Who's gonna teach?

Homily

Saturday of the 4th Week in Ordinary Time C2

+Agnes, virgin martyr

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

5 February 2022

AMDG +mj

Who's gonna teach?

Schools are in trouble.  Teachers want out.  The pandemic has stressed educators to the limits.  It's harder to realize the desire to see students learn and grow, the reason people get into education.  Fewer and fewer think it's worth it to teach.

Jesus has a crowd that is longing to be taught.  His heart breaks for them, and He teaches.  Teaching is a sacrifice from the heart.  It is ultimately a calling received personally from Jesus the teacher.

Let's pray that our poor world can receive the teachers she needs.  Let's beg Christ the teacher for this grace.

Who's gonna teach?

 

Do I keep contrition?

Homily

Friday of the 4th Week in Ordinary Time

St. Lawrence Catholic Center at the University of Kansas

SEEK Conference

AMDG +mj

Do I keep contrition?

You know, there are not one, but two adulterers and murderers in today's Scriptures.   I'm sure you noticed Herod.  Did you notice the other?  That's right, it's King David, whose praises are sung in the Book of Sirach, who is proclaimed to love God with his whole being.

King David had a low moment as bad as King Herod's indulgent and cowardly acts at his birthday party.  King David lusted after Bathsheba and took her in an adulterous affair, then murdered her husband. Uriah  The sins are almost exactly the same between these men.  One died in infamy.  The other in glory.

What's the difference?  King David kept contrition.  He even let a nobody, Shimei, curse him to his face.  He was deeply sorry, and through his repentance he came to know the love of God more, and responded in return.

King Herod tried to save face, and so lost his very life.

I have a low point too.  So do you.  But do I keep contrition?

how do I exit well?

Homily

Thursday of the 4th Week in Ordinary Time C2

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

3 February 2022

+Blaise, bishop and martyr

AMDG +mj

How do I exit well?

Transitions are a necessary part of life.  We might as well embrace them, rather than fear them.  To live is to change, and to live well is to transition well.

Sr. Ruth Kuefler gave a meditation to our staff yesterday that was so good.   Her point was that you can't exit well if you haven't stayed well.  Her comments echoed Jesus' seemingly circular but really insightful instructions to his disciples in today's Gospel.  Stay in the same place until you leave from there.

Many of us never embrace the full reality of where we are.  We are always wishing we were somewhere else.  Sr. Ruth in echoing our Lord's advice is absolutely right.

If you are able to stay somewhere well, so too will you exit be when it happens.  Yet there's no way to exit well if you first fumble the staying.

So I guess the real question is . .  how can I be where I am? 

am I courageous?

Homily

Thursday of the 4th Week in Ordinary Time C2

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

3 February 2022

AMDG +mj

Am I courageous?

Pay attention to the great King David's final words spoken to his son Solomon.  Take courage, son.  I dare say this is the most important word a parent can ever speak to a child.

No parent can protect their child from every danger and risk inherent in life.  Helicoptering can't work.  Almost always, it cripples a child.  One can only exist and survive, but never thrive, without the virtue of courage.  It's also a gift of the Holy Spirit.

Praying for the gift, and showing children how to be courageous is a critical duty of every parent.  Too many parents call me afraid that their son or daughter might lose faith.  From my experience, if we are afraid of losing faith, in many ways we have already lost it.

The best we can do is what David did.  Pray for courage.  Tell our kids how to be courageous, and show them how.  

Am I courageous?

who am I?

Homily

Wednesday of the 4th Week in Ordinary Time C2

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

2 February 2022

AMDG +mj

Who am I?

Today's Candlemas, the 40th and final day of Christmas in the old calendar, is a Feast that sheds a special light into this question.  Who am I?  

So a final Merry Christmas to you all!  Today is a Feast of Light.  For the particular light of Jesus that has been 'epiphanied' to the whole world through the recognition of the star by the Magi, today reaches its final Christmas destination by appearing in the temple.  Today Jesus is presented by His parents in His Father's house for the 1st time.

Simeon prophesies rightly that Jesus has come for revelation, to shed light on the question of who God is.  Through the mystery of the Incarnation, God becoming man, which we have contemplated for 40 days, the question of who I am is simultaneous with the question of who God is.  Jesus's appearing shows me over and over again who I am.

The candles presented today point to Jesus' desire to shine light into the mystery of your identity.  He is desperate today to epiphany Himself and shine light into any dark recessed of your temple, into any lies you believe about yourself.  

If you dare, He begs to reveal that you are His, that who you are is whose you are.  

When you were presented in the temple you received the simplest and most profound identity possible. I am His.  

Today's Feast begs you to renew this identity at this turn in your life. 

So ask yourself in light of the Incarnation.  Who am I?

I

do I welcome input?

Homily

Monday of the 4th Week of Ordinary Time

31 January 2022

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

AMDG +mj

Do I welcome input?

Jesus' beatitudes are so upside-down.  Words of affirmation are great.  I need them.  Yet words of criticism are more blessed.  Blessed are you when all speak ill of you.

David is tormented by the insults of a nobody, Shimei, whom his companions regard as no more than a dead dog.  Yet David has been so humbled by life.  He assumes Shimei has been sent from God.  David prays that if even his own son Absolom, seeks to kill him, a spirit of contrition is the right response.  

The Gerasenes do not welcome such input.  As is clear by the Gospel, they are more fearful of Jesus than the demoniac.  They prefer their demons to grace.  They ask Jesus to leave them alone.  

The contrast in today's readings might cause me to ask.  Do I welcome input?

What hill will I die on?

Homily

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time C2

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

30 January 2022

AMDG +mj

What hill will I die on?

Jesus didn't die on every hill.  Neither can you.  He said no to Satan's temptation for Him to fall from the parapet of the temple.  Today He escapes the hill in his hometown of Nazareth.  Jesus didn't die on every hill.  You know what hill He chose.

You get to die once, and for all.  If you get to choose, what hill will you die on?  Please don't be a person who tried to die on every hill.  So, which one is it?

Jeremiah and Jesus both are able to courageously speak prophetic words that must be said, knowing God will deliver them from the hands of those that hate them.  Yet both prophets will eventually die, and it is there that they speak the ultimate words of their life.  

St. Paul knows what this perfect word is that must be spoken.  The perfect word is love.  Jesus is destined to die on the hill where He says that perfect word with his entire life.  From the cross Jesus says I love you.  

What hill will I die on?  I keep feeling in prayer that Jesus is wanting to suffer more in me, so that I can feel the compassion He feels for His people.  It's not a hill I'm excited to visit.  

Yet it's a hill where I can give all of myself.  It's a hill where I can say I love you.  It's the same hill that Jesus died on.

I wonder if you're being invited there too.  I can't die on every hill.  The question is this:

What hill will I die on?