Father William P. Hahn

New Homily Location

2009-11-19T11:01:00.001-08:00

Fr. Hahn's Homilies can now be found here. Thank you!

Making up for lost time

2009-10-18T19:01:00.001-07:00

Dear All,

I sincerely apologize for not staying up to date on Father Hahn's homilies. Please find below links to the homilies that were missed.

Sincerely, Jim Hahn

August 16th 2009 - Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time

September 7th, 2009 - Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time

September 13th, 2009 - Twenty-fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

September 20th, 2009 - Twenty-fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

September 27th, 2009 - Twenty-sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time

October 4th, 2009 - Twenty-seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time

October 11th, 2009 - Twenty-eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

2009-08-13T18:39:00.000-07:00

Father Hahn's Homily

Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

2009-08-13T18:28:00.000-07:00

Father Hahn's Homily

Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

2009-07-22T19:02:00.000-07:00

Father Hahn's Homily

Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

2009-07-17T06:46:00.000-07:00

Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Father Hahn's Homily

More pictures from the trip to the Carson National Forest

Wilderness Outreach

Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

2009-07-15T03:53:00.000-07:00

Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Father Hahn's Homily

Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time

2009-07-15T03:45:00.000-07:00

The Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Resources for The Year of the Priest

Father Hahn's Homily

The Feast of Corpus Christi

2009-06-15T18:20:00.000-07:00

Father Hahn's Homily for the Feast of Corpus Christi

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

2009-06-09T18:32:00.000-07:00

Father Hahn's Homily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.

The Feast of Pentecost

2009-06-01T19:29:00.000-07:00

Father Hahn's Homily for the Feast of Pentecost 2009

The Feast of the Ascension

2009-05-26T17:53:00.000-07:00

Father Hahn's Homily for the Feast of the Ascension

The Sixth Sunday of Easter

2009-05-20T19:38:00.000-07:00

Father Hahn's Homily for the Sixth Sunday of Easter.

Fifth Sunday of Easter

2009-05-13T18:25:00.000-07:00

Father Hahn's Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter

Catching Up

2009-05-04T18:11:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks have been extremely busy for Fr. Hahn and his lazy brother (who posts the audio). If we couple that with some computer problems, we have the perfect formula for a stockpile of audio homilies. We'll all try to do better. Enjoy...

Holy Thursday - April 9th

Easter - April 12th

Divine Mercy Sunday - April 19th

The Third Sunday of Easter - April 26th

The Fourth Sunday of Easter - May 3rd

Holy Week Schedule

2009-04-09T18:14:00.000-07:00

The Four Last Things: Hell

2009-04-06T19:04:00.000-07:00

This is part five from Father Hahn on the Four Last Things.

Listen to Part One - Death

Listen to Part Two - Particular Judgement
Listen to Part Three - General Judgement

Listen to Part Four - Heaven

The Four Last Things: Heaven

2009-04-06T18:54:00.000-07:00

This is part four from Fr. Hahn on the Four Last Things.

Listen to Part One - Death
Listen to Part Two - Particular Judgement

Listen to Part Three - General Judgement

The Four Last Things: General Judgement

2009-03-17T03:27:00.000-07:00

This is part three of four from Father Hahn on The Four Last Things

Listen to Part One - Death

Listen to Part Two - Particular Judgement

The Four Last Things: Particular Judgement

2009-03-11T17:31:00.000-07:00

This is part two of four from Father Hahn on The Four Last Things

Listen to Part One

The Four Last Things: Death

2009-03-04T17:29:00.000-08:00

This is part one of four from Father Hahn on the Four Last Things.

Part Two

Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time

2009-02-23T17:50:00.000-08:00

In this homily Father Hahn explains the reason behind the practices of Lent. He also gives some practical helps to get more out of Lent.

The Lord's Healing for the Culture

2009-02-17T17:14:00.000-08:00

Father Hahn's Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Father Hahn refers to some CD's from Christopher West. Those 10 CD's or talks by Christopher West are titled Naked Without Shame. The talks are available on CD for $4.90 or they can be downloaded for free from this site.

This is the book mentioned by Father Hahn. - Good News About Sex and Marriage: Answers to Your Honest Questions About Catholic Teaching by Christopher West.

The Lord's Healing

2009-02-15T12:33:00.000-08:00

Fr. Hahn's Homily for the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom

2009-02-04T18:25:00.000-08:00

Father Hahn's Homily.

The Conversion of St. Paul

2009-02-04T18:17:00.000-08:00

Fr. Hahn's Homily

The Art and Practice of Prayer

2009-02-04T18:06:00.000-08:00

This homily was given by Fr. Hahn on the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time. (1.18.09).

Lectio Divina

The Baptism of Our Lord

2009-02-04T17:55:00.001-08:00

This homily was given on the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord.

Mary, Mother of God

2009-02-04T17:38:00.000-08:00

This homily is from the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Father Hahn mentions the title for Mary - Mediatrix of All Graces. Here is a good explanation of this title.

Feast of the Holy Family

2009-02-04T17:25:00.000-08:00

This homily was given on the Feast of the Holy Family (December 29, 2008). This is the book mentioned by Father Hahn. - Good News About Sex and Marriage: Answers to Your Honest Questions About Catholic Teaching by Christopher West. He will be giving a copy of this book to each family in the parish.

Technical Difficulties

2009-01-07T18:16:00.001-08:00

From James M. Hahn (I post Father Hahn's homilies) - the hard drive on my computer crashed shortly after Christmas so as of now I am unable to post Father's homilies until my new computer arrives and I get the needed mp3 software installed. Thank's for your patience, the Holy Family homily will be well worth the wait. God Bless you all!

Waiting in Joyful Hope

2008-12-23T12:00:00.000-08:00

Father Hahn's Homily

Rejoice! I say again, Rejoice!

2008-12-15T11:14:00.000-08:00

Father Hahn's Homily

Prepare the Way for the Lord

2008-12-10T20:07:00.000-08:00

In this homily for the Second Sunday of Advent, Fr. Hahn helps us to be prophets in our own time.

We are encouraged to "prepare the way of the Lord" so that the Lord can get to the hearts of those we love. Our goal is to do what we can to remove obstacles for others so that the Lord can meet them (and us) where they are.

Father Hahn's Homily

Prepare Your Hearts

2008-12-01T16:55:00.000-08:00

When Jesus first came to earth all that we could offer Him was a dirty stable. In this homily, Fr. Hahn helps us to prepare our hearts, through the sacrament of Reconciliation, giving Jesus a beautiful place to visit.

New Mural for Saint Peter's Catholic Church

2008-11-24T09:49:00.000-08:00

Saint Peter's Church recently renovated the Church and installed this beautiful mural. In this Homily, Father Hahn explains the rich symbolism of the mural.

A text explanation of the mural is available at the parish website.

Father Hahn's Homily

Profit for the Lord

2008-11-19T10:49:00.001-08:00

This homily is from November 16th, the Thirty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time.

Father Hahn's Homily

Dedication of St. John Lateran

2008-11-19T10:46:00.000-08:00

This homily is from November 9th, the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome.

Father Hahn's Homily

On Purgatory

2008-11-19T10:42:00.000-08:00

This homily is from November 2nd, All Souls Day. In this homily Fr. Hahn gives us an excellent meditation on Purgatory and why it is important for us to pray for those who have died.
Father Hahn's Homily

A Heart of Self-Sacrifice

2008-10-29T09:18:00.000-07:00

Father Hahn's Homily for the 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

Give to God what belongs to God

2008-10-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

Father Hahn's Homily for the 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time.

The Sacramental System

2008-10-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

Readings for the Twenty-eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time

In this homily Father Hahn explains the beauty of the Sacramental System.

Bearing Fruit

2008-10-08T19:00:00.000-07:00

Readings for the Twenty-seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time

Father Hahn's Homily

Obedience

2008-10-03T19:32:00.000-07:00

Readings for the Twenty-sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Father Hahn's Homily

Working in the Vineyard of the Lord

2008-10-03T19:26:00.000-07:00

Readings for the Twenty-fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Fr. Hahn's Homily

Exaltation of the Holy Cross

2008-09-22T09:17:00.001-07:00

Suffering + Love = The Cross

Readings for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Fr. Hahn's Homily

Admonishing the sinner

2008-09-17T14:07:00.000-07:00

Readings for the Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time

It is easier to remain silent than to admonish the sinner but this is what God calls us to. This is what both God's Love and His Justice demand.

Father Hahn's Homily

Plugging in to God

2008-09-17T13:57:00.000-07:00

The Twenty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time

Father Hahn's Homily

Who do you say that I am?

2008-08-25T09:14:00.000-07:00

Readings for the Twenty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time

Father Hahn's Homily

The Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time

2008-08-20T08:08:00.001-07:00

Readings for the Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Father Hahn's Homily

The Solemnity of the Assumption

2008-08-20T08:05:00.000-07:00

Readings for the Solemnity of the Assumption

Father Hahn's Homily

The Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

2008-08-20T08:04:00.001-07:00

Readings for the Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Father Hahn's Homily

The Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

2008-08-20T07:57:00.000-07:00

Readings for the Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Father Hahn's Homily

Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (NFP Part 2)

2008-08-20T07:40:00.000-07:00

Readings for the Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Father Hahn's Homily

The Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (NFP Part 1)

2008-07-25T19:02:00.000-07:00

Readings for the Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Father Hahn's Homily

Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

2008-07-08T20:41:00.000-07:00

Readings for the Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Father Hahn's Homily

Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul

2008-07-08T20:39:00.000-07:00

Readings for the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul

Father Hahn's Homily

Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

2008-06-16T20:23:00.000-07:00

Readings for the Tenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Father Hahn's Homily

Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time

2008-06-16T20:22:00.000-07:00

Readings for the Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Father Hahn's Homily

Memorial Day Homily

2008-06-03T15:34:00.000-07:00

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives peace do I give it”

What is the peace the world gives? It is shaky, transitional, it depends on the strength of arms to maintain. No matter what country or time period one lives in there will always be the threat of war, of injustice, of instability. This is the world’s peace. It is fragile.

The peace Christ came to bring is a lasting, permanent peace with that mark of justice. A peace that cannot be threatened from without. The only threat to true peace in our lives is from within, from our own sin which brings disorder. Jesus offers a lasting peace that cannot be threatened from without. He won it by his victory over satan at Calvary.

For armies in this life there are no lasting decisive victories – there is no war to end all wars. Pope John Paul once said that “war is always a failure for humanity.” Because it means our ability to reason, to seek justice, somewhere failed.

But in war there is often a true striving for justice, a striving for peace. And though war be an evil, God can bring good from even that. God can always bring a good from evil. He showed this most forcefully in the Crucifixion of his Son. The greatest evil humanity could ever commit, the killing of the innocent God, the killing of the one who loved us into existence, became the greatest gift we ever received, the path of salvation, the entry point to eternal life. By his wounds we were healed; by his death we were given life.

In like manner although war, pain, and death are horrible evils, the Lord is able to bring good from them. The life of a soldier although immersed in this world of evil becomes a path to a holy life.

The great French preacher Lacordaire once said “the vocation of a soldier is next in dignity to the priesthood, not only because it commissioned him to defend justice on the field of peace, but also because it called him to the spirit and intention of sacrifice.”

A. defend justice on the field of peace
The soldier’s motive is to be establishing peace and justice. These factors motivate our young men and women to enter the service. They have a desire to protect the freedom and security of their homeland. Others have joined the service, simply because they realized that their country needed them. After 9/11 many rushed to join because they saw their fellow countrymen under attack. It is these deeper desires that give the soldier his dignity. The soldier is noble then because these are his motives.

B. To quote Bishop Fulton Sheen about that second virtue, the spirit and intention of sacrifice: “There are certain things in life too beautiful to be forgotten. That is why we revere the sacrifice of our soldiers on Memorial Day. The most beautiful thing about the life of our Lord was His death. Everyone else came into the world to live; He came into it to die; “to give his life as a ransom for many.”

They sacrificed their time, their comfort, and some, their very lives, so that we might live in freedom and peace. Some gave their lives as a ransom for many.
For some of you the remembrance of their sacrifice is seen through the lens of decades for others the pain and the cost are more recent; counted not in decades and years, but in months and days.
As fellow Catholics and Christians and fellow Americans, we unite together today to remember that freedom and peace in this world are not preserved without sacrifice. We mourn together the loss of those who made the ultimate sacrifice, and yet we also take time to thank God for the noble witness of their lives.
In the end, it isn’t what occurs on the battlefields of the world and history that is important, but rather what happens on the battlefield of the heart. We honor and respect these soldiers today not because they achieved a victory at Normandy or Baghdad, but because they achieved victory over themselves. They loved not even their lives unto death; forgetting themselves they laid their lives down for their friend. “Greater love no man has than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” our Lord tells us.
In no greater way can we honor them than by offering this sacrifice which is the pattern of all sacrifices, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Sacrifice of Christ our Lord Himself. “No greater love has a man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Christ has laid down his life for each of us, and for each of those soldiers who have gone before us. He has made the sacrifice which has made available once and for all the only lasting peace, the peace that comes from allowing Christ to reign in our hearts. We pray in this Mass, in thanksgiving for the noble witness of the lives of these soldiers we remember today, for their concern for justice and peace, and for the sacrifice they made to advance those realities. We pray that God reward them with the Peace which can never be taken away and which is beyond all understanding. And we pray for us who remain, that we might establish the reign of Christ in our own hearts and thus be an avenue for true and lasting peace in the world. Amen.

Most Holy Body and Blood

2008-05-28T13:31:00.000-07:00

Readings for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood

Father Hahn's Homily

The Miracle of Lanciano

Most Holy Trinity

2008-05-22T05:36:00.000-07:00

Readings for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Father Hahn's Homily

Pentecost

2008-05-12T12:57:00.000-07:00

Readings for Pentecost Sunday

Fr. Hahn's Homily

Finance

2008-05-12T12:52:00.000-07:00

PLEASE NOTE: This homily is focused on financial issues dealing specifically with St. Peter's Church in Chillicothe.

Fifth Sunday of Easter

2008-04-23T15:00:00.000-07:00

Readings for the Fifth Sunday of Easter

Fr. Hahn's Homily

Fourth Sunday of Easter

2008-04-16T11:31:00.000-07:00

Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Easter

Father Hahn's Homily

Third Sunday of Easter 2008

2008-04-09T13:08:00.000-07:00

Readings for the Third Sunday of Easter

Fr. Hahn's Homily

Divine Mercy Sunday

2008-03-31T08:12:00.000-07:00

Readings for Divine Mercy Sunday

Father Hahn's Homily

Easter Sunday 2008

2008-03-24T12:14:00.000-07:00

Readings for Easter 2008 (Vigil - Easter Day)

Father Hahn's Homily

Good Friday

2008-03-24T12:06:00.000-07:00

Readings for Good Friday

Father Hahn's Homily

Holy Thursday

2008-03-24T11:04:00.001-07:00

Readings for Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper

Father Hahn's Homily

Palm Sunday 2008

2008-03-23T07:19:00.000-07:00

Readings for Palm Sunday

Father Hahn's Homily

Fifth Sunday of Lent

2008-03-10T09:09:00.000-07:00

Readings for the Fifth Sunday of Lent

Father Hahn's Homily

Fourth Sunday of Lent

2008-03-04T13:46:00.001-08:00

Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Lent

Fr. Hahn's Homily

Third Sunday of Lent

2008-03-04T13:36:00.000-08:00

Readings for the Third Sunday of Lent

Fr. Hahn's Homily

Second Sunday of Lent 2008

2008-02-18T08:42:00.000-08:00

Readings for the Second Sunday of Lent

Father Hahn's Homily

Father Stan Fortuna (mentioned in Father Hahn's Homily - Everybody Got to Suffer)

The First Sunday of Lent

2008-02-11T10:48:00.000-08:00

Readings for the First Sunday of Lent

Father Hahn's Homily

Ash Wednesday

2008-02-07T14:00:00.000-08:00

Readings for Ash Wednesday

Fr. Hahn's Homily

Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

2008-02-04T11:37:00.001-08:00

Readings for the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Father Hahn's Homily

The Third Sunday of Ordinary Time

2008-01-28T10:35:00.001-08:00

Readings for the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time

Father Hahn's Homily

Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

2008-01-22T12:59:00.000-08:00

Readings for the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

Fr. Hahn's Homily

The Baptism of the Lord

2008-01-14T07:28:00.000-08:00

Readings for the Feast of The Baptism of the Lord

Father Hahn's Homily

Epiphany

2008-01-08T17:56:00.000-08:00

Readings for The Solemnity of the Epiphany
Fr. Hahn's Homily

Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

2008-01-02T13:09:00.000-08:00

Readings for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

Fr. Hahn's Homily

Feast of the Holy Familly

2007-12-31T21:45:00.001-08:00

Readings for the Feast of the Holy Family

Fr. Hahn's Homily

The Nativity of Our Lord

2007-12-31T21:31:00.001-08:00

Readings for the Nativity of Our Lord

Fr. Hahn's Homily

Third Sunday of Advent 2007

2007-12-18T12:40:00.000-08:00

Readings for the Third Sunday of Advent

Father Hahn's Homily

Second Sunday of Advent

2007-12-10T08:08:00.000-08:00

Readings for the Second Sunday of Advent

Father Hahn's Homily

First Sunday of Advent

2007-12-04T11:58:00.000-08:00

Readings for the First Sunday of Advent 2007

Father Hahn's Homily

The Solemnity of Christ the King

2007-11-27T11:46:00.001-08:00

Readings for the Solemnity of Christ the King

Father Hahn's Homily (Audio)

Thirty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time

2007-11-19T18:40:00.000-08:00

Dear friends,

Starting with this posting Fr. Hahn's homilies will no longer be available in print form. Rather they will be posted as podcasts (MP3 Audio files) enabling you to hear them. We are working on the pops and cracks in the audio and hope to make the recordings better over time. Thanks for reading and for listening! May God Bless you!

In Christ through Mary, James M. Hahn

Readings for the Thirty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time

Fr. Hahn's Homily

Thirty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time

2007-11-13T11:56:00.000-08:00

Thirty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time

When Pope John Paul II was elected pope, he walked out on the balcony above St. Peter’s square, and shouted out to the throng assembled beneath him, “BE NOT AFRAID” Be not afraid – it was words needed by a church in a tumultuous time. The new pope was strengthening the church in courage.

The virtue of courage. We see a very vivid image of this virtue of courage in the first reading from the Second Book of Maccabees this morning. As you remember the story, these seven sons would not eat pork. They were being forced to eat pork because it was forbidden by the Jewish Faith, to eat the pork would be a repudiation of their faith in the one, true God. The sons courageously resisted, and their mother courageously encouraged them to resist. She had to endure watching each of her sons be tortured and murdered before her very eyes, and yet neither her nor her sons would repudiate their Faith in order to save their lives.

We also recall the virtue of courage as we celebrate Veteran’s Day today. What virtue more comes to mind when we think of veterans than courage and self-sacrifice. And probably a more recent image that is burned into the minds and hearts of each one of us, is that image from 9/11, of the firefighters running into the towers, even though they were most certain that the towers were about to collapse. As everyone was running out they still continued to run in so as to help as many people as possible even though they knew in all probability that they themselves would not come out of that building. When we remember these stories our hearts soar, we desire to be courageous, we want to be like them.

What is this gift or virtue of courage? What thread runs through each of these images? We can get the definition of courage from this morning’s reading: “Even the king and his attendants marveled at the young man’s courage, because he regarded his sufferings as nothing.” - because he regarded his sufferings as nothing. This is the heart of courage – to be so in love with the Good, to so desire the right thing that we don’t even count the cost that it will exact on us. To think more of the Good than of our own well being. This is the courage of the Maccabees, of the veterans, of the firefighters, the courage that we are called to as Christians.

The opposite then is fear, or cowardice, or especially in our time – apathy. Desiring to avoid pain at all costs. Desiring to avoid the Cross. Loving our own well-being, whether that being physical, emotional, or our position in other people’s eyes, human respect,..loving these more than the Good. This is the opposite of courage. This is where the devil tries to keep us.

His tactics of fear are to present God’s will for us in the most horrible light. So that when we feel that God is asking us to do something that may cost us, we look to it, and think ‘I could never endure that Cross, it’s too big, He’s asking too much of me, I can’t endure it.’ The devil magnifies the pain, and tries to block us from remembering the Resurrection-that the Lord will raise us up, that whatever He is asking us to do, He will bring great good from.

We can often see this lie in our own lives. You can probably remember a time you knew what the Lord was wanting you to do, a time when doing the right thing would cost you. The Cross, the wall looked so insurmountable. But then if you had the grace to do it, you look back and you think “why did I worry so much? It was nothing, the Cross was small, the wall was tiny, why did I worry so much?”

We might be seeing a wall right now, the Lord might be asking us to go in a new direction in our life, or to step back from a relationship that is not healthy, or to stand up for the right thing and possibly lose some friends because of it. In whatever the Lord asks us to do, we must keep our eyes on the Resurrection – this is where our courage comes from – in knowing that the third day will come, that if we embrace the Cross in our life, the Lord will make it abundantly fruitful. Take Courage. Be not afraid.

I think men are particularly under attack in our time in our culture regarding this virtue. The culture has subtle ways of telling men, “You aren’t a man” “You can’t protect your family” “You aren’t responsible.” It has a way of making men apathetic. Keeping men from being involved in parenting, and disciplining their children. From feeling a responsibility that is theirs to lead their families to God, to take an active role. Keeps them from feeling the ability or the responsibility to serve in the Church or in their community.

There are many snares that keep men in a prolonged adolescence, where the focus is not outward on their family and community but inward upon themselves. An inordinate playing of games or focus on sports to the exclusion of the family. Pornography – which saps the strength and courage of many men. Escaping through computer games, or living vicariously through movies. Now I’m not saying sports and movies are wrong as recreation, but they are when they become an escape from life and from responsibility.

The voice says, “You’re still a kid.” “You aren’t responsible for your family.” “You can’t be, you don’t have what it takes”

But the voice of truth tells a different story. The voice of truth says, “Be not afraid – You are my son, you are my daughter, - you do have what it takes.”

And this is the key to courage: knowing that our hearts are courageous. That we are created in the image of an amazingly courageous God, one who will pour out his life to the end for his friends.

As I mentioned last week, that ancient saying in the Church is so true: “Christ fully reveals man to himself.” That when we look at a crucifix we are looking at a mirror. We have those virtues within us, if we have been baptized, we know that our heart is just like His. The virtue of courage, the virtue of suffering for the sake of the Good, is not “out there” somewhere, it is already, here, in our hearts.

As we reflect on this virtue of courage, shown so vividly in the lives of the Maccabean brothers, in the stories of the veterans we remember today, and in the countless saints throughout the ages, we ask God for a new release of that courage in our own hearts, that we might live up to the dignity which is ours, the dignity of being the sons and daughters of God.

The Thirty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time

2007-11-06T11:37:00.000-08:00

The Thirty-first Sunday of Ordinary Time

In the Gospel today we find three different ways of looking at the same person, of looking at Zacchaeus. The first look at him we get is from the Gospel writer, from St. Luke. St. Luke is the disinterested observer, the non-biased, simply reporting facts: “[Zacchaeus] was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man.” He describes what he can know of him from his vantage point.

The next perspective is from those who know Zacchaeus, his relatives and neighbors – people who know the person, Zacchaeus. They describe him when they complain about Jesus going to his house: “He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.” Those who are closer to Zacchaeus than is St. Luke know him to be a sinner. When they think “Zacchaeus,” they automatically think, “sinner.”

Finally, there is the perspective of Jesus, of the One who created Zacchaeus and who will eventually die for Zacchaeus. He describes him when he says, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a descendant of Abraham.” To Jesus, he is a child of Abraham, and if a child of Abraham, a child of God too. So Jesus sees to the heart, He sees that his heart was created Good – this man is a child of God. As the Scriptures say, “not as man sees does God sees…God sees the heart.”

Jesus makes clear how he looks at each one of us. He is not blinded by our sin as are the neighbors of Zacchaeus blinded by his sin. They can see no further than the sinful acts, Jesus can see the heart. Jesus can see past our sin, He sees our hearts. They are the hearts which He created. Like mothers of criminals, who if you ask them to describe their children would describe a child with a beautiful heart, one who may have gone off the path but is at heart, that little child with a beautiful heart that the mother remembers. While the rest of us see nothing but a monster, an evil person. We see the sin, they see the heart. Jesus looks to us the same way. In so doing with Zacchaeus, Jesus reminds Zacchaeus of who he really is. Jesus is the only one who calls Zacchaeus to live up to the dignity that he knows is there, and Zacchaeus responds. “half my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor…I shall repay four times…” Jesus reminds Zacchaeus of who he is, Zaccheaus in response repents, returns, and begins to live up to his dignity. It is the same story of the Confessional with us. Jesus brings us His mercy, and by that very mercy calls us to live up to our dignity as His sons and daughters.

Jesus, we are told, came to “seek and save the lost.” This is His mission. This is the mission of the Church. This is our mission. And so we must begin to see the world with His eyes.

How many of us label others by their sin? “Oh he’s nothing but a druggie. He’s a thief. She’s a lazy good-for-nothing. He’s a proud, arrogant man. She’s a selfish, spoiled brat…”

How many of us are blinded by the sin from being able to see the sinner? From being able to see the heart of the person?

And the closer we are to the people, the more dangerous this snare. Luke has no problem thinking of Zacchaeus as a sinner, because he doesn’t know him well. But what happens when we know the person well?

We look to our families – to spouses – how do you think of your spouse? Is your predominant thought one of love or of judgement on their brokenness? When you see them is your first thought one of their faults, or is one of the beauty of their hearts?

How many parents hurt their families by speaking ill of one another in the presence of their children? How many think that by tearing down the other parent in the eyes of their children that they will somehow be raised higher and brought closer to their children? It’s not true. Parents should never speak badly of one another to their children. Even with adult children, parents should not confide the weaknesses of the other. Children are meant to honor and respect their parents. It’s a betrayal of trust between spouses, when they do this to one another.

I’m not talking about needing to deny evident flaws, but a parent shouldn’t be eager to point out the faults of the other. They, above all, should seek to see the heart of the other and show that side to their children.

All of us probably have some relationships that cause us pain. In a fallen world we will always have imperfect relationships. It may be a painful situation with your spouse, or a friend, or one of your children, or a brother or sister. Whatever the case, even there, we must strive to see the heart and not merely the sin or the pain. This again is not a denial of problems, especially in marriage, we have to address these, but it is addressed with the recognition of this person as made in the image and likeness of God. This is not an enemy, but a fellow son or daughter of God.

This is Christ on the Cross. As He hung on the Cross feeling the wrath of our hatred and sin, as He looked out upon all humanity and the immense pain that we were inflicting on Him, His gaze didn’t stop on the pain and sin, but pierced through to our hearts, the hearts He had created. This is why he cries out, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Can we do the same when we are on the Cross?

It’s difficult, but it’s in us. As the Second Vatican Council restated an ancient saying of the Church, “Jesus Christ fully reveals man to himself.” To look at Jesus on a Cross is to look at a mirror of who we truly are, to see the heart He created in each of us.

We pray in this Mass for a greater knowledge of our own dignity as being made His Image and for the ability to see that same image in our brothers and sisters.

Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time

2007-10-28T13:33:00.000-07:00

Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time

In May of 1939 a ship called the St. Louis set sail from Europe. It carried over 900 German Jews who were escaping the coming Holocaust. It first went to Cuba but after receiving no invitation it moved up the waters and waited off the coast of America. No invitation came. Americans were comfortable and saw no need to get involved with these poor and defenseless Jews. After 35 days at sea, the ship turned and headed back to Europe and these Jews to their fate.

In was one event in a string of many events throughout human history whereby a comfortable people sat idly by and did nothing to help the poor, the vulnerable, those whose lives were threatened. We hear a similar sentiment in St. Paul’s letter this morning. St. Paul is writing this letter to Timothy from a prison in Rome. The letter is written shortly before his martyrdom and we can hear his anguish at being left vulnerable and without protection for his life: “At my first defense no one appeared on my behalf, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them! But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength…” But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength – this is a lesson of the readings this morning – that God is always with the endangered, the persecuted, the most vulnerable. We just sang in the response, “The Lord hears the cry of the poor.” And in the reading from Sirach we heard that God hears the cries of the widow and orphan. God is for the vulnerable.

As Christians we are the Body of Christ on earth. We are meant to be God’s hands and God’s feet. We are meant to take on the same attributes of our Father in Heaven. We are meant to associate with and defend the unprotected.

As we come to the end of Respect Life Month we reflect that we are living through a similar Holocaust, one in which over 45 million children have lost their lives through abortion. The poorest, the least protected, the most vulnerable. And the question to us today is are we going to just sit there and watch the ship as it hangs off the coast, and stand idly by, remaining comfortably numb – as these unprotected ones are turned back to their fate? Or are we going to do something about it this time?!

What can we do?

First we must pray. Jesus says some demons can only be cast out through prayer and fasting. We were reminded recently in the Gospel that it is the persistent one whose prayers are heard. We must persevere in praying for an end to abortion.

Second, we must support expectant mothers. Help them out, be aware of their special needs in the time of pregnancy. We must do this for all mothers but especially for those who are in particularly stressed situations: single mothers, mothers overwhelmed, mothers living in poverty. We can help support works such as Elizabeth’s Hope – a pregnancy decision health center –where expectant mothers can go to get counseling and aid in bringing their child to birth.

Third, we must be active in public policy. I remember one time working with a woman who was grieving over the fact that she had had an abortion and at one point she cried out, “Why? Why did they give me this choice – why did society hold up this as an option and say, ‘here do this and all will be well.’ It only made things worse, so much worse! How can a society give a mother the option of killing her own child?!” We must work to put an end to such a horrible choice -such a false promise of fixing the problem. A choice that is for death and not for life. We must be active in shaping public policy.

Last year Pope Benedict spelled out exactly how Catholics are supposed to be involved in public policy. He said, “As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, the principal focus of her interventions in the public arena is the protection and promotion of the dignity of the human person, and she is thereby consciously drawing particular attention to principles which are not negotiable.”

Principles that are not negotiable. In the arena of life, Catholics can hold many different opinions about matters such as what is the best economic model or what is the best social policy, but there are some things that are so fundamental, so basic to human life that these are non-negotiable – there can be no differences among Catholics in these principles. The Pope goes on to spell out these principles. There are three:

(1) “Protection of life in all its stages, from the first moment of conception until natural death”; (2) “Recognition and promotion of the natural structure of the family, as a union between a man and a woman based on marriage”; and (3) “The protection of the rights of parents to educate their children.”

I will return to the latter two in future homilies, but today we mark the close of Respect Life Month. We focus on that first principle that life must be protected from conception until natural death. We do this in public policy by the way we vote. Politics is a touchy issue, but I feel comfortable talking about it today because there are no state or national elections on the ballot this year. Who knows who will be the candidates next year at this time? – and thus no one can accuse me of partisanship. We must work to elect pro-life candidates. Not simply waiting until the fall elections but getting involved in the Spring primaries, working to get as many pro-life candidates competing for offices as possible. We can write letters to the editors, we can find public forums in which we can proclaim the dignity of human life. This is what YOU are supposed to be doing. One of the great legacies of the Second Vatican Council was to be the involvement of the laity in shaping society. Bishops and priests are not supposed to be the only voice for changing society. In fact, my role as a priest is primarily about forming you, the parish, through the Word of God. It is YOUR role to then leave this Church and bring these teachings to bear on society. To be a leaven of society. To work, to write, to vote, to bring forth a culture of life, a civilization of love!

Finally we are to do all of this not with an attitude of self-righteousness but as the Gospel makes clear today, a spirit of humility and repentance. Abortion has two victims – the child and the mother. All of us have a responsibility. Because we live in a democracy, all of us are responsible for what goes on, because we have a voice, we have a say. Abortion is prevalent today because of us, because we have sat idly by and watched the ship off the coast, and have not done enough to protect the lives of the most vulnerable, love for the most defenseless of our society. We pray in this Mass that we might have a deeper respect for all human life from conception until natural death. We pray too that we might do our part to bring forth a culture of life, a civilization of love.

Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time

2007-10-22T07:14:00.000-07:00

Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time - World Mission Sunday

As my voice is about to give out, this will be a fairly brief homily. But this is World Mission Sunday and I don’t want it to pass without speaking a bit about the missions. Last year on Mission Sunday I read a letter from a good friend of mine from Burma, Fr. Joseph Htun. We had studied together in seminary for four years and then he returned to Burma, a mission country by all means. Burma is also known as Myanmar and has been in the news recently. It is governed by a military dictatorship and recently they were cracking down on pro-democracy rallies in the country. They were shooting lots of innocent people including a number of Buddhist monks who were peacefully protesting. So you get the idea of the country he is from.

In his letter he wrote that he was missing some of the things he had enjoyed in America. Things like electricity….internet….telephone….cars. He couldn’t even find a bicycle to ride to help him get around to his various villages. His parish was comprised of 24 different villages and it took him one month by foot to visit all 24 villages.

The letter gave a neat glimpse into life in a mission country and I thought it would be a good idea to read from his most recent letter each year on Mission Sunday. Unfortunately though, that was to be the last letter I would receive from him. Late last year we received word that Fr. Htun had died in early December. In a country like Burma where there is not a very free flow of information, the details were sketchy, but it appears that he died of some simple stomach virus. In a country where there is not even basic medical care, such a simple virus can mean the death even of a young man like Fr. Htun. It reminds us just how difficult people have it in some of these mission countries.

Now, I don’t tell this story today to make us feel guilty about living in an affluent country. I tell it in order to remind us of the reality of the missions and that all of us have a part in them. Not all of us have the role of being on the front lines like Fr. Htun but we should then not mistakenly believe that we don’t have a role, a very important role to play, in the advancement of the Gospel in mission lands. The first reading today can teach us this.

Who was responsible for Israel’s victory in the battle? Was it the soldiers? No, because they were dependent upon their commander, Joshua. Was it Joshua then? No, because he only did well so long as Moses’ hands were lifted up. Oh, so then it was Moses? No, because he couldn’t keep his hands up without the support of Aaron and Hur. Everyone had a role to play. Had Aaron and Hur looked at Joshua and thought it all depended on him – all would have been lost. And had the soldiers on the field looked up the hill and saw Aaron and Hur sitting their holding up Moses’ arms, they might have mistakenly believed that there were three lazy Israelites not helping fight the battle. Everyone had a distinct role to play and if they didn’t play it the battle would not have been won.

The same is true with the advancement of the kingdom of God. We have a role to play with the advance of the Gospel to all of the world. And although most of us are not called to be on the front lines like Fr. Htun was, we are called to be lifting our hands up in prayer. We might pray in this Mass that the Lord would put on our hearts a desire and reminder to pray for his missionaries throughout the world. Being from an affluent country, we might also ask God to inspire us to give to the Missions on this World Mission Sunday.

The kingdom must be advanced and we all have a role to play. And although I told you that Fr. Htun talked about some of the material goods he missed from America, it is not the material poverty that concerned him most of Burma, it was that so few had come to know Jesus Christ yet in his land – and to preach Jesus Christ was his life. Today we remember the Fr. Htun’s of our world, we pray for the advance of the missions, and we ask God to cultivate a prayerful concern for their advance. One easy way to do this is whenever you are watching the news and a foreign country is mentioned, say a quick prayer for the Christian missionaries in that country – for there is no country on earth where at least some Christian missionaries aren’t spending themselves to advance the Kingdom.

The Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

2007-10-15T08:01:00.000-07:00

The Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

I can remember in seminary making hospital visits and one time I entered a room with two guys in it. Both were in a similar state, they were not doing well, in fact they were probably in the last months if not weeks of their lives. As I approached the first guy, nearest the window, I could tell he was full of anger. When I began speaking to him, he blurted out, “Why did God do this to me?! My whole life I tried to do good to everyone and now this is where I end up! It’s not fair – what did I do to deserve this?!” I tried to console him as much as I could, but not having much success, I kind of slipped away and told him I had others to visit.

Then I went over and visited with the other guy. He began by saying, “Let me tell you about how blessed I’ve been in my life…” Then he went on to tell me all the ways the Lord had blessed him. Then he said, “And now I’m so blessed to have my family around me in my final days, everyone except of course my son…but we had him 30 years before the Lord took him…God has been so good to me. As I look back, I can’t help but see the Lord has given me one gift after another.” I was amazed at the difference between the two men. Both had similar lives, in fact the second one obviously had had the “rougher” life, losing his son, and having had a number of difficulties throughout his life, while the first one seemed to have lived a relatively comfortable life. But what a difference between the two! The first looking at life as though he had deserved so much more. The second looking at life as though he had deserved nothing, and realizing how blessed he had been.

It reminded me of a book I had read. It is called The Great Divorce and it is by the great Christian author, C.S. Lewis. In this book Lewis gives his theory of Heaven and Hell. In it he says that as the souls in Heaven look back on this life, it appears to them as though they had always been in Heaven. That is, they see their life on earth was a continual flow of blessings from the Lord, even the Crosses and trials now appear in glory as they see why the Lord allowed them, what graces they brought into the world, and how they helped affect the salvation of many. To the saint, it appears as though they had been in Heaven for all of eternity.

The soul in Hell looks back on this life and thinks that it had always been in Hell. That is every thing looks as though it had been God punishing the person for all eternity. Everything in life is seen as a curse rather than a blessing. Even though the two lives on earth may have been for all practical purposes identical with same blessings and the same crosses, the soul in Heaven realizes all was Blessing, while the soul in Hell thinks all was punishment. How vast the difference! The disposition of all of the saints, the outlook of all souls in Heaven is Gratitude.

We think of Blessed Mother Mary as we celebrate her month of October. When the angel appeared to her to tell her of God’s plan, she was “greatly troubled.” She couldn’t see everything that would happen, the plan certainly had to sound good to her, but it also was full of unknowns and of fears – what would happen to her as a pregnant, unwed mother? How could she raise this child? Would Joseph reject her? - many questions, and yet she chose to look at it with gratitude to God, to say “Be it done unto me according to thy word,” to offer thanks, “my soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”

How do we look at life? Do we look at it as one of the nine in today’s Gospel. Might they have went on their way after being cured thinking, “Well it’s about time! How many years have I been separated from society because of this illness? How long has my life been on hold because of this! How much I have been set back in my plans! I need to get on my way and start making up for all this time that has been stolen from me!”

Or are we like the one who returns. The one who falls at the feet of Jesus and in effect says, “Lord, I thank you! I did not deserve this mercy, and yet you have given it to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

I remember one of my seminary professors, a priest, would always say to us: “Gentlemen, remember this – the only thing you deserve in this life is the CROSS, because of yours sins – everything else is a free gift from God.”

Think about that for a moment: the only thing you deserve in this life is the CROSS, because of yours sins – everything else is a free gift from God.

It is Truth. If we live with this perspective we will be filled with gratitude and joy in our life. When we are dying, will we be like the guy who looked back on his life and could only think of the good things he deserved, and how the Lord had not given them to him. Or will we be the one who looked back and realized that he had deserved nothing, and therefore saw nothing but Blessings in his life?

It will depend upon what we do today. The Church teaches us those four types of prayer that can be summed up in the acronym ACTS. Adoration, Contrition (sorrow for our sins), Thanksgiving, and Supplication (prayers of petition, of asking). Do we have as many T’s as we do S’s. That is, do we offer God as many words of thanks as we do words of asking, of petition? If we hope to be grateful as we leave this life, we must cultivate the habit of gratitude now.

The Mass being the perfect prayer, gives us the opportunity to thank God and to have that prayer of thanks perfected in Jesus Christ. “Eucharist” itself means “thanksgiving.” Think of how many times we thank God in the Mass. The lector reads the Word of God and concludes, “the word of the Lord” and you all respond, “THANKS be to God.” Thank you Lord that we could hear your Word this morning when so many others will go this day without ever hearing it.

I prepare the bread to become the Body of Christ and I say, “Blessed are you Lord God of all creation for through your goodness we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made it will become for us the Bread of Life.” And you all respond, “BLESSED be God forever.” Thank you Lord for these gifts!

In the preface, I will say, “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.” And you will respond, “It is right to give Him thanks and praise.” Then I will continue, “Father all powerful and ever-living God we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks...” Finally after you have received our Lord in Communion you will return to your seats and spend time thanking God for the gift of Himself, and maybe even spending time after Mass extending that prayer of thanksgiving to God for such a gift.

As we continue with this Mass, let us pray that we might be like that guy in the hospital room who looked back on his life and saw that he had deserved nothing, but that the Lord had given him so much. That we might be like the one leper who returns today, falling at the feet of Jesus and thanking Him. That we might be like the Blessed Mother and look at the conditions we find our life in and say, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my Spirit rejoices in God my savior.”

Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

2007-10-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

Twenty-seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time

Christianity is not a spectator sport. What I mean by that is that in our Faith we don’t simply look at Jesus on the Cross, and say, “Yeah, way to go Jesus, way to offer yourself in sacrifice for us, way to pour out yourself in service to us…could someone pass me the nachos.”

No, we are meant to share in His very life, in His suffering, in His service, in His sacrifice. This is why we are here at the Mass- the Source and the Summit of the Christian life. It is the source in that we receive the grace and the commission to go out and serve Him in our daily lives. It is summit in that here He perfects all of our sufferings, service, and sacrifices offered to the Father ‘through Him, with Him, and in Him.’

In the Gospel today Jesus makes clear that our Faith will be manifest in works. He gives us that strange example that if we have faith we can say to a mulberry tree “be uprooted” and it will be uprooted and planted in the sea. Faith will manifest itself in works. St. James in his letter in Sacred Scripture tells us, “Faith without works is dead.” Faith without works is dead.

So our Faith is meant to overflow in service; service with Jesus, service to Jesus. And we are to do it not with the attitude of, “God you owe me now, look at what I have done for you. You couldn’t do this without me.” Instead Jesus tells us how we are supposed to act: “When you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.’” All we are doing is fulfilling justice, giving back the service due to Him who has given us everything.

God doesn’t need us to serve Him and yet He creates creation in a way that gives us the opportunity to serve Him. He makes Himself vulnerable and so unites Himself to our brethren that we are told, “Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do to me.” And God isn’t looking for us to serve only if we have perfect gifts – as though He were only concerned with us serving Him with perfection. He is looking at our hearts. He wants to see us trying to serve Him, trying out of love to make a small return on all that He has given us.

I think of my own nephews. All of them are young and often on my birthday or a holiday they will give me cards that they make. On the cards will be various drawings. I receive them, and I say “Oh how beautiful…..now, by the way, what is it?” And yet I am not lying when I say that they are beautiful and that I am delighted in them. I am, I’m not looking for a card with perfectly drawn artwork – I see the love that they put into it, I see how much they wanted to please me on my birthday – and I truly delight in it. God is the same way. He sees our hearts, He knows when we are trying to do our best for Him, to give Him what we can; we don’t have to have perfect skills before we begin using them for His glory. He delights in whatever way we serve Him, no matter how imperfect, so long as we are doing it for Him. He sees our hearts.

As I’ve made clear before, the Church teaches that our primary place of service is within our vocation. So that a husband, wife, father, mother, will find their place of service in their family – pouring themselves out for one another, seeking to raise up children in the Faith. This is how they most fully serve God. Then their job, whether in the home or outside of it. Bringing Christian principles to bear on their work, so that if they are a doctor they make sure they apply the Christian principles to their medical field, if a business person, they make sure that they operate according to Christian principles, and so on. This is serving God and giving Him glory.

But we also are part of a parish family and there are many opportunities to serve within our parish. This weekend we are having our volunteer fair. After all of the Masses we are having refreshments in the parish hall and the various organizations of our parish have set up displays for you to learn more about their work and to help you consider if God might be calling you to serve in that way. I invite you to pray in this Mass about committing to at least one parish organization or service.

There are many different opportunities. If the Lord is putting on your heart to work for the poor you might consider the Christian Service Committee or the St. Vincent DePaul Society. Or maybe the Lord is putting a pull on your heart to spend more time with Him in prayer. You might consider signing up for a weekly Adoration hour and offer up part that time for the needs of the parish. There are men’s groups like the Knights of Columbus or women’s groups like DCCW. Or maybe you feel called to serve in some way within the Mass as a lector, extraordinary minister of Holy Communion, or choir member. Or you might help out around the parish with office work or shoveling snow. There are many areas to serve.

I have been impressed with the spirit of service here and the dedication of the volunteers, and so I encourage those who are not volunteering to consider if you might not be able to help out your parish family this way.

Don’t stand back and think, “I wouldn’t be good at that” or “They have enough people already.” We need more people, and the Lord is delighted with whatever we can offer Him. Let’s listen to those words of St. Paul from this morning one more time as we consider how we can serve the Lord in our parish:

“Beloved: I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have…For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control…Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength,” yes, with the strength “that comes from God.”

Twenty-sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time

2007-10-01T16:49:00.001-07:00

Twenty-sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time

This homily was given at the Masses at St. Joan of Arc Church in Powell, Ohio for their Fall ‘Eucharistic Adoration’ Drive:

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Fr. Bill Hahn and I served here at St. Joan as an associate pastor up until just a little over a year ago. It is good to be back and to see you all, and I am excited about preaching on Eucharistic Adoration today. I’m glad to see that most of you are still sitting in the same pews you were when I left a year ago.

“Compete well for the Faith” “Lay hold of eternal life” - St. Paul is asking us to look at Faith as a competition today. The key to success in any competition is to keep the goal always in mind. This is true in business, in sports, in our own personal lives. If a business forgets its goal and strays away from it, it’s not going to last long. If an athlete misunderstands the goal, they aren’t going to achieve success no matter how well they do – for example if a golfer gets the mistaken impression that the goal is to score as many points as possible, no matter how well he achieves that goal of getting the highest score, he’s not going to win, because that it not the goal. The same is true in our life if we get the goal wrong or forget it, we are not going to succeed.

The Church gives us that beautiful and simple expression of what the goal is. What the meaning of life is – to know, love, and serve God in this life, that we might be happy with him forever in the next. The Goal: eternal life with God; the means: by knowing, loving, and serving God. If we keep that in mind, if we order our priorities towards that, then we will succeed, we will “lay hold of eternal life.”

Many of you have heard my vocation story, but I’m going to share briefly a summary with you because it points out the idea of finding the goal, and of the part that Eucharistic Adoration played in mine. When I was in college, achieving the goal of eternal life was one of the last things on my mind, one of the last things I ordered my priorities to. My goal was simply the weekend. If I could get to the weekend then all was fine. But as I was living for the weekend, living for the partying life, I was beginning to realize that I was not finding much in the area of deep joy or peace, noticing that something was missing. Then in the winter of my fourth (out of five years) at college, a friend invited me to go to Washington for the Pro-Life March. At this march were about 100,000 people marching and praying for the unborn and for the protection of human life. As I walked along I began to experience a sense of supernatural joy and peace that I hadn’t felt in a long time and I realized that it was because I was no longer focused on myself, trying to please myself, but on praying and working for these unborn. And as I looked around, I was amazed at the number of priests and nuns and the laity praying the Rosary. I experienced the sense of the Church, the Church with a clear goal and mission. I wanted more of this sense. And so when I returned from Washington, I decided to go to Confession because it had been probably 6 or 7 years since I had last gone to Confession. This cleansed my soul and allowed the Lord to open me up for the graces He was wanting to give to me.

When I went back for my last year at Ohio University I decided to join the Catholic student group. Then during the fall, the group hosted a retreat in which they had all-night Adoration. My time slot was 3-4 in the morning. As I was kneeling there, just me before Jesus, it dawned on me what the Eucharist was. Here was God! And I said ‘Lord you’ve created everything, you have given me all that I am, whatever you want I want to give back to you!’ and I felt Him say in the silence of my heart, “Bill, I want you in a special way.” As I heard those words, I thought to myself, “I’m going to be a priest! I’m going to be a priest! Wow!!” And I can still remember as I left that retreat and was driving home I was thinking to myself, “I’m going to be a priest! I’m going to be a priest! I’m…going….to…be…a…priest…I’m not going to be a priest! What was I thinking?! It was 3:00 in the morning!” And so I pushed the idea away, and yet I had experienced the Lord’s presence in Eucharistic Adoration and I wanted more of it. And so I continued to go to Adoration and through that I was able to hear the Lord’s direction for my life and be given the courage and strength to follow it. That carried me through the seminary and then I was ordained in 2004 which is when I came here to St. Joan’s. I quickly realized in the first few months here that I needed a holy hour every day. I needed to be in prayer for at least an hour each day if I was going to serve as a priest as the Lord was calling me to. I also quickly learned that my role is quite simple. It is simply to get you in front of the Blessed Sacrament. If I can get you there God can take care of the rest, it doesn’t matter how bad my preaching or my teaching is – if I can get you to a place you can hear Him, He’s going to work. I learned this from hearing Confessions and from you telling me at different times about your experiences. How many people have been moved during Adoration to return to Confession after having been away for many years?! How many have told me that you found new direction for your life, or a deeper sense of peace, or that hour each week has become the source of your sanity in the midst of the craziness of life?!

Adoration is growing greatly in our time. When I started at Chillicothe and Waverly last year, one of the first things I did was to start all-day Adoration at Chillicothe. And how many people have thanked me and told me how much that hour means to them?! I have a friend who was just made pastor of a parish and he started it there, and there were over 75 people the first night! It is spreading greatly across our country.

I’ve asked myself why is this growing so much now in our time and I think I can pinpoint at least two reasons. The first is that we need silence. We live in a world where we wake up to the radio alarm clock and fall asleep to the sound of the TV and in between our hours are filled with noise. And yet we know from Scripture that God does not speak in the earthquake or the fire, but in the silent still whispering of the wind…in silence. At first we find silence hard to get used to but then we soon crave it.

The second is we crave Presence. By this I mean we live in a world where much of our communication is done through phone, or email, or text messaging, not in the presence of a person. We desire to be in the Lord’s Presence. It is like this: if we lived 2000 years ago in Palestine and somebody came in our house as we were praying and said “God-in-the-Flesh is outside, Jesus is here!” Would we say to them, ‘oh, that’s fine, but I’m already praying to God I don’t need to go outside.’ No, we would rush out, because we want to be His Presence, His physical presence. This is one of the reasons he gave us the Eucharist, that we might be in His Presence.

In Eucharistic Adoration, we are in his Sacramental Presence, and so no matter how distracted our prayer time is, no matter how poorly we keep our focus on Him, at the end of the hour we can at least know we had just spent a full hour in the presence of our God and King.

The exhortation today is ‘compete well.’ And to achieve our goals we have to order our priorities towards it. Our priorities are known by how we spend our time – where are our commitments. We can tell people one thing – we can tell them what our priorities are – but all they need to do is look at how we spend our time, then they really know what our priorities are. How do we spend our time? I want to encourage you to commit to one hour each week. After Mass, you will have the opportunity to sign-up. Consider making this commitment.

Some of us say, “well I will just pray in Adoration when I get the chance but I don’t want to commit.” Well, that’s nice, but it keeps the focus on ourselves. It says, “Lord, I will visit you, when I feel like it. This is about me not you.” Whereas, making a commitment to an hour a week says, “Lord, I want to give you this hour a week, I want to give you back one hour of my week and spend it in your presence. This is not about me but about You.” Secondly, it keeps us accountable to our priorities. If we aren’t going to go to our Holy Hour we have to call someone else on the list for our hour (to make sure someone is always before the Blessed Sacrament) – this forces us to look at our reason: is it “I can’t go today because my child is sick.” – well then this is a good reason not to, and is in accord with our priorities, but if it is, “because my favorite team is playing tonight.” – well that’s not such a good reason, and probably isn’t truly in line with what we are claiming to be the priorities in our life.

Finally, some of you say, “I’m not that spiritually ready for that.” Well, the great thing about Adoration is you don’t need to be. You can be the worst pray-er in the world, the most distracted person who ever prayed, and you’re still going to glorify God and have the knowledge that you gave Him an hour of your week. It’s that simple!

We are urged to “Compete well!” “Lay hold of eternal life” - We know our goal, we know the means, and we know that it all begins by coming to know Him. The only way we will come to know Him is by spending time with Him. I invite you to pray in this Mass and ask the Lord if He might be calling you to make this commitment to spend an hour each week with Him. God bless you.

Twenty-Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

2007-09-24T07:23:00.000-07:00

Twenty-fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time

This is one of those fascinating stories of the Gospels: normally Jesus is telling us not to be like the worldly, to be different, but today He holds the worldly up as a good example for us – “For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” You can almost hear the lament in His voice, - why can’t you be more like them!

What is He talking about?

A few years ago, I remember hearing about Tom Cruise, or maybe some other actor was taking a new role for a movie and he needed to bulk up for it. He went on a strict regimen for three months of intense workouts every day, the consumption of energy drinks and only the most healthy of meals, the complete avoidance of fatty foods, snacks, desserts, and drinking. All of this so that he might have a little more earthly fame and money.

How about us Christians – we try to fast for a day, or abstain for meat on a Friday or deny ourselves a dessert now and then and we think we are practicing superhuman virtue – we agonize over it – we think “what sacrifice I’m making!” And we try to avoid it as much as possible – this even though we know that fasting helps give us mastery over our self and helps our spiritual life, and gains us lasting treasure in Heaven. This while the worldly discipline themselves and sacrifice much for a little passing glory.

“the children of this world are more prudent…than the children of light.”

Or how about corporate America? What happens when a company realizes that it is not achieving their goal? Let’s say a company realizes they’ve lost 3% of their market share – what do they do? They call a meeting of all of the department heads, they work and work and work, they brainstorm every creative way possible to regain the loss, and they persist, persist, persist until they achieve their goal.

How about us? We decide to work on our prayer life. We decide we’re going to set aside 15 minutes every day for quiet prayer. The first day goes well, the second, the third, and then the fourth day our child gets sick and we don’t have time to fit it in. The next day something in the kitchen breaks and we use all of our free time fixing it. On the sixth day, we throw up our hands and say, “oh forget about it, I knew it would never work – my life is too busy for this!”

Where is our creativity, our persevering and looking for every way to make it work? They do it for 3% more market share – we won’t do it for a deeper relationship with the Living God, the source and end of our entire lives.

“the children of this world are more prudent…than the children of light.”

Or let’s take a look at the financial investor. They get up early in the morning and scour the newspaper for information about their stocks. They study the business news to see which companies will be doing best. When they find a stock that will produce 10% they work hard to move all of their money from the lesser performing stocks into it. They cut corners, they try everything to transfer as much wealth as possible into the more productive stocks.

And what of us? We know Jesus tells us “do not store up for yourselves treasure on earth where moth and rust can decay but store up wealth in Heaven.” And how do we get it into heaven – through the hands of the poor. The Scriptures make clear that this is the most “productive stock.” Everything we place into the hands of the poor precedes us to Heaven where it will return a hundredfold. This is the explosive stock. Do we find ways to cut out excess spending, so that we can move more funds into this most productive of stocks? Do we seek to worry less about our IRA’s and more about our ERA. IRA of course being Individual Retirement Account, ERA is our Eternal Retirement Account. We know how to build this fund up – through the hands of the poor.

The worldly investor is efficient and diligent with their resources. But the Christian who knows where the true wealth will be found?

“the children of this world are more prudent…than the children of light.”

So what do we do with Jesus’ admonition? What would the worldly do? In fact that should be a new motto – you remember WWJD – what would Jesus do? - but He is telling us to ask the question WWWD – what would the worldly do?

We should ask what would the worldly do in these situations and then do it.

For example if a worldly person knew that if they prayed for 15 minutes each day they would get an extra million dollars at the end of the year - How persistent would they be? What creativity would they use to make it work? Then we should do the same.

You’ve heard of books like the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and the 10 secrets of the richest people in the world. Well, I’ve just given you the 3 Habits of the Most Wealthy Saints of Heaven - three habits that everyone of these saints we see in these windows practiced, three habits that will help us store up a treasure in Heaven - PRAYER, FASTING, and ALMSGIVING. – these are the three habits.

We pray in this Mass that we might commit ourselves to these three habits with the same discipline, creativity, diligence and perseverance with which the worldly would.

Twenty-Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

2007-09-17T06:54:00.000-07:00

The Twenty-fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Today we have the most famous, or at least one of the most famous parables of Jesus – the story of the Prodigal Son. But I want us to look at this Gospel from a different side. I want us to see ourselves not as the prodigal son today, but as being in the Father’s House. For that is where we are – we are in the Father’s House, we are in the House of God – His dwelling is here with us – His Eucharistic Presence in this Tabernacle.

As we look to the parable we hear of that first conversion of the son. This is the conversion From. It is a conversion from the misery that his way of life had led to. He realizes that the path he chose was a path of emptiness, that it did not and could not fill. And so he heads back to His Father’s House – the place where he was once fed.

The second conversion I’m sure happens when he sees the depths of his father’s love, when his father comes running out to him, and welcomes him back, with open arms. He had to be struck by the beauty of his father’s mercy, of his love, of his holiness. And this is where the second, the deeper conversion occurs. If you have ever been confronted by real beauty, you know how that feeling, that sentiment arises within you – “I am not worthy of this…I want to be made worthy of such beauty.” This is the conversion For. It is a conversion for something. No longer are we just fleeing the misery, but now we have found something wondrous, great, beautiful – and we feel unworthy in its presence. This is where that deeper conversion takes root. The Prodigal Son is struck by the beauty of his father’s love.

The question for us today is: How do we let the beauty, the glory of the Father shine through this parish – through the Father’s House? So that when the prodigal sons return they will be able to experience not the coldness of the brother but the beauty, the holiness, the glory of the Father.

I want to tell you a tale of two parishes.
These two parishes are the parishes I was going to when I had my “reversion” when I began to realize that the life I was living was leading nowhere, that the life I was leading was empty and I decided to go back to the Father’s House to see if there was anything there that could fill me.

Both parishes were filled with good people. Both were very welcoming and friendly. But there were also plenty of good people in my dorm, I was looking for more.
In the one parish I didn’t find much more. It was a very plain church – hardly any sacred art, nothing that captured or lifted up my heart. The priest celebrated the Mass haphazardly – I could hardly believe that he really believed that he held God in his hands during the consecration, and thus the people likewise showed little devotion. It was a community of nice people but there seemed to be nothing more, nothing that could lead me into that second conversion.

The other parish was different. The other parish had lots of beautiful sacred art, stained-glass windows (though not as beautiful as these in St. Peter), and a beautiful crucifix which hung over the altar telling me that this is what was occuring on that altar. The priest celebrated the Mass very devoutly. You could see that he really believed that Jesus was being made present when he spoke those words of consecration. The people in turn received the Eucharist with great devotion. Not only that, but they had Eucharistic Adoration. Now we have Eucharistic Adoration every Thursday, but they had perpetual adoration meaning that there was somebody before the Blessed Sacrament day and night 7 days a week, 24 hours a day (we’re not there yet, but with time we’ll get there). I realized that these people must really believe, if they are spending all hours of the week in the Presence of the Eucharist. I realized that these people thought there was something greater among them than simply themselves, that somehow God was breaking into the world at this Mass. I was humbled at the beauty and the holiness of it all, I began to yearn to be made worthy of such beauty, I had begun the second conversion.

Pope Benedict has said that there are only two things that will bring people back to the Church in the end: Beauty – the beauty of Christian art – the great sacred expressions of our Faith and Holiness – the example of the saints and the lives of holy people. Beauty and Holiness will lead to the second conversion.

Now our parish is doing well in both of these. I’ve been edified by your holiness and goodness since coming here, but in the spiritual life…we can always do more.

In the area of beauty, we have already begun plans for moving the choir and organ to the loft, where they will be able to lead us from behind, and help lift our voices with theirs to God. We are looking at possibilities of putting tile down in the sanctuary area (replacing the carpet) expressing that permanence and unchanging nature of God and the Faith in an always-changing world. We have talked to about having a beautiful mural of the Crucifixion painted and set above the altar on this back wall – reminding us of what is actually occurring at this Mass. These improvements to the already existing beauty of our church will help give us that encounter with the transcendent beauty of God. And although this will obviously cost a bit, I’m sure we can do it. In fact it will be the easier one of the two. For the other is holiness.

We are challenged to grow in holiness together. As I mentioned both parishes had “good” people, but a prodigal son is looking for more than that – he is looking for a glimpse of the Father’s beauty and holiness. This means we must be living from the heart of the Church, living the very life of the Church. This first most means what we are doing now – the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass – the font of our graces. The second is regular confession – monthly or bimonthly – these are the staples of holiness. Praying the Most Holy Rosary – daily or at least weekly, and praying Family Rosaries. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament – these are all practices of the Church that are centuries old, that are proven to bring forth holiness. Praying the prayer book of the Church – which is the Psalms – what an easy way unite ourselves to the heart of the Church – praying a psalm each day – wouldn’t take more than a minute or two. These are the proven means to holiness. This is what we need.

For I believe that the number of prodigal sons will and is increasing. The number of young people taking another look at the Faith is growing. Why? Because in such an affluent culture it is becoming easier to see that although we have everything, we’re still hungry, we’re beginning to starve. As the emptiness of the culture’s promises becomes more and more pronounced we will have sons and daughters returning – but what will they find? Will they find the older brother there – blocking the glory and the love of the Father? Or will the holiness and the beauty of the Father shine through our Church. We pray in this Mass that the Lord might give us the grace to recommit ourselves to growing in holiness and in working to beautify our church so that the Father’s love and glory will shine through to the prodigal sons of our time.