The First Sunday of Lent (Cycle C)

March 8-9, 2025

Gospel:  Luke 4:1-13

Some of you may remember that many years ago a comedian, Flip Wilson,… he did a comedy sketch that popularized the saying; “The devil made me do it!”  Perhaps you have used that sentence to excuse yourself or justify your actions at some point in life.  I have been known to use it a time or two or three or 27 times myself.

 I suppose if Jesus had succumbed to the temptations of the devil in today’s Gospel, He could have said, “The devil made me to it.”  But He didn’t succumb. He didn’t say it.  Jesus’ journey into the desert (and ours into Lent) invite us into a different space.  The space is one of being purified, enlightened and united with the image of God each of us is.  When this happens, our whole life changes and we can do things we thought we never could.  This is true conversion, and that is what Lent is all about.  Jesus shows us the way.  The desert and Lent have something in common. Both invite a “claiming” of our TRUE SELVES. 

 In the desert, Jesus came to better self-knowledge – who He was, who He was called to be.  Lent is a special season of our liturgical year that calls us to follow Jesus’ example.  In Lent, we are encouraged to take some desert time.  We are invited to make room for two treasures: solitude and prayer.  In the times of solitude and prayer, we are invited to remember who we are and what God asks of us. 

We are invited in a special way this season, to look at ILLUSIONS.  Think about that word.  We know that an illusion is a perception or image that deceives or misleads. God knows we see and hear it every day in the media…

 In this Lent (more than any of our past), let us look and listen to the Ashes we received on Wednesday.  Serious reflection can clear our minds of FOUR big illusions that often seem operative in our living…

 First, ashes are a vivid reminder that we will die.  Secondly, we make plans for a “some day” that never arrives ergo missing TODAY’s blessings.  Thirdly, we let worry become a lifestyle (as if worry will prevent misfortune).  Lastly, the feeling of being indispensable, that “they can’t get along without me” attitude… 

 Living life filled with illusions is like looking at oneself in a broken or severely scratched mirror. What you see isn’t real; it is not the whole picture.  Real life is a freedom from illusions.  Here in our parish these 40 days and 40 nights, you are invited to “listen to the ashes” each time you come here.  We ask ourselves honestly, “What are the attitudes, the habits; the ways of thinking that are the illusions that keep me from loving Jesus… myself… my neighbor…  Whenever you look at your reflection at home or away, may it cause you to reflect on what’s in your life that prevents Christ’s love from breaking through…      

 Honestly, it was not a devil that made you or I do what we did…ever… or at least, not alone!  It was an illusion of self that made certain choices.  Can we live with that or can it be make it right?  It depends on repentance, deeper awareness, the need for conversion and breaking through the illusion.

 Ours are blessed ashes, holy ashes and they hold the promise of Resurrection.  As Jesus went out into the desert to do what needed to be done, so too are we sent forth in this season of Lent to ask for serenity to ‘accept the thing we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can and the wisdom to know the difference… just for today.’        

Ash Wednesday 2025

March 5, 2025

Gospel: Matthew 6:1-6; 16-18

Everyone has seen it at one time or the other… a thought put on a button, bumper sticker, just about anything… message:

Please be patient.  God isn’t finished with me… yet!

Whether we realist it or not, today we proclaim that same message.  We don’t do it with a button… but with the ashes on our foreheads.

The askes we will wear announce to the world a plain fact… we are not perfect, we are sinners…

These ashes tell all who see us that we are beginning 40 days of prayer, repentance and sacrifice – that we are Catholic Christians seeking somehow to reconcile ourselves with God.

These ashes say that we are a work in progress.

They say: please be patient.  God ISN’T finished with me.

In a word, He isn’t finished with any of us.

That is the great wonder and consolation of Lent!

As we enter this holy season, we should approach it soberly and seriously.  But we should not mistaken “seriousness’ for ‘solemnity’.

The Gospel reminds us; “Do not look gloomy… anoint your head and wash your face.”  I’d take that one step further; add to this season of penance and prayer a sense of possibility.  Make it an occasion of Hope.  And yes, even Joy… and most definitely Mercy…

We think of Lent as a time for ‘giving up’… let us shorten our work to ‘giv-ing’… begin by giving JOY.

And if you truly want to give up something, don’t settle for chocolate or pizza or cheesecake or alcohol or tobacco or shopping or the casinos or whatever… you name it…

Go further.  Go deeper.  Try giving up something REALLY hard… give up cynicism… or jealousy… or backstabbing…

Give up gossip.  Give up regrets for choices you never made or paths you never took.  Give up the Blame Game. Give up fighting God’s Will for you.  Give up acting “MY will be done” rather “THY will be done”.

Need help?  Try this: give up whatever fear or anxiety is keeping you from celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation… pull a Nike… Just Do It… go.  Look for opportunities… they are there…

Give up being too busy to pray or being too worriedto Hope.  As I know is said in AA… let go, let God.  As it is also said, ‘there is no better time than the present’.  As scriptures says, ‘now is the acceptable time’…

The point of all this isn’t just to take others feel better – or make ourselves feel holy.  It is to draw us closer to The One who makes everything, including redemption… possible.  And we do it now for a good reason.  Lent pushes us to admit something we prefer to ignore.  You know, we don’t have forever.  Look in the mirror after Mass tonight, we have been marked.  The clock is ticking… and there is work to do…

As we ‘Remember that we are dust and to dust we shall return’ OR ‘Reform your life and believe in the Gospels’; we remember to start ‘over and over and over’ in these 40 days to become better… not perfect.

Be patient with yourselves… and with everyone else; especially the unsensible…

God isn’t finished with any of us… yet. 

2025 AD … a year of Hope… a year of Pilgrimage…  a year of Joy!

Our current Holy Father, Pope Francis, is calling on all of us, especially Catholics, to celebrate this Jubilee year of 2025.  When the successor of Saint Peter himself sets aside a certain time as HOLY, that’s not just words.  It really does become a sacred time which changes us in real time as we know it.  Pope Francis has called upon God to pour out extra graces and blessings during these 360+ days and make this a time of conversion and renewal for people of all ages. 

Today you and I gather here to open this year of Jubilee at the parish level.  {Archbishop Shelton will formally open the year for the archdiocese tomorrow morning with a Special Mass with the school children of Saint James Church.}  Historically speaking, the universal Catholic Church declared the First Holy Year in 1300 AD and this has continued in 25 year increments ever since.  These designated times are occasions for the Church, as in God’s people (you and me), to seek renewal, to undergo a ‘re-set’ and this Holy Year invites us to deepen and renew the gift of the virtue of Hope in the way we live. We make ourselves keenly aware of The Blessings asked, The Blessings given and The Blessings received. 

Some of the gifts of this Jubilee Year that are highlighted for us are Forgiveness, Freedom, Family and Fullness.  For forgiveness, any Jubilee year is a great time to practice forgiveness in our own families, in our own circles of friends.  It is a super opportunity to spend some quality time with self, examining our consciences… maybe to see if we are holding a grudge or a resentment or an unresolved anger towards anybody in our lives. When all is said and done, we must make the interior act of forgiving self FIRST and then onto an act to forgive the other person or maybe an event that has occurred in our past.  In a word, we are called to become BETTER, not perfect persons…

Now, back to the gifts: Fullness is the idea of learning how to TRUST God in providing for us.  One great way we can live fullness is Honoring the Sabbath beyond what happens at the Eucharistic Table.  Taking up OR re-taking up the practice of resting, spending the day with family (on purpose… without an agenda), preparing and enjoying a meal together, making space for prayer and maybe, God willing, some non-pious spiritual reading…

One unique feature of any Holy Year is The Holy Door, signaling a passage in moving from one decision to the next… Pope Francis has said that the Opening of any Holy Door is a message of Hope and it is a sign of closeness and compassion for all those who are struggling.  The Door represents Jesus, the Good Shepherd, the keeper of the Gate for the pins in which we all reside.  A Door can keep people in and it can also keep people out.  To open any door is to welcome the next great thing that Jesus wants us to see and to handle.  I kind of liken The Holy Door to that scene in the movie The Wizard of Oz… remember when Dorothy opened the door from black and white to that glorious Technicolor?  What a HUGE difference it made on many levels … nothing quite like ‘living color’… especially showing the viewer that Yellow Brick Road on which she journeyed to get home!      

Have you ever taken a pilgrimage?  What makes any journey or trip a pilgrimage?  The word’s definition: “an individual’s journey through life, sometimes as a general description of personal growth and exploration, and sometimes, as in Christianity, outlining a particular spiritual focus or pathway which, it is believed, we will encounter God.”

Seeking out certain holy places locally can bring a person to a greater awareness of God and God working in one’s life.  Our archdiocese, the second oldest in the history of the United States (1808), is especially blessed with places like this.  As a thought, it could become a rewarding trip to visit places of special grace and blessings in this Holy Year; such as the Louisville Cathedral of the Assumption on Fifth Street and, while there, touring The History Center that displays, in artifacts, the Catholic faith of central Kentucky.  Another great spot could be the Proto Cathedral Basilica of Saint Joseph in Bardstown OR the Proto-Abbey of the United States at the Abbey of Gethsemani OR four motherhouses of religious nuns: Sisters of Charity in Bardstown, the Sisters of Loretto, the Dominican Sisters in Springfield and the Ursuline Sisters on Lexington Road.  There are other places filled with graces waiting to be embraced such as the Dominican of Saint Rose Priory in Springfield OR Saint Thomas Parish and the Bishop Flaget Log House south of Bardstown which helps us stay in touch with our spiritual roots when we were an infant church in a beautiful, yet uncharted wilderness.

There are so many other sacred Catholic spaces to explore, appreciate and understand.  It is a picker’s world… you and I are very lucky!   

Friend, it is so easy to ‘write off’ a visit to any of these places and experiences because they are always with us… we grew up here, we think we know them… but do we… do we really?  Let’s find out… make plans to visit at least one of these places… let me know what you think… seriously.  Let’s seek God in these places… Take it to prayer… Take this Year of Hope, Pilgrimage and Joy to Jesus and see what He would have us do.  He is the best tour guide we will ever have, especially in these days of 2025… no one can afford to wait until 2050 to seek Him!  

What is an Indulgence? Click here to learn more.

3^rd Sunday of Advent (Cycle C)

December 14-15, 2024

Gospel:  Luke 3:10-18

Have Lori play the lyric:

“Beginning to look a lot like Christmas…” before the homily…

“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas”. That is, of course, the title of a holiday song written by composer Meredith Willson.  The tune has been popular for 53 years.  It is a clever little one that millions of people know.  It is a very good example of the sentimental attitude of our culture toward the Christmas season.  The song is a perfect example of the commercialization of Christmas that has gone on, like the song, for many decades… 

Unless one has been on a deserted island, one would have probably noticed that the “looking a lot like Christmas” seems to feel or occur earlier every year.  In many, many places, it has been “beginning to look a lot like Christmas” since, at least…shall we say, the day after Halloween… 

You and I, for better or for worse, live in a society that has largely forgotten Advent, OR at least its’ meaning.  This is apparently a “sign of our times”.  We do not have time to transition from one event to the next, giving a proper ending to what we’ve finished or preparing for that which is coming next.  Sometimes we dash from one event to the other without a break.  That, unfortunately, is what has happened to Advent and Christmas.  Once Thanksgiving is over, our society flies into Christmas without looking back.

Cha-ching, Cha-ching, Cha-ching.   

The Third Sunday of Advent, known as Gaudete Sunday is a day in the midst of our preparations for Christmas…it’s purpose: to rejoice in all God’s gifts to humankind.  Advent 2024 is one of the shorter Advents we can have. It is 24 days long (or short depending on your preparedness for the forthcoming Christmas season of 20 days …)

The Old Testament prophet Zephaniah invites all people of all generations to rejoice in the Lord.  We have a reason to sing for joy.  God has overcome the enemy to all that is good.  God rejoices with His people and renews our lives. 

Paul reminds the Christians at Philippi that the Lord is near.  Paul encourages the people to celebrate.  Rejoicing by Christian people is a result of our awareness of Christ being near.  Until Christ returns for the final time (your death as well as my own), Christians can avoid anxiety by being people of prayer.  This is how we are to present our needs and thanksgivings.  Prayer is “what we do”… well.

God’s presence will move believers to take concrete actions.  John tells his followers to share their food and clothing with the less fortunate.  John urges tax collectors to give up “business as usual” and carry out their duties fairly.  He tells soldiers to avoid bullying others and taking advantage of their position of power.  John makes it clear that he is not the Messiah.  He also makes it crystal clear the difference between baptism of water & baptism by fire. 

When we see Jesus working in our world there is cause to be pleased and happy.  Despite the very artificial celebration of Christmas that society puts on annually, we can recognize the true reason for celebration.  The Gospel tells us how to express our faith by action. 

When we show generosity to those in need and treat others fairly, we are living the Spirit of Christmas.  It goes beyond a season of awareness into an everyday reality.  The more we worship God, the more we become inspired.  The more we are inspired, the more we can do.

God is “lovin’ it”.    

Please enjoy these reflections during this season of Advent.