Pope Benedict Visits Poland

One of the first meetings that he had was with priests.  The address he gave them is inspiring. Here is a great excerpt:

The faithful expect only one thing from priests: that they be specialists in promoting the encounter between man and God. The priest is not asked to be an expert in economics, construction or politics. He is expected to be an expert in the spiritual life. With this end in view, when a young priest takes his first steps, he needs to be able to refer to an experienced teacher who will help him not to lose his way among the many ideas put forward by the culture of the moment. In the face of the temptations of relativism or the permissive society, there is absolutely no need for the priest to know all the latest, changing currents of thought; what the faithful expect from him is that he be a witness to the eternal wisdom contained in the revealed word. Solicitude for the quality of personal prayer and for good theological formation bear fruit in life. Living under the influence of totalitarianism may have given rise to an unconscious tendency to hide under an external mask, and in consequence to become somewhat hypocritical. Clearly this does not promote authentic fraternal relations and may lead to an exaggerated concentration on oneself. In reality, we grow in affective maturity when our hearts adhere to God. Christ needs priests who are mature, virile, capable of cultivating an authentic spiritual paternity [emphasis added]. For this to happen, priests need to be honest with themselves, open with their spiritual director and trusting in divine mercy.

On the occasion of the Great Jubilee, Pope John Paul II frequently exhorted Christians to do penance for infidelities of the past. We believe that the Church is holy, but that there are sinners among her members. We need to reject the desire to identify only with those who are sinless. How could the Church have excluded sinners from her ranks? It is for their salvation that Jesus took flesh, died and rose again. We must therefore learn to live Christian penance with sincerity. By practising it, we confess individual sins in union with others, before them and before God. Yet we must guard against the arrogant claim of setting ourselves up to judge earlier generations, who lived in different times and different circumstances. Humble sincerity is needed in order not to deny the sins of the past, and at the same time not to indulge in facile accusations in the absence of real evidence or without regard for the different preconceptions of the time. Moreover, the confessio peccati, to use an expression of Saint Augustine, must always be accompanied by the confessio laudis – the confession of praise. As we ask pardon for the wrong that was done in the past, we must also remember the good accomplished with the help of divine grace which, even if contained in earthenware vessels, has borne fruit that is often excellent.

Read the whole thing here.

Requiescat In Pace

Fr. Todd Reitmeyer, a priest of my diocese and fellow blogger died yesterday in a jet ski accident.  It is a sad and tragic day for the Diocese of Sioux Falls.

Fr. Todd was a man of great faith and strong convictions; a man ready to meeet his maker as is evident by these comments which he recently posted on his blog:

This Is Why I Think Francis Cardinal Arinze Is Awesome

From a letter to the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on the issue of translating the Roman Missal (Mass texts) from the Latin into English:

The attention of your Bishops’ Conference was also recalled to the fact that Liturgiam authenticam was issued at the directive of the Holy Father at the time, Pope John Paul II, to guide new translations as well as the revision of all translations done in the last forty years, to bring them into greater fidelity to the original-language official liturgical texts. For this reason it is not acceptable to maintain that people have become accustomed to a certain translation for the past thirty or forty years, and therefore that it is pastorally advisable to make no changes. Where there are good and strong reasons for a change, as has been determined by this Dicastery in regard to the entire translation of the Missale Romanum as well as other important texts, then the revised text should make the needed changes. The attitudes of Bishops and Priests will certainly influence the acceptance of the texts by the lay faithful as well.

Amen to that!

Homily: 6th Sunday of Easter

You know, I love to hear laughter.  It’s no surprise to most of you to hear me say that I love to make people laugh…I love it so much because laughter can be a sign of joy. 

In the gospel for today Jesus reminds us yet again that following the commandments and the teachings of the Church bring us joy by saying “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love…I have told you this so that my joy may be in you, and your joy might be complete.”

Yes, you heard it right, straight from the lips of Jesus.  If we want God’s joy to be in us, then we must remain in his love, and if we want to remain in His love, then we must keep the commandments. My brothers and sisters in Christ, we must live according to the plan laid out for us by God through the scriptures and through the teachings of the Church if we want to experience in our lives true and lasting joy.

Now I am not talking here about some sort of passing joy…some sort of passing emotion…a sense of euphoria.  Rather I am talking about true, deep and abiding joy; something that few in our world have ever experienced, because really, deep down, they don’t believe that following the teachings of the Church will bring them joy.  Many would rather take their chances on some passing joy, some momentary experience of happiness than live their lives in such a way that they experience true joy.

Why is that? Why do people tend to choose the passing and temporary joys of sin rather than the true and abiding joy that comes from following the commandments?

I think it’s because we are afraid to truly give of ourselves and the sacrifice or suffering that it might entail.  We, as modern men and women, have unfortunately been formed by a secular culture which is hostile to anything Christian, and because of that, we tend to be just a little bit selfish; at least I know I can be.  Add to that, the natural tendency we all have toward sin…what we call concupiscence and we have a disastrous movement toward selfishness and thus we become a little bit too concerned about ourselves and our comfort, rather that focusing more on sacrificing our desires and comfort so that we might be able to give ourselves to God and to our neighbor in a more complete way.

It’s true…if we focus on ourselves and our comfort, and our pleasure then we will experience brief moments of happiness.  But those moments are short and rather empty.  If we make ourselves into a gift, into a living sacrifice offered to God through following the commandments of God and loving our neighbor, then we will be full of true joy; the joy that brings peace of mind and heart. 

This concept should ring true for us.  I think most of us; because we are all sinful, have experienced in our lives the emptiness and sadness that comes from choosing the momentary pleasures of sin.  Hopefully we have also experienced the true joy that comes from doing the right thing, even if it means we have to make some sort of sacrifice.  We know the difference; it’s just up to us to flex our spiritual muscle to do the right thing more and more until it becomes a good habit, what we call a virtue.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus is calling us today to experience true joy, to experience as he put it “complete joy,”  but this comes only through being willing to sacrifice our own will and follow the commandments and the teaching of the Church.  It’s a tall order, but one that I know we can live up to.  We are people of faith, we are people endowed with the power of the sons and daughters of God, and we can do it.  We can be holy, we can become saints…so let’s get to it.

Beware of Silas...

What Does The Future Hold?

For the Legionaries of Christ, that is.  Will their apostalate be tainted forever in light of this?

Beginning in 1998, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith received accusations, already partly made public, against Fr. Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ, for crimes that fall under the exclusive competence of the congregation. In 2002, Fr. Maciel published a declaration denying the accusations and expressing his displeasure at the offence done him by certain former Legionaries of Christ. In 2005, by reason of his advanced age, Fr. Maciel retired from the office of superior general of the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ.

"All these elements have been subject to a mature examination by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and - in accordance with the Motu Proprio 'Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela,' promulgated on April 30 2001 by Servant of God John Paul II - the then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, authorized an investigation into the accusations. In the meantime, Pope John II died and Cardinal Ratzinger was elected as the new Pontiff.

"After having attentively studied the results of the investigation, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under the guidance of the new prefect, Cardinal William Joseph Levada, decided - bearing in mind Fr. Maciel's advanced age and his delicate health - to forgo a canonical hearing and to invite the father to a reserved life of penitence and prayer, relinquishing any form of public ministry. The Holy Father approved these decisions.

"Independently of the person of the Founder, the worthy apostolate of the Legionaries of Christ and of the Association 'Regnum Christi' is gratefully recognized."

Notice that the whole apostolate of the Legionaries is still gratefully recognized.  It is only the founder who has been asked to live a "reserved life."

DaVinci Code Publicity

Well, it happened again.  I made it onto the front page of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.

The article is about the DaVinci Code Movie release this coming friday and does a very good job dispelling some of the myths about Jesus, St. Mary Magdalene, the Church and Opus Dei.

The article quotes a number of local pastors, mostly protestant, and yours truly.  My area of expertise was Opus Dei and they quoted extensively from a Theology on Tap talk that I recently gave here in Sioux Falls. 

Here is a link to the article.  It's worth a read.

Homily: 5th Sunday of Easter

More than a century ago a university student boarded a train in France and sat next to an older man who seemed to be a peasant of comfortable means.  The young student noticed that the older gentleman was slipping beads through his fingers.  He was praying the rosary.

"Sir, do you still believe in such outdated things?” the student inquired.

"Yes, I do. Don't you?" the man responded.  The student laughed and admitted, "I do not believe in such silly things.  Take my advice.  Throw the rosary out the window, and learn what science has to say about it."

"Science? I do not understand this science.  Perhaps you can explain it to me," the man said humbly, tears welling in his eyes.

The university student noticed that the man was deeply moved.  To avoid hurting further the older person's feelings, he said, "Please give me your address and I will send you some literature to explain the matter to you."  The man fumbled in the inside pocket of his coat and pulled out his business card.  On reading the card, the student lowered his head in shame and was speechless.  The card read: "Louis Pasteur, Director of the Institute of Scientific Research, Paris."  The deluded science student encountered his country's leading chemist and bacteriologist, the man who had discovered the cure for rabies. 

Louis Pasteur was not ashamed to honor his heavenly mother…nor should we.

Tomorrow/Today we celebrate Mothers Day, and no doubt we will be doing all sorts of things to honor our mothers; we will buy them flowers, give them gifts, take them out to eat and have family gatherings in their honor, and we should!  These women deserve our love and our gratitude…after all they were the ones who gave us life.

In addition to our physical mothers, there is another mother in our lives.  This mother didn’t give us birth in the physical realm but in the spiritual realm.  Mary, the mother of God is also our mother and so logically it might be good to honor her in a special way on this Mothers Day.

As Catholics we believe that Mary, because of her unique role in our salvation, is worthy of our veneration and imitation. 

We venerate Mary because She is the Ark of the New Covenant.  Remember in the Old Testament how the people venerated the Ark of the Covenant – it was the holiest object of their devotion.  Why was it so holy?  Why did they carry it wherever they went?  Why did they put it in the Holy of Holies in the Temple?  Was it because it was made of precious wood overlaid with Gold?  No, it was because it carried within it the tablets on which God had inscribed the Ten Commandments, some of the manna which God had fed them with as they wandered through the desert, and the priestly staff of Aaron.  The ark of the Old Covenant was holy and venerable because of what it contained.

Mary, the ark of the new covenant is holy because of what she contained within herself as well, for she contained within her womb that which the objects in the old ark foreshadowed.  As Dr. Scott Hahn points out in his book entitled Hail Holy Queen, “If the first ark contained the Word of God in stone, Mary’s body contained the Word of God enfleshed.  If the first ark contained the miraculous bread from heaven, Mary’s body contained the very Bread of Life that conquers death forever.  If the first ark contained the rod of the long-ago ancestral priest, Mary’s body contained the divine person of the eternal priest, Jesus Christ.”  Surely if the old ark was venerated, so should the new ark be venerated.

Mary should also be imitated. As any child imitates their physical mother so we should imitate our spiritual mother.  We should seek, like her, to say “Yes” to bringing Jesus to the world around us.  We should see, like her, to stand firm in our loyalty even in the midst of the suffering of the Cross.  We should seek, like her, to be modest and pure in all our thoughts and actions.

The Church in Her wisdom has given us many means to remind us of Mary’s motherly protection and care.  The Church has given us the rosary, a prayer which beckons us to enter prayerfully into the life of Her Son so that we may more easily enter into a personal relationship with Him.  The Church has also given us the Brown Scapular of our Lady of Mt. Carmel, one of my favorite devotions but sadly, one that has been abandoned my many.  Those of you who are more mature – I won’t say old – just more mature might remember that you were enrolled in the Brown Scapular on the day of your first communion.  Those of you who are young may have never even seen or heard of the Brown Scapular which is why I brought one with me.  This brown piece of cloth is a sign of our dedication to Mary and a reminder that She always shields us with her mantle.  Just as a good mother will wrap her children inside of her cloak to shield them from the cold or from danger, so our Blessed Lady gives us the scapular to shield us from the spiritual dangers which surround us daily.  It is a beautiful devotion…one that I encourage wholeheartedly.

May is the month of mothers…which includes our mother Mary.  Honor her today in some special way; show her how grateful you are that she said yes to being the mother of Jesus and our mother as well.

The Unoffical Translation

This past Sunday His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI ordained a number of men to the priesthood.  Via Whispers in the Loggia here is the unoffical translation of the Holy Fathers  Homily:

In this hour at which you, dear friends, through the Sacrament of Priestly Ordination, take your introduction as shepherds in the service of the great Pastor Jesus Christ, it is the Lord himself who speaks to us in the Gospel of favorable service of the flock of God. The image of the shepherd is a long-held one. In the ancient East, kings designated themselves as the shepherds of their people. In the Old Testament Moses and David, before being called to become heads and shepherds of the People of God, were effectively shepherds of flocks. In the travails of the period of the exile, in the face of the downfall of the shepherds of Israel -- that is, of the political and religious leaders -- Ezekiel traced the image of God himself as the Shepherd of his people: " As a shepherd tends his flock… so I will tend my sheep and rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark" (Ez 34:12). Now, Jesus announces that this hour has arrived: He himself is the Good Shepherd in whom God takes care of his creature, man, calling human beings to himself and guiding them to the true pasture. St Peter, to whom the risen Lord gave the charge of tending his sheep, of becoming the shepherd for Him and with Him, classifies Jesus as the "archipomen" -- the archpastor, and by this seeks to say that he can be shepherd of the flock of Jesus Christ only by means of Him and in the most intimate communion with Him. It's this that expresses itself in the Sacrament of Ordination: the priest becomes totally inserted in Christ as, going forth from Him and working in His sight, he develops in communion with Him the service of the one Pastor, Jesus, in whom God, from man, desires to be our Shepherd.

The Gospel of this Sunday is only one part of the grand discourse of Jesus on the shepherds. In this piece, the Lord tells us three things about the true pastor: he gives his own life for his sheep; he knows them and they know him; he is at the service of unity. Before reflecting on these three essential characteristics of being shepherds, it'll be useful to briefly remember the previous part of the discourse on the shepherds in which Jesus, before designating himself as the Shepherd, says to our surprise: "I am the gate" (Jn 10:7). He is the one who must be entered in the service of the shepherd. Jesus places in a very clear way – one which stands out – this root condition, affirming that “He who ascends another way is a thief and a robber” (Jn 10:1). The word “ascend” [“salire”] evokes the image of someone who goes up into a closed-off place, climbing, to where he wouldn’t be able to legitimately arrive. To “ascend” – this can be seen also as the image of careerism, of the attempt of arriving “on high,” of procuring for oneself a position by means of the Church: to serve oneself, not to serve. It is the image of the man who, through the priesthood, wishes to make himself important, to become a personage; the image of him who has in his sights his own exaltation and not the humble service of Jesus Christ. The only legitimate ascent toward the ministry of the shepherd, however, is the Cross. This is the gate. To not personally desire to become something, but instead that we be for the other, for Christ, and so by means of Him and with Him be for men the One they seek, that He may lead them along the path of life. The priesthood is entered by the Sacrament – which means precisely this: by the total donation of myself to Christ, that He may make use of me; that I may serve Him and follow His call, and that these must be in contrast with my desires of self-realization and esteem. To enter through the gate, who is Christ, means to know and love him always ever-more, to unite our will to his and that our work becomes one and the same as his. Dear friends, for this intention we pray always, we wish to pledge ourselves to this, that this Christ may grow in us, that our union with Him becomes always more profound, so that through us the same Christ may be with the one who grazes.

Let us look closer now at the three fundamental affirmations of Jesus on the good shepherd. The first, which with great force pervades his whole discourse on the shepherds, says: the shepherd gives his life for the sheep. The mystery of the Cross is at the center of the service of Jesus as shepherd: it is the true great service which He renders to all of us. He gives himself. For this, with good reason, at the center of the priestly life stands the holy Eucharist, in which the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross remains continually present among us. And going forth from this we learn also what it means to celebrate the Eucharist in a fitting way: it is to encounter the Lord who, for us, stripped himself of his divine glory, leaving himself humbled to the point of his death on a cross and so giving himself to us all. The daily Eucharist is very important for the priest, in which he exhibits this mystery always; always anew he places his own hands in the hands of God experiencing at the same time the joy of knowing that He is present, welcomes me, lifts me and carries me always. The Eucharist must become for us a school of life, in which we learn to give our own life. Life is not something given solely in the moment of death and not only in the mode of martyrdom. We must give it day by day. It is necessary to learn day by day that I do not possess my life for myself. Day by day, I must learn to abandon myself; to put myself at the disposition of that thing for which He, the Lord, needs me for at that moment, even if there are other things which seem nicer-looking and important. To give life, not take it. And so that we may have the experience of freedom. That freedom gives of ourselves, the vastness of being. And so, in being useful, our life becomes important and beautiful. Only he who gives his life, finds it.

As the second thing, the Lord tells us: “I know my sheep, and my sheep know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father” (Jn 10:14-15). They are two apparently different relationships of all the many which are found linked one to the other: the relationship between Jesus and the Father and the relationship between Jesus and the men and women entrusted to Him. But both relationships go together in their own way, as men, so the story tells, parted from God and are in search of Him. When they welcome that one speaks only his own name and takes him from being alone, they intuit that it cannot be the one for whom they are looking. When, however, the voice of the Father resounds in a person, the door is opened for the relationship which man awaits. So it also must be in our case. Above all and in our summons we must live the relationship with Christ and by means of him with the Father; only then can we truly understand men, that they may tell of having found the true shepherd. Obviously, in the words of Jesus is also a recounting of all the charges of pastoral practice, of going after men and women, going to find them, of being open to their needs and their questions. Obviously the practical knowledge is fundamental, realizing the people entrusted to me, and obviously it’s important to understand this “knowing” in the biblical sense: it is not a real knowing without love, without an interior relationship, without a profound reception of the other. The shepherd cannot content himself simply by knowing names and dates. His knowing also must always be a knowing with his heart. This is only feasible, however, if the Lord has opened our heart; our knowing doesn’t bind people to our private selves, to our own little heart, but instead allows them to feel the heart of Jesus, the heart of the Lord. It must be a knowing with the heart of Jesus and oriented toward him, a knowing which doesn’t bind man to me, but guides him toward Jesus, so allowing him to be free and open. That this may be given to us, let us pray anew to the Lord.

Finally, the Lord speaks to us of the service of unity entrusted to the shepherd: “I have other sheep that are not of this fold; these also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd” (Jn 10:16). John repeats the same thing after the decision of the Sanhedrin to kill Jesus, when Caiaphas says that it would be better that only one should die for the people rather than the entire nation perish. John remembers in this a prophetic word and adds: “Jesus was going to die for the nation and not for the nation alone, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God” (11:52). The relation between the Cross and unity is revealed; that unity is paid for with the Cross. Above all however emerges the universal horizon of the work of Jesus. If Ezekiel in his prophecy on the shepherd had in mind the restoration of the unity among the dispersed tribes of Israel (cf. Ez 34:22-24), now is found the unification of all the sons of God, of humanity – of the Church of the Jews and of the Pagans. The mission of Jesus pertains to the whole of humanity, and for this to the Church is given a responsibility for all humanity, that it may come to know God, the God who, for us all, was made man in Jesus Christ, who suffered, died, and is risen. The Church must not content itself of the ranking of those who have reached it by a certain point. It cannot rest itself comfortably in the limits of its own environment. It is charged with a universal solicitude, which must be the worry of all. This great charge is one we must “translate” in our own respective missions. Obviously a priest, a shepherd of souls, must above all worry himself with them all, who believe and live with the Church, who seek in it’s the way of life and who of their part, as living stones, build up the Church and so build and sustain it together with the priest. Still, we must always remember anew – as the Lord says – to go out “along the highways and the hedgerows” (Lk 14:23) to carry the call of God to his banquet also to those men and women who until now have not felt it, or who have not been internally touched by it. The service of unity has many forms. It is also always a part of the imperative for the internal unity of the Church, so that, over all its diversities and limits, it may be a sign of the presence of God in the world, where only he could create such a unity.

The early Church found in the sculpture of its time the figure of the shepherd who carries a sheep on his shoulders. Maybe these images were part of the idyllic dream of the country life which fascinated society then. But for Christians this figure, with all naturalness, became the image of Him who journeyed to find the lost sheep: humanity; the image of Him who follows us through our deserts and our confusions; the image of Him who took took on his shoulders the lost sheep, that is humanity, and brought it home. It became the image of the true Shepherd, Jesus Christ. To Him we entrust each other. To Him we entrust you, dear friends, especially in this hour, that He may guide and carry you all your days; that he may help you to become, by means of Him and through Him, good shepherds of his flock. Amen!

"Othercott" The DaVinci Code

From Barbara Nicolosi:

On DVC's [The DaVinci Code] opening weekend—May 19-21—you should go to the movies. Just go to another movie. That's your way of casting your vote, the only vote Hollywood recognizes: The power of cold hard cash laid down on a box office window on opening weekend.

Use your vote. Don't throw it away. Vote for a movie other than DVC. If enough people do it, the powers that be will notice.

The major studio movie scheduled for release against DVC is the DreamWorks animated feature Over the Hedge. The trailers look fun, and you can take your kids. And your friends. And their friends. In fact, let's all go see it.

Let's rock the box office in a way no one expects—without protests, without boycotts, without arguments, without rancor. Let's show up at the box office ballot box and cast our votes. And buy some popcorn, too.

As for The Da Vinci Code, don't go see this stupid movie. Don't pay money to have the insidious lies of the enemy introduced into your heart and mind.

Let's "othercott" DVC on May 19 by going to see Over the Hedge instead.

I agree.

Homily: Third Sunday of Easter

There is a story of an elementary school teacher. Her name was Mrs. Thompson, and as she stood in front of her 5th grade class on the very first day of school, she told the children a lie. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same. But that was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard. Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he didn't play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy and that he constantly needed a bath. And Teddy could be unpleasant. It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually enjoy marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X's and then putting a big "F" at the top of his papers.

At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child's past records and she put Teddy's off until the very end.  When she reviewed his file, however, she was in for quite a surprise.

Teddy's first grade teacher wrote this: "Teddy is a bright child with a great laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners...he is a joy to be around." His second grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is an excellent student, well liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle." His third grade teacher wrote, "His mother's death has been hard on him. He tries to do his best but his father doesn't show much interest and his home life will soon affect him if some steps aren't taken." Teddy's fourth grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is withdrawn and doesn't show much interest in school.  He doesn't have many friends and sometimes sleeps in class."

By now, Mrs. Thompson realized the problem and she was ashamed of herself. She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents, wrapped in beautiful ribbons and bright paper, except for Teddy's. His present was clumsily wrapped in the heavy, brown paper that he got from a grocery bag.  Some of the children started to laugh when she unwrapped his gift to find a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing, and a bottle that was one quarter full of perfume. But she stifled the children's laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on, and dabbing some of the perfume on her wrist.

Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, "Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my Mom used to." After the children left she cried for at least an hour.

On that very day, she quit teaching reading, and writing, and arithmetic. Instead, she began to teach children. Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class and, despite her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became one of her "teacher's pets."

A year later, she found a note under her door, from Teddy, telling her that she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life. Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy. He then wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life. Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while things had been tough at times, he'd stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with the highest of honors. He assured Mrs. Thompson that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had in his whole life.

Then four more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he explained that after he got his bachelor's degree, he decided to go a little further. The letter explained that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had. But now his name was a little longer -- the letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, M.D.

But my friends, the story doesn't end there. You see, there was yet another letter that spring. Teddy said he'd met this girl and was going to be married. He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit in the place at the wedding that was usually reserved for the mother of the groom. Of course, Mrs. Thompson did. And guess what? She wore that bracelet, the one with several rhinestones missing. And she made sure she was wearing the perfume that Teddy remembered his mother wearing on their last Christmas together. They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson's ear, "Thank you Mrs. Thompson for believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me that I could make a difference." Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back. She said, "Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn't know how to teach until I met you.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, we are all a bit like little Teddy Stoddard…we all need a little encouragement once in a while…we all need to be shown how to become all that we can be, we all need to be encouraged to day by day grow into the men and women that God is calling us to be.

In our readings today we have some very hard sayings, things that on the surface may seem harsh and hurtful, but the fact of the matter is that they are meant to encourage us, to propel us forward, to help us grow toward sainthood.

Sometimes as a priest, I must do the same. As a man chosen by God to shepherd His children sometimes I have to say hard things in order to encourage you to take the narrow path that leads to eternal life.  Fr. Morgan and myself are here to encourage you…we are here to encourage you to live holy and moral lives.  We are here to encourage and help you to worship God in the midst of beauty and mystery, wonder and awe.  We are here to do everything we can to lead you to Heaven.

Pray for us, that we may be holy and wise shepherds with our hearts on fire with love for Christ and for you.  Pray for us, that we might have the courage to teach and preach the whole truth of the Gospel, even those things that are not easy to accept and live.  Pray for us, that we might encourage you to become saints by being saints ourselves.