Who knows me?

Homily

4th Sunday of Easter B2

Good Shepherd Sunday

World Day of Prayer for Vocations

21 April 2024

AMDG

Who knows me?  Does anyone really know me?

What a pivotal question this truly is!  My need to belong, to be seen and known and and heard and chosen, is immense!  I don't make sense on my own, nor can I figure everything out on my own.  I am a mystery to myself, unless I come to know myself by first being known.

So, can there be a more critical question that this - does anyone really know me?

There's a guy in the Gospel who says He knows you.  He knows you just as He is known by His Father, so He knows you, and you know Him.  What incredible words by the most unique voice in human history, the voice of the Good Shepherd.

You know by now that nobody speaks like Jesus. No one in human history has even come close. Unbelievable and radical words that always cut to the heart, words that challenge us to metanoia, thinking not as human beings do but as God does.  Words that reveal the true and deep and hidden meaning of my life, a life I seek in greater abundance during this Easter season.

Good Shepherd Sunday and the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, is about finding the faith to let this voice find us, know us, desire us, choose us, and call us to new and more abundant life.  It's a critical moment in the Easter journey, for John 10 always invites us deeper into life that is not measured by safety or length of time, but by the vertical dimension of love, by the power to lay down one's life trusting that it can be raised again.

The Good Shepherd says He knows you.  What does He know about you?  He knows that the true and full meaning of your life will be found within His paschal mystery, the only story that ends in rising from the dead.  His voice will always invite you to lose your life before it is taken from you, in conversation with His suffering and death, while trusting the promise that it is precisely there that you will find a life that conquers all things and endures.

Yet the voice of the Good Shepherd will never dare you into this mystery.  No, He will simply invite you to follow where He goes before, where He is first shorn naked, killed and eaten, as the lamb of sacrifice Himself.

Do you recognize this voice?  I'm sure that you do, but do you trust it to really know you?  Is the voice of the Good Shepherd the voice you ultimately trust to lead you into the fullness of life?

+mj  

What's the point?

Homily

3rd Sunday of Easter B2

14 April 2024

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

AMDG

What's the point of life?  Who can tell me?

When I ask you all this question, you always say 'I don't know - you're the priest!  Aren't you supposed to be telling me the point of life?

Well, I have an idea, which I am happy to share.  Yet I know as well that there is no better time than Easter to ask this very question anew.  What's the point of life?   Easter is the time when we are meant to experience to the depths of our being what it means to be fully alive.  The most pivotal news in human history, a victory greater than all others combined, that Christ my Lord has Risen indeed from the dead as He said, is announced to us anew! And what is the announcement, made forcefully by St. Peter in today's 1st reading - that there is a love stronger than death, a love worthy of the gift of your entire life, all that you are right now and all you ever will be.

So what's the point of life again?  The longer I experience the things that really matter, the more I'm zeroing in on this answer alone - the point of my life is to participate as passionately as I can in the paschal mystery, the only process by which a universe cast down in renewed, and integrity of life is restored.

I'm all ears, truly, if you can beat that answer.  But I just can't find anything else that comes close.

I've heard so often that life is about being with those you love, or about making a difference.  These are great answers, but near as I can tell, they merely participate in the ultimate thing, and that one necessary thing is the Easter proclamation.  That Jesus Christ has appeared, and invited you intimately and personally into his suffering, death and resurrection. to help Him advance the process by which all thing are made new.

You know I love sports the the source of the best stories, and as a metaphor for life. Sports are mini-dramas played out in real time, full of surprises and pivotal plays, hail marys and comeback from the dead stories, fraught with opportunities to act with confidence and courage, accompanied by countless cameras and stats that make it impossible to hide.  In the course of just a few hours, a drama with characters and conflicts and results is played out with greater clarity than the ambiguity which often afflicts reality.

Yet sports aren't the meaning of life, even if I wish it were so, and if I make them so I worship an idol.  What then is the ultimate win that truly redeems a human life?  It's trust in the Resurrection, but more precisely, it's conforming my life to the passion of Christ, His desire to empty Himself for love of another, all the while trusting that this sacrifice is the source of new life.

The drama of my life at every turn can be inserted into the mystery of this Passion.  

There's plenty of competing world views out there to consider, plenty of things vying for your heart and soul, plenty of course to distact us into thinking nothing ultimately matters, so just make up your own meaning.

Yet there's also this mysterious news our there, celebrated each Easter, that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is at the crux of the meaning of life.  There's more, that the meaning of your life can participate too as the raw material and nexus for the recreation of a new heaven and earth that cannot fade into oblivion.

The drama of my life at every turn fits nicely into this Easter mystery, this Passion.  The point of life, near as I can tell, is to be in anguish until this mystery is consummated and accomplished through me.

+mj

what's too good to be true?

 

what's too good to be true?

Homily

2nd Sunday of Easter B2

Divine Mercy Sunday

7 April 2024

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

AMDG

What's too good to be true?  Well, it's the Resurrection - obviously!

Now don't freak out.  I haven't lost my Easter faith in one week. The Resurrection is still the one thing I know to be true out of everything I know to be true.  On this truth I am happy to bet all that I am and ever will be.

Yet the Resurrection is also the thing I most doubt.  It's also the one thing that's too good to be true.

Is there a contradiction here?  Yea, maybe.  Is there a paradox? Yes, more likely!  Is the Resurrection a huge risk of faith - pray God, I hope so!

It makes sense actually that my deepest truth will always be found where I have made the biggest risk of faith.  Don't take my word for it. Take the words of the holy martyrs, who are willing to risk death even today for the truth of the Resurrection.

So I say it again.  My deepest truth will always be where I make the biggest risk of faith.  That is what faith is for!  Faith never goes against my reason, but always goes beyond it, seeking to receive and understand truths that are beyond what my mind can figure out, manage or control.

That's exactly why my deepest faith in the strange, mysterious, profound, dramatic, and yes most true event in human history - the Resurrection of Jesus indeed from the dead as he said - is also the thing I most doubt.

On Divine Mercy Sunday, the Risen Christ greets the doubts of Thomas, and my doubts, not with disdain but with peace.  Three times He says to us doubters - peace be with you!  Then he invites us his disciples not to put away out fears and doubts, but to let them be penetrated by his forgiveness.  Jesus appears in the upper room not to condemn, but to show mercy.  The disciples discover that in penetrating the open wounds of Jesus with their own hands, that their own interior wounds, especially the deepest wounds of fear and doubt, are healed and forgiven.

Is Thomas a skeptic, a pessimist, and a doubter?  Maybe so, but so am I.  Yet his honesty led Him to have a dramatic encounter with the Resurrection.  With his own doubts and fears healed, the Resurrection will never be something he wishes or pretends to be true, but the one thing he knows to be true.

What he most doubted, becomes his firmest conviction.  St. John says the one who is indeed victor over the world is the one who testifies with Thomas that Jesus is my Lord and my God. Thomas ended up a martyr, emerging victorious through confession of this faith that he once doubted.

You too are victor over the world with a good confession during Easter.  Yes, you heard me right. Confession is an Easter sacrament, given by the Risen Christ to the Church on Divine Mercy Sunday.  You can go to confession during Lent all you want, but the best confessions are Easter ones, when not only sins are wiped away but the ways in which we do not trust God are healed by a rich experience of Divine Mercy that makes us new from the inside out.

Jesus is not put off by your doubts.  He invites you to a deeper experience of His mercy, so that the one thing that's too good to be true becomes the one thing you most know to be true.

The victory that conquers the world is our faith in Jesus Christ Risen indeed from the dead as He said - my Lord and my God!. Alleluia!

+mj

What's your word?

Homily

Easter Sunday of the Lord's Resurrection

31 March 2024

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

AMDG 

If you could only say one word for the rest of your life, what word would you choose?

I bet you can guess what mine is.  Risen!  Risen!  Risen!  Jesus Christ is Risen!  He is Risen from the dead!  He is Risen just as He said!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!

That's my word, tonight and forever.  Risen!  On this word, I am happy to bet everything that I am and all that I ever will be.

Tonight I witness to you that this word - Risen - is the most mysterious, profound, dramatic and TRUE word that has ever been spoken in all of human history, or could ever be spoken. Tonight I sing this word - Risen - in liturgical concert with the angels, the saints, and yes, the martyrs who died for this word even today.  Today, I should into the darkness that threatens so much and so many that this word - Risen - is the one thing I know to be true out of everything I know to be true.

Risen - that's my word - now and forever.  What is yours?

Tonight my prayer is that you too will dare to shout into the world a word that is your destiny to proclaim.  Tonight my prayer is that each and all of us, led by our catechumens and candidates, and the great risk of faith they speak tonight, will get off the couch!  Tonight is not time for a virtual Easter!  To hell with that.  In this Church there is no sideline, no bench, no bystanders!

You have my answer - I dare you to proclaim yours!

Why this word for me?  Because without it, even the most heartfelt words of love I ever say, words first spoken by Jesus - this is my body broken for you - lose their power.  Without the word Risen even the greatest sign of love I have ever known, the cross on which I gave the most passionate kiss of my life last night, is powerless in the face of death.  St. Paul said it best - unless Jesus is Risen, we are all pathetic losers!

But I don't profess this word tonight because I need it to be true.  My conviction about the empty tom is not a vain wish that justifies my life or helps numb me to reality.  No, this word is the fruit of being a disciple of Jesus.  Jesus never invites you to a wishful faith. That's weak sauce!  No, He invites me to follow Him first to the cross to verify whether there is a love stronger than death.  I pray my discipleship has been a courageous one, filtered through the cross of Jesus where I have learned from Him how to face reality and fear nothing.

My conviction comes from the times I actually dared to be a real Christian, and I'll be damned if Jesus wasn't right - literally!  Every time I die to sin and to myself, I lay hold of a new, different and powerful life that does not fade.  Every time I suffer and die with Him, I also rise with Him!

It's real people!

Jesus Christ is Risen!  He is truly Risen!  Shame on me if this is ever something I have to pretend to be true, instead of something that as a disciple, through the risk of faith, I have discovered to be true.

On this truth - not this wish - but this truth - I am happy to bet everything that I am and ever will be. Not because I need to, not because I'm afraid not to, but because I want to.

My word is Risen!  You've got next!

You're invited shortly to beat me or join me.  If you dare join, renew your baptismal promises on Easter Sunday.  If you join, please don't do anything cheap, or easy or pitiable.  This is conviction Sunday - the word means 'with victory' - on our profession goes our participation in the greatest victory of all time!  So let's decide with sharp minds, and pure hearts and courageous wills.

So I propose to you now a word that has rocked the history of the world, and changed forever the meaning of life and the destiny of man, to be the word of your life.  On this most holy night set apart precisely for this decision, I invite you to say the most mysterious, dramatic, profound and true word that has ever been or could ever be spoken.  

Risen!  Jesus Christ is Risen!  He is Risen from the dead just as He said.  Alleluia!  Alleluia!   

What do I consider on Holy Saturday?

Meditation for Holy Week Retreat

Holy Saturday

30 March 2024

AMDG

Jesus is in a tomb. Creation considers whether death has the final say.  Today is the day to consider whether good turns to evil, light to darkness, life to death, everything to nothing.  God who cannot die is dead.  He let us have the final say as to whether we wanted to live or die.  We choose death, for ourselves and for him. Today we consider if this is truly the last chapter of the human story.

In Advent we wait to see if God will come to save us.  We wait, in hope and in silence, for the appearance of light in darkness.  On Holy Saturday we wait to see if darkness and evil and sin and death are victorious, and we give them the benefit of the doubt.  For God is dead, and we killed him.  Let's see if this is truly the last chapter of the human story.

It does us no good to skip today, to fast forward to tonight or tomorrow, to pretend like today isn't real or doesn't exist or can by avoided or escaped.  Holy Saturday is essential, and woe to us who pretend it doesn't matter.  

If you don't know how to consider whether bringing light from darkness, creation from nothing, was for nought, then learn how.  To know what is means to be alive means I must also consider death seriously, since the years I might lie in a tomb far outweigh the 

Today is the day to consider, which is to ponder as deeply as I can, if there was nothing, or if God regretted his creation and let everything descend back to nothing, or if there was not me instead of me, or not my loved ones instead of having them, or if I was already dead, whether the world would just be fine without me, or whether all the glory of the human experiment is just a mirage, vanishes almost immediately in the face of the eraser that is death.  

All this must be considered in the greatest of silences that is Holy Saturday.  All this must be considered, if we are also to embrace the reality of death as the necessary raw materials for a new creation.  We can't hold onto this life if it's meant to really participate in the paschal mystery.  Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat.

In the depths of the singular darkness that is Holy Saturday, there is also promised the hope that his tomb is filled with so much more potential for new light than that first abyss.

But for us to do more than wish this to be true, we must consider the possibility that Holy Saturday is my true end, and the one that I choose.

+mj

How would I give my last kiss?

Homily

Good Friday of the Lord's Passion

29 March 2024

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

AMDG

If I had one kiss left to give, how would I give it?

Would I give it here?

Would I give it now?

I can tell you for sure how I would NOT spend my last kiss - on the kiss cam!  I hate the kiss cam.  I don't go to sporting events for PDA.  The inventor of the kiss cam should be canceled.  I don't care if everyone but me loves it.  I live in perpetual fear that some camera operator far far away would think it funny to zoom in on a priest during the kiss cam.  So whenever it comes on, I make a beeline for the beer line.  The kiss cam - it's a hard no for me.

Yet I do have within me a passionate kiss.  I do have an expression of adoration that is ultimate within me.  How am I going to give my last kiss?  Will I spend it here?  Will I spend it now?

The last kiss in today's Passion story is that of Judas.  It's the kiss of betrayal.  It's the kiss of death.  You just participated in the drama.  Jesus is dead, and I killed him. I kissed him.  That's where the story is. That's where the story could end.

Yet what if you have one kiss left?  Would you spend it now?  Would you spend it here?

The Good Friday liturgy is famous for its liturgical kiss.  When you approach the crucifix in just a few minutes, you get to choose what your kiss means.  Will it be the most passionate kiss of your life?  Will it be the kiss of betrayal, the kiss of death, and where your story will end.  Or will it be a passionate kiss of devotion for a love that dares to die, and where you story truly begins?

The axis of the cross is a decision point for your kiss.  It can only mean two things.  It's either the final defeat of love, or the place where new and eternal life begins.

So what if you only had one kiss left to give?  Would you give it now? Would you give it here?

+mj  

Do I choose to kill or die?

Meditation

Holy Week Retreat

29 March 2024

St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas

I love the next three mornings.  Nothing feels normal.  Everything seems different.  You know you're a liturgical warrior,  or addict, when you're bothered by subtle changes in the liturgy.  Today, the change is much more dramatic.  We see the empty sanctuary before us. We look at the remnants of the garden of agony.  Everything is empty.  Jesus is gone.  They have taken my Lord, and I don't know where they put him.  A time will come when the bridegroom is taken from you, and on that day you will fast.

Today is that day.

I love the next three mornings, for nothing is normal.  These three days are different because we try as we might to take nothing for granted.  The most dramatic moment in human history, the most intense news, the axis of the ultimate battle between life and death, is re-presented now. The story is played out before our eyes and our hearts.  That's liturgy at its best, as a space is opened up for us to participate in the mysteries that transform all reality.

Last night we experienced the depth of love.  Today the terrible and wonderful reality of death. Tomorrow the dramatic silence, of waiting to see what will happen.  Sunday the proclamation of the biggest upset our world has ever seen.  What a gift these days are, to have a time and space to enter deeply into the story of how things really are.

You know the drama of today well.  God is dead, and I killed him. Death is certain, and those who avoid it, try to escape from it, or hide from it, will never be able to face life as it really is, will never suffer reality courageously, will never write a great story with their lives.  

Today is an unbelievable day. The one thing God can't do is die.  He is immortal.  Yet there He is - dead, and I killed him.  What in the hell is going on?   And of course, that's the whole point of it.  Hell is being confronted, face to face.

The passion of our Lord gets personal when I look into my soul, and realize that ultimately, I am one of two characters.  I am the killer, or I choose to die.  At this moment, you might be in the lukewarm messy middle, and that's fine, but really it's not.  Living with real passion, especially on Passion Friday, means that I am in anguish until my real story is accomplished.  Jesus talks about this hour a lot, a chapter of my story when I pass over passionately with Jesus, for Jesus, through Jesus, who has opened up this sacred space for my passion to participate in something more.

Why do I kill?  Well that's easy, tongue in cheek. I kill because life is hard, suffering hurts, and it's just easier to numb out, check out and cancel anything that's too difficult to face.  This is too hard, and I just want it all to be over.

Why do I suffer willingly?  Because there is this promise, this hope, that when death is filled with love, it is defeated, and the gift of my life unto death is the new raw material for the Resurrection.

The point of today is to ask the Holy Spirit to burn like a fire and move you closer to your destiny.  In the end, I am the killer, or I choose to die. The cross is where my life ends, or where it begins.