August 2025 - Father Greg

Getting the Last Word

A homily for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

I was on a seminary board and one of the members said, we’re not in compliance. And I said, what does that mean? And he says, canon law says we should have one novitiate with one novice master, and we have one division with two novice masters, one from the New York province, one from the Chicago province. That’s not in compliance.

And so I thought for a while, you know, what we could say is we really have like two divisions, said one for New York Province, one for Chicago Province in the same building, we’ll call it co-institutional. And he looked at me and said, that’s so stupid. I hate being called stupid. I got, man. But I said, well, let’s refer it to Rome.

Let’s see what Rome says. And he says, okay, all right. So he wrote, because he’s afraid I would leave the letter. Rome wrote back like three months later and said, you can consider it constitutional. A New York province and its Chicago Province division in the same building. I was right, and so, of course, could I be a gracious winner?

No, not at all. I’d have the last word. So I said, hey, I’m right. Rome. You know how the Latin goes. Rome, Roma lucuta set, causa finita est Rome has spoken. The cause is done. And the guy said, Rome is wrong and you’re wrong. So there and so, I guess no cause of beneath us. No. You’re wrong. Then it became union.

Yes yes yes yes. No no no. It was ugly and stupid. Each of us had to have the last word. But silly. Well, today the gospel is about when you go to a wedding, take the least seat. That way, if you’re your bigger guest, they’ll take you to the front. Don’t take the front. They’ll push you to the back.

Who does that anymore? I think, but what we do do is the same thing. But with this last word, I going to add the last word. I’ve got to be right. I’m going to finish your sentences. It’s all about my opinion. I’m going to say it till you know, till everybody agrees. I think it’s the same thing. It’s a little bit different.

And that’s not the call to be right all the time. To get the last word to be number one. That’s what Jesus is after. Say to when we are misunderstood and judged unfavorably, what good does it do to defend or explain ourselves? It is so much better to say nothing and allow others to judge us as they please.

Boy, is that difficult. But I think that sums up today’s gospel. Boy, is it difficult because I really have trouble doing that myself. Boy, is that difficult. So difficult. I keep that quotation on my desk.

Radical Horizontality

A homily for the 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time

We know the names King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella because they sent Columbus to America. But what they’d also done is they conquered the Muslims, drove them out of Spain, reunite reuniting the kingdom, and told all the remaining Muslims and Jews become Catholic or, leave. And they instituted purity of blood law that you had to show you didn’t have any Jewish ancestry, Muslim ancestry, to work in the government to be an aristocrat, to become a religious, to become a priest, anything you had to prove purity of bloodline.

It was a very vertical law. Judging you are not worthy because you don’t have pure blood. Here comes Teresa of Avila, founding these new convents of hers. And she. Everyone was welcome. It didn’t matter what their ancestry was. Indigenous from the Americas. Welcome, former Muslims. Welcome people of Jewish blood. Welcome. And you get a lot of trouble. He said there’s a purity of blood law.

She said it doesn’t matter. All are welcome here. She took this vertical law, that was too vertical. And because she was radically horizontal. And I think that’s what today’s gospel is about, being radically horizontal. And Jesus says, try to come in through the narrow key or take the narrow road. Teresa of Avila says, “I don’t see how, Lord, nor do I know how the road that leads to you is narrow.” Because she could see that there are people in all directions who want to be part of the community, want to be united, want to love one another.

Radical horizontality. And that’s why Jesus will say, you will be surprised if you’re rejected. Because if you see the world vertically and of course, positioning yourself, then at the top of the heap superior to all of them. That’s not what Jesus is here for. He says people will come from the east, west, north and south, horizontal directions not coming from the kingdom to the mountaintops, from the summits, from the sky.

No, from the east, west, north. To the banquet. I think that’s the key. That’s why Teresa of Avila cannot see how that’s a narrow road, because that’s how she saw everything. And that’s the call for us to see everything. Not judging, not superior, them inferior, but horizontal. Brothers and sisters. All.

When You Can’t Let it Go

A homily for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Father Roy tells the story that when he was a new priest. So this is a few years ago, because Father Roy has been 60 years a priest. When he was a new priest, an older priest then in the house was dying. So they were taking turns through the night so the priest wouldn’t die alone. And it was Father Roy’s turn.

So he’s in the easy chair, and he falls asleep. And he wakes up because the guy is calling out to him. And. But the guy is, you know, asks for something, but Roy can’t understand. So he leans. What do you want, father? Another blanket? No, no, no. I fluff up your pillow. No no no. Something to eat?. No, no no.

No water? No. And then the priest, reaches, behind him. Points behind his. Under his pillow. So, Roy reaches under there and there’s a checkbook, and he hands the checkbook to this priest. And the priest takes the checkbook and is holding it like this, and he’s holding the checkbook and dies with it in his hand. And, I’m thinking that’s a terrible story.

But in many ways, we’re all that priest. There’s something that isn’t what we should be holding on to, that we hold on to old grudges or old vanities, or old memories or old hurts or things that that the Lord is constantly saying, let go, let those go, and we don’t want to. We’re going to clutch on to them. It could be our accomplishments, our degrees, our family, all sorts of things that we think are us, and we’re going to hold on to it.

Saint Teresa of Avila says, “Lord, I do not think I can give you everything that you ask.” Even the great Saint Teresa can’t give up everything. She has her checkbook, so she has a checkbook. You have a checkbook. But she is a great saint, she continues the prayer, “but I will allow you to take it.” That is sanctity. That we can’t give up everything. There’s something that’s just too dear to us could be for the positive or the negative. But ask the Lord to take it. In today’s gospel, Jesus says, where your treasure is, there your heart will be. I think that’s the call. Give the Lord all of your treasures. Give the Lord all your words, whatever it is that keeps you from fullness of life and living, and the fullness of this gift, and give that to the Lord. And then the Lord will have your heart. Lord, I do not think I can give you everything that you ask, but I will allow you to take it. Tough prayer, but I think we can do it.