Homily for Monday of the 7th Week of Easter

For daily readings, see http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/050508.shtml

Mary, Queen of Vocations, pray for us!
Come Holy Spirit, enlighten our hearts, and enkindle in us the fire of your love!


Paul insists on a baptism by the Holy Spirit during today's first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. He describes the baptism of John as efficacious but insufficient. Just as insufficient is a Christian life that simply focuses on repentance for sins committed. This is a good and necessary start, but the kingdom of heaven is not reserved just for those who get a high enough score on the moral behavior entrance exam. It is not enough to just be a good person who does not commit grave evils. No, the baptism of the Holy Spirit which the Church greatly anticipates in this last week before Pentecost is a baptism into a sharing in the very life of God. The baptism of repentance preached by John preserves our human dignity as made in the image and likeness of God. Through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, our human nature is elevated and we become His children capable of sharing in the divine nature. It is this baptism that prepares us to follow where Christ has led through His Ascension we celebrated on Sunday. Led by the Spirit, who delivers to us a real and personal relationship with Jesus, we are transformed into His likeness. Through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, all things are possible, even our becoming perfect, as our Heavenly Father is perfect!

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Pope Benedict Ferverinos from US Visit - Part V

From comments made to US Bishops

"People today need to be reminded of the ultimate purpose of their lives. They need to recognize that implanted within them is a deep thirst for God. They need to be given opportunities to drink from the wells of his infinite love. It is easy to be entranced by the almost unlimited possibilities that science and technology place before us; it is easy to make the mistake of thinking we can obtain by our own efforts the fulfillment of our deepest needs. This is an illusion. Without God, who alone bestows upon us what we by ourselves cannot attain (cf. Spe Salvi, 31), our lives are ultimately empty. People need to be constantly reminded to cultivate a relationship with him who came that we might have life in abundance (cf. Jn 10:10). The goal of all our pastoral and catechetical work, the object of our preaching, and the focus of our sacramental ministry should be to help people establish and nurture that living relationship with “Christ Jesus, our hope” (1 Tim 1:1)."

Let us pray with our Holy Father for the bishops of the Church in the United States, that they will continue to give to all the faithful, and especially the priests of our Church, the fruit of their deep and personal relationship with Jesus. Through the example of faithful, generous and courageous bishops, may many come to realize that Jesus asks us to leave everything and to follow Him because He alone satisfies the deepest longing of our hearts. Those who have Jesus lack nothing, so may our bishops not be known simply for condemning the world, which they must do, but also for what they offer in return, the hope that comes from the presence of Jesus in their lives, through the working of the Holy Spirit!

Homily for the Ascension of the Lord

For daily readings, see http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/050408.shtml

Mary, Queen of Vocations, pray for us!

During the Transfiguration of our Lord, a voice came from the cloud – This is my beloved Son, listen to Him. The transfiguration of Jesus before Peter, James and John was a special moment in the lives of these apostles, when the glory of God and the identity of Jesus were made clear to them. The Transfiguration came to an end, however, and after the event was completed, the apostles were left not only with a memory but also with a commandment – This is my beloved Son, listen to Him.

Jesus in gathering disciples to Himself, gave his followers plenty of things to listen to and to think about. Leave what you are doing, give everything to the poor, then come and follow me. Whoever loves Father or Mother more than me is not worthy of me. This is my commandment, love one another as I have loved you. Whoever does not eat my flesh or drink my blood has no life within them. Where I am going, you know the way, for I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

After listening to all of these things, the disciples of Jesus saw them fulfilled in the paschal mystery – in the suffering, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. Like the Tansfiguration, the paschal events in Jerusalem were the highlights of Jesus' time on earth. The disciples rejoiced to have been able to see the risen Lord, just as Peter, James and John rejoiced to see Jesus glorified during the Transfiguration. Like the Transfiguration, however, which was not the final word but was followed by a commandment – listen to Him – so also the Resurrection is not the final word in the story of Jesus either. Jesus made many appearances to His disciples after His Resurrection from the dead, but it was not Jesus’ intention to make an infinite number of cameo appearances to His disciples. No, Jesus tells His disciples after His resurrection that it is better for them if He goes to the Father to prepare a place for them in heaven, and in His place the Father will send another advocate, the Holy Spirit, to guide them into all truth and to remind them of everything that He did and said. We are here today, my dear friends, to celebrate Jesus’ going to prepare a place for us by way of His Ascension, and to prepare ourselves for the incomparable Solemnity of Pentecost that will mark the end of our Easter celebration next Sunday.

It is due to the goodness of today’s Feast, and to our trust in Jesus’ promise that it is better for us if He goes to the Father, that we do not have to be gloomy at the Lord's Ascension, his leaving us. We neither desire nor do we expect additional resurrection appearances from the Lord Jesus. What is more, since the Father and the Son have sent the Holy Spirit to be with us, our faith does not require such special cameo appearances by the Risen Lord. Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed, we are told at the end of John’s Gospel. In leaving us and sending us the gift of the Holy Spirit instead, Jesus assured that those who would follow Him after His Ascension would not engage in a contest to see who Had seen the Risen Lord the most or the longest, or who had seen Him perform the greatest sign. The Lord in ascending to the Father saved the Church from just this type of gnosticism, and sent the Holy Spirit instead so that everyone would have the same access to Him, through the Eucharist which He asked His disciples to celebrate in memory of Him, and through the Scriptures, Tradition and Sacraments of the Church. Without the Ascension, we would not have the great Solemnity of Pentecost and the assistance of the Holy Spirit who helps each one of us to seek a personal and intimate friendship with Jesus and to recognize the truth of what the Lord did for us and what He said to us. Maybe most importantly, without the Ascension of Jesus which we are here to celebrate tonight, we would not set our hearts and minds on the high destiny that is awaiting us in the kingdom of Heaven. Without the Ascension, we would not be looking beyond this world to the opportunity to have all our desires fulfilled in an instant through a sharing in the divine life of the Holy Trinity, and through an opportunity to speak to God face to face, as a friend. This is the gift awaiting us because of the Ascension, a gift so much greater than anything Adam and Eve ever experienced in the garden of Eden, a gift so much greater than the experience of the disciples who saw our Lord after He rose from the dead.

Without a doubt, it would have been great if the Transfiguration had lasted a little longer. It would have been great if the Resurrection appearances of our Lord had lasted longer than 40 days. For such experiences had by the disciples of Jesus undoubtedly strengthened their faith and gave them great hope for the pilgrimage that awaited them. Yet we are here on Ascension Sunday to take the Lord Jesus at His word. It is better for us that He goes to prepare a place for us. It is better that we walk by faith and not by sight, for blessed are the ones who have not seen, and yet through the Holy Spirit, have believed in the reality of Jesus' Resurrection. Blessed are those of us who look forward with great joy to the end of our Easter celebration next Sunday at Pentecost, and to the gift of the Holy Spirit who continues to keep our Church in the truth that Jesus left us, and gives us all access to a deep and personal relationship with Jesus by reminding us of everything that He did and said.

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Pope Benedict Ferverinos from US Visit - Part IV

From remarks made on the White House lawn



"The Church, for her part, wishes to contribute to building a world ever more worthy of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gen 1:26-27). She is convinced that faith sheds new light on all things, and that the Gospel reveals the noble vocation and sublime destiny of every man and woman (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 10). Faith also gives us the strength to respond to our high calling, and the hope that inspires us to work for an ever more just and fraternal society. Democracy can only flourish, as your founding fathers realized, when political leaders and those whom they represent are guided by truth and bring the wisdom born of firm moral principle to decisions affecting the life and future of the nation."



Oftentimes, our politicians talk about the American way of life, or American values or ideals. Pope Benedict suggests that America should build a society mirrored on the kingdom of Heaven revealed in the Gospels by Jesus Christ, a society that seeks not just to preserve a minimum of rights (note that our country in allowing abortion does not even guarantee this minimum of a right to life for all) but a society that inspires each man and woman to pursue a 'noble vocation' and his or her 'high destiny' as a child created in the image and likeness of God. Our leaders sometimes settle for far less, talking much about preserving the 'American way of life' but spending less time than our Holy Father contemplating how to make this American way an inspiration to all the world.

Homily for Saturday of the 6th Week of Easter

For daily readings, see http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/050308.shtml

St. James and St. Philip, pray for us!

Mary, Queen of Vocations, pray for us!

It takes a lot of thought to process what Jesus is really saying to his apostles like James and Philip, whom we celebrate today. It is especially hard when Jesus says that his apostles will perform works greater than the works that He Himself performed. One of the keys to understanding, I think, is to realize that through the sacramental life of the Church, it is always Jesus Himself, working through the human minister, who performs the work worked. This is true of the priest at Mass and in confession to be sure, but even of the couple saying wedding vows at the altar. We are performing the works, and yet He is the one performing the works, and vice versa. This is why Jesus says to His disciples that it is so important that they understand that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him, so that they will also understand that through the Holy Spirit, He is in them and they in Him! It is impossible for us, indeed, to perform works greater than the ones Jesus performed, unless He is completely in us as He promised to be, and unless it is impossible to distinguish who is doing the work. Once we understand this, the apostolic work of the Church, especially as embodied in the sacraments, makes sense. Jesus performed many works, or signs, that were outside of his ultimate sign of being lifted up on the cross, but were performed so that people would believe that He was sent from the Father in heaven. His apostolic Church, engages in these lesser works as well as She is able, in imitation of Christ, but the central work of the Church is the work of the Eucharist, the source and summit of the sacramental life. The Mass at Yankee Stadium, for example, made present the paschal mystery of the Lord, His greatest work, for 50,000 in attendance, and in a smaller way, for the millions of others who watched and prayed. Jesus did not have any crowds of 50,000 in the Gospels. More importantly, the Church is entrusted with the greater work of finishing the mission that Jesus began, of reconciling the world to the Father. We can only do this if through the gift of the Holy Spirit we prepare to celebrate at Pentecost, He is truly in us and we are in Him!

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Pope Benedict Ferverinos from US Visit - Part III

From remarks made on the White House South Lawn

"In a word, freedom is ever new. It is a challenge held out to each generation, and it must constantly be won over for the cause of good (cf. Spe Salvi, 24). Few have understood this as clearly as the late Pope John Paul II. In reflecting on the spiritual victory of freedom over totalitarianism in his native Poland and in eastern Europe, he reminded us that history shows, time and again, that “in a world without truth, freedom loses its foundation”, and a democracy without values can lose its very soul (cf. Centesimus Annus, 46). Those prophetic words in some sense echo the conviction of President Washington, expressed in his Farewell Address, that religion and morality represent “indispensable supports” of political prosperity."

Let us pray with the Holy Father that our democracy, which we hope to be a model for the world, will not lose its soul. The Holy Father has such high regard for the religiosity of our country, a religiosity that is open to universal, objective and eternal truths about the nature of man and his destiny. May this religiosity of our country continue to help our leaders to set their hearts on the greatest gifts, and to not accept a freedom divorced from the pursuit of truth and virtue.

Pope Benedict Ferverinos from US Visit - Part II

From Welcome Remarks Made at the White House South Lawn

"Freedom is not only a gift, but also a summons to personal responsibility. Americans know this from experience – almost every town in this country has its monuments honoring those who sacrificed their lives in defense of freedom, both at home and abroad. The preservation of freedom calls for the cultivation of virtue, self-discipline, sacrifice for the common good and a sense of responsibility towards the less fortunate. It also demands the courage to engage in civic life and to bring one’s deepest beliefs and values to reasoned public debate."

Having lived through World War II, Pope Benedict knows of the incalculable sacrifices made by men and women of our country to preserve freedom. He knows just as well that the freedom for which these men and women sacrificed is not the freedom to do whatever we want, but is the freedom to pursue excellence, and the freedom to imitate the sacrifices of those who have gone before us so that many more will have life, and have it in abundance. We insult the heroic sacrifices of American predecessors by using the freedom won for us to pursue mediocrity. Let us pray with our Pope that America will be known for its virtue, self-discipline and sacrifice rather than for our self-centeredness.<