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The Sunday TV Mass is produced and broadcast weekly by the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls to bring the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy into the lives and homes of those shut-in and unable to join their local community for Mass. The Mass is broadcast on the local CBS affiliate and has an audience of approximately 9,000 viewers. We also broadcast on Siouxland Christian Broadcasting.

Broadcast Schedule

Sunday
10:00am CT - 9:00am MT - KELOLAND TV
9:00am CT - KSCB cable channel 30 (Sioux Falls)

This Week's Homily

October 12, 2008
Celebrant: Fr. Justin Wachs

Last Sunday, we celebrated Respect Life Sunday and reflected upon the urgency in our day to recapture “the Catholic vision of reality” particularly concerning the right to life from conception to natural death and all the ages in between and to present “it, in an engaging and imaginative way, to society” (cf. Meeting with the Bishops of the United States of America, Responses of His Holiness Benedict XVI to the Questions posed by the Bishops, 16 April 2008). On this Twenty-eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time, we can we go a step further and consider a possible root cause of this present need to recapture and present the Catholic vision of reality.

In our Gospel today, Jesus gives us a parable which directly describes our times. Many Catholics today are like those guests who have little or no interest in God; and, what is worse, they take to killing the messengers of the Good News through lack of what they demand, namely, “openness”. What is more, many do not understand the greatness of the gift they have in their Catholic Faith.

Forty years ago, the Servant of God, Pope Paul VI, prophesied just such a situation when he described a society having lost a sense of right and wrong, filled with death, marital infidelity, and disrespect and abuse of woman on account of the introduction of methods and plans for artificial birth control (cf. Humanae Vitae, 17). His words are worth citing: “How easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards. Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings—and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation—need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law. Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection” (Ibid.).

It does not take much to look at our times and see the fulfillment of his words. The ease with which we impede life at its first moment quickly reveals how callously one can desire to end life when it is not desired, even in exceptional circumstances. What is more, how easy it is to approve irregular relationships and cohabitation when the very foundation of society, the love between a man and a woman, is no longer respected and safeguarded as a divinely instituted relationship of life and love for the good of the man and the woman and the fruit of their love, their children.

The Catholic vision of reality reminds us that¬ God is real and present in the world and desires our good. He will, as St. Paul reminds us, “fully supply whatever we need” (Phil. 4.19) in all circumstances of our life: Vocational discernment, family planning, or even complicated health care concerns. This often necessitates difficult decisions; nevertheless, if we open our hearts to His plan and the methods which He has provided for our good, we will find the strength to do all things (cf. Phil. 4. 13).

“Many our invited, but few are chosen”, because few choose to say yes to God and the abundant life which He promises. In Holy Communion, He gives us a foretaste of the table which He has prepared for us. The Lord is our Shepherd, and we have nothing to fear as long as we trust in Him and His desire for our good.