Homily for the Ordination of Jason Allan, Thomas Jones, Samuel Maul, Brett Metzler, Joseph Moreno, and Linh Nguyen to the Transitional Diaconate

Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Fort Worth, Texas
Solemnity of Saint Joseph
March 19, 2020

2 Samuel 7:4-5a, 12-14a, 16
Psalm 89
Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22
Luke 2:41-51a

The candidates prostrate themselves before the altar. (Photo by Ben Torres)

Su ordenación diaconal ocurre en medio de un momento desafiante en la sociedad y la Iglesia con la pandemia de coronavirus y el miedo y la ansiedad que esto ha creado entre las personas. Sin embargo, debemos discernir la presencia de Dios que nos sostiene en todas las cosas. El diaconado es sobre el ministerio, y el ministerio es fundamentalmente sobre la esperanza. El ministerio y la esperanza son dos lados de la misma moneda que señala a San José, cuyo día de fiesta celebramos hoy.

Era el esposo de la Santa Virgen María y el padre adoptivo de Jesús. La suya fue una expresión de esperanza sin palabras — los evangelios nunca relatan una sola palabra que pronunció alguna vez — al dedicarse al ministerio que Dios le dio (le ordenó) que hiciera: ser el guardián y protector de María y Jesús. La suya no era simplemente una paternidad espiritual para Jesús, sino una paternidad intrépida — una paternidad pastoral — basada en la realidad de la carne y la vida. Debía guardar, proteger y pastorear a María y a Jesús. Puede que Jesús no haya venido de su carne, pero José no fue menos un padre para Él.

Y así es con ustedes seis hombres que serán ordenados diáconos transicionales hoy. Su base en el ministerio es una expresión de esperanza, así como su esperanza está orientada al sacerdocio ministerial...no a una paternidad espiritual, sin cuerpo o gnóstica, sino una paternidad real, valiente y pastoral como la que ejerció San José para esas dos personas — María y Jesús — puesto a su cargo, cuidado y protección. Su ordenación eventual al sacerdocio, enraizada en el diaconado del ministerio y la esperanza, será la misma: cuidar, proteger y guardar al pueblo santo de Dios en los buenos y malos momentos, en la pandemia y en la paz, dando testimonio al mundo de su fe en Jesucristo.

God in His Providence has designed that this great event of hope, the ordination of six transitional deacons for the Diocese of Fort Worth—the largest class in our history, should be celebrated in the midst of a pandemic that is causing a contagion of panic and despair just as it threatens the health (especially) of our more vulnerable members of the population of the world: the elderly and the immune-compromised. He has also designed that this should take place on the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Saint Joseph is the patron and protector of the Universal Church. He is the foster father of Jesus. He is the Patron Saint of a Happy Death for tradition tells us that he died in the presence of Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary whom he loved with a most pure love. Tonight, it is hope in the power of God, who loves us so much that He sent His Son to save us from our sins at the cost of His own blood. Saint Joseph is our guardian of hope and the diaconate is the ordained ministry of hope in our world and in the life of the Church.

Hope and service are two sides of the same coin in the currency of nature and grace. They are integral and fused together by fortitude born of a confidence in the loving trust of God. Hope and ministry unite us together in places where our sinful human condition would have us separate and divide out of presumption or despair. The Apostles recognized this as we read in the Acts of the Apostles of how the Greek-speaking widows and orphans were fast coming to be considered as only problems to be solved and avoided. Thus, inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Apostles ordained deacons to minister to the needs of these widows and orphans and to thereby unite them in love.

These men are to be ordained tonight to the diaconate as a transition towards ordination to the priesthood. The diaconate prepares them for priesthood in such a way that their priestly identity will be anchored in service and pure and chaste celibate love and not become entitled and selfish, separating themselves from the People of God whom they have been called to serve by Christ who came to serve and not be served.

Bishop Olson lays hands on the head Linh Nguyen.
(Photo by Ben Torres)

The temptation to separate and divide where Truth calls us to integrate and unite can affect also our understanding of Saint Joseph. This tendency can wrongly prompt us to make Saint Joseph simply a bystander in the domestic life of the home in Nazareth---that somehow because Jesus was uniquely conceived in the womb of Mary and knew God to be His Father, Joseph simply becomes a figure of utility and not in any real relation with Jesus and Mary. Likewise, to reduce priesthood only to a type of spiritual fatherhood by comparing it to biological fatherhood, wrongly leads us to diminish the real role and relationship that the Church requires of her priests. When in God’s Providence, you are ordained priests, remember that your fatherhood is a pastoral fatherhood or guardianship that cares for both soul and body of the faithful church and not simply the relationship of a periodically useful bystander.

Your ordination tonight on this Solemnity offers you an example and an intercessor for integrity of life, selfless service, and pure love. Scripture and tradition reveal to us that Saint Joseph was a righteous man. His righteousness was not born of ideal perfection and autonomy. His righteousness was born of his fidelity to and knowledge of the Word of God---both the Law and the Prophets—that enabled him to understand the dream that he experienced to be what it truly was---the annunciation by the angel of his vocation to be the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the guardian of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. His hesitancy to accept Mary into his home was because of his awareness of his own unworthiness not because of a suspicion of Mary’s worthiness. Likewise, your own doubts and fears about worthiness have been brought to God throughout your years of formation and education and your confidence is a grace from God not a fruit of your own initiative and will power.

Saint Joseph responds to the call of God not with words but with actions. They are courageous actions and they are hopeful. His response is born of silent meditation and obedience. Saint Joseph was confident because he was obedient. He sought only God’s will and not his own. That is the path to fidelity and fidelity is the path to peace and the path to joy. Saint Joseph is proof that there is joy to be found in sacrifice; there is joy to be found in service; there is joy to be found in surrender and that is the place where we receive hope. As you leave the Cathedral tonight as heralds of the Gospel and as ministers of charity, be sure that what you have to offer is good and needed. Be sure that our heavenly Father will sustain you as he sustained Saint Joseph in his vocation.

Sixth Sunday of Easter - First Solemn Mass of Father Jonathan Miskin

Acts 15:1-2, 22-29
Psalm 67
Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23
John 14:23-29

In our Gospel reading for this the sixth Sunday of Easter, proclaimed as well on this great occasion of the first Mass of Father Jon Miskin, we hear Jesus speak the following words: “I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” Jesus uses this term “Advocate” to refer to the Holy Spirit. The Greek term used in Holy Scripture is parakletos that literally is translated as “mouth” or “mouthpiece”. It is not simply coincidental that even in the Greek this term carries with it a legal significance because it is the same term that is used for “lawyer”. The weight of its significance is that it is directed to divine justice and not simply to the employment of procedural or rhetorical techniques.

The Holy Spirit, the Advocate, teaches and He also reminds us what Jesus has told us and has done for us. So much of the sacramental priesthood, into which Father Miskin, our friend and relative, was ordained yesterday, has this character of advocacy; to heal, to teach, and to remind. This character was beautifully conveyed by the Dominican preacher of the 19th century, Henri LaCordaire when he poetically describes the priest’s life and ministry, “To heal all wounds, to go from men to God and offer Him their prayers; to return from God to men to bring pardon and hope.” So much of the character of the priesthood runs the risk of losing this essential focus when these qualities of advocacy are removed from the primary direction of the salvation of souls, the reason for which Christ established His Church and instituted the priesthood. Pope Francis reminded us of this when he said, “When the Church does not come out of itself to evangelize, it becomes self-referential and then gets sick.”

In our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we see an example of this malady and the application of the Divine medicine of gratia sanans or “healing grace.” Some of those who had gone down from Judea were teaching their own opinions without a mandate from the Apostles entrusted by Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit in the Apostolic ministries of teaching authority and of administrative oversight for the Church. hese well-intentioned but mistaken missionaries were binding believers to rigorous and burdensome obligations that were causing much rancor and dissension among the members of the Church.

So, the Apostles, after discernment, send representatives with a decision that reminds those in leadership not to place any burdens upon believers beyond necessary obligations in accord with the mission of Christ ¬— namely the necessary obligations that, if removed, would cause scandal and discouragement among the faithful believers.

The decision of the Apostles made in communion with the Holy Spirit and the entire Church brings peace — it’s neither a political appeasement of dissenters nor a heavy-handed repudiation of those who have previously held dear to the responsibilities of the Old Covenant that has been fulfilled by Christ. The reminder is most clear: the preaching of the Gospel is not about one’s own preferences or opinions but about Christ and the salvation that He has won for us. This reminder is an example of advocacy.

The central position of Christ is maintained and continually offered through the celebration of the Eucharist. Saint Augustine reminds us that it is the Eucharist that makes the Church. Without the Eucharist there is no Communion — not simply blessed or consecrated bread — but the intimate unity between God and among human beings that is offered by Christ and is more than shared purposes among people with like-minded opinions. Without the ministerial priesthood there is no Eucharist. Without the Eucharist the ministerial priesthood is pointless. If a priest or bishop loses his focus from the Eucharist and its correlative ministry to the People of God, he ceases to be an advocate and his life becomes mortally pointless. The Advocate never points to Himself; rather, He always points to the Son and to the Father Who has sent Him.

Our second reading from the Book of Revelation reveals this to us in its proclamation. The heavenly Jerusalem is the Church triumphant, not the Church triumphalistic. It is the Church of confidence and not a church of arrogance because the Church has Jesus Christ true God and true man, Who can neither deceive nor be deceived, at its center. The absence of any Temple besides the Lamb — who is Christ — is not only something that will occur one day in the future after our deaths.

The new Jerusalem begins here and now by how we love each other in Communion as the People of God, how we keep Christ central in our order of worship and in our lives as one body, the Church. It begins here and now by how we, as baptized persons each charged with our own particular responsibilities, love God and our neighbor in service to Christ. It is the worship of God in the Temple — Christ Himself — that gives the identity and mission of the new Jerusalem in the here and now. It is a priest’s responsibility to offer that worship, the only effective way to worship — the Sacrifice of the Mass — that nourishes and develops the city as beautiful and strong, fortified against assault by the enemies of the City of God, both foreign and domestic.

With fitting worship comes pastoral care, the conversion of sinners and the protection of the weak. It is a ministry that cannot be carried out by a man who works for pay as a hireling. When a priest or bishop begins to work as a hireling, he soon becomes engaged in the construction of a replacement temple in the New Jerusalem, an edifice that assaults the beauty of the New Jerusalem in a way more disfiguring than simply that of an architectural eyesore and more corrosive of the community of the People of God than any tower thrown together in Babel. As Pope Francis again reminds us, “Indeed, whenever we have tried to replace, or silence, or ignore, or reduce the People of God to small elites, we end up creating communities, projects, theological approaches, spiritualities and structures without roots, without memory, without faces, without bodies and ultimately, without lives.” The Advocate never points to Himself; rather, He always points to the Son and to the Father Who has sent Him.

Likewise, the priest or bishop must not build a replacement temple for the Lamb in the New Jerusalem in his own life. The incompleteness of this space in the city of our priestly lives is the incompleteness of chaste celibacy that makes present the love of the chaste and celibate Jesus by attuning our sensibilities to the needs of those who do not belong and experience that peculiar and most isolating form of poverty. It is a space that can only be filled by the Lamb — the Temple in our own lives. We do this by daily prayer and frequent recourse to the Sacrament of Penance. All other replacements become idolatrous.

The Holy Spirit is the Advocate. He is the “mouthpiece” who presents the case of the People of God. The Holy Spirit is the Advocate. He is the “mouthpiece” who presents the case of Jesus Christ and His mission of the salvation of souls. The Holy Spirit reminds us what Christ has done and continues to do for us and through us. As members of the People of God, we need to be reminded much more than we need to be informed. The priest’s advocacy very much involves reminding people what God has done and continues to do for us as the members of His Church.

The ministry of reminding provided by a priest or bishop extends from the celebration of the Eucharist throughout his preaching, sacramental ministry, and pastoral oversight of Christ’s flock. A priest reminds the People of God when he anoints the sick and offers solace to the grieving. A priest reminds the People of God when he absolves the penitent in the confessional and lavishes mercy upon the sinner. A priest reminds the People of God when he receives the vows of marriage freely exchanged in loving consent by a man and woman. A priest reminds the People of God when he baptizes and receives into the Church both infants and adults. A priest reminds the People of God whenever he teaches a faith formation class or visits a parish school. A priest reminds the People of God whenever he is attentive and present to them throughout the rhythm of daily life in all circumstances speaking on their behalf in his ministry as an advocate of the Advocate, as a mouthpiece of the Mouthpiece. This can only be done if a priest or bishop loves his people to the point of laying down his life for them as Christ has done and continues to do in the Church’s life and ministry for the salvation of souls.

Father Miskin, this is your life and ministry, by which Christ will judge you when He calls you home as He will come for each of us one day and judge us on whether we have loved sacrificially as He has loved. As your former rector, it is only with the gift of supernatural faith that I say the following to you — “run your mouth” because you are now a mouthpiece of the Mouthpiece and God has given your mouth to you for the purpose of your vocation, the salvation of souls. Run your mouth frequently in the ministry of advocacy that is essential to the priesthood that Christ intended. Talk frequently (and loudly, if necessary) of what God has done for each of us — including you — in the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ — by whose blood we are ransomed from slavery to selfishness and the morbid introspection of sin. In so doing, love the People of God as Christ loves them, with the Shepherd’s care.

Homily for the Ordination of Pedro Martinez to the Transitional Diaconate

Photo by Juan Guajardo/NTC

Diocese of Fort Worth
St. Matthew Catholic Church
Arlington, Texas
May 18, 2019

Acts 6:1-7b
Psalm 34
1 Peter 4:7b-11
John 12:24-26

“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.” These words spoken by Jesus in today’s Gospel reading taken from John are striking because at first hearing they seem to be so unreasonable. How can one hate one’s life if life is a gift from God? How can one hate one’s life if life in itself is such a great and necessary good to enjoy other good blessings given to us by God? Without life, there are no other gifts worth cherishing.

Perhaps there can be a sense of reason introduced to this phrase if we accept a Scripture scholar’s insight that “to hate” is a figure of speech common in the Semitic languages of Jesus’ time to indicate that what Jesus really means is that one must love one’s own need for survival less than the call to follow, to serve and to be with Jesus. Yet, does this commentary on the language of Scripture really suffice for the radical message conveyed and revealed fully by Jesus Christ? It’s a reasonable explanation but in itself it is only a commentary that falls short in conveying the full message of the Good News of Salvation that unreasonably involves dying.

The radical and life-changing message of Jesus Christ is that like a grain of wheat, a person extends oneself beyond the limits of survival or simple human existence in this world only by willing to not live from the vantage point of self-preservation. One’s reference point is no longer the survival of oneself, but rather the person of Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead. The reference is not simply a perspective or a positive way of looking at things. It’s not simply making lemonade when life gives you lemons. That is too trite and reasonable.

The truth that is revealed is more clearly manifested in the call of the first deacons about which we have heard in our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. The Apostles have called these Greek-speaking men to address the particular needs of the Greek-speaking widows and orphans — people most prone to exclusion and annihilation. Without attention to these needs, these widows and orphans will die in abandonment and isolation. The Apostles have called and appointed these deacons not so that the Apostles might remain aloof from the needs of the poor but rather that they might be more intentionally reminded of their presence and needs. While there are seven names given in this reading from Acts, only two of them have their deeds further revealed in Sacred Scripture: Philip and Stephen.

Philip witnesses to Christ’s love in his ministry in such a manner that he serves as an instrument in the conversion of Simon Magus and of the Ethiopian eunuch, both of who are brought into the Church through the generative waters of baptism. Philip loves the widows and orphans to whom he has been sent to serve. He cares for them and this love attracts the hearts of Simon Magus and the Ethiopian eunuch to the truth much more than any detailed argument or syllogism.

Stephen witnesses to Christ in his ministry in such a way that he dies a martyr’s death that is richly configured to the Crucifixion of Jesus. Stephen’s death is not simply like Jesus’ death in that both of them are violent murders; Stephen’s death is not like Jesus’ death in that similar words are spoken; Stephen’s death is configured to Jesus’ death because of love. Jesus enables Stephen to love sacrificially as Jesus’ loves sacrificially. It is a love that is so selfless as to surpass the strong emotional affection of friendship. It is a love that is so selfless as to surpass the cohesive and natural bonds of family life. It is a love that lays down one’s life for one’s friends as Jesus does. It is the love that does not calculate the cost. It is the love of the Cross that offers authentic and lasting freedom. It is this love’s sacrificial and liberating character that brings about the conversion of Paul who witnesses Stephen’s martyrdom and turns Paul from hatred and fear to love. Paul will himself heroically witness to Jesus with his own sacrificial martyr’s love that bears much fruit in the conversion of the gentiles. The reference point that makes one hate this life is love — love is greater than life because without love, life merely becomes a struggle to forestall death. Without the selflessness of love, what is reasonable is simply what involves calculation and tactics of survival that only delay the inevitable fate.

It is important to note that the instrument of Paul’s conversion was the sacrificial witness and love of the deacon Stephen — whose own martyrdom was prepared by his daily ministry of charity to those most wounded by sin and its effects — the widows and orphans who did not belong to the dominant language group or culture but whom Stephen loved and cared for. Stephen’s faithful love for Jesus present in the widows and orphans fostered in him a desire to give of himself even more to the point of laying down his life in martyrdom for the truth. When Paul was knocked off his horse and blinded, he heard the voice of Christ speak to him and Paul was able to recognize this voice because he had previously heard the voice speaking through Stephen.

Your ordination today to the diaconate is not simply transitional in the sense that it is only a step to priesthood. It is transitional in the life of the Church because it fosters in you, and in those to whom you witness, a conversion to the same love possessed by Philip, Stephen, and the other deacons to love Christ in the excluded and dispossessed people of the world. It fosters in you this love that prepares you to make the transition for an ever more demanding gift of yourself in laying down your life for your friends, as Christ continues to do through each of our lives and ministries. Through the ordered life provided to you and to the Church in your promises of chaste celibacy and obedience to me and to my successors the love of Christ will grow in you and through your sacramental witness in others. “Unless a grain of wheat should fall upon the ground and die, it remains but a single grain.”

To die in order to live? It seems so unreasonable and extreme. Dear brother priests and seminarians, how many times have we had our sanity called into question even at times by those who want to love us and to protect us. "Celibacy? Today? Be reasonable. Obedience to the hierarchy of the Catholic Church? Don’t you read the papers? Have you lost your mind? Yes, serve God, admire Jesus, do what He teaches, but within reason." Where have we heard such counsel before?

Pontius Pilate comes to mind. On Good Friday — the day of sacrificial love, the day when the Grain of Wheat dies and gives the eternal and universal fruit of love itself — Pilate places before the people two figures for them to choose between: Jesus and Barabbas. From a bystander’s casual perspective Jesus and Barabbas are very similar, each challenged the status quo. The name Barabbas means “son of the father” — Bar Abba. Jesus addressed God as “Abba,” “Father.” In a sense, Pilate places Barabbas next to Jesus as an option for the type of Messiah that the people can reasonably choose for themselves.

There is Barabbas, a Messiah who is a violent and dynamic revolutionary who conspires and wages war against the authority of an oppressive regime and thereby brings about anarchy and excitement. Barabbas promises them the intoxicating freedom to do whatever one would want to do. Barabbas offers them an earthly kingdom of one’s own prosperity and survival. Barabbas is a most reasonable choice. Next to Barabbas, Pilate places Jesus.

In Jesus they have a Messiah who proclaims unreasonably that losing oneself is the way to life. It is Jesus who is the Messiah who hides nothing and is the Light of the World. It is Jesus who is the Messiah who calls them to obedience to the will of the Father and who first lives that obedience. It is Jesus who is the Messiah of the Cross. It is Jesus who is love itself.

The prince of this world is a liar. He knows the truth well enough to hate it. He is cunning and not so blatant as to advertise openly that we should worship the devil. He only suggests that we should decide on what is reasonable; opt for the advantages of a planned and thoroughly organized world with impeccable communication. Calculate a world in which there is room for God in an individual’s life as a private concern but not a place for God to interfere in one’s essential and primary purposes. Offer God a place in your life, but do not discern where you fit in His plan. It is much more reasonable not to be inconvenienced by the Son of Mary, the Nazarene known as a carpenter, who asks so much of us in offering His life fully in sacrificial love. Any false religion subtly attempts to hide the Cross from view, or at least to make it reasonable only as a form of decoration but to remove its sacrificial character as the entrance of the Divine love into the world of humanity.

Your diaconal ministry is therefore a ministry of charity. It is a ministry of selflessness and sacrifice. It is unreasonable that you should waste your life on people who account for nothing and who can offer you no influence nor success. It is unreasonable to live in such a way because life is short, and our demise is inevitable. It is as unreasonable as the love of Philip and Stephen; it is as unreasonable as the love of Peter and Paul; it is as unreasonable as the loving obedience of Jesus to the will of His Father who ransoms a slave by sacrificing His Son.

The Importance of Mary

Here is my newest video titled "The Importance of Mary." In this video from my Life on the Chrism Trail series, I talk about Mary and her importance in the spiritual life of the Church. I come to you, once again, from Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Aledo.

Together, let us pray to and with the Blessed Virgin Mary for her help and intercession so that we too can be faithful to her Son, our Lord.

If you missed any of my previous videos, you can view them on the Diocesan website at: https://fwdioc.org/life-on-the-chrism-trail

+ Most Rev. Michael F. Olson, STD, MA
Bishop of Fort Worth

Homily for Chrism Mass

April 16, 2019
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Isaiah 61:1-3, 6a,8-9
Psalm 89:21-22, 25, 27
Revelation 1:5-8
Luke 4:16-21

El anuncio de Isaías es la anticipación de la misión salvadora de Cristo y también el fruto de la misión salvadora de Cristo. En cierto modo, el óleo de los catecúmenos transmite la buena nueva a los pobres que aún tienen que enriquecerse en el Bautismo y nos recuerda a cada uno de nosotros que Dios está activo en la salvación de las personas incluso antes de su bautismo, confirmación e iniciación en la Eucaristía. El óleo de los enfermos simboliza el fruto de la curación y la restauración de la salud y la integridad lograda por Cristo que implica la plena liberación del cautiverio al pecado y la liberación de sus amargos frutos de la enfermedad y la muerte. El Sagrado Crisma simboliza el reinado de Cristo marcado por un orden armonioso en el que compartimos, haber sido ungidos con el Crisma en el Bautismo, la Confirmación y las Órdenes Sagradas.

Con frecuencia consideramos los efectos del sacramento de las Órdenes Sagradas sobre la vida de la Iglesia: lo que Cristo hace a través de nosotros y nuestro ministerio ordenado para su pueblo. Sin embargo, la Misa del Crisma también es un recordatorio de la Iglesia sobre lo que Cristo hace especialmente por nosotros como sacerdotes a través del Sacramento de las Órdenes Sagradas, mientras ministramos a los fieles en el uso de los óleos de los catecúmenos, de los enfermos y del Crisma. La Misa del Crisma es una oportunidad para que podamos ser animados y renovados con gratitud por la generosidad de Jesús al llamarnos a seguirlo y por nuestra confiada respuesta a su llamado a nosotros. Es una alegría para nosotros considerar nuevamente, reunidos como hermanos alrededor del altar del sacrificio, el recordatorio de Cristo de que era Él quien nos eligió a nosotros y no nosotros quienes lo elegimos a Él. Las Órdenes Sagradas es una oportunidad inigualable para la unidad y la intimidad con Cristo, aprendiendo a amar como Él ama, sirviendo como Él sirve.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”

This proclamation by Isaiah is both the anticipation of the saving mission of Christ and the fruit of Christ's saving mission. Christ recapitulates Isaiah’s proclamation and fulfills it as true, just as He reveals His mission and identity to His family and friends who are most prone to take Him for granted. In a way, the Oil of the Catechumens conveys the glad tidings to the poor who have yet to be made rich in Baptism. The Oil of the Catechumens reminds each of us that God is active in the salvation of human beings even before their Baptism, Confirmation, and full initiation in the Eucharist. Christ prepares the catechumen to receive the Grace of Baptism and that preparation is itself a Grace. It is the fruit of baptismal grace even as it anticipates baptismal grace. The Chrism Mass is the Church’s way of reminding us so that we do not take this grace for granted.

The mission for which Christ, and by extension the prophet Isaiah, was anointed, offers God’s gift of liberty to captives and His release of prisoners. The Oil of the Sick symbolizes the fruit of healing and restoration to health and integrity accomplished by Christ that involves the full liberation from captivity to sin and release from its bitter fruits of sickness and death. This mission culminates in the establishment of His Kingdom and the defeat of the prince of this world.

The Sacred Chrism symbolizes the kingship of Christ as marked by a tranquil and harmonious order. We contribute to this order by our having been anointed with Chrism at Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders. The restoration to wholeness and the establishment of His Kingdom are proclaimed in our reading tonight from the Book of Revelation and accomplished by Christ in part through our priestly ministry: “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his Blood, who has made us into a Kingdom, priests for his God and Father, to him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.” Together, as priests and bishop having been anointed with Chrism, you on your hands and me on my hands and head, share in the pastoral governance of the Church as servants of Christ’s right and kingly order—not as little princes of entitlement and chaos.

We frequently consider the effects of the sacrament of Holy Orders upon the life of the Church: that is to say, what Christ does through us and our ordained ministry for His people. Yet, the Chrism Mass is also the Church’s reminder for what Christ does especially for us as priests through the Sacrament of Holy Orders as we minister to the faithful in using the Oil of Catechumens, the Oil of the Sick, and Sacred Chrism. The Chrism Mass is an opportunity for us to be encouraged and renewed with gratitude for the generosity of Jesus in calling us to follow Him and for our trusting response to His call to us. It is a joy for us to consider again, gathered together as brothers around the altar of sacrifice, Christ’s reminder that it was He who chose us and not we who chose Him. Holy Orders is a matchless opportunity for unity and intimacy with Christ, learning to love as He loves, and serving as He serves.

Through Holy Orders we become recipients of the Grace of the Sacraments that we administer to the faithful members of Christ’s flock entrusted to our pastoral care. We are not simply bystanders or functionaries. As the ordinary ministers of the sacraments in our bound freedom we become more aware of who Christ is and what He does for us in part by what He does through our ministry. Christ is not stingy with His love or with His Grace.

When we shepherd the catechumens through election to new life in Baptism, we too are renewed in the waters of new life. When we anoint a sick person with the sacrament of the sick, we in part receive healing from Christ, the Divine Physician. When we offer the unbloodied sacrifice of the Eucharist and preach the Gospel, we are nourished and evangelized in His love. When we absolve sinners, the Lord reconciles us more deeply in the surpassing power of God in our own lives as His earthen vessels—earthen vessels but truly His chosen and called vessels.

In my own experience of twenty-five years of priesthood, this glorious paradox is most preciously experienced in the celebration of the Sacrament of Penance. I know that so many of you also enjoy the intimate presence of Christ in listening to the unburdening of sin from contrite hearts and in articulating the Lord’s limitless forgiveness and mercy far beyond the limits of our own human empathy. We each are privileged to receive, to offer and to participate in the Mercy of Christ in this Sacrament that releases the captive sinner and binds the prince of darkness showing him to be the liar that he is.

The Sacrament of Penance and its seal ensures that the confession of the penitent is not simply a conversation between two individuals but is a conversation through the priest between the penitent and Christ with His Church. We, as priests, offer our voice to the agency of Christ when we speak with a penitent in the Sacrament of Penance. Thus, we must always treat what we say to a penitent with the utmost of reverence and compassion. When we leave the Sacrament of Penance, we entrust the conversation and what the penitent has shared to the merciful heart of Christ. We listen to the sins of the penitent with the ears of Christ, we counsel, instruct, and absolve them with the mouth of Christ, and we entrust the sins of the penitent to the heart of Christ. Just as the Sacrament of Penance leaves no stain of sin behind on the soul of a contrite penitent, so the Sacrament of Penance should leave no remembrance of such sin upon our minds as confessors. The seriousness with which we guard the seal of the confessional protects the transparency of the sinner with Christ who can neither deceive nor be deceived. The seal of the confessional is not collusive but liberates the sinner as we as confessors are bound by it.

The liberty to captives and the release to prisoners that priests experience involves the paradox of the Cross. In our promise of obedience, we are limited by the unlimited love of Christ. Obedience places strict limitations on our freedom that liberates us for a full and direct experience of Christ who is our Good Shepherd, and, in whose image, we are configured in our anointing at ordination. In our promises of obedience and celibacy we are bound to limitations in order to be freer to focus directly on Christ in love and service. Obedience and celibacy structure our lives that we might point clearly towards Christ's accomplishments in us and through our ministry that transforms each of us as He transforms His people.

The promises that we renew today in this Liturgy are merciful, because they are the means by which we each are reminded of what Jesus has done for us and through our priestly ministry. These promises prevent us from easily taking for granted what we have been given as very precious gifts. Just as the people of Nazareth failed to receive Jesus gratefully and overlooked His true identity, so we can take so much of our priestly vocation for granted because we can become overly familiar with the “busyness” of priesthood and we can soon neglect the presence of Christ that is so beautifully made known to us and through us. The Lord continues to bestow His grace through us, and at times sadly despite us. So, the Church offers us the liturgical moment of the Chrism Mass for us to renew intentionally and consciously the promises that each of us made at our respective ordinations in light of the Lord’s unconditional love for each of us in calling us to the priesthood.

How much does the Lord give us as His priests! How much He shares with us! We cannot help but be humbled and even dumbstruck when we witness what the Lord does in the People's lives and in which we are present and attentive—not as bystanders but as receptive participants.

Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent: Eighth Grade Vocations Day

As part of Eighth Grade Vocations Day, Fort Worth Seminarian Samuel J. Maul speaks to the eighth grade boys. Photo by Ben Torres/NTC

April 10, 2019
Saint Patrick’s Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Deuteronomy 3:14-20, 91-92, 95
Daniel 3:52, 53-56
John 8:31-42

Our first reading from the Book of Deuteronomy tells the story of the evil King Nebuchadnezzar and the three faithful young men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

Nebuchadnezzar was a very powerful king; he had more than enough money and riches to do whatever he wanted to do and to whomever he wanted to do it. He could impose his will upon everyone and get them to do what he wanted them to do; he even sculpted a golden statue of his god for people to worship — the statue happened to look a lot like him. He had everything that he wanted, he could get his way, and he could do whatever he wanted to do.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were poor, and they belonged to the Israelite people who were dominated and enslaved by Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom. They were unable to do whatever they wanted. Yet, they were faithful to the one and true God.

Nonetheless, Nebuchadnezzar wanted to control them and wanted them to worship the statue of his false god. They refused to do so. Nebuchadnezzar reminded them that he could kill them; again, they refused to worship the false god. He showed them the blazing hot furnace into which he would throw them to their deaths if they refused to worship him. They refused and remained faithful to God. He made the furnace even hotter. They still refused to sin and remained faithful to God. He threw them into the furnace and was amazed to see that besides them walking in the fire he saw one like the Son of God with them amid the blaze. Nebuchadnezzar could do whatever he wanted in his power, but Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were with God and they were truly free.

St. Isaac Jogues was a priest and a Jesuit. He wrote his religious superior in the 17th century, “Yes, Father, I want whatever the Lord wants, even if I were to have a thousand lives and it were to cost me each one of my thousand lives.” Isaac Jogues was assigned to serve as a priest and missionary in North America (in what is today upstate New York and Ontario, Canada) along with several other missionaries. Among these missionaries was a seminarian by the name of Rene Goupil. When Isaac Jogues and Rene Goupil were accompanying a group of their Catholic Huron people on a trade mission, they were ambushed by a war party of the Iroquois nation and they were outnumbered. In the ensuing battle, Isaac Jogues was knocked unconscious and fell hidden into some tall weeds while the seminarian Rene Goupil and the Hurons were captured. Isaac Jogues came to his senses and saw the Iroquois warriors torturing and beating his friends and the members of his flock. Isaac Jogues could have remained hidden in the weeds and escaped, but he came forth and joined his friends in order to absolve, to anoint, and to comfort them. He too was beaten, tortured, and imprisoned.

Isaac Jogues suffered immensely at the hands of the Iroquois for thirteen months — he had hot coals thrown on him, he was beaten daily, malnourished, and mocked. He had two of his fingers gnawed off by a woman who also sheared off his right thumb with a jagged shell. Most painfully, he suffered by witnessing the murder of his friends — the Catholic Hurons whom he had baptized, taught, served, and loved as a priest and Jesuit. He also witnessed the murder of the seminarian Rene Goupil for whose priestly formation he had been responsible. Isaac Jogues was later liberated by a Dutch trading party and returned to France. Immediately upon his return to France he attended Mass. Isaac Jogues was free.

As you prepare to move forward from the eighth grade into high school, you are becoming adults and part of becoming an adult is learning how to hear Christ and to answer His call to do something good, noble, and loving with your life. It means spending time with Him and asking Him specifically about what He wants you to do.

Many of you, Christ will call to marriage and family. A few of you he might call to discipleship in the single life. Some of you He might call to a special dedication to Himself. This is the vocation of religious life. He will ask of you an extraordinary generosity to demonstrate to the world that God is enough for the human heart. He will ask of you to live in such an unusual way that by your life you will be asking the world: “if I’m not crazy, what must be true about God?” This life will make sense only because God is real and personal and a loving friend. The marks of this unusual life are the vows of religious life: poverty, chastity, and obedience.

Some few of you young men, God will call to a special unity and identity with the person and mission of His Son, Jesus Christ. He will call you to live and to serve as a priest, to die and to rise with Jesus for the life of the world by administering the sacraments, preaching the Gospel, and shepherding His sheep in protection from the wolf. This call is to represent Christ in a special way as the head and shepherd of the Church. This discernment requires your attention and daily prayer.

There are so many distractions in our world and there are so many temptations in this world; so many who will demand that you reject the living God just as Nebuchadnezzar demanded of the three young men in our reading. When these trials come, remember that you are not alone and that the Son of God is with you. The Truth that sets you free is Jesus Christ. His selflessness and love is constant for you and He desires that you spend time with Him as you would spend time with a friend. He is the path to your freedom.

Authentic freedom is found in the truth of God, not in power or riches. Authentic freedom is found in the fidelity to our call given us by Christ that we hear through prayer and the ongoing conversation that we have with Him. Authentic freedom is found in the Ten Commandments and in the celebration of the sacraments, like Confession and Eucharist. Authentic freedom is found in willingly saying “yes” to Christ and to trust Him in order to love Him and others through service and witness to the truth. Authentic freedom is found in not giving in to the false gods and idols of power and riches, but by courageously coming out of hiding in the weeds as Isaac Jogues did to be with Christ in service to His people as a religious and priest.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were free. Saint Isaac Jogues was free. I am free. The priests, sisters, and seminarians who shared with you today are free. Spend time with Christ and listen for how He is calling you to be free as well.

Invocation at the Texas State Legislature

Austin, Texas
Most Reverend Michael F. Olson, STD, MA
Bishop of Fort Worth
January 15, 2019

Lord our God, we stand together here in this legislature, mindful of your Providence and love for each human person whom you have created in your image and likeness. We call out to you in our awareness of the responsibility of governance entrusted to these men and women legislators by the People of Texas who in their hearts seek to belong to you and to each other in the order of your goodness.

We ask your blessing upon our representatives as they begin their legislative activity with a renewed sense of mission to preserve the dignity of their fellow citizens in the tireless and demanding pursuit of the common good. Grant them a spirit of docility and simplicity of heart. May they heed your prophet Isaiah’s call to reason together, intentionally aware of human sinfulness in the light of your mercy and justice and of the fundamental goodness of your creation of the human person. May they be mindful of the vulnerable in our society and equitable in their deliberation. Might their desire for authentic justice be strengthened that the laws that they vote to enact might reflect your wisdom and design for human flourishing.

We pray that you might guard their speech, that all that they say in these chambers might elevate discourse in reflection of your beauty, grandeur, and truth. Might they seek always those aspects of the common good that are immaterial and can be shared together without being diminished in quantity.

Expand their hearts with your love that they might truly desire the common good of all Texans united together and not simply the private interests of a few. We thank you, God, for their sacrifice and generosity to give of their time and talents in service to your people. Protect them and their families and reward their generosity with your generosity. We pray in the confidence of your love.

Prayer of Blessing: Inauguration of Governor Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick

Texas State Capitol, Austin, Texas
January 15, 2019

Blessed are you, Gracious God, Source of all that is true and good and beautiful. You, who delight in all people, we stand in awe before you, believing that the spark of life within each person on earth is the spark of your Divine presence. Through your goodness to us, we live in this great State of Texas – some of us born and nurtured here by your grace and wisdom, some of us called from afar and delivered here through your Mercy and Providence, each and all of us sustained here together in fellowship and solidarity by your justice and love. We give you thanks for the lives of our Governor and Lieutenant Governor and of all of our elected officials. We thank you for their generosity and willingness and that of their families as they offer themselves in public service. May You bless them generously for their selflessness of spirit.

Bless us, as one people, with the fortitude to seek the common good for all members of our towns and cities, of our counties and state, of our nation and world. Deliver us as one people from selfishness and distrust that would foment fear and incite violence within our homes and in our communities. Protect us, as one people, from all who would do us harm through lawlessness and violence. Instill in us, as one people, your spirit of integrity that we might do our part in diligently exercising our own personal responsibility for the betterment of our society.

Bendícenos, como un solo pueblo, con el deseo de libertad y justicia auténticas promovidas por el amor al prójimo y protegida por el estado de derecho. Líbranos como a un solo pueblo de la apatía y el cinismo que nos dividen y ahuyentan a las sombras del aislamiento y la apatía moral. Inculca en nosotros, como un solo pueblo, el espíritu de la compasión que nos incomode en el cuidado de cada persona humana en su realidad social, y no ver la humanidad en el abstracto y en el vacío del idealismo.

Gracious God, we entrust to you our Governor and our Lieutenant Governor, our legislators and our judges. Bless them as our public servants, in their responsibilities of government, with the courage to be humble in their sincere commitment to the unity of action required for the promotion of a just social order. Keep them in sound health in mind and body. Deliver them, as our public servants, from temptation to sin in any way that would do damage to our development as one people in fellowship and solidarity. Instill in them, as our public servants, a spirit of confidence, that they might lead us in deed as well as in word in the direction set by your guidance for a better society marked by the dignity of human flourishing and concern for the poor who live in the margins of our society. Bless them with wisdom and right judgment that they might, through their decisions, strengthen our state in the present moment with an eye toward the future development and peace for generations yet to come. Deliver our public servants from impatience with the complexities of government. Instill in them your virtue of prudence that they might see, judge, and act within the proper balance of eternal values and present needs for the sake of your peace. We ask all of this in your name.

Morning Prayer — Encuentro V

Photo from V Encuentro Nacional Facebook page.

September 21, 2018
V Encuentro Nacional
Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center
Grapevine, Texas

2 Corinthians 1:3-5

Christ is the source of our encouragement in the midst of our sufferings. “For as Christ’s sufferings overflow to us, so through Christ does our encouragement also overflow.” Discouragement is never from God. St. Paul reminds the Corinthian community and us this morning that our obligation is to encourage each other out of authentic compassion. True encouragement comes to us in the fullness of the Gospel that sin and death do not have the last word. True encouragement is that the last Word has been spoken by God the Father. He has spoken the last Word as the first Word, one and the same. The Word that is first and the Word that is last is the Word made flesh—His Son, Jesus Christ—Who fully reveals the compassion of the Father to us through His loving obedience on the Cross—a compassion that we can receive only through the action of the Holy Spirit, freely offered to us as Grace. This is truly encouragement in the face of sufferings especially when those sufferings have in no small measure been inflicted upon ourselves through sin—the cause of all discouragement.

Our feast that we celebrate today offers us an example of an Apostle who suffered such discouragement and received true encouragement through Christ. Before he became the Apostle Matthew, he was first the tax collector Matthew. Christ directly called Matthew to follow Him. It was an invitation made to Matthew while Matthew was in the midst of sin, sitting at the tax collector’s table. It was an invitation that then was further extended by Christ at the dinner table of Matthew. It is an invitation that then culminates with Matthew’s presence at Christ’s table—the banquet of the Last Supper—the Banquet of the Mass—the Banquet of the Cross—Meal and Sacrifice.

The Gospel of Matthew begins and ends with encouragement. The Gospel of Matthew begins and ends with God’s promise that God is with us-I am with you: expressed first in the announcement of the angel of the Lord to Joseph in a dream that the unborn Jesus is Emmanuel—God with us (Matt 1:23). Then at the very end of the gospel when the resurrected Jesus promises his disciples that he “will be with [them] always until the end of the age” (Matt 28:20). There is no other encouragement.

The stewardship of that encouragement is our shared responsibility as the Church centered upon Christ. Matthew’s gospel is also the only gospel of the four Gospels that uses the word church (ekklesia). The term ekklesia (church) occurs in two pivotal sections of the gospel. In Matthew 16:18, as Jesus gives the keys of authority to Simon Peter at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus says that he “will build my church” upon the rock of Peter’s often crumbling and stumbling faith, and that the forces of chaos will not overcome it. Secondly in chapter 18, in the midst of the discourse on community life and the church—Jesus brings the image of the church to bear in how discipline in the community is to be fostered (cf. Matt 18:17). The entire church centered upon Christ is to offer accountability on these matters that affect our life of communion. It is an accountability that is just and merciful, it is an accountability that is demanding and compassionate, it is an accountability that is true—measured only by the Cross of Jesus Christ.

Cristo viene a Mateo y lo llama en medio del pecado de Mateo. Ese es el lugar donde él nos llama también. Como San Pablo escribe a los romanos, " pero donde el pecado abundó, sobre abundó la gracia". La mesa del recaudador de impuestos era la tabla de connivencia egoísta con un sistema maligno que despersonalizaba a pueblo y fomentaba el cinismo y el desánimo sobre la vida humana. Fue un lugar de gran escándalo para el pueblo judío. Mateo fue capaz de hacerse parte de tal Sistema por el bien de la ganancia egoísta-para la codicia y el soberbio. Mateo daría cuenta de los impuestos recaudados para el Imperio, de modo que el César consiguió lo que quería y Mateo podía tomar lo que quería—la tiranía seductora del egoísmo. Es la iniciativa de Cristo la que llama a Mateo de esa tiranía, ya que es la iniciativa compasiva de Cristo que nos libera de la misma tiranía. Durante estos días—Jesús viene de nuevo a nosotros y nos llamará a todos y cada uno de nosotros en las mesas donde nos reunimos. Jesucristo nos ofrece un encuentro con él que nos ofrecerá un aliento duradero mientras nos llama desde las mesas de interés propio a su mesa—la mesa del altar, la mesa de la Cruz. Este es el lugar donde nos encontramos con Cristo, la fuente de nuestro aliento en medio de nuestros sufrimientos.

Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent

March 15, 2018
Theological College
Washington, DC

Exodus 32:7-14
Psalm 106:19-23
John 5:31-47

During this fourth week of Lent the Church’s lectionary shifts from offering us readings from the synoptic Gospels to offering us selections from the poetic Gospel of John during the latter part of Lent. The brilliance of the Lenten theme regarding the selection of texts for the daily Mass Gospel is measured in the first three and one half weeks by the Lenten pillars of prayer, fasting, and alms-giving. Thus, in the Lectionary selections discerned by the Church for the Gospel passages, we read from the synoptic Gospels that are usually oriented toward one of these three Lenten pillars. These selections place their focus upon the call to ongoing conversion and metanoia manifested in our behavior with more intentional prayer, more temperate fasting, and more generous alms-giving.

Without bringing the internal forum into the external forum, I would venture to say that after these three and one half weeks my own attempts at fulfilling these Lenten pillars have led me to the frustrating position of being a candidate for membership in a self-help support group for recovering pelagians. In other words, none of us saves ourselves. So, the Lectionary shifts in the fourth week of Lent to a sustained meditation on the Gospel of John. Why?

Because—“in the Beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God”—again, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” This shift from the synoptic Gospels to the poetic Gospel of John moves us from simple reflection on the introduction to Jesus and the requirements of discipleship and imitation of Jesus towards being configured to Jesus Christ—the Word made flesh. As we see in today’s Gospel, this configuration incites an adversarial stance by those among whom the Word made flesh dwells—an adversarial stance taken by our weak and needy human condition prone to sin—lazy in prayer, intemperate in fasting, and stingy in alms-giving.

In our first reading from Exodus, Moses enters into a dialogue with God regarding the sinfulness of the Israelites and the just wrath of God. The fruit of the dialogue appears to be that God relents and changes His mind. Yet, in fact, more is going on here. The Lord God of Israel reveals that at the heart of the gift of His Ten Commandments is His loving and just mercy—justice and mercy united in His Divine nature. It is this mercy that prepares Moses for his own conversion and change of heart. Thus, it is after Moses receives the Commandments that Moses will proceed to shatter the Commandments because Israel has shattered the Commandments; this subsequently incites Moses to shatter the Commandments. The chaotic whirligig of sin frenzies human behavior with disorder and rage. Yet, it is in this prior dialogue between Moses and God that God reveals Himself to be relenting with mercy and it is Moses who can receive this mercy with conversion of heart for God has given Moses the warrants that Moses offers God for God’s own mercy. This free gift of God—this Grace—results in covenantal harmony; it is a covenantal harmony that is provisional until the coming of the Christ. Unlike Moses’ behavior, God’s mercy is not disordered and His justice is not violent with rage.

In the Gospel, the adversaries of Jesus show themselves to be adversaries of Moses for they even refuse to enter into the dialogue with Jesus. It is Jesus who freely offers them warrants for God’s mercy incarnate in Himself. These warrants include the preaching of John the Baptist, Jesus’ own works and miracles, the voice of the Father, and the Scriptures. By refusing to enter into the dialogue with Jesus—unlike Moses who entered into the dialogue with God—they close themselves off from the possibility for change of heart and conversion. The adversaries of Christ abandon the Covenant and cannot be configured to the relentlessly relenting mercy of God—who is Jesus Himself—the Word made flesh Who dwells among them.

What about us—the People of God who are in the midst of Lenten formation and configuration to the Word made flesh Who dwells among us? What about us who are in formation—either initial or ongoing formation to serve God’s People—to be configured to Jesus Christ, Head and Shepherd of the Church? Our Lenten conversion, corporate and individual, envelops our ongoing formation and configuration to Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh to be configured to Him as Head and Shepherd of the Church. He offers us this merciful entrance into the Mystery of configuration at this time of evaluation in the seminary year. Enter honestly into the dialogue with the graciously given warrants of His mercy that He offers each and all of us. We cannot adequately be configured unless we enter into this dialogue with Christ by which He frees us from our adversarial stance of resistance to the relentlessly relenting mercy of God—incarnate in Jesus Christ.

Vespers for Monday of the Third Week of Advent

Seminarians Linh H. Nguyen (center) and Eric H. Flores (right), along with their fellow seminarians participate in evening prayer, i.e., Vespers. Photo by Juan Guajardo


Seminarians of the Diocese of Fort Worth
December 18, 2017
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Philippians 4:4-5

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I say it again: Rejoice! Everyone should see how unselfish you are. The Lord is near.”

Generosity is another word for unselfishness. One of the characteristics required for priesthood and one of the qualities that you are called to develop in your formation is generosity and selflessness. A generous disposition begins with responding with a “yes” to what is asked of us by Christ. All of the Christian life is based upon saying “yes” to Christ. The Christian life is not based upon saying “no” to other “no’s” spoken to Christ. In the algebra of discipleship a double negative is not a positive; a clear affirmative spoken with a grateful heart is required.

The Advent of Jesus Christ begins with the perfectly pure “yes” of the Blessed Virgin Mary; it follows with the “yes” of her spouse Saint Joseph, a just man who silently speaks his “yes” with trust in God despite hearing His call in the cloudiness of a dream. God’s justice requires a clearly affirmative response that overcomes the twilight of a dream.

The pure “yes” of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the just “yes” of Saint Joseph come from the redeeming love of Christ, who speaks His “yes” to the will of the Father throughout His earthly ministry with obedience unto His death on the Cross. What Christ redeems is the long line of outright negative responses to God’s commands descending all the way from the first corporate “no” of Adam and Eve, the bitter fruit of the Tempter who first shouted his irrevocable, arrogant, and dishonest non serviam—“I will not serve.” Whom Christ redeems are each and all of those human beings who speak their “no” to God throughout history—including us.

Christ is born in a manger because people willingly said “no” to the Holy Family’s request for shelter. Some might say that, “if only we recognized the Holy Family’s true identity we would have given them shelter and hospitality.” Yet, this is only an excuse and not a reason. They would have simply been more polite about the refusal. Christ is born in a manger because that is where animals feed and not where human beings were intended by God at creation to eat. The manger is beneath the dignity of human beings as being created freely in the image and likeness of God. The manger is a place where animals go by instinct and self-preservation but not by reason and not by faith. Instinct and self-preservation: the manger is the best that the human condition can do without God’s grace—the grace that is freely given in Jesus Christ’s birth.

At His birth the Son of God meets the human condition in a manger; yet, before His agony and death, He offers the banquet of His own eternal Eucharistic “yes” to the Father’s Will. This sacrificial “yes” transforms humanity through selfless love and the fullness of the truth.

St. Paul writes to the Philippians, “Rejoice! Everyone should see how unselfish you are.” That Eucharistic “yes” is shared very intimately within and through the witness of a priest’s life. Each priest enters into that mystery every day in the celebration of Mass. The Eucharistic “yes” permeates each priest’s day throughout countless interruptions to a priest’s prepared schedule; it precedes his other expectations and best judgments; at times it interrupts much needed sleep; at other times it frustrates our recreation. Yet, this Eucharistic “yes” of a priest is what identifies him most clearly as a priest. It is especially spoken in his vocation through his promise of obedience.

The promise of obedience always inconveniences each one of us—even to me as a bishop whose office requires it from my priests. The promise of obedience is the gift that Christ invites us to make so that we can formally grow in the grace of unselfishness and generosity. The promise of obedience is the formal way by which we respond to St. Paul’s command to manifest our unselfishness to everyone and in so doing manifest the unselfishness of Jesus Christ, Head and Shepherd of the Church. Whenever we priests hedge on our promise of obedience we allow the “no” of fear and selfishness to creep into our fundamental “yes” to Christ’s call to us. It is obedience that structures a priest’s compassionate visit to anoint the sick; it strengthens the priest’s attentiveness to absolve sinners in hours of confessions that can become tedious because of the boredom that is sin. The promise of obedience facilitates the priest’s decision to get up early to pray, to keep up with one’s spiritual reading, and to celebrate Mass every day. The hedging on the promise of obedience can begin in the seminary with gifts that we take for granted as entitlements.

So, when the just expectations of seminary life—like the seminary schedule, like required presence and attendance at community events, like classwork, and most especially holy hours and liturgical prayer—inconvenience you and tempt you to seek arbitrary exceptions for distractions in order to do what you’d prefer to do, think of the manger and then think of the Eucharist. Reflect on the Baby Jesus, on the pure selflessness of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and on the decisive justice of Saint Joseph. Ask for their help that you might share in their unselfishness and generosity by saying “yes” especially at inconvenient times. A priest is called to make known this selflessness by every aspect of his life at all times to the people whom Jesus came to save. Begin this now as seminarians.

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I say it again: Rejoice! Everyone should see how unselfish you are. The Lord is near.”

Homily for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and Mass of Receiving the Carmelite Habit

Photo by Juan Guajardo

Mass of Receiving the Carmelite Habit
Sister Marie Therese of the Holy Face

December 8, 2017
Most Holy Trinity Carmel
Arlington, Texas

Genesis 3:9-15, 29
Psalm 98
Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12
Luke 1:26-38

During the last several years I have had the opportunity for vocational reasons to become more acquainted with the Sacrament of Confirmation, both its rite and its catechesis. I celebrate this sacrament up to between 55 and 65 times each year, confirming up to 2,000 young adults every year, so you can imagine the familiarity I have developed with this sacrament; and the importance for me to enter into prayer that I not take the sacrament for granted.

One of the practices that I have noticed with more attention is that of choosing a confirmation name by each of the candidates. The sponsor presents the candidate by his or her confirmation name. I call them each by the confirmation name and seal their brow with the sacred Chrism. What I have noticed is that in this custom I can learn a lot about the person simply by the name of the saint that they have chosen. “Sebastian, be sealed with the Holy Spirit.” (Saint Sebastian, Patron Saint of Athletes.) “Cecilia, be sealed with the Holy Spirit.” (Saint Cecilia, Patroness Saint of Music.) “Hubert, be sealed with the Holy Spirit.” (Saint Hubert, Patron Saint of Hunters.)

As I call them each by their confirmation name I can almost guess what their interests are. Inevitably, in conversation with them after Mass, many will tell me that they chose their saint’s name because they saw a lot of themselves in the saint whose name they have respectively selected. That is my moment to teach as a bishop, I remind each of them that the selection of a saint’s name is that they should seek to become like the saint in devotion to Christ and not that they should select the saint who is just like themselves because of their comparable hobbies or interests. The grace of the Sacrament of Confirmation enables them to become like the saint, and not that the saint is to be considered comparable to them. The grace offered to us in the sacraments always prompts us to turn outward in love and not inward in preoccupation with ourselves. This is a subtle difference in understanding this custom of choosing a saint’s name but it makes all of the difference because it precisely involves conversion and the grace of the Holy Spirit that brings about that conversion.

The first reading from Genesis articulates that cunning difference brought about by the original sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve. Man and woman become preoccupied with themselves. Each of them values the other only for uses like pleasure and security. This reading concerns the aftermath of the man and the woman eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is the first case of arrogance, obfuscation, and “passing the buck.” Instead of the transparency of the intimacy of peace with which the creation story of the second chapter of Genesis emphasizes, the disobedience of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil brings with it duplicity, a defiant refusal to be honest and transparent, a fear of relationship and intimacy with God, and, in a word, a disobedient refusal to love.

This is underscored in Adam’s response to the Lord God’s question: “Where are you?” “I heard your sound in the garden and I was afraid, for I was naked, and I hid.” Instead of seeing God as the One from whom Adam’s life came, God is now seen by Adam as an adversary to him, the One who is to be feared and not trusted because He places an imposition upon Adam’s selfish freedom. Human nature might outwardly appear to be the same as before the sin of Adam, but the human condition is in fact very different than before Adam’s sin. The human condition has become cowardly, selfish, and marked by shame and death.

In addition, the second time that Adam speaks in reference to Eve involves blame and a refusal to accept his own responsibility in the colluded act of disobedience: “The woman whom You gave by me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” Adam had previously spoken of Eve prior to his sin (after she is created from his side), “This one at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh — this one shall be called woman.” Adam’s second instance of speech in reference to Eve is now one of accusation directed at God for effectively having made her: “…whom You gave by me….,” instead of a response of reverence and intimate trust. Thus, rupture, enmity, division and separation ensue: between the man and God, between the man and the woman, between the woman and God, between humanity and the rest of creation.

Then, there is the Good News of the Gospel. The Gospel reading for today is Luke’s account of the Annunciation of Mary. She stands completely vulnerable and trusting, unafraid, in loving relationship with God as she receives the awe-filled invitation to accept God’s will to be the Mother of His Son — the Mother of our salvation. Unlike Adam and Eve who hide and separate themselves from the Lord God, the Blessed Virgin Mary gives herself in trust and faith to complete love and full abandonment to God’s will — including an intimate share in her Son’s suffering — when she utters her fiat: “Let it be done to me according to your word.” She is the instrument that is connected to the restoration of all creation in her Son, Jesus. She is not preoccupied with herself but she is completely aware and at peace with God and with humanity — redeemed eternally by Her Son. This is why she is at times described as the “human race’s solitary boast.”

She is not to be wounded by sin but is instead to be wounded by love. Through her “yes” to God, God becomes clothed in humanity — the full humanity of her Son, Jesus. She is not just like us, but through her “yes” intimately tied with her Son’s victory we can by grace be redeemed and be saved and say “yes” as she says “yes.” We can say “yes” because of her “yes.” We become able not to hide in shame because of Mary’s purity of heart in not being afraid and in “saying yes.” Selflessness can increase in us as our sinful condition decreases and we become less fearful and preoccupied with self, the preoccupation that is the bitter essence of sin. In a word, we become able to love even more perfectly than in the original state of Adam and Eve experienced before their sin.

Today’s particular celebration is about clothing. Today’s celebration is also about naming. Today’s celebration is most especially about saying “yes” to God’s will in obedient love. Sister Marie Therese of the Holy Face is to be clothed in the habit of Carmel. Sister Marie Therese of the Holy Face is to be named. Sister Marie Therese of the Holy Face is to say “yes” in obedient love to God’s will that will come to her ordinarily through the Holy Rule and through the direction of her superior.

Today Sister Marie Therese of the Holy Face is clothed in the habit of Carmel. The habit of Carmel does not fit Sister Marie Therese of the Holy Face. Yet, through God’s loving care and attention, Sister Marie Therese of the Holy Face will fit the habit of Carmel. In poverty, the habit always belongs to Carmel and not to Sister as her own possession.

The name that Sister Marie Therese of the Holy Face receives today and by which she will be known in the hiddenness of Carmel includes the “Holy Face of Jesus”. This name is of great personal significance to her vocational journey because it was included in the name of St. Therese the Little Flower — St. Therese, the Greatest Saint in Modern Times — St. Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face. So many in the world omit this second aspect of the name of St. Therese — simply ending her name with “the Child Jesus.” Yet, in many ways, this second part of her name is even more revelatory about St. Therese and the mission of the Little Way than is the first part of her name “of the Child Jesus.” St. Therese in obedience to her superior writes in The Story of a Soul and teaches us today the significance of this part of her name:

The little flower transplanted to Mount Carmel was to expand under the shadow of the cross. The tears and blood of Jesus were to be her dew, and her Sun was His adorable Face veiled with tears. Until my coming to Carmel, I had never fathomed the depths of the treasures hidden in the Holy Face. It was through you, dear Mother, that I learned the mysteries of love hidden in the Face of our Spouse. I understood what real glory was. He whose Kingdom is not of this world showed me that true wisdom consists in ‘desiring to be unknown and counted as nothing in placing one’s joy in the contempt of self.’

The Holy Face of Jesus looks directly in loving obedience to the Father with love and suffers sin for the sake of love. The Holy Face of Jesus does not hide from God in shame and cowardice as did Adam’s face. Your life, Sister Marie Therese of the Holy Face, in this world has been wounded by sin — not only your own (as is the case of each of us) but wounded also by the sins of others — those who have waged war in your native land of Vietnam and the communists who have harmed your family and have hated Christ and His Church. They will either be converted like St. Paul was converted or they will go the way of Herod and Nero and all who have persecuted Him throughout history. Your new life in Carmel is to be wounded by love.

The Blessed Virgin Mary shared through her Immaculate Heart the sorrows of her Son’s cross and suffering. The Cross is the only way to be wounded by love. The Cross of Jesus is a sign of contradiction; it is a paradox. Thus, your life of transparency and selflessness is to take place as a paradox in the shadow of the Cross — hidden from the world in the life of community enclosed within Carmel. Your life in community is the school of the Cross — to be wounded by love as your Crucified Spouse was wounded by love; as the Blessed Virgin Mary, in purity of heart achieved through her Son’s merits, was wounded by love.

We pray for Sister Marie Therese of the Holy Face today at this Mass as she is clothed, and named, and as she says “yes” to God. She will soon be forgotten by the world as Christ is too often forgotten. We ask God to bless her perseverance for what she has accepted as a grace from Him out of love for Him and for our salvation. In particular, as your bishop, I humbly ask you to follow the example of our patroness, St. Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face and pray for our salvation but especially to pray for priests.

Homily for Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

November 19, 2017
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
Fort Worth, Texas

Proverbs 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31
Psalm 128:1-2, 3, 4-5
1 Thessalonians 5:1-6
Matthew 25:14-30

The talents that the Master entrusts to his servants are his possessions for the purpose of generating more gifts and talents in his household, to which the servants belong. The talents belong to the Master — not to the servants. The first two servants in the Gospel reading are able to trust in order to do just what the Master has asked them to do — that is, to be generative — so that, when the time of accounting and reckoning comes they will be able to show the fruit of the Master’s own generativity. The Master is in effect sharing the gift of his own generativity.

The last servant refuses to do what the Master asks him to do; he instead thinks of the entrusted talent of the Master as his own autonomous possession. The last servant who has the least loses that with which he has been entrusted because he has refused to trust the generativity of the Master. The last servant thinks only of himself and fears the risk of generativity, so he buries the talent and stays to himself, thereby refusing the stewardship of generativity.

The metaphor of the talents in our Gospel speaks to the Lord’s generosity with us of His many gifts that He has offered to us for our service to Him. In particular, I think that it is appropriate to speak of the gift and purpose of sexuality and the capacity to be generative that is entrusted to each of us as human being — each one of us with a particularly God-given gender that is part of our own nature and not the consequence of our own subjective identification.

The sin against generativity produces a false sense of entitlement and autonomy that is little more than selfishness and fear. It shows itself through such actions as contraception, pornography, fornication, infidelity, the unavailability and insensitivity within the covenantal and sacramental life of matrimony, and even most destructively in domestic violence within family life. The sin against generativity can also produce a similar sense of autonomy among celibate priests and religious. As Pope Francis writes in Evangelii Gaudium, "Today we are seeing in many pastoral workers, including consecrated men and women, an inordinate concern for their personal freedom and relaxation, which leads them to see their work as a mere appendage to their life, as if it were not part of their very identity. At the same time, the spiritual life comes to be identified with a few religious exercises which can offer a certain comfort but which do not encourage encounter with others, engagement with the world, or a passion for evangelization. As a result, one can observe in many agents of evangelization, even though they pray, a heightened individualism, a crisis of identity, and a cooling of fervor. These are three evils which fuel one another."

The virtue by which human beings develop and share the entrusted gift of their sexuality is the virtue of chastity. It is through chastity that we are able to show respect and reverence for the gift of sexuality as still belonging to the Lord but as requiring our grateful and attentive stewardship. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that "chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of the human person in his or her bodily and spiritual being. The virtue of chastity therefore involves the honesty and integrity of the person and the integrality of the gift." Note that the Catechism uses the term "integration" and uses neither the terms "domination" nor "repression." Chastity develops the gift of sexuality in some people for the virtue of fidelity and love in married life. It will develop in others the integrity of a generous and morally single life. It will develop in still other people the significant expression of celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom in light of Jesus’ celibacy through the lives offered as either priests or vowed and consecrated religious.

The virtue of chastity includes an apprenticeship in self-mastery, which is formation in human freedom. In other words, one is always learning and growing in self-awareness and respect for other people. One can never consider it acquired once and for all. It requires vigilant effort and conscious practice and one should never give in to discouragement — or like the selfish servant in the Gospel, refuse even to make the effort. It involves trust of God and trust of others. The effort required can be more intense in certain periods, such as when the personality of a human being is being formed during adolescence, or during periods of grief or transition. Prayer and an active participation in the sacramental life of the Church — including regular confession and reception of Holy Communion — foster dispositions of honesty and integrity needed to live a generatively chaste life.

The reckoning by the Master spoken of in today’s Gospel is not an impersonal and cold accounting. It is measured by the generativity itself given by the Master; it is measured not by objects but by joy; it is quantified not by productivity of investment but by the selflessness of love. It is the love of the Cross, it is the love of the sacrifice of the Mass at which we, unworthy though we are, are invited to share in the banquet of selfless trust.

Homily for the Mass of the Holy Spirit

Nolan Catholic High School
August 17, 2017

Ezekiel 36:24-28
Ephesians l:3a, 4a, 13-19a
John 14: 23b-26

Christ has called us by name at the start of this academic year to celebrate the Eucharist, as instituted by Him at the Last Supper. Our Gospel reading, proclaimed in this celebration of the Eucharist, is taken from the Gospel of John, where the action represented occurs in the context of Christ’s Last Supper discourse whereby Jesus is teaching and instructing His disciples to remain in the way He has taught them to remain in Him.

In the Gospel, Jesus is speaking these words to His disciples as He is instituting the Mass; He speaks them once more to us as we encounter Him again at the celebration of the Mass.

Christ promises an Advocate who will remain with them, with us, while Christ departs. The Advocate is the one who will remind them, intercede for them, and plead their case. It is a legal term; it means “lawyer” or “defender.” Christ gives the disciples this Defender — the Holy Spirit — so they will not be lost when Jesus departs. Yet, what is this needed defense that requires such an advocate?

We hear an answer to this question in the first and second readings of our Mass today. The first reading from Ezekiel follows the promise of God to regenerate the land in preparation for the return of His people from exile. It’s important to note that this act of mercy on the part of God is not precipitated by the people themselves but because of God’s very being. God’s very being is Love. In fact, the people don’t deserve this act of mercy by God, but God acts on their behalf anyway in honor of His name. The point is that God’s saving action on behalf of His people is not their own doing. There is not any action of their own initiative that brings about God’s entrance into their lives. It is only His free gift.

The second reading from Ephesians utilizes heart and Spirit language to emphasize that the calling of those in Christ also is something not earned nor deserved. This call is a free gift offered to them by God out of His love for them. In the classical thanksgiving section of the letter, Paul is reminding the Ephesian community of what God has done for them through the Grace of the Holy Spirit. God is giving the Ephesians “a spirit of wisdom and revelation.”

The gift of the Spirit defends the Ephesian community from a selfish sense of entitlement. It is the Spirit of gratitude. This gift of the ability to be grateful for what God has done for them in Christ is the starting point of all that they are to do. The Spirit brings to the disciples a calling to a life of gratitude and service. Their hearts are exhorted to continue to live in this calling from Christ through which they have been enlightened to turn away from sinfulness and selfishness.

The calling of gratitude is the place where you begin your school year as Nolan Catholic High School. It is Jesus’ calling to you. You each have been given many gifts in the opportunity to be part of the educational mission of Nolan Catholic High School. Do not squander these gifts but begin by asking God for gratitude that you might not be selfish with these gifts, and instead place them at the authentic service of God and your neighbor. The Holy Spirit offers to protect you from the selfish sense of entitlement and chaos, from being deceived that you are emotionally and passionately entitled to what God offers you in His mercy.

Christ never speaks to us through chaos and emotional frenzy; He speaks to us and calms chaos and disorder through the authentic gift of the Advocate, the Holy Spirit of Wisdom and Docility. To be docile does not mean to be timid, to be docile means to be teachable, and docility comes to us with the Spirit’s gift of fortitude to be disciplined and to live obediently your current calling as both students and educators.

The cause that the Advocate pleads is the mission of Communion of the Church. That which the Advocate defends us from is the return of rebellion, chaos, and selfish entitlement that is the bitter fruit of sin. The Holy Spirit is the advocate that will not allow this chaos to return to human beings through their belonging to the Church’s mission. You who belong to Nolan Catholic High School have an important part in this mission. Decide to accept the calling to share in this mission by rejecting chaos and living fully your participation in the school’s life. Discern in the light of the Holy Spirit what it is that Christ is calling you to do with your lives; how is He calling you to serve; who is He calling you to become.

This mission is not something that belongs to an exclusive group or circle of friends; it does not belong to a nationality or language group; it is not contingent upon a special experience — spiritual or otherwise. It is the mission that belongs to the Church to gather into one all the children of God through the forgiveness of sins and conversion of heart to turn away from sin and selfishness.

We are gathered here in this Eucharistic assembly to ask the Advocate again that we might remain a stronger part of the Church’s mission through our life as part of the mission of Nolan Catholic High School. We ask the Advocate to protect us from mistreating the Church’s mission as our own selfish initiative. May the Holy Spirit enable us to encounter Christ and His Truth in the fields of each of our educational endeavors including: spirituality, language, theology, mathematics, science, culture, literature, athletics, music, theater, and others.

Let’s pray that we be a part of Christ’s plan, not that we try to subvert Him to be a part of our own plans. We are confident in making this prayer because we have the guarantee of the defense of the Holy Spirit as our Advocate. It is this Advocate who is given to us again in the same situation in which He was first promised us by Christ at the Last Supper — the celebration of the Eucharist by which we share in Christ’s eternal sacrifice of redemption — the Eucharist — that frees us from sin and is the only gift that can make all of us to be truly one in love and truth.