Covered in Consecrated Hosts

Following the extraordinary example of Daphrose Rugamba

08/03/2025

Luke 12:13-21 Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?” Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus will it be for all who store up treasure for themselves but are not rich in what matters to God.”

Two weeks ago a friend, Dc. Angelo Volpi, handed me a book his wife, Lorel Wilhelm-Volpi, had written called Important Women of the 20th Century. Lorel rapidly reviewed the stories of 16 heroic women who lived their faith in extraordinary ways under excruciating circumstances. Angelo gave the book to Bishop Taylor who read one biography a day and completed the book in 16 days. I had to beat the bishop, so I read it in 7 days! Otherwise, what’s the point of the priesthood?

One of the 16 women touched my heart deeply: Daphrose Rugamba from Rwanda. Daphrose was born in 1944 and raised in a devout Catholic family. She was ethnically Tutsi, and married Cyprien Rugamba, a talented musician, poet, and choreographer. They had 9 children together. Unfortunately, Cyprien was unfaithful to Daphrose and had a child out of wedlock.

But Daphrose did not give up; instead, she not only forgave Cyprien’s adultery, she even adopted his son. In 1989 they established the Emmanuel Community to emphasize the dignity of each person, regardless of their ethnicity. They warmly welcomed both Tutsis and Hutus – bitter enemies in Rwanda – to join their Emmanuel Community and learn to live in peace with your enemy.

But on April 6, 1994, after they spent the night in Eucharistic Adoration, praying for peace, Hutu militia entered their family chapel and killed Daphrose, Cyprien, and 6 of their children. Lorel recounted the scene in her book: “The assassins gunned down the family and then fired into the tabernacle. When the Rugamba’s bodies were discovered they were covered with [consecrated] hosts.”

In other words, Daphrose was a living (and dying) icon of how to prioritize relationships above everything else. For example, she prized her husband and forgave his infidelity. She adored her family and not only had 9 children but adopted her husband’s child. She treasured the Rwandan people regardless of race. And she loved God above all who helped her to even love her enemies, the Hutus who murdered her.

In the gospel today, Jesus teaches the people how to put relationships before riches like Daphrose did. We read: “Someone in the crowd said to Jesus: “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.” That is, money mattered more to this man than the blood relationship with his brother. He put riches above relationships. By contrast, Jesus insists that we should be “rich in what matters to God.” And what matters most to God? Simple: our relationships with God and neighbor.

I would suggest to you that Daphrose Rugamba’s heroic and holy life can serve as a paradigm (or pattern) of how to be “rich in what matters to God” in three ways. First, Daphrose prioritized her family. In what ways can you enhance your family relationships? Some families attend Sunday Mass together and go out for breakfast or gather at their home.

Jeff and Norma Meares prepare breakfast for their kids and grands after the 7:30 a.m. Mass. The grandkids love breakfast at Poppy’s. Perhaps there’s a strained or broken relationship with a family member that needs mending. Take a bite of humble pie and say, “I’m sorry.” Or far more difficult, say, “I forgive you,” instead of obstinately holding on to old hurts.

Second, as Daphrose loved different ethnic groups, are there races that are hard to relate to for you? And by the way, we may feel we love everyone equally while we also harbor a spirit of superiority over them. How so? It’s a good thing to feel national pride as Americans but do we also sometimes believe that we are better than other countries and ethnicities?

As a child, I saw first-hand this subtle superiority in India. Growing up I could tell it was more desirable to be light-skinned than dark-skinned. Can you guess why? India had been ruled by the British for virtually 200 years. And like in the Stockholm syndrome, we Indians began to copy our British captors. We felt being light-skinned like them was better than being dark-skinned like us. Now though we get our revenge as all the white people go to the beach every summer to look like us brown people. Ha!

And third, as Daphrose emphasized her relationship with God, so we should find ways to strengthen our love for the Lord. That is, do things for Jesus because you want to not bcause you have to. For example, attend a weekday Mass, pray the rosary, listen to Catholic podcasts while driving, fast from all social media on Fridays.

By the way, thank you all for responding so generously to Fr. Samy’s mission appeal for his diocese back in May. Bishop Prakasam wrote a heart-felt letter of gratitude, saying: “The generous contributions of I.C. Church will help us educate poor children, evangelize illiterate people in rural villages, and care for leper patients.” That collection was our faith in action, where we gave because we wanted to, not because we had to.

My friends, we may not be called to a martyr’s death like Daphrose Rugamba, who died covered in consecrated Hosts. Nonetheless, we can imitate her virtues, by prioritizing relationships over riches. When our relationships with family, with others who are different, and with God are robust and revitalizing, we become truly “rich in what matters to God.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

One-Up-Manship

Understanding the deeper dynamics of sibling rivalry

07/29/2025

Luke 10:38-42 Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me." The Lord said to her in reply, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her."

There is nothing more normal or natural in the world than sibling rivalry. Children feel an acute sense of one-up-manship. What you can do, I can do better. As you know, I have an older brother and a younger sister, which makes me the well-adjusted middle child. They dealt with all the issues of being the firstborn and the youngest.

While growing up I wanted to do everything my brother did. If he played soccer, I wanted to play soccer. When he pursued the Marine ROTC program, I wanted to enroll. If he liked a particular video game, I pursued that passion as well. But there was only one difference: I wanted to do all those activities better than he did. I wanted to one-up him at every turn.

It was later in high school, and especially in college, that I began to discover my own interests and gifts and started to set my own goals. My brother’s more mathematical mind led him to Christian Brothers College (now university) and my liberal arts head took me to the University of Dallas and the priesthood. But we still wanted to one-up each other. If he became the CEO of a company, then I had to become the pope.

Today we celebrate the feast of the saintly siblings Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. They lived in Bethany, two miles east of Jerusalem. We know that Jesus often visited them to relax because they were easy company. In the gospel of John he performed his greatest miracle by raising Lazarus from the dead. Jesus’ human closeness and love for them was on full display in the shortest sentence in the Bible: “He wept” (Jn 11:35), when his close friend had died.

Each sibling had their own unique relationship with Jesus. The brother Lazarus does not have any speaking parts in the Bible but he is raised from the dead, present when the siblings host Jesus during Holy Week, and quite possibly the subject of Jesus’ parable about the rich man and the poor beggar Lazarus in Luke 16. That is the only parable in which Jesus mentions someone by name. But again, the silent saint has no speaking parts.

And we are all familiar with the sibling rivalry between Martha and Mary. Today’s gospel was the same one we heard a couple of Sundays ago, about Martha’s frustration with what she interprets as Mary’s “laziness.” By the way, in case you haven’t noticed our Sunday gospels lately are normally from Luke because we are in Year C of the three-year cycle of Sunday readings. A-B-C corresponding to Matthew-Mark-Luke. But I’m sure you knew that.

But can you catch the sibling rivalry subtly as play beneath the two sisters’ relationship with Jesus? Martha feels she is doing the better part by being the hostess with the mostest and Mary by contrast is falling behind. But Jesus corrects her thinking and teaches her that Mary has chosen the better part by drawing close to Christ and feasting on the banquet of his words and wisdom.

It is good to serve our Lord earthly fare (like Marthat), but it is far better to be served by our Lord the heavenly Food, the Bread of Angels, the Word and Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist (like Mary). In other words, a saintly sibling rivalry inspires both sisters to vie for Jesus’ approval, and in this instance, Mary wins the crown from Christ.

My friends, we all find ourselves vying for victory in many different situations, competing sometimes with our siblings, sometimes with our friends, and if you’re like me, trying to get more “likes” on Facebook than my brother priests when they post a picture or their homilies. And all these rivalries are friendly and fun.

But the saintly siblings of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus show us there is a more serious and spiritual rivalry in being the one who most pleases the Lord and receive his crown of approval and praise. Winning that crown from Christ is the goal of all healthy and holy sibling rivalry. That is the end for which God made us competitive.

Let me leave you with a quotation from C. S. Lewis that captures this beautifully: “To please God…to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son – it seems hardly possible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.” And so it was for Martha, Mary, and Lazarus.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Cash Value of Christianity

 

Appreciating our aches and pains in a new light

07/28/2025

Matthew 13:31-35 Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds. “The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.” He spoke to them another parable. “The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened.” All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables. He spoke to them only in parables, to fulfill what had been said through the prophet: I will open my mouth in parables, I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation of the world.

Yesterday I was playing with my dog, Apollo, in the school field and Fr. Savio stopped by for a visit. You may recall he had a dog named Rinto and loves dogs, too. He casually asked me, “Do you walk a lot?” It was an odd question because he has seen how much I walk Apollo daily. So, I answered, “Oh, yes, at least 3 or 4 times daily with Apollo.”

Then he added, “Did you know there is an app that will pay you for the steps you walk every day?” Then I realized the objective of his odd question. He went on to explain as he pulled out his phone to show me: “An app called ‘Cash for Steps’ allows you to earn points that you redeem daily to exchange for gifts cards to retailers like Amazon or Walmart.”

But he also threw in a couple of caveats: “You have to redeem the points every day; they expire at midnight. And it takes a lot of steps to earn points.” He held up his phone to show his modest earnings which he turns into Amazon gift cards. You know, normally the pastor should teach the associate “the ways of the world” but here at I.C. it is invariably the inverse.

We find an intriguing parallel for this cash for steps in the Christian life. That is, sacrifices we make every day in loving God and our neighbor are a lot like spiritual steps. And if we are spiritually astute, we earn points for them in heaven. For example, doing the laundry, mowing the lawn, giving a donation to the poor, praying the rosary, attending daily Mass, studying the Bible, enduring aches and pains cheerfully, just growing old, and so forth, are the equivalent of the walks I go on with Apollo.

We can do such things while being ignorant of their spiritual value, or with full awareness we can cash in on their spiritual merits by offering them up to God. As St. Paul reminded the Romans: “Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship” (Rm 12:1). In other words, there is a sort of cash value in Christianity, by which we do not redeem points, but by which Christ redeems us.

Today we celebrate a supreme example of this cash value of Christianity, namely, the feast of Blessed Stanley Rother. This feast is particularly meaningful for us in the Diocese of Little Rock because we are one of the three dioceses that form the Province of Oklahoma City. And Blessed Stanley Rother was a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. He is literally the saint next door.

Blessed Stanley Rother began to use his cash value of Christianity app when he decided to become a priest. By the way, he attended Mt. St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, which is my seminary alma mater, too. So I have a double devotion to him: as a brother priest of the same province but also a brother graduate of the Mount (as we call it).

But Stanley believed he could gain more steps by working in the archdiocesan mission in Guatemala. Even though Fr. Rother struggled with Latin in seminary, he mastered Spanish as well as the native language of Tz'utujil and even helped translate the New Testament into that native tongue. Thus the people could read the Sacred Scriptures and see how Fr. Rother was a shining example of Rm 12:1.

But when civil war erupted in Guatemala, Fr. Rother saw a golden opportunity to gain bonus steps in his daily walk with the Lord. Even though his archbishop urged him to come home to Oklahoma City – because the Church was being persecuted in Guatemala – Fr. Rother decided to remain behind. He simply repeated the words of Jesus, the Good Shepherd: “the shepherd cannot run.”

On July 28, 1981, three men entered Fr. Rother’s rectory at 1 a.m. and executed him. His death shocked the Catholic world, and no one was held responsible for his death. On December 1, 2016 Pope Francis officially recognized Blessed Stanley as a martyr for the faith. And he is buried in a 2,000-seat shrine in Oklahoma City. Although the people of Guatemala asked his heart be buried in Santiago Atitlan.

My friends, I know it sounds odd, maybe even a little mercenary, to suggest that there is a cash value in Christianity. And I admit such language makes our precious faith sound somewhat consumeristic or capitalistic. Can our faith life really be compared to making a deal with Mr. Wonderful on Shark Tank? Clearly that would demean and distort the faith.

Nonetheless, Fr. Savio’s casual conversation did make me look at my walks with Apollo in a new light: that is, there is more value there than I first realized. And there is likewise more value in our daily aches and pains, our moans and groans, than we realize. And the real value of seeing our spiritual walk with the Lord in terms of “cash for steps” is that this is not how we redeem points, but how Christ redeems us.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Two Holy Marys

Appreciating our siblings and our saints

07/22/2025

John 20:1-2, 11-18 On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, "They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they put him." Mary stayed outside the tomb weeping. And as she wept, she bent over into the tomb and saw two angels in white sitting there, one at the head and one at the feet where the Body of Jesus had been. And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken my Lord, and I don't know where they laid him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" She thought it was the gardener and said to him, "Sir, if you carried him away, tell me where you laid him, and I will take him." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni," which means Teacher. Jesus said to her, "Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, 'I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and then reported what he told her.

Today is July 22 and it is my sister, Mary’s, birthday, and I just want to give her a quick shout-out in this homily. Why? Well, because I believe it is providential that she shares the same name as the saint whose feast we celebrate today, Mary Magdalene. But first I want to note she did not receive the name Mary due to being born on the feast of St. Mary Magdalene, although naming babies for feast days is a common Catholic custom.

In my home country of India, we have a very specific way of naming children, namely, they bear the names of their grandparents. For example, the firstborn son is named for his grandfather on the father’s side. The firstborn daughter is named for the grandmother on the father’s side. Hence my sister being the firstborn daughter is named for my father’s mother, Mary, not St. Mary Magdalene.

Nonetheless, it was not by accident that my sister Mary was born on the feast of St. Mary Magdalene because they share the most important trait in common: an intense love for Jesus. In the gospel today Mary Magdalene demonstrates her devotion to her Lord by staying at the tomb weeping. The gospel pericope we read this morning omitted verses 3-10 where Peter and John run to the tomb but eventually leave.

But Mary Magdalene’s love for the Lord was not a flickering flame – like the apostles’ often was – rather it was a towering inferno of undying devotion. And precisely because of that unwavering love she is the first to behold – and even to touch – the resurrected Jesus. And further, her love uniquely qualified her to be sent as “the apostle to the apostles.” Jesus says to her, “Go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

My sister Mary attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville. My brother got the brains in the family and I obviously got the good looks. And my sister got both: brains and beauty! But my sister was endowed by more than natural gifts, she also had the supernatural gift of faith in abundance. So in her free time she volunteered with the Nashville Dominican Nuns and discerned a possible religious vocation.

Today, my sister is happily married to Dr. Anthony Gulde, a dentist and devout Catholic. They have five children, and the oldest, Raichel, is considering a religious vocation, and the second son, Jacob, is pondering the possibility of priesthood. In other words, the apple has not fallen far from the tree; like produces like. Like Mary Magdalene shared her faith with the apostles, so my sister shares her faith with her children.

There is another respect in which my sister and today’s saint share a similar calling. My sister works at her parish church as the director of the OCIA program. Her role is to help people who are falling in love with Jesus to discover the untold riches of that faith in the Catholic Church.

What job could be more satisfying than bringing hungry people to be fed at the eternal banquet of the Eucharist? That Eucharistic Food of Bread and Wine is precisely whar Mary Magdalene saw, the risen and glorified Body and Blood of the Victor over sin and death.

And by the way, that is why Catholics are not cannibals, as some people accuse us. Cannibals eat the bodies of dead people. Catholics, by contrast, consume the Body and Blood of Someone who is far more alive than you and me. And consuming his living Body and Blood gives us hope to live forever, too. That’s why we come to Mass (in case you didn’t know).

And incidentally, like providence hitting us over the head with a baseball bat to get our attention, do you know the name of the parish where my sister and her family attend Mass and where she works on the church staff? You guessed it: St. Mary Magdalene. My sister and today’s saint share a lot of cool stuff in common.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Equal to Our Explanations

Understanding why the sacramental signs are so simple

07/21/2025

Matthew 12:38-42 Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you." He said to them in reply, "An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and there is something greater than Jonah here. At the judgment the queen of the south will arise with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and there is something greater than Solomon here."

Who can forget that dramatic, although also anti-climactic – moment in the movie “The Wizard of Oz” when the curtain of the great Oz is pulled back to reveal a mere man. While fire bellows out and a voice thunders, the little dog Toto runs over to pull the cover back and a simple old man is turning the levelers and speaking through a microphone to project the mighty Wizard of Oz. And understandably, Dorothy, the Lion, the Tin-Man, the Scarecrow, and especially Toto, are all disappointed because he was their only hope to return home to Kansas.

In the gospel today we might say that Jesus pulls the curtain back on his own identity to reveal his divinity. Of course he has dropped hints along the way in the gospel of Matthew in the first eleven chapters, like his miraculous birth by a Virgin, the visit of the Magi, his miraculous healings of the sick, and his mastery over the wind and the waves.

But now the scribes and Pharisees ask Jesus for a sign, not because they sincerely want to believe but because they want to test him, and expose him as merely “the man behind the curtain.” And so Jesus says, sort of like Superman pulling his buttoned shirt open to reveal his super “S” beneath, you have a greater than Jonah, and a greater than Solomon here.

As you know, Jonah was a great prophet. And Solomon was the son of David, and in a sense, even greater than David. He built the temple, he taught with incomparable wisdom, and he ushered in an era of peace. Indeed, his name “Solomon” comes from the Hebrew “shalom” meaning peace.

In other words, Jonah and Solomon converted even the pagans to true faith in God and Jesus will convert the whole world. But only for those who come to his with sincere hearts. In a reversal of the plot of the Wizard of Oz, where sincere seekers discover a hoax, in the gospel today, we have devious seekers who find the God-man-Man. Or as we might say today, “You have someone greater than Superman here.”

I think discovering who Jesus is when he walked the face of the earth, and who he is as he walks among us sacramentally in the Eucharist, always depends on the sincerity of the seekers. All those who come to Christ in the gospels with faith – however minimal – were handsomely rewarded. On the other hand, those who approached him with malicious intent, like the scribes and Pharisees were roundly rebuffed, and went home empty-handed.

This challenge of being sincere seekers is especially daunting for modern Americans, who look at the world through the glasses of science and technology. Those glasses are good, and they can get us a long down the yellow brick road of life. Just look at all the modern advances we enjoy today. And perhaps that is just the beginning of the road. Who can guess where AI (artificial intelligence) can carry us into the future?

But science and technology also invariably begin with the assumption that “what you see is what you get.” And the necessary corollary to that is, “what you don’t see is what you don’t get.” That need for scientific verifiability is exactly where the yellow brick road hits a brick wall. And science and technology are useless to take us any further. It takes faith in the invisible to go through a wall. Or using the Superman analogy, to see through a wall, and glimpse what is beyond the senses, that is, what is spiritual and divine.

Several weeks ago Bishop Taylor stayed with us at the rectory and we ate dinner together. I asked him a question that had been really bugging me for a long time, and hoped he might have an answer. I asked, “Bishop we have such deep and profound faith in the sacraments that theology has articulated so beautifully and eloquently, especially regarding the Eucharist.”

I continued: “The Catechism even calls the Eucharist the source and the summit of the Christian life. Why are the signs of the sacraments, therefore, so strikingly simple, just bread and wine, and that, just a nibble and a sip. Shouldn’t the signs be more equal to our explanations?” He answered sarcastically, “So you want the Mass to be more theatrical?” I guess he meant like the Wizard of Oz with bellowing fire and a thundering voice.

It was a good answer, and it made me pray more and think a little deeper. Perhaps the signs of the sacraments are not equal to their explanations because like in the gospel so today: Jesus wants us to approach him with faith, believing what we cannot see, smell, hear, touch, or taste. In a sense, being sincere seekers, like Dorothy and her companions. Only then will the yellow brick road get us home to heaven.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Cuisine of Contemplation

Spending more time with Jesus in prayer this summer

07/20/2025

Luke 10:38-42 Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me." The Lord said to her in reply, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her."

Did you know that I took three months off from being a diocesan priest to pray about becoming a Carmelite monk? Back in 2013 Bishop Taylor gracious granted me a leave of absence to live with the Carmelites in Dallas, Texas. If you don’t know, Carmelites are known for spending several hours a day absorbed in quiet contemplation.

My friends all said I would never make it. And I guess they were right, because look at where I am now! Nonetheless, my instinct for more prayer was right. What do I mean? Diocesan priests like me and Fr. Savio can become so work-oriented that we can easily sacrifice prayer for the sake of productivity.

And this obsession with output (what have you accomplished?) is understandable because the business of saving souls is 24-7. But when we neglect serious and sustained prayer, we are essentially like chickens running around with our heads cut off. Why? Because Jesus is our Head who gives us purpose, peace, and proper priorities. And prayer helps us keep our Head (Jesus) on straight.

Today we hear the beautiful but also somewhat baffling story of Martha and Mary who host Jesus for supper. The reason it feels baffling to me is because I sympathize and side with Martha. She is the one doing all the work (like diocesan priests) yet it is Mary (like the Carmelites) sitting on her hands, whom Jesus pats approvingly on the head.

In what sense, had Mary chosen “the better part”? Well, Mary stayed close to Jesus who showed her that there are spiritual feasts that are more satisfying than a supper of the most succulent steak. Remember when his disciples urged Jesus to eat while he was speaking with Samaritan woman at the well?

Jesus replied “I have food to eat of which you do not know” (Jn 4:32). Jesus was serving the Samaritan woman a sumptuous supper of his words and wisdom. And Mary in the gospel was relishing that same cuisine of contemplation too. That feast of faith is precisely “the better part.”

This past Friday I went to visit Josie Nunez, an IC parishioner who has joined the Olivetan Benedictine Nuns in Jonesboro. Her house was full of flowers and family and friends, who were coming to greet her because she had been gone for a year. They were all smiling and taking selfies as if Taylor Swift had come to Fort Smith.

I had a few minutes to talk to her personally, and I asked her what her daily routine was like. She said she gets up at 5 a.m. – which is later than the fully-professed nuns – and spends an hour in the chapel in quiet prayer. Then breakfast and more community prayer with the other nuns.

Around 11 a.m. she’s back in the chapel for more private prayer, the rosary, and lunch. In the evening, she hits the chapel a third time for prayer before supper and finally night prayers at 7:30, followed by Grand Silence. As I listened to her speak, I felt like Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus tasting that cuisine of contemplation that Christ wants to feed us all with.

My friends, we are in the dog-days of summer, no offense to my dog Apollo! During the summer we finally find some time to relax and recharge. But how many people try to spend extra time in prayer? In fact, some people skip Mass as part of their “down time.” We can even treat prayer like work which we need a break from.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen was a huge advocate of making a Holy Hour every day in front of the Blessed Sacrament. But he observed ironically that “the hardest time to make the Holy Hour is when we are on vacation.” He explained why: “When you have all the time in the world, you have no time for God.”

Here are a few suggestions to taste a little of the delicious cuisine of contemplation that Mary enjoyed. Try to attend an extra Mass during the week. By the way, Josie will be at 7 a.m. Mass for the next two weeks if you want to say hello to Fort Smith’s own Taylor Swift. Sign up for a weekly Holy Hour at St. Boniface Adoration Chapel. And quite literally sit at the feet of Jesus, and eat the food that most people don’t know.

My family has a conference call every Sunday at 4 p.m. and whoever is available calls my phone, my parents, brother, my sister, and their kids (my nieces and nephews) spread all over the country. I merge the calls and we chat for a bit and then take turns leading the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary.

The conference call is not perfect and I often cannot hear everyone’s voice because they cut in and out. Some people pray too fast, and others pray too slow. Of course, I pray perfectly. But for 25 minutes we all sit at Jesus’ feet and are blessed to taste “the better part.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Student or Victim

Learning from the past for a better future

07/15/2025

Matthew 11:20-24 Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented. "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And as for you, Capernaum: Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld. For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you."

The Spanish philosopher George Santayana famously said: “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” In other words, we must all either become students of history or we will become victims of the future. Last night I enjoyed dinner at a family’s home and had the opportunity to share a little history lesson.

The father of the family asked me as we were beginning our dessert of strawberries and crème – which was perfect since the world had just watched Wimbledon on Sunday – what is the meaning and origin of the term “anti-Semitic”? Well, the phrase has a long and sordid past, and there are various paths down which I could have searched for an answer.

But I took the etymological route and explained that “semite” comes from the name “Shem,” who was the firstborn son of Noah. That is, a Semite is really a Shemite. According to Genesis 10 after the devastating Flood, God starts a new creation, a second creation story. Genesis 10 recounts how all 70 nations of the world descended from the 3 sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japeth.

And the Jews are descended from Shem and thus they are called Shemites, or semites. Therefore, to be antisemitic means to be anti-Jewish. In other words, antisemitism is not something that started wit Hitler and the Jewish Holocaust; it started when Noah got off the ark (as we proverbially say). Because Hitler was not a good student of history, he became a victim of the future.

In the gospel today Jesus also gives a history lesson so the Jews do not become victims of their future. He recalls the destruction that befell Tyre and Sidon through the prophesy of Joel, and the fire and brimstone that fell on Sodom and Gomorrah turning it into the Dead Sea. But did the Jews recognize their plight and turn to the Messiah? Well, just read the history books: Jerusalem was leveled in 70 AD by the Roman General Titus and the Tenth Legion.

What are some ways we can become students of history? If you are a shrewd financial planner, you know that past performance is one of the best predictors of the future possibilities of a given stock. Becoming a student of a given stock’s history helps you avoid becoming a victim of the same stock’s future.

Another example is the long and grueling annulment process, which is in effect a personal history lesson. We ask the petitioner – the person applying for an annulment – to tell us about their parents, their siblings, their childhood, their dating experiences, and how and when they fell in love with their ex-spouse.

Now, many people seeking an annulment feel like all that is a huge waste of time. Why? Because what they really want to talk about is how terrible their ex was, and how he or she was really at fault for the break-up of the marriage, and how the petitioner is entirely innocent, and therefore deserves to get the annulment, so they can finally get rid of this albatross around their neck.

And there may be some truth to what the petitioner claims about the character flaws in the respondent (the ex-spouse). But the annulment process is asking a deeper question: what have you learned from your own family history, your family dynamics, from your parents, your siblings, and your childhood. As Aristotle wisely said: “Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man.”

The last question in the annulment form is perhaps the most telling one: “What have you learned at the end of this annulment process?” If all they can manage to come up with is: “My ex-spouse was a jerk,” then they have been a very poor student of their own history. And more tragically, they will likely repeat those same mistakes – and there are always mistakes by both parties – in their future marriages.

And when you think about it, isn’t the entire Mass another example of “becoming students of history so that we don’t become victims of the future”? At the ambo (pulpit) we listen and learn from the Scriptures as they recount the collective history of the People of God, which is a long list of our endless mistakes. And then we move to the altar and receive the Eucharist, so we have the grace to not keep making the same mistakes over and over. Student or victim.

Praised be Jesus Christ!