Month: January 2018

We Are Called from the Ordinary – To Be Extraordinary

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This is my homily given at Sacred Heart of Jesus Korean Parish in Etobicoke today on the 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time:

Today’s Gospel is a portion of St. Mark’s Gospel from Chapter 1, which among other lessons is the expression of an “ordinary day” in the life of Jesus Our Lord.  He came, He was Baptized, He was tempted, He began His mission, He preached the Gospel, He encountered the man with the unclean spirit, He healed, He went out further to continue to spread the Good News and performs yet another miracle.

Now please don’t put too much focus at this point, on my synopsis of St. Mark, chapter 1: I am merely pointing out the pattern that we might consider the ordinary pattern on the Mission and Ministry of Jesus.  Now, here we are in the 4th Week in Ordinary Time, and I am sure that we have all heard somewhere before: if not in catechism class, then perhaps in a homily that our use of the term “Ordinary” to describe a liturgical season should not lead us to somehow think this is less than the other high liturgical seasons.  That’s true.  But further than that, I might propose something for us all to consider here today: food for thought for the week if you will – there is nothing ordinary about the life or mission of a Christian.  Nothing is ordinary and if we are more than just our bodies and minds here today for Holy Mass; we must allow this truth to penetrate our hearts and souls and we must really carry this with us from here and into the world we live in – today and every day.

We are Catholic Christians.  By the power of God the Holy Spirit, every one of us here was created to be extraordinary by our Baptism (p).  Why is it, that it seems that nothing “extraordinary” is asked of us, and yet we have the example of so many of our Holy Saints who lived heroic and extra-ordinary lives?  Why do we celebrate the lives of other holy people often from the past, but have a hard time seeing that we were created in the same way, gifted in the same way, empowered by the same Holy Spirit in the same way, and called to live the very same lives that they lived?

As Korean Catholics, you have a beautiful tradition of saints who’ve lived and died extraordinary lives committed and witnessing to the same faith we share with them, examples and models for us all.  We too are baptized into living extraordinary lives, my friends.  I know we are!  And I am not standing here preaching to you as a man who altogether gets that and lives it each and every day either!

I am not preaching only to the congregation, I am preaching to myself.  There are many different ways I convicted myself as I prepared my homily and reflected on the many ways and many days I seem to be satisfied and content with the living an Ordinary Life, with little desire to live fully my own baptismal call.  What keeps me, what keeps us on track is a Sacramental Life.

Truthfully, no encounter with our Lord Christ is going to be an Ordinary encounter.

I try to reflect on this before and after confecting the Eucharist.  I know it and feel it each time I go to Holy Confession.  In my current role and ministry, as Director of Vocations for this archdiocese, I am working with men who are considering the Holy Priesthood and women and men who are considering religious and consecrated life.  I suggest to you that in today’s world that we live in, this is an extra-ordinary way for people to choose to live.  I suggest to you, and offer as insight: that extra-ordinary things are happening in the lives of most of these people that lead them to begin to see the Lord our God calling them to live extraordinary lives for Christ in the “ordinary” lives they feel they have been given by God.  When I encounter young people who are discerning their vocation, they are so “on fire” with the Holy Spirit and ready to love and serve the Lord and others that it is has an effect upon me, and often affects me to re-commit myself to Jesus Christ where I confess I am lacking.  I mention this for two reasons, two important reasons I want each of us to take away today.

One, we are all called to be extraordinary.  Deep down, we must acknowledge that.  Each and every one of us are extraordinary people called to live extraordinary lives for the Lord and for others.  We may feel we don’t have that capacity – if we feel that, this is something we’re wrong about and we need to ask our Lord to help us see with greater clarity our Baptismal call.  This world and all of us in it, is not served by any one of us here playing small in the world, being less than all we can be for God and for others.  Our community, our families, our friends, our co-workers or fellow students do not benefit by our playing small or the fear we might have of being judged negatively or criticized for being Catholic Christians.  Fear is never of the Lord, and so we must allow the Lord to rid us of the ‘unclear spirit’ of fear that holds us back from the living out fully of our faith.

Two, we must help one other to see our ability to share our gifts in extraordinary ways.  As I journey very closely with the men who enter St. Augustine’s Seminary and discern a possible call to Diocesan Priesthood, men from this parish community– I get to know their lives very intimately.  One of the things which I come to discover very quickly and which I am granted insight into, is how important the people in their lives are to their good (and poor) vocational discernment.  I have come to see how extra-ordinary the bonds of relationship between people really are.  We may rarely if ever think about this.  I have worked with men who have the heart, mind and soul to live their lives as priests, yet are being strongly drawn away from their vocation because they perceive the people in their lives want them to do something else.  Not only can this be a sad reality a vocation director and a person discerning must face – it is something which reinforces for me the importance of developing good relationships with others.  Each one of us needs to stop and think about each and every relationship we have and will have and ask ourselves: are we helping one another to see the gifts God has given each of us, and helping one another be the very best person we can be?

My brothers and sisters in Christ, none of us here are meant to be living ordinary lives, our lives are absolutely and without a doubt meant to be extraordinary.  You are an extraordinary person, and I hope and pray you will take that with you here today.  Look around you, because each of you are extraordinary too and should be valued as such.  This world we live in needs you to engage yourself fully and completely in this way, and help each other to see extraordinary gifts in each other.  Help one another to become extraordinary, to become saints.  The true definition of holiness is to seek to get ourselves to heaven and to bring as many people with us as we can.  My friends, that is the vocation, the mission each and every one of us share and must take seriously today and every day.  May God bless you.

Conversion – One Day at a Time

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As a Catholic convert and the privilege of my ministry listening to the Lord’s powerful calling of people to serve His Church as priests, religious and dedicated Disciples; todays feast of the Conversion of St. Paul is another occasion for deep and profound reflection.

We like to hear the powerful and dramatic conversion stories, like that of St. Paul, St. Augustine or Thomas Merton among so many others. In fact, the accounting of my own vocation story has dramatic moments or elements to it; but I have come to appreciate that rarely is a conversion as dramatic as we make it out to be.

It would be a mistake, my friends to fixate on the moment of Saul’s conversion as the most important part of the story. It isn’t. There are many who have stories similar to his whom we don’t remember and aren’t talking about. Why? The “drama” didn’t bring that person to the life long conversion which we celebrate in the person of St. Paul as he left his life as Saul of Tarsaus behind.

I have a good friend of mine, a priest of more than 40 years who came to talk to our Associates a couple of years ago who offered an important piece of wisdom from his lifelong commitment to his priesthood and priestly life. He told these young men about the ups and downs of his life in an honest way, of joys and struggles. He spoke of the day of his ordination and the importance of the ‘yes’ he made before the bishop on that day but stressed the importance of the ‘yes’ every single day of his life. He made a profound point for myself, the other young priests there and many of the young men discerning. I can attest to the joy and appreciation many have for this priest’s vocation and his life. But the moment it began isn’t as important as the daily commitment. It’s the same as for St. Paul. His daily commitment is why we celebrate his conversion. Remembrance of an event, but the less obvious event of his life.

Will others celebrate the “event of our lives”. We all have a conversion, reversion or deeper conversion moment; we may even be having one right now. The focus should not be what other people do in the celebration of our life, but as people of faith the recognition that Our Lord celebrates with us. The Communion of Saints celebrate with us. Will they be celebrating the moment – this moment – when we lived every day for the Lord and for others?

Behold the Lamb of God!

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The Lamb of God

This is my homily given at St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica today:

“Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world.  Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.”  Surely, we recognize these words which take place near the end of the Mass and during the communion rite, when we together; me as the priest and you as the faithful people of God look upon the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ with true and honest faith and devotion, believing these words as fully and completely as John the Baptist did when he proclaimed them in the setting of today’s Gospel.

We then proclaim the words of the Roman centurion, who asked Jesus to heal his sick servant in the 8th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, “I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed”.

Friends, these words are not Scripture piecemeal, these are perhaps the strongest, purest, most meaningful professions of our faith.  To declare who we see, who we see, when what is right now, Bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Jesus our Lord and declare Him with the same faith as St. John did, the Lamb of God mustn’t just be words we utter with our lips or declare by rote.  These words must carry the meaning they did for St. John, but so much so that we are prepared to give everything we have for these words.

We know the Gospel account of the life of John the Baptist and we know that the Name and Person of God would cost Him.  In today’s world that we live in, a world not as different from Gospel times as we might think if we were really to reflect – not a bad world, but a world with much indifference, much greed, ambition – many reasons not to want the Gospel and the Lamb of God to be a part of that world – isn’t that the very same world we are a part of?

And I say not a bad world, because we have many parish churches that are full, at least many of them in the Archdiocese of Toronto, and every single person in every one of these churches wants a relationship with Jesus, we all do.  What are we prepared to give for that relationship?  What extent are we to believe?

Are we to be Disciples or Friend of Jesus or are we to be acquaintances?  An acquaintance gives nothing for the one with whom he is acquainted, a Disciple or friend gives everything for that friendship of mutual love and respect.  I don’t just ask you that question before I ask it of myself.

There are days, more than I would like to admit that I am merely an acquaintance of Jesus and where I’m not willing to give much for my faith – but each day I pray that it not going to be one of those days and I think it’s important for us all to do the same.  If we truly “behold the Lamb of God” here this morning at Holy Mass, then not only are our sins washed away, but the impurities of our hearts and intentions are too.  If we believe this happens, and I assure you it can and will if we allow the outpouring of grace to permeate our souls – we are ready to give it all for Jesus, for the Name above all other names, for the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.  We are truly blessed as we are called here to the supper of the Lamb and having been fed, to journey out there and nourish others with our well-fed souls.  May God bless you.

St. John the Baptist: May We be More Like Him Everyday!

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exaltation of the cross

St. John the Baptist should be a model and mentor for how we live as Christians.  His life given totally to God and “preparing the way for the Lord”, even though we can be fairly certain he didn’t know exactly how the Day of the Lord was to take place.  He didn’t need to, he had faith and surely his faith grew as he committed himself to trust God.  Certainly he was given the gifts he used to bring people to a “baptism of repentance”, but unlike each one of us Christians, he did not have the blessing of knowing the whole story – he did not have the big picture that we are blessed to have by being born anno Domini nostri Jesu Christi and having the Holy Tradition and Holy Gospels of the Church.  Given that, I think it’s even more remarkable, the faith and trust John had.

“I am not the Messiah” is a key phrase in today’s Gospel account of this piece of John’s life.  He is not, yet was indeed empowered by the Lord to prepare everything for the coming of the Messiah more deeply into the hearts of those who wanted to be close to God.  We are not the Messiah, nor should we ever think ourselves to be when we utilize our God-given gifts and evangelize in the world today.  We most definitely should not shrink or shy away from the gifts, the tools the Lord has given us to “prepare the way” for others to be closer to Christ.  One of the greatest tragedies for the Christian faith, is Christians shrinking away or hiding themselves so that others don’t feel “offended” by us.  We may believe that we live in a time where we believe that the mention of our faith, that our firm purpose to profess ourselves Christians will offend people – and maybe it will.  But all we need to do is open our Bibles, and to look at the Gospels to know that Jesus, and John the Baptist “offended” people too.

We need to radiate the faith that is ours.  There is a way to do it, of course.  We must radiate love, compassion, joy first.  We know all too well that this is not always the case.  Although John the Baptist, and even Jesus may be remembered in the Gospel as challenging certain groups by calling them out, “you brood of vipers” if somehow we have it that this was the predominate message, we’ve lost perspective on the Life of Christ altogether.  Love, compassion, mercy, joy, love (yes, I did mention love twice) predominated the Gospel message.

I can assure you, that I too am someone who needs to hear these words and to live by them.  I can assure you that today I am going to do what I can to be more like John the Baptist (which also means more like Jesus) and prepare the way for the Lord, and remember “I am not the Messiah”, but I am someone by my own Baptism in the Lord who needs to seek to allow Him first to enter more deeply into my own heart, and then seek to be fearless in bringing Him into the world of ours – that so much needs Him.  May God bless us all in this!

A Brand New Year: Celebrating Mary’s Motherhood…And Our Own Mothers

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On this New Year’s day as we reflect upon our past year and look forward to 2018 ahead, we also celebrate a very important Solemnity, the High Feast of Mary, Mother of God.  Holy days of obligation have become fewer and fewer, but this remains for us one of those days as Catholics (Christmas is another and every Sunday), which also means that there is something very special and important that we celebrate during this day.  Mary is an important Christian figure for us as Catholic Christians.  As an “outsider” who became a Catholic, I too was one who once thought it was weird and archaic that Catholics “worshipped” Mary the way we do.  My thought for today is not to argue that we do not; but we don’t.  We respect her and give honour to her above all others for the role she plays as a “Christian before there was Christianity”, her tremendous generosity, her leadership, her example, her vocation!

If we don’t seek to understand, her title as Mother of God might confuse some, lead some to believe Our Lady herself was not fully a human being, because if God our Lord is fully divine and the uncreated Creator, how could He be born of a human being.  Of course, we know that for in time (for all-time), for a purpose and for humanity (for each and every one of us) God became one of us in His Son, Jesus.  He chose to be born into the world to experience every vulnerability we experience too.  For that purpose, God chose to be born as we are born, from a mother.  

He may have specially chosen His Mother, but He chooses ours too.  In the last few years of my life, I give thanks to God each day for my own mother, and I will until I die.  I know the Lord chose Lynda to be my mother, but I confess I would not have seen that without the eyes of faith; and I have not had the eyes of faith to see for almost 30 years of my life.  I have spent the better part of my life judging my mother and seeing her for what she was not, rather than for what she indeed was, a gift to give thanks to God for, as we do Our Blessed Mother.  My mother was very young when I was born into the world, nineteen years old.  Older than Our Lady, but young in the standards of the world I was born into.  She was pregnant with me only months after graduating high school.  I never asked my mom whether or not she intended to keep me or not, but the thought has occurred to me as I reflect and pray that this very young woman, barely more than a girl, faced many issues when she brought me into this world.  I know some of those challenges; the obstacles she faced, many of the family’s issues and demons, I know some of sad circumstances my mom (and dad too) faced bringing a child into the world.  But I came into this world, and I can look back on this now, give thanks for my life that is for God and know that my mother is probably the person I should thank most for my life.  And I do.  Now I do.

My mother passed away 14 years ago, not long after my becoming Catholic and a year before I entered seminary.  Though she died far too young (in my opinion) I am thankful that I had the opportunity in the few years before she died to appreciate her.  My life truly changed and my faith really deepened when in addition to other things, I stopped focusing on the imperfections of my mother, and focused on what and who she was; a gift from God, a person trying her best like the rest of us.  My mother did many, many things with her life I respected a great deal, but it was humbling to have her tell my sister and I that her greatest thing in life was to have brought us kids into the world.  Not only has this been the source of my growing appreciation for my own mother, but it also helped me as a Catholic to deepen my own honour and respect for our Lady.  Obviously in Mary, God Himself knew the important role she needed to play in loving, nurturing, teaching, mentoring His Divine Son throughout His earthly life – but since His life and what He was to do here was for all of humanity and for the whole world: so too was her life for the same.

As we begin a new year, may each and every one of do our Blessed Mother a favour.  May we stop for a time and reflect upon our own mothers; if we were so inclined we could reflect upon her in ways such as I have, maybe even deeper and more profound ways but conclude by giving thanks to God for the gift of our own mothers; whom He chose for us, as He did His own mother.  And may it lead us to honour Mary, not because she desires to be honoured, but because she deserves to be.  And may we ask her to pray for us that she lead us always (as she desires to do and is doing) closer to her Beloved Son our Lord.