The Father and I are one - Easter

American Sniper

Wayne Kyle: [to his sons] There are three types of people in this world: sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. Some people prefer to believe that evil doesn't exist in the world, and if it ever darkened their doorstep, they wouldn't know how to protect themselves. Those are the sheep.

Wayne Kyle: Then you've got predators who use violence to prey on the weak. They're the wolves.

Wayne Kyle: And then there are those blessed with the gift of aggression, an overpowering need to protect the flock. These men are the rare breed who live to confront the wolf. They are the sheepdog.

Now let’s talk about family a little bit. In a family, traditionally:

The father/husband is the image of the shepherd. Jesus says, “No one can take them out of my hand…no one can take them out of the Father’s hand!…The Father and I are one!”

So with the American sniper quote, I love this image of Christ as the shepherd, because he will protect me from the wandering wolf. And who is the wolf?

Satan, and he hates you and wants to damn you to hurt Christ. But he will allure you away, even make you think you are pleasing the Lord by walking away from him.

1 Pet 5:8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Fathers/husbands, you are the shepherds. The devil will come after you to get to your family. Young men, this is what you are training for, to fight the devil and protect your family.

But tomorrow’s Mother’s day, so time to talk about mama. But mama’s and daddy’s work together, for the sake of the flock entrusted to your care!. Right before this, at the beginning of ch. 10 we hear the Lord saying “I am the gate for the sheep!”

Now this gets me thinking. Because I just came off of retreat. And while on retreat our retreat master was talking to us about rest. About the Sabbath, and we Americans aren’t too good with taking time off work, not even on Sunday. We think God’s gift of rest means we are lazy. No, we are bad Catholics if we do not obey the third Commandment. Keep holy the Sabbath! Now for us Catholics that doesn’t mean merely no work on Saturday. Saturday and Sunday, our days off, become sort of intertwined between rest and worship. Now we priests get one day off, and that was the basis of our retreat, how to use well our time of rest.

One of the priests said, “On my day off, I like to go home, I’m a mama’s boy, so being at rest means being with my mom.” What a beautiful and sweet sentiment! I was thinking about it, and maybe its not the same with everyone’s mom, but we all got a mama, and I thought, woah, a mom provides rest for the worn out family! That’s why we all want to go home, because our home is a place of rest. The home, like the Lord, is our little everyday Sabbath. And so, just as Jesus is the good shepherd and I applied that to Father’s, Jesus says, I am the gate for the sheep. Mom’s, you make the home. And just as you mom’s are the gate for every human being to come into this world, so too you are the one who continues to give life as we all grow up.

But we work together, let’s look at the 2nd reading.

The saints had clothes that were washed, my mom did the laundry, fantastic. We are humans. Our clothes reflect outwardly, our inward dignity. Mom’s don’t let your family be sloppy.

They worship him day and night in the temple - Parents, together, this is manly, and this is womanly, to help each other worship properly, and get to worship. Mary said, let’s go to Jerusalem. St. Joseph said, “I thought you’d never ask!”

The King sheltered the saints. This idea of sheltering is very fatherly.

They will not hunger or thirst - isn’t this what a mom does?! Give drink to the thirsty and feed the hungry?! Isn’t this what the Lord said to do in Mt. 25? My mom’s always trying to feed me. Even she texted me today, “its gonna be hot as sin, make sure you drink water!” So I do.

The Lord will be the shepherd - Fathers

To springs of life giving water - Live giving water, don’t mother’s feed their children with life? Even their own bodies? just like Christ is about to do with us!

Ever hear about that one drink? Liquid Death? Ew, stay away from that, we want streams of life giving water!

Every tear will be wiped away - Doesn’t a mother console?! Thank you.

And this is some beautiful example about man and woman’s complementarity, of the beauty that we are capable of together! They say, guys make things work and women make things beautiful!. Amen to that!

First Reading.

Men and women are capable of loving God and the children of God. Look what they did to Paul and Barnabas.

The woman of prominence, worshippers of God were incited to persecute Paul and Barnabas. So too were the leading men of the city.

These men and women who rejected Christ were filled with “Jealousy and with violent abuse contradicted what Paul said.”

The disciples of Christ were filled with joy and the holy spirit.

Mother’s Day

And since this is mother’s day, we give thanks for the home. But the Church calls the family, the first Church, the domestic Church. And so it is here where we learn to be filled with joy and the holy spirit. Sure home’s can be chaotic, but my mom taught me how to love God. I would watch my dad worship and pray secretly asking him, “Dad, teach me how to pray, how to be a man.” My grandmother’s took me to Church. I even got to take my grandmother communion on her death bed. My mom’s mom even died at Church right next to me. They were faithful women. All of us are here because of a faithful mom, a faithful grandma, or a spiritual mom. And we even have a crown on Mary today, because Jesus told us in John 14 that he was going to prepare a Home for us. So what did he do? He assumed his mother into heaven to make that House a home

And so I leave you with this thought. If God is Trinity. In a family, because that is what we celebrate this Mother’s Day, The father images the Father, the child/ren image Christ the Son… which means the wife/mother images God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the gift of the Father and the Son to the faithful. The Spirit even comes bearing gifts. St. Paul tells St. Timothy to “Make full use of the gift of God I gave you when I laid my hands on you!” You wives are gifts to your husbands, gifts from God and you image God the Holy Spirit. Breath Life into your homes! You mom’s are gifts to your children, just as the children are God’s gift and jewels in the crown of the man and woman.

You can never say thank you enough to your mom and dad. So today we say thank you mom, thank you grandma, thank you spiritual mom. And if they’ve gone to God… thank you Jesus for our mom’s!

Latin Homily for III Sunday after Easter & Mother’s Day

1 Pet 2:11-19 & John 16:16-22.

I just came off of retreat. And while on retreat our retreat master was talking to us about rest. About the Sabbath, and we Americans aren’t too good with taking time off work, not even on Sunday. We think God’s gift of rest means we are lazy. No, we are bad Catholics if we do not obey the third Commandment. Keep holy the Sabbath! Now for us Catholics that doesn’t mean merely no work on Saturday. Saturday and Sunday, our days off, become sort of intertwined between rest and worship. Now we priests get one day off, and that was the basis of our retreat, how to use well our time of rest. 

One of the priests said, “On my day off, I like to go home, I’m a mama’s boy, so being at rest means being with my mom.” What a beautiful and sweet sentiment! I was thinking about it, and maybe its not the same with everyone’s mom, but we all got a mama, and I thought, woah, a mom provides rest for the worn out family! That’s why we all want to go home, because our home is a place of rest. The home, like the Lord, is our little everyday Sabbath. 

Today on Mother’s Day, in light of the new Holy Father, the Shepherd of Shepherds, Pope Leo XIV, just as Jesus is the good shepherd and I apply that to you Father’s.  At the beginning of John Ch. 10 Jesus says, I am the gate for the sheep. Mom’s, you make the home. And just as you mom’s are the gate for every human being to come into this world, so too you are the one who continues to give life as we all grow up.

Today in the Gospel, out of the same John’s Gospel, we hear something beautiful, not planned for Mother’s day… 

“A little while, and you shall not see Me: and again a little while, and you shall see Me. Amen, amen, I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice: and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labour, hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she hath brought forth the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. So also you now indeed have sorrow: but I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice: and your joy no man shall take from you.”

You mothers are the gate.  Create heaven on earth.  

Guys build things and make things work.  Women make things beautiful.

Men, we are pilgrims on this earth.  You women…teach all what St. Peter said in the epistle: Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, to refrain yourselves from carnal desires which war against the soul, 

And this is the home, a place of rest for the weary pilgrim of this world.  So of course the home must be a rest from vices, a place for goodness, so that all of us, mothers included are refreshed from the battle and ready to go on again.

As free, and not as making liberty a cloak for malice, but as the servants of God. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the overbearing. For this is thankworthy, if for conscience towards God, a man endure sorrows, suffering wrongfully.

Mother’s Day

And since this is mother’s day, we give thanks for the home. But the Church calls the family, the first Church, the domestic Church. And so it is here where we learn to be filled with joy and the holy spirit. Sure home’s can be chaotic, but my mom taught me how to love God. I would watch my dad worship and pray secretly asking him, “Dad, teach me how to pray, how to be a man.” My grandmother’s took me to Church. I even got to take my grandmother communion on her death bed. My mom’s mom even died at Church right next to me. They were faithful women. All of us are here because of a faithful mom, a faithful grandma, or a spiritual mom. And we even have a crown on Mary today, because Jesus told us in John 14 that he was going to prepare a Home for us. So what did he do? He assumed his mother into heaven to make that House a home

And so I leave you with this thought. If God is Trinity. In a family, because that is what we celebrate this Mother’s Day, The father images the Father, the child/ren image Christ the Son… which means the wife/mother images God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the gift of the Father and the Son to the faithful. The Spirit even comes bearing gifts. St. Paul tells St. Timothy to “Make full use of the gift of God I gave you when I laid my hands on you!” You wives are gifts to your husbands, gifts from God and you image God the Holy Spirit. Breath Life into your homes! You mom’s are gifts to your children, just as the children are God’s gift and jewels in the crown of the man and woman. 

You can never say thank you enough to your mom and dad. So today we say thank you mom, thank you grandma, thank you spiritual mom. And if they’ve gone to God… thank you Jesus for our mom’s!