I didn't preach at Our Lady of Sorrows this weekend, but I did preach at the 4:30pm Vigil Mass at St. Lawrence in Utica, on Saturday, February 18, 2023. This homily was not recorded, but below are my notes:
7th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – February 18, 2023
4:30pm – St. Lawrence, Utica
Intro:
• Good afternoon
▪ Great to be with you!
◦ Fr. Dave Tomaszycki
▪ Classmates with Fr. Paul Graney (don’t hold that against me)
• Work downtown
◦ Not in a parish a whole lot
◦ Today I had a baptism, confessions, now Mass
▪ Feeling like a parish priest
◦ A good feeling
▪ Good to be with you
• Theme: Be holy
◦ “Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy”
Body:
• Start with Jesus’ demand: “You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father”
◦ Pagans love their neighbors and hate their enemies, but it shall not be so among you
◦ Jesus is saying: Hey, let’s be better than the pagans
▪ “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”
• Are we doing this?
▪ Do we love our enemies?
▪ Do we pray for those who persecute us?
◦ Or, are we like the pagans?
▪ Has Jesus made no difference in our lives?
• One of the most scandalous things is to meet a Christian and think: Wow! Jesus has made no difference in his life. He is just like everyone else. I never would have guessed he was a Christian.
• So, I’m going to go right for the jugular here:
◦ The world loves to hate on politicians
▪ Turned politician bashing into an Olympic Sport
◦ Jesus: “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”
• If we are following Jesus, we don’t fall into this
◦ We “love” our enemies
• What does it mean to “love” our enemies?
▪ What does it mean to “love” anyone?
◦ It means to want the best for them
• Do we pray for our politicians?
◦ If we are Christian, the answer is “yes”
• How do we pray for them?
◦ Begrudgingly?
◦ With an air of: Why can’t they just be like me?
▪ After all I am the gold standard… for everything
◦ Or, do we pray like we really love them?
▪ Like we really want the best for them?
▪ And, the “best” for anyone is heaven
◦ Do we pray for our politicians like: “I want to see this person in heaven”
▪ “When I get to heaven, I am going to be looking for this person”
▪ “I hope he is there”
▪ “I hope he has a room right next to mine”
• You and I both know that by and large, we are failing miserably with this commandment
▪ “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father”
◦ When I hate and badmouth politicians—the bishops, anyone—it’s a sign that, I don’t really belong to the heavenly Father
▪ I think like the world
▪ I talk like the world
▪ I belong to the world
• *And the Prince of this world is the devil
• Are we following Christ?
◦ Or are we following the devil?
• We’ve got to do better with this commandment
• In the words of C.S. Lewis: “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours…. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses.” (Weight of Glory, 46).
• And now we get to the main point: “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy.’”
◦ Gospel, Jesus tells us: “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
▪ Just, be perfect, like God is perfect. How hard can it be?!
• It’s not easy, not easy at all!
▪ I am quite bad at it
◦ But I know how it’s done:
• First: Baptism
◦ The Eucharist is the greatest Sacrament, but Baptism is the most necessary Sacrament
• We can’t get to heaven without it
▪ I celebrated the baptism of one of your parishioners this afternoon
• When you were baptized, you were not baptized by the priest, deacon, pastor, whomever
▪ You were baptized by Jesus
◦ Jesus touched your soul
▪ Changed your soul
▪ Claimed you for His own
▪ You now belong to Jesus
◦ No matter what happens in life, you are a beloved son or daughter of God
• Baptism is the greatest day of your life
◦ When we walk into heaven, it merely completes what happened on the day of Baptism
◦ But Baptism is where it happened
▪ Where your soul was changed and given to God
• Once you have been baptized, the most important Sacraments become the Eucharist and Confession
◦ They are the hammer and anvil that shape us into the perfection that Jesus demands us to be
• It is amazing how many people come up for Holy Communion, but how few come to Confession
◦ I go to Confession often, I went this morning
▪ I need to
▪ I’m a sinner
▪ I desperately need Jesus Christ
• His mercy, His love, His forgiveness
• Being “perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” is actually a requirement to get into heaven
◦ That’s why most of us will probably need to go through Purgatory before heaven
▪ We will need to be purged of any imperfections
▪ No sin is allowed in heaven
◦ This is also why we begin Mass with the Penitential Rite
▪ When we come to Mass, we actually step into heaven
▪ But, no sin is allowed in heaven
• We have to do away with our sins
▪ The Penitential Rite forgives venial sins, but it does not forgive mortal sins
• If we are conscious of any mortal sins—like missing Mass—we cannot receive Holy Communion, until we go to confession and come back into “communion” with the Lord
• So, after baptism, we come to Confessions often—at least every month
▪ Trying to root out anything ungodly
◦ We receive Communion as often as we can
▪ The Church says we need to be receiving Communion at least once a year, weekly is better, and daily is still better
• Let Christ work!
• But, there is a good chance that when we die, we still won’t be “perfect,” as God is perfect
◦ So we have Purgatory
• Look at it this way:
◦ If we were to die today, are we carrying anything with us that we know we can’t take to heaven?
▪ Not just sins, but hurts, heartaches, regrets
• That baggage that builds up over a lifetime
◦ We know we can’t take these things to heaven
▪ **It wouldn’t be heaven!
▪ God loves us too much to leave us half broken, to remain half broken for eternity
• It is He who makes us perfect as He Himself is perfect
• At the funeral Mass, there is an insert in the Eucharistic prayer that reads:
◦ God will “transform our lowly body after the pattern of his own glorious body.”
▪ We are going to get an awesome body, patterned after God Himself!
◦ “There we hope to enjoy for ever the fullness of your glory, when you will wipe away every tear from our eyes.”
▪ That’s Purgatory
▪ God, making us perfect
◦ “For seeing you, our God, as you are,”
▪ We will behold God, we will see Him!
◦ “we shall be like you for all the ages and praise you without end”
▪ We are going to be like God!
• Who is this God Who loves us so much!!!
Conclusion:
• St. Catherine of Siena was once visited by an angel
◦ “If I showed you a human soul that has been glorified by God, you would bow down and worship that soul, thinking it’s God”
• That’s what God wants to do to your soul in Purgatory
◦ But, believe you me, He doesn’t want to wait until Purgatory
◦ He wants to get going right now
• And this brings us back to the Sacraments, especially Confession and Mass
• Never, ever, ever miss Mass (unless you are ill)
▪ Come to Confession at least once a month (more if you need it)
◦ And you will be on the right road
• And then death is generally an echo of life
◦ If every day you’re taking a step toward God
▪ When you die, it will be second nature to step right into Purgatory
▪ And then, God Himself will “purge” you
▪ And, next thing you know, you’ll be stepping right into heaven, because you will “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
“God Love You!”