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!

We Shouldn’t Complicate the Matter

Seeing the Church through the eyes of the saints

07/14/2025

Matthew 10:34—11:1 Jesus said to his Apostles: "Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one's enemies will be those of his household. "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. "Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous will receive a righteous man's reward. And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple– amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward." When Jesus finished giving these commands to his Twelve disciples, he went away from that place to teach and to preach in their towns.

Do you have any summer reading plans? Besides the Bible, my booklist for this summer includes Joan of Arc by Mark Twain. On the cover of the book there is a quotation by Twain in his signature style stating: “I like Joan of Arc best of all my books, and it is the best…” I am only half-way through the book, and I have to agree: it is wonderful.

Twain recounts the highly unlikely history of how Joan of Arc became the commanding general of all the armies of France by the tender age of 17. She overthrew the English occupiers and restored the crown to Charles VII of France. And how was she rewarded for all her heroic labors? She was put on trail for witchcraft and burned at the stake.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes Joan of Arc in the section on the Church. We read: “A reply of St. Joan of Arc to her judges sums up the faith of the holy doctors and the good sense of the believers: ‘About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know they’re just one thing, and we shouldn’t complicate the matter’” (no. 795).

The irony of Joan’s statement is that she was being tried for witchcraft by a church tribunal. The bishops of the Church, ordained by God, were inquiring about Joan’s faith in the same Church. Instead of reacting or responding like you or I might have by losing our cool or questioning our faith in the institutional Church, Joan doubled-down on her belief. Remarkable resolve, and from a teenager.

Of course, Joan of Arc did not invent this unshakable faith out of thin air; it came straight from the lips of Jesus in today’s gospel. Our Lord taught in his great Missionary Discourse the core of our belief in the Church: “Whoever receives you (his apostles and bishops) receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me” (Mt 10:40).

In other words, “for reasons known only to the Almighty and our guardian angels,” Jesus chose to associate weak, sinful, selfish, and foolish men to his work of salvation. This ministerial association with human beings is a mystery of faith, perhaps second only to the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the central and deepest tenet of Christianity.

And a humble and holy teenager summed up that mysterious faith sweetly and serenely in the face of prelates and priests who were hell-bent on her destruction: “About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply know they’re just one thing, and we shouldn’t complicate the matter.”

This past Saturday I had lunch with a friend who drove down from Northwest Arkansas. She is a devout Catholic, and our conversation ranged over many topics, but mostly about faith. At one point we discussed Pope Leo XIV. By the way, do you like Leo XIV – as if I even need to ask? We discussed some ways he is similar to Pope Francis and how in other ways he is dissimilar.

And of course, in these first months of his pontificate he is in the honeymoon stage of being the pope. That is, everyone looks at him through rose-colored glasses, and he does nothing wrong. But soon he will make difficult decisions and someone is not going to be pleased. They will criticize and complain, and maybe even leave the Church over those tough teachings.

But such unhappy Catholics should remember the retort of a teenage girl to a church tribunal looking for evidence to burn her as a witch: “About Jesus Christ and the Church I simply know they are just one thing, and we shouldn’t complicate the matter.” It doesn't matter who the pope is, Jesus Christ and the Church "are just one thing."

Naturally, we don’t have to wait for the Holy Father to upset us, our pastors here at home are constantly upsetting the apple-cart of our Christianity. Pastors who change one thing but do not change another. Priests who put us to sleep with long, incomprehensible homilies about the theology of the body. Priests who fail to visit us in the hospital and who lose their patience when we desperately needed a little of their compassion.

Why on God’s green earth would Jesus Christ associate such men with his work of saving your soul? Perhaps it was no easier for St. Joan of Arc than it is for us to say: “About Jesus Christ and the Church I simply know they are just one thing, and we shouldn’t complicate the matter.” Maybe everyone should read Joan of Arc by Mark Twain for summer reading.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Neighbor of the Week Award

Getting our moral bearings on the issue of immigration

07/13/2025

Luke 10:25-37 There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read it?" He said in reply, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." He replied to him, "You have answered correctly; do this and you will live." But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, "A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead. A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side. But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight. He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn, and cared for him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, 'Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.' Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers' victim?" He answered, "The one who treated him with mercy." Jesus said to him,  "Go and do likewise."

Do you know that I am a lawyer? Bishop McDonald sent me to study canon law which is the vast array of 1752 canons that make up the Code of Canon Law. That Code is the equivalent of the U.S. Constitution and 27 amendments combined. And since I am lawyer I hope you other lawyers don’t mind me telling a lawyer joke. Only lawyers should tell lawyer jokes just like only priests should tell priest jokes. So I can tell lots of jokes.

A man was on his deathbed, and he called his three closest friends to visit him, a doctor, a lawyer, and an engineer. He told them, “I know they say you can’t take it with you. But I want to try anyway. So, I’m giving you each $10,000 cash. After I die, when you come to pay your respects, place the $10,000 into the coffin with me.”

After the man passed away, the three friends came to pay their respects. Afterwards, they were all talking, and the doctor said: “I know it’s medically impossible, but I have to admit I put $9,000 in the casket and kept $1,000 for myself.” The engineer likewise chimed in: “I did all the math and realized its impossible also. But I have to admit, I put $5,000 in and left $5,000 for myself.”

The lawyer looked at them both with disgust and said: “I am disappointed in both of you. This was our friend’s last wish and neither of you held up your end. For my part, I decided to write him a check for the entire amount, and put it in the casket.” If you didn’t get that joke, just call a lawyer and he or she can explain it to you, and charge you $10,000 for the call.

In the gospel today, we see Jesus dealing with another lawyer, the predecessor of us canon lawyers, namely, a scholar of the Mosaic law. And by the way, even though God only gave Moses the 10 Commandments on Mt. Sinai, later legislation expanded this legal code to 613 more detailed laws that essentially gutted God’s original intentions.

Thus, even though the Jewish lawyer admits to Jesus, you should “love your neighbor as yourself,” word “neighbor” had a very narrow and limited definition. Like a former U.S. president once said, “It depends on what your definition of “is” is.” In other words, for the lawyer “neighbor” no longer meant everyone.

This legal background is crucial to understand Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan and how our Lord defines the word “neighbor.” How so? Well, the first two characters – the priest and the Levite – would have been the lawyer’s picks for “the neighbor of the week award.” Why? Because they acted exactly how the law prescribed, namely, not to touch a corpse because according to the parable, the man was beaten by robbers and left “half dead,” virtually a corpse.

But a Samaritan, who did not have his head full of laws but his heart full of love, immediately – and very generously – reached out to the neighbor in need. In other words, the Samaritan’s definition of neighbor included everyone without exception, which is what God had originally intended in his 10 Commandments. The Samaritan was a better Jew than the priest and Levite.

I think Jesus’ parable can help with an urgent and controversial topic of immigration, or more exactly, illegal immigration. Now, personally, I am town down the middle on this issue. Why? On the one hand I fully see the right (indeed, the need) for countries to protect their borders and enforce the laws of their land. After all, I am a trained canon lawyer, and fully believe that laws – both civil and ecclesiastical – serve the common good. They help people to live in peace and harmony.

Think of laws like street lights at traffic intersections that tell people when to stop and when to go. Although there are a lot of people in Fort Smith that could use a refresher course in basic traffic laws. Consequently, if someone enters a country illegally they should understand they run the risk of deportation, and/or other legal penalties for their actions.

But on the other hand, laws should not “trump” – pun intended – the highest law, which is the commandment to love our neighbor. Here are two ways that love of neighbor can maintain this higher status. First, all people – not neighbor in the narrow sense – have an inalienable right to due process, that is, everyone is considered innocent until proven guilty. That presumption of innocence is a bedrock legal principle without which the entire edifice of the law would be a house of straw that a strong gust of wind could blow over.

And second, we cannot lose sight of the humanity of the vast majority of illegal immigrants who are only here to provide for their families. They are in effect like the man in the parable going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and their lack of legal status makes them seem “half-dead.”

And therefore, in the estimation of many today, like in the eyes of the priest and Levite, they do not qualify for neighborly treatment. On the other hand, St. Augustine saw the wine and the oil the Samaritan used as symbols of the sacraments of Anointing and Eucharist. In other words, the Church by lavishing her sacraments on everyone, applies the broadest definition of neighbor.

My friends, we all have a right to our opinion about illegal immigration. It is complicated and each person should follow his or her conscience when formulating their own moral judgment. But one important aspect of developing our moral judgment includes how we define the word “neighbor” – narrowly or broadly. Here in the South we pride ourselves on having a very broad definition of neighbor, especially the neighbor in need. And if I had to guess, the Samaritan in the parable must have been from the South, too.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

The 1962 of the Church

Appreciating the founding members of the Church

07/09/2025

Matthew 10:1-7 Jesus summoned his Twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness. The names of the Twelve Apostles are these: first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus; Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus. Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus, "Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation:
'The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.'"

While I was pastor of St. Raphael Church in Springdale, I met someone who was one of the original investors and partners of Sam and Bud Walton who both founded Walmart. I am not sure what my friend’s net worth was but he was probably one of the richest men in Arkansas. Surprisingly, he and his wife, both elderly, lived in a very modest home in Rogers.

Like Sam Walton, famous for driving his old pick up truck, so my friend did not display his wealth in flashy ways. On the outside, you would never guess he was on the ground floor of a business today that has an annual revenue of $680 billion and employs over 2.1 million people world-wide. Don’t you wish you had invested in Walmart back in 1962 when Sam bought his first “Walton’s Five and Dime”? If I had been there in 1962, today I would be driving around in the biggest, most obnoxious gas-guzzling SUV available.

In today’s gospel we hear about the 1962 of the Catholic Church, and the 12 guys who were there at the ground level when our Founder put the pieces together for “Jesus’ Five and Dime.” The names of those 12 lucky guys on the ground floor were: Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John, Philip and Bartholemew, Thomas and Matthew, James and Thaddeus, Simon and Judas Iscariot, whose fate we know only too well.

In two respects the apostles were like my friend from Rogers, who first invested in Walmart. They had little idea of the enormous future success of this new venture, that is, they had a lot of faith in their respective founders. And second, there was at least an outward humility in both ventures. Walton’s worth is hard to exaggerate, but he drove a pick-up truck. Jesus owns all creation but he died penniless and persecuted on a cross. And Judas got 30 pieces of silver to buy a gas-guzzling SUV.

Of course, there are several fronts on which my analogy between Jesus and Sam Walton breaks down. For example, Jesus purpose was not to sell retail goods and to make millions but to save souls through self-sacrifice. Indeed, Jesus gave away all his money – and taught his disciples to do likewise – and trusted entirely on the Father’s providence for his needs.

Second, Jesus did not set up his headquarters on earth but in heaven, whereas Sam Walton set up Walmart’s corporate offices in Bentonville. By the way, the Vatican is not the headquarters of the Catholic Church. Rome is only the chief embassy, and every diocese is a consulate office where we can get our passports for heaven. Jesus did not come to create a heaven on earth; but to create “a new heavens and a new earth” (Rv 21:1).

And a third difference is captured by the proverb: “water never rises above its own source.” That is, even though the world’s largest retailer is led by men and women who are super-smart, hyper-driven, and form a formidable corporate team, they will never achieve anything greater than the sum of their talents. Because the retail giant is merely a human endeavor, it too will pass away. As Ecclesiastes prophesied: “I have seen all things that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a chase after wind” (Eccl 1:14).

But there was nothing temporary or transitional about what those 12 guys got to be part of on the ground floor in the gospel today, “the 1962 of the Church.” One day the Church will eclipse the world’s largest retailer, and indeed, it will eclipse the world itself. Why? Because the Catholic Church is “the new heavens and the new earth.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Meat in the Middle

Seeing how Jesus teaches us visually and verbally

07/08/2025

Matthew 9:32-38 A demoniac who could not speak was brought to Jesus, and when the demon was driven out the mute man spoke. The crowds were amazed and said, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.” But the Pharisees said, “He drives out demons by the prince of demons.” Jesus went around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness. At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”

Have you heard of the old expression, “Don’t miss the forest for the trees”? It means don’t become so laser-focused on the minutiae of what’s right in front of you that you lose sight of the larger map showing you where you are headed. On the other hand, we can become so far-sighted that we cannot see what is right in front of our nose.

Who can forget when Yoda criticized young Luke Skywalker in the movie “Empire Strikes Back”, “All his life has he looked away…to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing.” So the point is to develop a beautiful balance by keeping one eye on the minutiae and the other eye on the map, one on the future and the other on the present.

In no other gospel writer do we find this delicate balance struck better than in the gospel of Matthew. In 28 chapters Matthew vividly recounts the life, ministry, miracles, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That narrative is the ostensible plot of the story.

But Matthew never once takes his eyes off both the minutiae or the map, nor does he forget the present for the future. And managing this rare balance is all thanks to his personal gifts as a writer and apostle, but even more so thanks to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit as an evangelist.

First, let me describe how Matthew keeps an eye on the larger map. If you zoo out and survey the entire gospel, a very clear structure emerges. Matthew places two bookends, one at the beginning with Jesus’ birth (dreams of St. Joseph, visit of the Magi, flight into Egypt) and the other at the end in Jesus’ death and resurrection.

But in the middle you find the meat, like in every good sandwich. There are five distinct sections of narrative action each followed by a discourse of explanation of those actions. In other words, Jesus first teaches his apostles by his example, and then he teaches them by his exhortation.

I remember when Fr. Daniel was giving me tennis lessons, he would explain how to move my feet, how to hold the racquet, how to swing and hit the ball. But I always learned faster and better when I could watch how he did it. As they say I am a visual learner more than a verbal learner.

Matthew’s gospel likewise gives both the visual and the verbal in 5 successive lessons from chapters 3 to 25, the meat in the middle. These five great lessons that Jesus teaches are in fact often described as “books” within Matthew’s larger gospel. How so?

Well, just as Moses is credited with writing the first five books of the bible, the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy), so Jesus in effect writes (visually and verbally) 5 new books. Why? Because Matthew wants his readers to see Jesus as the new Moses.

Jesus gives his disciples the new law – not only the 10 Commandments but also the 8 Beatitudes – and the new covenant – not animal sacrifices but his own sacrifice on the altar as our Eucharist. Can you see Matthew’s map – and how “all his life he has looked away…to the future, to the horizon”?

But now if we zoom in to today’s gospel, we find ourselves right in the middle of the visual and verbal of the second of the five books. That is, Jesus has just demonstrated visually by his actions of teaching, healing, and driving out demons what the apostles are to do.

And in the following chapter he explains verbally how they are to do it in his Missionary Discourse. Thus Jesus says: “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” Jesus teaches visually and verbally how to be a missionary disciple.

My friends, our take-home message today is to strike this beautiful balance in our own lives. To keep one eye on the minutiae of the daily grind, but not take the other eye off the map of where we are ultimately going. That is, we should not lose the forest for the trees.

As Stephen Covey once memorably said: “Don’t be so zealous on climbing the ladder of success that when you get to the top you find it is leaning against the wrong wall.” Jesus, the new Moses, is the only One who can teach us how to do both perfectly.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Textbook Funerals

Seeing how Jesus changes death into a doorway

07/07/2025

Matthew 9:18-26 While Jesus was speaking, an official came forward, knelt down before him, and said, ""My daughter has just died. But come, lay your hand on her, and she will live."" Jesus rose and followed him, and so did his disciples. A woman suffering hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the tassel on his cloak. She said to herself, ""If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured."" Jesus turned around and saw her, and said, ""Courage, daughter!  Your faith has saved you."" And from that hour the woman was cured. When Jesus arrived at the official's house and saw the flute players and the crowd who were making a  commotion, he said, ""Go away! The girl is not dead but sleeping."" And they ridiculed him. When the crowd was put out, he came and took her by the hand, and the little girl arose. And news of this spread throughout all that land.

I presided at two funerals last week. The first one was for an older gentleman surrounded by his widow, his children, his grandchildren, and hundreds of friends. The funeral was here at the church and the man was buried at Oak Cemetery with a colorful Mariachi band to croon farewell songs while the family shoveled dirt on the grave.

It was sad, obviously, but also pervaded with a sense of peace and hope. He had lived a good Christian life and could look forward to his eternal reward, and the family could leave the cemetery fully expecting to see him again in the next life. It was a textbook funeral like they taught us in the seminary.

The second funeral was anything but textbook. It was tragic and doleful, even with a touch of despair that was hard to shake off. The man was detained by ICE agents and held in a local jail awaiting deportation. The cause of death? Suicide. The service was at the funeral home not at church, with only a handful of well-wishers. His widow and children are still in Zacatecas, Mexico. After the funeral the body will be sent back to Mexico for burial.

The funeral was sad, to say the least, and the circumstances made it tragic. They did not prepare us for these “non-textbook funerals” in the seminary. But regardless of how inadequate my homily was on that occasion, I hope people felt like Jesus was present in his priest and in the Scriptures. And that all hope was not lost.

After all, the man had been baptized and received all his sacraments, so I was able to bless his body and his casket with holy water, rich symbol of Baptism. He had sacramentally died with Christ so he can hope to rise with him on the last day. Otherwise, why bother with Baptism at all, if it does not open the door of death for us?

Now, this is not a homily about immigration, but rather about the difference Jesus makes in our lives and especially at the moment of death, surely the most critical moment of our lives. Today’s gospel highlights exactly the difference Jesus makes in that morbid moment of death. Did you notice the wildly different perspectives: that of Christ and that of the crowd?

We read: “When Jesus arrived at the official’s house, and saw the Mariachi band, I mean the flute players, and the crowd were making a commotion, he said, ‘Go away! The girl is not dead but sleeping.’ And they ridiculed him.” Now both perspectives are true, but one is truer. The crowds were right to mourn because the girl had indeed died. Her heartbeat had ceased, and her brainwaves had stopped waving.

Jesus’ perspective, however, is even truer than natural death, that is, he has come precisely to transform the specter of death into the doorway to real life. In that sense, the girl was indeed merely sleeping and Jesus had come to awaken her. And to prove that Jesus has power over death, he brings her back to life.

But of course, like Lazarus in John 11, and the son of the widow of Nain in Luke 7, this girl would have to die again in order to rise in eternity. Maybe that is why Jesus did not just go around raising people from the dead left and right: they would die again. Only the eternal life that is guaranteed by the sacrament of Baptism stops death dead in its tracks and makes it look like sweet slumber.

And that was my message in both funeral homilies last week. That is, thanks to their Baptism, we have solid hope that those two men will be in a better place than we are right now. And therefore our prayer should not be that they come back to us (as most people instinctively pray), but that one day we will be where they are.

They are not the unfortunate ones, we are. They have passed through the door of death and we should not want to make them go through it again. Rather, we should steel ourselves with the grace of Baptism and await our inevitable turn to turn that doorknob. In other words, the funeral of a baptized Christian is always a textbook funeral.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Our New Wineskin

Introducing Fr. Savio Arokia, associate pastor of I.C.

07/05/2025

Matthew 9:14-17 The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?" Jesus answered them, "Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved."

I want to tell you a little about Fr. Savio Arokia, the new wineskin who has arrived as our new associate pastor at I.C. Every priest is a wineskin that carries the new wine of the Gospel. First, and most importantly, he’s a dog person! I was  little worried when he came straight from India. In my home country they don’t treat dogs like family members.

But Fr. Savio told me he had a German Shepherd for 14 years named Rinto. And he warned me: “It is very hard on you when they die.” That is why he did not get another dog. In that way, Fr. Savio reminds me a lot of Fr. Daniel Velasco who had a German Shepherd named Lola for 13 years.

It was very hard on Fr. Daniel when she died because she was living here with us at the time. That was the first time I gave Fr. Daniel a hug – he really needed it. But I won’t need a hug because Apollo and I have made a deal that he will stay young and handsome forever.

Fr. Savio has worked in the United States before, in the Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi, from 2012 to 2024. So he is fully inculturated with baseball, apple pie, and oversized SUVs. But I noticed he has already found the Indian restaurants in town, cooked Indian food the last two days, and keeps the thermostat upstairs at 78 degrees. You can take the man out of India, but you cannot take India out of the man.

He said he comes from a traditional Catholic family, but that is an understatement. His parents – both deceased – had 8 children: 4 boys and 4 girls. Besides Fr. Savio, another brother is a priest, and one sister is a nun in the Bethlemite Religious Congregation. Fr. Savio was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Nellore (where Fr. Samy and Fr. Bala are from) back in 1983, which was before I was born.

Let me mention a few of the roles he has played as a priest for 42 years: pastor, director of communications and multi-media, youth minister, on the Human Rights Council of the state, on the diocesan Educational Committee, Director of Catechetics, Director of the retreat center, on the college of consultors for the bishop, rector of the boarding school, and the list goes on and on.

Most telling, though, for the past year while in India, he assisted the diocesan bishop as his secretary. That is perhaps Fr. Savio’s highest position because the bishop usually wants his best and brightest close to him. Notice how far away I am from the bishop in Fort Smith. That proximity to the bishop tells you a lot about Fr. Savio and about Fr. John. And incidentally, I am not complaining.

In just a few days after arriving Fr. Savio has already made a great first impression. People are pleased that his Indian accent is not too pronounced, and they can understand him. He said he likes to come to the office and be present to the people – not like your pastor who runs and hides from the people.

He asked to concelebrate the 4th of July Mass with me, even though he was not scheduled to be there. And most importantly, he spends time in personal prayer. If Fr. Savio has one weakness, it is that he does not speak Spanish. But that is no fault of his own; he has not had the opportunity to learn.

Perhaps he will pick up some Spanish in his time here. Spanish pairs well with Margaritas, I have learned. So, of the four English Masses we have every weekend, I will take two and Fr. Savio will take two. Please welcome Fr. Savio, our new priestly wineskin here at I.C. I am sure he will bring us more of the new wine of the gospel in his ministry.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

The Fence We Built

Appreciating American devotion to God and State

07/04/2025

Then the Pharisees went off and plotted how they might entrap him in speech. They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion, for you do not regard a person’s status. Tell us, then, what is your opinion: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?” Knowing their malice, Jesus said, “Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin that pays the census tax.” Then they handed him the Roman coin. He said to them, “Whose image is this and whose inscription?” They replied, “Caesar’s.” At that he said to them, “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.” When they heard this they were amazed, and leaving him they went away.

I have often wondered if the real American Revolutionary War was not the one fought at Yorktown, Boston, and signed at the Treaty of Paris in 1783, but rather the one fought in Philadelphia among delegates from the 13 Colonies and added to the U.S. Constitution as the Bill of Rights or the first 10 Amendments 7 years later in 1791.

And as you know, the First Amendment protects personal freedoms, and the first freedom our founding fathers listed was the “freedom of religion.” In other words, the real American Revolution was a religious one, and henceforth, we Americans would be free to practice any religion of our choosing, or to practice none at all.

I was having dinner at a family’s home a couple of weeks ago and we were discussing the great diversity of churches in Fort Smith. Have you noticed this religious plurality? There are some very beautiful Buddhist temples decorated with bright yellow and red colors. In some neighborhoods, you can hear the Muslim call to prayer ringing out from mosques here and there.

We are blessed to have a Jewish synagogue on North 47th Street with 22 families who worship there (I checked their website). And we have countless Christian denominations scattered all over town, with tall steeples pointing to heaven, and with the most prominent one towering at the head of Garrison Avenue, of course!

But before this American religious revolution, you never found such diversity of devotions in a country. Rather, you had the principle of “cuius regio, euis religio” meaning “whose realm, his religion.” Or as we sometimes joke, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do!” and that included “doing religion” as the Romans do. And if you did not do as the Romans did, what happened? You were persecuted, tortured, or thrown to the lions.

But for the first time in history, thanks to this remarkable American religious revolution, we created a country where there was no “state sponsored religion.” No “religio” of the “regio”, no religion of the realm. Each citizen was absolutely free to practice any religion, or to practice no religion at all.

This fine line of faith – to practice or not to practice – was drawn by Thomas Jefferson when he argued for “a wall of separation between church and state.” That is, “good fences make good neighbors," and that fence or wall of separation meant that church and state would not encroach into each other’s yards.

Our religious revolution is also an ingenious way to interpret Jesus’ words in the gospel today. Our Lord invites us to walk that “fine line of faith” when he teaches: “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.” What better way to put Jesus’ preaching into practice than what we find in the First Amendment?

Let me quote the beginning: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Or put simply: “Good constitutional fences make good neighbors of church and state.” Or as our Lord said it: “Caesar and God both receive the devotion they deserve,” not more and not less.

My family emigrated to the United States in 1976, which by the way, was the 200th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. And we are so blessed to live in this amazing country. Among the many freedoms that all Americans enjoy, chief is our freedom for religion, or contrarily, freedom from religion.

In other words, the United States is not like communist countries (think of Russia and China) where the state tells the church what to do. And we are unlike religious monarchies (think of Iran) where the church tells the state what to do. Rather, we fought the American revolution in great part so that we “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give to God what belongs to God.” And both Church and State get along great because of a fence we built back in 1791.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Envelopes from Heaven

Giving Christ control over our pocketbooks

07/02/2025

Matthew 8:28-34 When Jesus came to the territory of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met him. They were so savage that no one could travel by that road. They cried out, "What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?" Some distance away a herd of many swine was feeding. The demons pleaded with him, "If you drive us out, send us into the herd of swine." And he said to them, "Go then!" They came out and entered the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea where they drowned. The swineherds ran away, and when they came to the town they reported everything, including what had happened to the demoniacs. Thereupon the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they begged him to leave their district.

I don’t make it a habit to quote Protestants in my homilies, but I will today. The great Protestant Reformer, Martin Luther – who, by the way, was an Augustinian monk like Pope Leo XIV – once said: “Every Christian undergoes three conversions: the conversion of the head, the conversion of the heart, and the conversion of the pocketbook.” I will give you one guess which one is the hardest to turn over to Christ’s control.

That is, you can tell what is truly important to people by where they spend their time and on what they spend their money. A great way to do a penetrating examination of conscience is to review your calendar and glance at your checkbook. Those two metrics are infallible indicators of whether or not Christ is in control not only of your head and heart, but also of your pocketbook.

In the gospel today we hear about people who have not yet experienced the conversion of the pocketbook. Jesus performs the mighty miracle of driving out two demons from two tormented individuals. But it came at a cost because Jesus sent the demons into a herd of swine that “rushed down the steep bank into the sea where they were drowned.” No doubt you have heard that Archbishop Fulton Sheen joked, “That was the first occasion of deviled ham.”

But that was no laughing matter to the Gadarenes because they just lost their livelihood, a whole herd of swine. In other words, accepting the gospel imposed an economic hardship on the people. And how did the people react to the Good News of salvation, with joy and celebration welcoming Jesus as a conquering Hero? Quite the contrary, we read: “When they saw him they begged him to leave their district.” Conversion comes at a cost.

If there is one thing I have witnessed with great pride as your pastor, it is the complete conversion to Christ of I.C. parishioners. Your head, your hearts, your pocketbooks, and even your calendars are under Christ’s kingship. Let me give you some examples of this complete conversion. Yesterday I sent someone an email asking them to read something I had written and asking for their honest feedback. Here is what they replied: “Father, we have listened and are reading. Other than any input and prayers, how can we materially help you?”

Yesterday afternoon I went to the store to buy Apollo some dog food. I ran into three people who had been in church earlier that day. We chatted for a few minutes and talked about our dogs. They have two corgis. Later as I went to check out, one of them ran up and said, “Father, let me buy that for you. It’s not every day we get to help a priest pay for something.” Lucky Apollo, he gets to eat for free!

Two weeks ago some friends came down from Fayetteville to go to lunch. While we were eating a parishioner stopped by to say hello. Later, when we asked for the check, the meal had already been paid for. This past Spring I asked a parishioner if he would be willing to drive our shuttle van as a volunteer to take students to Ozark Catholic Academy in Tontitown. He not only said “Yes,” but added, “Let us take you to lunch so you can share the details.”

Again and again people in this parish give generously before I even ask. You support the capital campaign. One parishioner single-handedly underwrote the cost of the new back altar and another family was disappointed someone else beat them to it. You contribute to the Sunday collection, fill our poor boxes to overflowing, and remember us in your will. You continue to give even after you’re gone! I.C. parishioners are sending in their stewardship envelopes from heaven! And that is how the Gadarenes should have responded at the arrival of their Redeemer.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Absolutely Obsessed

Celebrating our love for the Sacred Heart of Jesus

06/27/2025

Luke 15:3-7 Jesus addressed this parable to the Pharisees and scribes: "What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it? And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy and, upon his arrival home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, 'Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance."

Immaculate Conception parish is absolutely obsessed with images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Have you noticed this? We have a painting of the Sacred Heart in the sacristy that I brought out for your veneration this morning. Of course, we have placed the statue of the Sacred Heart on an altar to highlight Jesus’ sacrificial love (altars are always for sacrifice). In the sacristy there is also a stained glass window of the Sacred Heart appearing to St. Margaret Mary Alocoque, a French nun who promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart in the 1600’s.

In St. Anne’s Chapel the Sacred Heart of Jesus greets visitors before they enter the doors. And still another statue of Jesus’ Heart stands in a stately posture awaiting the visitor’s veneration when they kneel to pray. And there are probably other images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus hiding out here and there that I haven’t even noticed. The Sacred Heart is ubiquitous in our parish and our love for Jesus should be too.

The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart always falls on the Friday after the Sunday of the Feast of Corpus Christi. And that closeness is no coincidence. Many parishioners walked last Sunday in the procession carrying Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament on his “sedia gestatoria”, portable throne, through the streets of Fort Smith. Why? Well, it was mid-summer and we were bored and couldn’t think of anything better to do that walk outside in the sweltering heat for four hours.

No, we walked while carrying the Blessed Sacrament, the Corpus Christi, or more precisely, the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Corpus Christi is Latin for “the Body of Christ.” But what part of Christ’s Body do you think is hidden in that Holy Bread? Is it his eye, or maybe his tongue, or perhaps a foot, or maybe it’s his hand. Nope.

That Sacred Host contains no other part of Christ’s Body than his most important member, namely, his Sacred Heart. That is the connection between last Sunday and this Friday. And therefore, just like images of the Sacred Heart are found in every nook and corner of our church, so we took Jesus’ Heart to the streets so his glorious love could be glimpsed by every citizen of our fair city.

That obsessive devotion to the Sacred Heart is exactly why we built such an elaborate and expensive back altar for the Blessed Sacrament. Yes, we could have saved a lot of money and erected a simple table or niche that would have been adequate, or as we say, “good enough for government work.” But such a meager effort would not have been “good enough” for I.C. parishioners who are absolutely obsessed with the Sacred Heart.

Now, there is also a very practical side to devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, namely, our hearts must learn to beat like his. That is, if his heart loves each of us unconditionally and sacrificially – demonstrated beyond doubt on the cross – then we must love our Lord in return in the same way. His Sacred Heart and our sinful hearts have to eventually beat in sync.

And by the way, where do we learn to love like that? Well, first and foremost in our marriage. That is the true purpose of marriage: to train our hearts to love like Jesus’ Sacred Heart. Every marriage, especially the troubled ones, are a school of the Sacred Heart, where we learn the truly tough love called the cross. And our professor in this school is our spouse, or as the Buddhists paradoxically put it: “My enemy, my teacher.”

Let me conclude with a little prayer to the Sacred Heart that sums up what I am saying: “O most holy heart of Jesus, fountain of every blessing, I adore Thee, I love Thee, and with a lively sorrow for my sins, I offer Thee this poor heart of mine. Make me humble, patient, pure and wholly obedient to Thy will. Grant, good Jesus, that I may live in Thee, and for Thee. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto Thine. Amen."

Praised be the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus!

The Second Voyage, Part 4

Summarizing John Paul II's Theology of the Body

06/24/2025

As we pull our ship into shore after our second voyage on the high seas of covenant/marriage, we are in an ideal position to summarize our entire journey of studying the Theology of the Body. Arguably the most famous statement of Vatican II’s Gaudium et Spes, which John Paul made more famous by quote frequently – and which he very likely himself authored – was: “Christ, the final Adam…fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear” (no. 22).

And if covenant/marriage has taught us anything in this second voyage it is that man’s “supreme calling” is ultimately a covenant/marriage to Christ. This mystical marriage between God and humanity has already been realized perfectly in the Person of Jesus Christ, who is both human and divine without confusion or separation. All Scripture bears witness that this divine-human union individually realized in Christ is the goal of human history, to be collectively realized when “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come’ [Lord Jesus]” (Rv 22:17).

This second voyage exploring the twin seas of Scripture and spousal love was a necessary addendum in order to demonstrate the utter compatibility between covenant theology and the Theology of the Body. Why? Both theologies are chiefly concerned with the meaning of marriage not only for individual Christian couples – indeed for all human persons, Christian or not – but no less so for the eternal Bride, the Church, and her eternal Bridegroom, Christ. Marriage unlocks the mystery of both the Holy Bible and of the human body.

But seeing Christ as covenant-Mediator par excellence (and therefore as the eternal Bridegroom) not only summarizes this last mile but likewise encapsulates all our preceding miles and meditations. How so? After the Introduction, we began to examine Christ’s three key words that unveil “an integral vision of man” (218-23). The pope in effect paints a tryptic altarpiece that reflects the human-divine saga of Scripture in three illuminating panels.

Only after we have fully delved into the human experience of Eden, earth, and eternity – answering the urgent and perennial question of “who [woman] will be for [man] and he for her” (301), that mutual relationship exceedingly exemplified in marriage – can we see the flag of the human vocation fully unfurled. We might say the Theology of the Body is the wind – the “ruah” of the Holy Spirit – that causes the flag of humanity’s “supreme calling” to flutter.

We glimpsed the undiminished glory of that human vocation shimmering briefly in Genesis 1 and 2 where Adam and Eve enjoyed the inner harmony of Original Solitude, Unity, and Nakedness, and expressed it as an earthly icon of the communion of persons, reflecting the eternal Communion of Persons hidden in the Holy Trinity. The key that unlocked the mystery of this “communio personarum” was “the hermeneutic of the gift.” That is, only when we become a gift to one another – especially spouses – do we achieve the exalted status of an icon of divine love. Christ’s first word, then, unveiled the first panel of Original Humanity.

Through Christ’s second word, he taught us how concupiscence causes discord rather than harmony in the heart – the true culprit for “adultery in the heart” – which in turn destroys the external harmony between spouses. Unwittingly (and sometimes wittingly) spouses use one another rather than become an unconditional gift to each other. The true polar opposite of love, therefore, is not to hate someone, but to use another human person, because you degrade them below their human dignity.

But thanks to the gifts of the Holy Spirit – who is Himself the eternal Gift of love between Father and Son – both harmonies (the interior of the heart and the exterior of the home) are not only healed but even elevated to new heights of holiness. Redeemed man and woman experience in their bodies the Spirit’s gifts of reverence, piety, and fear of the Lord. Only then can marriage and family life become the sturdy building blocks not only for natural society on earth, but also the bedrock upon which rests the supernatural society of eternity. Christ’s second word painted the second panel of Fallen and Redeemed Humanity.

And finally Christ third word reveals the plentitude of eternal glory waiting for the children of God in paradise. The blessed will experience a twofold glory in eternity: spiritualization or a new system of powers flowing between the body and the soul, and divinization by which human nature partakes of divine nature. We receive a foretaste of that union of natures every time we receive Holy Communion. In this way, by painting a three-panel portrait of the epic story of humanity, “Christ fully reveals man to man himself.”

In Part Two, John Paul narrowed his focus from the human vocation in general – the universal call to holiness – to the specifically Christian vocation in the sacrament of marriage. With sublime eloquence and saintly erudition, the pope-saint described marriage as standing in a class by itself in relation to the other sacraments. Indeed, the other sacraments shine even brighter in the brilliant light of marriage.

Then John Paul plumbed the liturgical depths of marriage by examining the words spoken by spouses at the wedding and the corresponding significance of the consummation of marriage when the two become one flesh in the bedroom. He drew a clear and unbreakable connection between the vows and the consummation welded together by the language of the body. Thus, he concluded that every act of sexual intimacy between spouses reiterates (or should reiterate!) the vows of the wedding day. Spouses should say with their bodies in the bedroom what they said with their words at the wedding.

One of our parishioners who serves as an usher told me one day after Mass, “Fr. John, you need to bring it on home.” He noticed I was losing my hair and encouraged me to shave my head, “bring it on home.” John Paul brings the Theology of the Body "on home" (quite literally) by analyzing the Church’s traditional moral teaching prohibiting contraception.

He argues persuasively and pastorally how the dignity of the human person – established irrefutably in Part One, thanks to help from the philosophies of personalism and phenomenology – and the sacramentality of marriage and its liturgical expression (the thrust of Part Two) irrefutably mean that the two ends of the sexual act – union and procreation, or babies and bonding – may never be intentionally separated or artificially blocked.

With good reason, therefore, the Holy Father concludes his masterwork – and with which we can conclude our own reflections – by declaring:

It is in this [biblical and theological] sphere that one finds the answers to the perennial questions of the conscience of men and women and also to the difficult question of our contemporary world concerning marriage and procreation (663).

And that is how you really “bring it on home” because only at home do man and woman, with God’s grace, forge a loving family and live out their “supreme calling.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!