Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not let his house be broken into. So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come. (Mt 24:42-44) A lot of times, the analogies of Jesus are just that – analogies. But sometimes they hit closer to home. At times, we have had problems with security at St. Stephen Church. We have had incidents where people have tried to get into our church by breaking door handles and even using pry-bars. Every time we put up our pro-life signs in front of the church, someone steals them. We’ve had chalices and even a collection bag stolen. And then … [Read more...]

The rulers sneered at Jesus and said, “He saved others, let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Christ of God.” Even the soldiers jeered at him.  As they approached to offer him wine, they called out, “If you are King of the Jews, save yourself.” Above him there was an inscription that read, “This is the King of the Jews.” (Lk 23:35-38) How many times have we gazed at a crucifix and seen that inscription: “I.N.R.I.”  We know it means something about Jesus being “King of the Jews,” even if we don’t remember that it comes from the first letters of the Latin inscription meaning “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews:  Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum.  The key is understanding what’s behind that inscription.  Is it just a “mocking” inscription provided by Pontius Pilate?  Was it … [Read more...]

“They will seize and persecute you, they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name. It will lead to your giving testimony.” (Lk 21:12-13) What does it mean when Christ tells us that “they will persecute you”? We can easily look at the history of the Church and see persecution, beginning with our very own St. Stephen, the first martyr. The first “official” persecutions began in 1st century Rome and were conducted by the emperor Nero. Those early persecutions led to the Great Persecution of the 3rd century by the Roman Empire, persecutions that didn’t end until Christianity was legalized in 313 A.D. We can look at the persecutions of Christians by the Moslem invasion in North Africa, which led to the … [Read more...]

“And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it [on] the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him [on] the last day.” (Jn. 6:39-40) One of the more obvious jobs of a pastor is presiding over liturgical events, whether it’s Sunday Masses, weddings or funerals. We are currently in the fall New Orleans wedding season, during which I have at least one wedding every weekend. But I’ve also provided over a few funerals recently. Although most people understand the purpose of a funeral, some people don’t. They might call it a “celebration of a life.” While I am always happy that someone led a holy, exemplary life, … [Read more...]

“God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.” (Lk 18:11) I recently heard a quote to the effect that “there are only two types of people in the world: saints who think they are sinners and sinners who think they are saints.” That pretty much sums up the two characters in today’s Gospel. The Pharisee has justified his life, and the Publican has condemned his own. In truth, each of these men was a sinner in some way. As the Evangelist John said: If we say that we have not sinned, then we make God a liar, and His word has no place in our hearts (1 Jn 1:10). So what separates the two men? Simply one fact. One acknowledged the reality of his life and the reality of his sin, and one didn’t. And having recognized the reality … [Read more...]

“But when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?” (Lk 18:8) Only a little over 15 years ago, in Ryadh, Saudi Arabia, a Catholic priest and more than a dozen Filipinos were arrested and charged with proselytizing. An easy Internet search can help you find the story. What were they doing? Were they engaged in a Eucharistic Procession? Were they handing out Bibles on street corners? Were they running an illegal radio program trying to convince Muslims to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior? No. None of the above. They were attending Mass in a small Riyadh rest house. Filipinos comprise the vast majority of the more than one million foreign workers in Saudi Arabia. And they are almost exclusively Catholic. There is no freedom of religion in Saudi Arabia; the … [Read more...]

“Ten were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” Then he said to him, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you.” (Lk 17:17-19) This Gospel this weekend concerns gratitude. The story is simple. Jesus cures ten lepers, and only one returns to thank Him. The word gratitude is interesting. It’s usually defined as “a feeling of thankfulness and appreciation.” And we might experience gratitude for many things. If we’re late for work, we might feel gratitude that we make it through all of the stoplights. We might wake up and see a beautiful sunny day, and feel gratitude. We might experience gratitude for any of the amazing little things that happen to us during the day – a rainbow, a sunset, a butterfly … [Read more...]

The Apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” (Lk 17:5) By the time the Apostles have gotten to the 17th Chapter of Luke’s Gospel, they’ve seen Jesus do a lot of things. They’ve seen a miraculous catch of fish. They’ve seen Jesus expel demons. They’ve seen Him heal a mother-in-law, a leper, a paralytic, a man with a withered hand, a servant, a woman with a hemorrhage, a crippled woman and a man with dropsy. They’ve seen Jesus calm a storm, feed 5000 people and raise two children from the dead. At this point, they realize that Jesus has some pretty serious authority. And out of all the things they can ask for, they ask him for one thing: “increase our faith.” What is it about “faith” that is so important to the Apostles? There are two ways that we understand faith in the … [Read more...]

He said, “Then I beg you, father, send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment.” But Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.” He said, “Oh no, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.” Then Abraham said, “If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.” (Lk 16:27-31) What is faith? How do we get it, and where does it come from? St. Thomas classically defined faith as: “the act of the intellect assenting to a Divine truth owing to the movement of the will, which is itself moved by the grace of God.” But sometimes things are made easier by looking at examples. … [Read more...]

“No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.” (Lk 16:13) There’s an old expression, “no man on his deathbed ever wished he had spent more time at the office.” It’s a way of reinforcing the advice that Jesus gives us today. The question boils down to this: what is the most important thing in our lives? Most of us wouldn’t have a hard time saying that two things in our lives are incredibly important: our families and our friends. These are the people that we can count on. And to them we devote a lot of time. And when it comes to money? Well, that’s one of those necessary evils of life. We need it to survive, but I don’t think any of us would consider it our “god.” But … [Read more...]