TV Mass Homily

Christmas music is playing through the stores, although it is not all Christ centered. Consider these familiar lyrics: “you better watch out, you better not pout, you better not cry, I’m telling you why.” Why, because someone is coming to town. That is a song and sentiment of the secular season that is used to encourage children into being good if only for a short time because the material reward will be great. The fact is that someone has come and is coming to town, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The sad fact is that many will miss that coming because the pressures and commercialization of this happy time of the year overshadow the substantive reason to celebrate Christmas. The beauty and mystery and the joy of this time…

Today as we celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus, King of the Universe, known to most as Christ the King, the Jubilee Year of Mercy comes to a close. This feast day was added to the Church calendar in 1925 to counter the atheism, nationalism, materialism and anti-Catholicism when communism and fascism were on the rise, all of which are not known for mercy but for oppression. Things have not changed much since 1925, with god-less secularism, religious fundamentalism and moral-less relativism now added to the list. In the midst of turmoil, division and fear in our day, it is important that we raise up Christ as King. Today we affirm what is core to our faith, that Jesus on the Cross triumphed over evil and continues to do…

Don’t forget to set your clocks back one hour as Daylight Saving has ended. It is a fall ritual that changes our clocks and our routines, which as I get older is more difficult to adjust to. As beautiful as fall has been this year, the lengthening darkness and the chill in the air wears a bit. I have a harder time getting out of bed in the early morning for prayer. And I fall asleep in my chair earlier in the dark of evening. Also please on Tuesday exercise your right to vote as faithful Catholics and good citizens. There are important contests and issues that deserve our conscientious attention because they affect core values especially relating to life and justice which transcend any one election or candidate. This…

On Wednesday of this week, October 26, I will celebrate the tenth anniversary of my ordination as a bishop and installation as the eighth bishop of Sioux Falls. We celebrate anniversaries for at least two reasons. One is to pause and look back over the events and happenings of those years, the joys which encourage us and the sins and mistakes which encourage us to seek forgiveness and to learn from them. I will celebrate my anniversary Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. Among my great joys of these years is the deepening of my relationship with Jesus Christ through Mary. At that Mass I will re-consecrate my life, my priesthood and my bishopric to Our Lady under the title of Our Lady of…

Last week our readings encouraged us to always be grateful for God’s love and continuing presence especially in times of challenge. This week we are encouraged to pray without ceasing and also with persistence. Gratitude and persistent prayer are faith sustaining. Jesus asked, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth,”? Yes, I would answer, among those who are grateful persistent prayers, which comes down to trusting in God, God’s will and God’s way. Clearly there is great faith among those of you who are with us today. Yet when surveying the broader culture and even the Church, there also is shallow faith among some and lack of faith among so many. Each of us in our own families knows this to be true. It can…

There is a legend about two angels who were sent from heaven each with a basket. They went from place to place, to homes, churches, businesses, schools, anywhere people were active. Then they returned to heaven with their baskets. One was heavy with its bounty and the other was light. “What do you have in your basket,” one asked the other. “I was sent to collect the prayers of all the people who said, I want or please give me,” answered the one with the heavy basket. “What of yours?” the angel with the light basket was asked: “Oh I was sent to collect the thank you-s of all the people to whom God had sent a blessing. See how few remembered to offer thanks.” My life and I am…

Do you ever feel compassion fatigue? With all the destructive happenings in the world as a result of natural causes and human sinfulness we can get worn down by it all. Compassion fatigue is an inoculation against weariness from the immensity and variety of the pain and suffering around us. Our readings suggest we ought not to let the immensity of human hurt prevent us from acknowledging poverty, injustice, racism, disease and loneliness or the unpredictability of nature so that in whatever way we can reach out to others with personal and spiritual support in the name of Jesus Christ. Saint John Paul II wrote that: “the parable of the rich man and Lazarus must always be present in our memory; it must form our conscience. We cannot stand idly…

Our readings today are particularly instructive in highlighting the essence of the Jubilee Year of Mercy. Every person is important and loved by God their creator. That love expressed through forgiveness is greater than all the constraints human and social in the secular world. Yet for that love and forgiveness to be manifest, like the younger son, we who yearn for that love expressed in forgiveness must “come to our senses.” Mercy is not an endorsement of sin; it is acknowledgement of need for conversion. Forgiveness and mercy are in short supply in our day, as is the understanding that we must come to our senses, own up to our mistakes and open up ourselves to change. Jesus in response to the religious leaders’ hardened hearts offered three parables that…

“Anyone who does not hate his family and renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple,” Jesus declares in the Gospel. Those are harsh words. Yet we know that Jesus loved his family and friends, even sinners, healed and helped those in need, giving wholly of himself to his death on the cross. So what was he saying with these hard words? I think he was challenging us to get our priorities right, to recognize that half-hearted discipleship will not sustain us; that lukewarm faith will not nourish us; and that we must trust fully in him if we are to live with hope for the future and in peace in this passing world. In other words, to join a family stronger than blood, a family of faith St Paul…

This Gospel is a parable that encourages us to look at routine things in life in a new way, through the lens of Gospel values. Jesus was at a dinner and the people were “observing him carefully.” The fact is that he was observing them carefully with the intent to teach them. Jesus was not teaching good manners or how to get ahead. He is teaching us good discipleship and how to get to heaven. We are encouraged to approach social gatherings with humility. Jesus used a wedding banquet as an example. The ultimate wedding banquet of course is heaven. When priests get together one of the topics is inevitably weddings. We are not taught in seminary how to choreograph a wedding, though we must. We learn it the hard…