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Fr. Wagner
Link: New Talk on the Eucharist: “The History of Bread! (and Salvation!)”
Homily for DYC (Diocesan Youth Council) Retreat, and Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary August 15th 2009
18th Sunday in Ordinary time- Christ the King Catholic Church
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12 Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B June 22nd 2009
I got my audio issues fixed from the last couple of weeks (which is why I haven’t posted in two weeks,) so enjoy!
Pentecost Sunday!
Homily for the 6th Sunday of Easter Year B
Jesus Jams April 19th, 2009 Highlight Reel! Enjoy!
Divine Mercy Sunday Homily
Our Life Long Project
The final homily to the people of St. Mary, the Mother of God Parish, Marion, Ohio
Given July 12th , 2009
As I leave this place, I want to share with you a summery of my thoughts and feelings about this life, our relationship with God, and how He has taught us how to live.
Over the 5 years of priesthood I have enjoyed, as well as just being a regular old human being on this earth for the last 3 decades, I have come to realize a truth. All of us, every single one of us, myself included, are addicts.
All of us are addicted to the same thing as well. That addiction is sin. It is an addiction that we have had to endure since the moment of our conception, and will have to deal with on a day to day basis, until the day we leave this earth. Sin literally means “missing the mark” in the original Greek, sort of like a marksman that just can’t seem to get his bullet into the bullseye. We “miss the mark,” when we fail to love. A failure to love is what sin can be defined as.
Therefore in our lives we deal with this addiction. This “sin” that we speak of is our inability, or unwillingness to love the way we have been built to love- which is the way that God loves- total, self-giving and free. Sin has been a part of our lives and our humanity since the first sin of Adam, who failed to love his bride by giving his own life in that garden on that fateful day. (Romans 5:12)
So sin is in the world- and it manifests itself in all different ways in all of our lives. For some, it manifests itself in specific addictions, like alcoholism, or food, or bad relationships, to spending money or whatever you can think of. You can become addicted to anything. For some it manifests itself in self-loathing, or shame, or negative attitudes. For as many people as there are on the face of the earth, there are that many ways that sin can manifest itself in our lives.
Sin, as St. Paul points out in Romans, as well as Galations, is not something that we are capable of overcoming ourselves. In fact, he says that this is the reason that the Law of the Old Testament was so very strict- simply to show us that left to ourselves it cannot be done. Man has been, in some ways, utterly defeated by sin, insofar as he cannot overcome it by his own machinations. Many have tried- I have seen it. Maybe if I had this or that, or if I can just numb it away, or maybe if I punish myself or the people in my life it will make up for the void that sin leaves. The void that only love can fulfill.
Should I end the homily here, we would find ourselves saddened, dejected and depressed. The truth is though that this is thankfully where the story does not end. Jesus has conquered sin. He restores us to grace, and teaches us how to live in his image and likeness again though is sacrifice on the cross. It is possible through God’s grace that is more abundant than the seas of the ocean.
What does this mean in our lives? Well, the first thing we must do is to admit that all of us are completely powerless over sin. We must acknowledge just how unmanageable our lives can be when we are in the midst of it. How utterly defeated we personally are by it. Only in the admission of defeat can we look to a higher power, the one we realize can restore us to grace, health, and sanity. That power is none other than Jesus Christ Himself. It is in Him that the blight of sin will be eradicated from our lives, and further, we grow more and more into His image and likeness to love as He loves. He alone can do it. Without Him, we are doomed.
When we truly realize our defeated condition in the face of our addiction to sin, we have the real opportunity to turn everything over to God. Our will, our life- everything to Him who can take what has been damaged by sin, and not only restore it, but glorify it! Truly our greatest weakness can become our greatest strength. As St. Paul says, it is when I am weak that I am strong. My favorite antiphon from the liturgy is one that reads- “Surrender to God and He will do everything for you.” Have you truly surrendered to God? Have I? Surrender is a repulsive word in our culture, yet it is what we must do in the face of defeat.
Once we do this, the real work begins. Salvation isn’t just something given to us to put on a shelf and admire from time to time. With the gift of redemption comes the responsibility to let it work itself out in our lives. Therefore the next step after our utter surrender to Jesus, is to look at our lives. See how sin has hurt us- see how it has hurt other people in our lives, and turn even those over to Jesus. It is sort of moral inventory to let us know just how deeply sin has permeated our lives, and just how much God’s grace can overcome even that.
We take this examination of conscience, and we go to the confessional. We confess our sins, OUT LOUD to God, to another person, and even in a way to ourselves. There is something healing about this. There is a part of us that no longer has to hold on to the sin that once plagued us. We can let it go as the words leave our mouths. Jesus knew we needed this. Maybe this is why so many people are afraid of confession- it isn’t the judgment of the priest they fear- but their own judgment of themselves. But once it is spoken it is handed over and it is no longer ours.
This process continues as we look at our tendencies toward sin- the little splinters and thorns in our side- our little character defects that make us want to put down our cross and quit. These we must humbly ask God to remove for us, as it is impossible to remove them ourselves.
Sometimes these tendencies make us sin, as we try to avoid their painful sting, and we much understand that this can sometimes lead us to hurt others as well. Making amends to these people in our lives is what the grace of Jesus enables us to do. So we understand and think about who we have indebted ourselves to through sin, and with the help of Jesus, become willing to make amends.
This process should form our days- our own daily examination of conscience- our daily contact with God in the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist and Confession, so that each day we grow a little closer to the image and likeness of God that is being perfected in us, and farther from the defeat that sin has waiting for us.
Happiness in this life is something that ensues, not something that is pursued. I don’t know who told me that but I understand it. It means that to be perfect in this life is to continually grow- to confidently advance in our growth in Christ, that sin may not defeat us, but that in Jesus we can defeat it. We should never be surprised when a Christian falls or sins. We are sinners. We are addicts to sin. We should always rejoice when we avoid it though- for therein lies the true miracle.
Look at your fingernails before you go to bed. Look at them again in the morning. Whether you see it or not they have grown. That is what it is to be perfect in the journey of this life- to be better by the end of the day than you were at the beginning. To be more perfectly conformed to the grace of Jesus Christ than you were when you woke up. To confidently advance in our relationship with Jesus himself through prayer, through the sacraments, and in his grace is our daily goal, and our daily bread. Trees don’t grow in leaps and bounds, and neither do we. That is why it is OK (albeit frustrating) to confess the same sin over and over. This is what causes the growth- imperceptively at first, but over time the progress becomes clear and apparent. Over time it is possible for any of us to look like a John Paul II or a Mother Theresa. Their opportunities to encounter grace are no different from yours and mine.
At the end of the day, we are then called to love. This is the opposite of sin. It is what we have been built for, and learning to love is the very project and point of our lives. It is the choice of doing what is the highest good, no matter what the personal cost might be. It is how God loves us on the cross as He gave His most precious son to defeat death, and bring us healing and redemption. So we are commissioned, each and every one of us by our baptism, to take the message out to those who need. Not merely by word, by love, the only remedy to sin, and its only cure. Divine love that is given to us only by Jesus himself, every time a sinner is baptized, every time a penitent is absolved, and every time on all the altars of the world, the Eucharistic sacrifice is made, bringing us into spiritual and physical contact with our Savior Jesus Christ who defeats sin in the world, and in our lives.
May you be closer to the image and likeness of God and His freedom and love, than you were when you woke up this morning.
At St. Paul says- “May the Love of God our Father, the Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you always…”
In Christ,
Fr. Joshua Wagner
