Where are the sick?

Homily

Monday of the 5th Week in Ordinary Time C2

7 February 2022

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

AMDG +mj

Where are the sick?  

They are with Jesus.

I'll admit it.  I'm done with COVID.  I'm tired of all this sickness.  I lost my patience a long time ago.  Yet Jesus hasn't.

They brought the sick to Jesus.  Where they are, He is.

Pope Francis loves the field hospital image of the Church.  There Jesus is, in the midst of the mess.  There He is, in harm's way. There He is, searching for new ways to reveal all the compassion in His sacred heart in the lives of His suffering mystical body.

To put away the sick is to put away Jesus.  For there He is, in the midst of them.

Where are the sick?  To answer that question is to find Jesus.

When will I say 'choose me?'

Homily

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time C2

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

6 February 2022

AMDG +mj

When will I say 'choose me?'

I know, I know, if you've been Catholic long you're probably tired of hearing about vocations.  Vocation, vocation, vocation.  You have one.  You are made for something.  Jesus is calling you intimately and personally by name.  You have a mission that only you can accomplish.  Your happiness depends on your answer.

You've heard it over and over and over.  Sometimes, it can seem like just one more thing for a Catholic to feel guilty about, especially if I struggle to know or be faithful to my vocation.

Yet your vocation is not meant to be experienced in this way.  Jesus did not create you to test you.  He didn't create you to hire you.  Of course, He needs fishers of men but He doesn't need need them.  He chooses to need us for our own sake, not for His.  Your vocation will never be a means to His ends.  He will never call you to control or abuse you.

Quite the opposite, Jesus created you only to love you.  He created you to suffer for you, and to reveal all the love He has in His sacred heart for you.

That's why a vocation is not first a surrender to God's will, but first a surrender to His love.  That's what the three guys in tonight's scriptures found out.  Grace is first, then the call.  Jesus first invades our space with his mercy, only after does He call.

Isaiah got the hell scared out of him, when he received a vision.  He was sure his unworthiness meant his destruction.  Instead, an ember touched his lips and cleansed him, an ember not unlike the flesh of Jesus from His burning heart that may hit your lips tonight.  From this experience of mercy, Isaiah says 'choose me.'

Paul hated Jesus more than anyone.  He is the last person Jesus should have called, yet because Jesus wants to dump all the mercy that is in His heart, Paul is the person He most wanted to call.  From his most hateful point, redeemed by Jesus, Paul says 'choose me!'

Peter called Jesus an idiot.   Peter, who alternates between great confessions and putting his foot in his mouth, reminds Jesus that it's his boat and he knows how to fish.  He obeys not out of faith, but to prove Jesus wrong.  When Jesus turns his world upside down, Peter gets scared.  Jesus tells Peter to take courage from his more fearful place, and from there Peter responds 'choose me!'

Thank God Peter did.  My life was forever changed through the fulfillment of today's Gospel promise, that Peter would catch men.  When I was a sophomore at KU, Peter's successor John Paul II gathered a million people in Denver for the World Youth Days.  Talk about a catch!  A million people is way smellier and messier than the two boatloads of fish Peter had to deal with.  Yet it's also more glorious.  This catch changed my life forever.

Isaiah, Paul and Peter.  None of them applied for the job.  None of them told God when they were ready.  They were all invaded by God's mercy. They responded to their experience of grace at their weakest point, where Jesus revealed all His love to them.  

When will I say 'choose me?'

I confess I get caught to often not by God's grace, but by my telling Jesus what I'm ready to do for him.  Yet this is not a vocation.  A vocation is not me telling God that I know how things go in my boat, and I know this is as good as it's gonna get.  No a vocation is born when Jesus invades my boat and says I love you.  Don't be afraid. There is more.

Your vocation is not matching your skills to God's job board.  It's you're response when God rocks your world by revealing how much He loves you.  You're vocation is like Isaiah's, Paul's and Peter's - it's meant to be the greatest of upsets, something that astonishes even you.

That's the invasion of grace first, then vocation.

In this light, when do I want to say 'choose me?'

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