Mercy Triumphs: Weekly Homilies of a Catholic Priest

Some time ago, someone I knew, tragically, passed away from a drug overdose. I'm going to call him “Al.”   From my experience, Al was not religious.  Well, one day, a couple years before he died, Al approached me and said he thought he saw Jesus.  What happened was, Al was employed by a church. And, as Al was doing work in the church, he noticed a very disheveled looking man kneeling and praying in the front pew. This confused Al because the doors to the church had been locked and secured for some time. Inside the church were: Al, a cleaning person, and this very disheveled looking man.  Al was then on his way out of the church to grab something and, on his return, he planned to ask the man to go on his way, since nobody was supposed to be in the church at the time.  Al was comforted that there was a cleaning person there to keep an eye on the man.  Upon Al’s return inside the church, the man was gone. So, he approached the cleaning person an...

I was reading a published letter by a nun, Sr. Ruth O’Callaghan, who died from an aggressive form of breast cancer in December of 2020. She was 43 years old. The letter I'm about to quote from was written shortly after her diagnosis in December of 2019. Sister Ruth wrote, “You might think that, for nuns, everything is under control, or that we are bulletproof and these things simply do not happen to us. Yes, these things happen to us too… A bomb of emotions exploded inside me, and I didn’t even know where I should start to try to calm myself down. For the first two days, I think I cried out of pure shock but, at the same time, I had peace. It is hard to describe. So many things were going through my head…but the only thought that was clear in my mind was that ‘I may well soon meet the Lord…’” Sister Ruth’s letter continues: Jesus said, “‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock.’ I had never meditated on these words of the Lord so deeply and so intimately…So many of the prayers at ...

There was a nun named Sister Clare Crockett. She was born 1982 in Ireland. Growing up, she desired to be a famous actress and, having early success, was encouraged by professionals that she had real hopes of going to Hollywood. During that time, prior to her conversion, she was living a life that reflected how millions live theirs: For the moment; for the weekend; for fun, with over drinking and casual relationships. One day, her friend invited her on a trip to Spain. Clare thought it was for fun, but it was actually a religious trip. And, it just so happened they were going to be there during Holy Week. So, on Good Friday, when the group went to church, she was encouraged to kiss the feet of Jesus on the crucifix. She reluctantly went up to the altar and, as she kissed the Lord’s feet, she had this epiphany that her sins are what nailed Jesus to the cross; that Jesus died for her …She returned to her pew and wept. After her trip, at home in Ireland, her life didn’t change much e...

Is anything worth your soul? Is doing anything that will cause us to lose our souls worth losing our souls over?   The ashes of Ash Wednesday remind us that even our very bodies are not worth our eternal souls.  Everything will turn to ashes and dust but our souls will live on and, where they go, is up to whether we take God serious or not. …God wants to make your life here amazingly beautiful. He does not desire for you to live in misery but to live in joy, peace, and hope. But that means we have to get rid of those things that steal our joy and peace, and damage our hope. We gotta get rid of that stuff and start doing those things that will give you that joy, peace, and hope that God wants for you. Daily prayer and weekly fasting is a great way to do that, and it will lead you to make those decisions in your life that will make your life increasingly beautiful and amazing. Ash Wednesday is a great reminder to take God seriously once again, to take the church seriously once a...

At the conclusion of a 2003 murder trial, families gave “victim impact statements” where two individuals understandably cursed the defendant who was found guilty of taking the lives of multiple people. The victims’ family members said things like, “I wish for him to have a long, suffering, cruel death.” Another said, “He is going to hell, and that’s where he belongs.” Then, a father who lost his daughter gave his statement, and it went like this: “Mr. Ridgeway, there are people here who hate you. I am not one of them. You have made it difficult to live up to what I believe, and that is what God says to do. And that’s to forgive. You are forgiven, sir.” …In today’s Gospel, Jesus said, “[L]ove your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” That actually goes beyond the teaching, “Love your neighbor as yourself” because, for example, if I were guilty of those crimes, I wouldn’t blame those people for cursing me. I would under...

When Pope Francis was first elected in 2013, I didn't like him very much. He was saying things that seemed to confirm people in sin and then upset the people who were actually trying to live according to what the Church teaches. And, around 2015, I started reading a book that compiled many of his speeches and homilies over the couple years he had been Pope. And, as I was reading this book, it was making me angrier. But, as I forced myself to continue reading, he said something in one of his homilies that struck me. And it made me reverse my opinion of him. I had this realization that Pope Francis, at least in my opinion, is through and through a follower of Jesus.  To be clear, despite what almost every single news channel on television says, Pope Francis is not the head or the leader of the Catholic Church. Jesus is. Pope Francis is the head bishop. And, in that position, as Catholics, we owe him respect and a listening ear. Which brings me to the fact that Pope Francis just ...

When I was a brand new priest, about a few years ago, I was stationed at Our Lady of Victory Basilica with a wonderful pastor.   One night, as we were watching television in his sitting room, the doorbell rang at about 9. It was completely dark out and, so, I was too afraid to answer the door by myself, and, without hesitating, the pastor got up, walked downstairs and, like a little kid, I followed close behind wondering who could be at the door.  I did feel a little comforted though because the front door of the rectory is a big sheet of glass and, so, one could easily see and speak to the person without opening the door.  But, unfortunately, because the pastor was a few steps ahead of me, he was able to turn the corner and open the door before I was able to see who it was. In my head, I was wondering why he didn’t first talk to whomever this was through the door to figure out if the person was friendly. So, as I rounded the corner, I saw a towering, almost seve...