Fr. Schaefer's Homilies, page 4
July 5, 2009, Thorns of Grace
July 19, 2009, What is Truth
July 26, 2009, Bread With Us
August 2, 2009, Miracles to Happen
August 9, 2009, I Thirst
August 15, 2009, Little Taste of Heaven
September 20, 2009, Number One
September 27, 2009, Power of Intercession
THORNS OF GRACE
There is something in life that we all have in common. What is that? None of us get out of this life without pain. Can you say “Amen to that”? None of us gets out of here without pain”.
I was reading the life story of the woman who said those words: “None of us gets out of here without pain”. You might remember the actress Mary Tyler Moore. She was at one time America’s sweetheart. It would be easy to think that her life was always charming. It wasn’t.
Mary Tyler Moore married as a teenager and then divorced. Her sister overdosed with drugs and died. Mary married again and divorced. Around the start of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, she contracted diabetes. She divorced her second husband. Then in 1980, she saw her son accidentally shoot himself. Mary turned to alcoholMoore eventually found a lasting marriage in 1983 when she married Dr. Robert Levin. . She is now legally blind. Mary summed up her life saying: “None of us gets out of here without pain”.
St. Paul was the second most influential person that ever lived. If anyone deserved to live a charmed life; it was St. Paul. But here is what he had to say. “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations; there was given to me a thorn of the flesh-a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it from me. But He said to me: ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about weakness, in insults, in hardships, persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong”.
That’s an interesting expression--there was given me a ‘thorn in my flesh.” The Greek word ‘thorn” means a shaft of wood sharpened made to kill you. In other words, Paul was stabbed by a sharpened wooden stake, by a messenger of Satan, to keep him from being too elated.
St. Paul knew that pain was not God’s last word on our human condition. There is hope for us suffering. There is victory for those anguished of heart. We are God’s people. We are followers of Christ. With God’s help we can deal with any thorn, any obstacle, any heartache. Indeed, pain and suffering and loss can even bring us closer to God.
I was listening to Johnnette Benekonic’s program ‘Abundant Life. Johnette had George and Althea Lane on her talk show. George and Althea had a ‘down’s syndrome baby born to them. The gynocognist had urged them to have abortion. He said 90% of parents chose this option. They consulted with a priest and were advised to keep the baby. God has some special love to give you in this child. So they took the priest advice. Amy was born and became the joy of George and Althea and their other four children.
George wrote a book: “A different kind of perfection”. George describes the great joy Amy has brought to their marriage and their family. God was giving them a special kind of love and joy to them because they did the will of God in keeping the baby.
God does not send pain and suffering. God is not punishing you. He is sending a special message of love. For George and Althea found that Amy gave us a empathy for others. Amy has helped us to more easily relate to others who are also suffering some pain and brokenness. Also pain and suffering can give a special relationship with God.
Mary Tyler Moore was right ‘none of us gets out of here without pain’. It can be a blessing and grace to enjoy a greater joy and love of God. It’s a great blessing and grace in disguise.
July 26, 2009, Bread With Us
Father Cameron, a Dominican and editor of Magnificat wrote an interesting editorial GRACES OF THE MULTIPLIED LOAVES. Father Cameron quotes Pope Benedicat XVI. Our Holy Father asks the question. “In what does our wretchedness actually consist”? Why are we so unhappy?
Our Holy Father answers his own question by stating that the root of our wretchedness is loneliness. Loneliness is the absence of love. If our personal life is not embraced by an authentic affirmative love, then we are going to be wretch and unhappy.
Our misery arises when we live without a love strong enough to make us happy. When we have that love we can put up with any pain that goes along with it. We are willing to live with someone who gives us affirming self-giving love—a person who accepts us just as we are with all our faults and limitations.
What our hearts are crying out for is a true companion in whose love we experience. Then our life becomes truly valuable because it affirms the love that God planted within us when He made us. There is this old adage: “We are nothing til someone loves us”.
St. Augustine went on his search for that love. He thought it was in the status in life and in sex. St. Augustine gives his life story in his book the ‘Confessions of St. Augustine”. He had a great mind for philosophy and tried every current thinking in his time. That has left him frustrated and unhappy.
Finally with the years of prayers of Monica, his mother, he found the love of God. He was reading St. Paul epistle to the Ephesians. You must lay aside your former way of life and acquire a new way of thinking. You must put on the new man created in God’s image whose justice and holiness is born of truth. He became converted to the Catholic Church and became one the greatest theologians and doctors of the church.
In his book of confessions he wrote “Thou has made me for Thyself, Oh Lord, and our hearts will not rest until they rest in Thee”.
St. Augustine found this authentic affirming love in Jesus Christ. What our hearts are crying out for is a true companion in whose love we can experience. Then we can give back that love to this companion.
The key word here is companion. Isn’t it interesting that the word ‘companion’ comes from two Latin words, cum, meaning with and panis meaning bread. So a companion is literally ‘bread with us’. In other words it’s everything we need. We need a companion who can give us affirmative love and bread.
This is literally the Holy Eucharist. The Eucharist proclaims that God is not a distant fact toward which we strive with great effort. Rather the Eucharist is Someone who has joined us on our path who has become our companion.
Pope Benedict meets us and becomes our companion along the way. The Holy Father states it is true joy that the Lord becomes our companion along the way of life. St Thomas Aquinas pointed out there is no communion that is joyous without a companion. Christ presence in the Holy Eucharist is our companion. Jesus is the living Bread come down from heaven and Jesus is also our companion on our journey to the kingdom.
So we have it all. Both the Living Bread—Jesus is our communion and our companion who is really present to us in the Blessed Sacrament. Our hearts can rest in Jesus and He is giving His total love of Himself to us in Holy Communion. So if you are suffering from loneliness. Our Holy Father said that is the absence of love. We need the companion that is Jesus.
July 19, 2009, What is Truth
So many people are searching for truth and it seems so elusive today. I attended my ordination class reunion at Omaha. We celebrated 55 years in the priesthood of Jesus Christ. It was such a joy to be able to be with the men who said ‘yes’ to God and were ordained to the priesthood. All of us heard the call to come and follow me and I will make you fishers of men. All of us told our life story of how we received the call. They all had a different but unique story to tell.
I would like to tell you my story.
I grew up in a little town of Heron Lake Minnesota. This was in the depression days of the 1930’s. Banks were closed. Farms were being foreclosed. Many were without jobs.
Yet, it was during these tough times that Father Jostock, the Pastor, decided to build a big gothic German Church.
The whole parish rallied behind the pastor. Farmers came in with their teams of horses and dug out the basement. Then all the carpenters, brick layers and painters donated their work. The women had big dinners and bazaars. Even us kids in the Catholic school sold chances to raise money. They completed the church. I always admired the paintings and the stained glass windows.
I was a Mass server and loved to serve Mass in the Latin rite. Bishop Kelly came for Confirmation. He had the custom of calling up students to him and asking questions from the catechism. I was one of those selected. He asked me many questions from the catechism. I knew all the answers. I came to serve Mass the next morning. Father Becker told me that Bishop Kelly asked about me. The Bishop said that I should be a priest. I am a priest now for 55 years and counting. I love the priesthood.
Vocations do not come from us. God reveals our vocation whether it’s the priesthood or married life or single life. Jesus is the Way and the Truth and the Life. He came down from heaven to reveal all the mysteries and truths that fulfill the meaning and purpose in life. Jesus gave us His love in our hearts and revealed the truths that make us happy and fulfilled in life.
So I ask: “What is truth?”
Remember the film “Passion of Christ”. Pilate asked Jesus are you a King? Jesus answered: “For this I was born and came into this world to give witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice”.
Pilate said to Jesus: “What is Truth?” and walked out.
Pilate then asked his wife: “What is Truth? His wife answered “If you don’t what is truth no one can tell you”. God has to reveal truth to us.
So if you know the truth and live it, you fulfill the true meaning and purpose of your life and you give witness to the truth by the way you live the truth.
There seems to be many people searching for the truth.
I attended part of the week of prayer reflection that was always going on in Omaha. There were about 2000 people both young and old, priests and religious attending these prayer sessions. They all seem to be searching for the truth and meaning of their life. They all seem to be happy and filled with the love of Jesus in hearing the truths of our Catholic Faith and giving witness to it.
So we are asked What is Truth? Jesus said you shall know the truth and truth will make you free”. God has gifted us with the truth. When we live the truth and give witness to it in our lives; we are totally free.
Thank God today for this great gift and treasure. These truths of our Faith will make us everything God has called us to be in life. Praise God.
August 9, 2009, I THIRST
There were seven words that Jesus spoke from the cross. One of those seven words is “I thirst”. Jesus was not only thirsting for water; but He was also thirsting for souls—that’s us.
We should have a longing thirst for His Presence in His Church and within us. The continuous Presence of Jesus with His church until the end of time is a source of incalculable benefits to us. All the gifts and blessings Jesus gave us by becoming man in the womb of the Virgin Mary and His passion and death on the cross. They are now available to us in the measure of our eagerness to receive them. Father Philipon, The Magnificat.
In describing the effect of the Holy Eucharist, it is customary to compare the effects of food as bodily nourishment to the spiritual nourishment we need for our souls. We were created by God to love; for God is Love. Love then can only be nourished by the Holy Eucharist. We live on the Holy Eucharist. It is the Bread of Life that we need to live in Christ now and eternal life in the Kingdom of heaven.
I will give you my witness on the absolute need for need to celebrate Mass and receive Holy Communion. We live in a very troubled world. I am continually being bombarded with the attraction of worldly values that promise to make me happy and fulfilled. The world, the flesh and the devil are trying to impose their way of living. What they are saying to me goes against the gospel value system that I was brought up in and educated with in the priesthood. All these forces are continually trying to get me to be like them. The old adage if we allow the camel to get his nose under the tent; it won’t be long before he is inside the tent. So Christ and the church warn us not to let these outside forces get to us.
I have found out that my daily Mass and the Holy Eucharist and prayer; especially devotion to the Mother of God and the rosary keeps me from allowing these evil forces to get into my heart and mind. The Sacrament of Confession is also a great healing grace that keeps me from caving in to these evil demons. Also, I have to guard the custody of my eyes and ears and heart. I’m careful what I read. I don’t watch television. My favorite network is Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). This is the only Global Television Network that has good and authentic Catholic programming and is obedient to the Holy Father and the Church. Finally I pick the kind of people that I can trust. The forces of evil are even in the priesthood and the church. So I am careful who I pick as my friends. All the great saints offer this advice to us.
I have a spiritual director who is my advisor and confessor. I make an annual directed retreat. I have a good and holy priest who helps me to become a holy priest. Jesus tells us ‘come to me all you who labor and burdened’. No one is excluded who comes to me. All that is needed is the desire to approach Jesus and He will be presence to us.
Jesus says “if anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink’. The only condition is the desire to thirst for Jesus.
I give my life over to our Blessed Mother. She loves me and guides me in the Way, Truth and the Life. She will take me to Jesus and the Kingdom of heaven.
August 2, 2009, MIRACLES TO HAPPEN
All of us have prayed for a miracle to fulfill an urgent need we had in life.
That need could be a healing grace in your marriage or family life. It could be a physical that doctors hold out little hope for recovery. Maybe you are facing a foreclosure or loss of job. Maybe you lost something and you have looked everywhere. You had many people looking and helping you. It’s a personal item that would cost thousands of dollars to replace.
Well, I want to tell you my story of an hearing aid that I had on trial while I was on vacation in Minnesota. I lost this hearing aid that didn’t belong to me. I only had it for a month to see if it would improve my hearing in my right ear.
So I began the search for this lost hearing aid. I had people searching where I stayed. Every room and bathroom, every piece of luggage and clothing. The hearing aid was lost and I had to return it when I get home.
So I prayed and offered Masses. I prayed at every Mass in the prayers of the faithful. Many people prayed that I would find it. But I had faith in my prayers. I remembered in Mark’s gospel 11, Jesus said: “have faith when you pray and believe that whatever you ask for and believe, it will be given to you; it is yours”. So ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you”.
So on the day that I had to return the hearing aid; the postal carrier handed me the mail. There was one soft brown envelope with the return address of Resurrection Parish in Rochester. I knew before I opened the envelope that it contained my hearing aid. The cleaning lady found it in the bathroom that I used at the rectory. She had the good sense to take it to the office. I had alerted the office staff that I lost my hearing aid. So when the cleaning lady brought in this hearing aid; they knew that it was the one I had been looking for and praying to be found. So she send it to me just in time when I had to return it.
I can’t tell you how happy and full of joy and thanksgiving to Our Lady for finding that hearing aid and returning it to me just in the day I had to return it. It was a miracle. Everyone said it was a miracle that it was found. I am praying prayers of thanksgiving for this miracle given to me. I have always had great devotion to the Mother of God and the rosary. I felt that Our Lady would find that hearing aid and return it to me. She did.
I’m going back to Rochester to attend a Senior Priests luncheon and meeting. During that time I’m going to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. I’m going to give thanks to Our Lady for the great miracle she gave me in finding that hearing aid. It was through her intercession that I have the hearing aid that I could return to the doctor.
Our Lady loves everyone of us as her dear children. She wants the best for us and she knows what is best for us and gives it to us. So Faith and prayer make the difference. God answers all our prayers. Prayer changes a bad situation into something good. So I give you my story of a miracle done to me. You too should pray for Faith and devotion to the rosary. Our Lady will take care of you and answer all your needs.
Always remember to praise and give thanks for the graces we have received. Give thanks even before you receive what you ask for and it will be granted to you. Remember nothing is impossible with God. I found this out. I hope you can share my joy when you receive what you ask for in prayer.
Give thanks to the Lord for His Love is everlasting.
Aug. 15 2009, LITTLE TASTE OF HEAVEN
All of us are looking for ways to bring a little taste of heaven on earth. Heaven is the destination that awaits us all. Our Lady’s Assumption body and soul into heaven proves that we too body and spirit will rise again in the general resurrection as Mary was taken body and spirit into heaven at the end of her life.
St Paul taught that through Baptism, we are children of God and set free from the bondage of sin. Living in this we are still subject to sin and pain and suffering. One day however all this will be gone and on that day we will die and rise again with Jesus. All our wounds and scars will be gone. We will live with Jesus in our glorified bodies and we will never endure pain and suffering again.
Jesus showed us how we will look when He was transfigured before Peter, James and John on Mount Tabor when His face shone like the sun and His clothes became white as snow. This is what we will look like in our glorified bodies at the general resurrection. So heaven was Mary’s destination and that is ours as well.
However God has given us a glimpse of heaven even as we live on this earth. That takes place every time we celebrate Mass with the priest. We are in full communion with God and He shares His love and Presence with us at Holy Communion. Vatican II teaches that and Pope John Paul also taught that in His Apostolic letters.
However God went one step further. He sent His Mother to this earth to show us how we can share with all the saints and angels everlasting life in the Kingdom of heaven.
Mary appeared to St. Bernadette at Lourdes. She is the same woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and crown of twelve stars in the book of Revelation 12.
She is the same woman that appeared to the three children of Fatima.
She is the same woman that appeared to Juan Diego as Our Lady of Guadalupe as Our Lady of the America’s. “She said I am the perfect and perpetual Virgin Mother of the one true God."
Now the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in the United State and revealed her title as “Our Lady of America”. She appeared to a young nun--Sister Mary Ephrem. She was a sister of Precious Blood at Rome City, Indiana; and later entered the contemplative order of the Indwelling Trinity in Fostoria Ohio. Sister began to have mystical experience that continued until her death in 2000 at age 81.
Our Lady appeared to Sister Mildred with a white lily in her right hand, symbolizing her purity, clothed in white, wearing a gold crown. Her heart was encircled with red roses, the symbol of suffering and it sent flames of fire. She said I am Our Lady of America. I desire that my children honor me, especially by the purity of their lives.
Our Lady asked Sister to draw a picture of her first appearance and a statue be made according to this likeness and it be placed in the shrine after being solemnly carried in procession. She wishes to be honored as “Our Lady of America the Immaculate Virgin.”
Our Lady promised that the placement of the statue at the National Shrine would be a safeguard for our country and the placement of her image or statue in the home would be a safeguard for the family.
Our Lady promised that greater miracles than those granted at Lourdes and Fatima would be granted right here in the United States if the people responded to her requests.
The devotion to Our Lady of America is the only canonically approved devotion that is based upon the apparitions of Our Lady in the United States. Our Lady said to Sister Mildred:” Unless my children reform their lives, they will suffer great persecution. If man himself will not take upon himself to penance necessary at atone for his sins; and those of others; God in His justice will have to send upon him the punishment necessary to atone for his transgressions.”
The United States is to lead the world to peace, the peace of Christ, the peace that He brought down from heaven in His birth at Bethlehem
I urge you begin this devotion to Our Lady of America, by praying the rosary with the family and carry this image on you or have this statue in your home.
Sept 20, 2009, NUMBER ONE
What is the most radical commitment we must make as a Catholic Christian?
Jesus tells His disciples “if anyone wishes to be first, he shall be last of all, and the servant of all”.
That’s a tough commitment. If you want to be number one, the word is service.
That’s who we are. We are members of the Body of Christ. Christ is the head of the Body of Christ--the Church. Christ gave Himself as ransom for others.
Its easy for us to belong to a beautiful building where the parishioners are rich where the pastor can afford many comfortable and convenient programs and the pastor preaches love, mercy and forgiveness. Those teaching should be emphasized and promoted.
But there are also the hard teachings of Jesus that are difficult to preach. Talking about the issues the hot button issues that people are faced with. These are five non-negotiable issues that the Bishops state are part of the authentic teachings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
And then there is the teaching which states that if you want to number one; you have to be the servant of all. The Church would not exist today if there were not people who had been willing to give their all, even as gave Himself and suffered that terrible crucifixion on the cross.
That is who we are. It’s the key to being number one.
St Paul in Philippians said: “though he was in the form of God became man and took upon Himself the form of a servant. There Jesus was washing the feet of is disciples. That job was given to lowest servants before the meal. There was Jesus carrying His cross. Scripture says “cursed to one hangs on a tree”.
There was Jesus saying to Peter. “Feed my lambs, Feed my sheep”. That’s who we are.
I would like to tell you of a Navy Chaplain who followed Jesus and gave his life in the service of others. Maryknoll Father Vincent R. Capodanno. He died in Vietnam after displaying heroic bravery in the service of others.
Father Capodanno was in the field with 500 men of the lst. Battalion 5th Marine when they ran into 2500 North Vietnamese. The fighting was intense and the Marines took heavy casualties.
The Grunt Padre brought holiness to the battle field. The Chaplain was wounded twice but he refused evacuation. He said “I have work to do. The Navy medic recalled how he administered to the wounded and the dead. Although wounded himself, he used his left arm to support his right as he gave absolution or last rites.
Then a fellow Marine was felled by an automatic weapon’s fire, Father Capodanno ran out to him and positioned himself between the injured boy and the automatic weapon. The automatic weapon opened up again and riddled Father with bullets.
Father Capodanno was awarded the Medal of Honor and the escort ship USS Capodanno was named for him. Many other civic and religious honors are in his memory. His cause for canonization has begun.
There is the story of a mother who was pregnant. The doctor found cancer in your womb. To remove the cancer would mean the death of her baby. She chose to bring the pregnancy to term. The baby was born. But the mother died as the cancer spread. The mother gave her life so that her baby could live. Pope John Paul II declared her blessed for giving her life so that her baby could live.
When the disciples were arguing over which of them is the most important. Jesus stops them and tells them that the most important disciple is the one who act like the lowliest, most humble person.
Can you believe that! It is the servants job to take care of other people’s needs, to make others people’s lives easier. So the key to success is service.
That kind of radical commitment might be too much for us.
But we are the Body of Christ the Church. Jesus is the head of that Body the Church. He gave Himself as a ransom for others. So you want to be number one. The word is service.
Sept. 27, 2009, Power of Intercession
What is that great power that Jesus gave us when He suffered and died on the cross?
To answer that question I have to go back to the time of the Annunciation when the Archangel Gabriel was sent from heaven to ask a Jewish woman if she would be the mother of God.
The Archangel Gabriel said that she would conceive and bear a Son and His Name would be Jesus. He would save His people from their sins. He would be the Messiah that God promised after Adam and Eve had fallen into sin and heaven was closed.
Mary was surprised by the announcement. She asked how can I do this, I do not know man.
The Archangel Gabriel said that the Holy Spirit would come down upon her and the Son to be born would be the Son of God.
Mary’s response was, “behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done unto me according to the Lord”.
Then, the Archangel Gabriel said that nothing is impossible with God. That opened for us a new way to our relationship with God our Father. Jesus Christ is the Son of God and also the Son of Man. He now becomes the mediator between God and us.
Jesus is the Son of God and can reveal to us everything from the Father. Since Jesus is also the Son of Man, he can take all our needs and petitions and present them to the Father.
Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. The Father spoke only one Word--Jesus. Jesus is the Word of Life He has given to us through His Church--His Body.
We are members of His Body the Church by Baptism. So we share in all the Powers and Graces that Jesus merited for us by His death on the cross and resurrection.
There are seven channels of Grace that we can receive through the seven sacraments and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Yet, there is more. Jesus has given us His mother. Those where the last words He spoke from the cross before He died. Speaking to John He said: “son behold your mother; and turning to Mary He said “Woman, behold your son.”
So we have a mediatorix to the Father in Jesus. Mary can take our gifts and needs and give them to her Son; and He and He can give them to the Father.
In the 2nd chapter of St. John’s Gospel, he shows us in the marriage feast of Cana; how His mother came to her Son and said they have no wine. Jesus said to His mother. “what is that to you and me; my hour has not yet come”. But Mary believed that Jesus would do something; said to the stewards: “Do whatever He tells you”.
Sure enough; Jesus tells the stewards to fill those six waters pots with water. Then He tells them to take some to the chief steward to taste the water made into wine. He tasted it and said this is the best wine he has ever tasted.
This is the first miracle Jesus worked at the intercession of Mary the Mother of God.
Mary knows that we are in a war between the forces of good and evil--between the kingdom of darkness of the devil and the Kingdom of Light--Christ.
St. Paul tells us the we are not struggling against flesh and blood, but with the principalities and powers in this world of darkness.
Father Corapi gives us and image of Our Lady wearing combat boots. Mary know the forces of world, flesh and the devil can overwhelm us without the grace of God. Our own strength and power cannot compete with the forces off evil that we are being exposed to in life.
Our Lady of Fatima told the three children of Fatima we must use prayer especially the rosary to destroy the powers of evil. She showed Hell to the three children. She said many souls fall into Hell because there is no one to pray for them. She also stated God is offended with the fashions of dress and many souls go to Hell because of the sins of the flesh--sexual immorality.
I attended the Marian Conference at the Double Tree Motel in Scottsdale. One of the speakers at the conference was Father Stephen Scheier. He told how he was not living a good moral life as a priest.
Father was in an auto accident with a truck. He was critically injured and taken to emergency hospital. Father died and he described his meeting with Jesus Christ, the King and judge. Christ, the supreme judge, told Father Stephen that He was living such an immoral life as a priest that he could not go to heaven or purgatory but was going to Hell.
Our Lady heard Father being condemned to Hell. She pleaded with Christ her Son to give him to me. I will try to convert him. Christ never refuses anything His mother ask of him and told His mother; take him and see if you can convert him to living a good priestly life.
So Father Stephen was saved by the intercession of Mary, the Mother of God.
Father Stephen is here to today to describe his death experience. He was brought back to life through a great miracle of grace through the power of Our Lady, the Mother of God.
That’s the divine power of Mary the mother of God. She has divine power as the Queen Mother in heaven and earth.
Devotion to the Rosary is a powerful weapon against any habits of sin. Also wearing the scapular of Mount Carmel is a good sign of salvation.
I pray daily two rosaries and the divine chaplet of St. Faustina.
We are living in very troublesome times in our country. I ask you to pray the rosary every day. Pray for our President, the House and Senators. They are making decisions that will affect every one of us.
Father Perone, the director for Priests for Life, is schedulng 40-ays of prayer, fasting and penance and good works beginning Oct 1. Please join in those forty days to change the culture of death into a culture of life.
