Mercy Triumphs: Weekly Homilies of a Catholic Priest

Was it a catch or not? Should the Bills’ coach have been fired? NFL fans, and especially us Bills fans, are deeply divided on those questions. They have been widely debated, and commentators and well known personalities have offered strong opinions on both sides. Yet when all is said and done, those disagreements don’t affect our souls; they don’t affect our relationship with God or our hope of Heaven. That’s why this division is not something Saint Paul would ever write a letter to us about. But Saint Paul did write letters to Christian communities that were deeply divided, not over sports, but over matters that had eternal consequences. The divisions he addressed were about whether people were following God or slowly drifting away from Him. The divisions we heard about in the second reading in the church at Corinth were so deep that Paul writes, “Each of you is saying, ‘I belong to Paul,’ or ‘I belong to Apollos,’ or ‘I belong to Cephas,’ or ‘I belong to Christ.’ Is Christ divide...

I’ve listened to many stories of people who were overly self-reliant, hit rock bottom, and only then finally surrendered to Jesus. And almost without exception, they speak about how grateful they became for God’s mercy. They knew they had been ignoring God. They weren’t giving Him time during the day. They were depending almost entirely on themselves. Some of those stories involved people getting drawn into astrology, things like tarot cards or fortune-telling. For a while, it gave them a sense of control over their lives, even a feeling of power. But when they eventually tried to step away from it, things became spiritually dark. I’ll leave it at that. What followed was often a long period of prayer and suffering before they finally came to Jesus and surrendered to Him. And when they did, He freed them. He gave them peace. In the same way, the Magi were astrologers. They studied the stars and looked to created things, not God, to give them direction in life. And, like so many thi...

When I was growing up, my mom, with my father’s support, made sure our family went to Mass, went to confession, and prayed the Rosary among other prayers. She was serious about holiness. And, yet, like every family, ours was far from perfect. There were divisions, frictions, and real pain. One of the most impactful moments in our family life was my parents’ divorce. We’ve all heard the saying, “The family that prays together stays together.” We had prayed together. We had gone to Church together. And, still, that happened. That shows us something important: Prayer isn’t magic, nor is prayer about controlling outcomes. Rather, prayer is about trusting God within every situation. …In the second reading, Saint Paul lists a series of virtues precisely because they are difficult. The virtue of obedience is not worth praising unless we are obedient when it’s difficult. Forgiveness is another one. If we refuse to forgive, Saint Paul, and Jesus Himself, tell us not to expect f...

Soon after becoming a priest in 2016, I got a phone call from my brother. He had a friend named Matt, a prayerful man, who wanted to reach out. Matt claimed to receive messages from Jesus, and he said Jesus had something to say to me. The message was basically this: “Jesus wants me to spread the message of His mercy all the time, nonstop.” …So, I tell my family about this phone call, and we’re kind of laughing about it; not in a disrespectful way, but in an excited, curious way. So, my sister Anna says, “Sam, ask Matt if Jesus has anything to say about me.” So I did. A couple days pass, and Matt asks for my sister’s email. About an hour later, I get a text from Anna saying, “I’m teaching right now, and I’m gonna cry.” So, I asked her to send the email. I read it, and it was really nice but nothing dramatic. I said, “Why are you gonna cry?” She said, “Sam, last night I was praying, and I asked God about three different things. And, in this email, Jesus responds to each of them.”...

In seminary, while studying to be a priest, we’re supposed to take 20 masters level courses over four years, and two of the courses are Church History: The first covers from the year 33 to about the year 1500. And the second history course goes from about the year 1500 to today. And, the students in these Church history classes were not just men studying to be priests, but future permanent deacons, their wives, other laypersons, and also persons who were Christian, but not Catholic. And, as I’m sitting in these classes, learning about the history of the Catholic Church, I’m wondering what the Protestant students are thinking and how they can honestly remain Protestant after hearing everything they just heard.  …Protestantism and Evangelicalism, also known as non-denominationalism, didn’t exist until after Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. So, I was really confused how someone could remain Protestant after learning that the Catholic Church was present from the very be...

My first assignment as a priest was at Our Lady Of Victory Basilica. And, if you’ve been there, you know that Fr. Baker’s tomb is right in the church: There’s kneelers and some pews that face the tomb so that, when people want to pray for Fr. Baker’s intercession, it’s quite easy. What you may also notice is that, when people are praying at Fr. Baker’s tomb, their back is to the tabernacle; their back is to Jesus physically present in the church. And if you could imagine Fr. Baker appearing at his tomb, he might say, “Turn around. Face your Lord. Go to Jesus.” What I could also imagine is, if we were then to turn to Jesus, and if Jesus were to appear, He might say, “Turn. Look at my masterpiece. See what my grace can do in someone’s life? Isn’t it beautiful?” And this is the relation between Jesus and His saints: Our devotion to the saints always bring us closer to Jesus, and Jesus Himself delights in the Saints and wants us to be inspired by them because they are His masterpiec...