Grafted and Pruned (First Communion Homily) | #1425
Pilgrim Priest
Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. We were grafted onto Jesus at our Baptism. We must remain in Him and draw much life from Jesus. The branches need pruning. The gardener must get rid of overgrowth so the energy from the vine can go to making good fruits. Fathers need to be good pruners of their family. They need so start by pruning themselves. Prune your words, your actions, and your activities, and you will bear much fruit and become Jesus' disciples. (28 Apr 2024) Going Deeper: The priests recently attended a seminar on time management. We were told the time management is...
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The Good Shepherd Calls Turkeys Like Us | #1424
Pilgrim Priest
Turkey hunting in the state of Wisconsin opened this week. A turkey hunter is pretty much the opposite of the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd knows us personally and loves us so much that he lays down his life for us. The Good Shepherd calls his sheep. The first call or "vocation" that every Christian receives is the call of Baptism. I had the privilege of Baptizing a woman in the nursing home last week. Some of the Baptized are called into religious life as monks or nuns; this call is considered a perfection of the call of Baptism. Others are called to married love, to follow the Good...
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Five Places Jesus Wants to Give You Peace | #1423
Pilgrim Priest
"Peace be with you," says the Risen Jesus! Here are five places Jesus wants to give peace: 1) Your past. The gift of new life means we no longer have to worry about our past. 2) Our future. The Risen Jesus will meet us at the end of our time and lead us to eternal life. 3) Our sufferings. We will have the strength to endure whatever God wills, and it will be fruitful. 4) Within us. . 5) The community. Serving God enables us to serve one another. Peace with God enables us to have and to bring peace to our neighborhoods. How can we experience God's peace in our daily life? Mass is the perfect...
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The Wounds that Heal | #1422
Pilgrim Priest
• At the resurrection of the dead on the last day, our wounds will all be healed. So why does the Risen Jesus still have wounds? He is the healer, the medicine for all of us. The seal must be broken so his life can flow into us. Jesus lives his whole life without wounds. But in his passion he experiences all our woundedness and he takes it into himself, into his very body. His body heals our wounds, but the physical wounds are a visible sign that he has carried, and cured, our emotional and spiritual woundedness. We are meant to come to Jesus often and to keep drawing life from him. The...
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Easter Pancakes | #1421
Pilgrim Priest
• Little children need lots of help and support. As we grow up, we become more independent. We move from needing our mom and dad for everything to needing them almost never. We seem to think the spiritual world works the same way: we "grow up" from praying all the time to only calling God when we are really, really desperate. But we were never built to be independent in the spiritual world. Trying to be independent makes us feel like a little boy who wants to "do it himself," but can't seem to figure out how. We cope with our feelings of inadequacy by pretending to have it together and...
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What Is Jesus Worth to You? | #1420
Pilgrim Priest
• An item is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. Something that is rare, unique, or has special value might fetch more than you would imagine. What am I worth? If we let the world set our value, we will always find ourselves being cheated. Imagining bringing yourself into the Antiques Roadshow. Jesus looks you over and says, "Now this one is a special piece, a one-of-a-kind with a unique history. Yes, I would pay everything for this one, too." Jesus is willing to not only trade his life for yours, but to offer his life as a painful and bloody sacrifice. What is Jesus worth to you?...
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You Should Wash Her Feet | #1419
Pilgrim Priest
• We often think of the past and the future as a straight line. Jesus is seen as an historic figure. Easter is a re-enactment of Jesus' death and resurrection. We might also conceptualize Jesus as a future event, his second coming in judgement. Meanwhile, we try to follow his example of a sin-free life until our judgement day. However, it's much more accurate to think of time as a spiral, moving back over the same ground again and again but in new ways. The day and the week repeat themselves. The year is like a big spiral made up smaller spirals. While the earth spins on itself and around...
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The Passion Reveals Our True Colors | #1418
Pilgrim Priest
The people of Jerusalem are rolling out the red carpet for Jesus. By laying down their cloaks, they show their willingness to lay down their lives for Christ. In the Garden of Gethsemane, a young man leaves his linen cloth behind and runs off naked into the night. How many of us willing follow Jesus when Christianity is popular, but as soon as we see the cross coming, we run away into the night? The High Priest tears his garments. The veil in the Temple is torn in two from top to bottom. Joseph of Arimathea buys a linen cloth and clothes Jesus in it. The Passion exposes our true colors, and...
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The Real Mission of a Catholic Priest | #1417
Pilgrim Priest
Lent, 5th Sunday (B) Being a priest in the modern world is very challenging. You need to live celibacy in a culture soaked in sex, convince Catholics to come back to Mass, teach the next generation not to abandon the faith like their parents did, save all the marriages, win the culture war, keep the buildings open, convince young men that this is a great career choice.... Did I miss anything? But what if all that is just the mission I gave myself. What if God is calling me to basically four things: Love God, and love His people. Be an obedient son of the Father. Be a wise steward of my...
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The One Commandment that Does Not Make Sense | #1416
Pilgrim Priest
The first three commandments are all about love of God and the last 7 are about love of neighbor. They all make perfect sense, with the exception of the third commandment. Why would God command his people to take a day off, especially people who were living hand-to-mouth? God rested on the 7th day. We, who are made in the image and likeness of God, are co-creators for six days, and then rest with the Master on the seventh. If we refuse to rest, we are saying that we have to depend in on our own strength, ingenuity, and hard work. God wants us to trust that he is a good Father and he will...
info_outlineOrdinary Time, 4th Sunday (B) The APA tells us: Anxiety is an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes like increased blood pressure... Anxiety is not the same as fear, but they are often used interchangeably. Anxiety is considered a future-oriented, long-acting response broadly focused on a diffuse threat, whereas fear is an appropriate, present-oriented, and short-lived response to a clearly identifiable and specific threat.
Why is everyone so anxious these days? Right from pregnancy, a mother and father need to establish a sense of security for their children. The Bible recognizes that anxiety is a part of everyday life. You need to let your anxiety talk to you. The parts of us who are anxious need to share their burden. Then we need to move through that anxiety to a place of security.
So where can we find security? The very things we gravitate to when we feel anxious are probably making things worse. Security comes from safe, healthy relationships. But our human relationships will never be enough. Jesus is the rock who speaks with authority. He leads us to our true parents: God our Father and Mary our Mother. This is where we find the peace that passes all understanding.
(28 Jan 2024)
Going Deeper: Make time to thank God every morning for the gift of a new day, and talk to God about whatever part of your upcoming day might be making you anxious. At the end of every day, notice: 1) a blessing, 2) a challenge, 3) how God was with you, and took care of what you were anxious about, and 4) a way that you were Jesus to someone else. Begin and end each day with gratitude.
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