1. Lec # 16- Solemnity of the Nativity of our Lord- Christmas Day- Dec 25, 2013- Fr. Bresowar

    My brothers and sisters, as we gather once again to celebrate the glory of the incarnation, I’d like to personally wish all of you a very happy and merry Christmas.

    It’s been a very interesting year. We’ve had quite a lot of change not only in our country, but also in our Church. We have a new Pope who is capturing the hearts and minds of many all around the world. He even received Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” award for what that is worth. To him, I’m sure it means little, but nevertheless, he seems to have captured the world’s attention.

    Catholics, who for years have been away, seem to be returning in droves, and in large part due to the example of Francis and his simple call to live the gospel truth.

    Jesus Christ, we who celebrate today, his incarnation came into the world in a very humble way, to show us, through humility the image of the Father. A Father who is love! Pope Francis is calling all Catholics to mimic this humility, to love our neighbor, to not turn our back on the outcasts, and especially to seek out the poor. IN this, he is showing us the love that the Father has for us, a love which is contagious and melts the hearts of even the most lax of Catholics, inspires them to move beyond the darkness of sin and despair, depression and laziness, and to return to the light of Jesus Christ. Even Atheists love Pope Francis.

    I’m convinced though, after reading much of what our Holy Father has written, that even though he is misunderstood and misused by some to push an agenda, that’s it not Pope Francis who is converting hearts and minds to the Truth, but it is God who is using Pope Francis, through his example of humility and love, qualities, that speak to the heart, and fill a need that each of us has to respond to that love for which we were created.

    Here we see the mystery of the Incarnation once again.

    As so many others have stated before Pope Francis, including Paul VI, John Paul II, Benedict XVI and many more saints and holy men and women throughout the history of the Church, we are seeing once again the call to not create a utopia here, but a call to unite ourselves with the mystery which has transformed humanity for the last 2000 years.

    What is the mystery?

    It is one, which no matter how hard we try to deny it, it simply cannot be shut out. In every age, no matter how far we may move away from God, it continues to shine through. Our existence is contingent on it, our hearts were created to bask in it, and we are all restless until we are fulfilled by it.

    The mystery of the Incarnation, that is, that God is love and it was that very love that impelled God to become one of us.  

    Everything that our Lord does, everything, both in Himself, and outside of Himself, is an act of Love.

    And this love is not finite, it is infinite, and it is eternal. Therefore, God loved Man with an eternal love, and loving him, called him into existence, giving him both natural and supernatural life. Through love, God not only brought man out of nothing, but chose him and elevated him to the state of divine sonship, destining him to participate in His own intimate life, in his eternal beatitude or blessedness.
    This was God’s first plan. He created us, although he needed not to, but because he desired to share his infinite love with us so that we would enjoy His glory. This was awesome enough, and it reveals God’s infinite charity towards us.

    But we rejected this love. And so God, instead of washing his hands of us, he goes a step further, and willed to redeem us, after we fell into sin, after he created by an act of love, he willed to redeem us with an even greater act of love. After giving man natural life, after having destined him for the supernatural life, what more could He give us than to give Himself, His Word made flesh, for our salvation?

    God is Love. It is not surprising, therefore, that the story of His benevolent action on behalf of man is all a poem of love, and of merciful love. The first stanza of this poem was our eternal predestination to the vision and to the fruition of the intimate life of God.

    The second stanza relates, in an even more touching way, the sublimity of his mercy, to the mystery of the Incarnation. 
    The good news proclaimed by the angel some 2000 years ago is as glorious still as if it happened tonight,

    “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
    For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord.
    And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger."

    And what a sign indeed! That the greatest of all acts of Love that man has ever known, even greater than being created, began in a manger, with an infant, subjected to the care of his mother and foster father.

    God shows us from the very beginning his plan for redemption was going to be accomplished through humility. This means that love is humble. And as St. Paul tells us in his first letter to Corinthians, it is patient as well.

    God could have redeemed us in anyway at anytime, but in this way, redemption is perfect not because God needed to redeem us this way, but because we needed to be redeemed this way.

    Everything he does, he does for love of us. It was his will, that we be saved. It was his son’s will to show us how to do the Father’s will.

    So why not show us that to do the father’s will equality with God, which was the sin of Adam and Eve, and at the root of every sin, is not something to be grasped at.

    Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance,
    he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.

    And it was because of this humility, that God exalted him, and gave him the name above every other name, that at his name, all knees shall bend, and every tongue in Heaven and on Earth will confess to the glory of God that Jesus Christ is Lord.

    My brothers and sister, adoration and glory belong to our God and to no one else. This is what the Son revealed to us in the mystery of the Incarnation. The true path to our liberation, as Pope Francis is so manifesting, and the world is once again powerless to resist, is not in our own glory, but the glory of God.

    All we must do is mimic the humility of the baby in the manger. The love that he showed us by choosing to be born in the least of ways, he does for us and then invites us to lower ourselves with him, in humility, so that we might defeat sin and death, with him and accomplish the will of the father. This is our only path my brothers and sister and until we learn to walk this path, we will still struggle with the darkness.

    But the light overcomes the darkness. Love is patient; love is kind.

    Have a very merry Christmas, remember that Christmas is about humility, and the greatest act of love shown forth in the incarnation of the Word made flesh, in a manger, in a small town, to redeem us, to save us from our depression, to set us free from the captivity of sin and the inordinate desire to be equal with God so that we might experience the liberation that the Son so desperately desires we participate in, and learn to love as the Father loves, as the Son loves, as the Holy Trinity loves, and then, and only then, will our joy will be complete.



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  2. Lec # 7- 3rd Sun of Advent- Dec 15, 2013- Fr. Bresowar

    It’s good to be here with you this week where once again we gather in this Advent journey to celebrate the holy sacrifice of the Mass.

    Now, It is very easy for me to get up here week after week and kind of pick a particular struggle, a particular imperfection of the human condition, and harp on it, speak about it, and preach on the solution. I mean there is no shortage of things I can preach on with respect to our problems, our sins, and our weaknesses.
    And there is multiple ways to approach the human condition as well, weak and wounded as it is. There is the hell, fire, and brimstone, approach, this plays off our fears of divine retribution and for some, who are seeking retribution against the ones that have hurt them, they may resonate well with this type of homily.

    You’re all damned, every one last one of you! Unless…. For others, it’s uncomfortable, and for me, it leaves barely any room for compassion and mercy. In this approach almost all hope has been eliminated.

    Then there is the passive approach, almost stoic which is to say, let’s just ignore the weak human condition and preach on happy, joyful, things. Death, suffering, sin, and its reality need not be spoken of as they are not pleasant topics. Hell doesn’t really exist in this approach; I call it the Southern Lady approach. I grew up around it, we just don’t speak such bad things.
    This rarely reflects reality either. Compassion and mercy are abundant and evil doesn’t exist.

    Unfortunately, that is not the world we live in.

    There is no need for hope in this approach ether, because everything is already complete, perfect world, or at least the appearance of it is maintained.


    In reality, we live in a world, full of both hope and despair, of constant strife and tragedy and also constant joy and hope of the overcoming of such difficulties. To ignore hope and joy, or to focus solely on them, simply do not reflect real life.  

    This seems to be the movie script type homilies that most people enjoy, and there is nothing necessarily wrong with that. We relate to such realities, because in our lives, we all have imperfections, problems, and we long for solutions to these problems to be actualized. We like a good ending, we love the happy ending love stories, because they give us hope that the current crisis of whatever hardship we happen to be enduring will indeed end in joy, or at least in vindication.

    As Isaiah says in the first reading, Here is your God,
    he comes with vindication;
    with divine recompense
    he comes to save you.

    And this need to hang on to hope, this very human need to believe that things end well, is depicted in almost every drama out there in film or theater. So pick your favorite movie, and almost anyone, except maybe a rare few would pick movies that, despite a developed crisis in the plot, the movie ends well.

    No one enjoys only tragedies; even in the arts there is something unsettling about a story which ends in despair or unfinished. It may receive critical acclaim, but it still leaves something lacking, an Incompleteness or empty void.

     Maybe this is one reason that Christianity resonates so well with us, is the promise by Jesus that this story, filled with tragedy after tragedy, an enduring test of patience, will have a happy ending, no void will be left, nothing will be incomplete.

    However, unlike the 2 hours of a movie, this story last 70 to ninety years or more on average, and that’s a really long love story.

    Nevertheless, despite its length, this is a love story. Our lives our one giant love story. It need not become a tragedy. And yet for many, it seems like all life is, is one big tragedy.

    So what about the individual who has been destroyed by tragedy? The girl who was molested at a young age, whose innocent was robbed of her? The wife whose husband walked out, the man who became helplessly addicted to drugs, or pornography? The woman who could not escape the very real disease of the depravation of self-esteem? What about the girls sold into slavery, the parents who watched their children self-destruct in front of their very eyes, the abuse that exist on such a gigantic scale, surrounding us, and even invading many of our own existences in a very real and tangible way. What is the end of this story where hope seems like a distant unseen light, and nothing surrounds these individuals but constant strife and darkness.

    It was for these and the poor, and many more, who Jesus came to bring out of the darkness and into the marvelous light and give hope.

    It is for these, that Jesus answers John the Baptist question today. John himself had lost hope, sitting in a prison, waiting to die, or worst, contemplating the rest of his life rotting in a jail cell. So he sends his disciples to ask Jesus, are you one or should we look for another?

    It was for John and so many others who have lost hope that Jesus answers

    the blind regain their sight,
    the lame walk,
    lepers are cleansed,
    the deaf hear,
    the dead are raised,
    and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.
    And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.

    Pope Francis reminded us just the day that hope of Christians is that God is the author of the story. And that the story is the greatest love story ever known.

    Only a little while longer and Jesus will make all things right. That is that He is our only true hope. When we try to make sense of our lives apart from Him, we become like the blind following the blind, or the blind leading the blind.

    Our problems, and the problems of the ones we care about, can’t be solved apart from Jesus. If only the world would finally learn this lesson. For us Christians, we have what the world rejects, as they rejected John the Baptist, as they Rejected Jesus, we possess Hope because we do not reject.

    As we move closer to Christmas day, where we celebrate the coming of our Hope once again, let us move forward and continue to prepare a place for him to dwell within our lives and give meaning to our existence. Fast and prayer and repent and believe the good news, Christ our hope is the on the way.



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  3. Lec #690A-Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. De. 12. 2013
    Fr. Bresowar

     Hermanos y hermanas, es mi privilegio y alegría estar aquí con ustedes esta noche para celebrar una vez más esta gran Fiesta de la Virgen de Guadalupe.
      En el corazón de esta celebración encontramos un amor tan profundo que no hay palabras para describirlo.  Por siglos, y particularmente en Mexico, la Virgen ha estado ganando corazones y mentes para su hijo Jesucristo.  Y aquí estamos unos quinientos años más tarde, uniéndonos para celebrar este gran milagro de la Virgen de Guadalupe, el gran  milagro de México y de las Américas.
      Nuestra Señora, la madre de Jesucristo, tiene un amor profundo y único por su hijo.  Y ella quiere que nosotros  con todos nuestros corazones, mentes y cuerpos vengamos a conocer a su hijo.
      ¿Por qué quiere ella esto?  Porque  a diferencia de cualquier otra  mujer en la historia, la Virgen comprende que nuestros problemas, nuestras dificultades y nuestras enfermedades solamente pueden ser curados por Jesús.  Ella sabe que el enemigo trata de mantenernos alejados de Jesús y  de su Iglesia. Ella sabe que el enemigo nos tienta a que tengamos corazones de piedra, corazones que viven solamente para si  mismos y no por otros, corazones que se niegan a obedecer a su hijo.

                                       --2-
     Ella lo sabe, y ella también sabe cuan difícil se hacen nuestras vidas cuando no ponemos a su hijo en primer lugar, sino en el último lugar, ( si es que tenemos un lugar para El ).
      Sin embargo, ella nunca deja de tratar.  La única razón de su existencia en nuestros días es su deseo de compartir con noso-tros las buenas noticias concernientes a Jesús, y la libertad que nos llega cuando finalmente entregamos nuestras vidas a El.  La alegría que no puede expresarse, la esperanza que es restituída, la voluntad de continuar esta vida  y todo lo que viene con el amor que solamente Jesús puede ganar para nosotros, este es el objetivo de la bendita madre.
      Por  eso es que ella le apareció a San Juan Diego.  Ella quería ganarse los corazones y las mentes de los Indios.  Ella quería que  México conociera y amara a su Hijo.  Ella quería la conver-sión entera de todo el país.
      En el Evangelio de hoy oímos acerca de su fe.  Ella dijo “Sí” al plan de Dios, y porque ella dijo  “Sí” es que nosotros tenemos a Jesús.
      Entonces ella nos muestra que cuando finalmente nosotros  nos rendimos y comenzamos a decirle “Sí” a Jesús, aun cuando esto quiere decir que nuestras vidas tienen que cambiar drásti-camente,  es  entonces  que recibiremos todo lo que hemos necesitado.

                                -3-
     Pero el enemigo también sabe esto.  Es por eso que es tan difícil para nosotros el vencer sus tentaciones.  El sabe  que nuestras vidas serán mucho mejores cuando finalmente regresemos a la Iglesia; cuando finalmente regresemos a la confesión y a la Eucaristía, cuando por fin reorganicemos nuestas vidas y pongamos todo en las manos de Dios.
      El enemigo sabe esto, y por consiguiente trata que sigamos sintiéndonos miserables.  El trata de mantenernos borrachos, adictos a los placers mundanos, trata de que sigamos  chismeando y usando malas palabras, de mantenernos odiando e incapaces de perdonar, trata de mantenernos donde estamos, atrapados por nuestros pecados, porque él sabe que es ahí donde nos sentimos más miserables.  El demonio quiere  nuestra miseria porque el demonio odia a Dios.  Y Dios quiere nuestra libertad,  nuestra felicidad y nuestra alegría.  Dios nos quiere para si mismo.
      Satanás lo sabe, y él odia a Dios.
      María nos muestra la solución a ese problema que es Satanás.  Ella nos demuestra en su simple fe que para resisitir al enemigo lo único que necesitamos hacer es decirle SI a Dios y seguir a su Hijo Jesús.
      Mientras no hagamos eso continuaremos teniendo tiempos difíciles no confiando en El.  Pero una vez que confiemos en Jesús nunca  nos volveremos atrás porque nos daremos cuenta de que no hay nada mejor hacia lo que podamos volvernos.      -
                         -4
     Dios quiera que todos ustedes tengan un día de fiesta maravilloso, que la Virgen los guíe a su Hijo y que regresen  siempre  a Jesús y que lo sigan  a El y a su Iglesia.
      Juntos, con la ayuda de María y de la gracia que viene de Jesús a través del Espíritu Santo y de su Iglesia, seremos gente más felices, más alegres, gente llena  de un gran amor por Dios  y por nuestro vecino.  Juntos aprenderemos a perdonarnos en lugar de juzgarnos los unos a los otros, y llegaremos a conocer al Hijo tanto como El lo desea, libres de adicciones terrenales, libres de las manos de nuestros enemigos, y seremos felices.
      Juntos seremos una Iglesia.
     Si uno de ustedes ha estado enojado por mucho tiempo, no ha estado recibiendo los sacramentos o no ha estado viniendo a Misa regularmente, yo lo invito a venir para que se de cuanta de todo lo que  usted se ha perdido.
      Jesús quiere darnos su gracia a través de la Eucaristía y es en la Eucaristía que encontramos el verdadero propósito de nuestras vidas.  Lo único que necesitamos hacer es confiar en El, de la misma manera que la Virgen confió en El.  Es tan fácil como eso y a la vez tan difícil.  Dios quiera que tengamos la disciplina de decir SI como ella hizo.
      ¡Que el Señor los bendiga y los proteja siempre!


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  4. Lec # 4- 2nd Sun of Advent- Dec 8, 2013- Fr. Bresowar

    My brothers and sisters, it is very good to be here with you today to celebrate this second Sunday of Advent. I would like to first start by saying congratulations to Bob Becher on being ordained a Deacon this weekend. It has been a long journey for Bob and his family, and we are extremely happy he has answered this call to serve the Lord in the sacrament of Holy Orders and that he is assigned here to our parish. So congratulations to Deacon Bob and his family!

    This week, as we continue to move towards Christmas day, the day of our Lord’s birth, we take a moment to reflect on a theme that I believe is very apparent in the readings this weekend, as well is a theme that Pope Francis has been preaching since he became Pope.

    This is the theme of hospitality, and in general welcoming all, inviting all to the family of Christ, which is the Church.

    As you are well aware, we live a society, which has many fears, and in particular, one of those fears which exists not only today, but even in Jesus’ time, is the fear of people who are different.

    This fear exists in every culture, in every country. It is not unique only to Alabama or to the United States, but all over the world, many people are afraid of other people, or hate other people simply because a they look different, act different, worship differently, and because of this fear, often times they form opinions or attitudes which are not very healthy.

    In our own state, many people disliked, and some still do, African Americans because they were different. They didn’t look the same as the white person, they didn’t behave the same, and so they were not liked, not appreciated. This led to a culture of racism and bias, which still in many places manifests itself. It has also led to a culture of bitterness within African American communities as well.

    Hispanics too are in many places not welcomed. This leads to division, and isolation in communities. So that people will generally only associate for the most part, with people of the same skin color, economic or cultural background, and the attitude of fear and pseudo-racism develops within the community and even within the family

    Now this fear is not simply manifest only in one race to the next. This fear exist within every culture, every race as well. So within the Hispanic, African America, Anglo, Asian, and other cultures, the notion that someone is different from me is often time a stumbling block in terms of accepting that person. So if a person appears different, has less money, or behaves different, even within the same race, often times this becomes an issue of fear and keeps us from loving our neighbor.

    Jesus encountered this fear as well. In his time, Jews did not associate with gentiles. It was culturally unacceptable and there was not a lot of love that existed between the cultures of the time.

    Jesus was constantly reaching out to people who were different from Him, looking beyond the barriers of skin-color, or economic status, and challenging his disciples to do the same.  

    Pope Francis is taking the lead, and showing us that true discipleship transcends and moves beyond all these barriers our culture has placed on us, and simply loves the individual because they exist and for no other reason.

    Some might call me a liberal for speaking this way, but there is nothing liberal or conservative about it. Even those terms can be used to create barriers. We must try our best to reach out to all people, for God does not define us according to our differences, and we have any hang-ups, they do not come from God.

    God defines according to our existence; he loved us into existence, and we are his beloved, no matter what are differences may be.

    This does not mean that we accept all behaviors as good behaviors, but it does mean that the old adage of love the sinner, despise the sin, is important to remember.

    Pope Francis seems to be reminding us all the time; we must first love…

    Instead of immediately defining a person according to how they failed, or what their skin color is, or how much money they do or do not possess, which is a tendency that we all must fight against; let us look at each other, not with eyes which seek to judge first our differences or our faults, but simply look at each other the way Jesus looks at us.

    When we are able to see Jesus in our neighbor, when we are able to look beyond the differences, then we can begin to love unconditionally, and I really believe this is how God loves us. There must be some truth in this type of love, or loving without conditions.

    God Bless each of you, and may we continue to fast and pray, and repent of our faults as we move closer to Christmas Day.


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  5. Lec # 1- 1st Sun of Advent- Dec 1, 2013- Fr. Bresowar

    My brothers and sisters in Christ, it is good to be with you here on this first Sunday of Advent. Now that the Iron Bowl is out of the way, we can concentrate on our true religion, this first Sunday of the Liturgical year, this season where we prepare ourselves for the coming of Jesus Christ.

    Christmas season is here! Actually no it’s not, Christmas season starts on Christmas day, but as we know the world around us doesn’t really concern itself so much with Advent. The temptation then for us, can be to forget what this season of Advent is all about.

    Contrary to the popular opinion, Advent is not simply about 4 candles and Christmas lights, decorations and the like. Although those things are fun, and who doesn’t like a 10 foot inflatable Santa Claus in their front yard? Advent isn’t really about all of that. Advent is a season of repentance, fasting and preparation.

    Maybe lost in the bliss of all the Christmas joy that surrounds us during this special time of the year, is the reality that the reason the Church gives us this season before we celebrate the great feast day of the Birth of our Lord is because she want us to take this time to reflect and prepare ourselves for the coming of Jesus Christ, not only as a reality that happened some 2000 years ago, but a reality that is very much going to happen once again, and at any time.

    In the readings today, we see this theme running throughout. The prophet Isaiah gives us a glimpse of the things to come and the need to follow the ways of the Lord until this reality has come to completion.

    In days to come,
    the mountain of the LORD’s house
    shall be established as the highest mountain
    All nations shall stream toward it.

    Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord the psalmist reminds us while St. Paul admonishes the Christians to be prepared.

    You know the time, he says…
    it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep.
    For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

    Jesus even reminds all of us, “stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.
    Be sure of this: if the master of the house
    had known the hour of night when the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake
    and not let his house be broken into.

    Pope Francis gave a stark homily just last week in which he touched on the end of time, and what it is going to be like for us. Picking up on this theme of being prepared, of knowing what is coming, of staying awake as our Lord tells us, building from last week’s feast day of Christ the King, the pope said that faith will be increasingly pushed out of the public square and that persecution of Christians is a “prophecy” of what is to come.

    We’ve seen that happening more and more in our society. These are the signs. He goes on to clarify, He asks “what does this mean for us?”

    “It will be like the triumph of the prince of this world: the defeat of God.”

“It seems at that final moment of calamity, it seems like he will (have) taken over this world, (that) he will (become) master of the world. At that moment when all seems lost, the Jesus will come.

    These worldly powers which seek to destroy God, said the Pope, also manifest in the contemporary desire to keep religion as “a private thing,” That not only is a temptation from wordly leaders, but if we are honest with ourselves, how often do we try to keep religion as a private thing in our own lives. That’s the temptation of the devil, of the prince of this world.

    Sure at home, we might be bold in our proclamation of faith, but are we bold around people who may not be so friendly towards our beliefs. Do we know our faith well enough?

    He said it is as if, “You must obey the orders which come from worldly powers. You can do many things, beautiful things, but not adore God. Worship is prohibited. This is at the center of the end of time.”

    Curiously our Pope is speaking about the end of time and giving us a real blueprint for what it will be like. To our part, he says, it is prudent for us to be prepared. Not to be scared of these things which necessarily must occur, but to be prepared for persecutions and the like. Be prepared to give a witness, a testimony of our faith. Not simply at the end, but always.

    He asks all of us, Do really worship Jesus Christ? Or, he says, Or, are we half in or half out, do we in some way play a game of the prince of this world?”

    Worship until the end,” the Pope says, “with confidence and fidelity: this is the grace we must ask for.”

    As we seek to turn our attention this Advent to the coming of the child in Bethlehem, let us not forget the other purpose of Advent, which is to be prepared for the coming of our Lord at the end. AS Jesus says in today’s Gospel,

    “So too, you also must be prepared,
    for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”


    And as we await the coming of our Savior at the end of Time, in worship and adoration, regardless of what worldly powers may try to do to us, we will be ready. And with acts of fasting, prayers, almsgiving, especially during these penitential seasons, of Advent and Lent, we will be adhering to the words of Jesus, and we will find ourselves increasly unshamed to be Christians, to call ourselves Catholic, even in the public square, even when others laugh at us or persecute us. And this is the true gift of Advent, to be prepared for the coming of our Lord and the end of time.
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  6. Lec # 162- Sol of Christ the King- Nov 24, 2013- Fr. Bresowar

    My brothers and sisters in Christ. The temptation of Satan is to fight against God.

    For all of human history, the devil has been in a fight against God, against that which is holy and good. It has been his constant attempt to tempt men and women to place their trust against God and thus fall into hatred and despair.

    From his first temptation to Adam and Eve against God in the garden of Eden, to Cain murdering his brother Abel, to Job, to Judas the betrayer, to Hitler, to the spirit of Secularism which invades our culture today; Satan has tempted and continues to tempt us to turn our hearts and minds from God and commit evil acts which profane the very good for which we were created.

    This is the basis for today’s Solemnity, called Christ the King. Pope Pius XI, in recognizing how far the secular culture had infiltrated the minds and hearts of men and women, decided to remind the faithful of who the true King of creation is.

    We see a clear reference to the kingship of Christ in the Gospel today. Knowing that he would be rejected by the world, Christ submitted himself to a cruel execution, allowed himself to be mocked and beaten, but that he might show the world his infinite desire for mercy, he even pardoned the criminal executed on the cross next to him.

    “Remember me,” the criminal said, “when you come into your kingdom.” To which Jesus responded, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”

    If we are honest, we can place ourselves at the side of Christ while we hang on our own cross next to him. He deserved no execution, for he had no sin. We, on the other hand, we have sinned. And because we have sinned, we deserve the same fate as the criminals that were to the left and right of Jesus.

    The question then for each of us has to be, which criminal are we going represent in our own lives? Are we going to be the sinner who begs for God’s mercy, or are we going to be the one who persist in our rejection of his kingship?

    In today’s culture, it is so easy to become like the criminal who refused to believe in Jesus. In today’s culture, so many people refuse to reform their lives, refuse to change, and continue to insist on being their own king, their own master.

    Any King has a particular set of rules for his subjects to follow while they live in his kingdom. He is their king, and they are his subjects. And Jesus is no different except that his kingdom has no end. While earthly kings rise and fall, the kingdom of God where Christ is king reigns into eternity.

    And just like any earthly king, if the subjects refuse to follow the rules of the king, they are cast out and subjected to the punishment therein.

    While this has temporal consequences in earthly kingdoms, our refusal to follow the commands of Christ the King, has eternal consequences.

    And yet our enemy, the devil, already knows this. He rejected God from the beginning, and lives in Hell. He shows us what is the path that awaits those who reject God’s beautiful plan for his subjects. And just as God desires our eternal happiness in the Kingdom of Heaven, he also desires our temporal happiness while we live here on earth.

    He has shown us the way, and has laid out his perfect plan through the Holy Spirit, through His Church. And if we, as his subjects, choose to follow this path, then not only are we destined for eternal life, but we also are able to traverse this journey with peace of mind and heart, even when hardships occur.

    So many people, however, choose to reject Christ the King and his Church, because of the tempting of the devil, and the noise of the culture, and thus they become miserable, often times unsure of why they are so unhappy and seek to blame others instead of themselves.

    Marriage has become a crisis; people are no longer willing to follow Jesus in his law of marriage revealed through the Church. They refuse to marry in the Church, they refuse God’s grace. Our sexuality has been distorted, confused, and redefined by our modern culture, and because of this, many people live in misery. They reject the path the Church has laid out, a path which leads to reasonable happiness in this life, a path which directs our minds, hearts and bodies to God, a path which leads to eternal life. Husbands are no longer faithful; wives no longer marry for true love.

    And yet, Jesus shows us, to the very end, that he desires to forgive if we would just ask for it and reform our lives.

    Which sinner hanging on the cross next to Jesus are we going to be? Will we cry for mercy to Christ our King? Or will we persist in our misery, and reject his way to the end.

    In the end, Jesus sits on his throne, judging the living and the dead. This is the Truth.  Those who believe it, and live it, understand that there is no other reality. If there is any common sense in us, we will respond to invitation to reject sin, and take up our cross and follow him, so that where he is, we may also be. 

    Life is too short to make any other choice. Let us choose to follow Christ our King!


    Viva Christo Rey!
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  7. Lec # 159- 33rd Sun of OT- Nov 17, 2013- Fr. Bresowar

    One of the questions that we hear in today’s Gospel from the Apostles is “Teacher, When will this happen?”  The apostles like many others were concerned about the end of the world.

    It is human fascination, the future, what will it be like when all of this (around us) comes to an end. Many people have made guesses; and each of us has wondered what the end would be like. The apostles were no different.

    They were coming to the end of Jesus’ public ministry when they asked Jesus this question. The Gospel reading of today takes place during Holy Week. Jesus had arrived in Jerusalem for the last week of his public mission, and at the end of that week he was going to be handed over and crucified. Today’s Gospel took place on a hill looking down at the Temple a few days before his crucifixion. So naturally, Jesus is focusing on the end and what is to happen after he is gone. 

    The apostles must have been concerned about what he was saying.
    They had just heard Jesus say that the day was coming when everything that they saw in front of them would not be left they way they see it.

    Now Jesus had been doing and saying many amazing things, and these men had grown to love him, and believe in Him. So you can only imaging what was going through their mind when he told them that everything was going to change.

    We humans do not like change, we are not very good at it. We like certainty, because with certainty there is less anxiety. If we know what is going to happen and when, then we can be better prepared.

    If you notice though, Jesus doesn’t answer their question concerning when this will happen. Instead, he explains the pattern of events that will be repeated in every period during the final stage of human history - the age of the Church.
    In so doing, he points out the three most critical facts about the future:
    •              He will return from his Father's house to bring to completion the eternal Kingdom that he founded through the Church;
    •              In the meantime, he is sending his disciples - the Apostles and the Christians of all ages - to invite all people into that Kingdom.
    Although this mission will be challenged by suffering, humiliation, and opposition of all kinds, he will continue to work in and through his faithful followers by the power of the Holy Spirit.

    And so Jesus doesn’t say, “this will happen when…” Rather he tells them exactly what they need to know.

    In doing so, Jesus is giving his followers privileged knowledge. He didn’t have to tell them anything, but he wanted them to know that certain things would take place before he came back, before then end and final judgment.

    Remember we like certainty. We want to be as prepared as possible. And so Jesus says, if you are my follower, go ahead and expect that you will have to suffer trials and persecutions.

    So when we suffer trials and persecutions, should we be so surprised?

    He also says that many people will try to deceive you and draw you away from the Truth? How often are we guilty of turning away from Jesus because someone else says its okay? Or someone else is living their life in a particular way, maybe someone really close to you; it’s not exactly what the Catholic Church says is right, but because they are doing it, it’s okay.

    Jesus says this would happen to us, and he warns us not be deceived.

    Then he reminds us that nations will rise against nations, kingdoms against kingdoms. There will be wars and famines.

    All these things have happened and continue to happen. Should we be surprised? Of course not; Jesus said they would happen.

    So what is our reaction to all of this?

    Do we care? Is it important to us?

    My brothers and sisters, Jesus has not returned yet for one reason, and I don’t know what it is. But whatever it is, it is perfect. Only the Father knows when he will come back.

    I like to think that he is giving us time to get our act together. We are stubborn sometimes in persisting in sin. And yet God is patient. He is waiting for us to come back to him with our whole heart.

    Is it easy to do the right thing, as St. Paul tells us we must do, even when those around us are not? No, it is not easy.

    To be Catholic is not easy, but it prepares us for death. It prepares for the day when Jesus will come and take us to Heaven.

    We must be prepared. For once that day comes, there will be no more excuses.

    As a priest, it is my job first to be prepared in my own life, and then help others be prepared. It is my vocation to be a good leader and preach the Truth, even if the Truth causes anxiety because it means we need to change. We always need to change. We always need to be better. We need not worry about others, we must first worry about ourselves.

    The Church is God’s light to guide us to Jesus. When she speaks on a matter of faith and morals it is as if Jesus himself is speaking through her.

    Many people ignore the Church, even Catholics. They like some things she says but they don’t’ like others. That’s like saying I like some things Jesus did, but I don’t like others.

    One example I can think, in today’s age, is how many people ignore the Church’s teaching on marriage and they decide for themselves how they are going to live this sacrament. Many don’t get married in the Church, even when the Church says they must. They don’t understand that the Church doesn’t do this for herself, it does it because that is how it understands God’s plan for marriage.

    And yet, because so many people are doing it one way, it is easy to make excuses as to why the Church is wrong.

    Jesus spoke about being deceived, remember!

    In the end, God desires Mercy, and because of this, he is giving us time to reorder our lives back to him. If we knew what the Kingdom of God was like, we would have no problem with the sacraments, not problem with the Saints, no problem with the Church and her direction. But for now, we must decide for ourselves where we are going to put our trust.

    So let each make that choice, and choose to do it God’s way, as he has revealed through his Church and take advantage of the grace, which he gives us through the sacraments. The way we do this is to dispose ourselves to the Grace by living in accord with God’s commands. When we do this, we grow in wisdom, and we prepare ourselves for the day when the Lord will come and take us to his Kingdom.


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  8. Lec # 144- 28th Sun of OT- Oct 13, 2013- Fr. Bresowar

    My brothers and sisters, it is a wonderful and awesome privilege to be here today to celebrate this mass with you.

    I don’t know if I tell God how thankful I am to be able to do this every week, every day! But I should, it is a wonderful thing to be a priest. It is a wonderful life, a life of service and love, prayer and sacrifice, but immense joy.

    In today’s readings we are reminded of the need to approach God with a spirit of Gratitude. God gives us everything, our lives, our breath, our family, food, our health, everything. Too often we forget this, we forget, because of our troubles and sufferings, what it is that God has done for us. And then instead of approaching him with gratitude, too often we only approach him with a spirit desperation.

    If we could truly comprehend what exactly it is that God has done for us, we would never stop thanking him. In fact, Heaven, if we are so fortunate enough to go, will be an eternal thanksgiving to God. An eternal Eucharist, where we will spend eternity praising and glorying the Lord of the Universe.

    However, here, while we try to persevere as St. Paul said in the second reading, it can be difficult to remember to glorify God with every thought and action that we possess.

    This is because, like the lepers in the Gospel, we are still sick with disease. They suffered leprosy. We suffer too, different diseases, and particularly the disease of sin and self-centeredness. 

    Back in the time when Jesus walked on earth, leprosy was considered the worst of all conditions one could suffer with.

    It was and still is an incurable and deadly disease. It is a bacterial infection that causes the extremities of the body fingers and toes, hands and feet, nose, ears, and mouth - to die and slowly rot away, even while the person remains alive. It was so contagious that even the lepers' closest relatives did not dare to come near them. In ancient times, lepers were required to live in isolated colonies. If they had to travel, the law required them to ring a bell wherever they went, shouting out, "Unclean! Unclean!" This explains why these ten lepers addressed Christ "from a distance", as St Luke points out.
    On top of the isolation, lepers had to live with the almost unbearable pain and stench of their own decaying bodies.

    Leprosy was a long, humiliating, and dismal agony, the most horrible of ancient diseases.

    And yet Jesus frees the lepers from their agony and gives them a brand new life.

    They went to Jesus in their time of desperation because they understood that Jesus could heal them. And yet, only one of them actually came back to give him thanks

    How many of us only go to Jesus when we need something? And when we receive what it is we need or want, how many of us forget to thank him?

    We recognize what Jesus has done for us; that is why we are here today. And yet, the challenging message of the Gospel is go even deeper, so that we might develop an attitude of gratitude which recognizes a need to be thankful at all times, and not just every once in a while.

    Why? Why does God want us to be thankful? Is God an egomaniac? Does God have low self-esteem? Does he need us to make himself feel better?

    Of course not!

    God wants us to practice the virtue of Gratitude not simply for himself, but for us. He loves us, and knows the value of gratitude. It is gratitude that enables us to remember that we are loved by God. And we need to remember that God loves us, because if we forget this, it can make this journey even more difficult than it already is.

    As scripture reminds us in the letter to the Hebrews, “What gives true strength to a man's heart," it says, "is gratitude" (Heb 13:9).”

    God's capacity for love is much greater than any mere human being's. It's infinite.
    Knowing that we are loved by God, then, is the only way to satisfy one of the two deepest needs of the human heart: the need to know that we are loved without limit and without conditions.
    Gratitude keeps our attention on God's goodness to us, on the expressions of his love for us.
    It makes sure we never forget that we are loved - which is the only source of lasting joy in this world full of difficulties. When we neglect it, we start focusing on ourselves, on our own achievements, on our own desires - but none of those things can satisfy this fundamental need of our soul.

    Just as no reservoir can keep itself full - it needs to be fed by a source outside itself, higher than itself. When we find ourselves becoming habitually bitter, angry, frustrated, stressed, or depressed, it's because our reservoir is getting low. That's when we need to look back to God and his love, and open the floodgates of gratitude.

    The more thankful we are, the more we will experience God’s love for us. We will never forget how much he loves us if we always practice the virtue of gratitude. Be thankful in the morning, thankful in the afternoon, and thankful in the evening and night. To God we give thanks forever and ever. Amen. 
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  9. Lec # 135- 25th Sun of OT- Sept 22, 2013- Fr. Bresowar

    So, amongst the many many things that are going on in the world today, I’ve chosen to highlight in this homily something I read on Thursday when I went to www.cnn.com. Now you might ask, “Why did you do something like that father?” And simply put, I don’t know… I just decided to check the news according to how CNN wanted to deliver it at that moment. Sometimes I’ll go to Foxnews.com, occasionally, I’ll check out msnbc, or google, or yahoo, or even the bbc or npr or whatever… I like many young people today, mostly get my news from the Internet.

    And for anyone who has been on the Internet, that should be most of you here, depending on where you go to get your news, generally speaking, it comes with some sort of bias. I’ve yet to find a credible news source, not that I’ve been looking terribly much, that delivers the news just as it happened, without some sort of agenda.

    And generally, when I go to get the news, I find myself pretty skeptical of what I’m reading, as one-liners hardly ever tell the full story.

    Usually the headline is the first thing that grabs us… President Obama does this…. Pope Francis says that… Russia does this… or…  This person killed this person, Obamacare is great, Obamacare is horrible… and so on and so forth.

    Well, just on Thursday, I got on CNN and read the headline:

    Pope: (says) Leave Gays Alone. That’s the headline… so you would be left to think if that is all you read, that we are suppose to be indifferent, apathetic towards homosexuality. Leave them alone…

    That’s the first thing CNN wants us to see.

    Then the subtitle read: “Church gets locked up in small-minded rules”

    So my first thought upon seeing this glaring in your face, big letters headlines that pretty much drowns out the rest of the news stories on the site, is… “here we go again… the pope said something, a lot of something’s… the media picked out one phrase, and then misrepresented the Pope or the teachings of the Church.” I thought this because this seems to be the norm.

    We know what drives the media, money, they don’t worry about what Jesus said in the Gospel today, you cannot serve God and Money… they would agree, and would choose Money. So their objective assumedly is not so much to report the news in a way that is balanced, but is to report in a way which gets high traffic on their websites.

    That’s why they love scandal, because scandal means high traffic, and high traffic means money.

    If they can report what the Pope says in a way which will either promote high traffic or fit their agenda they will do so.

    Knowing this, and having seen this over and over, especially with Pope Francis, I set out to see what the Pope actually said in the interview. Because if you just get your news from the American main stream media, you might come to believe that Pope Francis is about to change every teaching in the Catholic Church to placate the ever changing cultural needs of those who are in power right now.

    We need to be careful because many  are trying to paint a picture of the pope that is not accurate. They are trying to feed us with what they want us to believe. And they are using him to do so.  

    Aside from the brief two sentence headline that I read on CNN, the rest of the interview from which CNN referenced, which was 12000 words long, said a lot more. I read it.

    If you look at MSM headlines, what you take-away will be that Pope Francis is saying that abortion isn’t a big deal or that homosexuality is okay and that the Church doesn’t have a right to tell anyone what to do.

    That’s not what the Pope is doing or saying.

    The Pope insists that these are wounds, homosexuality and abortion, which need to be addressed in sacramental confession. He says if a person approaches the Lord with a repentant heart, who are we to judge? He also says that we as Catholics should not be defined by these two issues alone. That we should be focusing on other areas as well. He talks about the danger, for example, of gossip. Which is also a problem and much more prevalent than abortion or homosexual acts.

    He reminds us to look at sinners, ourselves included as human persons first, human persons who are beloved by God.

    He is clear that he is a son of the Church, and he is not changing any teaching of the Church, but he also does not want us to be so rigid that we do not allow God’s grace to work. He says we do not need to focus solely on abortion or gay marriage all the time. And he doesn’t seem to like the headline, the Church condemns this, or the Pope condemns that. He seems to speak frequently of God’s infinite mercy and he wants the Church to be seen as instrument for that mercy.

    HE says a lot more in the interview, which if you want to know, you’ll have to read because the media will not report on everything he said.

    Unfortunately, it hears what it wants, and reports what it wants. It clearly has an agenda which is not the same agenda of Pope Francis.

    This requires of us to be vigilant and really understand what the Pope is saying in light of the Catechism of the Catholic Church less we fall victim to the musings of the media who are con-artists, creative at taking things out of context, twisting them, and then using those words to push home their own hopes and dreams.

    But we are children of Truth, we live in the Truth which is Christ Jesus and our conscience knows that the moral law is already written on our heart. We are children of the Church, who is our mother.  

    Francis’ pontificate is going to be about evangelization and putting a motherly face on the Church.

    She, our mother, the church, will not lead us astray. She never has, and she never will. Neither will our Pope, the vicar of Christ. It is not for us to decide for ourselves what is good or bad… that’s the way of the world. God is good, and everything that participates in Him is good. Those things not of God, which are clear in our conscience, and scripture and magisterial teaching, are evil. They lead to destruction. And yet, we must meet people who are on this destructive path with compassion. This is not to say we accept destruction or destructive behavior, but that we find a place to meet people so as to help them move towards Jesus Christ, who is the healer of all wounds.

    May God bless us all, and please in your prayers, pray for the Pope.

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  10. Lec # 126- 22nd Sun of OT- Sept 1, 2013- Fr. Bresowar

    My brothers and sisters in Christ-

    No one likes to be put in his or her place. We do this all the time with children; we tell them “no”, you can’t do this or that, and they get mad at us. They get put in their place; but as you know, this is mostly necessary. Because they have no choice usually, they have to conform. But when this happens when we are adults, to us, often times it can have humiliating effect.

    We have all been there too. Each of us has had those moments in our lives where we have had the not-so-pleasant experience, as adults, of being put in our place. Something goes wrong, something doesn’t go as planned, someone steps up and challenges us, and often times our pride get wounded and rather we asked for it or not, we are humbled.

    And yet, how we react to the times we are humbled says a lot about who we are as Christians. For to be humbled, is really to mimic Jesus, who humbled himself to the point of death, death on a cross.

    Pride, we always say is our enemy as followers of Jesus. Humility is our friend. But why is this? Why is so necessary that we as Christians, go about looking to be humbled, and to kill our pride?

    Well first and foremost, because Jesus Christ is the humble servant. And Christ came to show us and teach us the Truth which he embodies. He said “seek to serve, not to be served. If you would great, you must become least among all. Don’t seek the place of honor at the banquet, but rather, seek the lowest spot. Make yourself nothing in the eyes of the world, be meek and lowly.” Not weak and lowly… but meek and lowly. The first shall be last, and the last shall be first in the Kingdom of God.

    Secondly, pride has nasty effects. Starting in the Garden of Eden and ever since then, pride has been standing in our way as the chief obstacle to receiving God’s love and peace. Why? Because ultimately pride seeks to worship self, and not God. The rewards of self-worship fails in comparison to the rewards of worshiping God.

    And when we suffer the effects self-worship, we turn on the Truth, that God is Love, and God is Life and Goodness, and then we are left with nothing that resembles love, life or goodness, mainly hate, despair and depression, darkness. And then, often times, we medicate ourselves to deal with the effects, instead humiliate ourselves. Humility is the answer to many of our problems as individuals and as a society. Pride, is at the root of every sin; and is cause of most of our problems.

    And so, the Lord warns us against it. He says to us, get rid of it. And he shows us the path to happiness is not the path that we assume it is, that the world tells us it is, but rather it’s a paradox to the way world, one which unless you try it, you can’t understand it. That to lower oneself, to debase oneself for the sake of others, to serve first, to self-identify with the poorest of the poor, to die to the world, to just not care anymore about wealth and riches, and politics, and worldly fame and popularity, and to be honest and good people… this, my brothers and sisters, is Heaven. This is true joy, and yet so many are afraid to taste it. They are reserved and the cannot find this joy. If they would just let go of their fear.

    “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age,” our Lord says. “Houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come. But many that are first will be last, and (the) last will be first.”

    Sirach tells us in scripture, “conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts. Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God.”

    Jesus goes as far as to tell us not to invite friends when we have a party, but to invite the weak, the lame, the outcast, the lowly, the “nothings” in the eyes of the world… the nothings… “and you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

    Can you imagine how socially unacceptable it would be for us to go out of our way to love those who are outcasts? To put ourselves at the service of misfits, and addicts, the vagabonds, and homeless, and the like? Not in this culture would that be acceptable.

    And yet this is what our vicar of Christ, Pope Francis, is doing and is imploring us to do.

    So what stands in our way? Our pride and our fear. My brothers and sisters, We must accept humiliation as our Lord did, and then our pride and fear will go away and be replaced with firm resolve and purpose.

    So we pray for humility, “Lord make me a humble servant.” Don’t be surprised if he gives us all the opportunities to be humiliated. Instead of complaining about it, thank God for it, because it is exactly what we need to kill our pride and become Jesus Christ to others.

    God Bless you and keep you, and may he make us humble servants of the most poor among us. 
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I am a Catholic Priest in the Diocese of Birmingham, Alabama. This blog is where I post my homilies from time to time. May God bless you always!
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