Homily for the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed

Remembering the Departed: A Reflection of Life, Death, and Eternal Life

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, November 2, 2025

Today, we honor the souls of all the faithful departed. We remember our fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, friends, and colleagues who have gone before us in faith. Although they are not here physically, our faith reassures us that they are not lost or destroyed. Their death is not utter destruction, nor is it a total loss. It is not mere absurdity. If they lived with heaven in their hearts, they would finally be at peace.

The secularist and materialist ideology claims that all there is is the world that we can see and measure empirically. All there is is matter in motion. It speaks about the Big Bang as the moment when the world came into being, and eventually, it will pass out of being. Concerning the place and destiny of the human race, the ideology claims that after we live for a short time, we will die and our bodies will go back into the earth. The universe itself will ultimately wind down. Young people who swallow this scam completely are unaware that the secularist or materialist view of the world is not new. Some religious people may also not realize that this idea is ancient. The belief that there is nothing beyond this life was actually common during much of the Old Testament period. If you examine the Old Testament, you'll find references to an afterlife or life after death. However, the main view was that death is the end, and that after death, we return to the earth. For example, in the Book of Psalms, it says, “To you, Lord, I cried out, to my God I made appeal: What profit would my death be, my going to the grave? Can dust give you praise or proclaim your truth?” (Psalm 30:9-10). In this prayer, the writer is essentially telling God that he can only praise God while he's alive. But once he’s gone, he can't praise him anymore. 

In today’s first reading (Wisdom 3:1-9), we hear one of the most remarkable passages in the Old Testament that clearly affirms the reality of life after death: “The souls of the just are in the hands of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction, and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace” (Wisdom 3:1-3). When someone close to us passes away, we often cry. Why? Because we miss them. The pain of separation, a deep sense of loss, and knowing we won't see or speak to them again as we usually do cause us to cry. But some of us cry because we feel sorry for the one who has died. When we recall their circumstances before they died, we feel so sad for how their lives turned out. For instance, when my mother died eleven years ago, what really hurt me and made me cry so much was her earthly life of intense suffering. She was a woman of profound faith. I have yet to meet anyone who prayed like she did. But after her death, I felt deep sorrow for my mother, knowing that throughout her entire life on earth, she never had a moment of relief. She lost her husband, my dad, when she was 46, and then suffered so much to raise eleven children. And when she was supposed to have some relief, she was diagnosed with a metabolic disease. After 18 years of suffering, she passed away. It was when I sat down to write my mother’s eulogy that I realized she had no breathing space when it came to misfortune throughout her life. I tell you, that broke my heart and made me cry so hard. Over the years, one of the biblical texts that has helped me cope and find some healing is the words from today’s first reading: “The souls of the just are in the hands of the Lord…” My mother and many believers who died are now entirely in God’s hands. By the glory of the Father, they now live in newness of life (Romans 3:4). Though we weep and sometimes feel sorry for them, in reality, we should not. Why? Because on earth we are still poor, but in heaven they are wealthy. We are afraid; they feel secure. We continue to suffer; they are healed forever. Our souls still yearn for God; they are already with Him. We still hope and pray; they are already in full fellowship with God. We still strive; they are already fulfilled. We seek perfection; they are perfect now. We still visit doctors for medical care; they are finally free from all sickness. 

In the Gospel (John 6:37-40), we hear from the Lord Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life: “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 them on the last day.” What are the implications of believing in Jesus? Believing in Jesus radically changes everything. It finally makes us realize that life is not random or meaningless. It reminds us that our actions matter and that we are to care about everything Jesus cares about, and still does. Today, secular and materialist people accuse religious individuals of being the problem because they focus all their attention on heaven while ignoring the issues of the world. They say that fantasizing about another world leads us to ignore the injustices and suffering of this world. I tell you, the accusation is arrant nonsense. It is actually the opposite. If someone is a strict materialist, they believe that all we see is all there is; they think that once this body dies, it goes back to the earth; they believe that the universe will fade into nothingness; they are likely not to care much about gross injustice happening somewhere in Africa, Gaza, Ukraine, or Timbuktu. They are likely to say, “Well, such is life. They are going to die, and I am going to die. Who cares?” But if you are a religious person, you believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ, including life after death. You believe that the children suffering and starving in Africa or Palestine right now were loved into existence by God and are destined for eternal life with God. Naturally, you will be interested in alleviating their suffering. Who are the greatest social activists and social justice fighters in the 20th and 21st centuries? People like Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr., St. Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and others. What do they all have in common? They believed in life after death. As we remember our loved ones who have passed away, let’s pause and consider where we stand today. Are we still on the Lord’s side? 

God bless you!

Homily for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, October 26, 2025

If you went home last weekend wondering how to pray, what your prayer should include, when your prayer has gone off-kilter, and seeking to understand the right attitude and approach to God in prayer, Jesus, the Lord and the greatest teacher of all time, addresses these questions in today’s simple parable (Luke 18:9-14).

It is the famous parable of a Pharisee and a Publican (tax collector) who went up to the temple to pray. The Pharisees were the religious establishment and a prominent Jewish sect during Jesus’ time, known for their strict adherence to Mosaic law and traditions. In contrast, tax collectors were the most loathsome and despised people in Israel because they worked for the Romans to transfer money from Jewish communities to Roman authorities. They drain their own people to benefit their hated oppressors. The Romans allowed them to collect as much tax as they could, and any excess beyond the legal amount was kept for themselves. Essentially, they were literally legal thieves. So, the story features two men praying in the temple: one has numerous good deeds to boast about and likely few sins, while the other —the tax collector —has committed many grave sins against justice and charity, against God and his own people. 

What did the Pharisee say in his prayer? “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity— greedy, dishonest, adulterous— or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithe on my entire income” (Luke 18:11-12). As for the tax collector, he stood at a distance and wouldn’t even lift his eyes to heaven but only beat his breast and prayed, “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13). At the end of the story, Jesus drops a spiritual bomb: “I tell you, the latter went home justified (i.e., right with God), not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Why did the man with greater sins go home justified, while the law-keeping one did not? Does this imply that God’s commandments are unimportant? Not at all! The reason is that the greatest of all sins—the one that can send a person to hell—is final impenitence, which is the refusal to repent of one’s sins and accept God’s forgiveness. John states that God is love (1 John 4:8), and that is indeed true. God is kind and merciful. He is willing to forgive all sins as long as we are eager to ask for and receive His forgiveness. St. Augustine said, “God who created us without us, cannot save us without us.”

But what would make someone not accept the gift of God’s mercy and forgiveness? Pride. Arrogance. Self-righteousness. The belief that you are a good person, and that healing and forgiveness are not necessary. Check the Gospels, and you will find no account of anyone who was healed and forgiven without coming to Jesus, without expressing faith in him, or with no one interceding for them. Everyone in the Gospels who was healed and forgiven by Jesus either came to him or someone came on their behalf. Jesus himself said to the Pharisees that he could not save them because they would not go to him for salvation: “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do” (Mark 2:17). If you think you are not sick, you will not go to the doctor. And Jesus is the real doctor of the soul, and we are all spiritually ill, and he will only heal those who come to him, who sincerely repent. But if we convince ourselves that we are good people, and won’t go to him, and won’t beg for mercy by using the sacrament of confession, then he won’t heal us. In his extraordinary teaching about prayer, Jesus says, “Ask and you shall receive….” (Luke 11:9). Ask for what? Please, don’t ask for power, wealth, honor, and pleasure. Don’t ask for a Lamborghini or that sleek and classy Mercedes-Benz. Don’t ask to be on top of the world. Don’t ask for the death of your enemies. Ask for mercy! In the great Beatitude, Jesus says, “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Is this a masochistic or a sadistic idea? No! Jesus is not saying that the unhappier we are, the more we are consoled or comforted. The great spiritual tradition reads it this way: Happy are those who mourn for their sins. We feel sad about many things. When our dreams do not come true, we feel bad. When we lose the job we once had, we feel bad. When love goes sour and the relationship we thought was made in heaven collapses, we feel bad. When things aren't working out or aren't going in our favor, we feel bad. But what is the one thing we should really feel bad and mourn over? Our own sins! Why? Because sin hurts! It hurts us and severs our relationship with God and with the people of God. If the consequence of a sin is not physical, it is definitely spiritual, which is the greater harm. Sin disorders nature. It disorders the orderliness fashioned by God.

God bless you!

Homily for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector: A Lesson in True Prayer

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, October 26, 2025

The spiritual theme we explored last weekend was prayer. In Exodus 17:8-13, which was the first reading, we saw the power and effectiveness of prayer. The nation of Israel was at war with the Amalekites. But as long as Moses kept his hands raised (a gesture of prayer), Israel gained the upper hand. When he lowered his hands, meaning he was tired and not praying, the Amalekites gained the upper hand. Eventually, two men, Aaron and Hur, had to support his hands. In the Gospel (Luke 18:1-8), Jesus teaches us about the need for persistent prayer to prevent falling into apostasy. Now, if you went home last weekend wondering how to pray and what your prayer should include, Jesus, the Lord and the greatest teacher of all time, offers a story that answers your questions. If you want to know when your prayer has gone off-kilter, Jesus addresses it in this simple parable. And if you're also seeking to understand the right attitude and approach to God in prayer, you'll find guidance in today’s brief Gospel (Luke 18:9-14).

It is the famous parable of a Pharisee and a Publican (tax collector) who went up to the temple to pray. The Pharisees were the religious establishment and a prominent Jewish sect during Jesus’ time, known for their strict adherence to Mosaic law and traditions. In contrast, tax collectors were the most loathsome and despised people in Israel because they worked for the Romans to transfer money from Jewish communities to Roman authorities. They drain their own people to benefit their hated oppressors. The Romans allowed them to collect as much tax as they could, and any excess beyond the legal amount was kept for themselves. Essentially, they were literally legal thieves. So, the story features two men praying in the temple: one has numerous good deeds to boast about and likely few sins, while the other, the tax collector, has committed many grave sins against justice and charity, against God and his own people. 

What did the Pharisee say in his prayer? “O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity— greedy, dishonest, adulterous— or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithe on my entire income” (Luke 18:11-12). As for the tax collector, he stood at a distance and wouldn’t even lift his eyes to heaven but only beat his breast and prayed, “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13). At the end of the story, Jesus drops a spiritual bomb: “I tell you, the latter went home justified (i.e., right with God), not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Why did the man with greater sins go home justified, while the law-keeping one did not? Does this imply that God’s commandments are unimportant? Not at all! The reason is that the greatest of all sins—the one that can send a person to hell—is final impenitence, which is the refusal to repent of one’s sins and accept God’s forgiveness. John states that God is love (1 John 4:8), and that is indeed true. God is kind and merciful. He is willing to forgive all sins as long as we are eager to ask for and receive His forgiveness. St. Augustine said, “God who created us without us, cannot save us without us.” Notice that in the word “forgiveness,” the word “give” is in the middle. For a gift to truly be a gift, it must be given freely and received willingly. If I choose not to give you a gift, you won’t get it. If I give you a gift but you choose not to accept it, you still won’t receive it. If I force you to take it, it ceases to be a gift. Clearly, God respects our free will and freedom. He does not force us to accept His love, mercy, or forgiveness. Each person in life is free to believe in God’s existence and submit to Him or not. God reaches out to us in love. But He forces no one to accept His reality. He does not compel us to pray to Him. Just as He doesn’t force His way upon us on earth, so He won’t do so in eternity. His gift of forgiveness is offered freely, and we are free to accept or reject it. In this life and the next, God never compels anyone to accept this gift. If He did, it would cease to be a gift. 

But what would make someone not accept the gift of God’s mercy and forgiveness? Pride. Arrogance. Self-righteousness. The belief that you are a good person, and that healing and forgiveness are not necessary. Check the Gospels, and you will find no account of anyone who was healed and forgiven without coming to Jesus, without expressing faith in him, or with no one interceding for them. Everyone healed and forgiven by Jesus in the Gospels either came to him or someone came to Jesus on their behalf. Jesus himself said to the Pharisees that he could not save them because they would not go to him for salvation: “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do” (Mark 2:17). If you think you are not sick, you will not go to the doctor. Jesus is the real doctor of the soul, and we are all spiritually ill, and he will only heal those who come to him, who sincerely repent. But if we convince ourselves that we are good people, and won’t go to him, and won’t beg for mercy by using the sacrament of confession, then he won’t heal us. In his extraordinary teaching about prayer, Jesus says, “Ask and you shall receive….” (Luke 11:9). Ask for what? Please, don’t ask for power, wealth, honor, and pleasure. Don’t ask for a Lamborghini or that sleek and classy Mercedes-Benz. Don’t ask to be on top of the world. Don’t ask for the death of your enemies. Ask for mercy! In the great Beatitude, Jesus says, “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Is this a masochistic or a sadistic idea? No! Jesus is not saying that the unhappier we are, the more we are consoled or comforted. The great spiritual tradition reads it this way: Happy are those who mourn for their sins. We feel sad about many things. When our dreams have not come to reality, we feel bad. When we lose the job we once had, we feel bad. When love goes sour and the relationship we thought was made in heaven collapses, we feel bad. When things aren't working out or aren't going in our favor, we feel bad. But what is the one thing we should really feel bad and mourn over? Our own sins! Why? Because sin hurts! It hurts us and severs our relationship with God and with the people of God. If the consequence of a sin is not physical, it is definitely spiritual, which is the greater harm. Sin disorders nature. It disorders the orderliness fashioned by God.

God bless you!

Homily for the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Why Pray Persistently?

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, October 19, 2025

The command to pray always is found throughout the Bible. In the Old Testament, we see it in Abraham’s persistent petition on behalf of the people of Sodom (Genesis 18:22-33). In the New Testament, we hear it in Jesus’ powerful teaching: “Ask, and it will be given to you, seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you” (Luke 11:9). We also see it in the story of the Syrophoenician woman (Mark 7:24-30). And in the parable of the persistent widow, which is part of today’s Gospel (Luke 18:1-8), we hear the Lord urging us to pray “always without becoming weary.” Praying should be like breathing, meaning something we cannot do without. It should also be easy. 

But what is prayer? Prayer is an act of trust in someone other than myself. But why should we pray? First, we pray because Jesus commands us to pray, and Jesus himself prayed. All the saints, from the first century to the present day, have prayed. The great St. Paul says in Ephesians 6:18, “Keep on praying in the Spirit.”

Second, prayer is a way of serving, worshiping, and obeying God. It is an act of humility and the most practical way to demonstrate one’s faith, faithfulness, and loyalty. To pray is to say, “Look, I am not all-powerful; I am not a self-sufficient being; I am not perfect, I am not omniscient and omnibenevolent. But there is Someone, God, who is all that. Therefore, I run to Him; I submit to Him; I commit my life and everything about me to Him. 

Third, we pray because God intends prayer to be the means of obtaining favors from Him. No one goes through life without facing tough times. Either trouble comes to us, or we dabble in it. When it happens, we look for answers, including turning to God in prayer. 

Fourth, we pray for the strength to overcome temptation, find peace and calm, seek wisdom and guidance from God, experience spiritual renewal, confess our sins, and do God’s will. We pray for physical, emotional, and spiritual healing, and to show our gratitude to God. We pray for the assurance of God's protection. We pray in preparation for major decisions (Luke 6:12-13), to overcome demonic barriers (Matthew 17:14-21), and to gain strength to resist temptation (Matthew 26:41). We pray to be saved. 

Now, what happens when you don’t pray? First, your relationship with God will begin to cool—not because God has moved, but because you have moved away from Him. Your passion for the Lord grows cold, and once it does, flies start to gather. You leave yourself open to evil spirits. Evil spirits look for cold temples to inhabit. Second, you become more worldly. Your thoughts, decisions, and actions will be influenced by secular standards, emotions, flesh, and logic instead of the Spirit of the Lord. Third, you begin to place your confidence in yourself, your finances, others, or material possessions instead of in God. You may think things are going well, but time and again, we are reminded that no one, no matter how accomplished, can be trusted wholeheartedly. Fourth, your discernment and judgment will suffer. You begin to rationalize and make excuses for what God and the Church call evil. What used to trouble your conscience no longer moves you. Moral failure no longer grieves you. Fifth, when you stop praying, you unknowingly declare whose side you are on—that it is no longer the true and living God. You sign a secret agreement with the Devil, the great Scatterer and Adversary, to oppress you. You open the door to affliction. Sixth, when you stop praying, you could lose your way and become weighed down with fear, anxiety, and stress. When that happens, you lose the peace and joy you once had in the Lord. Seventh, you risk sacrificing your salvation. 

Sisters and brothers, do not become weary of praying. I tell you, it’s necessary. Your sisters and brothers need it. Your country needs it. The world needs prayer. If Christians stop praying, everything in the world will fall apart. I tell you, you don’t want to live in a world where no one is standing in the gap for the nations of the world. Our Lord Jesus Christ wants us “to pray always without becoming weary.” 

God bless you!

Homily For the Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Worship: The Key To Internal And External Order

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily For the Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, October 12, 2025

In ancient times, leprosy deeply frightened people, just as contagious and mysterious diseases scare us today. However, besides the fear of catching infectious diseases, people were more worried about the consequences of such diseases. Leprosy rendered someone ritually unclean and, therefore, incapable of engaging in the act of worship. That is the reason why the person responsible for examining the patient in ancient Israel was the priest. It was the duty of the priest to oversee and preside over Israelite worship, including deciding who could and could not participate in the temple.  

In today’s Gospel (Luke 17:11-19), we hear the story of Jesus healing ten lepers, with only one returning to give thanks. As Jesus was traveling to Jerusalem, he was met by ten lepers who stood at a distance and shouted, “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!” These lepers, who begged for a cure, were not just worried about their health but also about their inability to participate in temple worship. They were Israelites banished from the temple and excluded from the worship of Yahweh. Exclusion from temple worship was a serious punishment for an ancient Israelite. The temple was the literal dwelling place of Yahweh on earth. Therefore, excluding an Israelite from worship was a deep spiritual disconnect from Yahweh, leading to social isolation and preventing the atonement of sins. 

Although many people today avoid worshiping God, they speak openly with confidence and joy about being atheists. While some religious individuals, including Catholics, often skip attending Mass on weekends without serious reasons, this has not always been the case throughout history. Our generation believes we are wiser, more open-minded, and more intelligent than those who came before us. Before his death, Christopher Hitchens, a leading advocate of new atheism, stated that people should dare to seek knowledge and not settle for others' opinions or accept strange stories from ancient times. He also said that it was time for people of faith to grow up and discard their childish preoccupations. Well, he's late now, and I wonder what kind of conversation he had with God. 

What did Jesus say to the ten lepers? “Go show yourselves to the priests.” What does that mean? The Lord is essentially telling them to return to the temple, from which they have been away for so long. He is sending them back to a place they were meant to be. He is reconnecting them with God, the Source of being and life. In healing them, Jesus was, symbolically speaking, gathering the tribes and bringing them back to worship the true God. By the way, these lepers stand not so much for the socially ostracized but for those who have wandered away from proper worship, the ones who are no longer in communion with the Church and are no longer able or willing to worship the true God. 

But why is the worship of God so important? What does worship really mean? To worship is to direct a person’s entire life toward the living God, and in doing so, we become rightly ordered both internally and externally. Worshipping God indicates what your life is ultimately about. Worship is not something God needs, but something we need very much. The true and living God is not a needy God. God is self-sufficient and self-existent. He needs nothing from me, you, or anyone else. The great St. Augustine of Hippo said, “If we worship God, God is not made any greater. If we don’t worship God, God is not made any smaller. But if we worship God, we are made greater, and if we do not worship God, we are made smaller.” One of the key ways to understand a person is by identifying their ultimate concern in life. What someone worships reveals a lot about them. If it’s not the living God, they, like the ten lepers, are in exile and have become unclean. 

Let me conclude with this thought: every one of us, no matter how successful and important we are, has some form of leprosy. That is to say, a disease, a mental illness, a persistent moral flaw, or an addiction that torments us, humiliates us, and frightens us. As hard as we may try to dismiss it, everyone has something that worries, bedevils, shames, and frightens us. St. Paul calls it “a thorn in the flesh” (2 Cor. 12:7), which he pleads with the Lord three times to remove. But the Lord tells him, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Do we want to eliminate this thorn in our side? Yes! But we should be cautious because that thorn might be precisely what God is using to bring us closer to Him. The very thing we want to eliminate from our lives immediately might be the same thing God is using to draw us nearer. God can use your weakest point to reach you. As the saying goes, “Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.” However, if you genuinely desire to be healed, you must walk the path of humility and come to Jesus. You must see Him as someone you cannot do without. You must surrender to His Lordship and allow Him to lead and guide you. You must do what He commands. 

God bless you!

Homily For the Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

The Spirit of Power, Love, And Self-Control

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily For the Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, October 5, 2025

Today’s second reading is from Paul’s second letter to Timothy (1:6-8, 13-14). Paul wrote to his spiritual son, Timothy, whom he personally converted to Christianity, while he was in prison. Christians who believe in Christianity without embracing the cross should take note: Paul often found himself imprisoned. Timothy traveled with Paul during one of his missionary journeys. He was half-Jewish and half-Gentile. Paul, an apostle to the Gentiles, converted Timothy, who represents Paul’s mission to both Jews and Gentiles. In this letter, you can sense the father-son relationship. It’s like hearing an old soldier advise a young soldier. Clearly, Paul loved Timothy and was mentoring him as a disciple. Paul's advice to Timothy is filled with military imagery. Why? Because Paul saw the Christian life and mission as a struggle. From prison, he used his letters to guide Timothy toward a meaningful life as a missionary. 

In our reading today, we come across a line that has been one of my favorite passages in the Epistles: “I remind you, to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.” As a priest, I am moved by Paul's reference to laying on of hands. For that was the gesture by which he ordained Timothy to ministry, and that gesture continues today. When I was ordained a priest on June 30, 2007, the ordaining prelate, Bishop Gutemberg Regis, CSsR of Brazil, placed his hands on my head. It is the same gesture used by Paul, and as you can see, it is an ancient gesture. Whenever you attend an ordination Mass and see the Bishop imposing his hands on the candidates for ordination, remember Paul’s words to his young spiritual son, Timothy. The fearless, bold, and confrontational old soldier, Paul, is telling Timothy that the Spirit he received through the laying on of hands is not a Spirit of fear, but one that makes us strong, loving, and wise. 

Sisters and brothers, the Spirit of God is for fighting. And you see this truth echoed throughout the Bible. You see it in Abraham, Moses, Joshua, the prophets, Jesus, and in the lives of every first-century Christian. The Christian faith is a faith that fights. In his other letter written to the Ephesians, St. Paul says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (6:12). We are fighting against a world of hatred, violence, exclusion, racism, division, family feuds, and marriage collapse. We are fighting against secularism, the world of a lack of a sense of God, and the flight of religious reverence. All of these, and many more, are rising against the Church of Jesus Christ, and we who proclaim it, embody it, and try to live the Christian faith must be fighters, full of the Spirit of courage and resistance. 

What is the weapon of this fight? How should we fight? St. Paul says, “We are not given the spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control.” We don’t fight with the weapons of the world. We don’t fight the world on its own terms and ground. We cannot fight hatred with more hatred. We cannot fight cruelty with more cruelty. We cannot fight darkness with more darkness. When we do that, we lose. Instead, we Christians fight with the Spirit of God, which empowers us to be strong, loving, and wise. Christianity is not a naive religion. Throughout the Christian centuries, Christians have known how to fight, but we fight with the weapon of love and self-control. As followers of the Crucified God, we should be ready for opposition. Jesus was put to death by the world, so we who follow him, who are marked by the sign of his cross, must be ready for a fight. That’s what Paul is saying to Timothy and to all of us today. 

The Spirit given to you at your baptism is a Spirit of power, love, and self-control. I have said it many times: fighting hatred with hatred is weakness. Fighting anger with more anger is weakness. Fighting violence with more violence is a weakness. Hatred, anger, violence, and aggression come from the world of darkness. You cannot overcome darkness with more darkness—only light can. The antidote to hatred is love. The saying, “Revenge is best served cold,” originates from a world of darkness and ugliness. The most disempowering weapon against hatred, cruelty, and meanness is love and self-control. Take this to the bank: how you react when you're angry reveals where you are in your spiritual life. In tense moments, does the spirit of self-control take hold? What do you do and say when your spouse hurts you with harsh words? Do you fight back verbally? Or do you allow the spirit of love and self-control to reign? When a colleague at work is cruel to you, how do you respond? Do you plan and carry out your own cruelty? When someone spreads a false story about you, how do you respond? Do you foment lies against that person? No matter what happens at home, at work, in church, etc., never forget who you are: a disciple of a crucified Man-God. You follow someone who experienced all that is ugly in the world. In the end, he was crucified naked outside Jerusalem like a common criminal. He has all the power and the right to revenge, but in the most dramatic and disempowering way, he uttered the words of mercy: “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). On the cross of Jesus Christ, we see the spirit of self-control. We experience divine mercy that completely cancels all the sins of the world. 

God bless you!

Reflection on Luke 9:1-6

In today’s Gospel (Luke 9:1-6), we hear: “Jesus summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick.”

In the past, I have said that the mission of proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ belongs to every baptized Christian, not just deacons, priests, and bishops. As members of his body, we share in the mission of making him known. Jesus gave the Twelve power and authority “to proclaim the Kingdom of God.” As members of his Mystical Body, we have also received the same power and the same mandate to declare the arrival of God’s Kingdom. What is the Kingdom of God? A few weeks ago, I mentioned during a sermon that God’s kingdom is not a specific, carved-out territory. From the standpoint of the Church, Jesus is the Kingdom of God himself. The great theologian, Origen of Alexandria, said that Jesus is the “Autobasileia,” that is, “the Kingdom in person.” The Kingdom of God is God’s way of ordering things, the way God wants things to be. God wants his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. If there is a mom who is stretching herself by cooking, cleaning, and keeping an eye on her little children who are running around the house, she is making God’s kingdom a reality. If there is a dad outside in the yard teaching his little ones how to throw and catch balls, cuddling them, kissing them, and so on, he is making God’s kingdom a reality. The kingdom of God is made concrete in hospitals, where doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers work hard to save lives. The kingdom of God is dawning in classrooms where teachers prepare the next generation for the critical tasks ahead, and sometimes use their own money to feed hungry students. The kingdom of God is being made possible in Caring and Sharing Hands and Mary’s Place, where Mary Jo Copeland and her staff work with compassion and love to attend to the needs of the most vulnerable among us. 

Jesus also sent the Twelve, and by virtue of our baptism, all of us, “to heal the sick.” What is the greatest sickness? Not knowing God, not loving God, and not serving God. The Sickest among us are those who have definitively severed their relationship with God. Yes, I know it, we are frightened by physical ailments. I don’t know anyone who has no anxiety, some trepidation, some fear when it is time to visit their doctors for a regular medical checkup. Somewhere within us, we are anxious and pray and hope that the results come out fine. But sisters and brothers, the deepest disease threatening us every day is sin. If we know God, we don’t know him enough. If we love God, we don’t love him as we ought to, and if we are serving him, we are not serving him unreservedly. We are not giving him our entire selves. 

But if we make Jesus the absolute cornerstone of our lives, all will be well. If we wake up in the morning thinking about the Lord, and we go through the day with him in our hearts and minds, and we retire to sleep with the Lord in mind, after having done the exercise I gave us during the week— using the principle of See, Judge, Act (SJA) to know where we are in our relationship with God and our neighbors, we will be fine. 

As for those of our brothers and sisters who don’t honestly care about God and their spiritual and moral life, our great task is to speak to them with love, and to the One who alone is love. 

God bless you!

Fr. Marcel