As disciples, we are to have the heart of God. In God's eyes, everyone is deserving of love, This means each and every immigrant on the face of the earth.

Nativity of St John the Baptist 2018

At Baptism, the first question the Church asks the parents of a newborn is:  “What name do you give your child?”  There’s more to the question than what they plan to call their newborn?  We might think of it in terms of hope for the future.  What dreams do your parents have for you?  What are the dreams you have for your children?  How do these plans align with God’s plan for your children?

As we celebrate the Feast of the Birth of John the Baptist, his parents were asked:  “What name do you give to your child?”  They responded “John.”  The name John reflected God’s plan for John the Baptist.  His parents Zachariah and Elizabeth named him John, rather than after his father Zachariah, because they knew even from his birth that God has a plan for John.  He was to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus.  Zachariah and Elizabeth wanted their son John to be faithful to God’s call and God’s plan for his life.

In the first Scripture reading from the prophet Isaiah, the prophet says:  “The Lord called me from birth.  From my mother’s womb he gave me my name.”  The Christian calling is a high expectation.  Long before our parents started looking through books for baby names, we are named as children of God.

Zechariah and Elizabeth were committed to name their child John even though it meant  going against family traditions and community expectation.  They trusted God’s Word to them about this child.

John was to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus.  John the Baptist is the mentor for all the baptized.  Following the example of John and seeking his intercession, we too are to make the Lord known and help others prepare their hearts for the coming of Jesus into their lives.

As we celebrate the Feast of John the Baptist, we need to pay attention both to the preaching of John and his mission.  His preaching needs to take hold in our hearts and his mission is to become our mission.  We too are called to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.

We need to listen to the first words of the preaching of John: “Repent.  For the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  For John, repentance was critical.  For us to be a disciple of Jesus, we need to repent in all the ways we have been flawed by our sinfulness.

For what do we need to repent?

Do I need to repent from being judgmental?  Many of us are too quick to make judgments about people who think differently than ourselves.  Can we love others as God loves them or do we get bogged down in our judgments?

Do I need to repent from needing to control everyone and every situation?    Many of us have our goals and plans for our life but are we able to trust in God’s plan for our lives?  This is what the parents of John the Baptist prayed for as they named their son John.

Do I need to repent from lust?  Do I get caught up in pornography and use the gift of sexuality for selfish pleasure?

Do I need to repent from my way of life in which I am too busy to pray each day?  As we week to develop a daily pattern of personal prayer, am I able to give 1% of each day over to God in prayer.  1% of each day is 15 minutes.  Am I able to set aside 15 minutes each day for prayer?  Or am I too busy to surrender to God 1% of each day?

Like John the Baptist, we need to spend time in the desert to repent, to experience metanoia, to have a change of heart.  On this Feast of John the Baptist, I invite you to name one area of your life which you need to repent?

John the Baptist preached the need for repentance and John’s mission was to evangelize, to proclaim the Good News of Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and to prepare for the coming of Jesus into our lives.  We too are missioned to evangelize, to encounter the love of Jesus in our lives and to bear witness to others the love God has for them.

What does it mean for me to be a good Catholic?   For sure I need to repent and ask myself:  is God the center of my life?  We are all sinners under construction.  We need to repent of our sinfulness.

Our discipleship of the Lord Jesus does not stop there in the same way that the mission of John the Baptist did not stop there.  We are called to evangelize?  We are called to encounter the Lord, to develop a personal relationship with Jesus, and we are called to share and to bear witness to the love of God in our world.

In the words of Pope Francis, we are called to be missionary disciples.  Am I my brother’s keeper?  Absolutely.  By Baptism we are missioned to be for others, to be a community of disciples of Jesus.  We are to be for one another.

How am I called to witness to the love of God?  This doesn’t mean waving a Bible in the face of others.  It means having the heart of God.  It means sharing the Father’s love for each and every person on the face of the earth.  This means sharing the love of God with each member of your family, with each immigrant, with each gay person, with someone who is very different from you.  In God’s eyes everyone is deserving of love.  For us to evangelize, we need to receive the heart of God the Father.  When we evangelize, we share what we have been given.  Each of us is deeply loved by God.  In our prayer, may we encounter the God who loves us.  When we evangelize, we are to share the Good News with others that they too are recipients of the tireless love of God.

For us to be evangelizers of God’s love, I invite you to pray the prayer I seek to begin each day.  It’s a very simple prayer.  I say:  “Holy Spirit, what are we going to do today?”  Holy Spirit, what are we going to do today?

Have a Blessed day.

What is the North Star of your life that keeps you focused on the significant priorities of your life?

Life is filled with challenges and often consumed with activities, whether at home or work or school or at Church.  Many struggle to find time to even share a meal with their families.  Time is at such a premium that often the important relationships in our lives take a back seat to the pressures of the day.

Can you identify with this challenge at least at times?  It was no different for Jesus and his followers.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus’ young ministry is faced with many of the same challenges that face us.  Jesus had just appointed his apostles, 12 men of varying backgrounds and life experiences – men who will soon understand the demands of discipleship, the sacrifices they will be called to make.  Jesus and his apostles are challenged with a growing group of people putting great demands on their time.  The scene in today’s Gospel is one of chaos, of crowds so demanding the disciples find it impossible “even to eat.”  Listen again to the beginning of today’s Gospel:  “Jesus came home with his disciples.  Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat.”

We like the original apostles seek to fine the balance in our use of time – making time for work, for our commitment to service in our Church, for the activities that give us energy, but also time for prayer to deepen our relationship with the Lord and making time for the significant relationships of our life.

As I now celebrate my 50^th anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood, I am filled with much joy and gratitude.   The Lord has blessed me in so many ways.  I live life with an attitude of gratitude.  As Pope Francis has witnessed to so beautifully, I am filled with the joy of the Gospel.

In all truth, even after 50 blessed years as a priest, I still wrestle with finding the balance among the competing demands on my time.  As the pastor of two parishes that have many beautiful ministries, as a person who seeks to empower our wonderful staff, as a person blessed with a large family of a brother and two sisters and 19 nieces and nephews and 28 grandnieces and grandnephews whom I deeply love, with a commitment to my brother priests, with a desire to continue to deep my prayer life, like yourself, I wrestle with balance in my life of prayer and ministry and valuing the important relationships of my life.

There isn’t enough time to all we want to do, right?

So, what is the anchor for my life and your life that keeps us centered, what is our North Star that keeps us focused on the significant priorities of our life?

For me, the North Star of my life is the Mass.  It is what we are doing just now.  In this mystery of the Eucharist, we gather to give thanks to the Lord.  We gather to be fed and nourished at the Table of the Lord.\

In the depth of my heart, I thank you for the privilege of being your pastor.  I thank you for the privilege of praying with you in this mystery of the Eucharist.  I pray for the ongoing, faith-filled awareness that I and all of us claim God’s unending love for each and every one of us.  In the words of my ordaining Bishop, Fulton Sheen, “the greatest love story ever told is contained in the tiny white host.”

It’s like it’s too good to be true.  So we too easily take the mystery of the Eucharist for granted.  Please God we always have the awareness and claim the love that God has for us in the Mass.  It is the North Star of our lives.

What I have said before and probably will say again, as we get older, we sometimes repeat ourselves, don’t you know.  As I am filled with gratitude on my anniversary of priesthood, I am conscious of how my dad shared his faith with me in such a life defining way.  So, as a ten year old at Our Lady of Good Counsel School and Church, my dad was helping me to prepare to become an altar boy.  This was back in the day when the Mass was in Latin and there were the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar that began the liturgy.  The altar boy needed to know the Latin responses to the prayer of the priest.  My dad, the faith-filled man that he was, wanted me not only to memorize the Latin responses but also to know the meaning of the prayers I was saying.  So, my dad would take the part of the priest.  This came easily for my dad as his brother, one of his sons, and one of his grandsons are priests.  So the prayer began:   Introibo ad altare Dei.  Translation:  I will go to the altar of God.  Then my dad taught me the response:  Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam.  To God who gives joy to my youth.

What my dad taught me 66 years ago continues to be the center of my prayer life.  It is the center and the North Star of my ministry as a priest.  I will go the altar of God…to God who gives joy to my youth.  Introibo ad altare Dei…Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam.

Circling back to today’s Gospel, when the apostles dealing with the demands placed on their time in the young ministry of the Church, they did not even have time to eat.  They had to wrestle with finding the balance among ministry, prayer, and family.  I too wrestle with finding the right balance.  I suspect many of you as well are seeking the right balance in the use of your valued time.

I invite you to share in the wisdom that my dad taught me 66 years ago.  May I and you never be never too busy to go to the altar of God…To God who gives joy to my youth.  Introibo ad altare Dei…Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam.  May your North Star in finding the right balance for your life be the Sunday Eucharist in giving thanks to the Lord our God and being fed and nourished at the Table of the Lord.

Have a Blessed Day.

As I celebrate my 50th anniversary as a priest, the center of my prayer continues to be what my dad taught me 66 years ago training to be an altar boy: Introibo ad altare Dei.

The feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, the feast of Corpus Christi, proclaims the faith of why we gather Sunday after Sunday after Sunday to give thanks to the Lord our God.  The mystery of the Eucharist is at the centerpiece of our Catholic Christian faith.  With the proclamation of our Bishop, Bishop Matano, we have been celebrating the Year of the Eucharist this past year, and we officially conclude the Year of the Eucharist with this Feast Day.  Please God and with the Blessing of our Bishop, may we continue to celebrate for the rest of our lives placing the Eucharist at the very center of our prayer lives.  May our first prayer be the prayer that Jesus asked us to do when He said:  “Do this in memory of me.”

As I celebrate my 50^th anniversary as a priest with much joy and gratitude, I personally go back 66 years to when I was a fifth grader at Our Lady of Good Counsel School and I was preparing to becoming an altar boy.   A very treasured memory I have was being with my dad in my parent’s bed room, and my dad was teaching me not only to memorize but also  to learn the meaning of the prayers at the Foot of the Altar back in the days when Mass was celebrated in Latin.  My dad would take the part of the priest  (My dad came by the priest’s part quite naturally as his brother and one of his sons and one of his grandsons are priests).  My dad said:  “Introibo ad altare Dei.”  Translation:  “I will go to the altar of God.”  Then my dad would make sure I had the response spot on:  “Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam.”  To God who gives joy to my youth.

Now as I celebrate my 50^th anniversary as a Priest, what my dad taught me 66 years ago continues to be the center of my faith life:  I will go to the altar of God – to God who gives joy to my youth.  Thank you dad for sharing your faith with me. 

If you permit to be a bit personal for just a moment, I wish to thank Bishop Matano for your presence at this liturgy.  Quite simply, it means the world to me and I thank you.  I am grateful for my brother John and my sisters Anne and Jean for your love and support over these many, many years.  While my brother and my sisters and myself were never fully understand why in the plan of God our older brother Bill and our sister Susie had significant neurological disease that ultimately shortened their lives, we are believers that my brother Bill and sister Sue are present in us in this liturgy.  I am also most grateful to my nephews and nieces, my grandnephews and grandnieces, my brother priests, the wonderful, wonderful staff of St Joseph’s and Holy Spirit.  I can’t say often enough the joy I experience in your love and affirmation of me.  I’m grateful to see my grandnephews Dane and Grant as altar servers and all my nieces and nephews participating in this liturgy.

Lest I go too far down memory lane, I wish to focus on the  mystery of the Sunday Eucharist.  As we participate in this Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, we are reflecting on the central prayer of our faith tradition.  We are part of a tradition that is nearly 2000 years old.  The Sunday Eucharist is our participation in the paschal mystery of Christ Jesus.  The Sunday Eucharist satisfies the deepest hungers of the human heart.  I remember the words of my ordaining Bishop, Fulton Sheen, who said:  “The greatest love story of all time is contained in a tiny white host.”

I suggest our deepest spiritual hungers are for Jesus’ power to love and forgive his enemies rather than embarrass and crush them.  What we hunger for is Jesus’ power to be bighearted; to love beyond his own family, and to love poor and rich alike; to live inside of charity, joy, peace, patience, goodness, despite everything in life that militates against these virtues.

Left to our own will power and our own desires, we get too easily trapped in self-centeredness.  The truth of the life of all of us is that we are deeply flawed by sin.

 The way we are wired is that for us to satisfy the deepest hunger of our human hearts, we need to be connected to the mystery of God’s love that is within us.  It is as a Eucharistic people, we are in to touch with the source of grace that enables us to be our best selves, the person we are called to be. 

As a Eucharistic community, we gather with an attitude of gratitude.  We gather to give, to give thanks to the Lord our God.  We give thanks because we have been fed and nourished at the Table of the Lord with a food that enables to live as Jesus lives, to love as Jesus loves, to forgive as Jesus forgives.

As we approach the altar and receive Communion, it is as if the Church is filling up with Christ.  We are not only in union with Christ; we are in communion with all those who receive him.    This is the meaning of Church.  The Church is a People  of God who are in union with Christ in the mystery of the Eucharist.  We are also a people in communion with all those who receive Christ Jesus in the Eucharist.

At the Last Supper, Jesus gathers his disciples with the context of something very old – the Passover meal – to give them something very new  -- the Eucharist.  He creates for them a new covenant. 

The Mass is our greatest prayer; we gather to give thanks to the Lord our God.  Yet it is what we do outside the Mass that also determines the genuineness of the offering we make at the altar each Sunday.  By our mutual love and, in particular, by our concern for those in need we will be recognized as true followers of Christ.  Go in peace glorifying the Lord by our lives in all that we say and do this day and every day.

As we transition now into the Liturgy of the Eucharist, it is with considerable joy for me as a priest to preside over this Eucharistic mystery in which we are fed and nourished at the Table of the Lord.  We gather to give thanks to the Lord our God.

The words taught to me by dad, whether in Latin or in English, continue to be lifegiving for me and for us:  “I will go to the altar of God.  To God who gives joy to my youth.”  Introibe ad altare Dei…Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam.