Gospel: John 18:1-19:42

April 18, 2025

Imagine walking into town from the country to go to market and passing through a line of naked, crucified men hanging on crosses along both sides of the road.  Some of the men may be already dead, some still gasping for air as they slowly suffocate.  Others are cursing the government and everyone else in outbursts of anger and pain.

That is what Jewish men and women had to endure whenever Rome executed someone.  Crucifixion was a brutal, inhumane torture reserved for non-Roman citizens.  Executions were public affairs meant to frighten people into submission.  And for the Jew, crucifixion was proof positive of God’s total rejection and condemnation.  Anyone “hung on a tree” was surely cursed by God.

So the crucifixion of Jesus was not a pretty affair.  We sometimes decorate our crosses and clean up our art work to make it less revolting, but then we miss the human tragedy and horror of the event.  But the death of Jesus was as brutal and gory as any execution could possibly be.  Is it me, or does anyone else view the repackaging of the film, “The Passion of the Christ” as such an attempt to sanitize what has already been produced as “over the edge?” 

May be… may be…

Those who had any hope that Jesus was a good man sent by God went home that day sorely disappointed and hurt.  A crucified criminal could not be a good man.  And Jesus was indeed a crucified criminal. 

That was the human vision of what happened on Good Friday.  That is how the event appeared to most of those who were there.  The event was nothing less than a horrible disaster, a degrading end to a young man’s career.  In the words of Isaiah, “there was in him no stately bearing…nor appearance that would attract us.”  He was a “man of suffering…spurned, and we held him in no esteem.”  Isaiah states further, however, that there is an entirely different way to view what happened.

To the eyes of faith, this horror was an act of love, an act of victory and, in John’s words, a moment of GLORY.  As Isaiah says, “it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that He endured”.  After Resurrection and Pentecost, the Christian community could look back on that horrible event and say that Jesus, in an act of unconditional love, had suffered for our sins and won our salvation.  The early church interpreted the events of Good Friday in the light of God’s loving plan of salvation.  Good Friday was not just a human event, a Roman execution.  It was also an act of love as Jesus laid down his life for us, His friends.

John, more than any evangelist, emphasizes Jesus’ free offering of Himself in service to God and to us.  John talks about the crucifixion as Jesus’ “finest hour”.  Is John clueless?  NOT.  John has captured a deep fact of our faith.  God, and only God, can take the most horrible act of a person’s inhumanity to another person and turn it into good, an eternal good.  And that is what God is all about!  He loves us so much that He is willing to turn gross evil into love and give us the benefit.

Today we gather not so much to lament the suffering and death of Jesus, as to glory in the love He has for us.  As the song used to say, “We remember, we celebrate, we believe.”  We believe that his love for us is unconditional and that He calls us to faith and life.

We do not celebrate the Eucharist today.  We dramatically remember that what Jesus did at the Last Supper was to offer Himself totally to God and us, an offering that culminated at the cross.  Today we venerate that cross knowing that we cannot look beyond it until we are called.

Holy Thursday 2025

Gospel:  John 13:1-15

April 17, 2025

We enter tonight into the Sacred Triduum, three holy days that culminate in the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection, by placing ourselves in humble service to others.  The solemnity, the symbols, and the beauty of this liturgy need very little – if any – explanation.  We can focus on many symbols tonight, but let out attention be drawn to the Gospel we have just heard proclaimed and the sacred action which will follow this homily: the mandatum (washing of feet). 

Instead of hearing the familiar story told in the synoptic Gospels, we hear instead John’s account of what happened after the meal Jesus shared with his disciples.  By telling them HOW Jesus washed the feet of these disciples, John makes the necessary connection between servanthood and Eucharist.  This is called mandatum because it is Jesus’ mandate that his disciples to as he did.  “Do this, do this love, in memory of me.  Do this Eucharist in memory of me.  Pour yourself out in complete service to others as I have done”.  Early in Church history, the mandatum was considered a sacrament; a transforming encounter with Christ. 

Sharing in the Eucharist means washing the feet of others. 

Feet are an interesting part of our bodies.  They help support us and keep us standing upright.  They prevent us from falling by keeping us balanced. Above all, feet are essential to walking as we take one step at a time.  They may not be the most glorious part of our body, but they have a major role to play.  Ask anyone who has lost the use of a foot.

The Hebrews walked from slavery into freedom.  The prophets walked from place to place announcing the message of Jesus.  Even at the time of Jesus, walking was THE mode of travel.  So, celebrating the Last Supper, Jesus, who took the role of slave and that of the host, washed disciples’ feet.  By doing this, Jesus not only performed a practical act of offering comfort to weary feet, he also emphasized that if anyone wishes to be a follower, she or he must be a servant to all.

The Hebrews were instructed to eat the Passover meal with their loins girt (that is to say, flexed, ready to walk), sandals on their feet, and staffs in hand ready to “hit the road”.  Before the journey, the Hebrews were instructed by God to prepare a meal.  They would need nourishment for the journey.  This meal was not one for the sake of eating/killing hunger – it was a sacred meal.  So they were prepared to hear God say, “Ready, set… go!”… they were called by God to set out on a journey with no clear knowledge of WHERE they would be going… kind of like handing your phone to someone who would program your GPS, click start, and tell you to follow it … wherever it tells to you walk … forever how long. 

Jesus shows the disciples the meaning of perfect love.  Just as Jesus knew the twelve, He also knows us.  In fact, Jesus is aware of our past sins as well as those we will commit.  In all of this, Jesus still loves us.  Knowing fully who we are, Jesus is still willing to serve us and asks us to do the same.  Doing Eucharist means service to one another on the journey of life. 

“Where charity and love prevail, there is God.”  Let us commit ourselves to the poor, to humble service as a Eucharistic people who live by the mandate of Christ. 

Let us go forth and wash the feet of others.

Passion / Palm Sunday

April 12-13, 2025

Gospel: Luke 22:14-23:56

Imagine, if you will, a group of people walking through a huge store they seldom have a chance to visit; maybe just once a year.  On every display, there is a sign that proclaims “HUGE SALE”!  In this store, the sales are genuine and represent outstanding value.  But the people assume it is all “just routine sale promotion, just business as usual.”  They leave the store without checking anything out; they miss out on the special values that were available to them.

With today’s liturgy we begin HOLY WEEK.  The analogy you just heard is not perfect; God doesn’t run a sale on grace this week – grace is always FREE.  But there are special, sacred times of grace.  HOLY WEEK is one.  It is unlike any of the other 51 weeks of the year.  The upcoming days can truly be holy ones for us if we are aware…

HOLY THURSDAY.  Recall and appreciate more deeply; Jesus’ deep affection for his friends and example of service to others; his desire to remain with us and his breathtaking gift of The Eucharist; His acceptance in the Garden of “doing for us what we could not do for ourselves”.

We bring to the Lord our experience of community, both joy and pain; gratitude for Eucharist and desire to enter more deeply into it; we ask ourselves; what are areas of our lives that most need nourishment?

GOOD FRIDAY.  Recall and appreciate more deeply; Jesus’ acceptance of injustice, pain and death for our sake; his forgiveness of those responsible.

We bring to the Lord our own sadnesses; past, present and to come; contrition for the ways we have been part of “the hour of darkness”.

HOLY SATURDAY.  Recall and appreciate more deeply; the shock, confusion and emptiness felt by those who loved Jesus; and through all this, God’s plan moving toward fulfillment; death: a requirement for resurrection.

Bring to the Lord all those whose world would have been suddenly torn apart; petition for trust, even in the darkest of times; that God is still in charge; our desire to be spiritually renewed.

EASTER VIGIL/EASTER SUNDAY.  Recall and appreciate more deeply; God promised a savior and God delivered.  Our personal history is joined to the great events of salvation history. Despite news headlines, victory over death is final.

Bring to the Lord boundless gratitude for being restored to new life; desire to see signs of new life in our lives and the lives of others.

In our Eucharist today, we celebrate the Pascal Mystery which we recall in detail during Holy Week.  Let us pray for the grace to enter fully into this sacred time… the holiest of all the weeks of the year. 

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. 

Monday Night Men’s Basketball League starting soon! Men 18 years and older are invited to play. Contact Luke Ezell at the number below for more information.

ATTENTION HIGH-SCHOOL SENIORS– Don’t miss out on the opportunity to apply for the $5,000 Pat French Scholarship. This scholarship was established in honor of Patricia K. French to be awarded to a high-school senior who is a member of St. Francis Xavier Church. This person should be service-oriented and a person of high Christian moral values. In addition, this person should be a dedicated student, demonstrating a good work ethic. The recipient may use this one-time, non-renewable award to pursue any program of studies at any accredited college or vocational school. Complete the application below and return to the SFX Parish Office Attn: Wende Aubrey, no later than Friday, March 14, 2025.
Applications, reference letters and transcripts may also be emailed directly to wende.aubrey@sfxmw.com .

Applicants who are chosen to interview for the scholarship will be contacted by the parish office. Interviews will be conducted on Monday, April 7th.

Please note that if Bullitt County Schools are closed due to inclement weather, the parish office will be closed, and weekday Mass will be cancelled. Weekend Masses will continue as scheduled.

Office staff will be working from home and can be reached by email. Click HERE for contact information.

Your Annual Stewardship packets are available in the back of the church until February 18th. Included in your packets are the 2024 Contribution Letters and Stewardship Renewal Forms. Please help us save on postage by picking up your letter after one of the Masses and return the Stewardship Forms to the office by March 21, 2025. Your Time and Talent commitment helps our ministries in their planning for the year. Your commitment of Treasure helps us as we are planning the 2025-2026 budget. Forms may also be placed in a sealed envelope and dropped in the collection basket.

 The 2025 Guidebooks are being mailed directly to your home from Guidebook Publishing. Be on the lookout for them to arrive in the next few weeks.

AARP will once again offer tax filing assistance on the SFX campus. This assistance is available by Appointment ONLY and scheduling will begin January 20th. Call and leave a message at (502) 709-9619 (M-F, 10AM-4PM) to schedule an appointment or visit www.aarp-tax-aide-lou.org to schedule on-line. Appointments at SFX are available on Wednesdays 9-1:30 only.

Bring last Year’s Tax Return, a Photo ID, copy of a canceled check and all your paperwork needed to prepare your return.

*Please note that the parish office cannot schedule or give information regarding appointments. You must leave a message at the number below.

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.

Thank your generous gifts to SFX on Giving Tuesday!

Please enjoy these reflections during this season of Advent.

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary
Monday; December 9, 2024
Gospel: Luke 1:26-38

Today we celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. In 1854, Pope Pius IX made the infallible statement: “The most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the savor of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of Original Sin.”

We focus on the two women in today’s readings and see how their choices have impacted our lives.

To illustrate the difference between Eve and Mary, picture an eye dropper filled with water. I am putting one drop of water in my hand. The makeup of this water is the same as any other drop of water – H2O. It is no more water or less water than any other drop. If I would put this drop of water into the ocean, it would be a part of the ocean. However, although it is part of the ocean and the ocean is a part of it, the drop is NOT the ocean. The difference between Eve and Mary is that Eve wanted to BE the ocean. Mary was content to be the drop in the ocean.

Both Eve and Mary were created without original sin. In the beginning, it was original goodness. In Genesis, we read that “God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them, and God looked at everything he had made and he found it very good.” Mary was created without Original Sin from the moment of HER conception (through her parents; Joachim and Anne), by a special grace in her role in God’s plan for humankind.

Eve wanted to be like God. Mary was content to be God’s servant. Eve (and Adam) thought God was being selfish by forbidding them to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Eve was not content to be a drop of water. She wanted to be the ocean. She saw God as selfish, wanting to keep special knowledge to Himself. She did not realize that God sets limits… to protect her.

Mary knew that she was not more than a servant, a handmaid of God. His Will was her command. When the angel Gabriel announced to her that she was to conceive through the power of the Holy Spirit and bear a son that would be called Son of God, Mary must have been confused and puzzled. While she did not understand fully what was being asked, Mary did not rebel. She simply spoke, “I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”
Mary was content to be drop of water.

Eve rebelled, Mary submitted. Eve gave in to temptation. In the story, Eve eats the forbidden fruit. She sins and then invited Adam to sin, too. Eve, by trying to be more like God and rejecting her rightful relationship with Him, was separated from God through sin.
She became less and less “in His image”.
Mary never went against God’s Will. Mary, by embracing her humanness and knowing her place before God as servant, became more and more like God.

We are all born with Original Sin. We believe, that at baptism, Original Sin is eradicated. We believe that we start off with a clean slate. At that point, we have the same opportunity, as Mary, to make right choices throughout our lives…

However, like Eve (and Adam) we rebel.

The second reading makes it clear what God wants for us… to be holy and blameless in His sight…

As Mary is the “new Eve”, so Jesus is the “new Adam”. What Eve and Adam lost for us, Jesus regained. He stays in intimate contact with us through His Gift of Eucharist. It is through Christ that we have become daughters and sons of the Father and heirs of the Kingdom. With this in mind, let us approach the altar with humility and gratitude that we are that drop in the ocean.

As of Friday, December 6th, St. Francis Xavier is leading the Archdiocese of Louisville in Donor Participation Percentage! Thank you to everyone who has donated thus far. There is still time to contribute if you’d like to see your name in the basket of loaves and fishes!

The annual Catholic Services Appeal invites area Catholics to join together in supporting the more than 100 ministries, services, and programs offered by the archdiocese. Over the last year CSA donations:

• helped to deliver Safe Environment Training to over 3100 people who work with children or youth.
• provided training and formation opportunities to those who minister to, with, and for adolescents and young adults.
• provided days of reflection, weekend retreats, and other faith sharing events to college students.
• offered 63 catechist certification classes for over 900 attendees.
• assisted parishes across the archdiocese with facility maintenance and planning.
• supported the many publications and media communications that are made available to all Catholics in the archdiocese.

In addition to these services for parishioners, the Catholic Services Appeal supports the Seminarian Education Fund, which allows seminarians to focus on their education and spiritual growth as they prepare for a life of service to God.

Last year St. Francis Xavier Parish raised over $24,000 for CSA with 105 families participating. Our goal for 2024 is $26,500. While the monetary goal is important, our focus this year is on participation. With over 800 families registered with our parish, even the smallest of donations can make an impact. To help visualize participation, each family that donates any amount to Catholic Services Appeal in 2024 will be represented by a fish or loaf image and added to the CSA poster on display in the gathering space in church. Help us to fill the basket with loaves and fishes and support the many great works of CSA.

Use the buttons below to make an on-line donation or to see full listing of works supported by CSA.

All donations made to the Seminarian Education Fund will be matched up to $65,000. Any donations by donors who did not make a gift last year and any Salt & Light donor that increases their donation will each be matched up to $50,000.

View the video from Archbishop Shelton regarding this year’s appeal HERE.