June 15, 2025 at Saint Peter & Saint William Churches in Naples, FL

Proverbs 8: 22-31 + Psalm 8 + Romans 5: 1-5 + John 16: 12-15

One week ago, we celebrated the moment when we were brought to life. We called it, Pentecost. As the creation story in the First Book of Scriptures tells us, the very breath of God awakened that first man and but left him with no identity. None of us have any identity until we are connected in a relationship. Without a mother and father, we are nameless. We are nothing. God saw this, and God created all sorts of other things, but plants and animals to name still did not give that one creature a name and make a real person. God’s solution was Eve, and in that relationship an identity was born, and with that, life began. Realizing and acknowledging the essential importance of relationship for life and identity is what can lead us into the Divine presence revealed to us as three persons. So, here we are one week after Pentecost invited to reflect upon the identity of God in the Trinity.

The four verses of John’s Gospel we have just proclaimed are the beginning of the final words of Jesus the night before he died. He speaks of the relationship he has with the Father and of the Spirit that springs from that relationship. To encourage and comfort those at the table with him, and give them hope to see through what is to come, he speaks of that Spirit, his Spirit, the Spirit of the Father that called life into the womb of a virgin in Nazareth.

He tells us that this Spirit will come to judge, convict, and correct an unbelieving world and expose the deep-seated causes of human pain, suffering, and death. That Spirit will open our eyes to see what causes the suffering of this world, and that Spirit will bring comfort to the suffering and courage to those ready to challenge those causes. Too much of our formation in faith is centered on Jesus, leaving us not quite focused and responsive to what he has left us in his absence.

The story we told last week about the moment of Pentecost can easily lead us to miss the real work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Expecting a mighty wind and tongues of fire, or an earthquake-like awakening is dangerous leading us to miss the Spirit’s real work. In our American English, that word “advocate” does not exactly describe how Jesus tells us the Spirit will work. In other English-speaking cultures, an “advocate” is a defense attorney – someone who stands beside someone in need. As a “Comforter” the Spirit comes alongside all who suffer, face crises, experience persecution or discrimination, or are lonely and need comfort. The Spirit brings strength to the weary and hope to the discouraged.

It is a Spirit-filled people, you and me, who do these things, and often it comes as little more than a deep urge to take a stand because the Holy Spirit is nudging and awakening us to those who need someone to stand beside them. That Spirit nudges us back into life-giving relationships when we have tried to go “solo” through this life. Who we are is determined by who we know. Instead of thinking we have to be perfect and do everything just right in this life, we might simply live as grace-filled disciples who have already been saved and let the Holy Spirit put us to work.

June 8, 2025 at Saint William and Saint Peter Parishes in Naples, FL

Acts 2: 1-11 + Psalm 14 + 1 Corinthians 12: 3-7, 12-13 + John 14: 15-16, 23-26

Most of us who went to Parochial Schools can surely remember being prepped for Confirmation. We were told that the Bishop would come to ask questions, and the sister or the teacher drilled the answers into us. She told us it would be like a test. Then she told us the answers making me feel as though we were cheating. I always wondered: is it right to know the questions and the answers before the test? It never made any difference in the end however. It may have been the same for you, because when he came and asked the questions, no one raised their hand to answer except that one who always answered the questions whether it was her turn or not. My memory tells me that it started off easy with a question about how many sacraments there were. Then you had name them. After that came the challenge of naming the Holy Days of Obligation. Then, the big question came at the end. We had to name the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. I sat on my hands afraid I would mix up the Gifts of the Holy Spirit with the Corporal Works of Mercy!

That whole focus on gifts is at the root of today’s great feast and the message of this Gospel. Jesus enters that locked up room and enters those hearts locked up by doubt, confusion, and fear to give them one great gift, peace. Think of this. These were the very people who had vanished when he needed them most, who denied him, ran when there was trouble leaving him alone. These were the ones who, it would seem from some of their conversations, were with him only for what they could get out of it. “We want to sit at your right hand” they whined. These were the ones who complained that there might not be enough for them when he told them to feed the people. I’ve always thought that they had the doors locked, not for fear of the Jews, but for fear he might really come back and look them straight in the eye. Suddenly there he was. He came with a gift, the gift of forgiveness, the only gift that can bring peace.

We are a people richly blessed with more gifts than we can count. The consequence of this easily allows us to forget that there is a difference between material gifts and spiritual gifts. A really mature person of faith always knows that difference. They have the gift of Wisdom knowing which gifts endure and are the most precious. They know how to use their gifts for the good of all. They understand that only truth can set us free. They can judge right from wrong with the courage to speak up for justice. They have a holy respect for life and for all creation, and every day they stand in awe of a God whose love is everlasting.

And so, Jesus stands once again among us breathing that Spirit into us, not just upon us. He stands before us as he did in that locked up room with a heart of forgiveness and mercy. He gives us the greatest of all gifts, forgiveness, the only gift that can bring us peace. Anyone who refuses to give that gift cannot receive it, and they will never know peace. Where peace is needed, forgiveness is needed more. Where people of peace live, forgiveness will be found. We cannot pray for peace if we do not pray for forgiveness and give what we have been given.

June 1, 2025 at Saint Peter the Apostle Church in Naples, FL

Acts 1: 1-11 + Psalm 47 + Ephesians 1: 17-23 + Luke 24: 46-53

For anyone not really paying close attention to all four of the Gospels, it might come as a surprise to know that only Luke’s Gospel tells the story of Jesus ascending into heaven. Matthew leaves off with the final words of Jesus. Mark’s original ending stops with an empty tomb. There is nothing in the earliest manuscripts about anything happening later. John writes about Jesus being ‘lifted up’ in the third chapter, but never says and describes anything about it after the resurrection. Luke tells us in the Gospel that Jesus was taken up to heaven, and in the Gospel, it is the same day as the resurrection. In Acts of the Apostles, Luke says that a cloud took him from sight. He never says that Jesus rode a cloud as some artists would have us believe, no matter how “inspired” their artistic work might be. There work is not biblical inspiration. 

I remember a prayer book I had as a child that had a picture of feet hanging out of a cloud. All I could do with that image is wonder how he did that without falling down. It took some serious study of Sacred Scripture to learn that Luke is trying to trigger memories and images from the Old Testament where the same cloud was all around the Tabernacle in the desert and again was described as surrounding the Temple at its first dedication.  It is also his effort to connect this with the cloud that came during the Transfiguration. What’s really going on here is Luke’s way of drawing us into the real nature of the Ascension which is and always will be a mystery – something for which there are no words to relate an experience that happened only this one time and never to anyone else. How could anyone describe that. It only happened one time and the person for whom it happened is gone. This ought to leave us in wonder asking what it means, what it says to us, and what God is doing.

What does this mean for us is the issue, not where did Jesus go, and how did he get there. Luke tells this story because of the need for us to find our place in God’s plan. What is supposed to happen between the departure of Jesus of Nazareth and the return of the Christ in the glory of the Father? That is what this story must tease us to consider, because this mystery, so hard to describe in words, is at the heart of every Christian life and is the cause of our hope. It is at that moment when the earthly work of Jesus is finally at an end that the church begins to take shape as a eucharistic community centered on our unity with Christ and one another. We have from this communion a new identity. The Ascension is the event that makes us aware of the presence of Jesus as well as his absence.

For those disciples it was not until Christ had seemingly left his people that they began to understand the true nature of his presence. It can be no different for us. It seems that he is gone until we remember how he remains within us as a eucharistic community. Great things were yet to be done. The power of Christ was about to transform not just a handful of individuals but the whole world. They would see that begin to happen, they would begin to see Christ at work, when they could begin to look for him in a new way. From then on, the presence of Christ would be experienced by those who learned to look for him, and for the effects of his power within themselves.

Christ did not move out of their lives. He began to move into their lives so that their skills, talents, and virtues might become divine instruments by which God’s work in the world would be done. This holy day, this day of the Ascension is really about us, about what we can do when we remain in communion as a Eucharistic community, and about where and how others seeking the Lord of Life may find him among us.

May 25, 2025 at Saint Peter Church in Naples, FL

Acts 15: 12, 22-29 + Psalm 67 + Revelation 21: 10-14, 22-23 + John 14: 23-29

Last week I read an article suggesting that we are living through a crisis of serious thinking, and that opinion struck me as true when I think about public policy both locally and around the world. Our nation, and the whole western world for that matter is losing the ability to reason leaving me to wonder what happens when people lose the ability to make good judgements especially at a time when everyone thinks they are right and if you don’t agree with them, you’re wrong. At that point, there is nothing more to talk about. And so, we just fold our arms and stare at one another. That keeps going through my mind as I listen to the instructions Jesus gives us as he is about to leave us on our own.

This instruction we just heard speaks about the Holy Spirit whose job is to teach us. Well, anyone who has ever had anything to do with education can tell you that there is a certain disposition required on the part of the learner before any teaching can begin. In other words, you can’t teach a room full of people who believe that they know it all. And there’s the problem. This world, is in dire need of the Holy Spirit and a people who are ready to learn, listen, and be inspired.

When we listen to that first reading describing the polarization of that early Church we can learn something about how to resolve the polarization we live in today. Those Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles were staring at each other because they both believed they were right. Those Jewish Christians were certain that because Christ was born and died a Jew, everyone should be. Then Peter speaks up for the Gentiles and insists that there was no need for the Gentiles to become Jews in order to follow Jesus Christ. They only needed to live as people filled with the Spirit of Christ.

What they did can teach something very important. Luke tells us that after listening to one another in invoking the Holy Spirit, they boldly pronounced, “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and us not place undue burdens on the Gentiles.

That decision in the first century after Christ is one of the most important moments in the history of our Church. In fact, without it, this church would probably be nothing more than a small reformed version of Judaism. What it required was two things: listening to each other and listening to the Holy Spirit together. The consequence of that is diversity, which is a bad word for some around here these days. Yet, that diversity allows opinions and backgrounds to listen with a hunger to understand and discover what God may desire.

Humble open hearts never think they know it all or what they know is necessarily the whole truth. A humble and open heart is where the Holy Spirit can be found allowing us to comprehend various sides in every issue and discover new, creative, and compassionate ways for building up the human family. This Gospel invites us to examine honestly, carefully, and deeply how we are thinking and how our thinking is inspired by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.

May 18, 2025 at Saint William Parish in Naples, FL

Acts 14: 21-27 + Psalm 145 + Revelation 21: 1-5 + John 13:31-33, 34-35

Five words spoken by Jesus in that upper room shape the future as his death looms in the darkness. Those five words define our lives, and form our faith. He speaks about love in that room as he had before. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” “Love God with all your heart, your soul and your strength.” But this time, there are five words spoken that change everything about love. AS I HAVE LOVED YOU.

This is something new. It is not recommendation, a goal, or advise. It is a Commandment, and about a new kind of love. It is the kind of love that Jesus has shown us. When lived it becomes a manifestation of the very core of who God is. It is an invitation to abide in a deep relationship with God – the very same relationship that Jesus experienced. The only way to know that relationship is to love as we have been loved.

It is hard enough to love those who are like us. Those of you here with a spouse know that only too well. Loving each other is no easy task day in and day out. If loving those who are like us or those who love us is hard, how can we possibly love those who are different? To make it even harder, how can we love those who do not love us? Yet, the commandment has been given.

Loving as Jesus loves involves loving the unloved and the unlovable. Loving as Jesus loves is not about sentimental warm cozy feelings. That kind of love is there as long we get something out of it, and when that stops, so does that love.  The love Jesus has shown us and commands is a love that gets nothing in return except a deep and profound intimacy with God. God’s love expressed through our love is about welcoming a stranger, opening doors for the homeless, the outcast, the refugee, the least, the last, and the lost. That is the way God loves, and if we are to be counted among the disciples of Jesus and continue his presence now that he has returned to the Father, that is the way we will live and love.

This new law of love creates a new heaven and a new earth where women and men are equally respected, all nations and tongues are welcomed, and the color of skin means nothing except remind us of God’s creativity.  This is clearly a city that comes down from above not made by human hands. It is a city that embraces all who come to it, a city loved by God. When this new commandment is kept, the new age has dawned and we shall know God by living that love. No longer is it necessary for the risen Lord to be present to us anymore, because Christ lives through us as much as for us.

May 11, 2025 at Saint William and Saint Peter Parishes in Naples, FL

Acts 13: 14, 43-53 + Psalm 100 + Revelation 7: 9, 14-17 + John 10:27-30

Those of you holding books in your hands know that I have taken the liberty of adding more earlier verses to the Gospel passage assigned to this day. I have done so because the four verses we get out of context in Chapter ten leave us nowhere. At least, I didn’t know what to do with those verses several weeks ago when I began to prepare for today. We have to know why he said that. We know about hearing the voice of Jesus, and all that it promises. But that last verse is the punch line that matters: “The Father and I are one.” 

So, don’t get all sentimental about this shepherd talk and shepherd image. In my opinion, artists have complicated our access to the message of this Gospel painting a calm, long haired, slim, white-faced man dressed in flowing white robes. The truth is, no real shepherd then or now looks clean, spotless, and well groomed. It’s dirty, messy work, and if they’ve been sleeping in the field with the sheep, they will not look like they have stepped out of a painting or greeting card. 

At this point in John’s Gospel the identity of Jesus is the issue. This is what matters here, identity – his and ours. He is not claiming to be a shepherd. He is claiming to be one with God. In doing so, he is giving us a clue about how God works or God feels. At this point in the flow of this Gospel, those John writes to are stuck over the issue of identity and how to confirm or recognize it.

Just before this conversation begins, Jesus has cured a man born blind, and this act has stirred up a controversy over the identity of Jesus. Some of these Pharisees feel like Jesus might well be the Messiah judging from his works. Others, paying no attention to what he does and only listening to what he says, think he is a fraud. They refuse to connect words and works.

The importance for establishing an identity through works is what matters, not words, especially if the words do not match the works. John is writing to those early followers of Christ. They are struggling with the Jewish community in synagogues, and John is reminding them about what matters. They will never win over those in the synagogues with arguments and words. What they do is what will get the attention of their opponents, and he has the same message for us. We ought to remember that it was the things Jesus did that brought those crowds of people to him. Once they were attracted by what he did, he began to speak about what it meant and who he was.It can be no different now. The Gospel we proclaim on this Fourth Easter-Time Sunday gives us reason to look carefully at what we do all day long, how we use our time, and where we go. This is what reveals who we are. After taking a good look at what we do, we might then see if what we say matches what we do remembering what Jesus had to say to those who questioned who he was. “The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me.” The question raised today is who we are – and what we do all day tells the truth.

May 4, 2025 I am in Oklahoma City this weekend

Acts 5:27-32, 40-41 + Psalm 30 + Revelation 5: 10-14 + John 21: 1-19

John’s use of darkness and light should be familiar to us by now after hearing the Passion proclaimed on Good Friday. It continues today as the disciples go fishing at night. They catch nothing. We should know by now what’s coming, and John does not disappoint. After the uselessness of darkness, he tells us it is daybreak, and now they go they back to fish again in the light, and the catch is huge. Once you get the point of what happens when we work in the light of Christ, the Gospel hardly needs any preaching. I could sit down now, but the Word has more to say to us.

There is a charcoal fire there on the shore, and it’s not the first time we have heard about a charcoal fire if you recall the Passion Narrative. This time Peter does a bit better than he did at the other charcoal fire allowing the Gospel to reveal both the place of Peter among the apostles, and the patient, forgiving mercy of Jesus toward those whose faith is inconsistent. Peter gets to start over as Jesus calls him by his former name: “Simon, son of John.” He does not call him “Peter.” Then, with Peter’s final affirmation of faith, he gets the same invitation he had much earlier, “Follow me.” This time, Peter knows the truth of what following Jesus will cost him, and so do we.

Many come into this church today after a week of hard work that sometimes produces nothing like those men fishing in the dark. We come into this church today, into the light of the risen Christ who will feed us here as he fed those weary apostles. We come into this church today, and he asks us who are so much like Peter, “Do you love me?” “Do you love me?” As we consider our answer to his question, we need to remember the cost of saying, “I do.” 

April 27, 2025 At Saint Peter and Saint William Churches in Naples, FL

Acts 5:12-16 + Psalm 118 + Revelation 1:9-11, 12-13, 17-19 + John 20:19-31

“I have seen the Lord” says Mary Magdalene. “We have seen the Lord” the disciples tell Thomas. These declarations bring to a climax a theme of sight and blindness that runs through John’s Gospel as a whole. At an earlier time, some Greeks come to the disciples saying, “We wish to see Jesus,” but he hides from view and reveals himself only to the disciples. It’s as though he does not really want to be seen except after he has risen. After the resurrection there are always the wounds suggesting that if we do not see Jesus on the cross as well as in resurrected glory, we will not see him at all.

Perhaps then, wounds are important for recognizing Jesus, and there are plenty of wounds around these days. Wounded people are everywhere except where politicians want to hide them. As a Church, we feed them, we comfort them, and we do so because we can see not with the eye, but with the soul. We believe.  Notice in this Gospel that Thomas does not want to see Jesus. He wants to see the wounds. This is not about whether the resurrection is real or not. It is about whether it matters or not. It is one thing to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. It is quite another to believe that it can mean anything for our lives.

The marks and wounds still matter today, but they are not the ones in the side and hands of Jesus. They are our wounds, the ones in this city and everywhere people suffer.

We hear so many stories from people without faith that include their disillusionment with the church, and our failure to make real what we profess. What this world is looking for, at heart, is some legitimate and trustworthy connection with the Divine. That can happen when we are present revealing the love, the patience, the forgiveness and mercy of God.

Faith in the Resurrection of Christ is not a dogma we have to believe. It is a new way of life that comes from the conviction that Christ’s new life is ours as well. The Resurrection is not a mystery to be clung to either. It is a practice that develops in new and deeper ways as we live into it. With practice, our lives will proclaim the presence of Christ in every wounded, living human being. As we perfect a new way of life that recognizes the living Christ in every single one of God’s children, wars will cease, hunger will vanish, and those most abandoned, avoided, and feared will be embraced, while those who do not believe come from darkness into the light.

April 20, 2025 at St Peter the Apostle and Saint William Churches in Naples, FL

Acts 10: 34, 37-43 + Psalm 118 + Colossians 3: 1-4 + John 20: 1-9

There is a lot of running around in the Gospel verses we proclaim today, and it is proclaimed to world that is still running around all over the place. From one relationship to another, from one job to another, from one home to another, the running goes on and on. Artificial Intelligence tells me that there are 45,000 passenger planes in the air every day with 2.9 million people in them. They will all hit the ground and start running all over the place. Yet, here we are in the sacred space, and at least for the moment, no one is running, but many of you know the signal to start.

Just like Mary, Peter, and John, we have run to this place hopefully seeking the Lord. Like those three, we are sometimes confused, sometimes uncertain, sometimes believing, and most of the time struggling. The world in which we live and from which we sometimes want to run insists that religion has had its day and that the church is finished. The resurrection could not possibly have happened. “Some things never change” so they say, leaving us all frozen in time helpless and hopeless in the face life’s challenges and demands.

As John writes these verses, there are four characters put before us: Mary, Peter, John, and “They.” There is always a “they” in this life and so they have to appear in this story. “They” have taken the Lord. It was the “they” who were at work in the trial and death of Jesus. It was “they” who stirred up the people. “They” were the ones who decreed that the body of Jesus must be removed for whatever reason. They are always nameless, their identity is vague, but they are always pitted against us the helpless.  Whatever it is we don’t like or whatever leaves us helpless, it is almost always, “they.” They closed my street for repairs. They turned off the water to fix the pipes, and we are never quite sure exactly who has done this, but we have a vague sense of some power impinging on my world. 

All of this thinking can eventually make us unwilling to take personal responsibility for our lives. A world dominated by “they” is one in which we are forever at the mercy of powers and authorities beyond us leaving us without any control over our destiny. This is what Mary, Peter, and John were facing the moment they stared into that empty tomb.

Have “they” done something or not? Are “they” going to determine what those three see and believe? That’s the issue here. “They” are casting their influence over Mary and the others. As we see, that spell, that dark power gets broken. It does not happen all at once for everyone, but in the character of these three we see how it is possible to move from the anger, fear, and grief of Mary to Peter’s curious wonder over how or why the wrappings and napkin were all folded up to the belief of John.

My friends, faith in the resurrection of Christ is not a dogma. It is a way of life that flows from the conviction that Christ’s new life is ours as well. It is not some mystery to cling to. It is a practice to develop in new and deeper ways. I can stand here saying these things because I have witnessed the resurrection, and so have you. I have seen survivors of tragedies that “they” have caused rise up with courage starting a new live that in many ways is better than the old. I have seen men and women face the death of their loving companions come out of a tomb called “grief” and find and live a new life marked by hope and joy. I’ve seen people whose homes have been destroyed by fire or storm begin life again with joy because they are still together.

In this life, if we surrender to the power “they” may have over us, we shall live always in fear, plagued by doubts, angry and helpless. The resurrection of Jesus Christ offers us another way. It is the way of hope. It is the way of faith. It is without a doubt, the way of love which conquers all things. We have to go into that tomb. We have to die a little to ourselves if we have any hope of coming out. We have to take off the clothes of death, remove the veil that covers our face and our eyes so that we can see the face of God and live. When we do so, our lives will proclaim the presence of Christ and we can dare to proceed in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This will make all the difference in the world.

April 18, 2025 At Saint Peter the Apostle Church in Naples, FL

Isaiah 52: 13-53:12 + Psalm 31 + Hebrews 4: 14-16, 5: 7-9 + John 18: 1-19:42

We have just completed part one of a great and ancient ritual that has known very little change since the year 381 when a pilgrim made her way to Jerusalem to join that early Christian Community gathering to remember what Saint John passed on to us. She writes that the Christians gathered in silence at the place of the crucifixion from Eight in the Morning until Three in the afternoon with the wooden cross exposed. Then they carried that cross to their church where they listened to the Prophet, sang Psalms, and offered prayers for all in the world. Their focus was the Passion and Death of Christ. It was a day of intense fast and constant prayer. The fast even extended to Holy Communion, because there was no Mass celebrated on Friday or Saturday of Holy Week. The cross was what held them and drew them together just as it does today.

In a few moments we shall begin the Solemn Prayers for all the world with the hope that no one might be left out of God’s Mercy and God’s Kingdom. After which, the climactic moment that brings us here today begins as a cross of wood is brought into this place. We can only be stunned to silence by the power of that cross. An instrument of death becomes the source of our hope.

Some have and always will wonder what kind of God could demand the death of his only Son before forgiving us. They have failed to listen to the New Testament that never says God demands the death of His Son. It does say that Christ came among us to do the will of the Father. Jesus is crucified while doing the will of his Father. That does not make his dreadful death what the Father desired or demanded. A child can be killed while doing some chore asked for by a parent. The parent only asked for that chore, not the death.

The one great gift all of us have and have had since the dawn of creation is the gift of a will and freedom. The great adventure of life is about the choices we make with that freedom, and the whole history of human life is one great struggle over making the right choices. Until now, the stories of that history are tragic and violent. Too often we have come close to destroying everything and ourselves.

Then comes Jesus. That moment in history when God resets creation, and God’s Son comes with his mission saying: “I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.” (John 6:38) He came to want what the Father has wanted from the very beginning, that we might all be one living in peace in this beautiful garden God made for us.

As we just heard, Jesus gave up his spirit so that his spirit might be poured out into us, and showered upon all creation. This ought to leave us startled and stunned only to be awakened, like Christ on Easter, empowered by the gifts of that Spirit to lift high the cross, to stand firm in the face of evil, to set right what is broken, always thirsting to do the Father’s will. When we do, we will know what Jesus knew at the final moment. It is “Enough.”