Homilies

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Homily
for
Thursday, May 31, 2002
12:05PM Mass
8th week of Ordinary Time

"...like newborn infants, long for pure spiritual milk
so that through it you may grown into salvation."

Such books as these:

"The Way of Perfection";
"Interior Castle";
"Dark Night of the Soul"

can guide us, enlighten us, and encourage us as we journey from
'spiritual infancy' to 'spiritual childhood' to ' spiritual teenager' to
'spiritual young adult' to 'spiritual adulthood' and beyond,
as we live out our natural life.

Like Bartimaus, we are always asking the Lord to give us clearer
sight to follow Him more closely, instead of at such a distance.
(Three Stages, Volume 1, Ch. 18, page 267)
One author writes:
"Beginners have an initial knowledge of themselves; little by little
they discern the defects they have, the remains of sins that have already
been forgiven, and new failings that are more or less deliberate and
voluntary. If these beginners are generous, they seek, not to excuse
themselves, but to correct themselves, and the Lord shows them
their wretchedness and poverty, making them understand, however,
that they must consider it only in the light of divine mercy,
which exhorts them to advance. They must daily examine their
consciences and learn to overcome themselves that they may
not follow the unconsidered impulse of their passions.

However, they know themselves as yet only in a superficial way.
They have not discovered what a treasure baptism placed in their souls,
and they are ignorant of all the self-love and the often
unconscious egoism still continuing in them and revealing itself
from time to time under a sharp vexation or reproach.
Often they have clearer perception of this self-love in others
than in themselves; ...The beginner bears in himself a
diamond embedded in a mass of gross material, and he does
not yet know the value of the diamond or all the defects
of the other material. God loves him far more than he believes,
but with a strong love that has its exigencies (strong demands)...."

As a 'royal priesthood,' we continue to "make spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" through this holy
celebration of the Sacrifice of Calvary which He has given us
to help us love Him more freely and more deeply.

Homily
for
Wednesday, May 29, 2002
12:05 PM Mass
8th week of Ordinary Time

"...realizing that we are ransomed from your futile conduct..."

Two graduating seniors from a local high school
wrote in the Fort Worth Star Telegram,
Sunday, May 19, 2002:

"The Class of 2002...has seen too much evil in the world.
We remember writing letters to Desert Storm
soldiers as youngsters.
We watched as peace unraveled in Bosnia on television.
We saw the calamities of the Oklahoma City bombing.
We lived the string of shootings that began at
Columbine High School and reached our own backyard at
Wedgwood Baptist Church.
We have been an audience to the Middle East controversies,
and our hearts cried as New York's twin towers fell.

We have fooled ourselves into thinking
that what we do to our bodies will not affect anyone else.
The truth is that these things affect the most
important people in our lives every day.

We consider ourselves to be little gods capable of handling any
situation in and completely in control of our lives. Actually,
we are only pawns toyed with by the lords of the underworld,
whose demons show themselves in sex, drugs, and money.

We are corrupt and helpless and horribly misled
by our own sense of immortality. My challenge to this
generation is to reconsider your values. Why do you hold
dear to the things that you do? Are the decisions you make today
ones that you can live with tomorrow, or are you living your life
as suicide on the installment plan because of your poor choices?"

Jesus reminds us of the need to drink the chalice
of which He drinks, and Peter tells us that we have been ransomed from this futile conduct
by the Precious Blood of Jesus, and:

"Since you have purified yourselves by obedience to the truth
for sincere mutual love, love one another intensely from a pure heart."