Monthly Newspaper • DIOCESE OF BRIDGEPORT

My dear friends,

As many of you know I have an older sister. And while my mother loved us both dearly, I have to confess my mother had a soft spot for me because I was the unmarried one. I was the priest and I was her only son.

And so in the last day of my mother’s life, as she was struggling to breathe from the lung cancer that eventually took her life, I knew. I knew that my mother was struggling in part because she was worried about who would take care of her son.

So after my family said all their goodbyes, my mother continued to struggle. And something inside of me said it’s time for you to just give your mother permission to go to the Lord. And so I leaned over and I put myself very close to her ear. And I whispered into her ear, I said “Mom”. I said “I will be okay. If Jesus is here, it’s time to go home. And I will not be far behind.” And she took two breaths and died.

The power of a voice.

You see my friends, today we gather on Good Shepherd Sunday because the Lord is reminding us that He is speaking to us. He is whispering to us. He is teaching us to recognize His voice in the cacophony and distraction and the noise of all the world around us. And you and I, as we spend our lives recognizing Him, then we are able to follow that voice.

It’s amazing to see that if you have sheep together from all different flocks. As soon as the shepherd whistles or speaks, his sheep find him. There’s no confusion. For the sheep recognize the one voice they can trust and the one voice they need to follow.

So today, on this Good Shepherd Sunday, we wish to follow the voice of Jesus, do we not? We wish to be faithful to Him. We wish to allow him to lead us to heaven. But before we can actually follow Him, there is another question we could ask and that is, where do we recognize His voice? Where do we actually hear his voice? Because if we don’t hear it, we can’t follow it.

And there are, my friends, many ways by which you and I can recognize and hear His voice. For example, when we pray, He is speaking to us if only we would be quiet and allow Him to speak first. When we sit before the scriptures, the Lord speaks to us in the beautiful stories and parables of His life. But we need to sit in silence. Once we have read it and allowed the Holy Spirit, through His inspirations and through the whispers in our hearts and minds, to help us to hear His voice and what He wants to tell us each time we read the scripture. For each time He may tell us something different.

In the sacraments the Lord is speaking to us. When we go to the sacrament of penance and reconciliation, the priest says “and I absolve you”. It’s not the priest, it’s Christ in the priest. And Christ is speaking to us. When here I will say “this is My body”, it’s not my body, it’s His. But He’s speaking to you and me.

He speaks in the people around us who love us. Husbands and wives, children and grandchildren, and dear good friends. He speaks to us. Speaks to us in creation, when we find the time to meditate and reflect on the beauty of the world around us. He is speaking to us. And He even speaks to us in the moments of our greatest suffering. When we are naturally forced to strip away everything else around us. He speaks to us in the silence, to assure us of our love for that which the world, even those who love us so much, that which (they not) they cannot give us, He can. Which is eternal life in Him.

We live in a world, my friends, of so many distractions. Many of us are far too busy. There are so many things around us. And in this new world that’s being born, in this digital, technological world, where there are millions of voices speaking to us all the time. We have to stop wasting time on the voices that do not matter. It’s Time to get rid of the noise so that we can, in all the ways I described, and so many more, learn to recognize the Lord’s voice. And when we do, to ask ourselves the question, are we willing to follow what He asks?

In the end, it’s interesting, my friends. Doctors tell us that of the five senses God gives us us, made in His image and likeness, the last one to end is our ability to hear. Perhaps God is teaching us that He gives us to the very end, the last opportunity to recognize His voice wherever it may come. And to follow Him home to everlasting life.

Sisters and brothers,

What difference does a name make? Perhaps in most circumstances of life, names could be incidental, accidental, or have personal significance. But what I’d like to suggest is today, the name – a single name – is the key to understanding the deeper meaning of what the Lord is trying to teach us in this extraordinary, perhaps most famous of all of His appearances after His resurrection. And quite frankly, my dear brothers, it gives a key to what you are preparing to do upon ordination, for the rest of your lives.

Allow me to explain. When I traveled to the holy land for the very first time, I made my bucket list of places I wanted to visit. And on that list was Emmaus, as we hear, precisely because of its significance. And I was shocked to learn that no one knows where Emmaus actually is. There is no consensus.

And into my struggle to to try to make sense of that, the guide, who was a Franciscan, pulled me aside and he said ‘Bishop, remember the word, the name Emmaus in one translation literally means nowhere.’

And that’s the key. For let us situate ourselves in the lives of these two disciples who are walking away from Jerusalem. You see my friends, they had an expectation of who God was and what he was supposed to do. And that expectation was totally dashed. They seek liberation in a way that God was not prepared to give.

And so when this Messiah ruler was crucified and their world collapsed, they were fearful, confused, anxious. They were fearful because they had associated themselves with a company that were now outlawed. And the community that they had formed so tight had scattered to the four winds.

And so we’re told in the Gospel, they’re walking away from all of that. They’re walking away from Jerusalem, where the ministry would continue. And so they were going literally to nowhere.

And Jesus appears and gives us the formula that every Christian needs to remember. To bring ourselves, and our neighbors, and our friends, and those whom we love and those whom we meet; bring them from nowhere to somewhere.

And what does He do? He first appears and makes His presence felt because, in a moment of great fear, and suffering, and isolation, and anxiety, and loneliness, presence is a great gift. It tells that someone cares, that someone is willing to walk with you without questions, without judgment, without agenda, simply because the person is worth it.

And as that journey continues, then I am sure the Lord was peppered with many questions. Questions that did not make sense to these two disciples. Questions that their hearts long to have an answer for, so that they could commit themselves to something. And patiently He answered those questions. And prepared their minds and hearts so that they could have an ever-deeper encounter with Him first in the Holy Dcriptures, in the great mysteries of salvation, and then ultimately in the breaking of the bread.

And what happened is that these people who are going to nowhere, dejected, fearful, isolated, alone, and anxious now suddenly the hearts were on fire. They began to burn. And in the breaking of the bread they found what they were looking for.

And what did they do? They turned around and now suddenly they were going somewhere. Back to Jerusalem, back to Mission, back to the scattered community to help bring them together. Back to the Lord that they thought had failed them. And despite whatever penalty was coming – and we do not know what happened to them, they may have in fact had their lives as the price for going somewhere – they turned and never looked back.

This story in sacred scripture is a profound one for you and me to reflect upon. Because my dear friends, there are many people in our own world who are going nowhere fast. Who are struggling with fears, loneliness, and anxiety. People whose expectations have been dashed. People who are looking for a God that does not fit their expectations, looking for a community that will care for them without judgment. A community that will answer their questions that they seek, so that they might commit themselves to something greater than themselves. Because every human heart wants to do that.

And so you see the methodology, the Lord is asking of Christians of every age and you and I in our own age, is to follow His example and to learn to walk and accompany those around us. To allow them the safe space to ask their questions and gently, mercifully, patiently allow them to encounter the Lord in word, prayer, friendship and Sacrament. Most especially here at the altar where they can one day receive His body, blood, soul and divinity so that they might choose to go somewhere which matters. Somewhere which lasts. Somewhere that has Eternal purpose. And that is walking in the footsteps of Jesus.

And you, my three brothers, you are now entering into candidacy which means you’re in formation to the act and it becomes ever more intense. So I admonish you, as I admonish those who are ready in sacred orders, those who are studying to be priests, and all of us my friends, in this age most especially, you need to lead us. To accompany those people whom society has decided are not worth the time or effort. To go into what I call the shadows and meet those individuals, and lead them from Emmaus to Jerusalem.

And I refer to those whom society does not consider to be worth much; the poor, the sick, the refugee,those who are struggling so personally and so deeply with mental illness, or just simply the anxieties of life. Those whom society does not consider to be in the upper echelons, or the movers or shakers, or the ones who are the influences of our modern world. You see they are God’s children too and they, many, are walking towards Emmaus. And we need to help them to find Jerusalem. Not because we are better. But because we are the servants of the Master who is the best of us all.

So my dear friends, as we reflect this coming week on this profound story, may I ask you: is there someone, one person that you know of, who you think may be walking towards Emmaus? Someone that you and I can purposefully and intentionally invite to walk somewhere else, and to simply be with them? Make presents with them? Establish perhaps a friendship with them? And in our patience and mercy, begin to travel with them in the wrong direction for a while, until with God’s grace they can see what we see. And begin to walk in the direction towards Christ. For there they will find their hope, their destiny, their happiness, their purpose, their joy.

Do what difference does a name make? A big difference. For my friends, we, our young people, our young adults, those whom society has forgotten, and all good people of will, we are all called to go from Emmaus to Jerusalem, and to Glory with our Risen Lord.

My sisters and brothers in the Lord,

Today, as we celebrate this eighth day, the Octave day of the Solemnity of Easter, as we do each year, we hear this very famous story of Saint Thomas, known as the ‘Doubting Thomas’.

In fact, in the tradition of the Church, he’s affectionately known as the Patron Saint of Skeptics. Bcause Thomas, as we heard, could not get beyond his human reasoning and his religious training, to conceive that this Master, whom he followed for three years, who was subject to crucifixion, could actually be alive again. He wanted to see it with his own eyes. How many times are you and I in that position as well?

And what happens? Jesus, in His great Mercy, appears and invites Thomas to do something absolutely extraordinary, literally to touch His resurrected body. To put his hands in the wounds that the Lord Jesus will have for all eternity, as a sign of His depth and breadth of the love He has for us and for the suffering He endured for you and me.

And to his credit, Thomas not only comes to Faith, but he is the first of the apostles to proclaim who Jesus truly is, “My Lord and my God”.

Thomas received the mercy of the Lord Jesus. Mercy, my friends, which is a love which meets us in our hour of need, whatever that need may be, but invites us to something more; that lifts us up, that’s an invitation and encouragement to a greater life. In Thomas’s case, to a life of true faith. A life that would make him a missionary to the Far East.

We should not be too hard on Saint Thomas. Because the apostles themselves needed Jesus’s Mercy. But don’t you think it’s interesting, that the first time the apostles met, the doors were locked and Jesus appeared and they rejoiced. And the second time He appeared, the doors were still locked. Because while they were struggling to believe, struggling to receive the gift of peace that Jesus wanted to give to them, it was not until Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came in His power, that they could receive it.

So Jesus in his Mercy appears to them again and again and again, paving the way for their great renewal. To rise to the greatness of holy apostles and fearless preachers.

There is not a person in this church who is not received the mercy of Jesus Christ.

Each one of us, as sinners, has received His Mercy, have we not? In the moment we went for the confession of our sins, kneeling in our own contrition, who came to us to lift us up in our hour of need, but not the Risen Lord? Who by His death and resurrection has forgiven every sin that seeks forgiveness. He met us at our need and lifted us up, and invited us to holiness of life. And every time we’ve fallen on our faces, He has done the same thing – lifted us up. Not to the same life, but to a greater life. And He does it not only in our sinfulness, but He does it in our time to suffering, loneliness, and pain and sorrow. The times when we attempted to despair or to give up, He comes to us in the Inspirations of the Holy Spirit by the charity and work of Christian men and women, and those of good will. And through the events of our lives, the Lord Jesus comes to us with His Mercy, to meet us in our need and to lift us up.

And we are grateful for receiving so great a gift.

And yet, my friends, there is a challenge. A profound challenge. Is that you and I who have received Mercy, is it not our task and mission to be the ambassadors of Mercy? That is, to be merciful to everyone we meet? For if the Lord has given it to us, who are we who bear His name, share in His death and resurrection, not to be equally merciful to those around us? And that, my friends, is at times very difficult to do, as you know.

Saint John Chrysostom, the Patriarch of Constantinople who lived in the 4th century, preached a magnificent homily on this very Sunday, the Octave of Easter. And in the magnificence of the Basilica of Constantinople, he reminded his people that they spent so much time dressing the altar, dressing the cathedral, with fine linens and gold and flowers and all, that we could possibly imagine to give honor and worship to Christ, he reminded them that there is no point to dress the altar with silk when Christ stands on the doorstep of the Cathedral homeless and naked. He said God does not look for golden vases, God looks for golden hearts.

In that, my dear friends, is what you and I need to reflect on this week. How much are we committed to be merciful to those around us; who are in need, who are mired in their sins, who have deeply offended us, who are simply looking for hope? And are we willing, not simply to give charity, but to give and meet their need and lift them up so that they might find a path to a greater life? The peace that Jesus talks about in the Gospel, which can only be found by finding Him in seeking radical holiness.

Are we willing to walk with our neighbor in Mercy, so that he or she may find what we have found?

For my friends, Saint Thomas walked as far as India to be an ambassador of Mercy. The question you and I need to think about this week, is how far are you and I willing to walk for Him?

My friends,

Happy Easter to you all. This morning we join our voices with Christians throughout the world to proclaim that Christ is risen, that He is truly risen. For today we celebrate, we extol, we delight in the fact that in the early mornings of the first day of the week, the Lord broke the chains of sin and death forever.

Having gone into the Abode of the Dead to free them, those who lived before Him, He now comes to us in the power of the Holy Spirit to give to us, through the gift of baptism, the same victory over sin and death. What He had by the very nature of being God, you and I are given to the great mystery of baptism.

And so my dear friends, I cannot imagine a more appropriate way to celebrate this day than to gather around Freya’s mom and dad, and her sister and brother, and her grandparents and her godparents, and invite this little girl into the very life of God.

Consider what will happen to her. In a few moments we will be at the font and I will pray the prayer of exorcism, and anointed with the oil of the Catechumens as a sign that she is free from original sin, and that the power of the evil one has no hold over her, or over you, or over me.

In using the waters that were blessed last night in the great Vigil of the Holy Night, she will enter in mystery in the Tomb of Jesus, into His death and rise to new life before our very eyes.

And she’ll be clothed, once again, in the white that her parents dressed her as a sign that she is a new creation in Jesus. And then she will be anointed with Chrism. You and I were anointed with Chrism, and in that moment, you and I became members of the mystical Body of Christ. And we are all priests, prophets, and kings in the Risen Lord, to be His messengers of salvation and hope.

And how godparents will receive the light from this one candle, because Freya will be enlightened by Christ and receive the gifts of faith, hope, and charity. What this little girl will receive, every single one of us already has.

And so I invite you this Easter morning, not simply to proclaim with our words that Jesus is risen, but may I suggest that we unlock the power of our own baptism, each of us, to allow the power of the Risen Lord to come through us to this broken, confused, complicated, and in many ways lost world. For His looking (world) looking for direction, the answer to the desires of so many people’s hearts, a world that’s seeking a path to hope and joy. And it only comes in Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. And it is to us to not just speak it, but to live it, and proclaim it in my actions and yours.

And so my dear friends, I’m going to invite you to join with me, as we go to the font in the back of church and celebrate Freya’s new life in Jesus Christ. And in her life, let us renew our own lives in the crucified and Risen Lord.

So my dear sisters and brothers in the Lord,

Tonight we gather on this Vigil in the Holy Night to join our voices with those of our fellow believers throughout the world and throughout time, to proclaim to the world that Jesus is risen, that He has truly risen from the dead. And as we heard Deacon Jim sing so beautifully the ancient Hymn of this night – the Exalted – when we heard that this is the night we believe Christ not simply broke the back of death, but also forgave all sins of those who seek forgiveness in Him.

This is the night that the sin of Adam was reversed, the night when creation was recreated and where you and I, and all who believe in Christ, have the hope to share the glory that is His forever in heaven.

Tonight is the great victory, the eternal victory of love. And we are not ashamed or afraid to proclaim it to the world.

And yet, my dear friends, as we do so the world may ask us, ‘where is this Risen Lord that you believe in? Where are the signs of His power in Grace? For you say that He has conquered death and sin and suffering, and yet the world is still filled with it. In fact, with each passing year it seems that the world becomes ever more broken, ever more confused, where war continues to take its tolls on innocent people, perhaps in the millions; where there are more and more who are turning away from God, and more and more who are no longer dedicating their lives to a life of love, in kindness, and respect, and forgiveness.’ The world may tell us tonight, ‘you who believe, where is this Risen Lord?’

And on this Vigil night my friends, we have an answer to give; an answer we need to reflect on deeply. For we can see the presence of the Risen Lord all around us, every day, if only we dare to look. And to look with the eyes of Faith so that we might teach the world how to look and recognize Him.

Recall what happened this night, my friends. Jesus rose from the dead in the middle of the night, in the quiet hours of the night. And there was no one present when He rose. He rose in the middle of a cemetery, which is the last place you would find people walking at night. And He rose on the even passing of Sabbath, where no observant Jew would leave his home for fear of breaking the law. The great triumphant victory that Christ had over sin and death was not come with great trumpet blasts, but came in quiet. It came humbly. But when He came, it broke the very Gates of Hell.

And for those who can see and recognize Him, He continues to dwell in our midst. You may say, ‘Bishop, where?’ well, when our sisters and brothers come in a few moments to the font of life, when the sacred waters wash over your heads, you will die and rise with Christ this very night. And there, my friends, we will glimpse the risen Lord in His power, in grace.

For those of you to be confirmed, the Spirit will come upon you with power and fire and glory, and He will fill your mind and your hearts, in your hands and your feet, in your eyes, with the very grace of God. And there, my friends, when our sisters and brothers leave this church alive in His Spirit, we are glimpsing where the Risen Lord is. And we will come to this altar and under the form of bread and wine, that same Risen Lord will come to us – all of us – so that He might dwell in our hearts. And with our eyes of faith we can recognize the one who left the tomb this night. For He is leading us to heaven.

But there is more. My friends, when a person chooses life over death, you can glimpse the face of the Risen Lord. When you see someone choosing to care for those who are dying and to walk with them with dignity and compassion, you can see the presence of Jesus risen with your own eyes. When you look into the face of a newborn child, it is the face of the Risen Lord you are looking into. When you and I sit with our friends who are in distress or suffering or lonely, or anxious or despairing, there is the Risen Lord in His power coming to heal and set that person free. Every time we see faith, hope and love, but most of all love, we are looking at the presence of the Risen Lord in our midst.

And when you and I consider that, my friends, He is all around us. Every day, in the most ordinary ways, this Risen Lord walks with us, feeds us, consoles us, laughs with us, walks with us to Glory. And you and I, my friends, will leave this church renewed in our faith in this Risen Lord, to be His ambassadors in the world.

And I ask you, when you and I leave in the days and weeks ahead, especially, my friends, those of you to be baptized and those of you to be confirmed, and those who will receive the sacrament of the Eucharist for the first time – never be afraid to love. Never be afraid to have hope and proclaim to all you meet, the Lord who has claimed your heart. And by doing that you are making the presence of the Risen Lord as clear as the day to the world around you.

And if we persevere my friends, we will see the day when all wars will end, all suffering will be healed, and every tear will be wiped away. Because Christ’s victory is already in our midst. Christ’s victory is our victory. And it is for that reason we can raise our voices and proclaim to a world that is waiting to see His face, we can tell that world ‘Christ is Risen! Christ is truly Risen! And come with us so that we may show you His face.’

So my dear sisters and brothers,

As we can well imagine, the customs of hospitality are very different among the various cultures and nations of what we’ve called our family of humanity. And it certainly changed over history.

The one thing they have in common is that they wish to make whoever is our guest feel welcome and a part of our family.

And so what we gather here tonight to celebrate, the great sacrament of the Eucharist, we are given this extraordinary episode in the life of Jesus where the custom of the age, to make a person welcome, is done in the strangest of times by the most unlikely of persons. For you can well imagine that in a time and in a place mostly of desert that was hot, to make a guest welcome you would allow them, and ask them as they enter into a home, to have their feet washed, so that the dust of the road could be washed clean, and they can be cooled and refreshed literally from the bottom up.

Tonight we hear that beautiful gesture of welcome is done by not a slave, but the Master of the House, the Master of the Table, the Master of all Creation. For was the task of the slave, or the servant, to make the guest welcome.

Jesus takes that place of a slave. The night before his life was forfeited by thirty pieces of silver, the cost of the of the life of a single slave in the Roman Empire. And if that was not provocative enough, it’s timing was strange. Because we hear in the gospel that Jesus washed the feet of the disciples after the meal was finished, after they reclined that table. Not when they arrived. Because Jesus was trying to teach them a lesson; a lesson not about what He was doing, but what He had already done.

For recall what happens at the table of the Last Supper. Jesus takes the rituals of the Passover, the celebration of God’s chosen people set free from the slavery of Pharaoh, and brought into the liberation of the Promised Land. Jesus takes that ritual and gives it eternal meaning by taking simple bread and wine and, foreseeing His death the next day, makes it the sacrament of our liberation from sin and death. And makes it the sacrament by which we will eternally be with Him in His glory. He gives it to the apostles to strengthen them. Yes, to encourage them yes, but also to give them the grace so that they might do what? That they might also give their life over for love of their neighbor, as the Master would give His life for the whole world.

For you see my friends, on this altar where heaven and earth kiss, on this altar when we enter into the mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are seeing the greatest act of love creation will ever know, over and over again in the one singular, irrepeatable act of Jesus’s self-offering, freely given, so you and I may be set free from sin and death.

And in that remarkable self-empting, self-giving – in that remarkable act of love, Jesus waits until after he gives the sacrament to show them what it really means; with their own eyes, with their own feet, to teach them what it means to love, and to give, even if it requires to take the place of the servant or the slave. To be able to do what no one else would dare to do. To give and not count the cost. To make oneself available until perhaps there’s nothing else to give. Jesus is teaching them that whoever receives this must be ready to do this. And if we’re not ready to do this, to give, then we must examine ourselves deeply: of why it is we come here to receive the ultimate sacrament of
pure, divine love.

My friends, we gather here in quiet now. The bells are silent, the organ is silent. We have begun the great mystery of our salvation. We gather here as if we were in the upper room, huddled, waiting, watching. We gather around the table of the Lord. And in His priest you will hear once again the same words the apostles heard in that very first night we remember. And we will be able to do what they did; come forward to receive the bread broken and the cup shared so that the Life of Christ may dwell in our hearts, in our stomachs, in our spirit, in our mind, in all of who and what we are.

But let us consider, that as we adore the Lord in just a few minutes, let us consider how ready we are, how willing we are, how prepared we are, to truly follow in the footsteps of the Lord, being encouraged by his sacred body, blood, soul and divinity. And to love as he did with friend, spouse, child, nephew, neighbor, acquaintance, co-worker, and even enemy.

And if we are not ready to do that, let us sit before the Lord tomorrow on the Mount of Calvary when he shows us with our own eyes how much He loves us. And to pray that His Spirit may help us wherever we go, wherever we find ourselves. Even if it means taking the place of the servant and slave. Pray for the grace to love as He did.

My dear friends in Christ,

Each Holy Thursday morning, you and I gather here in the mother church of our diocese to ask our gracious and merciful Father, in union with His risen Son, to send the power of the Holy Spirit upon the oils which will become the vehicles of His healing and grace; oil that is the fruit of the olive. And yet it will become a powerful venue, avenue, channel of the very power and grace of God.

And so in a few moments I will have the privilege to bless the oil of the sick, which will bring consolation and peace. And perhaps healing in body and certainly in spirit to those who are suffering, those who are living unto the frailty of old age. We will ask the spirit to bless the oil of the Catechumens that will strengthen and encourage the minds and hearts and wills of those who are seeking full communion in the church, who have found the Lord in their hearts, who wish to become part of His mystical body.

Then of course I, with my brother priests, will invoke the gift of the Holy Spirit upon the Sacred Prism, which is the vehicle through which those who come forward are consecrated forever. All of us in this church, in the sacrament of baptism where you and I receive the gift of adopted sonship. We receive through adoption, what Christ has by nature in His death and resurrection. And we become forever sisters and brothers, united in a single mystical body who is Christ. And for many of us confirmed in that baptism with the Sevenfold Gifts of His holy spirit so we may rise to the challenges of our age.

And then to some of us here, you my brothers with me, unworthy as we all are, we have been chosen to enter into the great mystery of Holy Orders with our brother deacons, to be consecrated to ministerial service. And for those of us who are priests, to enter into the great mystery of becoming another Persona Christi and to become the instruments by which the power of the spirit can take the simple elements of bread and wine, and render them to be the body, blood, soul and divinity of the Risen Lord.

We all come here to be encouraged. We all come here to ask that Spirit to give us strength in these challenging times. And to those of us who are priests, to you my brothers, we come here to seek a great gift; that you and I may rise to the challenge of our times and to seek to live radical, fearless, courageous lives of holiness.

At the risk of striking a very somber note, and forgive me for raising this point, but for the last few months in my prayer and reflection I have given much thought. The Lord has led me to very interesting places in my prayer, reflecting on the very hours you and I are living on this Thursday we call Holy. For on the First Holy Thursday, I wondered to myself, what was in the mind and heart of the Apostles as they bustle to prepare, to sit and share the Passover meal with their master and rabbi.

To the great betrayer, these were the hours he made his definitive choice. I wonder what fears he had in his heart, what wounds that went unaddressed, what great disappointments that haunted him. The stubbornness, perhaps, of not getting what he thought he should deserve or what the people of God deserved or what they expected to get when the Savior finally came. I wonder what it was in his heart that created the sin that made him so blind and obstinate, that when he said ‘surely it is not I Lord’ and the Lord said ‘it is you who said it’. And (and) of course the apostles who remained by his side and the meal ran; in the garden when they began to glimpse what it was to walk in the footsteps of a Lord who exchanged His life for thirty pieces of silver, the cost of the life of a single slave in the Roman Empire. All good, faithful men who, to the path of their life, one in particular, veered to make grave decisions.

I raised that question, my dear brothers because the same father of evil that lurked in those hours remains in our midst, remains amidst all of us, at every turn in our lives. For he seeks to do whatever it takes to make sure that all of us, and especially you and I my brothers, not to seek that which is the requirement of our ministry, that we seek true fearlessness, courage, and the pursuit of a holiness that will require that we completely die to the Lord whom we love, and we all love in this church so deeply.

So I’m going to suggest for all of us who are here, but especially those of us who share the priesthood of Jesus Christ, that perhaps you and I can spend the balance of this day, the mystery of the Triduum, and the weeks and months ahead, to form a deep examination of life and conscience and to ask the Holy Spirit to help us to understand what it is in my life, and in yours, that does not allow us to seek that radical fearless holiness. To kick the father of evil out wherever he is lurking. So that with God’s grace, because it can only be with God’s grace, that we can rise to what the Lord is asking of us.

For this, my dear brothers, is whether we choose it or not, it is going to be the age of the Heroes of Faith. For the renewal of our Church will not come by program or initiative, it will not come by any glorious homily, it will come from the true witness of Holiness for all the baptized and for all who lead the Church. And I’m not ashamed to say I am convicted by my own words.

So what is it that you and I must root out in our lives? We begin with the wounds we carry. We all carry them. Wounds that will – sometimes we’re afraid to admit to – sometimes they are so deep, they’re painful even to admit they’re there. Wounds are nonetheless fester in my life, in your life, wounds that the father of evil can use against us to discourage us, to make us believe there is no hope for change, to make us think that our weaknesses will always be who we are meant to be. To lull uss into complacency and maybe perhaps worse, perhaps a lifestyle that seeks gratification or power or privilege or pleasure over an intimacy with the Lord. So perhaps we could ask for the grace of the Spirit for all of us. And for us, in leadership, to finally, if there are wounds in our lives, to ask the Lord for the gentle grace to see them and offer them to Him so His Holy Spirit can be balmed to heal them and to set us free.

And then it would seem to me, my dear brothers, that as good men, faithful men, as you all are, as I seek to be, sometimes we fall into the temptation to believe that our differences are a cause for division, when our differences should be a cause of celebration. That God has made us different so that we could be stronger together; that my gifts are not yours, your gifts are not mine, and together we are stronger when we share them.

We’re tempted to think at times that my way is the way, when it’s the Lord’s way that is the way. And so can we dare to work in the months ahead to grow into a true unity, a true brotherhood where we can speak honestly to each other, and that we can forgive each other. And that you can forgive me as I can forgive you. Because in the end, you have heard me say that we are embarking on an auditious, auditious experience together. Do you and I have been called in this moment in the life of the church to rebuild the culture of our Church so that it will permeate every aspect of our lives. I call it the one. Call it whatever you like. But to be able to build a world where all God’s children, in every aspect of their life, can recognize the presence and life of Christ. And to be able to be accompanied by sisters and brothers who love them, who know their name, and know their heart, and know their struggles, and will walk with them. I walking with you, you walking with me, we walking with one another.

And it seems to me for all of us in this church, on this eve of the great Triduum of our salvation, and especially you and I who shared this mystical precious, priceless gift of the ministerial priesthood. May we recognize that we cannot lead others unless we ourselves are being led. And you and I are being led by the Shepherd who calls us, caresses us, forgives us, empowers us, and leads us forward to lead God’s people in this time (time) of challenge, and in time that is pregnant with opportunity. For bursting new life for the church and to bring conversion to the whole world.

Let me just say this. I am deeply grateful to you, brothers, and to my brother deacons. But to you my brother priests, for all of your sacrifice, your generosity. Your hard work oftentimes goes unnoticed and unthanked. I am privileged to walk in your midst as your spiritual father and as your Bishop. For I know you now, after all these years, very intimately. And I’m proud of every single one of you.

But we have work to do to rebuild our Church. And we cannot do it without His grace. The Lord asked the original Apostles, ‘one of you will betray me’. We heard that yesterday at Mass. My prayer is for all of us in this holy church, especially for you my dear brothers, may it never be said of me, may it never be said of you, in answer to that question you have said so.

My dear friends,

When the Lord Jesus met his first disciples in the Gospel of John, he asked them the question, “what are you looking for?”, the question that everyone who has met the Lord must ask himself or herself. What is it that we are truly looking for in our lives?

Today, as we hear the passion read anew, we know the answer the crowd gave. They were looking for a king. And they got a king beyond their wildest imagination. For they were looking for a military king, a king who would dislodge the Roman Empire that held them in brutal subjugation. They were looking for one who would come with legions and might and armament and shield. That is why they gave Jesus the great privilege of being greeted with palms and cloaks strewn on the road. For that, my friends, was an honor given only to Caesar and his leggetts. For they were considered too important to have their feet touch the ground.

But the true King came for a different purpose; to enter into the city of David to show them, us, and all who would believe in Him, that He has come as the King of love. And the crowd went from adulation to crucify Him in five days.

The apostles remained with the Lord after He entered Jerusalem. But even they began to doubt. Because the Lord was willing to exchange His life for 30 pieces of silver. My friends, that was exactly what it cost to buy a single slave in the Roman Empire. But how could this King be a slave?

And so we hear that in the moment, when He was revealed in all His glory, the apostles ran and only a few women and the youngest of the Apostles remained. When the King was enthroned, not in gold, not in jewels, but His throne was made of wood, and His jewels were nails that held Him as He extended His arms upon all creation, and revealed what the love that only matters is free, self-sacrifice for the good of those around Him. In this case, for you and me. And when we come here to our blessed cathedral and we will uncover this image of the Lord crucified on the day we call good – for our sakes, not for His – we will look upon the King of all creation.

So allow me to ask us all, what are you looking for? What are you really looking for in your life? Where will you and I find the peace and the courage to face the sufferings that inevitably come for anyone who truly loves. How can you and I in the moments when we are before those for whom we can no longer help, before the mystery of suffering and pain, or when we look upon the challenges that surround us in this world, who is going to give us the hope and the peace and the joy that our hearts truly are looking for? There is no king, government, constitution, or society in this world that can give them. Only One. The One whom we welcome with the same palms in the city of our hearts.

So my dear friends, I ask you, this week, this week that is the holiest of them all, will you have the courage? Will I have the courage to walk with Jesus? To rediscover His kingship over your heart and mine? And will we rediscover the power He gives us in His resurrection so that we can love as He loved and to go forth into the world. And to love the sick and the afflicted, the immigrant and the poor, the recently incarcerated, the lonely, the anxious, the ones who are despairing. To love the ones that the world says are not worth our love. To love in a way that makes us weak and vulnerable. To love until it hurts and beyond. For if we do that, we will have a place in glory and we will have a throne made for us. And because our Lord died for us and rose for us, our thrones in the heaven to come will not be made of wood or nails, but it would be made of everlasting life.

So my friends, what are you really looking for? Let us follow the Lord. Let us go and see.

Sisters and brothers in the Lord,

While I was growing up as a little boy, if I heard it once I heard it perhaps thousands of times from my mom, she would say to me ‘young man, open your eyes and watch where you are going’. Now of course when I was with my father and he wanted to express the same sentiments, the way he described it, I could not repeat in church. But the idea was the same.

Now of course I could see. But I was a daydreamer. I would oftentimes get lost in my own thoughts, in my own little world. So it was not uncommon I would walk into fire hydrants. And many a pair of pants had a hole in the knee because I tripped over things because I was – kind of – I had not yet learned to see what matters. That’s a lifetime project for all of us.

And it seems to me, for you and I today, it may help us to understand what it is that the Lord is asking of us in our own individual journeys of discipleship. Because today in that very beautiful story of the healing of the blind man, we have an extraordinary contrast. For on one hand, we have a man born blind that Jesus physically heals. And recall, my dear friends, the miracles of Jesus were signs of the inbreaking of the Kingdom. He was teaching His own, and those who followed after Him, what it is that the Kingdom of Heaven would be like when there would be no blindness. When we would live in perfect love and sight before Christ. We would be able to see the very face of God.

And as he healed this man who was ostensibly blind, this man could see what really matters. His heart longed to see the Messiah. It was ready to be able to recognize Him and embrace Him and that’s why the Lord said “(what are) what are you seeing?” And he said “I believe Lord”.

That’s in very stark contrast to the Pharisees who could see very well, and were as blind as bats, blind to the mercy of God that was allowing this man to see even on the Sabbath. Blind by their own self-righteousness that they were quick to accuse the man of sinfulness, when they refused to see their own sinfulness. Men who were educated and religiously observant and were blind to the needs of those around them.

Because they did not learn to see what really matters. Or perhaps a better way to describe that, my friends, is to see as God sees.

Today on this fourth Sunday of Lent we are called to meditate and reflect deeply and profoundly on the task of every disciple, to see as God sees. In the first reading we are reminded of appearances and superficiality. And the truth is we live in a world that is very much, very much enamored, committed to the appearances of life, to the superficiality of life. And unfortunately the relations between people are governed by that. You and I have been asked by the gift of the Holy Spirit to look deeper, to look into the heart, to see as God sees.

And my dear brother Knights and sister Columbiettes and your families, for that reason I am very grateful that you are here today. For it allows us, and me, to offer in perhaps a meager way a profound heartfelt word of thanks, for seeing as God sees. For the Knights of Columbus are known for many things. You and I know that. But central to much of who you are and what we do, is to enter into the world and see and act as God asks us to.

So consider all the work that you have devoted yourself to, to the work to allow the hungry to eat, and those without shelter to have a place of refuge, those who are poor to have a message of hope, those who are struggling in whatever way to be able to know they do not struggle alone. For you see those in need around you as God sees them, as sisters and brothers who have names and families, and who are to be loved as brothers and sisters.

Today in a very special way I am deeply grateful on behalf of all of the children in our Catholic schools. They are among God’s precious children. And in countless ways, too many for me to list now, you have been at their service, you have been at their support, and you have been role models for them for many, many years, by the labor of your hands, by the generosity of your spirit. And in many ways, by the example of your faith and charity, you are helping to mold our children who are entrusted to our care to be able, not to see as the world sees, not to see as the Pharisees saw, but to see as Christ sees: through you.

And I know your material generosity is deeply appreciated. But your spiritual generosity is appreciated more. For I cannot imagine how difficult it is for a young person to grow up in a world that is so blind, a world that is so committed to see in a way other than what God asks of us. And thank God, and I am grateful, that you are showing them a better way.

So my mother was wise in many ways, I must confess. And the older I become the more I realize it. So perhaps her words to me as a young boy are the words you and I can meditate on in this week as we continue this journey of Lent. Let us continue to pray, that you and I may keep our eyes opened. That is to continue to do as best we can in our private lives, in our lives as brother knights, in our discipleship of Jesus Christ, to see what really matters. To keep our eyes open to see as God sees. And to watch where we’re going. Because my friends, we are all going, please God, to eternal life.

My dear sisters and brother, I think it would be expected and quite natural that, for any of us in our own individual professions or trades, that we would take great pride in what we do. And we make it our business to do it well and to learn as best we can how to be successful. Whether it’s a lawyer, a doctor, a plumber, or a fisherman.

So with that as perhaps the backdrop today we hear an absolutely extraordinary story. For today we hear that a fisherman who came from a family perhaps of many generations, who fished as a profession, took the advice of a carpenter. Very strange.

And yet my friends, in its strangeness there is a great lesson. For Simon Peter intuited that this Jesus with whom he was walking, with whom he was becoming to know and loving, was someone he could trust. And that he did not have to stand on his own self-sufficiency, his own skills and talents, his own history, nut he could literally trust him to do something new. And he yielded great fruit.

I would like to suggest to you, my friends, as we celebrate the Feast of Saint Patrick, our Patron patron of Ireland and also in the cathedral Parish, our co-patron since the church of Saint Patrick is part of our larger Cathedral family, that Patrick himself wishes to teach us the same lesson. Because Patrick’s life yielded great fruit precisely because he trusted in the Lord. For you know his story well. Having been enslaved he trusted enough in the Lord to go back to the country in which he was enslaved so that he could bear the message of Christ.

When confronting evil in the form of the snakes that he encountered, he trusted not to run away but to confront them. And he bore great fruit precisely because he was able to expel them and to create a soil that was worthy and ready to receive the faith. And Ireland has stood for centuries as a bulwark and foundation of our faith in Europe and way beyond. Patrick understood that in the end, there’s a fundamental choice to make. Do we trust in ourselves, perhaps those around us, alone, or do we trust in God’s providence, mercy and love? Patrick chose wisely and bore great fruit.

So today we ask ourselves a question. I ask you, of myself, I ask it of you. In whom do you trust? For many times in our lives, even those of us who are trying to follow the Lord as best we can, we are tempted to forget that those who walk in His footsteps need to trust Him even when it’s difficult. Even when it hurts.

For example, when our prayers are not answered or our prayers get an answer of ‘no’, in those moments of great trial, do we trust that God’s providence and love can see what we cannot see? That God loves us despite the answer ‘no’. Or do we rebel because we trust in ourselves to know better than God does? Or in our times of prosperity and success are we tempted to think that we are the authors of it? Or do we forget that it was only because of God’s providence in the Lord’s love and mercy that we’re able to accomplish anything in our lives, and everything that has eternal value.

You see my friends we live in a world not much different from Patrick’s. In a world that aspired to basically be one of subjection and power over others, a world that thought they were in charge. And they had to learn to the example of Patrick that a fruitful life finds its anchor in Jesus. Not in me, not in you, and not in us.

So my dear friends, we have much to celebrate today. And I know you’re off to the parade and to festivities, and since there is the dispensation enjoy whatever you plan to eat today on St Patrick’s Day. But in all that joy, please take a moment to reflect on the great lesson Patrick teaches us, following in the footsteps of Simon Peter. Let us ask ourselves the question: are we willing to trust in God’s love in providence, and please God we may answer the same way Patrick did, by saying yes.

My dear sisters and brothers in the Lord,

It’s interesting to recall that the great episode we hear in the Lord’s life today, in that moment when He was Transfigured in the Glory, glimpsing the Glory He has as God, that that episode has its own feast day in the life of the church: it is August 6th. And so it’s interesting that the same episode is always repeated every second Sunday in Lent. Perhaps in part because it has something important to teach us about what Lent means. But I would like to suggest it also can teach us a lesson about our lives in general that at times we forget.

There are two things we need to remember before we can answer that question. What is this lesson?

The first is at this point in Jesus’s Ministry, Jesus had already looked, placed His sights on going to Jerusalem. Peter had professed Him to be the Messiah. And Jesus then begins to turn His ministry and is walking towards Jerusalem because He knows what awaits Him; where you and I will celebrate in just a few weeks, where He will freely and willingly give His life over as the ultimate victory of Love over sin and death. He will show us the face of pure, genuine, divine love here in this cross, which we will commemorate in about five weeks.

The second is when Jesus chose the disciples, the apostles He wanted to accompany Him on this little side trip. He chose them purposely because consider what awaited them.

John, the only Apostle who would not abandon Jesus at the foot of the cross and to whom the Blessed Mother was given, imagined the suffering he endured to watch his beloved master and friend die before his very eyes. James, the leader of the Jerusalem Church, the first of the Apostles to be martyred infidelity to Jesus. And then there is Peter, who would have to undergo The Crucible of suffering in his weakness, betraying Jesus to his face, and then in the agony he endured to understand how frail and sinful he was, and to rediscover the power of God’s mercy.

Each had a path to suffering walking in the footsteps of the Lord.

So on the first level, the answer to the question is obvious; that is the Lord took them and reminds us that we are to be encouraged in times of suffering. That He’s always there even though we may not see His glory. His glory is there, His love is there, His power is there, even in the darkest moments of our lives, even in the most profound moments of suffering. Love will conquer all things. And he is love made flesh.

And we rejoice in the encouragement. But I think there is a deeper lesson, and it all comes from the natural instinct that the apostles had: to make a tent.

Strange isn’t it? Of course they were itinerants which meant they went from city to village and town to town. And I’m sure many a time they would make a tent precisely to remain in a place for a while. And what was the instinct, the impulse for the apostles was: this is great! We could see His power because His glory, we could see it on glimpse. So let’s stay a while. Let’s build some tents for Jesus, Moses, Elijah and we’ll stay too because this is what I really want.

And what does Jesus do? His Father says He is my beloved Son and Jesus says ‘let’s get up and keep walking.’

For the temptation in life, my friends, is to shy away from the sufferings we will have to endure to be faithful to Jesus. Our temptation in discipleship is to try to find the places where life continues, to go great and stay there.

But you and I know that if you and I are going to love, we are inevitably going to have to sacrifice. We know that there are times when we will have to take ourselves. There are times when we will have to suffer, to tell the truth, to challenge people, to love them with their true good in mind; not cheap love, not love the world wants, but the love that Jesus teaches us.

You see my friends, we don’t have to look for suffering in life; it will find us if we are faithful to Christ. And in those moments we have a choice to make. Either we remain faithful and keep walking, reminded, encouraged by Jesus, is there even when we don’t see His glory. But He is there with this strength and mercy. He’s the one who wipes away our tears. He’s the one who whispers encouragement in the bitter hours of the night when there’s no one there.

Perhaps (He) actually understands how deeply we are in pain. He is there at every moment, of every time, of every day in our deepest sufferings, if those sufferings are for love. And as a disciple we can never shy away from our journey to Calvary. And when we want to build a tent and be satisfied with some other cheap form of Glory, we are making a terrible mistake.

And that is why we are in Lent. So that we might together, as sisters and brothers, walk this journey that will be one of repentance, penance, abstinence, fasting and sacrifice. Not because the Lord wants us to suffer, but the Lord wants to teach us the true meaning of love. And encouraging us in His glory reminding us that when we are at Calvary, it is not the end, it is the beginning of our victory in Him.

So my dear friends, as we meditate on the Mystery of the Transfiguration, what do you choose to do? Build a tent, or keep walking?