On May 8, North Carolina defined marriage as between one man and one woman. On May 9, our President “evolved” on this issue and affirmed his support for so-called same-sex “marriage.” Let’s be quite clear: for Christians, there is no such thing as marriage between anything other than one man and one woman. Jesus defines marriage repeatedly in the Bible (for example, in Matthew 19:5: “a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”). President Obama affiliates with the Church of Christ, which is confused on this issue. Vice President Joseph Biden, who affiliates with the Catholic Church, but explicitly rejects the teaching of his own Church, is confused as well.

  Let us not be confused. Let us be intelligent and informed. If we are Christian, if we accept the Bible, then we can never pretend that homosexual activity is harmless. It can only debilitate those who engage in it, and debilitate society. Those who suffer from same-sex attraction are good people, deserving of our love and respect. If they give in to destructive tendencies, they should be helped to develop good habits and overcome bad impulses. All of us suffer from destructive impulses of one kind or another, and we need to support each other for the good.

   Cardinal Dolan, president of the Bishops’ Conference, stated that President Obama’s support for same sex “marriage” was a sad day for America. It is sad because our leaders have decided that America no longer needs Christian principles. Pope Benedict wrote in January of this year that “policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself.” Throughout history, non-Christian cultures have accepted unnatural sexual arrangements (although none to my knowledge have ever called it “marriage”). Our great Republic grew strong precisely because it built a society in accord with the Natural Law and Christian principles. Natural families, naturally-born children, and spouses that work hard to be faithful and loving make us all strong. Are we willing to fight for marriage itself?

Homily: A Mother's Love

The Bishop is in Love
First, allow me to tell you a joke Fr. Benny told me yesterday, as Fr. Tony had told it to him the day before. It has something to do with Mother’s Day and the Blessed Mother.

Once upon a time a young priest preached at the Bishop’s Mass. Afterwards, the Bishop said to him: “you need to begin your homilies with a story—wake people up, get their attention. Come to my Mass next Sunday and I’ll show you.” So the next Sunday the Bishop begins his homily like this: “I have something to tell all of you: I’m in love with a beautiful woman.” He pauses for effect, and then continues: “Her name is the Blessed Virgin Mary.” So the young priest goes back to his parish and gets up to preach the following Sunday, but catches sight of the Bishop himself standing in the back. He gets nervous, but launches into his homily anyway. “The Bishop is in love with a married woman,” he blurts out, “but I can’t remember her name.”

Mary, our Mother
Her name is Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mary, wife of St. Joseph and mother of God, and we are so joyful to be in the middle of the Month of May, Mary’s Month. This Sunday is not only Mother’s Day (Happy Mother’s Day to our beautiful mothers) but also the Feast Day of Our Lady of Fatima. On May 13, 1917, she appeared to the three shepherd children in a field outside of Fatima, Portugal, to bring peace to a world still gripped in the Great War. Mother’s Day is in May because May is the month of the Blessed Mother. The best gift you can give your mother today is to pray a rosary for her, or even better, with her. I’m going to do that by phone with my mother later today.

Unconditional Love
They say there is no love like a mother’s love. A mother loves her child simply because the child is. There is no question of the child earning his mother’s love. He can do nothing for his mother, or even acknowledge her love. A mother’s love for her child is absolutely unconditional.

Jesus points to the source of all love in today’s Gospel: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you.” God the Father begets his Son, eternally pouring out his divine love into Him. The Son does not “earn” his Father’s love—he simply is the Father’s love. But the Son then gives his Father’s love to another—to us. “I love you as the Father loves me.”

If we are good sons and daughters of our mothers, who loved us unconditionally simply because we were born, we give our mother’s love to another. If we are good disciples of Jesus Christ, who loves us with his Father’s unconditional love, we give Jesus’ love to another.

Love’s Two Stages
Because love has two dimensions, two stages. First, we receive love. St. John puts it like this: “In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us.” We have no love that is not first received; any love I give was previously given to me from another (my mother, my father, my friends, etc). And the first source of all love in the world is God. So: stage one is to receive love from God.

But love must move to stage two, or it is incomplete and will die. Stage two is to give that love to another, to pass it on. If we just sit on the love given us, it dies. So Jesus says, remain in my love by keeping my commandments.  “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” This I command you, Jesus says: love one another. Love is not a feeling (no one can command feelings—they are beyond our control). But he can and does command an act of our wills, a decision to love. Everyone possesses the capacity to make this decision to love. This is the basic stewardship principle: everything given to us is meant to be shared. That is particularly true of love. Love received is not complete or effective if I don’t give it away.

A Mother’s Love
I can’t earn love, but I can give it away. What does this authentic love look like? Well, look at a mother. She gives her blood during a pregnancy. She gives her milk after the child is born. She gives her sleep for the first two years; she gives immense amounts of her time and her sweat and her attention to her child. And in giving, she receives, perhaps not immediately, but she receives love. It comes not always from the child, but always from God. Authentic love does not look much like what you see on television. It looks a lot more like what you see in your mother, and hopefully your father too.

Which is why we love our mothers. You have taught us to love. You have given us the love you received from God, and have taught us to share it with another by your very sharing it with us. May we honor you, our mothers, by giving the love you have given us, even until it hurts. May we honor our Blessed Mother, who first received Love Incarnate, Jesus Christ, and then gave Him to us all.

Happy Mother’s Day! A friend of mine occasionally slips me a couple of bucks after Sunday Mass and says “Call Your Mother.” I have to be on my toes so that I can respond with something like “I called her two days ago!” I’m sure I have not called my mother enough, so I appreciate the reminders.

   Fortunately, Mom and Dad have six of us children; imagine if she only had four or two — how many fewer phone calls she would receive! Children are our greatest national treasure, and mothers provide that treasure. But they need the help of fathers…

   Motherhood is perhaps the very first act of Stewardship, whereby a person receives a gift and returns it to the giver. To Adam, God gave his most beautiful and precious gift, the woman Eve. Adam is overwhelmed with the gift (“bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!”). Adam gave himself to his wife, who in her turn gave herself to Adam. In time, Eve gave something even more than herself to Adam — she gave a child to the world (notice that we say “she gave birth to a child” rather than just she “had” a child). But Eve faltered — she jealously kept a part of her womanhood to herself, where it died. But the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom we honor in this month of May, held nothing back.

   When I was a teenager, my mother and I used to sit in the garden after dinner and talk about life. There were two chairs by the tomato plants, facing the Blue Mountain Ridge, over which the sun would set in brilliant patterns of deep golds, cool magentas and flaming reds. I would tell her about my day in school, and she would help me interpret it. She would tell me that I was good and would always be God’s son. She had given birth to me, and in those sunset talks, she gave me more: she gave me an identity, a knowledge of myself reflected in my mother’s eyes. Thanks, Mom!

Recently, and with great joy, I read Pope Benedict’s Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei (“Door of Faith”). It is not a long document, and we will print parts of it on our “Pope Page” (page 6) beginning today. Benedict wrote it last October to prepare the Church for the Year of Faith, which will begin October 2012.

   We scarcely can imagine, the Pope writes, the inestimable treasure that is our Faith. Life without it would be hardly bearable. So much of our peacefully-ordered culture owes its prosperity to the Faith of our Fathers. Consider President Washington’s words in 1789: “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.” Our Founders’ humble faith in a Power greater than themselves enabled them to build a prosperous America. Our prosperity recedes, however, as our Faith recedes. Movies, TV programs, political speeches — all manner of public discourse, arts and entertainment — used to speak openly about God. Compare yesterday’s movies such as the Sound of Music and the Ten Commandments with today’s movies that ignore or mock faith in God. The Pope, while pointing out how much society has lost its faith, urges us to celebrate the Gift of Faith, and to recover it: “The ‘door of faith’ (Acts 14:27) is always open for us…. To enter through that door is to set out on a journey that lasts a lifetime.”

   How will we celebrate this Year of Faith at St. Joseph’s? We begin by learning our faith better, because no one can believe what he does not know. Most Catholics know very little, perhaps not even the essentials, of Catholic doctrine. We must learn our faith more clearly and then teach it to others, especially to our own children. “In order to arrive at a systematic knowledge of the content of the faith,” writes Pope Benedict, “all can find in the Catechism of the Catholic Church a precious and indispensable tool.” We will celebrate this Year of Faith by studying our Catechism, like good boys and girls. I welcome you to our Catechism 101 Course, which begins June 18, and continues the third Monday of every month (see page 3).

“I told her not to ‘settle’,” a friend told me thirty years ago. “What does ‘settle’ mean?” I asked her. “It means settling for a man who does not meet her standards.”

  A priest, it is said, marries the Church. Does the Church “settle” for priests that don’t meet her standards? Do you settle for a merely good man, or will you accept nothing less than a good priest? “A good priest is a very good thing,” wrote Victor Hugo in Les Miserables. How is a good priest more than just a good man?

   A good man puts you at ease; a good priest puts you at ease, but often challenges you as well. A good man makes you laugh; a good priest makes you laugh, but sometimes makes you cry. A good man helps you reach success in life; a good priest helps you reach success, but he also prepares you for heaven. A Catholic priest must be a good man, certainly, but God calls His priests to a greater personal sanctity. A really good priest never ceases to call others, as well, to sanctity.

   How much do we, the Church, settle for good men when we could expect of our priests that they be other Christs: men of prayer, of purity, of sacrifice, of obedience? Christ was “obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8). Is your priest striving for this kind of obedience?

    Do not be satisfied with your priest if he preaches dynamic, engaging homilies but does not preach difficult truths. Do not be satisfied if he shows you the world but does not show you Christ. Do not be satisfied if he teaches your children soccer but does not teach them the Gospel. I often hear laypeople saying how wonderful a man Fr. So-and-So is. They don’t seem to mind that he is not very priestly — that he doesn’t wear his collar, or flirts with women, or disrespects his Bishop or hardly ever prays. The erosion of priestly virtue is the real scandal in our Church, the source of all particular clergy scandals.

   I don’t want to be just a wonderful man. I want to be a faithful priest. Please help me to be a saint. The Church, the Bride of Christ, should settle for nothing less in her priests.

Homily: Super-size it! 

Food is sacred
“Supersize it.” If one, six-dollar burger is good, two is better, and best of all when they are on sale, two for ten dollars! We love to eat. Can you imagine a Sunday morning at St. Joseph’s without donuts? Impossible. I’m glad Myrna takes care of the donuts every Sunday morning around here! Food is essential for human life. But why, then, is food the number one killer in America? Heart disease, due almost entirely to overeating or eating the wrong kinds of foods, is our number one cause of death in America. Actually, food is a sacred gift, and so the abuse of this sacred gift is seriously harmful.

Jesus shows us how to eat
Jesus shows us how to properly order our appetite for food. Consider the Last Supper: Jesus took a little bread, and a little wine. Both are natural, wholesome foods. And this is what we do at Mass: a little bread, a little wine, which is really the very body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus.

How we worship is how we should eat, because food is sacred.

Our market-driven culture teaches us to consume. We are told that food, as much and as often as we can get it, makes us happy. As with all lies, there is a kernel of truth in this: food does make us happy, but in right proportion. Too much food, or the wrong kind of food, makes us bloated, heavy, depressed, and ultimately kills us with every disease from diabetes to cardiac failure.

To be genuinely happy, we must discipline ourselves, as Jesus did. He took only a little baked fish (not fried fish!). He chastised his body; he restrained his appetites. He told his clueless disciples that the Christ had to suffer, and then rise from the dead on the third day.” First, self-denial, then, resurrection. There is no love without discipline, without sacrifice. Our Mass, the central act of worship, is a sacrificial meal, a restrained meal. If you want to be happy, always leave the table a little hungry.

Sex is sacred
Food is one of two human appetites which we must discipline. The other is … I will use a discretionary word … the other is “relations.” Human beings eat to sustain the body, and human beings have relations to sustain the race. We have been taught in our post-Christian society that, just as we need to eat early and often to be happy, so we need to have sexual relations whenever and however we get that “feeling.” This falsehood has resulted in great damage, from an epidemic of sexually-transmitted diseases to marriage and family devastation. Again, there is no real love without discipline, without sacrifice. Food is sacred. Sex is sacred. Because sex is sacred, its abuse is seriously harmful.

Jesus shows us how to love
Jesus and His Church show us how to order our sexual appetites for true and lasting happiness. First, we should not engage in anything even leading to the marital act before we are married. Sex outside of the covenant is just junk food. It only briefly satisfies and eventually makes us sick. Second, we should not make love to our spouses that is not open to the transmission of human life. In other words, the Church has always and everywhere, from the first century, condemned artificial contraception. You may not believe me now, but it is becoming more obvious to everyone, that the social problems of our time began with the pill in the 1950s. At this point, in 2012, we are utterly confused about sexual identity and purpose, but how did we get to this point? By ignoring the Church’s constant teaching that marital relations must be natural and open to life every time.

Natural Family Planning
There is a small but growing group of people who teach this truth, not only in classrooms but in their marriages, in their flesh. Those who teach natural family planning—a natural, “green,” sustainable and healthy means of planning children. The contraceptive industry mocks natural family planning, because they can’t make any money on it. The sexual revolution gurus mock NFP because it requires discipline. But NFP restores sacredness and depth to lovemaking. Those who practice NFP have a virtually zero divorce rate. They are happier, healthier, and more fulfilled in their relational lives. They don’t inject artificial drugs into their bodies, or frustrate natural human acts of love.

All of us have bought into the lies both about eating and about sex. We all engage in gluttony and impurity to some degree. The good news is that it’s never too late. “My children,” writes St. John in the second reading, “I am writing this to you so that you may not commit sin. But if you do sin, we have Jesus Christ, our Advocate.” Peter says it even more boldly in the First reading: “You denied the Holy and Righteous one; the Author of life you put to death….But I know brothers, that you acted out of ignorance.” We have bought into the lie; we have been ignorant. But we can learn from our mistakes. Jesus said to the apostles: “Peace be with you. Why are you troubled?” We are troubled because we are trying to order our lives apart from Christ and his Church. We can turn back to the Church at any time, and begin the process of purification. It is not easy to change bad habits. But we can begin the process, at any time, by fully accepting what Christ and his Church teaches us.

 A few weeks ago we priests renewed our vows before Bishop Blaire in the Cathedral. At this annual “Chrism Mass,” all of the priests process in and concelebrate the Eucharist with their Bishop. People who attend this Mass often describe it as the most striking liturgy they’ve ever seen. Catholics love the priesthood, and we love to see our Bishop together with all his priests at the altar. And yet, we know that the priesthood in America is in crisis.

   I would say that our priest problems — almost no priests from our own parishes, clergy scandals, burnt-out priests, ineffective or out-of-touch priests, a significant drop-out rate (half of the men I was ordained with have left the priesthood) — these problems result largely from the depressingly low standards expected of us. Simple disciplines, such as wearing clerical attire (required by Church Law), are not encouraged. In 21 years of serving this Diocese as a priest, I have never been asked if I am faithfully praying the breviary. Many priests have given up on this very first vow that we make — to pray the entire Liturgy of the Hours every day. We priests receive little encouragement to strive for holiness. As a result, we tend to stop practicing even basic priestly disciplines, such as devotions to the Mother of God; study of Scripture and Church doctrine; service to the poor; commitment to the confessional; penance, fasting, and tithing; quality homily preparation. We priests need direction, encouragement, and accountability to maintain these difficult standards. I myself have never been evaluated on any specifically priestly duties. Am I making time for real prayer? Do I put in decent work hours? Do I have a problem with alcohol, or pornography, or gambling? Am I going to confession regularly? To be a good priest requires a greater personal sanctity. Priests are generally not getting the guidance and accountability to sustain that greater sanctity, and this is our fundamental crisis.

   Please pray for your priests, as I know you do. Pray that we love God enough to obey Him, as He speaks through our Bishop and the Pope. Pray that we commit ourselves to becoming saints.

It’s that quiet time after Easter, at least for those who work in a Catholic parish. Lent reached its crescendo with the Sacred Triduum, and the crowds poured in for Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The Catholic liturgies of Holy Week place us squarely into Jerusalem during the Passover Festival in AD 33, truly walking with Christ. All sorts of folks come to “the temple” here on Oakdale Road just like folk in Jesus’ time: to worship, to see a spectacle, to fulfill an annual obligation, to make Mom or Dad happy or just “because it’s there.” Thank God we have a Catholic parish in Modesto! How empty the year would be without it!

  Thousands of folks come for the Paschal Festival each year. Between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, over 16,000 people attended 32 liturgical services at St. Joseph’s, including one thousand at our Live Stations of the Cross and another thousand at our public Walk for Life. We came in droves to stand at the foot of the Cross as Jesus was crucified, and we came in the thousands to witness to His resurrection from the tomb. By His death, He dealt death a deadly blow. He has trampled death by death!

  Today is Mercy Sunday, also called Low Sunday, the “Little Easter” within the Paschal Octave. Thousands of us came to St. Joseph’s over Holy Week, a complete mix of saints and sinners, and God has had mercy on us all. Jesus said to St. Faustina (Diary, 699): “On that day all the divine floodgates through which graces flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity.” Today I am helping at a “Retrouvaille” weekend for troubled marriages, and so will not see you at Mass. Thirty couples, many from our parish, are making one last attempt to find mercy, to rediscover lost love. They do this on Mercy Sunday! Let the floodgates of God’s infinite love open; let His divine mercy pour over all of us. Let us praise Him for casting wide open His heart to us in His glorious Passion and Resurrection!

Happy Easter to all of you beautiful folk who have come to St. Joseph’s this happy day! We are made beautiful by His shining Resurrection:

“The splendor of Christ risen from the dead has shone on the people redeemed by his blood, Alleluia” (from the Easter Liturgy).

   We love the 6am Mass on Easter Sunday, celebrated on the East Lawn, facing the Rising Sun (just visible above Orchard Supply Hardware!). The sun usually breaks over us in all its morning glory about the time we sing the Gloria. We are who are stamping in the cold of early dawn begin to revive as the rising sun streams into our upturned faces. We begin to reflect the glowing energy of the new day as our cheeks radiate the rising sun. Truly “This is the Day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Alleluia!” Our long Lent is over; the dreary winter is past; the rising sun breaks over the dew-laden grass. Let us believe that God gives us a new day, every day, and we are no longer slaves to the past or slaves of sin.

  My mother and father have been married 58 years. It has not been an easy relationship, but it has been faithful, because both dared to believe in God’s will for them. As I was growing up, my mother prayed every night with us children for “the resurrection of our marriage.” When their relationship was at its most difficult, we children wondered if Mom and Dad should just get divorced. But Mom held her ground: “The grandchildren need to be able to come to their grandparents’ home,” she would say. She sacrificed the present for a future good, just like her Master, who suffered his Passion in view of a future Resurrection.

   Many of you at Mass today are having real problems in your marriages. The Church offers a lifeline to troubled marriages, a weekend workshop called “Retrouvaille.” It has saved many marriages in our own parish. I will be serving on the next weekend, April 13-15. Join me and other couples at Modesto Retrouvaille by calling Mando and Bonnie at 883-4291.