"Our Crosses Lead to the Resurrection" (Homily #151)

10am School Mass

12pm

(wife's feedback notes for final draft)

One night, an old man had a dream.  He was walking along the beach with Jesus side by side.  As the old man looked behind him, he saw two sets of footprints in the sand.  One belonged to him, and the other belonged to Jesus.

Jesus told the old man that the footprints in the sand showed how he walked with the old man throughout his entire life.  The old man smiled.  However, he then noticed that there were times in his life where there was only one set of footprints in the sand.

He said to Jesus, “Lord, I noticed that there was only one set of footprints during the most difficult times in my life.  But you said that you would always be with me.  Jesus replied, “My precious child, in those difficult moments of your life, when you see only one set of footprints in the sand, it was then that I carried you.”

 I.

This popular story is called “Footprints in the Sand.”  It was written by an anonymous author.  I’d like to use it to highlight that the passion and crucifixion leads to the Resurrection.  Easter comes after Good Friday.  They cannot be separated.  Our first reflection is the Cross.  Our second is a brief reflection on the Resurrection. 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to undergo agony, crucifixion and death.  His passion is what we will celebrate at the end of our 40 days of the discipline of Lent.  But for now, today, Jesus consoles the Cross we carry with his Transfiguration.  He shows us that all suffering will eventually end with the glory of Easter joy.  All our sorrow and medical illnesses in this life is but a blink of the eye compared to an eternity of divine happiness, what is called the Beatific Vision, the face to face vision of God, where we will see God as he is.  But we must first endure the Cross.  God takes what is evil and transfigures it into something more glorious than the evil that it was before.  In the Second Reading, St. Paul wrote to Philippians: “He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body.”

So, it wasn’t just Christ Jesus that was strengthened by this heavenly vision of Moses and Elijah.  He had Peter, John and James with Him to strengthen them for the suffering of the Crucifixion.  They who would later experience the agony in the Garden and the scandal of the crucifixion would first be strengthened beforehand with a foretaste of Jesus Christ’s glory after his crucifixion.  In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus’s face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.  He gives strength during the dark moments of our life, just as he did for Peter, John and James.

II.

Second, to drive this point even closer to today, for the second main reflection about the consolation of the Resurrection which comes after the Cross, in my own life about 10 years ago, I was laid off work with a dozen employees in a company that was downsizing.  The day I was told I lost my job, I had just discovered that my wife was pregnant with our third child and she had to finish grad school that year or be kicked out of school.  Also, around this same time I was in my first year in the permanent deacon program and thought, “Oh boy, maybe God doesn’t want me to be a deacon.”  To make a long story short, as I look back 10 years ago, I see that this Cross at work and ministry and school was meant for some greater good.  Among other lessons I learned, perhaps God wanted me to share this so that families, especially husbands, would know that everything is going to be okay because God is in charge.”  Even though this very difficult trial happened, my family still served the Church and contribute to the parish, even with things going on in our lives.  He was carrying me, even when it felt like God was not with me.  My suffering, when united to the Cross, was my little gift to God.  Jesus’ death on the Cross gave birth to the salvation of souls.  It was His finest hour.  In this darkest moment of family life, it too – as confirmed by my spiritual director – was ironically my finest hour.  What about you, dear brothers and sisters?  What Cross have you carried or are carrying now?  How can it be transfigured into your finest hour?  As Michael O’Brien wrote in the novel, called Father Elijah, “If we have taught you to carry your Cross, then we have taught you well.”

Finally, better yet, here is a final reflection on the lives of the saints: We celebrate St. Patrick’s Day (tomorrow since Sunday takes precedence over a saint’s feast day), the patron saint of our Diocese.  St. Patrick too experienced a type of Transfiguration moment of the Cross and Resurrection at the same time.  He was originally from England and sold into slavery in Ireland around the year 400.  He eventually escaped slavery and after being ordained a priest and bishop (and I believe he was also the son of a deacon) returned to Ireland, the very same place that sold him into slavery when he was younger.  As a result, Ireland eventually converted to the Catholic faith and sent out missionaries all over the world for 1600 years.  Amazing!  

This is similar to Joseph the Dreamer in the Old Testament.  The Patriarch Joseph with his dream coat was sold by his older brothers into slavery in Egypt, but later he rescued God’s people.  In the kid’s video called Joseph: King of Dreams, starring Ben Affleck and Mark Hamill, Joseph was imprisoned.  In this video, during his darkest hour, he would sing, “You know better than I / You know the way / I’ve let go the need to know why / For you know better than I / I’ll take what answers you supply / You know better than I.”  Our Cross is a kiss from God, who knows better than I do.  

III.

In closing, the Feast of the Transfiguration reminds us that the Cross leads to the Resurrection.  With suffering and hardship come glory and victory.  With Lent and Good Friday come Easter.  Whether this be the Patriarch Joseph or St. Patrick’s life many centuries ago, or Christian family life and work today, or an old man with a dream of Jesus carrying him along the beach during the most difficult times in his life, may the Transfiguration remind us that, through it all, Jesus carries us in our darkest hour.  He has a plan, a plan for our greater good.

He is the Light in our darkness, the Light that overcomes the evils of our world; he is the Lord who is our Light and our Salvation.  Amen.

A Heart-Felt Letter I Wrote to an Engaged Couple I am Preparing For Marriage in the Catholic Church

"A heart-felt letter in honor of the engagement of _______ & _______"

Dear _______ and _______, servants of the King of Heaven,

I am writing a heart-felt letter to you.  I am grateful for your desire to be married at St. _______ Cathedral overseas in _______.  For this, you two are to be commended.  It is a sign that both of you who are baptized and confirmed Catholics want to approach this new chapter in your life the right way according to the teachings of Christ and His Bride, the Church.

As today is Ash Wednesday (which is the beginning of Lent), it is most fitting because it is a time of new beginnings.  We crossed paths through the wonders of technology and media.  I had hoped to have further conversations in person, so much of what I write below would have been said in person.  Some of that conversation involves not just the paper work and bureaucracy of it all but more importantly the formation of your soul for this sacrament.

My role as your Preparing Minister is to help you on your journey home to Heaven.  This means that I can only represent the Catholic approach to the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, which was instituted by Christ.  God instituted marriage at the beginning of time, but it was Christ who elevated married to the dignity of a sacrament.  As Catholics, we are called to be different from how the world views marriage and called to be married in the Church since to whom much is given much will be expected.

Your role as an engaged couple is so wonderfully unique.  Neither of you have prepared for a Catholic wedding, so this is exciting.  As you know, it is different than a non-Catholic wedding.  The correct approach to the Sacrament of Matrimony is that, during the engagement process, all sexual activity belongs properly in the Sacrament of Matrimony when two baptized Catholics take their vows before God and the altar with the priest.  In the Catholic Church, for two baptized Catholics to either marry civilly and/or live together (cohabit) before marriage is the opposite of this call.  (This is why it is necessary to have the Lack of Form Annulment done for _______, because for a baptized Catholic to be married civilly shows that one did not at the time properly understand the Catholic teaching on marriage.)  During this stage of your engagement period, we want to build a strong foundation by inviting you to not marry civilly and/or even cohabit together until the day of your marriage.   As I mentioned, it is Lent, so it is a time for a new chapter.  And we want to get the foundation strong!  That is why I write this heart-felt letter: Regardless of the past, we now want to look forward to the future where you are including God in your engagement period.  From the point of view of your whole lives in the future together, the engagement period will be but a blink of the eye.  The foundation will be weakened with a civil marriage and/or cohabiting situation and this irregular situation you would put yourselves in can also jeopardize one’s salvation.

On a personal note, as you may know, in the Catholic Church, permanent deacons are permitted to have one wife and children.  Most priests are celibate, but deacons can have a family, so I share this with you as your Preparing Minister.  When my then-fiancé and I were engaged in 2002, we like you had to face many issues such as opportunities for us to cohabit and even marry civilly over a one-year engagement period since this would have allowed financial benefits.  But we did not cohabit or marry civilly.  The deacon who prepared us for marriage reinforced this Catholic teaching.  I mention this because it is possible even in our modern times to follow the Catholic teaching about not marrying civilly or cohabitating.

Canonically speaking (i.e., church law) or procedures-wise, I know one can ask whether marrying civilly now can possibly affect whether St. _______ Cathedral will allow you to move forward there.  This would be a question up to the cathedral priest.  I’ve prepared only a couple of people for the sacraments in Europe and am not too familiar with how things are done there.  If you were to marry civilly, the priest may say that you are in an “irregular situation” over the next year and will then change your case to have your civil marriage “convalidated.”  The engagement period would be referred to as “irregular” where you would have to refrain from Holy Communion until your Catholic marriage date next year.  This is not excommunication, but the priest or deacon preparing you may ask you to not receive Holy Communion if you are living in sin by marrying civilly.  I have heard of priests that have done things like this.  Additionally, the Preparing Minister can make comments about the couple not understanding marriage in the marriage prep file, and this actually can be grounds for an invalid marriage if you were informed but still choose to marry civilly.  As you can see, this is a very big decision that both of you are making.  The Catholic Church considers what you are doing very sacred and serious, unlike the State which doesn’t really care about these eternal things.    

As you know, things can be communicated differently when in writing or phone as opposed to in person.  So please know that I wrote all these things with as much love and pastoral charity as possible, and I say all these things for your good in this life and your salvation in the next life.  You are a brother in Christ and a sister in Christ, and I will do my utmost to guide you along the Catholic way of life.  The Church can only propose, not impose.  I do hope that you consider even further the Catholic approach to courtship and marriage.  Perhaps in the past the correct understanding of the Sacrament of Matrimony was not explained to you.  And if you were not informed then you are not as culpable for this compared to if you were informed about the correct Catholic understanding of marriage.   But now you are aware of the Catholic teaching.

As I close my heart-felt letter, I ask Mary, the Woman at the Wedding Feast of Cana in John Chapter 2.  It was because of Mary that Jesus helped the couple for their wedding day.  Jesus and Mary show us that they are with us even today.  When the “wine” of your material and spiritual needs run out, let us ask the Mother of Jesus to assist you, especially over this next year.  May your engagement period and future marriage before God and His Church be consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  May St. Patrick, the great patron saint of Ireland, the land of saints and martyrs, intercede for you. 

Your Servant and Brother Always,

Story We Told Our Kids About Our Family History