Homily for All Saints Day (Year A)
November 1, 2017
Good Samaritan, EGF – 10:00 AM
Holy Trinity, Tabor – 6:00 PM; St. Francis of Assisi, Fisher – 7:30 PM

Focus:              The saints are among us.
Function:         Today we celebrate them.

They are here. They are among us.
The saints.
They are living among us.
They are here.

St. Irenaeus once said that “the glory of God is man fully alive.” The saints were fully alive when they lived on earth and they are fully alive in Heaven.  If the glory of God is man fully alive, and the saints are fully alive, then the Glory of God is in his saints.

And, brothers and sisters, the Glory of God is blinding today. It is a blinding light.

They are here.
They are all around us.

We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…
A cloud of intercessors.

We are surrounded by men and women who sought to love God with the totality of their being – with all they’ve got – with all they have and are.

We are surrounded by men and women who allowed their lives to be transformed, who allowed their hearts to be converted, by the grace of God and the light of the Gospel.

We are surrounded by them.
We are.
They are here.
They are among us.

We are surrounded by men and women whose example of life inspires us and spurs us on to pursue a more abundant life. A life lived not for ourselves but for others.  A life poured out in service.  A life lived for God.

Today we celebrate them. We celebrate all saints.

Saints both known and unknown.
Saints from every time and place.

Saints like Maximilian Kolbe, a man who stepped forward and offered his life in exchange for the life of Franciszek Gajowniczek, who had been sentenced to death in a starvation bunker in Auschwitz during World War II, a man whose last dying act was to raise his hand in blessing over the man who gave him his lethal injection.

Today we celebrate them. We celebrate all saints.

Saints like Pier Giorgio Frassati, still a blessed and not yet recognized as a saint, an Italian man who loved the Eucharist even more than he loved mountain climbing and smoking cigars, a man who died much too young at the age of 24 by contracting polio from a sick person he ministered to, a man whose last act on his deathbed was to scribble out a note to a friend telling him that the medicine in his coat pocket was to be delivered to a poor man who was unable to afford the medicine he needed.

Today we celebrate them. We celebrate all saints.

Saints like Stanley Rother, a farm boy from Oklahoma who became a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City who worked in the Missions in Guatemala, a man who refused to leave during the civil war when it became dangerous, stating “The shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger.” Fr. Rother was true to his word and it cost him his life. He was beatified 2 months ago and became the first American-born martyr.

Today we celebrate them. We celebrate all saints.

Saints known and unknown.
Saints famous and obscure.
Saints recognized and unrecognized.

Saints like our parents and grandparents who, in simple and humble ways, went about the tasks of their daily lives with a charity, a joy, and a zeal for others that lifted others’ spirits, that let others know they were cared for, that they were loved, that they mattered.

Today we celebrate them. We celebrate all saints.

Saints like our friend who suffered greatly from this or that cancer, but never complained and seized the moment of each day, saints who turned their suffering into a sacrifice for the sake of the ones they loved, saints who lived each day to the fullest, saints who could see God’s grace present to them in the midst of the Cross they carried.

Today we celebrate them. We celebrate all saints.

Saints like firemen who rush into burning buildings to save others’ lives at the cost of their own.

Today we celebrate them. We celebrate all saints.

Saints known and unknown.
Saints canonized and not canonized.
Saints famous and obscure.

And, brothers and sisters, saints in heaven but also those saints who still walk among us.

Saints like our children and grandchildren who struggle to balance work and family life, who strive to teach their children about the Love of God in a culture that so often has forgotten about God.

Saints like the neighbor who has suffered so much loss in her life and yet still she presses on with courage and joy because she hopes in the promises of her loving God and longs to see his face.

Saints who volunteer their time to come and sit with us, to listen to our stories, saints who visit those in the nursing homes and hospitals, saints who visit those who are confined to their homes, saints who comfort us in our sadness and bathe the wounds that come from living with the compassion from their hearts.

Today we celebrate them.
Today we celebrate the heroic men and women of every time and place.
Today we celebrate all saints.

Today we honor them.
Today we thank them.
Today we ask them to continue to pray for us, so that where they have gone, we may one day follow.

They are here.
They are all around us.

They are the Glory of God.
And, brothers and sisters, the Glory of God is indeed blinding today!

Homily for 21^st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)
August 26-27, 2017
Sacred Heart, EGF – 5:30 PM
St. Francis of Assisi, Fisher – 8:00 AM; Holy Trinity, Tabor – 10:00 AM

Focus:              Peter finds his identity when he acknowledges Christ’s identity.
Function:         Acknowledge Christ as Lord.

There is an existential question at the heart of today’s Gospel.

Who do you say that I am?

It is a very personal question, a risky question, a question that cuts to the heart of the matter. It is a question that gets down to the level of identity.

Who do you say that I am?

Simon tells Jesus who he is, and then Jesus, in turn, tells Simon who he is.
And who is he?
He is a fisherman.
He is the one who walked on the water.
He is one who saw Jesus in his glory on the mountain.
He is a sinner.

Who is he?
Blessed is he.
He is Simon, son of Jonah.
He is Peter, the rock, “Rocky”, the keeper of the keys, the Master of the House, the one on whom the Church will be built. 

Who do you say that I am?

You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

Simon acknowledges who Jesus is, and then Jesus tells Simon who he is. Simon discovers who he is when he discovers who Jesus is.

Peter finds his identity when he acknowledges Christ’s identity.

Brothers and sisters, the same is true for us. We find our identity when we find Christ’s identity. We discover who we are when we discover who He is. We find our very selves when we find him, the one through whom all things, including us, were made.

There is so much uncertainty in the world today. People are lost. They are like sheep without a shepherd, with no one to look to, with no one to lead them. So many people do not know who they are, or they have forgotten who they are. They do not know who they are because they do not know who Christ is. And they are searching, desperately searching, for someone to show them who they are. And in their searching, they look to people who seem confident in who they are, who seem to know who they are. Often they look to the wrong people, and what do we see? Panic. Unrest. Anxiety. Anarchy.

But, what if?
What if they were able to look to people who have been able to answer the question posed by Jesus in the Gospel today?
What if they were able to look to people who know who Jesus Christ is?
What if they were able to look to people who know what they are looking for because they have found it for themselves?

What if?
What if they were able to look to you or to me, and to hear us say:
You were made for more.
You were made for greatness.
You were made to be a saint.
You are a beloved son or daughter of the Father.
You are loved beyond measure.
You are the one for whom Christ gave everything to redeem.

What if?
What if they heard us say:
You are looking for love but you are bound by sin. The Church has the key to set you free. I know because I was there too. Here’s how I found freedom…

All of us look to someone else to find out who we are.  We see this especially with children.  Children look to their parents to find out who they are, and if they don’t find a strong example in their parents, they look to their peers.

All of us look to someone else to find out who we are.  Brothers and sisters, if you aren’t following Christ, I guarantee you that you are following someone or something.  And so my question for you this morning is this:

Who are you following?
Who do you look to?

Who do people say that you are?

There is nothing so compelling as when a disciple of Jesus speaks out of that place where Christ has been revealed to him, when he naturally shares his experience of a time when he encountered Christ in his life and how it changed him. Like Peter, we discover who we are when we discover who Christ is. And it changes everything. It changed Simon’s name to Peter and made him a firm foundation upon which the Church could be built. It changes us and gives us a firm conviction of who we are, a solid foundation on which we can build our lives.

Back to Saint Peter…

At the end of his life, Saint Peter’s gaze was so tightly fixed on the One he acclaimed as Lord that his identity was unshakeable – it was so unshakeable that he was able to bear being crucified upside down on a cross in the middle of a square in Rome.

He was crucified like his Lord. The great Rock of the Church seemed to crumble and fall. He was buried, and years passed. 2000 years passed.

This past January, my classmates and I went on pilgrimage to Rome. While in Rome, we had the privilege of going on the Scavi tour – a tour of the excavations under St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

The Emperor Constantine built the original Saint Peter’s Basilica in the 4^th century. Tradition holds that he built it over the grave of Saint Peter. It was a massive undertaking. Much of Vatican Hill was leveled in order to build the basilica exactly where Constantine wanted it built.

He could have built it in another spot nearby where the ground was already level, but he wanted it directly over the grave of Saint Peter. A chapel in the basilica was built over Peter’s grave, and the main altar in the basilica was erected one story above the chapel, directly over Peter’s grave.

In the 1500’s, Constantine’s basilica was taken down and the current Saint Peter’s Basilica was built. The main altar was kept in the same place because of the tradition that it was directly over the location of Saint Peter’s grave.

In the mid 1900’s, excavations under Saint Peter’s basilica began. Many tombs and graves were discovered, dating back to the 2^nd and 3^rd centuries. As our guide led us deeper and deeper underground, we eventually reached the spot where the bones of a man in his sixties were discovered – several stories directly under the main altar.

We stared in wonder at a small piece of jawbone.

The jawbone that had partaken of the First Eucharist at the Last Supper…
The jawbone that had denied Christ, and then repented when the cock crowed…
The jawbone that confessed Christ as the Son of the living God…
The jaw of the one whom Christ declared as the Rock on whom He would build his Church…

Saint Peter’s Basilica – the Mother of all the Churches – is built on the Rock, and not only on the Rock of Saint Peter, but on his confession of faith and the jaw that proclaimed the answer to Christ’s question.

That same question comes down to you and to me today.

Who do you say that He is?

Homily for 20^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) (75^th anniv of death of Maximilian Kolbe)
August 14, 2016
St. Joseph’s, RLF – 10:00 AM

Focus:              Christ came to set the world on fire.
Function:        Go, set the world on fire!

I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!

75 years ago, in late July of 1941, a prisoner escaped from a bunker in the concentration camp at Auschwitz. He had nothing to lose.  The conditions were horrendous.  He knew he was going to die.

The guards had a rule. If anyone escaped, 10 men would be killed in his place.  So, the guards lined up all 600 prisoners.  The prisoners stood in the hot sun all day while the guards searched for the escapee.

They didn’t find him.

The commander walked up and down the line of prisoners and slowly began to select 10…10 men who would be sent to a starvation bunker with no food, no water, where they would die a horrible death.

 “You.”  “You.”  “You…”

The heart of Franciszek Gajowniczek (Francis Guy oh KNEE check) pounded as the commander approached.

“You.”  “You.”  “You.”

As the commander drew nearer, he looked at Francis, pointed, and said it: “You.”

Francis wasn’t able to control himself. “Please!  My wife!  My children!  Who will care for them?!”

Then another prisoner stepped out of line. He walked up to the commander.

“What do you want?!”

“I want to take that man’s place.”

“Who are you?”

“I am a Catholic priest from Poland, and I want to take his place, because he has a wife and children.”

The commander paused for a moment and stared the prisoner down. “Fine, switch ‘em out!”

The guards sent Fr. Maximilian Kolbe and the prisoners to the underground starvation bunker, where they remained for two weeks. Fr. Kolbe kept his eyes fixed on Christ and gave the men in the bunker hope and encouragement, helping them to meditate on the Passion of Christ, the very passion in which they were now sharing.  At the end of two weeks, four men were still alive.  The guards needed the starvation bunker for more men, so they injected the men with carbolic acid.

Fr. Maximilian Kolbe died on August 14, 1941 – 75 years ago on this date.

Franciszek Gajowniczek remained in Auschwitz for 3 years before he was transferred to another concentration camp. He was then freed by the Allied forces and, 6 months after the War ended, he was reunited with his wife, although his two sons had been killed in the war.

He died in 1995, at the age of 93. Thirteen years before his death, he was present at the canonization Mass where Saint John Paul II proclaimed Fr. Kolbe as Saint Maximilian Kolbe, a martyr of charity.

In speaking of St. Maximilian Kolbe, Francis said: “I could only thank him with my eyes. I was stunned and could hardly grasp what was going on.  The immensity of it: I, the condemned, am to live and someone else willingly and voluntarily offers his life for me – a stranger…

“He didn’t just die for me but for all of us – to give us a witness of heroic charity.”

Jesus said to his disciples, I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!

Christ had set the fire ablaze in the heart of Maximilian Kolbe, and Kolbe in turn set that fire ablaze in those he came into contact with. Saint Maximilian Kolbe was on fire with the love of God.  The fire of Divine Love consumed him – it blazed within him, and God used that heavenly fire to draw Francis out of the pit of destruction and to draw the other men in the bunker out of the pit of hopelessness and despair.  Even though their time in the starvation bunker would end in death, Kolbe kept them focused on the joy they would soon attain – the joy of eternal life.

And when Kolbe died, his flame did not go out. No, it exploded through Auschwitz as other prisoners learned of his heroic deed.  In a cold place of horror, hate, and despair, where the fire of God’s love seemed to have been extinguished, Kolbe lit the torch of hope.  And beyond Auschwitz, the fire that consumed him comes to us today and lights a fire within us.

A fire that cannot be controlled
A fire that cannot be contained
A fire that captivates the hearts of those who see it

A fire that burns deep within our hearts, consuming them and providing the fuel for a life poured out in service…

A fire that burns through our fears and keeps our eyes fixed on the One who came to set the earth on fire with the love of God.

I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!

Brothers and sisters, the fire has been lit. It has been passed down through the centuries.  Sometimes it blazes and sometimes it seems to lay dormant, smoldering in the coals of indifference and lukewarmness.  But Christ desires it to be blazing.  Is your heart ablaze?  Is your heart raging with the uncontrollable fire of divine love?

Fan the flame, don’t let it go out!

Pokemon Go will not set the fire ablaze…
Facebook will not set the fire ablaze…
Soundbites will not set the fire ablaze…
Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton will not set the fire ablaze…

But…Virtuous friendships and real relationships will set the fire ablaze
Pursuing a life of virtue will set the fire ablaze
Prayer – real, fervent prayer will set the fire ablaze

A life transformed by the living Word of God will set the fire ablaze because “The Lord’s voice flashes flames of fire”

Reading the Lives of the Saints, Saints like Maximilian Kolbe, will set the fire ablaze as we encounter the love of God in the example that they set for us.

A life poured out in service, a life spent using the gifts of the Holy Spirit that we have been given, will set the fire ablaze.

A life of charity, devotion, fervor, and zeal will set the world on fire. Saint Catherine of Siena once said, “Become who you were meant to be, and you will set the world on fire.”

Brothers and sisters, we were made for greatness. We were made to be saints.  We were made to be disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ who came to cast a fire on the earth.

Remember who you are.
Go, set the world on fire!