1. Lec # 96- 12th Sun of OT- June 23, 2013- Fr. Bresowar

    My brothers and sisters in Christ, it’s very good to be here with you today on this 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time. I had the privilege yesterday to witness the ordination of three new priests for our diocese. Two will serve at EWTN as Franciscans of the Eternal Word, and one will be a parish priest, Fr. Charles Merrill.

    The ordination was beautiful, if you never have gone to one, you should. It’s one of most moving liturgies of the Catholic Church. Of course, we won’t have another priesthood ordination in our diocese for three more years, so this information might have been useful last week.

    And that’s partly what I want to speak about today. I think a big reason we have a crisis in the priesthood, in terms of the lack of vocations, is because we have a crisis in catechesis.  I firmly believe if more young men knew what is was to be a priest, how amazing a vocation it is, and how what is given up, in terms of what the world says will make us happy or successful people, never even comes close to that which is received, by saying yes to Jesus. If young men only knew what a privilege it is to be called by God to this marvelous vocation, we’d have 4 priests in every church. However, they don’t know… and like many seminarians I have known in the past, they don’t always get support from their parents at home. Not only do young men not know, but neither to parents. What an honor it is for a mom to give her son to the priesthood, how a father feels so proud on the day of his son’s ordination. And yet, often times, parents can be the biggest obstacles to their son’s wish to enter seminary. 

    Certainly our particular culture doesn’t help either in influencing young men to give up their lives for Jesus Christ in the ministerial priesthood; but we shouldn’t just blame the culture. And we certainly could look to recent scandals by certain priests, which can’t be ignored or glossed over, and say they haven’t helped the reputation of the priesthood by in large. However, whether it’s a secular culture seeped in relativism and materialism, or a priest who fails to live up to the standards that people have come to expect of their shepherds; none of these adequately describe the truest nature of a Catholic priest.

    Who is the Catholic Priest? And why is this important for us to know? Many people have their own conceptions of what is a priest, and often times they are shaped by either their own personal experiences of priests in their lives, or what the media says a priest is, or what they might have been told. 

    And If I asked you what is a Catholic priest, I’d likely get a host of different answers, and I imagine many of them would be more along the lines of what a Catholic priest does.

    A Catholic priest, he’s the guy that is a little big around the edges, and takes up an hour of my Sunday each week. He’s the guy that runs the church during the week. Or, he’s the guy that hears my confession when I sin, or he’s the guy that gives us the body and blood of Jesus, or visits us when we are sick, or I don’t know what he does.

    I get the strangest looks sometimes when I go to a restaurant wearing my clerics and if I’m wearing my cassock, it’s like Neo from the Matrix just walked in. People have no idea. “Have you never seen a priest before?” I feel like asking. Sometimes people laugh and snicker and it’s like a small persecution. But I’m not afraid to witness the priesthood.

    Very rarely do I hear someone actually get the definition correct concerning whom exactly is a Catholic priest. The priesthood is not defined simply by what a priest does or does not do, the priesthood is defined by who exactly is Jesus Christ. For where the priest is, there is Jesus.

    "A Priest - whoever he may be - is always another Christ." - St Josemaria Escrivá

    That’s not to say that a priest is Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, that would be a major heresy, but that when a person encounters a priest, they should encounter another Christ.
     
    St. John Vianney, who is the patron saint of all parish priests, wrote a Catechism, a teaching, on priesthood. In it he says, “What is a priest! A man who holds the place of God -- a man who is invested with all the powers of God. "Go, " said Our Lord to the priest; "as My Father sent Me, I send you. All power has been given Me in Heaven and on earth. Go then, teach all nations. . . . He who listens to you, listens to Me; he who despises you despises Me. " When the priest remits sins, he does not say, "God pardons you"; he says, "I absolve you. " At the Consecration, he does not say, "This is the Body of Our Lord;" he says, "This is My Body.”

    So where the priest is, there is Jesus Christ. The priest acts in the person of Christ when he teaches, preaches or sanctifies. The priest participates in and receives power from the priesthood of Jesus.

    As St. John Vianney says, “Oh, how great is a priest! The priest will not understand the greatness of his office till he is in Heaven. If he understood it on earth, he would die, not of fear, but of love.”

    This is not to say that Fr. Vincent is so great, treat him that way when at the end of Mass when you greet him. A priest is not great because of worldly allurement and praise, in fact his should accept them humbling in public, and privately shun them lest he himself start to believe that He is great.

    A priest is not a priest for himself. He is a priest for you. He does not give himself absolution; he does not administer the Sacraments to himself. He is not for himself, he is for you.

    It’s a great gift to be called to the priesthood, and with this gift comes great responsibility. A mystic once said the road to hell is paved with the skulls of priests who did not answer their call faithfully. Once I heard a rector of a seminary tell his deacons who were about to be ordained this, he said men, congratulations; you have just greatly increased your chances of going to Hell.

    I use to think priesthood was a one-way ticket to Heaven, I now know, that there is a great obligation to lead his people to Heaven through truth and charity, and if he doesn’t, he’s in trouble.

    With great gifts, comes great responsibility.

    Jesus says today, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

    This is exactly what the priest does, he, the one who responds faithfully to the vocation of priesthood, gives up his life for his flock, and in return gains for Jesus everything. The priesthood is everything, says St. John Vianney, there is no greater gift from Jesus then to be able to hold his flesh in our fingers, to call down the Holy Spirit upon the altar and participate in the redemption of the world at each Mass. The priesthood is the love of the Heart of Jesus. When you see the priest, think of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

    All of this is to say what an amazing vocation it is to be called to serve the Lord’s vineyard in this special way. And yet, each of us priest are quirky, we have our own personalities, or own likes and dislikes, we are very human and can be annoying and none of us is sinless, we are all weak men who stand in need of God’s mercy. Yet we are priests because God ordained us to be, through our bishops. And we will be priests in Heaven, and for this, I’m incredibly blessed.

    Young men should be encouraged to answer the call, parents, encourage your sons to consider this awesome vocation, do not be a hindrance, young ladies, if your boyfriend thinks he might be called to be a priest, let him go…  all of us should be so blessed to be an influence in the life of a young man who answers the call to priesthood.

    I’ll end this homily with a quote from St. John Vianney, he says, “O my dear parishioners, let us endeavor to get to heaven! There we shall see God. How happy we shall feel! If the parish is converted we shall go there in procession with the parish priest at the head. . . We must get to heaven! What a pity it would be if some of you were to find yourselves on the other side!”



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  2. Lec # 93-11th Sun of OT- Sun, June 16, 2013- Fr. Bresowar

    My brothers and sisters in Christ, it is good to be with you here on this 11th Sunday of Ordinary time.

    I graduated high school in 1998 from Homewood in Birmingham. I was an active member of my Church, a member of the Youth Group, an altar server, and I helped with Vacation Bible School each year. Our family was always around the Church. We were very active and it was a big part of my life.

    So, you would think, that when I went to college that I would have naturally felt at home around the Church and stayed active. However, that was not the case. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I, like many young people who leave home for the first time, felt this inner need to find my own path apart from my parents. As a teenager, not going to Church was never an option; in fact, we had to be pretty sick to miss it. My parents took their faith seriously, and their responsibility and obligation to pass that faith onto their children.

    In college, however, the parents were no longer around to make sure we were attending Mass and being active at Church. I remember telling my mom that I had been to Mass even when I had not.

    Reflecting back on that time in my life, I can say with honesty, that had I had any real inclination what it was I was walking away from, I never would have. But at the same time, had I not done so, I may not be where I am today. Sometimes we have to experience the emptiness of the world and what it offers, before we can accept the Truth of what it is God offers.  

    Paul said in scriptures today in all honesty, he says, “I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.” But before he could get to this realization, he had to get knocked off his horse so to say. Paul had lived for himself, in fact so much so, that he saw it as his duty to kill and persecute Christians. He suffered greatly from pride and vanity.

    How many in this world still suffer the effects of vanity, and pride? These are diseases, masked as virtues by Satan, the father of lies, but they only cause pain and disfiguration of our hearts, and sometimes our bodies. Before Paul could move forward in Truth, and experience true love and peace, he had to recognize his need for Jesus, and once he did, he never looked back. Transformation to Christ happens in many different ways, from literally getting knocked off a horse, like Paul, to more subtle experiences, like mine and many others.

    What is true for all of us though, is that trying to find fulfillment in the world, in money, sex, possessions, relationships, politics, expectations of how we think things should be, etc; trying to find fulfillment, peace, and lasting happiness here in this world, is an exhausting exercise, which for some reason, many never escape. That’s not to say that beauty and truth cannot be found or sought, we were created to search for these by God Himself who is always leading us to himself in Truth and Beauty, but until we realize that this is a journey and not eternity, we will perpetually be frustrated. Some people, and many of you may be trapped in this, will never be truly happy because they are trying to hang on to, or grasp eternal happiness in the things of the world. They have little faith, and trust even less. They are not willing to let go, and give everything over to Jesus, every thought, every expectation, even every breath of air, so that it is not We, but Christ who lives in Us. This is all that is necessary for us to begin to experience the gift of faith, the fruit of faith, the fruits of the spirit. But many are afraid to trust God, and so they desperately cling to false notions of what can bring us happiness. Death has power over them, they are still afraid.

    The woman of the Gospel today, came to Jesus exhausted of living the life she was had been living. She just couldn’t do it anymore. There was nothing there. She had for years, I imagine, tried to find fulfillment in other men, trapped, as so many women are, by finding her worth in how a man treated her, even to the point that she would let men treat her in a very shallow way as a Prostitute.

    She realized the lie that vanity had caused, and came before Jesus in a very humble way; laid down at his feet, washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. She anointed his feet with oil, a gesture which more than words could express, showed that she was desperate for what it was that Jesus was offering.

    She humbled herself, begged for forgiveness with true faith, and then received something she had never experienced before, true peace, a true sense of worth which could not be found in the world, true purpose, true love, true happiness, and like Paul and many others, she never looked back.

    After about 6 years of being away from the Church, after I had left home, and seeing the direction my life was heading, seeing how my decisions had effected my own health, spiritual, psychological, and physical, and the health of others, I finally got knocked off my own horse, came to my senses and came back to Jesus. And I will never go back to the way my life was, because there really is nothing there. I had everything the world says will make me happy and I was miserable.

    Not only young people, but all of us, will need to have the experience of being knocked off our horse from time to time.  And all of us will need to have our experience of coming to Jesus, laying before his feet, and crying out for mercy and forgiveness over and over again.

    This is the path to true happiness, the only path. Return to Jesus with all your heart and you will find peace. It’s the only way to find peace. 
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  3. Lec # 169- Sol of Corpus Christi- June 2, 2013- Fr. Bresowar

    My brothers and sisters, when I was a child, around the age of 8 or 9, I remember playing a game with one of friends, and it was in the late afternoon,  and it came time for dinner. My mother came out to me and said, “Vincent, you need to put the game up, clean up, we are about to eat.” This upset me greatly, because the game was almost over, and I just needed a few more minutes to finish. So I said “no, we are not done yet.” My mother said, “Vincent, put the game up, it’s time for dinner.” I said, “No, you can put the game up, we aren’t finished.”

    Little did I know, that my father was standing around the corner out of sight, listening to this conversation between my mother and I.

    Needless to say, my stubbornness to put the game up quickly subsided as my father made his appearance but not before I got a proper attitude adjustment on my rear end.

    The problem was not my parent’s lack of patience; the problem was my unwillingness to do something for which I did not wish to do. I did not want to be told no, because it went against my childish notion that I knew what was better for me then my parents did.

    The pain in my rear end reminded me other wise. Did I think it was fair? No. Was that fact that I did not believe it to be fair important to my parents at that moment? Certainly not. My father, later, as always, would come and talk to me about why it was I needed to respect my mother, and how important it was to trust and understand that they love me, and that proper behavior dictates that sometimes we have to do things we don’t necessarily want to do. In this case, clean up the board game when my mother says to clean it up, and don’t be disrespectful.

    Why? Because disrespectfulness was not an attribute my parents were interested in fostering in my siblings or myself. They understood that certain behaviors were not healthy and so like any good parent, they disciplined out of love, and set rules so that we could succeed in life. A bad parent, would tell me nothing, and let me figure it out on my on, or let me make my own rules.

    You might see where I’m going here. The experience I just explained is not a unique experience to anyone who has children or has been a child. That’s everyone here.

    We understand that example well, what we fail to understand though, and sometimes we need to be reminded, is that just because we grow up, and we don’t answer to our father or mother anymore concerning cleaning up our rooms, our games, or our toys, we certainly don’t always abandon our childish temper tantrums and behaviors.

    As adults, and especially in this hedonistic, materialistic society, as a culture, we don’t like to be told no.

    We often times believe that we don’t need our parents anymore, and that we have it all figured out, like the spoiled child.

    Prime example, gay marriage. The Pope has called gay marriage a destructive attack on God’s plan, “a move of the Father of Lies who seeks to deceive and confuse the children of God.” In addition, he characterized adoption by gay parents to be a form of discrimination against children.
    Instead of trying to understand more fully God’s amazing and beautiful plan for human sexuality and marriage and family, our culture hears this and screams No! We know better than God! And like a spoiled child, starts name calling and throwing temper tantrums. We want it our way, not God’s way.  

    The same childish reaction I gave my mother, that “No” I screamed at her, that same reaction is being screamed at the Church, our mother, when she tries to remind her children, that to succeed in life, there is a way, a single path to follow, and He has a name, and His name is Jesus Christ.

    Under that name, every knee will bow!

    And to follow that path means to say no to the world and all of its foolishness, and yes, yes, to beauty and the natural law laid in our hearts by our creator who created in man in his own image and likeness, male and female he created him, and for this reason a man should leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh, and what God has joined together, no man must separate.  Yes, to the mystical union of love that exist between Christ and his Church, an eternal union, foreshadowed in the sacrament of matrimony, yes to marriage as God designed it, not without the cross, but with the cross so that we might understand that there is no love without it. The cross of suffering is an essential part of our redemption.

    Pope Francis, who is a humble man, a good and holy man, and happens to be the vicar of Jesus Christ, has told us to go out and boldly evangelize the Truth and expect that the world will hate us for it.

    The world is like a spoiled child who screams no; we must not enter into this temptation which leads to destruction, ruin, depression, and self hatred and ultimately hatred of God, the path of Satan, but instead strive to be obedient children who trust our loving Father, our parent. And seek his mercy and forgiveness for the times we have forgotten who exactly is God and who is not.

    But we are not alone. We have gone, step by step, in the course of the liturgical year, from the consideration of the mysteries of the life of Jesus to the contemplation of the Blessed Trinity, whose feast we celebrated last Sunday. Jesus, our Mediator, our Way, has taken us by the hand and led us to the Trinity; and today it seems as though the three Persons Themselves wish to take us back to Jesus, considered in His Eucharist. “No man can come to Me except the Father who draws Him,” our Lord tells us in the gospel of John. This is the journey of the Christians soul: from Jesus to the Father, to the Trinity, from the Trinity, from the Father, to Jesus. Jesus brings us to the Father, the Father draws us to Jesus.

    Our mother, the Church, whose mission it is to safeguard the Truth with the power and help of the Holy Spirit reminds us that the Christian cannot do without Christ. He is the great Bridge-builder who has spanned the abyss between God and us. The Church, who like a good mother knows that our spiritual life cannot subsist without Jesus, leads us to Him, really and truly present in the most Holy sacrament of the Altar.

    Today’s solemnity reminds us that Jesus is present in our midst. Never once were we ever alone, we can say, in truth, that He has not “left us as orphans,” but has willed to remain permanently with us, in the fullness of his divinity and humanity in the Eucharist. Leading us, guiding us, forgiving us, being patient with us as we throw little temper tantrums, and ultimately convincing us without a shadow of a doubt, that our joy, our desires, our hearts will be completely fulfilled in and only through Him and with Him and in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen. 

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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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