Homily March 11, 2018-the 4th Sunday of Lent
Once again like last week our attention is directed towards respect for the temple and sanctuary..We see the abuses of the temple and the messengers and prophets sent by God to them to correct them. We see as punishment God inflicted them with to be conquered and carried off to Babylon. Their banishment lasted seventy years.
In the gospel, we see Nicodemus come to Jesus in the night and seek to learn from Him. Here we see Jesus proclaim his death and resurrection and that those who believe in him may have eternal life. And so it is that those who believe and are baptised received God’s mercy and love and have eternal life. It doesn’t mean we will not die, but that we share eternal life now and will transition a different form in the future. The only problem is that some will not accept 
the light of life but instead choose the darkness of evil staying in the dark and rejecting God’s mercy. It is in the dark and darkness that evil thrives and bad things come into our world. Only one thing in history has stifled evil and only when believers believe in its power, the power of the crucified savior. Throughout history, we see many examples of the fight between light and darkness, good and evil. Jesus has saved us and the constant reminder to all of us is the cross that we see everywhere.
Homily January 14, 2018 the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
The readings today are about calling. First we heard the call of Samuel. Even the older prophet Eli did not realize God was calling until the third time and so Samuel answered 
on the fourth call. In the gospel, we see the call of the Apostles first inspired by John the Baptist pointing to the “Lamb of God” and the person of Jesus leading them to ask what he was doing. I say doing because where are you staying is exactly what they meant. They meant what are you about. In our own way we all have been called through our baptism by way of our parents. I also submit that in our lives, we have at times answered Christ’s call as we have lived out our life in the choices we have made, especially at key moments in our life. It is at those moments when we prayed, thought or ultimately opened our hearts to listen, to discern what was right, what was God’s call for me. That is the key to hear and listen to God’s word and how it affects us. I must say that sometimes that call says what 
we don’t want to hear, but ultimately listening and acting in accordance with that call usually brings us to a comfortable result, one that eases our life’s burdens. The hard part is discerning God’s intention especially if it entails a change in our life that we perceive as difficult. God calls many to serve and in various ways, Most of us will never be asked to travel to far away places, but in today’s world we are called to help and reach out to the starving and homeless of the world as best we can. We are asked to live and act toward others as Christ did. As a community we do that in many ways and I encourage our community to continue and listen as we begin this new year.
Homily June 11th, 2017 the Feast of the Holy Trinity
One thing we see out around us is John 3:16. We see it on signs, at sporting events and other places. People seem to use it to remind us of Christ’s presence and his life and death. God gave his only Son so that those who believe might have eternal life. What we must remember, is that in John’s thought eternal life was the age to come, an age begun with Jesus’ death and resurrection. 
Of course, no idea of the age to come is possible without the Holy Spirit and his coming as the new age dawned. In this way, we can see that the gospel is meant to reflect the idea of the Trinity. I think we are all acutely aware that we believe in One God, three persons, but explaining it is beyond what is possible for us. It is hard for us to conceive that God is not material and who and what He is will come to light at some future time of our existence. What we do have is an experience of three persons, Father(or a parental being), Son and Holy Spirit. We know the Son at an appointed time entered the world to give his life so that creation could be restored to union with the Trinity. At the end of his time, the Son left(sent) his Spirit to keep alive his Word and to aid and inspire his followers as they proceeded to walk in the new life given by the Son. This is why we always invoke the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Theologians for centuries have written and speculated about God and 
Theology including the Trinity. Yet Thomas Aquinas after a lifetime of writing and after a mystical experience concluded his work was straw.
Faith is what is needed. We come to know God by faith and experience by opening ourselves to him. Christ physically comes in the Eucharist, but the Spirit abides in us if we permit and helps us form an intimate and positive relationships as we walk the path and the way of the new life given to believers.
Homily for the Feast of Pentecost Sunday, June 4, 2017
Pentecost Sunday is a day as important as Easter and Christmas. What we celebrate is the coming of the Holy Spirit to Jesus’ followers and his new church. Our readings today tell us this is so, but at the same time we see different traditions and renderings of it. John places it on Easter night itself with Jesus appearance that first evening. Luke places it 50 days later. What we do know is that the early followers saw Jesus after his Resurrection and that in those times Jesus brought or sent his Holy Spirit to his Church and to the people of it. 
Luke and John saw the Holy Spirit as a powerful force in the church and community and for its members. The enthusiasm of the disciples and the spread and growth of the community was something they clearly attributed to the Holy Spirit. Even today we see and experience the Holy Spirit in the church and in our parishes and communities. Christianity continues today not because men believe and work to keep it alive, but because the Holy Spirit keeps the Word alive. Humanity, unfortunately, has made a mess as we can see in the splits and divisions. Yet, in spite of that, Christ’s word continues to be present because his Spirit remains on the earth.
The real lesson today of the Holy Spirit is to be open, to listen, to follow the promptings given out of sincere prayer. Like Christ, the Spirit moves and prompts us to move on to the way forward to His Father. As the world moves on, the Spirit prompts us to move with it. Over centuries of difficult learning the church and humanity has gradually learned the need to be open and to grow with the times and the unfolding of the wonders of creation as we get to know them better. Christ said the Spirit would teach them everything they would need to know, but first we must be open and listen and discern what the Spirit is helping us to understand. It is the Spirit who brings us to Jesus’ path to the Father. Like any path, it needs to be fresh and clear and ready for travel. Jesus led the way, and the Spirit keeps it prepared for us.
Homily May 14, 2017 the 5th Sunday of Easter
The readings today are an interesting look at the early church. In acts, we see that the apostles calling together the community to resolve the issue of everyone being served. 7 Greek men were chosen and we see a description of an ordination and the beginning of an order of servers, especially for the Greek converts, who we later called deacons. But think about it, the church started with the twelve apostles and Jesus’ close disciples. As their numbers grew they set up convenient ways for the community to meet and carry on and to spread the word. Many were practical spur of the moment decisions meant to solidify the community and spread the word. Of course, humanity, being what it is, took these decisions and institutionalized them building a huge structure that probably would confound the apostles themselves. In fact, the message is service and is as important today as in the early church. The mission is to bring Christ’s love and his way so all may come to believe.
The gospel today is Jesus’ farewell speech. It is kind of fascinating as he is a man standing in two places, a door between two realities. As he stands with his disciples, he is trying to show and explain his father’s house. It is a place of many dwellings. He says he is going to prepare a place for each of his followers. When it is ready and time, he will return and bring them to that place. But even at the end of his time on earth, his disciples were 
confused. Who was the Father, what was the way? Jesus said he and the Father are One. If you see Jesus you see the Father. Jesus has been given to us to see and know the Father. He becomes the way, the visible means of knowing and pursuing the Father. Knowing Jesus and doing his works is the way to the Father. Simple, yes but at the same time complex in that it requires our faith, our commitment, our “I believe” and our living it out. To speak the words is easy, to live it out is a life’s work.
Homily the 4th Sunday of Easter, May 7th, 2017
The readings today on the 4th Sunday of Easter seem misplace as the reading from Acts is from Pentecost Sunday and the Gospel is from the time of Christ’s ministry. However, if we step back and look at the readings from the perspective of the resurrection we can get a look at the all encompassing love of God for the world through his Son Jesus. As members of his church or flock, we have an intimate connection with him and with each other and ultimately all believers and people we care about. God’s love embraces all and 
includes forgiveness if we open our hearts and forgive as Jesus does. Love can conquer and cover over many things and bring unbelievers and sinners closer and in some way within the circle of God’s love. Is it not so that God love every one and actually turns no one away. The interruption of a relationship with God is not the doing of God,but the rejection or walking away of someone. God is like a father who sadly accepts rejection but is always loving and ready to forgive. What more powerful proof of this could there be than the very life, death, resurrection and ascension of his Son. If this life-giving, loving act can not be accepted, then what is left? All of history seemingly revolves around that very act. 
Humanity has been slow to believe and share and spread the word, but God still is looking out for the world in ways we don’t understand. What we need to do is to reach out and embrace others with love, as in doing so we are sharing God’s love and even spreading his forgiveness and hopefully spreading his word. It is what the Lord commanded, to love each other as he loved us.
Homily, April 2, 2017. the 5th Sunday of Lent
Today’s first and third readings bring up the idea of Resurrection or rising from the dead. In Ezekiel, we see the “Dry Bones” passage maybe best known from the song “dem bones goin’ to rise again”. Ezekiel is not addressing resurrection directly, but is addressing a people captured and enslaved and dragged off to Babylon. The prophet was reminding the people that God had not abandoned them and would restore them and bring them home. From lost hope, God will give them a new life.
In the Gospel, we see Jesus is in no hurry to run to Lazarus’ side when he hears he is sick. Instead he waits three or four days until he travels to Bethany. At this time, he knows Lazarus is dead, yet he knows what he is about to do. In the middle east, Israel included, it is the custom to bury someone immediately after they die, usually before sundown. Obviously, the climate and the lack of embalming and other means of preparation of the body makes this a bit of a necessity. It was a culture, where family and friends prepared the grave and carried the person out and buried them. The reality of death to them was stark and harsh. Even for us today, death is a hard and stark reality even if we in some ways deal with it in a much different manner. With death there is a finality that all 
people must confront. As Christians we see it in light of Jesus. In John’s gospel, we have seen Jesus raise a little girl, a widow’s son, and today Lazarus. The little girl had just succumbed, the widow’s son was being carried to his grave, and Lazarus was four days in his grave. Here are three instances of the dead coming back to life. Such a happening had reverberations in Jesus time, but surely raises the question of what is death, what happens after 
death even today in our time. We know Jesus said we will live forever, but what could this mean. It is not something easily answered or even understood, and only truly know by faith.
Faith tells us God is love, and that love embraces and lifts us all up. As we are joined to him in life through his spirit and his love, that union and joining is one that continues through life, passing us through that passage of death into the love-filled life of eternity. The raising of Lazarus was an important act before Jesus’ own death and resurrection to point out his power over life and death. Our lesson is to see that God’s love is always with us and even in sorrow and loss, he is there. Life as well as love itself continues in some way we will only know when we experience it ourselves.
Homily March 26, 2017 the 4th Sunday of Lent
Over the many years I have served as a priest, one thing that always amazes me is that no one can really look ahead and see what lies ahead for them. I think today’s first and third readings tell us this fairly clearly today. First, we see Samuel sent to Bethlehem to the house of Jesse with a horn of oil to anoint the next King of Israel from among Jesse’s sons. With a 
sacrificial banquet prepared Jesse presents seven of his sons starting with the oldest. Samuel was drawn to the sons, and even had a favorite, but each of the seven presented were rejected by the Lord as the chosen one. Only when Samuel asked, did Jesse say my youngest is tending the sheep. Yet, the youngest and least of his children was the one chosen and who during his life and for all ages would be remembered. God chose him and remained with him through his good times and even his times of unfaithfulness for the good of Israel. Why David? Only God could say.
Next we come to man born blind in the gospel today. He like the homeless and other victims of our society that we so often pass and really do not see as we busily pursue our lives, even today in our modern times. Unlike his disciples who were quick to equate his blindness to sins of his parents, Jesus paused and said this man was chosen to show Christ as light of the world. Sickness, blindness maladies had nothing to do with sin. The man before him had an intrinsic value, and so it is for every human being in God’s creation. Once again the weak, the person set aside is chosen to be a lesson for God’s kingdom. Again we are reminded, no part of creation is insignificant.
The real lesson for us today, is that God does as he wills. 
He chooses whom he wants and sometimes confounds us by whom he chooses. It is why his church is a community and in Baptism we all share in the priesthood of his cross and resurrection. His Spirit works through the whole body of the church from the least to the greatest. Yet, in actuality there is really only one Great one, and this is the Body of Christ. This is why we must remain open to the Spirit, open to one another in all things. Christ speaks to all of us in many ways. Whether we be the least or possibly the greatest we need always to be open to the Spirit and hear his Word.
Homily March 19, 2017, the 3rd Sunday of Lent
I think that most of us take for granted the water we use and drink on a daily basis. For us it is so easy and accessible, we only need to go to the next room to get it. How many of us remember that the human body is 55 to 60 percent water? Without water, a person is going to die. Lack of water is a real crisis in parts of the world today. The first reading relates a crisis among the Jews today. All of a sudden they regretted their freedom because they didn’t have any water. With Moses intervention, they received their water. A lesson here would be that sometime
s a solution to one problem will create another. Faith requires a certain steadfastness and remaining true to a commitment.
The Gospel speaks of water today, most especially, “living water”. Living water is life-giving, thirst filling water refreshing body and 
soul. This life giving water Jesus speaks of is for the soul and for the giving of eternal life to all. All humanity seeks and looks for a fulfillment of their life and reason and understanding for living. Christ living water is God’s love coming and embracing women and men to come to an eternal life with God. The living waters of Baptism fills up the Spirit and forever slakes the thirst of the believer. Regardless of whether there was ever a Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus still gave us the living waters of Baptism and opened us up to a pathway to his Father. Taking stock of our faith and Baptism is a good way to prepare for our upcoming Easter celebration.
CACINA 
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