Mercy Triumphs: Weekly Homilies of a Catholic Priest

In the first reading the Lord says, “Return to me with your whole heart.”   I was thinking about what I was going to say about that. I was going to say something like, “This is very difficult—to give God our whole heart.” But, I realize, it's not difficult. It's actually impossible. We can't give God our whole heart. It's impossible…without God's help. We absolutely need God's help to do this. We're fooling ourselves if we think otherwise.  And, so, we have to get in the habit of asking God for help. “God, help me through this.” “God, help me overcome this.” “God, take away my anxiety; give me strength.” Those should be prayers we should pray every single day. It is so pleasing to God for him to hear you pray that way and it opens us to his help. …In the second reading, Saint Paul says, ‘Be reconciled to God.’ That means repentance has to be real, and, for many of us, it means a good confession this Lent.  If your’e putting confession off, stop. The...

In 1975, Pope Paul VI observed that people today listen more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and that when people do listen to teachers, it is because those teachers are also witnesses. This means we can talk all we want about Jesus, the truth of our faith, and how to live a good life, but if we don’t live what we believe, our words will have little effect. And that is exactly what Jesus is getting at in the Gospel. He calls every disciple to be salt and light. That is what a witness is: someone whose faith people can actually see. Salt changes what it touches. Light does not hide; it shines. And Jesus says very plainly that people should see our good deeds and glorify our heavenly Father. So what is an example of what Pope Paul VI is talking about, and what Jesus teaches in the Gospel? In my own ministry, I have the privilege of meeting with couples who are preparing to enter the Sacrament of Matrimony. One couple I met with has been civilly married for a few years, and th...

I  was at a wake for a priest whose mother had passed away. She was over 100. As I was standing and praying in front of her casket, there was an older gentleman beside me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him make the sign of the cross over her body, and I suspected he was a priest. When he turned, I recognized him. He was a priest; recently back in ministry after some time away. I said hello and told him I was glad he was back and that I was sorry to hear what he went through, and added, “Suffering is transformative, isn’t it.” He nodded. To be sure, suffering does not automatically make us better. Depending on how we respond to it, it can harden us or humble us. It can deepen faith, or it can reveal what our faith was really resting on. That is exactly what today’s readings are about. In the Gospel, Jesus speaks of people who suffer in different ways: those who mourn, those who are poor, those who are persecuted. And He calls them blessed. Not because suffering is good,...

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...