Fides ex Auditu

The most recent installment of the Star Wars saga turns around Obi-Wan Kenobi’s startling realization that his padawan apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, who he thought he had left for dead, in fact, lives in the ruthless and fearsome Sith lord Darth Vader. Obi-Wan must now contend with the fact that his own student, whom he once loved as a brother, has utterly rejected his master’s teaching and has instead fully embraced the dark side of the Force to advance his reign of terror in the galaxy.  If we can take the premise of Obi-Wan as an analogy of the Christian life, we would find that the startling realization on which our lives turn goes in the opposite direction. We are not one and the same as Anakin Skywalker, although we do share with him a divided heart. As we recognize our own failure to adhere to the teaches of Christ our Master in preference of our pride, we look at ourselves in the mirror and ask, “What have I become?” Our sin and its destructive force with which it wreaks ha...

For the past week, I was on vacation with a group of young adults in the mountains of western Colorado. Among the 15 of us were four priests, a seminarian, several married couples, at least one person discerning religious life, and a handful of single people. We spent the days hiking and biking and the evenings cooking, telling stories, singing songs, and of course, lifting our hearts and voices to the Lord in praise.  As we started out on one of our hikes, I asked a couple of the people in the group what they thought I should preach about this Sunday, on the Solemnity of the Lord’s Body and Blood. The conversation lasted several miles and left me with much to think about. In fact, it was so insightful that I titled that hike on Strava as “Afternoon Homily Writing.”  As we talked about the Eucharist, we kept coming back to the question, “Why does the Eucharist matter?” Obviously, we believe that it does, but we were searching for the right way of expressing why it matters for ...

Fifty days ago, the Light of Christ, in the single flame of the Paschal Candle taken from the Easter Fire pierced the darkness of this church at the beginning of the great Vigil of the Lord’s Resurrection. In the Easter days since, the same Light of Christ has continued to burn before us in this Candle, and we have basked in the warmth of its rays as the most sacred mysteries of our Christian faith have been renewed. But now, on this day, when the time for Pentecost has been fulfilled, the Light from this Candle no longer remains at a distance, but it leaps down upon us in tongues of flame to burn us, to consume us, and to make us into people of fire to carry this Light of Christ from this holy place to pierce the darkness of a broken world. Reflecting on who she is in the light of God, Saint Catherine of Siena once prayed, “In your nature, eternal Godhead, I shall come to know my nature. And what is my nature, boundless love? It is fire, because you are nothing but a fire of love. And...