The Last Sermon

I would like to share my last sermon (this is more of a sermon than a homily, even though it refers back to the Mass readings a bit) that I delivered on June 29-30, 2013 at the Church of Saint Pius X in White Bear Lake, MN.  (If you are going to one of my Masses this weekend, don't read this yet!)  This makes me think that there should be "Last Sermon" series in parishes and churches.  It's longer than my usual homilies, but I think people will be patient with me.  Enjoy!

The Last Sermon

June 29, 2013 Feast of Saints Peter and Paul

and June 30, 2013 for 13^th Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle C

On September 18, 2007, a computer science professor was dying of pancreatic cancer.  So at Carnegie Mellon University, Randy Pausch delivered what has been called and published The Last Lecture. This is a common title for talks on college campuses, a “Last Lecture Series,” in which top professors are asked to think deeply about what matters to them and give hypothetical final talks.

In a way, this homily today can be considered my “Last Homily or Sermon.”  This isn’t exactly accurate, because I will keep preaching at parishes and I’m not dying yet.  But I am leaving the parish priesthood, and I am dying to self and to the world as I enter a monastery.  As a side thought, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for priests to give a “Last Sermon Series,” considering the question, “What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance?”

Now this is a strange weekend.  On Saturday, we celebrate the Feasts of Saints Peter and Paul, including at the 5 pm Mass (a solemnity in our archdiocese, one that overrides the Sunday Mass) and on Sunday, we have specific readings for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time.  But I’m not going to compose two different homilies!  Yet both days speak profoundly to what I would like to preach on. 

The context of the Sunday readings is all about following the Lord without looking back!  No excuses are to be given to even delay in following the Lord!  We are called to burn bridges and to go forward without regrets!  Is the Lord worth it?  Certainly He is, but it is clearly difficult.  And the Lord doesn’t comfort us in it, for all He says is, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.”  What he is making unmistakably clear is that nothing—not even the most sacred values of the world—is more important than doing God’s will and living according to the plan He has for us.    We seem to have forgotten this these days, as we redefine marriage and society according to our plans and not according to God’s. 

And not just society in general but also our brothers and sisters who consider themselves good Catholics but think the Church is behind the times and needs to “get with it.”  As I’ve said before, I think the world is behind the times and needs to “get with it,” to get with the program, the plan that God has for us.  At times I have had the opportunity to challenge such Catholics.  The usual response, unfortunately, is anger.  “Father, how dare you call me a bad Catholic!”  Well, I want to say, if the shoe fits ... in other words, let’s not be hypocrites here.  My challenge to you is to become a better Catholic, better aligned with the will of Christ and the heart and the mind of the Church.  Remember, this is the Church that Christ founded and this is the Church that gave you the Bible.  This is the Church that has been around for 2000 years and gives you the Body and Blood of Christ.  This is the Church in which Jesus appointed St Peter to be the first pope and we’ve had 265 after him to Pope Francis.  The keys of the Kingdom of heaven are given to him and to his successors.  This is the Church in which St. Paul converted, a sinner transformed to become an apostle.  Yes, this Church is filled with weak and sinful people, especially the priests and bishops, but despite them (me) the Holy Spirit still works and works well through this Church. 

So first of all, trust this Church.  Trust what she teaches, especially with respect to marriage and family life.  Blessed John Cardinal Newman wrote:

Trust the Church of God implicitly

even when your natural judgment would take a different course from hers

and would induce you to question her prudence or correctness.

Recollect what a hard task she has;

how she is sure to be criticized and spoken against, whatever she does;

recollect how much she needs your loyal and tender devotion;

recollect, too, how long is the experience gained over so many centuries,

and what a right she has to claim your assent

to principles which have had so extended and triumphant a trial.

Thank her that she has kept the faith safe for so many generations

and do your part in helping her to transmit it to generations after you.

This is the Church that brought this former Hindu pagan to become Catholic, and to become a Catholic priest, and now, possibly, to become a Catholic priest monk!  I love this Church, and I pray you will too. 

Second, the best way to stay close to this Church is to stay close to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.  We live in a crazy mixed-up world, as is so abundantly clear.  There is an oft-quoted statement that “those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.”  It is actually a foolish statement today because we live in times that we have never seen: the loss of a sense of the Divine in society and culture today; the ignorance of God and His ways with respect to a new humanism; science made in our image to conform to our selfish desires rather than seeing the truth of things; a hyperpluralism of thoughts, ideas, and opinions yelled loudly—all these things are new, never before seen in the history of the world.  How do we stay sane during these times?  Stay close to the Eucharist and to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  This is why I moved the tabernacle, because Christ absolutely needs to be at the center of our lives and our Church.  Even a slight deviation to over there (point to the side of the church) is a sign that things are wrong.  Jesus must be our focus, and you will find His Blessed Mother standing alongside us looking at Him.  She can help us by pointing the way to her Son.  It is only because of the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, (and the prayers of monks and nuns) that has kept the Church from going off the deep end these last 2000 years.  And the Eucharist will see us through the next 2000 years, as long as we don’t let Him go in this great and noble sacrament!

Third, a message I have preached for years, to surrender all things to Divine Providence, during the good, the bad, and the ugly times.  I’ve experienced all three, and I know you have too.  When you are most tempted to leave the Lord, don’t.  He loves you and will see you through the dark times.  Today’s second reading: Galatians: “For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery ... Do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.”  If you live by the flesh, you are no longer free.  The only true freedom comes in staying close to the Lord in all things, to live in the power of His spirit.  Keep your hand to the plow in prayer.  And don’t look back!

Well, maybe I will, just a little bit, to make sure all of you are doing what I taught you.

The Eucharist as a Strange Notion

The Eucharist as a Strange Notion

Father Jay Kythe

This is the article format of a homily I gave for the Feast of Corpus Christi on the weekend of June 1-2, 2013 at the Church of Saint Pius X, White Bear Lake, MN.  So may people have asked me for it, so I post it here.

Have you ever considered how strange our Catholic faith is?  Take, for instance, the Crucifix.  It is an image of an execution.  If you walked into my office and saw a photograph of someone being electrocuted in an electric chair, beheaded in all its gore, or hung from a noose, you would think there is something seriously wrong with my mental health and perhaps I should not be functioning as a priest.  Yet, no one says anything about a crucifix or makes a judgment about the person who owns the crucifix.  As for myself, I like to collect crucifixes; five of them hang over my bed.  People buy crucifixes, call them beautiful or pretty, with an image of a dead body on it and all, and they ask me to bless it!  Strange!

Our faith is filled with strange notions!

We believe in one God but three persons in this one God.  Strange!  We even go so far as to say that one of these three persons chose to become human, chose to be born of a woman.  And not just any woman, but a virgin, who still remains a virgin before, during, and after this birth of this God!  This God is born, cries, burps, poops, laughs, teaches, heals, does everything that man does—except for sin—and even—now this gets weird—even dies!  Dies on a cross!  And we put crucifixes on display on our walls and around our necks! 

All right, I can accept all that.  I can even accept the claim that this person who died on the Cross rises from the dead.  I mean, He’s God, isn’t He?  Seriously, if He weren’t, there would be no resurrection.  Man can’t rise from the dead on his own power.  But there is something more, something I think is even stranger to accept.  Stranger than all the things I’ve mentioned.  Something we live with every day and don’t give it a second thought.  Or if we do, we end up becoming more fervent in our faith or rejecting this strange notion and the Catholic faith entirely.  Not because it doesn’t make any sense—believe me, it doesn’t—but because if we really, truly believed it, we would have to change our lives!

Here it is: We believe that bread and wine to change into the Body and Blood of Christ!  Now that’s really, really strange.  Bread and wine change into the Body and Blood of Christ but still looks like bread and looks like wine?  Really?  Its stranger than having crucifixes on the walls, stranger than virgins giving birth to God, stranger than, well, anything!

I mean, if you really believed in something this strange, you wouldn’t be yawning at Mass and considering it boring, would you?  You’ll be on your knees and praying fervently at every Mass!  Your faith would be a sure and solid rock in your life.  (Or you may want to be become a monk!  Now that’s pretty strange too!)  Churches would be packed to overflowing, and Father would have to add 20 more Masses per weekend. 

You’d have to trust this Church that teaches this, believe in this teaching and everything else she teaches.  I mean, if she got this wrong, what else could be wrong?  If the Eucharist is not the Body and Blood of Christ but just cardboard tasting bread and sweet wine, then we should throw out the Bible.  For that’s where this strange notion begins, from all the places in three of the Gospels in which Jesus takes bread and says, “Take this and eat it, for this is my body,” and takes wine and says, “Take this and drink of it, for this is the chalice of my blood.”  Then there is that powerful chapter of John 6, in which Jesus repeats several times—lest there be any doubts—that  “unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.”  And St. Paul speaks about eating the Body and drinking the Blood in worthy manner.   Seriously, if the Church is wrong about this, we really need to throw the Bible in the trash.

What else should we get rid of?  Perhaps marriage shouldn’t be restricted to just one man and one woman.  Maybe priests should be allowed to marry.  And maybe Communion should be given to anyone who wants it, not just Catholics. 

The doctrine of the Eucharist is at the very center of the Catholic faith, isn’t it?  If it’s not true, then everyone can believe whatever he or she wants and do whatever he or she wants. 

Believing in the Eucharist is not only strange but also dangerous.  For a demand is made in our lives to conform our lives to Christ, to change our lives and get rid of sin. This is the reason why people leave the faith or don’t become fervent Catholics to begin with.  We would actually have to change our lives!  I would actually have to trust Christ and the Church more!  By receiving Holy Communion, I would have to trust the Church and believe in everything she teaches (this is the reason why those who are not in communion with this Church generally should not be receiving Holy Communion in this Church).  I would have to realize that I am actually in communion with all those who share in this Holy Communion, even people I don’t like.  Finally, I would have to trust that when I receive Holy Communion, I am being changed into Christ. 

If you think it a strange notion that bread and wine change into the Body and Blood of Christ, then here’s something equally strange: mere human beings are being changed into the Real Presence of Christ in the world.  As the old saying goes, “You are what you eat.”  God needs people to bring Christ into the world. And as unworthy as I am, He chooses me.  He chooses you.  He chooses us to receive Him in Holy Communion and bring Jesus into the world out there by transforming us into—as I told the First Communion students this year—“little Jesuses!”

So am I willing to believe?  If I am, then am I willing to change my life so it doesn’t contradict with this belief?  It is not good to be a hypocrite.  It is better to be hot or cold, a fervent Catholic or one who doesn’t go to Church; God doesn’t like lukewarm people.  Either all of this is true or its not.  There’s no middle ground. 

What will you choose?  What impact will you allow it to happen on your life? 

On Becoming a Monk

This article will be published in the St Pius X newsletter in the next week or so.  I'll post an "early edition" of it here!

On Becoming a Monk

Father Jay Kythe

            I don’t know about you, but I am struck by the strangeness of this news!  I suspect all of you are as well.  Come on, how often do you hear about someone—anyone—becoming a monk, especially your parish priest?  And here I am, struck by what a strange thing this is!

            Parish priests live in the world.  All faithful Christians live in the world but are not of the world.  They are “new creations” by virtue of their baptism.  Parish priests especially must be witnesses of being this “new creation,” of being citizens of the Kingdom of God, of sojourners towards an Eternity that awaits us.  But frankly, this is pretty hard to do.  I realized this when I really, really, really wanted an iPhone.  How much more worldly can you get?  Yes, my iPhone has cool Catholic apps.  I can do my prayers on it, and I can listen to Relevant Radio any time of the day or night.  I have Catholic podcasts alongside apps that give uplifting daily messages.  But I also have two Star Trek tricorder and one communicator apps, an Amazon.com app, four weather apps, and ... how much more worldly can you get?

            There are times I set down my iPhone and gaze off into space, longing for that life of peaceful surrender to the Lord.  I felt called to religious orders before coming to Minnesota, but my route led me to ordination and serving in the archdiocese.  I chose to belong to the Companions of Christ and live a common life of prayer and fellowship with others.  But I was still in the world a bit too much for my taste.  One day I heard about a diocesan priest entering the Trappists, and I thought, “Could I do that?”  Having visited this community of Benedictines in Atchison, Kansas, I decided to get back in touch with them. 

Years of prayer, visits, and conversations went by, and then the archbishop gave me permission to spend six weeks down there, during a hot Kansas summer!  Remember, I hate the heat and I hate sweating.  I’m from New Orleans, right?  You’d think that New Orleanians are used to the heat, but alas, no.  They are used to air conditioning.  So here I was, outside the mildly air conditioned monastery, picking corn, beans and tomatoes and trimming tree branches and doing many other things to torment me in the heat, sweat pouring down like sheets.  As if that wasn’t the worst thing, there were mosquitoes, one of God’s creatures (what was He thinking?) that absolutely adore me.  I mean it, they LOVE me!  They give me kisses all over my sweaty body, so much so I have to cover myself in that special cologne that has DEET in it. 

            But I loved being there!  I’m not crazy about manual labor under the hot sun, but I wanted to stay!  Leaving that place was difficult, and it would be two more years before the archbishop would grant me permission to return, to test out this possible vocation.

            And now I stare at my iPhone and think, I have to give this up.  I have to give up many things, like my car, the blankets and quits beloved parishioners gave me, the 15 or so sweaters I have (I only need one or two), all the knick-knacks that I’ve accumulated over the years, etc.  The monks did tell me that I can bring my books, because “when you die, we’ll have them!” (And the monk who told me that laughed mischievously!)  Now, my life is pretty simple anyway.  Compared to many people, I really don’t have that much stuff.  When I moved last time, all my volunteers noticed that.  You would think that giving up some of these things would be pretty easy.  No one told me about how possessions can possess you!  There is a sentimental connection to things that I have to give up too. 

            Furthermore, giving up things only reminds me that I must give up my will.  For eight years I have been a pastor, in charge of things and making decisions for the good of the parish.   Now I will be the “low man on the totem pole.”  I will receive the decisions that others have made for me.  The first year-and-a-half will be the hardest.  After that I shall become (God willing) a junior monk and given an assignment in which I can utilize my gifts and talents.  And then three years later, I will have to discern and decide whether or not to make this life a permanent one.  I will either return back to the archdiocese or stay there for good.

            The question that should arise is “Why?”  Why do something like this?  Why give up things that have a sentimental meaning or things that I enjoy?  Why restrict my life in this way?  Why give up my freedoms?

            Because I want to separate myself from the world a bit more and gaze towards Heaven.  Jesus tells us that the way to heaven is through the narrow gate.  Or as St Thomas More said, “You can’t get to heaven on a feather bed.”  Believe me, I want to get to heaven, but I want my “feather bed” (actually, it’s a cool full size Serta mattress and a captain’s bed with an awesome headboard that has bookshelves and cabinets ... but I gotta give that up too!). 

As I meditated on this, I had an imaginative vision of jogging to heaven.  There was a fork in the road.  One way was tough and rocky, filled with thorns and narrow.  The other way was gentle and wide, with chirping birds and sunlight and flowers.  Knowing that the former way was the right one (for the Cross was on the horizon), I began going down that path.  Along the way, I would smile and ask the angels and the saints if this was the right way.  They told me yes.  “Is Jesus down there?” I would ask, and they would say yes.  “Will I see my mom?” and they would answer yes.  But that road isn’t the one most people of the world would pick; they would pick the other one.  For this road to Heaven involves a total surrender of your will to God.  That’s why it’s a hard, difficult one.

            God created us in His image and likeness, and often we recreate Him in our image and likeness.  We follow the God of our own making.  But when we conform ourselves to the reality of who God is and what He has done for us, we must also follow Him as He has revealed Himself through the centuries.  That means, we must follow Him through the Church He established.  This is the path trod by the saints, and there are thorns and rocks along this narrow way.  Their one true love’s choice is Jesus Christ, and their destiny is Heaven.

            So why should I give up this blanket, and this car, and this iPhone, and ... ?  Because I want Jesus.  Jesus is worth it.  The Kingdom of Heaven is worth it.  For me, this means walking down this strange path that God has shown me, a path not meant for everyone, for God has an individualized path towards Heaven for everyone else.  And every time one goes on a particular path, one needs to ask trusted people whether or not this is the right one.  Most of all one needs to ask God.  He will draw us towards Himself with the fruits of the Holy Spirit. 

            People in the world say that the Church is behind the times and needs to “get with it.”  Rather, I think the world is really behind the times, God’s time, and needs to get with it!  At the end of our life, God will ask us a very important question: smoking or non-smoking?  “Do you want to be with me in Heaven for all Eternity, or not?”  We make the choice in the here and now, and we embark on the path towards ... the smoking section or the non-smoking section.  Which will it be for you?