So your relationship grows in love when you are free to trust each other and include other friends and experiences in your relationship. I commend you for this virtue, which I don't find in everyone.

Finally, Jacob since you're marrying a Jayhawk, you get to hear a homily that I've preached to McKenna many times.  If you're going to go for a great life, do it with tenacity.  Whether or not the Jayhawks ever play or beat the Huskers again, the mascot was created to be a ferocious and nasty bird, one capable of defending freedom and dignity at the highest level!  I don't have to tell you two that because of what you have received, you are capable of living faith with amazing courage and tenacity, and bearing fruit that gives witness to the sacrifice of Christ, and the marriage of Christ to His Church.  By getting married at Mass, you witness with the courage of martyrs that this love from the cross is the most real thing in your life, and that you beg the grace today to let this love be the origin, perfection and destiny of your marriage to each other.  On behalf of all of us, thanks for marrying each other under this sign, and playing for keeps, til death do you part. Amen.

Will I come back from the dead?

Homily

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time B2

30 June 2024

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

AMDG

Will I come back from the dead?

Now don't worry, this ultimate pivotal question from me is not a threat to come back and haunt the St. Lawrence Center like a ghost. When I am gone as Director, I'm gone, as it should be.  Most of you expect to see me at KU games going forward, and I do think there's a good chance of that for sure.  But I'm not going to haunt the Center after I'm gone.  I promise.

But will I come back from the dead?

It's actually a pivotal question for every Christian.  There is no love story that is not a come back from the dead story, for true love is strong as death, and shows itself in the face of death.  The Resurrection of Christ from the dead is the cornerstone of our faith. St. Paul says unless there is a love stronger than death, our faith is in vain, and we are absolutely wasting our time, and I need to get a real job.  

Will I come back from the dead?   That is an essential and live question for every Christian.  A woman afflicted for 12 years and a little girl 12 years old are both brought back to life by the healing touch of Jesus.  Our Gospel today, of course is good news precisely because it's a come back from the dead story. For God hates death, and does not desire the death of his beloved, but that they be touched by His mercy and grace, and brought back to life.

I wanted to serve at KU at my alma mater for 12 years.  I got 8, which is also a holy number, so I"ll take it, gratefully.   I'm a spoiled brat, so not too many people think I have ever had to come back from the dead.  But I have.  I was spiritually dead and morally bankrupt when I came to St. Lawrence in 2016.  I wasn't sure I wanted to move forward in faith, or be a good shepherd at my alma mater.  Yet the Lord in his great mercy rescued me from the pit, sending me holy people who believed I could come back. Through these people, and a thirty day silent retreat, my faith was saved, and I was healed and brought back from the dead.  I shudder to think how dead I would be now if I had quit.  But because He touched me, I can now pray and live from the heart, and I'm so grateful for everyone who has prayed for me and believed in me, and never gave up on me.  I leave this assignment the most alive I have ever been in my life, and I praise God for that, for He was the one who couldn't bear to see me die.

It's been an amazing 8 years at KU.  I've seen new life come from the death of my dear friend's wife, and from the death of Msgr. Krische last year.  I've seen the Jayhawks come back from the dead many times, most notably in the largest comeback from the dead story in NCAA Basketball history when we won the Natty in 2022.  Rock freaking Chalk!  

But most of all, I've seen many Jayhawks come back from the dead in the confessional and at Mass, and I could not be more grateful to have ministered in this way on this holy hill and in this sacred space.  Each of us has been brought back to life by the healing touch of Jesus, just like and even moreso than the faithful woman and girl we hear about in today's Gospel.  That is my story, and yours, a love story stronger than death.  Whenever we trust our Lord in faith to heal us and restore us in the sacraments, He uses faith to deliver a new and different kind of life that can no longer be touched by death.  This is our faith. This is our participation in the paschal mystery by which everything passes over from death to life.  This is life, to be touched by the source of life that is Jesus Himself, whose touch is alone stronger than death.  

We got this wrong during COVID, when we forgot that social distancing is the very definition of death, and that touching our Lord is the only sure and safe path to real life.  I hope to never get this wrong again.

Hold on to this truth, that to touch Jesus in the sacraments is to come back from the dead. Be tenacious Jayhawks, and meaner than hell in laying hold of this truth.  Know that I love you all, and will miss you very much!  Amen.

+mj