Spoiler: this has absolutely nothing to do with Mother’s Day—that’s for the homily.

A couple weeks ago I went to the movie theater (yes, they still exist) to watch the movie Nefarious with my fellow Companion of Christ Fr. Max. Now, I very rarely watch horror movies because they’re typically a gross exercise in the fascination with evil on top of the other forms of visual immodesty that numb us to the grotesque and pornographic. However, this year is the 50^th anniversary since the showing of The Exorcist, so there are several exorcism movies hitting the theaters these days. I wasn’t planning on partaking in the usual Hollywood exaggerations until I heard a review from an actual exorcist (a Catholic priest, of course) who deals with this stuff on a daily basis. He pooh-poohed The Pope’s Exorcist unsurprisingly because it was made by, well, Hollywood…and I think it’s safe to say that Hollywood doesn’t really care about the truth of things.

According to this exorcist, however, the creators of Nefarious did their homework. While it portrays a possessed man dialoguing with an atheistic psychologist, the movie is much like a visual version of C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters where we get a convincing and convicting glimpse into the mind of the enemy. If anything, the movie held back!—further convincing me that the producers cared more about faith than fireworks. Remember, the devil is not a threat to God’s omnipotence. The devil is just a rabid dog on a chain and can only do what God permits him to. God leaves us and the angels free to follow Him or not, but as one person put it rather brazenly, “If you play the devil’s stupid games, then you’ll win his stupid prizes.”

Nevertheless, we often think that the devil’s extraordinary activity like possession and puking up Nickelodeon slime is all that he really does. Nefarious reminds us that the devil is very much alive in the world today and that we need to “be sober and vigilant,” because “[our] opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)

Witchcraft, wicca, and other new-age materials had their own giant section at the Barnes and Noble in Naperville the last time I strolled in—probably because they’re selling! Likewise, most people don’t realize that Freemasonry is directly antithetical to our Catholic faith and needs to be formally renounced—even if your grandpa just showed up to the local lodge for the fraternity and business contacts. (Feel free to email me if your family has a history of Freemasonry.)

I was certainly shaken at one point in the movie, not because of any gross excesses, but because of how accurately the movie portrayed the evil of abortion—all without showing a drop of blood.  The movie is R for a reason, and I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone. But if you are going to watch it, just remember that the Creator is always infinitely more powerful than any of His creatures. Jesus Christ conquered Satan on a tree, just as Adam was conquered by the serpent on a tree. In Jesus Name, we can be free from any hold the enemy has on our lives, so long as we are willing to repent, surrender to Jesus, forgive others, renounce the enemy’s lies, and cling to our good, holy, true, and beautiful God.

PS the last ten minutes of the movie were out of place. The writing was solid up until that point when they reverted to the kind of unrealistic preachy-dialogue that makes some Christian movies painful to watch. Besides that, bravo!

Father James

Being the only son and “baby of the family,” I do have the claim to being my mom’s favorite and perfect son (her words, not mine).  It also doesn’t hurt that I also became a priest!  However, as you all know by now, I am certainly not perfect, nor completely self-sufficient.  This becomes particularly clear given the fact that I too seek out the Sacrament of Reconciliation about every other month—I need Jesus just as much as anyone else!—and given the fact that some ministerial tasks prove to be too big for me to handle on my own—I need to depend on others!  But there is a beauty in not being perfect in ourselves! As St. Aelred put it, “Almighty God can complete anyone He pleases. But God desires that we depend on each other, and what anyone does not have in himself, he finds in the other. Thus, humility is preserved, love increased, and unity realized.”

This quotation shows us that God has a beautiful purpose for giving us the gift of each other!  Do we realize what a gift it is to need to depend on others? Or to have to ask for help sometimes? This is seen in our first reading from Acts of the Apostles as a lesson to the early Church.  In this passage, there was a serious need being neglected as the Hellenist widows were being ignored.  So how did the Church respond?  It called forward seven new deacons, each with Greek names.  The response to the problem came from within the community! “Humility is preserved, love increased, and unity realized.”

What a beautiful lesson that we can learn from the early Church.  If we see a legitimate need within our community, that’s okay! We can trust that the Holy Spirit will call forward generous volunteers to complete the task. In fact, if God is raising that need before your eyes, perhaps He’s asking you to respond to it! Let’s ask the Holy Spirit this Easter season where He may be asking us to serve others within our beautiful parish of Our Lady of Mercy.  That way humility is preserved, love increased, and unity realized.

Father Michael

The road to Emmaus is a beautiful story about a journey of faith—a journey that we all know very well. 

It begins with two disciples walking alongside their Master.  Although initially filled with hope, they struggle to understand the reality of the suffering and the cross that they have encountered.  Jesus points to their foolishness, not only because they failed to understand his teaching and prophecy, but also because they chose to ignore the women in their own group who proclaimed that the tomb was empty and that Jesus was alive!  Imagine: if you were one of the disciples who had followed Jesus closely for several years, and you heard that he was alive, wouldn’t you stick around in Jerusalem to search for Him? Why walk away defeated as if Jesus never existed?

Yet we so often do that very thing—when we sin, we live as if Jesus were not risen! Thus, our Mass begins with a similar scenario where we call to mind all of the times where we have lived as if Jesus were not risen: “Lord, have mercy! Christ, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!”

Sufficiently reproached, we then humbly listen to Jesus who proceeds to open up the Scriptures for us in the liturgy of the word: the Old Testament and Psalms lay the foundation, and the letters and the Gospel bring it all to fulfillment in Jesus Christ.  Just as Jesus revealed to the two disciples that he was indeed the flawless continuation of God’s love affair with humanity, so too does the first part of the Mass immerse us in that same story.  “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” Please, God, that my homilies do much the same for you!  That they complete the liturgy of the word by leading our hearts into a burning desire for the Lord!

But that’s not all. As the journey continues, the disciples plead with Jesus, “Stay with us!”  Jesus heeds their request, and begins to do something he had done when feeding the thousands, when instituting the Eucharist, and which would be repeated in his Church for millennia to come: he took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them… In this simple but iconic gesture, Jesus was recognized for who he truly was. It was and continues to be in the breaking of the bread that our eyes are opened to see him!  With hearts on fire, we are to go forth like the disciples proclaiming that, YES, “The Lord has truly been raised!”

The road to Emmaus is our road through the Mass.  Let us enter the Mass with great hope, with our hearts open to his word, recognize our Lord’s presence in the Eucharistic breaking of the bread, and go forth into the world proclaiming that Jesus is truly risen!

Father Michael

Although Catholicism is the largest single denomination in the US, we are doubly outnumbered by Protestants in general. This means that, like it or not, we American Catholics are deeply influenced by Protestants. In that light, on this Divine Mercy Sunday, allow me to share five arguments proving that Jesus gave us sacrament of divine mercy: confession.

#1: John 20:23 “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” There are three things that Jesus immediately does upon resurrecting and appearing to his apostles for the first time: first, He says, “Peace be with you”; second, He gives them the Holy Spirit; third, He gives them the authority to forgive sins on His behalf. Why in the world would He give men the authority to do what only God can do (Mark 2:7) if He didn’t want them to use that authority? And if that isn’t enough, Jesus did much the same when He gave Peter the authority to bind or loose things in heaven (Matt 16:18-19). Jesus Himself gave us the sacrament of confession.

#2: Catholicism or bust. If you believe that Jesus founded the Catholic Church and not the Lutheran, Calvinist, Baptist, etc. (see Matt 16:18-19), then you necessarily must believe in sacramental confession. Under the Holy Spirit, the Church has definitively declared this again and again, council after council; so for Catholics at least, if you’re going to be rationally consistent, confession isn’t optional.

#3: James 5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to one another.” James tells us to confess our sins to other Christians. Regardless of who he means by “one another”, this shows us that the confession of sins has always been more than a private prayer devotion for Christians. The Acts of the Apostles itself says of those who were converting, “Many also of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices.” (Acts 19:18) Confessing to another Christian (i.e. a priest) is essential because our sins affect the rest of the church and not just our personal relationship with God alone.

#4: History Proves It. If Scripture wasn’t enough, innumerable early Christian writings show us that those temporally closest to Jesus believed that Jesus intended a public confession of sins. We read from the Didache, written at about the same time as some New Testament books: “Confess your sins in church, and do not go up to your prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of life… On the Lord’s Day gather together, break bread, and give thanks, after confessing your transgressions so that your sacrifice may be pure.” (Didache 4:14, 14:1) Or, to take an example from Origen: “[A final method of forgiveness], albeit hard and laborious [is] the remission of sins through penance, when the sinner . . . does not shrink from declaring his sin to a priest of the Lord and from seeking medicine, after the manner of him who say, ‘I said, “To the Lord I will accuse myself of my iniquity.”’” (Homilies on Leviticus 2:4 [A.D. 248])

#5: James 5:14-15 “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the presbyters of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.” The same passage that clearly points to the sacrament of anointing of the sick also shows us that sins can be forgiven through the ministry of priests.

Jesus gave us a gift in sacramental confession, so it’s only reasonable to think that He had good reasons for doing so! I’d encourage you to go at least every couple months. I go every few weeks.

Father James

“There is more.” If there were a slogan for Christianity, I think that this would be it! There is more… There is more joy, more peace, more happiness, freedom, and fulfillment waiting for you. Healing can happen, resurrection is an option, and what you see isn’t just what you get. There is more! There is more to life, more to marriage, more to family, friends, and fellowship than you realize. Jesus is always bringing more for those open to receiving it, and whatever the cross, whatever the roadblocks, whatever the pain, discouragement, and death that we face, there is always more redemption available.

What is striking about the saints is that they never say, “That is enough!” That is enough God, enough charity, enough hope. No, they know that heaven is not just watching the Cubs win the world series (and neither is hell thankfully!), nor is heaven enjoying grandma’s cheesecake again, or throwing a perfect game, or enjoying a good book and a tasty drink at the ocean—wonderful as these things are! Heaven doesn’t just satisfy our desire for pleasure, knowledge, and beauty, but also goodness, love, and belonging as well. All of the best memories in our lives, all of the greatest achievements, and even something more.

The saints were never fully satisfied in this life not because they didn’t enjoy life, or experience profound relationships, or achieve great feats—au contraire! They knew how to enjoy life in the best ways possible! Rather, they were never fully satisfied in this life because they knew that even these things were only a dim reflection of the glory to come. God always has even more in store. 

How do you fit the infinite into something finite? You don’t. That’s why in heaven there will be an eternity of wonder, an eternity of new life, an eternity of deepened love. Heaven could never be “boring” because by definition, as C.S. Lewis put it, it’s an eternity of joyfully traveling “further up and further in”! 

“Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love him!” (1 Cor 2:9) In a post-Easter world, we can take to heart St. Paul’s exhortation, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice!” For when it comes to life in Christ, life in His Church, and life as God’s beloved child, there is always more!

Father James

On Good Friday, Pontius Pilate was not the only one who had a choice to make. The very same choice was brought both to the people of the world then, as well as to the people of the world now. We may be unaware of this choice, but that’s why the Church in her wisdom has us hear Pontius Pilate pose the very same question to us this weekend.  He brings before us the one called Jesus of Nazareth, and the one known as Barabbas.  The two seem like they couldn’t be more different, until we recognize that Bar-abbas literally means “son of the father”.  Here then is our choice and question: Which son of the father will we follow?   Will we choose to follow Jesus Christ, the son of the Father of sacrificial love, or will you follow Bar-abbas, the son of the father of the passions?

Surprisingly, we participate in the Palm Sunday liturgy by crying out, “Barabbas!” It’s a painful moment each year no matter how many times we’ve done it, because if we are honest with ourselves, we know that we all too often choose our own passions over our Lord.  Like the crowds before Pilate, we too choose to act selfishly over being selfless.  In a sense, whenever we choose sin, we once again choose Bar-abbas!

To admit this is hard.  It’s very sobering. It first of all takes a certain about of self-awareness—and then, very quickly, a lot of humility. To be willing to look in the mirror and humbly submit our understanding of right vs. wrong to the God of all, rather than to what we’d like to think is right or wrong. When we put aside our attempts at justifying ourselves and our actions, the reality is clear: in our human brokenness, we don’t always do what is right! St. Paul describes this experience so well: “What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate.” (Rom 7:15) What then do we do? Do we just surrender, give up, and resign ourselves to a life of sin?  NO! “You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!””  (Rom 8:15) In Christ we have forgiveness; in Christ we have hope. Just look at St. Peter! He himself who was hand-picked by Jesus to be the rock upon which the Church was built denied our Lord 3 times. The head of the apostles himself had at one point ‘chosen Barabbas’. Yet,

The Church is founded upon forgiveness.  Peter himself is a personal embodiment of this truth! She is held together by forgiveness, and Peter is the perpetual living reminder of this reality: she is not a communion of the perfect but a communion of sinners who need and seek forgiveness. ~ Pope Benedict XVI

As we experience Palm Sunday, let us never be afraid to acknowledge our brokenness, seek forgiveness, and turn with confidence to our true Father through His one eternal Son!

Father Michael

When discussing our Catholic faith with one of my friends, he’ll usually respond, “Wow, you actually believe this?”  He says it in jest and sarcasm, as he too is a practicing Catholic.  The statement is more to point out where we are in our society when it comes to understanding and living out our faith, as it seems to go against our cultural norms.

Over the last 4 and half weeks of Lent, I have been going to various parishes, schools, and homes to bring people the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and that doesn’t include the increased hours of the Sacrament Reconciliation this coming week from 7-8:30PM, Monday through Friday, March 27th-31st offered at our parish. 

The Sacrament is a beautiful gift Jesus gave the Church (Jn 20:21-23; 2 Cor 5:11-21), and I’ve seen the power of the Sacrament through my own vocation.  Fr. James has preached on the precept of the Church that a Catholic is required to go to confession at least once a year.  One can respond, like my friend, “You actually believe this?” Of course my answer is “Yes” and our Gospel this weekend continues to reveal it.

There are many beautiful insights with the story of raising Lazarus, but I’ll point to one in particular.  Death was a result of sin, so when Jesus says to the people as Lazarus comes out of the tomb, “Unbind him and let him go,” Jesus is revealing his authority to free people not only from death, but sin as well.  Jesus desires to do the same in our lives.  He desires to call us from death to new life; He desires to free us from sin that binds us.  Let us take advantage of this gift the Lord has given us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Father Michael

WHY GIVE ATTENTION TO LENT!

As a Seminarian, I consider the Lenten period a great opportunity to show my appreciation for Christ’s sacrifice and show that He did not die in vain.  The Lenten period allows us Christians to grow closer to God, to the church and our families.

Every Lenten period, I ask myself a question:  What strength did we receive during baptism? My first thought is the baptismal font: Whenever I pass near the baptismal font, I profess that were it not for the font, I would not be the way I am.  Had I not been washed and thus placed on the way to Eternal Salvation, I would not be a Christian or even a Seminarian.  Each year the Church uses this Lenten period to take us back to the baptismal font.  This is to remind us from where our lives in Christ started.  Therefore, during Lent we are invited to recall our relationship with Christ.  We are reminded how to walk with God.

We use the Lenten period to work on our sinful desires and do all we can to be closer to God.  During Lent, the main purpose of fasting in my view, is to deny or deprive ourselves of something tasty or delicious.  This cultivates in us the self-control that is necessary for overcoming sinful tendencies.  In short, as Christians, we deprive ourselves of something pleasurable so as to attune ourselves and bring our bodily senses under control for the sake of higher spiritual good.  This is the idea of fasting from meat! It is not a time to relish the best fish or go for costly sea foods! We should deny ourselves something we value (meat, beer, wine, sodas, sweets, lifestyles) and provide for others what they value, as a sign of love.  For fasting to be Salvific, it must hurt! The church also teaches us to set aside the proceeds from our fasting and give them out to the most vulnerable.  Look into your wardrobe and shoe rack and see what you can share with the less fortunate.

As we journey closer to God, let us thank God for granting us this Lenten period as a chance to repent and renew our lives.  May God help us as a community of OLM to align our choices to His Word through His Divine Grace.  Amen.      

Vincent

With the woman at the well, it is unclear why she has had five husbands. The detail is not included because it’s really not that important. Rather, we find her in the same situation that we all find ourselves: she is thirsting for authentic love—she is thirsting for God.

Unfortunately, we live in a fallen world without a lot of authentic love. In fact, cheapened love is all around us! One of its simplest and most prevalent forms is immodesty. Modesty keeps at the forefront that ‘I am more than my body, I am more than how attractive I am to others, I am first and most importantly a beloved child of God.’ Immodesty, on the other hand, cheapens love. For if modesty is about “protect[ing] the intimate center of the person,” then immodesty must be the opposite. (CCC 2521) This is because immodesty trains us to treat others (and ourselves!) as objects for use rather than persons to be sacrificed for. Thus, the Catechism says, “Modesty protects the mystery of persons and their love.” (CCC 2522) It is an invitation to authentic love and to seeing the full dignity of the human person.

Matthew 5:8 reads, “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.” Note, then, that this passage not only refers to seeing God Himself, but even seeing God in others! For, when we see others and ourselves in light of our being beloved children of God, then we can more readily treat them as such.

We can therefore see that ‘purity of heart’ extends to much more than just our sexuality. Soren Kierkegaard’s book, Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing makes just this point in an interesting way: if we want heaven, if we want peace, if we want a heart that is undivided and filled, then we must give our entire hearts to one thing and one thing alone: God.

“You shall love the Lord your God with ALL your heart!” (Deut 6:5) “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matt 10:37) It seems harsh, it seems counterintuitive, but God needs to be number one—even before children and spouses, family and friends—not because He needs it, but because we need it.

Think about it. If God is my number one, I will love my spouse with the love of God. If God is my number one, I will be intimately acquainted with Beauty, Goodness, and Truth Himself and thus be able to lead my children to all those things. If God is my number one, I will know which path is best, which decision most efficacious, and which lifestyle the most meaningful.

Purity of heart is simplicity of heart—it is to will the one thing! It is the way to satisfy our thirst. The pure of heart will see God, and the pure of heart will find the fullness of love.

Father James

I remember shortly after being ordained, I decided that my Lenten sacrifice was going to be giving up adult beverages.  I don’t drink all too often, but it was still a sacrifice I thought was worthy to give over to the Lord.  Ash Wednesday came and the following weekend was a big St. Patrick’s Day celebration in the town.  I went to the parade; seeing parishioners in their festive green gear and I visited houses in the midst of the all day celebration.  A simple question was asked, “Father, can I get you a drink?”  You would think that my keen memory would remember the sacrifices I was going to make 3 days ago; but I forgot and I gladly said, “Yes”.  It wasn’t until that night when I got back to the Rectory that I realized, only 3 days into Lent and I already failed in my Lenten resolve.  It was a humbling experience, but another opportunity to join the patriarchs and apostles, and ask the Lord for his unending mercy!

The story of Abram (Abraham) is a story of salvation history and example of God’s patience.  The Lord even in the midst of many of Abram’s failure never removed God’s desire to be with His people.  Abram was promised great things; a great nation, a great name (dynasty), and a worldwide blessing.  But there was a requirement that we missed; he had to leave his kin behind. If you were to read one line past our first reading, you would discover he took his nephew Lot.  Throughout Abram/Abraham’s story, he falls short many times failing to give a complete surrender to the Lord; yet the Lord is kind and merciful.

This is no different for the Apostles and those who follow the Lord.  The season of Lent is a season of repentance, turning back to the Lord.  Let us ask the Lord for that continued gift to seek his mercy without end.  No matter how many times we fall. 

“Christian holiness does not mean being sinless, but rather it means struggling not to give in and always getting up after every fall. Holiness does not stem so much from the effort of man’s will, as from the effort to never restrict the action of grace in one’s own soul, and to be, moreover, grace’s humble ‘partner.'” ~ Pope St. JPII

Father Michael