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Fr. Bryan Howard
10th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B – 10 June 2018 Throughout the Bible, in the Old and New Testaments, battle and military metaphors are used to describe the spiritual life, for example, St. Paul speaks of putting on the armor of the faith and wielding the sword of the Spirit. Also, the living members of the Church are traditionally called the Christian militant, and several of the saints are remembered for their military exploits, such as St. Joan of Arc and St. Louis IX, King of France, and even more were soldiers before experiencing a conversion, such as St. George, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and St. Martin of Tours. In today’s Gospel Jesus uses military images to teach us a lesson about spiritual combat. The first lesson we have to learn is that Satan, or the devil, is real. When we think of the caricatures the devil that we see in cartoons, the little red guy with goats horns and a spiked tail sitting on someone’s shoulder, it’s hard to think of him as a real being. But the devil was originally called Lucifer, meaning the Bearer of Light, and he was created as the highest of the angels. He lead a rebellion against God because, in his pride, he thought himself to be equal to God, and was cast out of heaven. That’s what hell is; it’s not a physical location, but being away from God and completely cut off from His grace. At the end of the Gospel, Jesus says to those around him, and to us, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.” Satan hates us because God loves us. He’s jealous of our closeness to God and wants to make us just as miserable as he is. So, like any good general, he scouts our defenses, finds where they are weakest, and attacks, not with swords and spears, but with temptations to anger, jealousy, greed, lust, laziness, and many more things. So, how do we defend ourselves against this attack? We have to make sure that our defenses are strong. As Jesus says, “If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.” Are you divided against yourself? We all have divided loyalties because our love for God is not pure. Money, popularity, pleasure, and comfort compete with God for the top spot in our lives. None of these things are bad in themselves, in fact, they’re all good things. It’s when I have a disordered love for them that they become a weakness in our defenses. The devil knows where our weakness are better than we do, and he’s able to attack us in exactly the right spot. Jesus goes on to say, “But no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man.” If we rely just on our own strength, then we’ll fail, because Satan is smarter, and stronger, and more experienced than we are. That’s why we have to rely on someone even stronger, the Holy Spirit. When God defends us, then our defense can withstand any attack. That’s why Jesus says that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the only unforgiveable sin. Grace and forgiveness come to us through the Holy Spirit, so how can we receive either if we’ve rejected Him? You’ve probably heard that the best defense is a good offense. What weapons does a Catholic use in spiritual combat? First, there’s the examination of conscience. I keep a stack of them by the confessional and we have a some in the resources tab of the parish website. Second, the Rosary, which takes us through the entire life of Christ. Finally, the Mass. This book is a Daily Missal, which has all of the prayers and readings for the Mass in one place. There are many other spiritual weapons that we have at our disposal, but these are some of the best and strongest. We have to take this battle seriously. Soldiers train extensively to prepare for combat, because their life and the lives of many other people may depend on it. In the Christian life, in spiritual combat, it’s not just our physical lives but our eternal lives that are on the line, so we should all train just as hard, if not harder.
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Fr. Bryan Howard
Trinity Sunday – Year B – 27 May 2018 One of the things that sets Christians apart from all other religions is that we believe in the Most Holy Trinity. We believe that there is one God, but that God is a Trinity of three persons united in one nature. This is a mystery that is simply beyond our understanding. We won’t ever completely understand the Trinity because God is infinite, and we aren’t. We can, however, understand more than we do right now. The reason it’s so hard to understand that Trinity is because we’ve never experienced anything like it in our lives. There’s nothing in the world that is both three and one at the same time. So, we’ve tried to make analogies to help ourselves understand. The Trinity is sort of like a three leaf clover. There are three leaves, but it’s one plant. Or, like these three rings melded together, right here in front of the altar. There are three equal rings, but it’s one object. There’s a problem with these analogies, though. One leaf of a three leaf clover is only one part of the plant, and one of these rings is only one part of the object, because there physical objects. God is spirit. God the Father is not 1/3 of God, He IS God. God the Son is God, and God the Holy Spirit is God. So, if the Father is God and the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God, does that mean that we worship three God’s? No, we don’t. They are also perfectly united. There’s another analogy to help us understand. We’ll never have a perfect explanation of the Trinity, but this is the best one we have right now, at least until we get to heaven and see God face to face. God is like a family. A husband gives himself to his wife totally and completely out of love for her. His wife receives that gift of love and, in turn, gives herself totally and complete to him out of love. The result of this gift of love is that, nine months later, you have to give it a name. The love of husband and wife results in a third person being added to the family In the Trinity, God the Father is eternally giving all of Himself to the Son, and the Son is receiving this gift of love and eternally giving all of Himself back to the Father, and this eternal exchange of love is the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. This is why the family is so important. The love that is shared between members of a family is meant to remind us of the love of God Himself, and to teach us that God Himself is a family. If God is a family, then He is inviting us to become members of His family. In the second reading St. Paul tells us, “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a Spirit of adoption, through whom we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” Brothers and sisters through Jesus Christ we are children of God and heirs of God, heirs with Christ. Our inheritance is the glory of God in the Kingdom of heaven. Today we’re not just celebrating that God is a Trinity, but that God is love, and that He is inviting us to live in His love as His children. The Bible says that “eye has not seen and ear has not heard what God has prepared for those who love Him.” How could we have possibly imagined that God would call us to rise above our lowly state to become children of God. We sometimes think of heaven as a place where all of our wants and desires are given to us, where we have the best food and drink and all of our dreams come true, but if we can imagine it, then it’s less than what God as prepared for us, if only we trust Him. You may have noticed that I quoted all of the second reading except the last two lines, which say this, “If only we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him.” Jesus came to make us children of God and to teach us how to BE a child of God, and He showed His love to us through the Cross. Love means being willing to pour yourself out for another person, and that’s something else that we learn as a member of a family: total, selfless, unconditional love. Today, as you come forward to receive Communion, ask the Lord to help you to love the people around you a little bit better, so that we can grow together as one family in Christ. ![]()
Fr. Bryan Howard
Pentecost Sunday – 20 May 2018 Pentecost Sunday echoes the ancient Jewish feast of Pentecost, which also happened on this day, the 50thday after the feast of unleavened bread, which was the day of the Resurrection of the Lord. After His Resurrection, Jesus spent 40 days with His disciples, preparing them to begin the work of spreading the Gospel and forming the early Church. On the 40thday, He ascended into heaven, and during the 10 days between the Ascension and Pentecost, the disciples and Mary, the Mother of God, gathered in the upper room, where they’d had the Last Supper with Jesus. On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon them as tongues of fire. They all left the Upper Room, went out to the crowds gathered at the Temple for the feast of Pentecost, and began preaching about Jesus. The crowd was astounded, because they all heard them in the own, native languages. By the end of the day there were about 3000 converts, and Christianity didn’t even have a name yet, the just started calling it “The Way.” The disciples spent those 10 days before Pentecost hiding. Even though they had seen Jesus risen from the dead, they were still afraid that they would be killed like He was. But after they received the Holy Spirit, their fear was gone and they were able to go out and publicly preach the Gospel. In the coming weeks and months, they would be threatened, arrested, and scourged, but they didn’t stop, and more and more people were converted. Eventually, the Roman Empire would get in on the act, and for over 250 years they would persecute the Church. It was worse in some times and places than others, but, in the end, thousands of Christians would be arrested, tortured, and killed in horrible ways. The most merciful death was how St. Paul died, by being beheaded, but many were crucified, or burned alive, or thrown to the lions and the bears. Some would deny Christ when threatened with these things, but many, perhaps most, didn’t. The first 32 popes, from Peter through Miltiades, were all martyred. Yet today the Roman Empire is long gone, but the leader of the Church on Earth, Pope Francis, who can trace His succession back to those same popes, lives near the very spot where St. Peter was crucified. This is the power of the Holy Spirit, and this is the same Holy Spirit that each one of us received at our baptisms. The Holy Spirit wants to transform you like He transformed the disciples and the early Christians. Do you struggle with the same sins over and over again? Do you have doubts about God? Whether He exists or whether He’s working in your life? Do you just feel like you’re not a spiritual person? You already have what you need to start changing these things: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. These are the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which we all received at Baptism and which were strengthened in us in Confirmation. Wisdom helps us to love the things of God. Understanding helps us to comprehend the truths of the faith. Counsel gives us the prudence to choose wisely. Fortitude gives us the courage to overcome obstacles. Knowledge helps us know the best path to follow. Piety helps us to grow in respect and reverence for God. The fear of the Lord helps us flee from sin. These are 7 powerful ways that the Holy Spirit guides and strengthens us, but, as in all things, God won’t force us to do anything. We all have free will. First, we need to ask for the help of the Holy Spirit. I would recommend asking specifically for help in the thing that you’re struggling with the most. By bringing your greatest weakness to God and asking for His help, you humble yourself before Him, and God always helps the humble and lowly. It’s when we think we’ve got everything together and don’t need anyone’s help that we really have a problem. Prayer is necessary, but it also takes discipline and effort on our parts. So, have a plan. Come up with two or three things that you can do regularly, every day or every week, to help you grow in the area you’re struggling with. For example, if you want to work on patience, you could let someone in ahead of you at the grocery store, or in traffic. Unless you have a plan, you probably won’t do anything and you’ll end up staying where you are right now. These may seem like little things compared to what St. Peter and the apostles did, but ever little things can make a big difference in the lives of the people around us, because it’s usually our family and closest friends who are affected by the worst parts of our personality. And remember what Jesus said, “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master's joy.” Don’t give in to the temptation to fall into despair and loose hope. Christ promised to send the Holy Spirit to us, and the Holy Spirit is God Himself who is working in our souls, even if we don’t realize it, in order to bring us always closer to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. ![]()
Fr. Bryan Howard
Ascension of the Lord – Year B – 13 May 2018 In the Bible the number 40 represents a time of preparation. In the time of Noah, it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, preparing the earth for renewal, and preparing Noah to receive God’s covenant, Moses spent 40 days fasting on Mt. Sinai preparing to receive the Law and the 10 Commandments, Christ spent 40 days in the wilderness after his baptism in the Jordan, preparing to begin his public ministry, and on the 40th day after his resurrection, Christ ascended into heaven, but he spent those 40 days preparing His disciples to receive the great gift of the Holy Spirit. Have you ever wondered why Jesus had to ascend to heaven? Why couldn’t he just stay and run the Church himself instead of entrusting it to the Apostles and their successors? Jesus even said, “It is better for you if I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” So Jesus went to heaven to send us the Holy Spirit, but couldn’t He have stayed with us and still called the Holy Spirit? There are a few reasons why He didn’t do that, and, while I’m hesitant to speak for Jesus, I think it’s safe to say that his physical presence would distract us from a far more profound way that He is present with us. If Jesus Christ was here in this Church in His human body, that is what we would focus on; how many questions we would have for Him, the things we would ask Him to do for us, and the praises that we would heap upon Him. As amazing as that would be, we have to realize that baptism is a far greater blessing. In our baptisms, through the Holy Spirit, God comes to dwell in our souls. God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, makes His home within us. This is the fulfillment of the promise that Jesus made to us, that it’s better for us if he goes, and that He would send the Holy Spirit. If this is true, then why do most Catholics, and indeed most Christians, live basically the same way that everyone else lives? It’s because, though we believe in Jesus, most of us haven’t taken the time to examine our faith and internalize it. For the most part, when we make all of the decisions that come our way, we think about them in the same way that everyone else thinks about them, and come to the same conclusions. If God is real, and He really became man to reveal Himself to us, and He really dwells in our souls through the power of the Holy Spirit, that changes everything. We must not take our faith for granted, but take the time to learn it, to understand it, and to live it. Even the Apostles needed to prepare to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit; they spent three years with Him before His crucifixion, and then 40 days after His resurrection. We have to do the work of preparing ourselves to receive the Holy Spirit every day, so we can live as a disciple of Jesus Christ. We may well ask, “What difference does it make? Why should I practice self-denial and self-discipline and sacrifice? I’ll live my life my way.” If I rely only on myself, my own strength, knowledge and ingenuity, well, I know myself well enough to know that I’ll eventually fall. That my own strength isn’t sufficient for the trials ahead of me. Therefore, I make a leap of faith and decide to trust in the Lord even more than I trust in myself. If I entrust myself to Him, then I know that He’ll give me the grace I need. Even if I go through dark times, I trust that He is guiding me back into the light. How can I trust God if I don’t know Him and how He is working in my life? There are at least three things you can do to get to know God better and to be a better disciple of Christ. First, the morning offering. Every morning when you wake up, the first thing you should do is make your Morning Offering. Personally, my brain doesn’t work well enough when I first wake up to pray spontaneously, so I have it on a card on my bedside table. I’ve posted a good one on the parish website: olol-church.com. This way, you learn to start every day by offering everything you do that day to God and asking for His help. Second, when you pray, think about how God has worked in your life in the past. How has He guided you, either directly or through other people? How has He comforted you, encouraged you, or challenged you? This will help you to recognize these things in the future and respond to them better. Third, read the Bible. Learn the history of salvation, which teaches us how God has chosen to reveal Himself to humanity. Our Spring Bible Study is just about to close, we have one more meeting on May 24 at 6:30 in the PCC before breaking for the summer. We’ll start again in the Fall, so look out for announcements on that. We’ll be going through the second half of Genesis. St. Jerome said, “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ,” and when you read the lives of the saints you realize that they all loved the Bible. It contains everything that we need to know for salvation. Whether you go to a Bible Study or not, everyone should read the Bible a couple of times each week, perhaps by reading the readings for the next Sunday’s Mass ahead of time. The whole point of the feast of the Ascension is that Christ ascended into heaven so we can join Him there one day, but we have to trust Him and follow Him in order to get there. ![]()
Fr. Bryan Howard
6th Sunday of Easter – Year B – 6 May 2018 When your teenage son or daughter says to you, “If you loved me, you’d let me…” We know that that’s, basically, emotional blackmail. Your job, as a parent, is not to make sure that your children like you, but, because you love them, to guide them in the right path. So, when we hear Jesus say, like He does in today’s Gospel, “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love.” What does Jesus mean by that? Does He mean that God will stop loving us if we don’t do what He says? If we keep listening, we hear Jesus say, “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.” This is the key to understanding what Jesus means, but we’ll get back to that latter. First, let’s talk about love itself. What the Bible means by love is not what we normally mean when we use the word love. We must often use the word love to refer to things, as in, “I love pizza. I love fishing. I love classical music.” These are all preferences. I prefer pizza to asparagus. I prefer classical music to pop music. But, I don’t always prefer pizza. Sometimes I feel like having bbq, or maybe one day I’ll stop liking pizza entirely. If we bring that concept into our relationships with other people, what happens? We start thinking of love as preference. I prefer you to other people, but people are a lot more challenging than pizza. They’re annoying, aggravating, and demanding. Eventually, you stop preferring that person, so you leave and go find someone that you prefer more, at least, for now. Real love is not in the emotions, it is a choice to consistently work towards the good of another person. Think about my example from the beginning, when someone says, “If you really loved me, you would…” People fall into this trap of thinking if you love someone, then you have to do whatever they ask, but that’s not real love. Real love seeks the good for the other person. Think of that famous passage from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. If you’ve ever been to a wedding you’ve probably heard it, “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Love rejoices with the truth. In the Old Testament we were given the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Almost every religion and culture in the world has had some version of the Golden Rule. Christ gives us a new Commandment, “Love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Christ calls us to a higher form of love. We are called to love consistently, to love without counting the cost, and to love with everything we have. We are called to give everything for our beloved, as Christ gave everything for us. He became human, lived among us, suffered for us, and died for us. He’s given us His very body and blood as our food and drink. Obviously, no one will always live up to that standard of love. That’s why relationships, and especially marriage and family relationships, isn’t 50/50, they’re 100/100. A business partnership is 50/50. If one person doesn’t live up to their part, then the other person is also released from their obligation. Love calls us to give 100% all the time. When the other person is having a bad day, when they mess up, or when they’re just not all their, then we have to step up, take up the slack, and keep going, to forgive and forget, because that’s what Jesus did for us. Just like we read in St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, “But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” This is what we celebrate in every Mass, the great act of God’s love for us, the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Every time we eat His flesh and drink His blood in the Most Holy Eucharist we are filled anew with the love of God and strengthened to live in His love. That is what it means that “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love.” Just as Christ gave His life for us, we are called to give our lives for one another. ![]()
Fr. Bryan Howard
5th Sunday in Easter – Year B – 29 April 2018 The love of God is not a prize to be won, or an award to be earned. It’s not given to those who are good and taken away from those who are bad. It is a freely given gift. God formed you in the womb, gave you life, and caused you to grow. He’s loved us from the moment of our existence, and, since you didn’t do anything to earn God’s love, there’s nothing you could do to make Him stop loving you. Sometimes we think that we have to do good things to make God love us. We think that we have to get our lives together before we can come to God, that we have to stop sinning, overcome our vices, and become a “good person,” in order to come to God. In fact it’s just the opposite. We do good things because God loves us, and without His help it’s impossible to become holy. Sometimes we think that we’re not worthy of God’s love, or mercy, or compassion. We think that our actions, what we’ve accomplished, make us valuable and give us dignity. We have human dignity because we’re God’s children and were made in His image and likeness. Does the mother of a bank robber love her child any less than the mother of the president of a bank? No. Mother’s love their children because they’re their children. God loves us because we’re His children. Think of St. Paul. In our first reading we heard about his arrival in Jerusalem for the first time after his conversion. How was St. Paul converted? He didn’t go to God and ask to be converted, God went to Him, knocked him on his backside, and struck him blind. You’ve heard that God works in mysterious ways? Well, sometimes He uses a bullhorn instead. Just ask St. Paul. This is how it works for us as well. God first comes to us, calls us to Himself, and gives us the strength to leave behind our old sinful ways and grow closer to Him. In the Gospel Jesus says, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.” Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. Our job is to bear fruit, and the fruit that we bear is good works, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, works of faith, hope, and charity. How do we bear fruit? How does a plant bear fruit? The roots take in water and nourishment, which the plant uses to cause the branches to grow the fruit. If Jesus is the vine, then He is the one giving us, the branches, the nourishment we need to bear fruit. We have to remain in Him. A branch that’s cut off of a vine will wither and die. If we cut ourselves off from Christ, then we will wither and die, spiritually, but if we stay connected to Jesus, then He will continue to nourish us. As St. John says in the second reading, “And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us. Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he gave us.” We don’t follow God’s commands to make Him love us, we follow His commands because He loves us. At the beginning of our second reading, St. John wrote, “Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.” This reminds me of something that we read in the letter of St. James, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,’ but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” We all, at times, fail to live out the love of God. We all sin. Do we strive to overcome our sins with the help of God? Do we strive to love in deed and in truth? Stay close to the Eucharist. The Eucharist that nourishes us with the love of God and helps us to remain close to Christ. As the Fathers of the Church used to say, “When we receive the Body of Christ, we become the Body of Christ.” But, if we receive the Eucharist dishonestly, when they way that we live doesn’t reflect the faith that we profess, then we haven’t helped ourselves. We’ve made it worse. If we receive the Eucharist while living in a state of mortal sin, then that is a sin against the Eucharist. Now remember, a mortal sin isn’t just any sin, it’s a very serious sin that we commit knowingly and deliberately. This is why the Sacrament of Confession is so closely related to the Eucharist. Through it Jesus forgives our sins and strengthens us against them. This is how we come to God, not as perfect people, but as broken people asking to be made whole. Most of us ask far too little of God, He wants to make you a great saint; accept His grace and live it. ![]()
Fr. Bryan Howard
4th Sunday of Easter – Year B – 22 April 2018 Everyone must sacrifice things in their lives. There is no path in life that you can take that doesn’t include sacrifice. This is true whether you’re married or unmarried, rich or poor, healthy or sick, religious or atheistic. In fact, in every decision you make, you’re sacrificing something else. When you choose what you’re going to do this evening. There are only so many hours in a day. If you choose to spend an hour going for a walk, then you can’t spend that hour at home watching TV. So, how do we choose which things to hold on to and which to sacrifice? I think the best way I can explain that is to tell you how I made that decision, the most important one I’ve ever made, to follow God’s call and become a priest. It started when I was a child. I was raised in a Catholic home. We prayed together, we went to Mass together every Sunday, and we had crucifixes and images of the saints in the house. We lived with my Maw Maw and Paw Paw, and they would pray the Rosary together every night before bed. I learned how to pray the Rosary laying on the foot of their bed praying with them. I went to public schools, so I had to go to CCD classes at my parish, St. Clement of Rome. My mom would go through the lessons with me just like she went through all of my lessons for school. This reinforced that religion was normal, and that it was important. I didn’t start seriously thinking about the priesthood until the eighth grade, which at that time was the year we made Confirmation. My initial reaction was, “No Way! You’ve got the wrong guy!” I used all of the normal excuses to avoid thinking about it: I want to get married and have kids, I’m not good enough, I don’t have what it takes. Two things came together that year to help me seriously consider that call, as God often does, He just wouldn’t leave me alone. First, the parochial vicar, Fr. David Dufour, called my house to speak with me. He asked me to be one of the readers for the Confirmation Prep Program Masses. When the teacher had asked in class, I hadn’t volunteered, but I couldn’t say no to the priest directly. This was a great gift. We had training before each of the Masses we would read at, and in those trainings Fr. David taught us how to pray with the Bible. Through reading at Mass I got to know the Mass better. I had always liked going to Mass, but now I was beginning to understand the Mass, to feel a connection to it, and to develop a love for the Mass. Second, my CCD teachers for that year, George and Gay Hernandez, introduced the class to our Perpetual Adoration Chapel. Since I lived close to the Church, I started to ride my bike down and go to the chapel on my own time. I would pray with the Bible, and I would ask God to tell me what He wanted me to do. That call or attraction to the priesthood never went away, no matter how much I tried to deny it. This went on for a couple of years. In high school I went on a retreat with the Church’s youth group. On the bus, I asked God to make it clear to me what He wanted me to do, what He was calling me to. Part of the retreat included adoration. As I knelt before the Blessed Sacrament and prayed, I felt an incredible sense of peace come over me, my fears and anxieties went away, and I could sense God reassuring me that it was alright and that He would always be with me. In that moment, I accepted that God was calling me to be a priest and decided to follow that call wherever it lead me. There are more ups and downs to the story, as it would be almost 11 more years before I was actually ordained, but that was, in a way, the first step, and I can say now that’s it’s the best decision I’ve ever made in my life. I can’t imagine being happier doing anything else. The Church has named today as the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. Today, we celebrate those men and women who have chosen to follow God’s call to dedicate their lives completely to Him, priests, brothers, and sisters. In the Archdiocese of New Orleans there are 342 priests (213 diocesan priests, 53 or whom are retired, and 125 religious order priests), 63 religious brothers, and 370 religious sisters. Those numbers sound pretty good, but you have to realize that many of our parishes that used to have 2, 3, 4, or more priests now have only 1 or 2. Our Lady of Lourdes used to have 2 and now only has 1, and I can only think of 1 parish that has more than 2, and it’s run by the Dominicans. When you consider the entire country, in 1965 there were 58,632 priests for 48.5 million Catholics and in 2017 there were 37,181 for 68.5 million Catholics. That’s 21,000 fewer priests for 22 million more Catholics. If you think that sounds bad, listen to this, in 1965 there were 179,954 religious sisters in the U.S., but in 2017 there were only 45,605, which is 134,000 less. Have you ever wondered why in the 50s and 60s you saw sisters everywhere, in the parishes and in the schools, and now you don’t see them anywhere. We need priests in the Church. Without priests there is no Mass and no Reconciliation, no Eucharist. Young men and women, consider that priesthood or consecrated life. Ask God what He is calling you to do with your life. Parents, encourage your children to think about their vocation, what God is calling them to. It’s true that they can be happy doing many different things, but God is the one who made us, and He made us for a purpose, and following that call will be more fulfilling than anything else. And everyone, we all need to pray for vocations. Jesus Himself told us, “Pray, therefore, the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers for the harvest.” Since Mary, our Blessed Mother, is the one who always shows us the way to her Son, let’s offer her prayer for an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life, and that all those who are being called right now may hear and answer. ![]()
Fr. Bryan Howard
3rd Sunday in Easter – Year B – 15 April 2018 When I got into the parish, one of the first things that I did was to place this crucifix on the altar. You may have noticed that the crucifix always faces towards me. Some people have asked me about that, and today I want to use this altar crucifix to explain something about the Mass. You know that the Mass is a prayer. In fact, it’s the highest prayer of the Church. But, when we pray, who are we talking to? We’re talking to God. The Mass is a prayer that the entire Church offers to God. We use the same prayers and readings on the same days throughout the entire Church. The same Mass is offered everywhere in the world. If you go to Mass in another country, or go up the road to the Spanish Mass at OLPS Sundays at 12:30 or to Mary, Queen of Vietnam, even if you don’t understand the language, you recognize that the order of the Mass, the prayers, and the actions of the priest are all the same. One Mass is offered throughout the entire world to the one God. That’s why I put the crucifix on the altar with the corpus facing me. In the prayers at the altar, I may be facing you, but I’m not really talking to you, I’m talking to God. In the old days we showed this by having the priest and people face the same direction, with the priest turning to address the people at the appropriate times. That Cross is a reminder for all of us, but mostly for me, that the Mass is a prayer that we offer to God as one community. It’s a reminder that I’m not the focus of the Mass, God is. Okay, so the Mass is a prayer that the priest offers to god for the people, but what exactly are we offering? In our second reading St. John says, “I am writing this to you so that you may not commit sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one. He is expiation for our sins, and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.” Jesus ascended bodily to heaven to present His suffering to God the Father and to intercede on our behalf. St. John calls Jesus our “advocate.” The term used here comes from legal terminology. The advocate is similar to a defense attorney. It’s someone who testifies on our behalf and intercedes with the judge. That’s what we do in the Mass. The priest, standing in the place of Christ and in His name, offers the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to God the Father for the Church. I can’t do anything in my own name. That would be worse than useless; it would be the sin of presumption, but, if I offer it in the name of Jesus and with His authority, then I can call down the Holy Spirit to turn ordinary bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, which are then offered to God in the Mass. When the priest offers the Mass, or hears confession, or anoints the sick, he is acting in persona Christi, in the person of Christ. It isn’t the priest himself who offers the Sacrifice of the Mass or forgives sins, it’s Jesus working through the priest. So, that’s what the Mass is: the Church gathering together to offer the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross to God the Father, but we’re called to offer something ourselves, too. The bread and wine are brought up from the congregation because they represent your offering to God. When I take the bread, and lift up the paten, the little plate, to present it to God, spiritually put your offerings on the paten with the host. Offer God your own sufferings, your own acts of love and kindness, your own needs and prayers and those of your loved ones, especially those who are most in need. Say to God, “Accept my offering with the offering of Your Son. Unite my sufferings to His sufferings, and as this bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ, transform me through the Mass to resemble Christ more in the way I live my life.” ![]()
Fr. Bryan Howard
Divine Mercy Sunday – Year B – 8 April 2018 Pope St. John Paul II named the second Sunday of Easter Divine Mercy Sunday in the year 2000, which is why I have the image of the Divine Mercy placed here in the sanctuary. In the 1930s our Lord appeared to a sister of Our Lady of Mercy in Krakow, Poland, Sr. Faustina Kowalska. Jesus spoke to Sr. Faustina, now St. Faustina, of His mercy, His desire to pour out His mercy on all peoples, and that people should draw close to Him. He told her to have a painting done of what she saw, Jesus, with His hand pointing to His heart, and red and white rays coming from His heart, with the inscription, “Jesus, I trust in You.” The rays of light are meant to remind us of the grace of God the poured from Christ on the Cross. They represent the water and blood that flowed from His side when He was pierced by a lance on the Cross. He told St. Faustina, “The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls.” Of course, an image by itself can’t do anything. It is what the image stands for that has the power. This image is meant to raise our minds to God and help us think about His love for us, His grace, and what He did for us on the Cross. God is the source of all grace, and all graces flow from the Cross. We talk a lot about grace in the Church, but have you ever wondered, “What is grace?” The word grace means “gift.” Grace is a gift freely given by God and it is meant to draw us closer to Him. It is simply God acting in our lives. Graces can cause us to think about God or heavenly things, they can help us to resist temptation, and they can strengthen us to do what we know is right. Grace never forces us to do anything, because God respects our free will; grace only suggests, encourages, and calls, like Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio. You were probably taught as a child that it’s rude to ask people for a gift. When it comes to grace you need to get over that instinct. If you were starving to death would you just sit waiting for someone to bring you some food, or would you go out and find some? Well, we need grace to nourish us spiritually just as surely as we need food to nourish us physically. There are some graces that God will give you regardless, but there are some that you’ll only get if you make yourself ready for them. The first thing you can do to get more grace, is to ask for it. It’s like a child asking mom for more vegetables; there’s no way she’s going to say no. So, when we ask God for grace, He will give it to us. Think about what sins you struggle with the most, or what virtues you need to grow in the most, and ask God for those things specifically. This is an act of humility, and God will respond by giving you grace. Second, respond to grace. As I said earlier, grace is an invitation or a suggestion. It’s takes work and effort on our part, too. But, what you do respond to God’s grace, you get more of it. Here’s an example that happens pretty often. I sit in the confession for about 20 minutes before every weekend Mass, starting half an hour before Mass and ending 10 minutes before Mass. So, if you’ve never seen the confession light on, you just need to get here a little earlier. A lot of the times, I’ll hear 1 or 2 or no confessions, so most of the time I’m just sitting in there, but I’m sitting in there with that green light on, and people see that light, week after week, reminding them that I’m there. That light is an opportunity for grace, and invitation from God. If someone responds to that invitation, then they also get the graces of the Sacrament of Confession, which leads to more graces calling them to fight harder against there sins, or giving them the motivation to start praying more and trying to improve their relationship with God. But if you never respond to that first grace, then you never get any of those other graces. Something as simple as a light, or an image, or as profound as the Eucharist, is an opportunity for grace and an invitation from God. During this week, pay attention to those things. What invitation is God giving you, and how are you responding to it? ![]()
Fr. Bryan Howard
Easter Sunday – 1 April 2018 Alleluia, Christ is risen, Alleluia! Thanks be to God. This evening we celebrate the Easter Vigil. We blessed the fire and brought the Paschal Candle into the Church, symbolizing the light of the risen Christ entering the world after three days of darkness. We listened to readings going through the history of salvation, and then we sang the Easter Alleluia. This is a holy night, a joyful night, a glorious night. Have you ever wondered why Jesus rose from the dead on the third day? Why not the second day or the fourth day? Why the third day? If you came to the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper, you heard me explain how the Last Supper corresponds to the passover feast, or seder meal, of the ancient Jews. Jesus was crucified on the next day, Good Friday, which would have been the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which lasted for seven days. On the third day of the feast of unleavened bread, they celebrated the Feast of First Fruits, which was a feast of great joy in ancient Jerusalem. It was a feast of the harvest. The very first cuttings of the first harvest of barley would be brought up to the temple as an offering to God. People would come from all of Israel bringing offerings of figs and grapes and dried figs and raisins. Everyone would be dressed in their finest clothes. Early in the morning, a special group of priests would go out to a certain field wearing their finest vestments. They would bring an ox with them draped with gold clothes and with a garland of olive leaves around its head. They would cut the very first barley from the field, tie it into a bundle, and place it on the ox’s back. Then they would all process back into Jerusalem, up to the city, to the playing of flutes and the singing of the levites. As Jesus was rising from the dead, there was joy and singing in the Temple in Jerusalem, a festival of life and gratitude to God for the new harvest. When the procession arrived at the Temple, the High Priest would take the sheath of barley, bring it up to the altar and raise it high and wave it from side to side, presenting it to God. This was called the waved offering, and it looked something like this, like the sign of the Cross. As the priest lifted up the barley, they would sing a certain psalm, Psalm 30, “O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. O Lord, you have brought up my soul from the dead, restored me to life from among those gone down to the pit… You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you for ever.” The first fruits was an act of faith in God. You couldn’t be sure that you would get any more harvest, so, if you give God the very first cut of the very first harvest, you’re thanking God for giving you any harvest at all and you’re saying that you trust God to provide for the rest of the harvest, to take care of you and your family. The first fruits is the promise that more will come. Just so you know that I’m not making all this up, listen to what St. Paul says in His letter to the Corinthians, “For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life, but each one in proper order: Christ the firstfruits; then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ.” Jesus Christ is the firstfruits, the promise of the resurrection of the dead, but we are the rest of the harvest, all those who belong to God. Before He died, Moses gave one last talk, one last sermon to the people, saying, “I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding His voice, and holding fast to Him.” God greatly desires to give us life, the new life of the Resurrection, and He has already promised it to us through His own Resurrection. Will you accept what God is offering you? Will you choose to live in His love? |
AuthorFr. Bryan was pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes from July 3, 2017 to June 2022. Categories
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