Homily for the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Is 58:7-10
Ps. 112:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
1 Cor 2:1-5
Mt 5:13-16

We have talked a fair bit about discipleship, particularly what it is. Today’s readings show us what discipleship looks like. Namely, missionary work.

Salt maintains what is good and preserves it. It also adds flavor to things that are already objectively good. Potatoes are objectively good. French fries are superlatively better. Light, for its part, makes itself known by what it makes possible, and we notice it the most when it’s gone. By light we can know beauty and truth, and we can also know what to avoid. All of this is a bit harder in total darkness.

You can think of the Church as existing in one of two ways in a society. In the first way, the Church, broadly speaking, occupies a position of authority. I mean authority in a sort of cultural sense. People in that society share a general understanding of religion, its terms, and its truths. This isn’t to say that they always agree on religious matters, nor does it mean that people are holier or more religious. In this first mode - called Christendom - the general frameworks and propositions are, more or less, common knowledge. If a conversation starts up around the topics of sin, redemption, salvation, sacraments, or God, you can generally assume that we all understand the terms of discussion.

The Church occupies a slightly different cultural position today. The Church is one voice among many. It doesn’t speak from a place of societal privilege, and its terms and propositions are not as broadly understood, even if we all seem to be using the same words. People are encouraged to build their own religions by picking and choosing. The only problem with that is that if I am the one deciding what’s true and what isn’t, the God that I will end up worshiping ends up looking a lot like me. If you start a conversation with someone on the subject of, say, sin, there’s no guarantee that the two of you are talking about the same thing at all.

This second mode - which has come to be called apostolic, shares a bit in common with the Church in its first few centuries. One voice among many in the marketplace of ideas, no particular authority, and so on. To be clear, I am in no way saying that we’re living in a new Roman empire. That’s simply not the case. Even so, some of the challenges with evangelization are similar.

Yet in this earlier period, even the pagans knew the earliest believers were something different. Look, they said, at how they love each other. _Look at how they cared for the most vulnerable. Look at what they’re saying and doing. Most of it must have looked pretty baffling at first. It looks baffling today, too. This bafflement leads to questions, which in turn lead to conversations, then invitations, which end in conversions. The pathway is similar today.

I heard it frequently as a catechist from people who had finally crossed the threshold to join our class. Yes, truth and beauty are powerful things, and they will draw us across incredible distances. Many of their journeys started with another person: someone they knew or had spoken with once. Someone - a friend, relative, or co-worker, who had made a permanent impression because of…something. This person, this witness, set something in motion which ended in the baptismal font and the altar.

People hunger for something thick or concrete. Our mission work is to take the savor of the Catholic imagination out of these doors and into the world. Here we preserve things that are ever ancient and ever new. In love, we lead people towards what is true and beautiful. We do this by the quiet witness of our lives and a willingness to let the Spirit move as it will in our relationships. Like Saint Paul, not with persuasive words of wisdom but with demonstration.

This call to discipleship - to mission - is shared by all the faithful. In baptism and confirmation, we’ve already chosen to accept it. And if you’re preparing for confirmation, get ready! This is what you’re signing up for. Going forth and all that. It is our task to manifest to others the same love that Jesus poured out on the cross and pours out today on the altar. We’ll need a place ten times the size of this one because of the crowds beating down our doors.

Do not renounce your ability to think

The Holy Father delivered a message last week which is worthy of careful study: Preserving Human Voices and Faces, on the urgency of meeting our current moment of collision between AI and social media:

From the moment of creation, God wanted man and woman to be his interlocutors, and, as Saint Gregory of Nyssa explained, he imprinted on our faces a reflection of divine love, so that we may fully live our humanity through love. Preserving human faces and voices, therefore, means preserving this mark, this indelible reflection of God’s love. We are not a species composed of predefined biochemical formulas. Each of us possesses an irreplaceable and inimitable vocation, that originates from our own lived experience and becomes manifest through interaction with others.

If we fail in this task of preservation, digital technology threatens to alter radically some of the fundamental pillars of human civilization that at times are taken for granted. By simulating human voices and faces, wisdom and knowledge, consciousness and responsibility, empathy and friendship, the systems known as artificial intelligence not only interfere with information ecosystems, but also encroach upon the deepest level of communication, that of human relationships.

[…]

The challenge, therefore, is not technological, but anthropological. Safeguarding faces and voices ultimately means safeguarding ourselves. Embracing the opportunities offered by digital technology and artificial intelligence with courage, determination and discernment does not mean turning a blind eye to critical issues, complexities and risks.

[…]

The question at heart, however, is not what machines can or will be able to do, but what we can and will be able to achieve, by growing in humanity and knowledge through the wise use of the powerful tools at our service. Individuals have always sought to acquire the fruits of knowledge without the effort required by commitment, research and personal responsibility. However, renouncing creativity and surrendering our mental capacities and imagination to machines would mean burying the talents we have been given to grow as individuals in relation to God and others. It would mean hiding our faces and silencing our voices.

[…]

Chatbots based on large language models (LLMs) are proving to be surprisingly effective at covert persuasion through continuous optimization of personalized interaction. The dialogic, adaptive, mimetic structure of these language models is capable of imitating human feelings and thus simulating a relationship. While this anthropomorphization can be entertaining, it is also deceptive, particularly for the most vulnerable. Because chatbots are excessively “affectionate,” as well as always present and accessible, they can become hidden architects of our emotional states and so invade and occupy our sphere of intimacy.

[…]

Media and communication companies, for their part, cannot allow algorithms designed to capture a few extra seconds of attention at any cost, to prevail over their professional values, which are aimed at seeking the truth. Public trust is earned by accuracy and transparency, not by chasing after any kind of possible engagement. Content generated or manipulated by AI are to be clearly marked and distinguished from content created by humans. The authorship and sovereign ownership of the work of journalists and other content creators must be protected. Information is a public good. A constructive and meaningful public service is not based on opacity, but on the transparency of sources, the inclusion of those involved and high quality standards.

[…]

For this reason, it is increasingly urgent to introduce media, information and AI literacy into education systems at all levels, as already promoted by some civil institutions. As Catholics, we can and must contribute to this effort, so that individuals — especially young people — can acquire critical thinking skills and grow in freedom of spirit. This literacy should also be integrated into broader lifelong learning initiatives, reaching out to older adults and marginalized members of society, who often feel excluded and powerless in the face of rapid technological change.

Homilía por la Fiesta de San Blas (en Español con pocos cambios)

Ni la enfermedad ni la muerte tienen la última palabra en nuestras historias.

Y cuando hablo de historias, quiero hablar un poco de las películas.

Primero: cuando era niño, me encantaban las películas. Hoy también me encantan. Y de mi juventud, mis favoritas eran las películas que fueran adaptaciones de mis libros favoritos. Fue muy emocionante ver mis historias favoritas en la pantalla, y decidir si el director tenía las mismas ideas que yo.

Y también, porque ya conocía la historia, de las partes que daban miedo, no tenía miedo. Ya conocía el final. Y aún más cuando supe cómo se hacían las películas - cómo se hacían los efectos especiales, las acrobacias y las luchas, todo.

La vida de fe es similar. Ya conocemos el final de la gran historia de todo el mundo. Y las partes difíciles que - aun realidades - por las que pasamos no son finales. Solo necesitamos fe.

Y claro que la virtud de fe no es simplemente como ilusión, como un deseo. Fe, como virtud, es confianza completa en que lo que ha prometido Dios se cumplirá.

Segundo - uno de los detalles que encanto de las películas es que, aunque vemos la escena en la pantalla, en realidad, hay una muchedumbre. Sí, hay los actores, pero a cada lado de la pantalla, donde no podemos ver, hay el director, los escritores, la gente con los micrófonos y las cámaras. También, hay una mesa con comida, y todos están mirando y trabajando para asegurar que la historia continúa sin falta o error. También nosotros estamos rodeados en realidad. No es una muchedumbre - es una, como dice las escrituras, una nube de testigos.

Como San Blas y San Óscar, San Guillermo, San Sebastián Mártir, San José, y Nuestra Señora. Aunque no podemos verlos, están aquí ayudando, y manteniendo la Gran Historia, en la cual todos nosotros tenemos una parte, y cuyo final ya conocemos.

El Señor dice dos veces en el evangelio - hija, tu fe te ha salvado y al jefe de la sinagoga no temas, solamente cree. Empezamos con la virtud de fe. No simplemente un deseo, pero con confianza completa.

Homily for Feast of St. Blase, Bishop and Martyr

Mark 5:21-43

We learn from the Gospel today that neither disease nor death have the final word.

I loved movies as a kid. I loved watching them and I loved learning how they were made - all the special effects, the stunts, the whole process of making a movie. After I had seen a few ‘how they made it’ documentaries, the scary parts of movies weren’t so scary any more. They were a little scary, but then I’d remember that just out of frame, there were people standing around with lights and coffee cups. There were lighting experts, folks holding microphones, and crews with cameras. Somewhere was a director, and probably a catering truck with snacks.

So maybe that scene was a little less scary, because I knew how it came about and I knew that in the end, there wasn’t really a monster and that everyone on the screen was going to go home at the end of the day to their families. I loved movies even more once I knew how they worked.

A life of just a little faith follows some of these same contours. We know, in faith, how the story - The Big Story - ends. We know, in faith, what it is we’re here for, and where we’re going - or where we’re meant to be going, anyway.

The scary parts of our lives - disease, even death, are real for us. I wish they weren’t, but they are part of this fallen world. But we know they’re not the end. And like the movie set, just out of view, there is a cloud of others watching and helping, doing their part to keep the story moving along. Saint William, Saint Sebastian Martyr, Saint Joseph, and our Blessed Mother. Saint Blaise and Saint Ansgar, too. We’ll be asking St. Blaise to intercede for us shortly.

This confidence in the end, in the happy ending, where there is no disease and death is faith, and all we need is a little. I think there’s a lot here, right here in this room, or none of us would be here, but even it’s just starting as a little, it will be enough. Faith isn’t just wishful thinking. The virtue of faith is confidence that the Lord will deliver what he has promised, come what may in the meantime.

Your faith has saved you, says the Lord to the woman. In faith, Jairus knelt at His feet. Keep that faith. Tend to it carefully and it will carry you through the hard times, even the very hardest. In that faith, we find our peace.

Homilía para la Fiesta de la Presentación del Señor

Malaquias 3,1-4
Salmo 23, 7.8.9.10
Hebreos 2,14-18
Lucas 2,22-40

Despues de una vida de esperanza, Simeón ve el cumplimiento de las promesas de Dios - el Mesías, un niño en sus brazos. Aquí está la consolación de Israel, llevada al templo en obediencia de la Ley de Moisés.

Hay tantos símbolos y niveles en las lecturas de hoy, pero el tema principal es la luz. Mis ojos han visto dice Simeón y una luz que alumbra.

Esas palabras anticipan lo que nuestro Salvador diría en el evangelio de San Juan, que también dice mucho de luz y tinieblas, Yo soy la luz del mundo.

Hoy día bendicimos las velas, que nos recuerden constantemente de la luz de Jesucristo, que nos llama de las tinieblas y la luz que nosotros, en vez, estamos llamados a llevar a otros. No podemos ponerla debajo de una cesta, sino que en el candelero, como escuchamos en las lecturas de la semana pasada.

Nosotros hemos tenido un poco de mal tiempo, pero poco a poco, podemos ver que los días están creciendo. Incluso la luz del sol está regresando a nosotros.

Y como nuestro Señor era llevado al templo, y como las velas que bendicimos son llevadas y usadas en la misa y nuestras devociones, también recibimos - como Simeón y Ana - el Señor. Recibimos en los manos, en nosotros mismos en la Eucaristía.

Y es exactamente lo mismo como en el evangelio. No es un símbolo o una metáfora. Es nuestro Señor en toda su humanidad y divinidad. La bendición de Simeón es nuestra también! Que maravilla tomarlo en nuestros manos, tal como lo hizo, y rogar en silencio:

“Señor, ya puedes dejar morir en paz a tu siervo,
según lo que me habías prometido,
porque mis ojos han visto a tu Salvador,
al que has preparado para bien de todos los pueblos;
luz que alumbra a las naciones
y gloria de tu pueblo, Israel”.

Cuando profesamos cada Domingo, lo que creemos en el Credo, afirmamos que creemos en el Padre, el Hijo, y el Espíritu Santo - la Santa Trinidad. Creemos que hay tres Personas, pero solamente un Dios. Cada persona tiene su propia misión, pero porque Dios no puede ser dividido, donde hay una persona, las otras están también.

Dios el Espíritu, que descendió en el Pentecostés, movió a Simeón hacia el templo. Dios el Padre, que creó todo el universo, era llevado al mismo templo como Dios el Hijo, y sus manos eran tan pequeñas que casi no podían tocar las caras de los dos ancianos que lo recibieron con gozo.

Se viene a nosotros en la Eucaristía, también pequeño, también vulnerable. Recibámoslo con el mismo gozo, porque nuestros ojos hemos visto el Salvador, preparado para todos los pueblos - es decir que todo el mundo - y la gloria de su pueblo Israel - nosotros aquí hoy día.

Praise the Lord and pass the mustard

Homily for Friday of the Third Week of Ordinary Time

2 Samuel 11:1-4a, 5-10a, 13-17
Psalm 51:3-4, 5-6a, 6bcd-7, 10-11
Mark 45:26-34

Sometimes the Gospel calls us to action, and sometimes it calls us to reflect. I think this is one for reflection.

I am something of a frustrated gardener. For most of what I plant, the results are sort of mixed, but whenever a plant or flower reference comes up in the scriptures, I always dig in to learn a little more. What I learned about mustard is this: it grows everywhere. The one mentioned in the Gospel doesn’t grow here, but is cousin grows all around here and if you’ve got a few square feet of grass and leave it alone, you’ll get mustard greens. Medium sized, bright yellow flowers. You can’t miss them because come spring, they’re all over the place.

Not unlike our faith. We hear a lot about the Church declining in lots of places: parishes closing or combining, a lack of vocations, that sort of thing. Those places sound like they’re on another planet when I look around our own parish and diocese. What’s more, we’re not exactly a center of Catholicism for this part of the country. We’re very much in mission territory here.

And yet, our parishes are growing. Catholic schools are filling up quickly. We have a colossal number of seminarians in formation, and the Dominican motherhouse has no lack at all for novices. The Holy Spirit - and it can only be the Spirit - is on the move in Nashville. And that movement starts right here, in all the little seeds we plant every day with our words, actions, and the witness of our lives. The sort of community which produces a tremendous number of vocations is acting across decades, not overnight. Those tiny seeds grow into mighty plants, and the birds come and carry them to other places, where they grow and grow some more.

So I guess it turns out that there actually is a call to action and it’s this: keep doing what you’re doing. Keep praying. Keep up the kind words. Maintain your witness.

Before long we’ll all be covered in mustard, which wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

La misa medida y la tierra rica del silencio

Homilia por el Jueves de la III semana del Tiempo ordinario

2 Samuel 7, 18-19. 24-29
Salmo 131, 1-2. 3-5. 11. 12. 13-14
Marcos 4, 21-25

La misma medida que utilicen para tratar a los demás, esa misma se usará para tratarlos a ustedes, y con creces. Al que tiene, se le dará; pero al que tiene poco, aun eso poco se le quitará.

Nuestro Señor nos enseña cómo debemos recibir sus enseñanzas. Aunque no tuvimos servicio ayer, el evangelio describió, con la parábola del sembrador, a los que reciben la palabra de Dios, y cómo en la tierra rica, las plantas pueden echar raíces profundas, crecer y producir ‘sesenta o ciento por uno.’

Seguimos hoy con un tema similar. Si recibimos las enseñanzas del Señor de manera superficial, solo tenemos poco. Tenemos que recibir sus enseñanzas, sus palabras en lo profundo de nuestras almas, oyendo con los oídos de nuestros corazones, como está escrito en el Prologo de la Regla de San Benito. Y cuanto más podamos recibir, más podemos crecer, y recibimos aún más. Nadie puede ser más generoso que Dios.

¿Pero cómo podemos escuchar con los oídos del corazón? Primero, tenemos que encontrar un poco de silencio. Hoy día, es difícil, ya lo sé. Una forma, un método es orar con las escrituras - lectio divina. Cuando oramos con las escrituras, podemos escuchar la voz del Señor en sus propias palabras. Leemos un poco, y meditamos un poco. Leemos un poco más, y esperamos a que una palabra o una frase capte nuestra atención. Nos quedamos un momento con ella, meditando un poco más con la inspiración del Espíritu Santo. Y finalmente damos gracias por el don de su palabra que hemos recibido. Para esto, podemos usar las lecturas de hoy o cualquier parte de la Biblia. También hay muchos que usan libros escritos por los santos. Estoy usando un libro de San Francisco de Sales en mis devociones diarias.

En esta forma de oración, entramos en silencio. Ofrecemos la tierra rica del silencio, y como dice el evangelio, esa misma se usará para tratarlos, y con creces y al que tiene, se le dará. Sea cual sea nuestra elección, cultivemos el silencio y recibamos la plenitud de la gracia del Señor.

Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor of the Church

Among the Scholastic Doctors, the chief and master of all towers Thomas Aquinas, who, as Cajetan observes, because “he most venerated the ancient doctors of the Church, in a certain way seems to have inherited the intellect of all.” The doctrines of those illustrious men, like the scattered members of a body, Thomas collected together and cemented, distributed in wonderful order, and so increased with important additions that he is rightly and deservedly esteemed the special bulwark and glory of the Catholic faith. With his spirit at once humble and swift, his memory ready and tenacious, his life spotless throughout, a lover of truth for its own sake, richly endowed with human and divine science, like the sun he heated the world with the warmth of his virtues and filled it with the splendor of his teaching. Philosophy has no part which he did not touch finely at once and thoroughly; on the laws of human actions and their principles, he reasoned in such a manner that in him there is wanting neither a full array of questions, nor an apt disposal of the various parts, nor the best method of proceeding, nor soundness of principles or strength of argument, nor clearness and elegance of style, nor a facility for explaining what is abstruse.

— Aeterni Patris, Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical On the Restoration of Christian Philosophy

We got a fair amount of Aquinas during formation. Father Wilgenbusch, our director of vocations, holds an STL and his thesis paper was supervised by Br. Thomas Joseph White, OP, Rector of The Angelicum in Rome. Fr. Wilgenbusch personally taught our courses on Trinity, Sacramental Theology, and Eucharist. Some of our examinations were oral: choose a question from the hat and be prepared to discuss it at substantial length. We read Lawrence Feingold, Reginald Lynch, Garrigou-Lagrange, Gilles Emery, Aidan Nichols, and others. It was rigorous and nerve-wracking. I loved every moment of it.

Reading Aquinas and adopting, however imperfectly, what I call a ‘scholastic’ outlook has been enormously useful in clarifying thought. One of the first things I acquired as I was building out my library was a 5-volume Summa, which I found myself pulling off the shelf more often that I had originally anticipated.

We can, and should, meditate often on the great unity of science, philosophy, and theology. Since all truth proceeds from the same source, there can be no conflict - only mutual illumination and explication which leads to God.

Homily for the Third Tuesday of Ordinary Time

Today is the memorial of St. Angela Merici, foundress of what would eventually become the Ursuline order. The Ursulines have done tremendous work in education, and for women in particular. The Ursuline school in New Orleans is the oldest continuously operating Catholic school in the US, and the oldest girl’s school as well.

Israel was formed as a nation of law before it was a nation of land. The tribes gathered on Sinai entered into a covenant with the Lord, and it was through this relationship in law that made them the people of God. Observe my commandments, do these things, live this way. You will be my people and I will be your God. Much of the law speaks to community life and the relationships between people which must be ordered rightly to God.

The Gospel invites us to look at another, more intimate community: the family. Jesus seems, at first glance, to be brushing the family aside. His kin are outside asking for him, and his response is to gesture at those gathered with Him at the table. Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother. Far from diminishing the family into some sort of abstract “brotherhood of man,” our Lord is instead showing us that our ties to one another are not merely from a shared set of obligations to the law, but are fundamentally the ties of family. And if our lives are rightly ordered to God, the ties that bind us are the bonds of a family. Our Lord was pretty clear about this. He didn’t say ‘is like a brother and sister’ or suggest this as symbolic.

“Here are my mother and my brothers.”

When we live as a family of God, our lives should become inexplicable to outsiders. We will do and say things that make no sense, and live in a way that seems out-of-joint with the world. If we see a man pulled by a water-skiing boat, our mind comprehends what’s going on. If we see a man on skis zipping along without help across the water, it’s going to get our attention. We will want to look closer, to know more, and to find out what’s going on.

So much, also, for a life of faith. St. Angela started catechetical groups organized at parishes and ended up founding an order whose work continues five hundred years later. Our own ripples may not be as evident, but they will certainly last as long.

St. Angela Merici, pray for us.

Ice and snow, bless the Lord