September 2025 - Father Greg

Gotta Bridge the Gap

A homily for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

When the Carmelites first came to the United States, they settled in Kansas of all places, because there was a big German speaking community, and they took new vocations. But the new vocations were Americans. A lot of them were like Irish American, and they spoke a different language, English is a different food. They had different customs, they had different mannerisms.

And the Germans were starting to get outvoted, outnumbered. So one night all the Germans left the community, taking the sacristy, taking the money box, taking the library, and they just disappear, leaving all the English speakers to wake up in the morning. Where did everybody go? Where is everything? And the Germans settled in Texas. Where there was a German speaking community, last for quite a few years.

But then all of a sudden a big drought and Texas had everyone left, leaving the Carmelites there. They had nothing to do, no flock anymore. They came back to Kansas, of all things, ironically. You know, to bother heads and return. Some of them wouldn’t. And they went to Vienna, some of them because they spoke German and founded the Carmelite house in Vienna.

And I mentioned this because it’s that disparity, you know, when there’s a difference, when people get outvoted or outnumbered or outclassed or outgunned or outspent, and then there’s disparity and then there’s unhappiness and I think we see that in today’s gospel where we have Lazarus, who’s poor, the dogs are licking his wounds. He lives in the street.

And then we have the rich man in this parable who doesn’t even see that Lazarus is there. And when they both die, that gulf continues and gap continues. And the rich man still doesn’t even see Lazarus. Just orders Abraham to tell Lazarus, bring me some water. And I think that we have to keep that in mind always. That when there’s a difference, when things start to move more and more and more and more and more and more vertical, it gets out of hand.

People are unhappy. Reform is due. In St. Teresa’s time she became a nun in a convent called incarnation, where noble women could have, be nuns, but bring their servants, bring their food, and poor ones lived like in a closet. And so when she reformed, she said, no, all will be equal. And her famous line is, “in this house, all are friends, all are load, all are helped, all our held dear”.

She’s taking this great vertical situation in incarnate Incarnation convent and making it horizontal. And I think that’s the warning of today’s gospel. And I think it’s the warning of today’s society where the rich get richer and richer. I hear Microsoft is hiring some new employees at $100 million a year. It’s like the rich man. And where are, are we the Lazarus. We’ve got to be careful because this is where things start to fall apart. Just like in today’s parable, we’ve always got to to be working to keep things horizontal. I think Teresa of Avila taught that. I think that’s what Jesus is preaching about, that in this house, all are friends, all are loved, all are helped, all are held dear.

Let’s hope that is always the case.

Only Pockets

A homily for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Got a message through Facebook. When I opened it, it said “your page is in violation of Facebook’s standards and will be deleted unless you click here”. So I clicked here and it took me to a site and log in to your Facebook page. And I realized, oh, it’s a phishing expedition. It’s a scam. But boy was it well crafted.

Beautiful logo, Facebook logo, everything. And I admired it. Even though it was nefarious. I admired it because it was so well crafted. And this is what I think is going on in today’s gospel. In this parable of the man, you’re about to be fired. So he takes, invoices to the creditors and changes the number so people are indebted to him and will take him into their houses.

And Jesus says, you got to admire the crafty manager. You got to admire him. But don’t be like him because his life is just way too narrow. There’s an Italian saying A pickpocket only sees pockets, and that’s true. But life is more than pocket. You can put together a great crafty way of finding pockets. That could be admirable, but the invitation for life is not just more pockets, more money, more something narrow.

Jesus is inviting us to life and fullness of life and love and deep relationship and a relationship with God and redemption. This is the invitation, not pockets. And that’s what I think Teresa of Avila say when she says

“There are more tears shed over answered prayers than unanswered prayers”, because oftentimes our prayers are like, I want bigger pockets, more pockets. I want more money. I want more attention. I want more tiny stuff that I think will make me happy. And it doesn’t. And Jesus wants us to be praying for life and relationships and love and big hearts, and not to settle on pockets.

So when our prayer is pocket, yeah, we’re going to cry over it when we realize how narrow that is. Today’s gospel is don’t settle on narrow. Don’t settle on small. Don’t settle on beauty. Don’t settle on pockets. Because you’ve been invited to the immensity.

Move there.

To Build a Tower, Build a Tower

A homily for the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

When I was a seminarian they constantly talked about the spirituality of priesthood and the spirituality of priesthood. Yeah, spirituality is like Christian spirituality. Human spirituality. There is no spirituality, no priesthood. Until I was ordained as a priest. Then, wow. There is a spirituality of priesthood. And I found it was because every day I had to ponder the scriptures.

What am I going to say that day? Preach that day. Every day I celebrate the sacraments and sacraments. Are these powerful like deep, intuitive of ceremonies that have lots of power. And so it was powerful spirituality. And I said, it’s based on the practice to do the spirituality. Priesthood means to do the work of priest. And the more you do the work of priest, the deeper the spirituality.

And I extended that then to other other vocations like the vocation of marriage. I think the spirituality of marriage is doing the work of being married, saying, I love you. Let’s dialog about this. I forgive you just to kiss the person just to day by day, just like pure spirituality. The priesthood is everyday practice. Being a priest every day.

Practice being a spouse and it will change you. And so that’s what I think Jesus is getting at with his. You have to to be his follower. You have to turn your back on brother, sister, house mother, you know, etc. etc. it’s because these things can keep us from the practice of being good, holy Christians, good, holy people, good, holy transform from human beings to humane beings, transformed to being Christian beings.

And then the second part of today’s gospel is about what, builder would build and then run out of materials, or what army came, would go against that army that’s superior. I will extend his metaphors to say you learn by doing. You learn how to build towers, by building towers, you learn how to be a soldier by being a soldier.

And I think you learn how to be human by being human. And you learn how to be Christian by being Christian. I think that’s the bottom line of today’s gospel is day by day, be mindful and determined to be a priest, or to be a spouse, or to be a Christian, and that will change you deeply.