July 2025 - Father Greg

You Get What You Expect

A Homily for the 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time

I was driven to the brand new diocesan retreat center. And as we get up there, there’s no one around but just some dogs. So you step out of the car and the driver says, oh those are mean guard dogs. I’m petting these dogs and they’re wagging their tails. And I said, no, they’re friendly dogs. They’re pussycat dogs. Come on out of the car.

He opens his door and the dogs run around the car. He slams the door. He said, I told you. So I took the dogs, put them in the chapel and closed the door. So he could get out of the car. Those two? I was expecting friendly dogs. The dogs gave me friendly dogs. He was expecting mean guard dogs. The dogs gave him mean guard dogs.

I think that’s how life works. And that’s how we work with one another. When I was a schoolteacher. I always expected my students to do great work and great job and get good grades. And you know, they never disappointed me. They always rose to it. I expected good. They gave me good.

And so we extend this to today’s gospel of Jesus. Just knock. It will be opened ask you’ll be given. It’ll be abundant. If dogs deliver. If people deliver, I think God delivers. Just expect God, the universe, creation, everything to deliver. And it will deliver. The door will be opened. The, requests will not be denied. They’ll be answered.

The fullness will be given. It’s the whole universe. From dogs to people and students to God himself, gives what you expect, Saint Teresa of Avila says, “never cease to believe that even in this life, God gives the hundredfold.” That’s what today’s gospel is all about.

Martha and Mary Must Combine

A homily for the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Last Thursday, we celebrated a memorial. The Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne. Compiegne is a cloister in northern France, and during the French Revolution, they were ordered to disband. And they did. They came to Paris, but they formed a community in Paris, and they were found out still living religious life. So they were arrested and ordered executed. And if executions back then were like a big social events where people selling food and jugglers and all sorts of things, people loved executions.

And in come the martyrs. These nuns. And the crowd got silent. What’s going on? Are we executing nuns now? And it’s just was dramatic. They started to sing the song. And as each one was guillotined, there was one less voice until finally the Mother Superior was guillotined and she was killed mid-line. The crowd went home in silence.

And that was the end of the Reign of Terror after the French Revolution. People said, have we come to this? What are we doing? We’re killing nuns now? And they just thought the whole thing out. And I think that’s what we have to do. That’s always the call, is to think our actions out. And is this is really what we want to be doing? To give it deep thought, deep prayer.

In today’s gospel, we have Martha and Mary. Traditionally, they’ve been, seen as Martha is the active one. She’s the one doing ministry. She’s serving Jesus food, and Mary is the contemplative one. She’s sitting at his feet and they’re kind of, Mary is a little upset. And so Jesus says, oh, Mary’s chosen the better part. And oftentimes that’s traditionally said the contemplative life is superior to the active life.

But Teresa of Avila says, no, that actually it’s both. Both have to be operative because we do so much on autopilot or so much without thought. We have to bring our actions into contemplation and contemplation. Then into action. It’s this dynamic going back and forth. And so she looks at this story of Martha, and Mary and says, “To give our Lord perfect hospitality, Martha and Mary must combine.” I think that’s what was happening with that crowd when they said, what are we doing? They thought it out, they prayed it out and they changed. I think that’s the call of today’s gospel. We have to be both contemplative and active. Not one, not the other. Both to give the Lord perfect hospitality, but to give ourselves a good and rich and wonderful life, to give our Lord a perfect hospitality, Martha and Mary must combine.

Bridesmaids, Please Sit Down!

A homily for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

It was the Friday and Father Ron retired to the parish, said to me, can you do tonight’s rehearsal? I got a wedding tomorrow. Rehearsal tonight. I don’t have the energy for it. I said, sure, I’ll do it. Well, it turned out it was a little chaotic. Get them all seated for a 6:00 rehearsal and the doors of the church open, and they all jump up.

Bridesmaids, bride and groom to greet. Uncle Fred let’s say. Because they had invited everybody to the rehearsal. I get them seated again. I get on the microphone. Please sit down. They ignored me, I had to go back there, bring them back. Sit them about to start the rehearsal a second time. The doors of the church open aunt Mabel, and they all go running back. There to greet and, please sit down. Bridesmaids sit down. They ignored me, I had to go back there, bring them to the front, about to start the rehearsal. It happens a third time and I’m getting married. And I said I can’t get married because all theyll remember is the Priest got mad. So I’m thinking, what can I do? And I said, I have to reprogram myself.

What I think I did was I, allocated an hour and a half for the rehearsal. That’s what it normally takes. I’m going to give these people to 10 p.m., and if they’re still not rehearsing, then I’ll get mad because that’s four hours instead of an hour and a half. Well, we got the rehearsal done and before 10 p.m., but I realized then it’s not out there that anxiety comes from. It’s not out there that anger, it’s in here or it’s in here. And by Reprograming, everything worked up because as soon as I said till 10 p.m., peace fell upon me, calm washed over me. Today in the gospel, Jesus sent out the 72 and he tells them, when you enter some place, say, peace upon this household. He’s sending them out on a peace mission, but he’s telling them how to do this.

Don’t take all this extra stuff you’re going to worry about. Don’t take food. Don’t take knapsack. Don’t take staff. Don’t take extra sandals. Just go. Don’t worry about that stuff. And then if they’re not peaceable people, they’re just leave. Don’t worry about them. He’s teaching them how to be at peace themselves. So that they then can bestow peace upon these households in this peace mission of today’s gospel.

St. Teresa of Avila says, and it’s her her grasp of peace, “for a soul surrendered into God’s hands doesn’t care whether they say good or evil about it”. That’s the key of today’s gospel. Surrender yourself. Surrender all that stuff you worry about. Surrender what your people are going to say about you, or think about you or laugh at you. Surrender that all into God’s hands and then you won’t care. You will be at peace. That’s the call of today’s gospel.