Homily for the week of June 28, 2009

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2009

Wis 1: 13-15: 2:23-24;

2 Cor 8:7,9,13-15;

Mk 5:21-43

Most people will go to any lengths to avoid talking or thinking about death. Most people fear death, and when it comes for us or for those close to us, we are angry and even more afraid. In the last few days our newspapers and TV have been filled with death--the deaths of Ed McMahan, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. In the last week we have had the funerals of two women who were active in this parish for many years. People spend billions of dollars avoiding death, delaying is effects, or trying to remain perpetually young. But as the old saying goes, the mortality rate in life is 100%. No lone leaves this world alive.

Often the death of a pet is a child's first introduction to death. Many adults can remember burying a pet turtle or goldfish in an old Q-tips box in the backyard. Sometimes the introduction to death is more painful such as the death of a cat or dog. But tragically, it involves not the death of pets but of grandparents, parents, or brothers or sisters. It is usually the occasion for the first questions about death and the fumbling attempts of parents to explain that all living things die some day. It is also at this point that children get the firsts hints about heaven or everlasting life -- the place where we are united with those we have loved. But then the child asks: why does everything die? Adults usually don't have a terrific answer.

God did not make death. The point is that all that comes from God is good. All life was created to endure. The Jewish religion had developed respect for the natural world, especially human life. God takes no delight whatsoever in death and destruction, and these are never God's intentions. But if God made everything good and takes no joy in death and destruction and evil, why doesn't God just fix everything?

In our Bible readings today God is not just talking about death but about the sort of unnatural and avoidable situation that results in human action such as war, violence, starvation, disease, and injustice. We do not often encounter real evil. We read about it. We see it on television, but rarely does real, frightening, unapologetic evil show itself to us. These are human actions rather than caused by God. We have no reason to be angry at God for them. Natural biological death is not a punishment but an essential part of being created.

Today, we are given an opportunity to reflect on death, but not just the end of human life. We are given an opportunity to face death in its less recognizable forms. Death comes when the heart stops beating, but we come face to face with death as a separation from God when our religious faith dies, and we no longer believe in anything. God becomes dead to us. Our life has no longer any meaning.

I just read about the woman who had suffered from haemorrhages for 12 years. She had truly suffered physically, both from her ailment and from doctors who did not know how to heal her. She was also suffering financially as she had exhausted her savings trying to be healed. Despite suffering physically and economically, there was something worse. She was suffering socially and spiritually. Because of the bleeding she was thought to be ritually impure. She was considered a bad a person, an evil person. She could not engage in any public worship, and she certainly would have been banned from the Temple. Anyone who had physical contact with her would have also been rendered ritually impure. So few persons would have had anything to do with her. This was a living death. She had a life with no meaning.

She must have heard about Jesus. Knowing that something had to change, she violated all sorts of cultural rules to get to Jesus, the healer. In this decision to go to Jesus, she found her healing. The greatest benefit was not the ending of her sickness. It was restoring her to the community. It was making it possible for her to have a purpose once again.

The unrecognizable forms of death are those that prevent our life from having meaning. A man once told me of dealing poorly with his wife's death. He blamed God for taking his wife away from him. His anger over it colored everything. His friends and family, even his children, tried to avoid him. He tells how he had gone to the funeral of a friend's mother, the first funeral he had attended since the death of his wife 10 years before. At that funeral he heard the priest say that love cannot be used in the past-tense. Not only do we still love those who have died, but through the death and resurrection of Jesus we can still know their love for us.

Going to the cemetery, the man went to his wife's grave. He said he longed for his wife's love again. He said he pleaded with God to let him feel that love again. And somehow, in his tears, he felt it. He says he knows what it feels like to have been raised from the dead.

Another form of death can take place when a person at retirement. A person's worth and whole life can often be employment, and without it there seems to be nothing. But this is a time when a person can place in their life something for which they did not have the time such as volunteering at church or the community. I met a man recently who has been doing volunteer services for five years. He said he has never felt so much contentment or felt so vital in his entire life. He, too, says he knows what it means to be ''given a new life.''

God want us to have life and to have it abundantly. Life can deal out many painful situations, but only we can decide how we will respond to them. At times our negativity and doubt are the greatest hindrance to God's power to work miracles in our midst. At these times try to listen to Jesus' very simple but powerful words: Do not be afraid, just have faith

Homily for the week of June 21, 2009

Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time, 2009 (50th anniversary weekend)

Job 38:1, 8-11: Psalms 107:23-26, 28-31

2 Corinthians 5:14-17

Gospel: Mark 4:35-41

One time a parishioner by the name of Shirley told me that while in the family car, a huge thunderstorm arose and dropped sheets of torrential rain. The noise and amount of rain and thunder frightened her six-year-old son so badly he began screaming. His four-year-old sister was completely calm and unbothered by the storm. The four-year-old calmly said to her six-year-old brother, ''Luke, calm down, it's just like the car wash.'' When you have been a priest for 50 years you've had a lot of car washes. But even now I have a little claustrophobia when all of those gadgets bombard the car with water, soap, foam and wind. I can feel a little of the fear that the friends of Jesus had when they got caught in a terrible storm on the Lake of Galilee.

Generally water is a sign of good things. It quenches thirst, it makes crops and flowers grow, it cleans, and it can be a source of recreation. Some of us, however, have been victims of floods. Homes and farms have been completely lost. Many of those who experienced the flooding from hurricane Katrina in New Orleans now show a fear of rain and storms.

As usual, St. Mark wants us to see beyond a boat caught in a sudden storm. He wants us to see deeper realities about the person of Jesus and our relationship to Him. The fear of the disciples is more than just a fear of the water. It is the primal fear that chaos is once again rearing its head. Their very being is being threatened. But Jesus sleeps though it all because he has absolute faith that God will take care of him. Faith or lack of faith is one of the main concerns of all persons. Our faith in God has brought us here today. Persons get married because they believe in each other. And a man becomes a priest because he believes that God wants him to be a priest.

On the day that I became a priest 50 years ago Bishop Navagh told me that I was chosen from among others and ordained to bring them to God and to bring God to each of us. A priest's job is to speak for Catholics by offering his life in preaching God's word, by helping persons with their faith, and by presiding at the Holy Eucharist. That was the curriculum, but the Bishop gave me no lesson plans. He gave me no textbook. The textbook has been written with the help of my family, friends, all those who make up what is known as Catholic schools, Wadhams Hall seminarians and faculty, and parishioners over these 50 years.

I am thankful to Father Leo Legault, my pastor in West Chazy who in 1950 first introduced me to the possibility of becoming a priest, and to the Catholic priests of the Diocese of Ogdensburg,

I am thankful for parishioners like those of St.James, for being an integral part of their lives, sharing their hopes and dreams, their joys and sorrows, their fears and anxieties, their loves and desires-- being present at personalized moments like the Baptism of a child, the begging of their marriage, the death of a loved one,

I am thankful for having the privilege of celebrating the Eucharist, and making it possible for you to receive Holy Communion.

I am thankful for speaking to students and parishioners about some of their most personal concerns: about life and death, pain and suffering, mercy and forgiveness, the hope of human fulfilment and eternal life,

I am thankful for my two little rooms for 30 years at Wadhams Hall where I listened to and helped to guide young men who were trying to make the awesome decision as to whether they should or should not be Catholic priests,

I am thankful for the Catholic school teachers and principals and the thousand of students whose parents choose for them a Catholic school education. I am especially thankful for helping beginning teachers or administrators to get New York State certification, and congratulating thousands of Catholic high school graduates as I handed them their diploma. It is a blessing today to have Angelique as an altar server. Years ago I signed her mother's teaching contract when she began teaching at St. Mary's School in Canton.

I am thankful for the friendship and love of so many of you who have travelled to be here today,

and I am thankful for members of the Deno and Martin families and my French Canadian heritage. My grandfather Joseph Daigneault, his wife and 8 children came to the United States.

On Friday in Rome Pope Benedict XVI opened a special Year for Priests. He said it was to encourage greater spiritual perfection in the lives of priests. He placed it under the care of St. Jean Marie Vianney who was a parish pastor in Ars. France.

Like Jesus with his friends in the boat, we are here today because Jesus, our Teacher has called us to believe and not be afraid. Our faith in Him, in ourselves and in each other is renewed daily. Celebrations and anniversaries are not new but they are relevant. 50 years ago, when I began my ministry as a Catholic priest, I prayed the words that Jesus prayed as he began his own public ministry:: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, therefore he has anointed me; he has sent me here to bring glad tidings to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind and release of prisoners, and to announce a year of favor from the Lord.

Homily for the week of June 14, 2009

HOMILY: The Body and Blood of Christ, 2009

In the past few weeks President Obama and his wife Michelle have been visiting churches. On his stop over in Paris two weeks ago he visited Notre Dame Cathedral. Notre Dame Cathedral is the most popular church in Paris and all of France. It was built in the year 528., and then restored a thousand years ago. Michelle Obama and her two daughters a few days later visited Westminster Abbey in London. At the back of the church there is a tomb in memory of the Unknown Soldier set up after the first World War but to remember all those who died serving their country. And just a few yards away there is tomb with no body in it. It is in memory to those who have died in a war that has not ended. On the monument is written: In memory of the Innocent Victims of Oppression, Violence and War.

Memorials are important, and never more so than when they are to human lives, lived and lost. In Washington we have the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It represents the supreme sacrifice made by thousands of men and women, many of whose bodies now rest in unmarked graves. It is a reminder of the immense human cost of war.

This weekend Catholics also celebrate a memorial. We celebrate the gift of the Eucharist and Holy Communion at the Last Supper before Jesus was to nailed to the cross. There are many names besides Holy Eucharist and they all refer to the same action: Last Supper, Holy Sacrifice, Blessed Sacrament, Holy Mass, going to Mass are just a few names.

Christians and Catholics from the time of Jesus celebrated the Eucharist. Using bread and wine, and praying the same words used by Jesus at that Last Supper has been done from the time of Jesus. The structure you see today is the same as it was at the time of Jesus. At each Mass there will be prayers, readings from the Bible, the consecration of bread and wine by the priest, participation in Holy Communion. Each time that you participate in the Mass and receive Holy Communion you do this in memory of Jesus. When the priests holds up the cup he says DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME.

In today's first reading, Moses reminds us of God's saving goodness. He reminds his people that God sent them food from Heaven called Manna when they were in the desert and had no food. Similarly, Paul emphasizes the importance of the Eucharist as a memorial which represents a sharing in the life of Christ, which binds people together.

In our last reading Jesus draws on the familiar tradition of God's provision for the people in the desert and takes it much further. It is not manna which now feeds and nourishes us, but Jesus says that he is the bread of life. And like a good teacher, he makes sure that they heard him, and so he repeats it: I am the bread of life. And he promises that those who partake of this food will live forever.

The mystery being made by Jesus is an astounding one. It is a message of transformation. The bread which comes from heaven, Jesus says, is unlike any other bread we will ever eat. All other bread is eaten by us and becomes part of us through digestion. This bread, instead, consumes us and we become part of Jesus. The bread and wine is not only a symbol of Jesus, but is transformed into the real and actual presence of Jesus. Jesus is present to us in every communion.

Such a miracle is beyond our power, but is not beyond the power of God. When you receive communion and I say to you: THE BODY OF CHRIST. Your AMEN says: I BELIEVE. That is why we must come to communion with dignity and reverence. You will notice in the bulletin I provided a recommendation as given to us by our bishop, that you bow your head as a gesture of reverence just as you receive communion either in your hand or on your tongue.

Persons often asked whether or not the consecration: that is when I say the words over the bread and wine, and then hold them up for all to see, if this is the most important part of the Mass. That is the time when the bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus. The entire Mass is of importance, from the prayer of forgiveness at the beginning to the readings from the Bible, to the Eucharistic prayer, to all of you who share and participate in the Mass.

In each Jewish temple there was a golden box which was called the Ark of the Covenant in which was kept stone tablets on which the finger of God wrote the ten Commandments. That golden box is in each Catholic church and is known as the tabernacle in which is kept the Eucharist, and in front of which we pray.

Yet, there are other tabernacles. When you and I receive communion, Jesus lives and is present in each of us. He lives in you and me. Each of us who received communion become a tabernacle. Jesus lives in our souls and even our bodies. We carry the Blessed Sacrament into and through our homes, our neighborhoods, our work place.

By receiving Holy Communion a person indicates that he or she is united to and believes what the Catholic church teaches. That unity begins with Baptism and by preparing for and making one’s First Holy Communion either as a child or as an adult. It has nothing to do as to whether or not a person is worthy. The inside front cover of the Mass book in your pews gives you the guidelines for receiving Holy Communion.

We are all somewhat spiritually hungry. If we receive communion regularly and often, Jesus guarantees that we will receive spiritual nourishment here on earth and are guaranteed everlasting life. The answer comes just before communion when we pray: THIS IS THE LAMB OF GOD WHO TAKES AWAY THE SINS OF THE WORLD. HAPPY ARE THOSE WHO ARE CALLED TO HIS SUPPER.

Homily for the week of June 7, 2009

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, 2009

Deuteronomy 4:32-40

Ps 33: 4-9

Romans 8:14-17

Mt 28:16-20

''Do I believe in God?'' Without a thought most of us will say ''Yes!'' Most Americans believe that angels and demons are active in the world, and nearly 80 percent think miracles occur, according to a poll released this week that takes an in-depth look at Americans' religious beliefs. The study detailed Americans' deep and broad religiosity, finding that 92 percent believe in God or a universal spirit -- including one in five of those who call themselves atheists. The test laid before us on this feast of the Blessed Trinity is to move past stating ''I believe'' and toward examining whether our thoughts, lifestyle and particular behaviors reveal this belief. In pondering my behaviors, might they reveal that I really do not believe?

Bishop Richard Higgins, who is the Bishop for all those men and women in the military recently had confirmation of young boys and girls at Fort Campbell, Ky., the home of the 101st Airborne. He quizzed those about to be confirmed about their cell phone usage. When he asked how many minutes they spoke on their phones, most just said, ''a lot.'' But a young girl responded that she talked on the phone over 5,000 minutes a month! This is about three-and-one-half days per month spent on a phone!

''Whom do we talk to the most on our cell phones?'' the bishop asked. ''Our friends''' the students responded. ''And why do we talk to our friends?'' he asked. ''To get to know them better,'' or ''to find out what they are doing,'' or ''to tell them about the stuff in our own lives'' were among the answers.

' 'And is Jesus a friend?'' Bishop Higgins asked. ''Yes!'' they replied. ''And how much time do you spend talking to Jesus?'' he asked. There were a lot of blank looks. The point was made. We work very hard to get to know our friends and harder to keep our friends. Very few people spend 5,000 minutes a month in prayer trying to get to know God, but this amount of time is given to our friends.

God is a mystery. Unlike a murderer in a mystery novel who does not want to be found, God wants to be discovered. Throughout the Scriptures He has revealed himself to us. This has not stopped. Everyday God reveals himself to us.

Our task is to open our eyes and discover God present in our lives. We must read the Scriptures, we can study our religion, but truly discovering God comes down to one thing: prayer. In the same way we discover who our friends are by spending time with them and watching their actions, we can discover who God is.

Two questions in our lives we must continually answer. They cannot be avoided. We cannot function well without dealing with them. One question is this: Who am I? It is in answering this question that I have a sense of what I believe to be right and wrong, what I will do and will not do. It is this question that helps us determine if integrity is important or not, if reputation is important or not. It is this question that helps us attain some sense of happiness. If I know who I am and am comfortable with my answer, I am more at peace.

Many people know the answer to their own question, but they work very hard to hide the answer from the rest of us. Any one of us can put up fronts, exaggerate our experiences or even outright lie about ourselves to control what others think of us. This behavior reveals those who do not like the answer to their question, ''Who am I?''

Most of my understanding of who I am is going to come from my relationships. I am a child of someone, I might be a spouse, I might be the parent of someone, I am employed by someone, I hang out with this group and not that group and so on. It is in my relationships and interactions that I come to my answer.

This reality leads to the second question every one of us must eventually answer, ''Who is God?'' If my answer to my question ''Who am I?'' is determined through my relationships, then my relationship with God is going to be very, very important to my understanding of myself.

In October last year an 18 year old kid went into St. Mary's Church in Potsdam in the afternoon. He had just had a fight with his stepfather and felted stressed. He said he wanted to go into the church to talk out loud to God to try to deal with some of the things he was dealing with. He said he found some matches and lighted the candles on the altar and throw the lighted match on the rug. The rug caught on fire. He tried to stomp it out, but couldn't so he ran out of the church and told no one. The fire did extensive damage to the church.

This young man wanted to find God to help him resolve the problems in his life. He was desparate for God. He went to the right place. Lighting candles can sometimes help.

Like this young man a lot of us try to find God when things don't go well. At times God may seem close and familiar to you. But at other times he may seem very far away and strange. Fortunately, a lot of people get back to church as a place to find or talk to God. Of course, some people never get past the question, ''Is there a god?'' This too is important, because many of us have multiple gods. Moses led a people who believed in the existence of many gods. Moses' task was to bring them to a belief that they were committed to the one God, and no other god was to rank before ''our God.'' Moses' task is our challenge. What are my gods? The God I worship on Sunday, or the god I worship on pay-day? The God who calls me to serve, or the god that makes me want to be served? Wherever you may be looking for God, try to remember the words of Jesus: I am always with you.